Archive Category: Baby & Kids
We Learn Our Language in the Womb
No wonder learning a new language can be more difficult the older you get. We were learning our individual languages before we were even born! That’s what researchers revealed in a release today by Current Biology.
It seems that fetuses not only warm to the sound of mother’s voice as they gestate, they also are being programmed in the direct patterns inherent in certain languages. By the time we are born, our dialect is determined.
Wermke’s team recorded and analyzed the cries of 60 healthy newborns, 30 born into French-speaking families and 30 born into German-speaking families, when they were three to five days old. That analysis revealed clear differences in the shape of the newborns’ cry melodies, based on their mother tongue.
Specifically, French newborns tend to cry with a rising melody contour, whereas German newborns seem to prefer a falling melody contour in their crying. Those patterns are consistent with characteristic differences between the two languages, Wermke said.
ScienceDaily has a brief story about this new knowledge: Link
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A Common Nomenclature for Lego Families
Children are rarely familiar with the names the LEGO company gives its various bricks and accessories. Giles Turnbull was delighted to find his son had his own terms for each piece. So he gathered more children, four in all, to find out what names they used, and assembled those names in a handy chart. Link -via Buzzfeeed
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6-Year-Old Girl with Brain Cancer Hid Love Notes for Her Parents to Find After Her Death
When 6-year-old Elena Desserich was diagnosed with brain cancer, she began hiding hundreds of little love notes around the house for her parents to find after she was gone. Here’s the story:
Just before her sixth birthday, Elena Desserich (right) was diagnosed with brain cancer and given 135 days to live. She lived 255 days, passing away in 2007. After her death, Elena’s parents, Brooke and Keith, found hundreds of notes from Elena hidden around the house — in between CD cases, between bookshelves, in dresser drawers, in backpacks….
"It just felt like a little hug from her, like she was telling us she was looking over us"
Elena left hundreds of notes like these:
Elena’s parents, Brooke and Keith Desserich, have now published these notes in a book called Notes Left Behind to fund a non-profit organization The Cure Starts Now dedicated to fighting pediatric brain cancer.
Link to story (book excerpt) over at Today | The Love Notes | Official Website
Ah, this broke my heart, but the story is too touching not to share. Excuse me while I, erhm, dry my eyes. Got dust in ‘em or something.
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Surprise Homecoming
Fourth-grader Hannah Eschrig got a surprise on the next-to-last day of class at her school: her father, Air Force Master Sgt. Joseph Myers returns early for a surprise homecoming.
Matt Woolbright of My San Antonio has the story:
Myers’ reunion with 10-year-old Hannah was his second of the day. He reunited with his 19-month-old daughter, Adison, just before surprising Hannah.
Adison didn’t know how to react, burying her face into her mom before uttering, “Hi, Daddy,” and bringing tears to many of the people there.
Hannah’s class was interrupted when Bessette announced that some friends would be talking to the class and taking pictures. When everyone was in place, mom and dad walked in.
Hannah’s expression and instant tears drove her mother to tears as well as she watched her daughter and husband reunite.
“I was so excited, I couldn’t believe it,” Hannah said. “I don’t really remember what happened because I was just so happy.”
Link | Watch the heartwarming video (Photo and video by John Davenport / Express-News.net)
Update 11/3/09 by Alex – I replaced the unattributed video with the original source over at My San Antonio News – Thanks Michael Knoop!
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Congrats, Hanan: Grow-a-Brain Grew a Baby!
Congratulations to Hanan Levin of grow-a-brain and Stella on the arrival of his new baby: Adora "Nyunyu" Levin, born October 18, 2009.
Hanan wrote me: People who knew me would never have thought that at 56 I will have my first child, but here she is, taking a piece of me to see the 22nd century…
Congrats again, Hanan! Link
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Timely Venn Diagram
Considering the earlier story of Falcon Heene and the flying saucer, this Public Service Announcement by Ebru strikes home. She named it “The Truest Venn Diagram I Have Ever Made.” Link -via Buzzfeed
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6 Year Old Boy Floats Away in a Hot Air Balloon
[YouTube - Link]
A 6 year old boy climbed into a hot air balloon and floated away, and officials are scrambling to find a way to rescue him. The balloon has the potential to climb to 10,000 feet.
The balloon was last sighted in Milliken, about 40 miles north of Denver.
