Eco Child’s Play

A friend has a daughter with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Vijay and her husband are so honest and open about their challenges with their younger daughter, and their intelligent perspectives have helped me understand a bit more about these families. She recently posted a note about acceptance and autism, and I thought it was important to share with you.

Vijay: I was asked by a friend,

Are you telling me that you would NOT be interested in a cure for autism?

And here is my answer:

Certainly dealing with Violet has been harder than dealing with a “regular” kid, but sometimes challenges are good for people to kind of push us to open our minds. It’s humbling to be faced with someone who is difficult to figure out. But that there is a lot to be learned from the experience. There’s no way to find out if Violet understands that she’s different, or if she would change that if she could. Yet.

These kids are different. So what should change? The kids? Or society? Read the rest of this entry »

This week at the CDC’s National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta, the government agency will discuss whether to recommend routine circumcision for all baby boys to protect them from the disease.

Research is split on whether routinely cutting boys at birth will protect them from sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDs and HIV. Most research points to a decrease in diseases only in high-risk populations where such diseases are prevalent.

One of the groups lobbying against such a blanket recommendation is Intact America, a newly-formed group in the U.S. with the aim of lowering the circumcision rate.

But those who state simply that “circumcision prevents STDs” may need to get their facts straight.

Read the rest of this entry »

Jacqueline Mercado of Richardson, Texas, dropped off fours rolls of film at a nearby Eckerd. The pictures that came from them, taken last fall, would tear apart her family.

According to the Dallas Observer:

In one–the photo that would threaten to send Mercado and her boyfriend to prison–the infant Rodrigo is suckling her left breast.

The technician at the Eckerd thought various photos were “suspicious ” and lied to Mercado when she went to pick up the photos, returning only 3 of the 4 rolls. Later, when the police arrived, they confiscated the photos and passed them on to the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, which got indictments against Mercado and boyfriend Johnny Fernandez, who had just arrived from Peru when the pictures were taken.

We thought they contained sexuality. If you saw the photos, you’d know what I mean.

(Ew! Don’t you expect a nudge and a grunt following that comment?!)

The couple was charged with “sexual performance of a child”, a second-degree felony which could carry up to 20 years in prison.

This is the photo in question, though fuzzy in the Observer, for obvious reasons,

Read the rest of this entry »

Most people responded positively to the Baby Moses story. His mother died of a rare condition shortly after birth. And not only did he and his family find support from the community in their grieving, they also found a network of women to breastfeed him throughout the day, every day.

Now Moses is 6 months old. And you know what? He’s still getting breastmilk.

Many of the same women are still breastfeeding the little guy. But over time, some have stopped as their own children weened. Others joined this cross-nursing crew.

Together, they told their updated story to Freep.com. Read the rest of this entry »

Think a romantic meal of beef tenderloin with a side of potatoes sounds delicious? Maybe with a nice Bordeaux?  Perhaps it does (especially if it’s grass-fed beef!), but it may decrease your chances of conception.

A new study shows that men who want to be fathers should increase their intake of fruits and veggies and decrease their consumption of fatty foods like red meat and creamy dishes.

Men who ate healthy diets not only had faster sperm, they had more sperm in their semen. It was both a quality and quantity effect.

Dr. Jaime Mendiola of the University of Murcia, Spain said of his research:

In this study, we have found that people who consume more fruits and vegetables are ingesting more anti-oxidants and this is the important point.

We saw that, among the couples with fertility problems coming to the clinic, the men with good semen quality ate more vegetables and fruit than those men with low seminal quality.

There are obviously many factors that influence fertility, and this is only one.

Read the rest of this entry »

Thomas Beatie was born a woman. “She” turned to “he” through sex-reassignment surgery and hormone treatment, but kept the uterus. Good thing for his family, too, as his wife Nancy was unable to give birth.

The family made news last year when they went on Oprah and in the LGBT magazine The Advocate to announce his pregnancy with the couple’s first child, a girl. They said they made the pregnancy public because,

Hiding a pregnant man is like hiding an 800-pound gorilla. Nancy and I wanted to tell our story from our own mouths before it got out.

Early morning on June 9, the family welcomed a baby boy through natural childbirth. His wife Nancy will breastfeed the child, as she did with their daughter. (Because natural birthing is so fabulous, even men want to do it!)

So how did they do it?

Read the rest of this entry »

Eco-Artware is full of fun and functionally “green” products. Most of their items are handcrafted from recycled materials but these handy little bamboo eating utensils are made from all new bamboo and perfect for parents or anyone that often eats on the go. Read the rest of this entry »

In a hot custody battle, every little action is scrutinized. Or in this case, every big action: the act of breastfeeding.

In Toronto, a Canadian judge ordered the mother of a 29-month-old girl to adjust her breastfeeding schedule or begin pumping so her biological father could spend time with the girl. The girl is now 34 months old.

The woman, Jennifer Johne, had allegedly been limiting time for her daughter to spend with dad, Carl Cavannah, because the girl was still breastfeeding.

But Justice Alan Ingram said that must change. The law says that mothers and fathers are equally entitled to custody of a child.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tim Barklage and Kevin Tibbs became dads around the same time and became much more aware of the world around them, especially once their little girls started crawling.

They wanted safe, eco-friendly products that wouldn’t harm their children. Kevin Tibbs has worked as a formulation chemist for the past 11 years creating over 300 products that can be found in stores everywhere. Tim Barklage is a self described dreamer with a passion for living green. Together they created Better Life. Read the rest of this entry »

Since Paul Erhlich wrote The Population Bomb, it’s long been recognized that uncontrolled human population growth is the greatest threat to our planet.  Coupled with an economic recession, many families, including the first family, recognize that small family size is crucial for surviving the current depression and climate crisis.  That’s why President Obama has endorsed a $10,000 tax credit for American males that undergo vasectomies, essentially making the surgical procedure free.

According to CNN Health:

Since then, the Cleveland Clinic has seen a 50 percent increase in vasectomies, an outpatient surgery that is the cheapest form of permanent birth control. Vasectomies are less invasive and cheaper than tubal ligation, which involves blocking, tieing or cutting a woman’s fallopian tubes to prevent pregnancy.

Read the rest of this entry »