First, Daniel Angerer, a chef in New York City, made cheese from his wife’s breast milk. He and his wife had a surplus of milk on hand for their child, and he decided to experiment with it. I personally wouldn’t rush to eat it, but that’s no shocker–I won’t even eat cauliflower. (The NYC Health Dept. has made sure the breast milk cheese isn’t actually on his restaurant’s menu.)

However, I don’t know if breast milk cheese deserves the full-on media “gross out” reports that have been circulating the past few days. It’s been talked about almost everywhere, and the Today Show even tricked someone into eating a bite. (Watch his reaction when he finds out what it is.) Making the cow comparison, the NY Post ran a photo on the front page of the mother with the headline “Moo!”. How old are we? While the breast milk cheese may be a bit off the beaten path and not to everyone’s liking, it’s only breast milk, folks. I’m no hippie, but who cares what these people do with it behind closed doors? Well, here’s what Chef Angerer had to say:

“We realized we were going to have to throw a lot of it out, pour this liquid gold down the drain, and we were not going to do that,” Angerer said. “So, me being a chef, we said, ‘Hey, let’s make some cheese!’”

Boy, do I understand the “liquid gold” concept. I would pump for 30 minutes and only get 2 ounces of milk. If my husband let it sit out too long, I would go berserk. “Do you know how long that took me?!” Perhaps if someone were making cheese with it, we would have been able to use it longer.

If you’re game for trying breast milk cheese, the recipe can be found on Angerer’s web site.

Next, you may have seen The Office last week where Jim and Pam gave birth to a daughter. In the episode, Pam mistakenly breastfeeds her roommate’s infant. What caused a few chuckles in the fictional show actually occurred to a Chicago couple, and they are now suing the hospital for the mix up. At 4 a.m., a staffer brought in a baby boy for feeding. Another nurse walked in a few minutes later and noticed the error. No one was injured and there was a very low chance of the baby or the woman being exposed to any disease. But, the couple is suing the hospital for $30,000 in damages. The mother:

“She [The nurse] said, ‘The baby you’re feeding isn’t yours,’ ” Jennifer Spiegel, 33, recalled. “It was just an awful, internal feeling.”

This really surprised me. It seemed like an honest mistake on the part of the hospital that was discovered very, very quickly. Hospitals really do go to great lengths to prevent these sort of situations. However, no system is perfect. Human error can still occur. And, while the security of your newborn is nothing to be taken lightly, remember this was only for one feeding. Does nursing another infant warrant “an awful, internal feeling” plus a lawsuit? Remember that wet nurses have been around for thousands of years.

In some parts of the world, women only breastfeed for a few weeks because of the social stigma. As you may remember, the actress Salma Hayek got a lot of attention when she breastfed another woman’s hungry baby on a trip to Africa. Certainly the stigma is unwarranted–mothers should be able to breastfeed as long as makes sense for their family. If only there were a way for those children to still get the nutrients from breast milk in another way. Like…cheese?

It seems Randy’s million dollars may be claimed by this McSweeney’s author’s paranormal abilities:

Delightfully, I have not only a love for the scientific method but also a demonstrable paranormal skill! I have the ability to control men’s minds with my vagina.

So, is that paranormal…or just normal?

Colin Thornton, who is heading up the effort, partnered with the Foundation Beyond Belief, to create a weekly podcast called Podcast Beyond Belief, which will feature news items and discussions about skepticism and secular humanism that are of interest to parents. Each week we’ll feature a questions submitted by parents like you, and we’ll have answers supplied by experts. Also, each week we’ll feature an interview with a special guest.

In his introductory blog post, Colin said:

Each episode will feature a round-table discussion of the latest parenting science news, in addition to interviews with well-known science advocates and secular humanists. We’ll also have a regular feature called “THE FAQ”, where we’ll forward on your toughest parenting questions to qualified experts and report back their up-to-date science-based answers.

Our first episode includes a discussion with Dale McGowan, the founder of our “parent” organization, Foundation Beyond Belief. You might also remember him as the editor and co-author of Parenting Beyond Belief and Raising Freethinkers. Dale spoke about secular humanism, and how those principles fit with the foundation’s ideals. We expect to have some listeners who may not understand what it means to be a secular humanist. It’ll be nice to have Dale’s explanation (and example) of humanist philosophy on our first episode to provide context for people new to the concept of freethought.

Be sure to also check out our second episode next week when we sit down with John Flansburgh from They Might Be Giants, the duo who created the new children’s album “Here Comes Science“. The interview went in unexpected directions, and before I knew it, Flans was talking about vaccines, Andrew Wakefield and 9/11 conspiracies.

If you have questions for the FAQ – please send them to podcastbeyondbelief@gmail.com. We’ll pick our favorites to send to the experts for their answers.

We’re still in our infancy, but we’re all passionate about the subject matter, and we feel like this is an important effort. We’d like to use this podcast to help inform, educate, and entertain other parents. So, maybe next time you put the baby down for a nap, or put the kids on the bus, or get in your car to go to work, you can give us a listen!

The wonderfully insightful Lenore Skenazy (of Free Range Kids) argues that we’re overdoing it. Our kids don’t need us to jump through hoops to keep them entertained. Let THEM do it themselves.

