“Childhood” on The Daily Caller

There are many contributors to childhood weight gain — diet, inactivity, genes — but a study released on Dec. 27 in Pediatrics identifies another potential cause: certain types of baby formula. (more)

One: Breastfeeding improves boys’ literacy  (more)

A jury in Delaware on Wednesday awarded $30 million in compensatory damages to a man who said he was sexually abused more than 100 times by a Roman Catholic priest — the largest such award granted to a single victim in a clergy abuse case, victims’ advocates said. (more)

As a fitness coach in Grand Rapids, Mich., Doreen Bolhuis has a passion for developing exercises for children. The younger, it seems, the better. “With the babies in our family,” she said, “I start working them out in the hospital.” (more)

In one of the photos that keeps getting Emma Kwasnica’s Facebook account suspended, the Montreal-based mother and breast-feeding activist is tandem nursing, with a newborn at one breast and a two-year-old at the other. Classical art and public health be damned, Facebook has censored countless breast-feeding photos for violating the company’s terms of use, a policy that has inspired more than 250,000 people to join a Facebook group called ”Hey Facebook, Breastfeeding Is Not Obscene!” Kwasnica has protested her four account suspensions by e-mailing administrators and keeps doggedly reposting photographs and organizing virtual “nurse-ins” via her Facebook group, Informed Choice: Birth and Beyond. But last month it occurred to her that the global breast-feeding community could use social media to organize real-world, offline “lactivism,” in the form of milk sharing. (more)

Sheikh ‘Abd Al-Muhsin Al-’Obikan, an advisor at the Saudi Justice Ministry, recently issued a fatwa allowing the breastfeeding of adults. The fatwa is aimed at enabling an unrelated man and woman to be secluded in the same room, a situation which Islam considers forbidden gender mixing. The rationale behind the fatwa is that breastfeeding creates a bond of kinship between the man and woman, rendering the man her mahram,[1] thus making it acceptable for them to be together in seclusion. (more)

A COURT has ordered a mother not to breastfeed her six-year-old son. (more)

In declining to stop a lawsuit that accuses the Vatican of conspiring with U.S. church officials to cover up sex abuse, the court took a rare step toward bringing the Holy See into a U.S. courtroom. (more)

GLEN ROCK, N.J. — In a class full of aspiring engineers, the big bad wolf had to do more than just huff and puff to blow down the three little pigs’ house. (more)

Next year will be the 40th anniversary of Barbara Millicent Roberts and Ken Carson. The world famous couple met in 1961, and, minus a brief separation in 2004, the two have been together ever since. Don’t recognize the names? You probably know them better as Barbie and Ken. Didn’t know the iconic dolls had nicknames? Neither did we. But it’s amazing the things you can learn on the internet. (more)

DENVER — A Colorado Springs mother is demanding an apology from the Colorado Rockies after she said she was harassed by several ushers at Coors Field because she was breastfeeding. (more)

Jaw-droppingly gorgeous Rosie Huntington-Whiteley will take over as the leading lady in upcoming blockbuster Transformers 3. (more)

With her 5-week-old daughter crying in a bathroom at Nordstrom, and not knowing how to get the baby to latch on to her breast, Garima Nahar found herself surrounded by other women. Some offered tips, but one woman told the new mother to cover up or turn the other way. (more)

As many as 47 kindergarten teachers at Gilbert Public Schools may be laid off and most parents who want their 5-year-olds in full-day kindergarten will be asked to pay tuition, the governing board has decided. (more)

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian authorities are investigating three priests accused of sexually abusing altar boys after a video allegedly showing one case of abuse was broadcast on television, police and church officials said yesterday. (more)

In a self-promotional moment reminiscent of the Apple chief Steven P. Jobs, Robert Eckert, the chief executive of Mattel, is celebrating one of his company’s own products as “the hottest toy for the 2010 holiday season” — even though it’s not even on sale yet. (more)

One of my favorite sensations on earth is the feeling I get while holding a newborn baby, with that precious child’s head snuggled right up against my neck and an entire person resting on me.  There are few feelings that compare to it.  (more)