Panel recommends HPV vaccine for boys

By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer

ATLANTA — A government panel wants young boys as well as girls to get the controversial HPV vaccine, in part to prevent them from spreading the sexually transmitted virus to girls.

The HPV vaccine has been recommended for young girls to protect them against cervical cancer and genital warts for the last five years. But the vaccine has been slow to catch on — only about a third of adolescent girls have gotten all three shots.

Experts say the HPV vaccine could protect boys against genital warts and some kinds of cancers. But they also say vaccinating 11- and 12-year old boys could help prevent them from spreading the human papilloma virus to girls.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices made the...

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Report details inequities for kids of gay parents

By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer

According to her dads, life is good for Carrigan Starling-Littlefield, a spunky 5-year-old being raised by two gay men in South Carolina, which doesn’t recognize their out-of-state marriage.

“We’ve found that being a family has created a lot of common ground with other families. We’ve not had many issues at all,” said Tommy Starling, a partner in a food brokerage.

Yet he and his husband, Jeff Littlefield, who became parents through a California-based surrogacy program, remain wary as they contemplate Carrigan growing older and confronting challenges beyond their supportive community in Pawley’s Island, S.C.

“We’re cautious about where we go, because we don’t want our...

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Find your baby’s name in the pages of a book

nameberry.com

Cool baby names today may reference celebrities, sure, but more and more parents are looking to fictional characters for inspiration when naming their children.

Atticus

The names of author Harper Lee and all her characters in “To Kill a Mockingbird” Atticus, Scout, even Radley have been taken up by the baby-naming public. It doesn’t hurt that Atticus it’s an ancient Roman name meaning “from Athens” Finch was judged the No. 1 movie hero of all time by the American Film Institute.

Darcy

Darcy, as in Mr., may be the ultimate Jane Austen hero name, but these days it’s enjoying a new turn in the sun as a name for girls, following in Emma’s footsteps as an...

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The biggest Halloween fright of all

By Marla Jo Fisher, The Orange County Register

It’s almost Halloween, a very frightful time indeed in this country. One that strikes fear and dread into the largest demographic in America: People on a diet.

As if it weren’t difficult enough to lose weight on your average day, what with the 1,200 fast-food restaurants on every corner and the food commercials on TV, Halloween brings out the sadist in every retailer around.

Walk innocently into any store, trying to buy a Lean Cuisine for dinner or some diet supplements at the drugstore, and you’ll have to run a terrifying gauntlet of every candy that ever gave you diet nightmares.

Hershey bars, Snickers, M&Ms, Butterfingers, York Peppermint Patties, Mars Bars, Almond Joy,...

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Skimpy clothing isn’t going away, so talk to girls about their choices

By Cristina Bolling, McClatchy Newspapers

Shopping at the mall recently with her mom, Claudia, and friend Sierra Lee, 7-year-old Caira Moore was on trend in a rhinestone-studded hot pink tunic with matching leggings and Ugg-style boots.

Caira and Sierra love fashion and they know what they like. After emerging from P.S. from Aeropostale, they admired a giant ad featuring larger-than-life photos of “The X Factor” judges Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger decked out in black micro-minidresses and striking provocative poses.

“I like how they look,” Sierra says, noting that Scherzinger’s dress “looks like what I’m wearing.” She smoothed her fitted black top and matching short skort.

Sexy is everywhere in girls fashion today....

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Survivor’s children’s book tackles breast cancer

By Daniel Rubin, The Philadelphia Inquirer

There’s a scene in Kerri Conner’s children’s book that’s ripped from real, raw life.

By the third chemo treatment, her thick, black hair had started coming out in clumps, so she asked her father to shave her head with his clippers.

That afternoon in the summer of 2008, she drove to the Meadowlane Montessori School in Jenkintown for pickup, and the thought came to mind that her daughter, 2 ½-year-old Madison, would see her and scream.

But when the girl ran to her, she said, “Mommy, I like your haircut.” Conner was so stunned she didn’t have to fight back the tears that have welled up every time she’s thought about that moment since.

“I believe our...

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NYC artist plans birth as performance art

By ULA ILNYTZKY, Associated Press

NEW YORK — The bedroom is brightly decorated with ocean blue walls, family pictures and photo-imprinted pillows and blankets of the mother-to-be. An inflatable birthing pool and air mattress for the midwife and doula lie near the bed. A soundtrack of the ocean plays nonstop.

Marni Kotak has created a cozy environment for the birth of her first child. But the bedroom is not in her home. It is in a Brooklyn art gallery.

The 36-year-old Kotak is a performance artist who has created a home-birth center at the Microscope Gallery where she plans to deliver her baby as a work of art sometime in the next few weeks.

The gallery has extended the days it is open to all seven days a week so Kotak — as part of the project...

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Swedish dads swap work for child care

By LOUISE NORDSTROM, Associated Press

STOCKHOLM — One of Henrik Holgersson’s friends laughed in his face when he told him he was going to spend the better part of 2011 as a stay-at-home dad.

“What kind of a man are you?” the friend asked Holgersson, who works for an event management company. But just about everyone else was positive. His employer and co-workers patted him on the back and wished him luck.

Holgersson took out 240 days of parental leave paid for by the government while his girlfriend, Jenny Karlsson, went back to her job as a real estate agent, after eight months at home with their son Arvid.

“To take care of Arvid is a real fatherly thing to do. I think that’s very masculine,” said Holgersson, 34, gently...

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No-sew Halloween: Eight easy costume ideas for kids

By Andrea Pyros, www.RetailMeNot.com

Are you missing the crafty gene? We feel you. It’s not easy being a parent who can’t stitch, sew, mend or do whatever else it is you’re supposed to be doing with fabric. But that doesn’t mean your children can’t wear a homemade costume this Halloween. With a little felt, a glue gun, paint and some cardboard boxes, your child can be whatever he or she wants. We asked around and found eight no-sew ideas to get you started. But talk to your kids about what they love, too. You might come up with an even cooler idea together.

Wii Remote

If your child is big into video games, this is a fun and attention-getting idea. Open up a cardboard box, so it’s a large, long, narrow...

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Fight back against bullying by raising a confident child

By Jon Wolper, McClatchy-Tribune

The numbers for youth bullying are staggering — according to Stomp Out Bullying, a child is bullied every seven minutes on the playground, and 85 percent of the time there is no intervention. Leaders of National Bullying Prevention Month in October hopes to help curb the worst of the abuse.

PACER (Parental Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights) holds events throughout the month of October aiming to increase public knowledge of how damaging bullying is. The group also encourages people to try and make an impact in their communities on the local level — by talking to media and holding community events, among other things.

The influence of PACER, over the years, has no doubt spread. “Cassandra’s Angel,” a...

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