Chronicles of a “Mr. Mom”

Doctors recommend safety gear for kids who wear trendy ‘Heelys’.

CHICAGO - Trendy wheeled sneakers that let kids zip down sidewalks, across playgrounds and through mall crowds could also send them rolling into emergency rooms on a stretcher, say doctors who blame a rash of injuries on the international craze.

It’s called “heeling,” named after Heelys, the most popular brand. They’re sold in 70 countries and are so hot that their Carrollton, Texas, maker, Heelys Inc., recently landed atop BusinessWeek’s annual list of fastest growing companies.

But doctors from Ireland to Singapore have reported treating broken wrists, arms and ankles; dislocated elbows and even cracked skulls in children injured while wearing roller shoes.

Full story: Rolling sneakers blamed for rise in kid injuries

At four months, babies may be too young to speak or crawl, but they can certainly tell when a speaker has switched to a different language – with only visual cues.

Researcher Whitney Weikum from the University of British Columbia found that infants are able to discern when a different language is spoken by watching the shapes and rhythm of the speaker’s mouth and face movements.

The findings suggest that babies growing up in a bilingual environment advantageously maintain the discrimination abilities needed for separating and learning multiple languages.

Full story: Babies can tell between languages

It took the free spirit of the 1960s to revive Montessori education in the United States. Montessori herself had died a decade earlier, but her emphasis on children’s “absorbent minds” and their capacity to teach themselves aligned with the era’s rebellion against school’s traditional strictures.

Montessori classrooms, with their silver candlesticks (for polishing), beautiful toylike cubes, and child-size shelves and bins, seemed like the perfect romantic alternative to boring workbooks and rows of desks. They still do.

Mothering Magazine, my own barometer of granola parenting gone too far, calls them “magical” and filled with a “sense of wonder.” On the 100th anniversary of the 1907 opening of Montessori’s first school—in the slums of Rome—5,000 schools devoted to her method dot the United States, with another 17,000 worldwide. Many are preschools, but some are for older kids as well.

Full story: The Cult of the Pink Tower - Montessori turns 100—what the hell is it?

To minimize the risk of crib death, the nation’s largest organization of pediatricians is recommending that babies be put to sleep with pacifiers and in their own beds, despite intense opposition from advocates of breast-feeding and the “family bed.”

Full story: To Cut Crib Deaths, Separate Beds Are Urged for Babies

“When the National Institutes of Health issued some good-news-and-bad-news findings this week for working parents with young children, it started with the “good” news.

Nice try.

The rest of the world focused on the bad. The longer children had spent in day care centers before kindergarten, researchers had found, the more likely their sixth-grade teachers were to report “problem behavior,” such as getting into fights, arguing or being disobedient.”

>> Full story: Day care good or bad: Debate rages, questions linger

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of product: Baby Trend Back Pack Carriers

Units: About 4,000

Importer: Baby Trend Inc., of Ontario, Calif.

>> Full story

Should infants be given the Hepatitis-B vaccine? Does it help them? Or hurt them?

15 things you must do for your baby
From taking care of Baby’s skin to car seat safety, we’ve got you and your baby covered so you can sing, play and cuddle up with your little one. … Full Story

Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady: Baby On The Way?

Tomkat Expecting Baby Boy?

Mom killed newborn baby to spare it from suffering, police say

OJ Simpson becomes Anna Nicole Smith’s baby contender!

Medfield mom delivers baby at service station

Once you read this article, movies like Saw will seem as demure as the three little pigs story.

This story breaks my heart - my heart goes out to all those kids who are being abused thus, and all of their victims. It puts the term “count your blessings” in a whole new light.

Full story: Stolen kids turned into terrifying killers

All Nathan Moore says he wanted to do was smoke pot and get drunk with his friends.

Killing Rex Baum was never part of the plan that day in 2004.

“It all started off as a game,” Moore said.

The 15-year-old and his friends were taunting the homeless man — throwing sticks and leaves — after having a couple of beers with him.

No big deal, Moore says, but he’s sorry for what came next.

Full story