The formula vs. breastfeeding debate is being stirred up yet again, if it ever settled.
New research by the World Health Organization (WHO), published in the journal Social Science and Medicine, found that formula advertising can "dramatically reduce breastfeeding rates."
In the Philippines around 60 per cent of moms who recalled seeing adverts for formula made them twice as likely to bottle feed their babies than those who didn't see the ads.
According to WHO, rates of exclusive breastfeeding of babies up to four months of age "dropped to 40 per cent in 2008 from about 47 per cent in 1998."
The research follows intense criticism of hospitals in developed countries doling out free formula samples to new moms, thus promoting formula feeding.
The issue is obviously even more critical in developing nations, where bottle feeding has been linked to higher rates of infant deaths and health complications. (The water used to mix with formula can be contaminated or in some cases mothers use insufficient powder in order to make supplies last longer.)
In 2007, formula manufacturers fought (and won) the right to advertise in developing countries like the Philippines, in spite of the health risks it clearly poses to babies.
Should formula advertisements be banned in the developing countries, or for that matter outright?
When I was growing up -- no thanks to the Crystal Gayle song -- blue eyes and blond hair were synonymous with pretty and popular. Over the years I discovered Van Morrison and learned to love my chocolate-coloured eyes.
But California doctor Gregg Homer, who is clearly of the old-school Gayle mentality, wants to turn brown eyes blue. Using a laser, Homer removes pigment from the top layer of the iris. The (irreversible) result: brown fades to blue in a few weeks.
If it gets the green light, the op would cost about $5,000 U.S. and no doubt it will be in demand among the rich and the insecure.
“A blue eye is not opaque – you can see deeply into it. A brown eye is very opaque. I think there is something very meaningful about this idea of having open windows to the soul,” Homer said in an interview with TV station KTLA.
The soul, really? If Jacko were still among us, he'd no doubt be first in line. Coloured contact lenses offer a fun chance to mess (temporarily) with your eye colour as you would with hair dye.
The fact that, according to CIBA Vision, the coloured contacts are most popular by those of African-American, Hispanic and Middle Eastern origin, makes you wonder whether such men and women aren't, at least on some level, still pining after that awful Aryan ideal just as I once did.
Going under the knife? Well, that's a whole new, radical level of self loathing. Time to turn on some Van Morrison, I think...
You may not remember Thomas Beatie's name but you will most likely remember his face. A few years ago, the transgendered 37-year-old's image -- bearded, breastless, and heavily pregnant --was plastered all over the place.
Now after bearing his third child, the trans dad, known as the 'the pregnant man', is considering having a hysterectomy.
Despite being legally declared a man in 2002, Beatie retained his female reproductive organs, although his wife, Nancy, had to breastfeed since Beatie's male hormones prevented him from producing milk.
In a British TV show called The Doctors, to be aired later this month, Arizonan Beatie will explain the struggles particular to his transgender pregnancy, not to mention the added burden of all the media coverage that dogged him throughout. He claims the negative press killed his business and led to his ensuing bankruptcy.
If we're lucky, he'll also share some secrets on how he shed that post-pregnancy weight!
"Despite the fact that my belly is growing with a new life inside me, I am stable and confident being the man that I am," Beatie reportedly said during his first pregnancy.
At last a man who understands what it's like to be pregnant and give birth! Personally, it's his wife I'd really love to see interviewed. Penny for your thoughts, Nancy...
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