– via usatoday
From the Upcoming 
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Update 10/15/09 – he’s been found hiding in the attic. Also, Urlesque has a compilation post about the Balloon Boy meme (wuz that fast or what?)
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Vespa Rocking Horse
Photo: Motoblog.it
An anonymous reader of the Italian-language site Motoblog.it made a Vespa-shaped rocking horse for his nephew Diego. Who wants to take it out for a spin?
Link (Google Translator version) via CrunchGear
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Baby Tuxedo Onesie
If you’ve have a formal event coming up and need some fancy duds for your high-class baby, consider this fine baby tuxedo available at Corduroy’s Closet on Etsy.
Link Via Craftzine Image Via Corduroy’s Closet
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Que Sera Sera
This ad for the Thai Insurance Company features children from the Srisangwan School for the disabled, a project of the Princess Mother’s Volunteer Foundation. Link -via b3ta
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A Visual Guide To Baby Poop
Yes, you read the title right. This is a link to Baby Center’s visual guide to baby poop. Go ahead and giggle, but let’s face it new parents are obsessed with their kids poop.
Most new parents find baby poop quite surprising! It has so many shades and consistencies that even experienced parents may not have seen them all.
This photo guide to baby poop will give you a good idea of what’s normal and what’s not as your newborn grows, drinks breast milk or formula, and starts eating solids. You’ll find out when not to worry and when it’s wise to be concerned.
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Depression in Mom = Depression in Baby and Toddler?
Think a baby is too young to be depressed? Think a again. A new study out of the University of Montreal in Quebec suggests a strong link between depression in mothers and anxiety and depression in infants and toddlers:
The longitudinal study of 1759 children, ranging in age from 5 months to 5 years, found that 15% of study participants had unduly high symptoms of depression and anxiety and that these children were more likely to have mothers with a history of depression. The study also found that difficult temperament at 5 months was the most important predictor of depression and anxiety in children.
“As early as the first year of life, there are indications that some children have more risks than others of developing high levels of depression and anxiety. We also found that these symptoms increase in frequency during the first 5 years of life,” one of the authors, Sylvana Côté, PhD, from the Université de Montréal in Quebec, told Medscape Psychiatry.
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Could You Give Back Your Adopted Child?
Anita Tedaldi adopted a special needs baby from South America. After spending 18 months with the child, she felt that she and her family failed to bond with him and gave him back.
One day (I’m still not exactly sure what was different about that particular day) I was on the phone with Jennifer, our social worker, who merely asked “what’s up” when I blurted out that I couldn’t parent D., that things were too hard.
Read about her experience in her own words as published by the New York Times and reprinted by the Today Show: Link (image credit: Today Show)
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The Sunflower Boy
7-year-old Wyatt Wilke was looking forward to entering his best sunflower in a competition at the Sunflower Fair in La Porte, Indiana.
“He loved growing his sunflowers,” said his mother, Cathleen Wilke. “Every year we talked about coming into La Porte for the Sunflower Fair, but we never got around to it. Wyatt really wanted to be part of the contest.”
That’s what they had planned — a day at the fair, to enter his sunflower. He was a healthy, constantly laughing boy — he loved school, where he was in the second grade, he loved horses, he loved his big brother John, with whom he shared a bedroom. The Wilkes lived in the tiny town of Hamlet, about 15 minutes from La Porte; Wyatt would look out the back window, watching for blue jays and cardinals.
“He planted his sunflowers in our garden,” Cathleen Wilke said. “He was so careful with them. A few weeks before the fair, there was a heavy windstorm that knocked his biggest sunflower over. He called to me: ‘Mom, it’s on the ground — my flower, it’s down.’ He was afraid it was ruined. But he managed to save it.”
But a bacterial infection struck Wyatt and he died in just a few days. His stunned parents realized the fair had started the same day he died and took Wyatt’s sunflower to the competition, just as he had planned. They had never been to the Sunflower Fair before.
They waited together as all the categories were judged. No one around them had any idea.
And then, through the loudspeaker system at the fair, the winner of his category was announced:
“First place. . .Wyatt Wilke.”
There is more to the story, but you’d better have your handkerchief ready if you go read it. Link -via Fark
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School Answering Machine
There’s a video clip making the rounds on the Net about a supposed school answering machine.
The story goes like this: When administrators of the Maroochydore High School in Queensland, Australia, implemented a policy requiring students and parents to be responsible for attendance and homework, parents of children with failing grades sued. The staff of the school recorded this answering message as a response:
The video clip is going viral, perhaps it strikes a chord, but unfortunately, it’s a hoax. Old Internet hands will remember a similar clip circulating back in 2002 with a different school name, the Pacific Palisades High School.
