Last Saturday, as I was in the Lehigh Valley Mall pushing the stroller I put my 22-month-old son in so he doesn’t run amok, I saw a tethered child pulling a parent along.  After chuckling a bit at the scenario of a parent being led around by their child, I thought it might be bordering on some sort of legal form of abuse, and that the child might need excessive amounts of therapy in the future. Was this just a rash judgment born out of my social conditioning and hypersensitivity to abusive situations, or is the "leashing" of little ones really OK? One can buy a leash, euphemistically referred…

With Facebook receiving a great deal of criticism among parents for instigating anti-social and suicidal behaviors among teenagers, there is some redemption to the social networking tool that helped a mother find an obscure diagnosis for her son’s condition that was previously overlooked by pediatricians. While others parents use Facebook to catch up with the minutia of their 300+ friends, Deborah Copaken Kogan posted pictures of her 4-year-old-son, Leo, when her instincts told her his condition was not the strep throat for which the doctors were treating him. She first published her story on…

In a 7-2 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down a 2005 California law banning the sale, rental and playing of violent video games like Call of Duty, Full Spectrum Warrior and Postal 2 to children under the age of 18. This is a real win for video game manufacturers and First Amendment advocates, but a real loss for consumer protection. The California law had proposed that video games with excessive violence display a label of 18, and that retailers would face a $1,000 fine for the rental or sale to those under the age of 18.   Excessive violence is defined by California as games…

Sleep deprived parents the world over have found a book to which they can relate. It is not written by Dr. Sears and it won’t tell you how to become a better parent, but it just might make you laugh hysterically. Every parent has been there. The baby is up at 2am and there is no sign of Sandman gracing the nursery. You feed the baby, you rock the baby, you sing to the baby, you read to the baby, but the baby just won’t go to sleep. After a couple of days, or, as was the case with our son, a year, that amount of sleep deprivation can cause one to think some crazy thoughts.  Now, while many …

How can an infant raise a storm? Answer: when the parents won’t disclose the gender of their four-month-old child to more than six people. This has raised many questions. Will failing to disclose the biological sex of baby Storm have any impact at all on the social or emotional development of the child? How much impact does culture really have on gender identity? After all, isn’t it biologically determined? Should children have the opportunity to choose anything, let alone their gender identity?  Canadian parents David Stocker and Kathy Witterick say they want Storm to discover him/herself by…

Not since huffing spray paint and aerosols has a more seemingly innocuous product been used to get a high than the so-called "bath salts" that are creating a scare across the country and especially with parents. You can’t even buy a can a spray paint at the Home Depot now without flashing your driver's license. I imagine that bath salts will also follow in this vein if they aren't banned altogether in Pennsylvania and across the country. For parents who don’t know, the common ingredients in bath salts are methylenedioxypyrovalerone, or MDPV, and mephedrone. And while the label on the package …

There is a dark side to social media wherein adolescents are spending more and more time using it, resulting in what is being called "Facebook depression." According to a clinical study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in April, teens who participate in social media and networking for prolonged periods of time are more likely to experience depression and anxiety. “Many online risks are an extension of the child's real-world interactions,” said Dr. Gwenn Schurgin O’Keeffe, lead researcher for the study. “Parents and pediatricians have begun to report 'Facebook depression…