parents

What Parents Should Know About Heavy Metals in Baby Food Report

By Isaias A. Mott 2 weeks ago

Arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury – those are among the toxic heavy metals a congressional subcommittee found in leading brands of baby food, including some sold to parents believing organic foods were best for their babies.

The U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight’s subcommittee on economic and consumer policy unveiled its findings on Feb. 4 of its investigation of seven companies, some of which refused to cooperate with the subcommittee.

The World Health Organization has declared the heavy metals dangerous to human health, particularly to babies and children, suggesting that even low levels can cause serious damage to brain development, the report said.

Nurture, Beech-Nut, Hain, and Gerber complied with the subcommittee, while Walmart, Campbell, and Sprout Organic Foods did not, the report said.

“The Subcommittee is greatly concerned that their lack of cooperation might obscure the presence of even higher levels of toxic heavy metals in their baby

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7 Things Parents Can Expect

By Isaias A. Mott 3 weeks ago

In case you needed the reminder, sleep is not a luxury, it is a biological necessity. And while you may have made it this far in your adult life by routinely sacrificing sleep for more interesting endeavors, it doesn’t work that way for babies. While baby is asleep, critical development from tissue repair to the formation of new brain synapses is usually underway. Newborns should be asleep more than they are awake, which makes it surprising that it’s sometimes so damn hard to get them to fall, or to stay, asleep. The whole endeavor can devolve into a vicious circle: “They end up overtired, and then they’re harder to get to sleep at bedtime, they’re more prone to overnight wake-ups, and they’re more prone to those early-morning starts as well,” says Hannah Peterson a pediatric nurse and the owner-operator of Dream Baby Sleep Consulting. Sound familiar? Yeah, it happens

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Athens Parents Face Child-Care Challenges

By Isaias A. Mott 3 weeks ago

A recent virtual meeting involving representatives from the ACC government, the Clarke County School District and UGA focused on outreach to children and youth in Athens, including everything from summer camps to child care to ASP programs.   

Parents choosing child care in Athens have limited choices. Child care has an average monthly cost of $559 per child. For low-income residents especially, child care is often a patchwork involving grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends and older siblings as well as staff members at facilities. Child-care facilities aren’t close to the homes of low-income residents and aren’t open when they need the care. That information was collected by Grace Bagwell Adams with the UGA College of Public Health for the Athens Wellbeing Project, a survey of residents on their health-care and social services needs. 

Before COVID-19, ACC Leisure Services provided not only 36 summer camps for elementary and middle school-aged children, but

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Kate and Rio Ferdinand’s baby announcement is a reminder that single parents can find the right fit again

By Isaias A. Mott 8 months ago
Kate and Rio Ferdinand announce they are expecting a baby: Instagram/@rioferdy5
Kate and Rio Ferdinand announce they are expecting a baby: Instagram/@rioferdy5

I love a feel-good blub so I treated myself to watching Rio Ferdinand and his wife Kate Wright telling his three children that she’s pregnant. A gorgeous gamble. I mean you never know with kids. My son was almost six when his sister was born and seven years later, there are times when he’s still not entirely sure the whole thing was the best idea.

Ferdinand’s young children leapt up in joyful excitement. They jumped up and down and hugged and screamed in delight as their stepmum showed them her tiny bump.

Ferdinand’s first wife, Rebecca Ellison died of cancer in 2015, when the youngest of their children was just five. If you are as invested as I am in Ferdinand’s happiness, (if you watched his Bafta-winning documentary, Rio Ferdinand: Being Mum and Dad, how

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