"Ask Mr. Dad" syndicated newspaper column

Four years ago, at the Beijing Olympic Games, Procter & Gamble's ad campaign was "Proud Sponsor of Moms." I complained loud and long about that one—how leaving dads out in such a glaring way was insulting and demeaning. Now they’re back, and are ramping up their insulting, demeaning message a few notches. P&G's campaign for [...]

When manufacturers stopped making pacifiers that could break apart and a lot of people switched from glass bottles to plastic (BPA-free, of course), we thought the big dangers were gone. Maybe not.

Proving my theory that babies and toddlers are constantly searching for new ways to scare the hell out of their parents, a new study comes out showing that an average of 2,270 children under three are treated in hospital emergency rooms every year for injuries involving pacifiers, bottles and sippy cups (the majority are one-year olds).  According to the study, which looked at ER data for the past 20 years, two thirds of the accidents involved bottles and 86 of the injuries involved falling down. In 14.3% of cases, the culprit was the seemingly harmless sippy cup.

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Chance are you’ve got all sorts of things around your house that run on batteries–especially “button batteries,” which are those round, flat ones. And chances are you think those batteries are are going to stay inside of whatever device they’re in. Sorry to disappoint, but you may be wrong.

Every 90 minutes, a child under 18 goes to the emergency room for a battery-related incident, according to a new study by the Center for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. That’s twice the rate from 1990. The number of batteries swallowed by children more than doubled from over the past 20 years. More than 80 percent of the time, the culprit is a button battery.

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"Positive Parenting" radio show

Guest 1: Michal Chesal, Creator of Baby K'tan baby carriers Topic: Baby carriers. Issues: Latest safety concerns; differences between various kinds of carriers (slings, wraps, etc). Guest 2: LeAnn Morrissey, Chief Shower Officer, Operation Shower Topic: Baby showers for expectant military mothers. Issues: Supporting military moms while their husband is deployed; gifts and other resources [...]

Sam Feuss has a virtual cup of coffee with gift guru, Dana Holmes, on Talking About Men’s Health, here: http://www.talkingaboutmenshealth.com/coffee-with-sam-dana-holmes-professional-gift-guru-on-buying-the-perfect-gift-for-the-women-in-your-life/

Apparently Monica Wellito, 27, didn’t think that the fact she was supposed to be babysitting her two nieces (ages 1 and 4) should get in the way of her drinking. And she didn’t. In fact, she drank so much that she passed out, leaving the two girls to wander around unsupervised.

Police in Farmington, New Mexico were called in when a neighbor spotted the 4-year old outside by herself. Her year-old sister was found a while later–fortunately in good health–in an unfenced irrigation ditch a few feet from the trailer where Wellito was supposed to have been watching the kids while their mother was at work.

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I don’t know why this kind of thing continues to amaze me…

New Jersey mother of seven, Patricia Krentcil, is facing child endangerment charges for allegedly taking her 5-year old daughter into a tanning booth. Krentcil, who, as you can see from the pictures, is a regular tanning salon customer, denies the charges. She says that her daughter got sunburned by being outside on an especially warm April Day (ever heard of sunscreen?) But the daughter, who was itching from the sunburn, told administrators at her school that she had been in the tanning booth with her mom.

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A stay-at-home father of two has just received one of the highest civilian honors we can give: the 2012 Military Spouse of the Year from Military Spouse magazine. Jeremy Hilton, whose wife is in the Air Force, is the first man to ever receive the award.

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Men who want to lose weight shed twice the pounds in guy-only groups than they do in co-ed and female-dominated groups. Turns out that men are just as uncomfortable discussing their body as women are.

My entire post on this topic is at the Talking Men’s Health Blog. You should read it here.

 

News about obesity is everywhere. And researchers are scrambling to find out why kids (and adults) become obese. Is it too many video games and not enough time spent outside? Household income? Education? Parents’ marital status? How many friends a child has? Depression and anxiety? The answers to all of those is: Could be. So here’s one more interesting twist: kids who sleep in their parents’ bed are less likely to be obese that those who don’t.

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