Child Tylenol recalled over label confusion

MSNBC.COM -- Confusing labelling causes Tylenol to recall products. Medicine itself is perfectly fine. If you have Children's Tylenol in pill form, if there are two pills in a single blister pod, each pill contains the full dosage.

Starving Babies

I don't normally put out pleas for other people's money, as I know everyone works hard and that most people give when they can to the needs that speak to them. But I read this article the other day on Yahoo! news, and it broke my heart. The story talks about women and children in the Sudan who are eating leaves to try to survive, because the region is having its worst food shortage in 7 years due to failed rains and a surge in cattle raiding. It describes a 4-year-old boy who collapsed out of hunger, laying naked on the ground, struggling to breathe. His mother hasn't been able to get him to even eat the leaves.

The U.N. World Food Programme is appealing for additional funds, as they've received $78 million out of $302 million needed to feed 3.2 million people in the regions that were hardest hit. If you'd like to give a little (or a lot) to help meet the need, you can donate online at this website:

http://www.wfp.org/how_to_help/donate_online/online.asp?section=4&sub_section=5

You can choose to specifically donate to the Sudan, to WFP's greatest needs, or to other options.

Thanks for reading this. Herein ends the PSA.

No no no no no!

"No" is a word that Rachel has learned, in a big way. As she becomes more mobile, she's hearing it more often. I'm not into the philosophy that it's a bad thing for a child to hear the word "no" and that you should only use positive talk with them. I think that's bunk. Kids need to know that there are boundaries and that it's acceptable for their parents to tell them they can't do or have or say whatever they feel like. I do think they need to hear a lot of positive reinforcement, too, so I always thank her when she's obedient or gives me something or does other nice things.

Anyway, I went to wipe her nose this weekend, and I got a "no!" We also heard that word a number of times at the dinner table last night. We met up with friends at a restaurant, and Rachel wanted everything on the table. She's got a surprisingly long reach for a baby. She'd point at the things she wanted and knew she wouldn't get and would say "no." She even pointed at a knife and said that, and I don't think we've ever had occasion to tell her no when it comes to knives, so I'm not sure how she made that association.

It's so cool to hear her putting emphasis on words and using them properly. She's completely understanding concepts and learning new ones that we don't even necessarily try to teach her. Of course, the flip side of that coin is that we need to be even more careful about what we say and do around her. We don't want to be parents that say "do what we say, not what we do," so we really want to make sure we're setting good examples for her. No pressure there.

Knowing Too Much...

MSNBC.COM -- Advances in genetic research may make it possible to one day test for things like autism. But at what cost? Our friends' genetic test came back suggesting the child they were carrying might have downs syndrome. It was a false positive, but this stuff starts to get scary. The article wonders whether such testing could be to our own detriment.