Snopes said:
In 1998 the sole high school in the Palisades Charter Schools group, the 2,400-student Charter High School, instituted an attendance policy mandating that any student absent without a valid excuse ten or more days per semester be failed, regardless of his academic achievements. One of the results of this policy was that in February 2002 forty Palisades High teachers assigned a total of 130 failing grades to students whose classwork would otherwise have merited passing grades, because those students recorded absences and tardiness in excess of the school’s stated attendance policy.
After vociferous complaints (and threats of lawsuits) from parents who contended they were unaware of, or didn’t agree with, Palisades High’s attendance policy (even though every student and parent had been informed of it), LAUSD officials said the failing marks might have to be voided because the attendance policy was not submitted to and approved by the school board. Without board approval, the school must follow the policies of the LAUSD, which states that students must be graded on the work they do and attendance may not be used as a reason to fail
them.
The staff of the Pacific Palisades High School did make the answering machine recording though it was never put on the school’s system.
Still. It’s funny. Thanks alientango!
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Gyroscopic Wheel Replaces Training Wheels on Bicycles
(YouTube Link)
Bicycle maker Gyrobike has invented the “Gyrowheel” — a wheel with a motor-driven gyroscope inside that helps keep it upright. The manufacturer hopes to market it as a replacement for traditional training wheels on kids’ bicycles. Nathan Barry of GeekDad writes:
It aims to replace traditional training wheels or stabilizers and to eradicate the bad habits that they teach kids when learning to ride a bike – leaning away from a turn and constantly putting a foot down at the first sign of a wobble when they’re eventually taken off. The Gyrowheel uses the “gyroscopic precession” of the independently spinning disk inside it to stabilize the bike. The force created when the disk is turned – via a rechargeable battery – is powerful enough to hold a wheel upright at very low speeds (i.e. virtually stopped), and can actually make a bike look like it has a “Ghost Rider” as the videos below show (and there are plenty more on the Gyrobike site).
Product Page via GeekDad (where there’s an additional video)
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Lying as Parenting Technique
What do you get when you combine "honesty is the best policy" with "Do as I say, not as I do"? Here’s an interesting study showing that parents lie to children surprisingly often:
"We are surprised by how often parenting by lying takes place," said study researcher Kang Lee of the University of Toronto, Canada. "Our findings showed that even the parents who most strongly promoted the importance of honesty with their children engaged in parenting by lying."
Lee and colleagues acknowledge that their work is preliminary, bringing to the forefront an issue that is rarely studied. They are not sure the implications of parental lying, but suggest such tall tales could give kids mixed messages at a time when they are trying to figure out how to navigate the social world.
Lies could also harm parent-child bonds, said study researcher Gail Heyman of the University of California, San Diego.
It could even keep children from learning certain rules. "If I am always lying to the child in order to get the child to do X, Y, or Z, then they have never learned why they should do X, Y, or Z," said Victoria Talwar of McGill University in Montreal, who was not involved in the current study. "If it’s constantly being used, [lying] may be preventing learning opportunities for the child."
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Cthulhu Baby Blanket
Photo: Fickle Pegasus
Wrap you your baby, safe and secure, in the tentacles of Cthulhu with this crocheted baby blanket. It was created by Craftster user Fickle Pegasus for her husband’s co-worker’s son. Velcro tabs at the end of the tentacles help secure baby toys or, I suppose, the child itself.
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Kids and Allowance
Families differ on how they give their kids money. Kelly writes about how her family does it, and the many questions that go along with allowances.
* Should the allowance be given freely OR tied to chores?
* Should I only pay for extra chores?
* How much money should I give my kid?
* Should I let them spend it on what they want OR should I force them to save a portion of it?
* Coins, bills, or a savings account?
* How often should I give him/her allowance?
Personally, I give the kids a set amount every week, in order to teach them by trial and error how to handle money. The amount is less than their friends get, which forces them to think hard about how they spend it. Their allowance is not tied to performing family chores, but occasionally I give a bonus to someone who has been extra helpful (only as a surprise). How does your family handle children and their money, or how do you plan to do it? Link -via Consumerist
(image credit: Flickr user Pingu1963)
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"Winter Babies" are different from "Summer Babies"
The three graphs above show that women who give birth in winter months (blue dots) tend to be younger, less educated, and less likely to be married compared to mothers who give birth during the summer months (green dots). The data displayed some trends for the time period shown (1996-2001), but the summer/winter discrepancy remained surprisingly constant.
