BBA Headlines

:: Lawyer: Octuplets in Danger
Celebrity attorney Gloria Allred says Nadya Suleman's only cares about her eight babies when the cameras are rolling.

:: Safety first!
Baby-proofing suggestions for your home.

:: Is Mariah Carey expecting a Baby Girl?
According to the New York Daily News, Carey recently dropped $200,000 on baby furniture. The pricey pickups included a pink crib and highchair.

:: Best Gift for Newborn's Siblings?
One-on-one time with mom is what they may want most.

:: Toddlers Really Do Hear What We Say
Apparently they just pretend they don't and store away the information for later.

BBA Headlines

:: Girl Calls 911, Saves Brother's Life
A 9-year-old Fort Worth, Texas girl said she knew just what to do when her baby brother fell into the family's backyard pool.

:: Better Oversight of Baby Products Demanded
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand demanded that the Food and Drug Administration exercise greater oversight of baby care products in reaction to an advocacy group's report that said the products contain potentially harmful materials.

:: Tiniest Babies Carry Biggest Costs
Medical costs for healthy, full-term babies during their first year average $4,551, of which about $3,800 is covered by employer heath insurance. But for preterm babies, the cost is almost $50,000, with about $46,000 paid by employer insurance.

:: Patrick Wilson, Wife Expecting Second Baby
Wilson, 35, star of the hit Watchmen, and his wife, actress Dagmara Dominczyk, 32, are expecting a second child due this summer.

BBA Headlines

:: Children's bath products tainted...
:: Woman charged $195K for someone else's baby...
:: Telling people you're pregnant...
:: Get healthy while pregnant...
:: What advice did you ignore as a new parent ?...
:: Report: Tom Cruise makes Katie diet before pregnancy...
:: Baby for Carson Daly, longtime girlfriend...
:: Ellen Degeneres, Portia DeRossi having a baby?...

BBA Headlines

:: Baby toys recalled because of choking hazard...
:: Cop pulls over, delivers own baby...
:: Anne Heche names baby boy Atlas...
:: Police: Woman has baby, steals purse...
:: 'Bones' star Boreanaz expecting second baby...
:: 'Iron Chef' Cat Cora, partner, both pregnant...
:: Gisele is ready to have Tom Brady's baby...

Bristol Palin Dumps Baby Daddy?

The teen romance that prompted a pregnant pause in Sarah Palin's bid to become U.S. Vice President is reportedly over.

Bristol Palin and fiancé Levi Johnston have broken up after she referred to his family as "white trash," the hockey-playing hunk's sister dished to Star magazine.

BWI: Breastfeeding While Driving

An Ohio mother is charged with child endangerment after another driver reported she was breastfeeding and talking on the phone while driving.

"She did admit to breastfeeding her child while driving," said Officer Michael Burke. "She kind of indicated that it's more or less a routine thing that she does."

The caller told police in suburban Dayton that he spotted the minivan-driving mother dropping off children at a school Thursday morning. Authorities used a license plate number to track down 39-year-old Genine Compton, who told them she was breast-feeding and wouldn’t let her child go hungry.

Burke says the legal concern is that Compton had a child in her lap, not that she was breast-feeding in public.

Mysterious 'Land of Twins'

Like so many in the farming town of CÂNDIDO GODÓI, Brazil, populated almost entirely by German-speaking immigrants, Derli Grimm, 19, believes that something is in the water — a mysterious mineral, perhaps — is responsible for the town’s unusual concentration of twins.

“It can’t all be explained by genetics,” said Mr. Grimm, himself a twin. Geneticists would like to disagree with him, but even they have no solid explanation for the 38 pairs of twins among about 80 families living in a one-and-a-half-square-mile area.

The mystery has persisted for decades, attracting international attention and inspiring books and investigations by geneticists. It is one reason locals are in no hurry to try to prove their water theory. They are too busy posing for journalists and marketing their town to tourists as the “twins capital of the world.”

Read more...

And Baby Makes Three?

An interesting study from researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago reveals that a couple's marriage may depend on the decision to have a baby.

Psychologists followed 96 couples for six years after having their first baby. All felt an increase in tension during the first 18 months. But after that those that both wanted a child slowly returned to the same levels of marital bliss they enjoyed before the baby.

On the other hand, if even one parent had misgivings about the baby, the couples generally wound up separating or divorcing before the child was old enough to enter kindergarten.

Woman Poisons Baby Food

50-year-old Shirley Ybarra is accused of poisoning baby food at a Florida grocery store.

