** A collection of articles and other fun stuff from around the web. Mostly dealing with babies, parenting, moms, etc. But not always. **
The era of non-invasive prenatal genetic screening has officially begun (fascinating. and scary. all at the same time.)
Babies are smarter than you think (babies can empathize and help others get what they want)
Will Smartphones and iPads Mush My Toddler’s Brain? (it’s clear that tv is bad for your baby, but they don’t really know about ipads yet – there might be some good apps that help them learn about cause and effect, etc. so it might be ok as long as you’re not just pulling up videos on it…)
BPA During Pregnancy May Impact Daughters’ Behavior, New Study Shows (this kind of stuff is so scary – but I appreciate the article’s call for balance)
Fish Oil And Health (an interesting look at the research about fish oil – she concludes that it’s probably a good idea, but an even better idea would be to just eat whole fish (who knew); also check out the related article about the pure DHA supplements that most pregnant women take)
We’re doing genetic counseling now and for many things bioethics requires one to test the parents first, to see if we are even carriers, before moving along to testing the fetus. In other words, many labs refuse to test the fetus w/o first screening the parents. I also have read many articles on this subject and unless you are looking at DNA/Chromosomes specifically, no test is 100%. This is a blood test, not DNA-based. Like that article you posted about the mom with the Tays Sacs baby- her carrier test was negative, but alas. Even CVS and Amnios are “only” 99% accurate and picking up genetic abnormatilities. And then there’s 3-5% of problems that have no explanation- some mental retradation for example is not found in any gene sequence. So its a crap shoot- tests or not. Our genetic counselor said that at best, they can give us options that bring any risk down to 2-4%, instead of 3-5%- because there is so much that is untestable. That’s not a word