These data, reported by economists Kasey Buckles and Daniel Hungerman at the University of Notre Dame, may offer an explanation for the observation that, compared to “summer babies,” those born in winter months tend to do more poorly in school, are less healthy, earn less, and have shorter lifespans.
The mechanism behind these relationships, alternative explanations, and a long comment thread are available at the primary link.
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19.2 Pound Baby Born
An Indonesia woman named Ani gave birth to 19.2-lb baby yesterday in Medan, North Sumatra. The boy, Muhammad Akbar Risuddin, is among the heaviest babies ever delivered who survived:
Perhaps unsurprisingly, he was delivered by Caesarean section.
Britain’s heaviest newborn was delivered in Cumbria in 1992 weighing 15lb 8oz.
The heaviest baby ever born was produced by Anna Bates of Canada in 1879, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. It weighed 23.12lb and died 11 hours after birth.
The record for a baby which survived, according to the Guinness record keepers, is held by a boy born weighing 22lb 8oz at Aversa, Italy in 1955.
More recently Francisca do Santos gave birth to a son weighing 16lb 11oz by Caesarean section in Brazil.
Link via Yahoo! Buzz
Image: AFP/Getty Images
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10 Bizarre and Unique Playgrounds From Around the World
The blog Funster Mental Floss has pictures of ten amazing playgrounds from around the world. Pictured above is the St. Kilda Adventure Playground in Port Philip, Australia. It covers four hectares of land and includes a beached pirate shipwreck and a submarine. It was built after World War II to help disadvantaged children in the area develop mentally and physically.
Image via flickr user Looking Glass used under creative commons license.
UPDATE 9/16/09: In the comments, Miss Cellania says that Funster copied the work of Mental Floss writer David K. Israel, so I have altered the link. Thanks for pointing this out, Miss C.
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Oh, The Temptation!
Could you stare at a marshmallow and not eat it if it meant getting TWO marshmallows just for waiting? It’s hard when you’re a little kid! This cute video is a recreation of a well-known experiment by psychologist Walter Mischel. Link
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Is Conditional Parenting Bad For Children?
Should you love your children unconditionally or should you dole out love only when they behave? Do your children become better adults if you are selective about your approvals – like many of the new parenting advice books say?
Author Alfie Kohn wrote an interesting article for The New York Times wrote about some interesting studies on conditional parenting:
In 2004, two Israeli researchers, Avi Assor and Guy Roth, joined Edward L. Deci, a leading American expert on the psychology of motivation, in asking more than 100 college students whether the love they had received from their parents had seemed to depend on whether they had succeeded in school, practiced hard for sports, been considerate toward others or suppressed emotions like anger and fear.
It turned out that children who received conditional approval were indeed somewhat more likely to act as the parent wanted. But compliance came at a steep price. First, these children tended to resent and dislike their parents. Second, they were apt to say that the way they acted was often due more to a “strong internal pressure” than to “a real sense of choice.” Moreover, their happiness after succeeding at something was usually short-lived, and they often felt guilty or ashamed.
In a companion study, Dr. Assor and his colleagues interviewed mothers of grown children. With this generation, too, conditional parenting proved damaging. Those mothers who, as children, sensed that they were loved only when they lived up to their parents’ expectations now felt less worthy as adults. Yet despite the negative effects, these mothers were more likely to use conditional affection with their own children.
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Knitted Hats For Babies
Etsy user Tiny Tangerine, aka Kelly Burghardt, knits these adorable baby hats. My favorite is the cow hat. Craftzine has a great interview with her or you can just click on the link and look at her great gallery of work.
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A Funeral and A Wedding
This has got to be one of the most poignant things I’ve ever read. When 7-year-old Asa Hill died after a car accident, his parents honored the young boy’s lifelong wish that they get married. And married they did, right after their child’s funeral:
The Rev. Joel Miller of The Unitarian Universalist Church of Elmwood, where the service was held, was unsure at first when the idea of a wedding was proposed by the couple and their family.
"I asked twice, ‘We’re doing a wedding?’ This was new for me. I never did a funeral service and a wedding ceremony at the same time, and normally wouldn’t, but they have known each other since they were teens," Miller said. "And they had been providing for Asa, and they made a home together for all of Asa’s life. … It was clear they were following through on something they had been talking about for some time."