Detectives say she put rubber gloves on her hands before mixing an acrid, black substance into baby food and juice containers.

Publix surveillance cameras caught the woman wheeling her shopping cart down the aisle, where she worked on the jars and bottles for about 15 minutes - all while shoppers and employees walked by.

Deputies say the dark liquid she added to the food smelled like ammonia. She had it stored in a container of body splash.

BBA Headlines

:: Bristol Palin wants to be like, an advocate against teen pregnancy
The teenager sat down with Greta Van Susteren of Fox News to answer some incredibly soft questions. Palin’s answers were peppered with typical teenage-speak, such as “awesome”, more than a dozen “ums”, and, (by my count) at least 18 “likes”.

:: Ask The Juggle: Timing a Pregnancy And a Job Search
A reader has asked for fellow Jugglers’ advice on whether she should search for a job while pregnant. The reader had been planning to start a family this year and intended to combine raising her baby with working full-time. However, after quitting her job last summer to move to a new city with her spouse, she hasn’t been able to find a job.

:: Select a baby's health, not eye color
Recently, the Los Angeles-based Fertility Institutes announced that it would soon be offering patients at its clinics the chance to choose traits such as "eye color, hair color and complexion." The clinics already offer gender selection to patients undergoing in vitro fertilization.

Octuplets News

:: Reality TV future for Octuplets Mom?...
:: Angelina Jolie 'creeped out'...
:: Hasn't had sex in eight years...
:: Done having babies...
:: Agent denies report he's representing mom...
:: Houston Octuplets weigh in...
:: Grandmother says daughter is a 'good mother'... (video below)

BBA Headlines

:: Toddler Drives Car into Building
A four-year-old boy went on a wild ride in his mom’s parked car after he managed to slip it into gear all by himself.

:: Pointing Toddler Means Words Will Follow
Don't just talk to your toddler — gesture, too. Pointing, waving bye-bye and other natural gestures seem to boost a budding vocabulary. Scientists found those tots who could convey more meaning with gestures at age 14 months went on to have a richer vocabulary as they prepared to start kindergarten.

:: Baby Addiction?
She may be the most notorious, but Nadya Suleman isn't the first woman in the world to have a large family. Don't forget Mia Farrow, Angelina Jolie, and Michelle Duggar. Between them, these four women have 52 children that are biological and adopted. Is it possible that aside from large families they have something else in common, like a baby addiction?

:: Celebrity Baby
Kevin Costner and his wife are proud parents of a baby boy. Costner's wife Christine Baumgartner, 34, gave birth to Hayes Logan Costner on Thursday night in Los Angeles.

:: More Headlines
More to parenting than just liking kids...
New dads talk about parenting...
How to meet other new parents in town...
Tips for successful - and less stressful - parenting...
'World's Strictest Parents' reality show casting call...

13-Year-Old Dad Takes Baby Home

Innocent-eyed Alfie Patten spent his first night acting as a 13-year-old dad and declared: “It was easier than I thought.”

The four-footer — who looks no more than eight — said: “I know I’m young, but I plan to be a good dad.”

As he went on the PlayStation with 15-year-old girlfriend Chantelle Steadman, he added: “I think we’ll be good parents. I’ll have to work extra hard at school.”

More from The Sun...

BBA Headlines

:: Obese Moms and Baby Defects
If you're planning on becoming pregnant, a new study suggests that you should try to shed any extra weight you're carrying before conception.

:: Vitamin E and Baby Dangers
It seems that high levels of vitamin E early in pregnancy may increase the risk of the baby being born with a heart defect.

:: Baby Born with Heart Outside of Chest Defies Odds
Surgeons said the boy would live for less then a week after he was born in eastern China with his heart just under the skin of his belly. But more than a month later the infant is home with his parents.

:: Tiger Woods' Baby: Name Theories
Tiger Woods and his wife, Elin, announced the birth Sunday of their second child, a boy named Charlie Axel. Here are some theories on how they came up with that moniker.

BBA Headlines

:: Newborn-Sized Toddler Baffles Doctors
The baby was born 14 months ago but is still the size of a newborn. Doctors are investigating a theory that her body has become resistant to its own growth hormones.

:: Study: Chimps Smarter than Infants
It appears they are...at least in the first nine months of their lives.

:: Baby Safety Gates Recalled
100,000 "Safety First Smart Light" stair gates have hinges that can break and cause a fall.

:: Adoption Rumors
Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher are clearing up rumors that they plan to adopt a child this summer.