You must play with your kids is so ingrained that we feel terrible when we’re bored sick by the idea of pouring another imaginary cup of tea. But maybe, like most pain, that boredom is trying to tell us something: Kiddie games are for KIDS. They really don’t need us!

No one is saying to neglect your kids. There are times for museums, classes, swim lessons, and games of Chutes and Ladders with Dad. However, it’s also important to let children do their own thing without an adult giving direction. Sometimes we forget that.

So, thanks to Lenore for the reminder!

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It is believed the current outbreak, the biggest since 2006, began when an eleven-year old boy returned from a visit to England back in June. (Britain, along with other parts of Europe, is experiencing a mumps renaissance.) He then attended a summer camp where other children were exposed to the illness. The bad news is that even kids who have two doses of the MMR vaccine under their belts are falling ill.

About 88 percent of those who reported their vaccination status had received at least one dose of vaccine, and three quarters of those infected had been given two doses.

The mumps virus can mutate, so people who have had only one or even two doses of vaccine remain vulnerable.

In addition, the vaccine isn’t 100% effective.

Studies have found one dose 73 percent to 91 percent effective, while the effectiveness of two doses ranged from 79 percent to 95 percent, according to the report.

“That means if you were to expose 100 people to mumps, 10 of them might still come down with the disease,” [study co-author and CDC epidemiologist Kathleen] Gallagher said. In this outbreak, these percentages are holding, she added.

No one has died from the current outbreak, and only a small number have been hospitalized. The outbreak is also fairly localized: Ninety-seven percent of those are children from an orthodox Hasidic Jewish group. So, there’s certainly no need for panic. But, as a parent who follows the vaccination schedule, these outbreaks are annoying. In the early 2000s, the MMR vaccine kept the number of U.S. mumps cases under 500 a year. After the misinformation about the MMR vaccine and autism, cases of the mumps started to spike. In 2006, there was a large outbreak in the Midwest and over 6,000 people were affected. It’s a shame when herd immunity starts to erode.

We can only hope that parents will now choose to immunize on schedule and that outbreaks like this will no longer happen.

The site, based on this series of books, is targeted toward tween girls:

What would it be like to build the first robot that could interact with people? Or to study human remains in search of criminal evidence? In Women’s Adventures in Science, readers will learn about the trailblazing women who are leaders in a variety of scientific fields, from robotics to forensics.

The site looks like a lot of fun and I hope that it inspires more young girls to embrace science.

[Via Science-Based Parenting]

Nine percent of the children answered yes. Only 15 percent of these children said the voices caused them serious suffering, and 19 percent said the voices interfered with their thinking. Boys and girls were equally likely to report hearing voices, but girls were more likely to report suffering and anxiety due to the voices.

I don’t quite know what to make of this information. This seems like a lot of kids. I’m a bit skeptical that there weren’t some children answering in the affirmative just for attention, or perhaps seeking approval. After all, we’ve seen many examples of the power of suggestion over people.

However, even if the numbers are reliable, experts say not to panic if your child hears voices. They conclude that most children suffering from auditory vocal hallucinations will not have any long-term effects from the condition. One of the study’s authors, Agna A. Bartels-Velthuis of University Medical Center Groningen in The Netherlands, said, “In most cases the voices will just disappear. I would advise them to reassure their child and to watch him or her closely.”

Perhaps these hallucinations account for some of the children who are attributed with “special gifts” such as psychic abilities? Many kids claim to have imaginary friends; but, perhaps, to some children, these friends are not really imaginary. Rather, they are voices inside their heads. It’s interesting research.

The team plans on following up in a few years to study how the auditory hallucinations evolve and what effect, if any, they have on the child’s behavior.

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In addition to the winner’s art appearing on Google.com on May 27, 2010, they’ll also receive a $15,000 college scholarship, a laptop computer and a $25,000 technology grant for their school.

Not too shabby.

The theme this year is “If I Could Do Anything, I Would…” and doodles must be submitted by March 31, 2010. It’s great that Google celebrates creativity in kids. If you’ve got a young designer or doodler at home, this could be a fun project.

(The picture is of my son’s leg after getting his vaccinations)

Andrew Wakefield kicked off the anti vaccination movement with his paper published in 1998 that claimed to show a link between Autism and vaccines. His  findings  have been proven false over and over again. It was also found that he most likely faked his data.

Last week  the UK’s General Medical Council found that Andrew Wakefield acted “dishonestly and irresponsibly” when doing his research. And now The Lancet (who published the paper) has issued a full retraction.

This is very good news and I hope that this will help put parents concerns about vaccinating their children to rest.

In other news, Bill Gates has committed $10 Billion (yes Billion!)  to develop and deliver vaccines to children in the developing world. “We must make this the decade of vaccines,” said Bill Gates. “Vaccines already save and improve millions of lives in developing countries. Innovation will make it possible to save more children than ever before.”

I get a daily email from the American Council on Science and Health called “Health Facts and Fears”. In that news letter Dr Gilbert Ross is quoted as saying of Bill Gates, “We must give credit to him for taking a very effective, targeted, lifesaving approach to charitable giving as opposed to activists, who prefer to wage irrational attacks on substances that have no nexus with human health.”

I’m a Mac girl but this makes me want to buy a PC!