Hill and Ghirmatzion have been best friends since they were 15 and have been together for almost half of their lives. After Asa was born, marriage had always been something that they considered but, according to Hill, both felt that a wedding was "superficial and not necessary."
Asa, however, was insistent that they make their union official. "Asa really wanted us to do it, and every time he would ask us
we would say, ‘Yes, we’ll get married,’ " said Hill. But the couple never did get around to figuring out the logistics for a ceremony.While holding his lifeless son in his arms at the hospital, Hill was moved to finally officially propose to his lifelong partner. "Rahwa was overwhelmed at that moment and just looked at me. When the family sat down to plan the funeral service, she said ‘Let’s get married.’ And everyone broke down at the table," he said.
Jean Shin of CNN has the moving story: Link
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The 10 Weirdest Places To Be Born
When a baby wants to come into the world, he/she doesn’t care if the mother is ready. If her due date is still some time away, the mother may be anywhere. There are also cases where circumstances get in the way, as in the case of Rosita Cheindza.
It sounds like the birth story of an ancient goddess, but it’s true. Ms Cheindza was near term in 2000 when flood waters raged through her town in Mozambique. She climbed a tree to escape the crocodile-infested waters and stayed there for four days with nothing to drink or eat. Finally on the fourth day, her baby came. Soon after, helicopters arrived to winch the mother and the baby, Rosita, to safety.
And that’s only the first of ten strange birthplace stories. Link -via Unique Daily
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Got ADHD? Skip the Amusement Park Line!
Does your child have ADHD? Good news: now you can skip the line at the amusement park in the United Kingdom, thanks to the anti-discrimination laws of the country:
Hyperactive children and those with attention-deficit disorders can now queue jump at theme parks because they cannot cope with the stress of waiting.
Tourist boards are offering the privilege so that they can skip the queue with their friends.
Teachers have criticised the scheme, saying that it undermines their efforts to encourage patience and it would be better for children with ADHD, attention deficit and hyperactive disorder, to learn how to wait.
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School for Nervous and Backward Children
The Reed School for Nervous and Backward Children (1906)
The University of Washington Libraries has a very interesting collection of over 450 print advertisements in local magazines, city directories, and theater pamphlets of the Pacific Northwest from 1867 – 1918.
I’m particularly intrigued with this one: The Reed School of Nervous and Backward Children (1906). The ad noted:
The "family physician" notes that this school is not for the exploitation of any "fad" in child training, but is open to the acceptance of the latest developments in its line of work which have received scientific approval.
The parent notes the truly "homelike" atmosphere which is present, as indicated by the entire absence of anything "institutional."
The school was in Detroit, Michigan, and was conducted by Mrs. Frank A. Reed. According to The Handbook of Private Schools (1920) by Porter Sargent:
"Instruction is given in manual and physical training, vocal and instrumental music, drawing, painting, and the usual school subjects. The School for Stuttering and Stammering at the same address is entirely separate"
Link – via Information Junk
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Mature Brains Led to Reckless Teenagers
It’s common sense to think that teenage recklessness come from their immaturity – but could the opposite actually be true?
A team led by psychiatrist Gregory Berns of Emory University conducted a study with the paradoxical result – the more mature the teenager’s brain, the more reckless they become:
In a paper just published in PLoS ONE — a journal of the Public Library of Science — a team led by psychiatrist Gregory Berns of Emory University in Atlanta shows that adolescents who engage in more dangerous activities have white-matter pathways that appear more mature than those of risk-averse youths. White matter is essentially the brain’s wiring — the neural strands that connect the various gray-matter regions, where the actual nerve cells reside, that are otherwise independent of one another. Maturation of white matter is important because it increases the brain’s processing speed; nerve impulses travel faster in mature white matter.
Berns and his colleagues recruited 91 kids ages 12 to 18 and asked them to fill out a questionnaire about their tendency to engage in behaviors such as driving without a license, having unprotected sex and using drugs. Then they had the kids undergo a relatively new kind of brain scan called diffusion tensor imaging, a type of magnetic resonance imaging that is used to look at dense tissues like white matter. After analyzing the scans, the authors found a strong correlation between how risky the students described their behavior to be and how sophisticated their white matter was. The more mature the look of the brain, the more risk-taking the teenager tended to report.
John Cloud of Time Magazine has the story: Link
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