:: Another Baby for Brad and Angelina?
Lucky number seven may be on the way if you believe OK! magazine.

:: Tiger Woods Ready for Baby #2
With his new bundle of joy due in the spring, Tiger admits things will be hectic.

:: Bobby Brown, Girlfriend Expecting
Bobby Brown and his girlfriend Alicia Etheridge, dating since 2007, are expecting a baby together. The baby will join Brown's four other children from different relationships.

BBA Headlines

:: Extreme Multiple Births Carry Risks
After the birth of octuplets this week, some doctors are questioning the ethics and medical practice that contribute to extreme multiple births.

:: Baby Born in Library
It happened in Denver, just as the woman walked into the library after riding a city bus.

:: Take It Easy After Giving Birth
Here are a few suggestions for new moms.

:: Is Michelle Obama Pregnant?
That's the rumor swirling around Washington.

:: Is Katie Holmes Pregnant?
That's the rumor swirling around Hollywood.

:: Chad Lowe, Girlfriend Expecting
The 41-year-old Life Goes On actor is expecting his first child with girlfriend Kim Painter. The baby is due in May.

:: Baby Fever on 'How I Met Your Mother'
Two cast members from the hit CBS show are expecting.

BBA Headlines

:: The Dangers of Sleeping with Baby
There has been a fourfold increase in the rate of infant strangulation and suffocation in the U.S. in the past 20 years, according to a report released today, and the apparent cause (though hardly the definitive one) is the rise in numbers of babies who share beds with their parents.

:: Preparing a Toddler for a New Baby
In the first few weeks after a new baby arrives, parents should expect both delightful moments when the kids interact beautifully, and moments that aren’t so pretty. That's according to Marian Edelman Borden, author of The Baffled Parent’s Guide to Sibling Rivalry. Click here for her suggestions.

:: Moms Who Breastfeed Less Likely to Neglect Child
Scientists followed 7,223 Australian women and their children for 15 years and found that the longer a mother breast-fed her child, the lower the risk of neglect.

:: Will First Daughters' Names Catch On?
Will Americans eventually name their children Sasha or Malia? Maybe in six to nine months, according to a hospital nurse. Right now Malia ranks 403rd in U.S. popularity; Sasha is 350th.

Baby Named 'Barack' On Inauguration Day

A baby born Tuesday in Miami, Florida has been named after the 44th president of the United States.

Barack Isaiah Cowan came into the world at 9:39 a.m. EST weighing seven pounds and five ounces.

The mother says they decided to name the baby Barack last year, after Barack Obama won the election. He was actually due last month, but held out until inauguration day.

Quads In The News

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:: Quad Born in 1947 Speaks About Losing Mother and All Three Siblings at Birth
One of the world's first surviving quads has broken a 60-year silence to talk about how she lost her mother and all three siblings at birth. Their mother delivered all four babies on October 12, 1947, after doctors told her she was expecting twins...

:: Speedy Delivery: Georgia Dad Ticketed On Way To Witness Wife Deliver Quads
A Gwinnett County man had to drive 450 miles -- in a hurry -- when he learned his wife was about to deliver quadruplets...Dad did make it for the birth and was grateful for help from OnStar, as well as some police escorts. He wasn't lucky in one state, however...

:: Gilbert Couple Proud Parents of Quadruplets
Kami and Jason Crisanti became parents of three girls and one boy through an emergency cesarean on Dec. 29 at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix. Sophie, Kylie, Ellie and Elijah, whose weight ranged from 3 lbs 2 oz to 3 lbs 12 oz, will join 6-year-old sister Maya and 4-year-old brother Jace...

:: Sioux City Couple Proud Parents of Quadruplets
Jessica Malm knew there was a history of twins in her family as well as in her husband Kevin's family. But that didn't stop the Sioux City woman from "hyperventilating a little bit" after learning she would give birth to quadruplets...

Dad Delivers Baby On Porch

On her way to the car at 6:45 a.m. Jan. 2, 32-year-old Sarah Wildflower began giving birth after about two hours of small contractions.

"I woke up a little after 4 a.m. when I started having contractions," Wildflower said, who has two other children. "They weren't really hard and were about three to five minutes apart so I took a nice bath. The contractions started being two minutes apart when I felt a pushing sensation and just thought it's coming, there's no holding it back."

It was at that point that Wildflower asked her boyfriend, the baby's father, Chris White, to call 911. But the baby wouldn't wait.

Read more...