It’s not quite the east coast and west coast rappers sitting down over tea and crumpets, but when three manufacturing rivals get together for a joint project, it’s big news.
Except in the case of the …

Back when my job involved actually leaving my house, there wasn’t a lunchbox in the world big enough for me.
I usually ran out the door without breakfast, triggering the need to pack snack one. The …

Here’s a tricky one to tackle:
According to an article in March’s edition of Pediatrics, nearly 30 percent of overweight teens don’t know that they’re overweight. And if they don’t know they’re overweight, they’re less likely …

Yes, I eat the occasional burger and fries. Ice cream and cookies, too.
Now that first lady Michelle Obama has stepped into the confessional and admitted as much herself, I feel safe in going public as …

Just when the experts thought kids couldn’t cram a single second more of electronics time into their days comes a study that shows, not only that they can, but that they have.
According to research the …

From the state that led the battle against transfat comes the latest assault on manufacturer-induced nutrition nightmares: New York City wants companies to cut down on the amount of sodium in food.
Good luck on that …

With a callous eye toward the bottom line, insurance companies unhesitantly ax coverage for medications asthmatic children need. Don’t deny it. It’s happened to us.
If executives won’t shell out $300 to prevent an emergency room …

Bacteria are normal. Bacteria are good. Bacteria can even help the immune system.
So say researchers at the University of California, San Diego.  According to an article in The Guardian, the very same staphylococci that causes …

E tu, Cheerios?
I don’t know why I’m surprised. Everyone’s doing it, because children’s cereal is such a lucrative market. I knew you’d jumped the shark with Honey Nut Cheerios, but at least you were up …

If you have a chance to pass a law that would reduce by almost half the chance that a kid would be injured in a car accident, how quickly would you ask, “where do I …

You have a nasty habit of speeding. You know your break-neck tendencies put others’ lives in danger, but you do it anyway.
But then along comes a proposal that would pay you to not speed. Sounds …

I have to admit that, other than what now appears to be a daily pool commitment, I’ve been living the easy life in the past few months since Big Guy’s busted wrist booted him out …

I’m not sure when it happened, but sometime in the past 20 years soda became the new water.
It wasn’t that way when I was a kid. Growing up, we had soda on special occasions – …

Once in a while, procrastination is our friend.
Big Guy was due for a checkup on his busted wrist almost two weeks ago. But due to a series of delays, some my fault, he couldn’t get …

For years, the Centers for Disease Control recommendations for who should have priority for flu vaccines have been pretty much the same:
Children, pregnant women, the elderly, people with certain chronic diseases and health-care workers. The …

Gen.  Bus Stop called a cease fire long enough Friday morning to size up Big Guy.
The general – a second-grader who’s husky, but not quite chubby – clearly was in charge the battalion of stick-gun …

No how, no way, I thought when I saw the news that the National Institutes of Health was about to begin clinical trials of the swine flu vaccine in children.
Oh, I understand that it’s necessary …

I read about the Spanish woman who gave birth to twins three years ago at age 66, and I cringed.
I cringed again this week when I read that she’d died, leaving behind two toddler boys.
Yet, …

The eyes and the brain are amazing organs, allowing us to see and interpret the world around us.
Or, in some cases, letting us delude ourselves into believing we’re seeing something different from objective reality.
That’s what …

Now I know how one of my sisters-in-law felt when I asked her not to turn baby Big Guy on his belly while he slept.
Her youngest child was only 6, and her pediatrician always had …

After two winters of tumult as the Food and Drug Administration danced the children’s cold-medicine hokey-pokey, finally there’s a report with a conclusion other than recall it all.
Researchers in Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina and Wisconsin …

Forget the fruits and veggies and go ahead and binge on the burgers. You’ll eventually have to turn your kids loose on the world anyway, where their friends, television and school might be a bigger …

Proof positive health-insurance executives are living on a different planet from the rest of us:
A company that covers federal workers tells a 5-year-old Reno girl with leukemia that she’ll have to have chemotherapy in Oakland. …

1. If you’re having a hot flash, don’t assume it’s because you’re in your 50s. Have your son take you to the emergency room. You might have swine flu.
2. If you sneeze, forget the fact …

It’s a few years late and a little awkward, but the government is making steady progress on catching up with the rest of teh interwebs in providing timely information.
The latest effort, which involves the Centers …

If the reporter had had a camera and not just a micrcophone, he might have been taking his life into his hands by cornering a mom traveling alone with two rambunctious guys.
As it were, we’d …

Frustrated with the world? Stressed by the times we live in? Fine, but don’t take it out on your kids by feeding them junk.
According to the latest research from the It’s All Mom’s Fault Department, …

When we last left Pulmicort, the asthma medicine popular for children was about to become a generic after Israeli company Teva Pharmaceuticals got permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to produce it. British …

Funny how a study that tells us what we largely already know – sitting around can hurt your health – can trigger such skepticism.
That’s how some have reacted to a British Medical Association journal article …

The only surprising thing about a new University of Colorado, Boulder study is that who ever wrote the press release thought it was surprising.
“New iPod Listening Study Shows Surprising Behavior of Teens,” the headline reads.
The …

I have never rooted so hard for anyone to win the lottery – or to get a $2 million interview deal – as I am for Nadya Suleman.
Face it, this struggling mother of 14 is …

Here’s strange advice from an executive with a fast-food chain: Don’t pig out on our food.
That’s in essences what  Papa John’s founder John Schnatter said in an interview this week.
“Pizza’s actually healthy for you if …

I understand having one baby and stopping right there.
We almost did just that because of my age – 39 – when Big Guy was born. There were many who questioned our decision, in fact, when …

I don’t know which scared me more the day I swerved my Ford Escort off the freeway just in time to see the engine ignite: The flames shooting from the hood or my stepdad’s predictable …

How to kid yourself about the obesity epidemic without even trying:

Say “it’s just baby fat” as the baby approaches kindergarten.
Pretend that Pull-Ups made for kids up to 125 pounds are for potty-training teens.
Believe a pediatrician …

Other than what people who are so Pepsi-addicted they feed it to babies in bottles sneak to them behind my back and a shared diet Sierra Mist once a week with popcorn, the guys don’t …

Once in a while, I’ll run across something so confusing I’m not sure who the good guys are.
Like this morning when I saw that the Food and Drug Administration has approved a generic version of …

Insulin and pills, amputations and hospitalizations, lost productivity, disability and early retirement: It all adds up to a $218 billion annual cost of diabetes in the United States, according to a study …