Babies

Few topics get as much airtime with new parents as the subject of sleep, or lack thereof, and few topics are as polemic as sleep training. Los Angeles is home to some of the country's most noted pediatricians, but they don't all agree on how, when or even if to train your child to sleep. A study out of Australia about the effects of sleep training on children has experts and parents talking on both sides of the debate. Published in the September issue of Pediatrics, the study looks at the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in children's brains.

Call it retirement anxiety, or maybe recession obsession. For all of their married life, Patrick Webster, 63, and Susie Martin, 54, have been extremely frugal. Webster and Martin, who both work at Marymount College in Rancho Palos Verdes, have been stashing away their combined income at an enviable rate - more than 25% - for retirement. Together they have more than $1 million in investments and no debt. But rather than feeling reasonably secure about their financial future, they dread a return of hard times.

Baby wrangling is a tough job in the best of circumstances. Add colic to the mix and … well, that borders on the cruel and unusual. Unfortunately, it's not unusual at all. According to the National Institutes of Health, roughly 1 out of 5 babies gets colic, which means they cry inconsolably at least three hours a day, at least three days a week. The crying often starts like clockwork at a particular time of day, usually in the evening. Nobody knows what causes colic, and it's hard to say exactly what babies are feeling.

The Senate Judiciary Committee took up comprehensive immigration reform late last week. And, as expected, opponents are already rushing to derail it, arguing that any bill that legalizes the vast majority of undocumented immigrants in the United States will cost billions of dollars and place an unfair burden on taxpayers. Such arguments are merely scare tactics. There's no doubt that granting citizenship to millions of immigrants 13 years from now, as the Senate bill would, will carry a cost, but how much is unclear.

Amid at least 95 reports of babies falling out of the popular Bumbo baby seats -- including 19 who suffered skull fractures -- the company said it is recalling nearly 4 million seats in the U.S. But instead of returning the seats to stores, South Africa-based Bumbo International Trust said customers should order a free repair kit that includes a restraint belt as well as a warning sticker cautioning against placing the seat on raised surfaces....

Newborns arrive in this world somewhat half-baked or, in the more measured words of evolutionary anthropologist Wanda Trevathan of the University of New Mexico, "a little unfinished, if you will. " Parents declare them beautiful, these wailing bundles of wrinkles. But upon arrival, far more than their physical appearance needs work. Indeed, human newborns are the least neurologically developed primates on Earth, their brains a mere 25% developed, compared with about 50% among others in the animal kingdom.

As a child in post-World War II England, Shirley McGlade clipped a picture of movie star Jeff Chandler and put it in her wallet. That was her father, she told schoolmates--a rich American who had divorced her mother and was fighting for custody of her. "People believed me," she said. "I lived in a fantasy world."

Nick was lying in his mother's arms when the cellphone rang. She figured it was just another routine call. "Hi, doctor," she said, joking. "You've been avoiding us." "Well, I don't have to avoid you any longer," Dr. Juan Alejos replied. "We have a heart." We have a heart. He was too little to know it, but those words would mean everything to Nick Draper, only 7 months old. He nuzzled peacefully against his mother's chest.

The vegan lifestyle isn't mainstream yet, but it's surely on its way thanks to the whole food movement inspired by the likes of "Forks Over Knives" and "Food Inc. " Trendy vegan cookbooks, blogs and personalities continue to multiply as we all get " vegucated ," as do the vegan options served at restaurants. I don't remember the last time I was in a restaurant that didn't serve kale or some sort of braised greens. Then again, this is L.A. But is pushing veganism onto children taking things too far?

On Feb. 6, a baby boy was born, six weeks premature, at Sibley Hospital in Washington. His mother had been hospitalized during her pregnancy twice before--once for dehydration and again for very early labor--and the delivering obstetrician was on the lookout for more trouble. He got it. The baby didn't breathe properly and after a brief examination, he ordered him immediately transferred by ambulance to Georgetown Hospital's high-tech Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. He needed the best of care.

Newborns arrive in this world somewhat half-baked or, in the more measured words of evolutionary anthropologist Wanda Trevathan of the University of New Mexico, "a little unfinished, if you will. " Parents declare them beautiful, these wailing bundles of wrinkles. But upon arrival, far more than their physical appearance needs work. Indeed, human newborns are the least neurologically developed primates on Earth, their brains a mere 25% developed, compared with about 50% among others in the animal kingdom.

Hoping to reduce the number of infant deaths, Los Angeles County officials unveiled a campaign Wednesday to educate parents about how to safely put their babies to bed. Over the last four years, 278 babies in the county have died from suffocating while they were sleeping - more than all other accidental deaths of children under age 14, officials said. The deaths are more common among Latino and black babies, officials said. "Accidental suffocation poses the greatest risk for babies from 1 day to the age of 1," said Deanne Tilton Durfee, executive director of the county Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect.

Pregnant women who took the anti-seizure drug valproate during pregnancy increased the odds that their baby would have autism, and were roughly twice as likely to give birth to a child who would go on to be diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, according to a large study that captured 10 years of births in Denmark. Valproate, often known by its commercial name Depakote, is widely prescribed in the treatment of epilepsy and a wide range of psychiatric conditions. It is one of a class of drugs that has been linked to a child's delayed cognitive development and to some congenital malformations.

Babies wise up fast. By the time infants are 3 months old, their unfinished brains are laced with a trillion connections, and the collective weight of all those firing neurons triples in a year. But the indecipherable babbling and maladroit wiggling so beloved by parents just leave scientists in baby labs scratching their heads. What do those little people know, and when do they know it? A team of French neuroscientists who compared brain waves of adults and babies has come up with a tentative answer: At 5 months, infants appear to have the internal architecture in place to perceive objects in adult-like ways, even though they can't tell us. "I think we have a pretty nice answer," said Sid Kouider of the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, whose findings were published Friday in the journal Science.

Edward Norton and fiancee Shauna Robertson have welcomed a baby boy to their family, according to reports swirling online. The "Moonrise Kingdom" actor, 43, and Canadian film producer are said to have had the baby in March, Us Weekly reported , and they are "thrilled and excited for parenthood. " The mag was also first to report the pregnancy last month. PHOTOS: Hollywood baby boom Norton's publicists would neither confirm nor deny the report and have told The Times that they do not comment on his personal life.

Charles Bukowski, a kind of poet laureate of the seedy side of Los Angeles, wrote of life on its margins, at its racetracks, in its rundown bars. Bukowski was a poet and a novelist; in his novels, his alter ego Henry Chinaski made all kinds of bad decisions. But even while desperate, there was something appealing about Chinaski's desire to make something out of his beaten-down life. As in this passage: "After dinner or lunch or whatever it was -- with my crazy 12-hour night I was no longer sure what was what -- I said, 'Look, baby, I'm sorry, but don't you realize that this job is driving me crazy?

Almost half of all babies born in the United States -- 47.2% to be exact -- are still breastfeeding at 6 months, and the rate at which mothers are initiating breastfeeding of their newborns has had its highest jump in a decade, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday. That news comes on the day that a provision of the Affordable Care Act takes effect that will make breastfeeding easier and less expensive for mothers who spend part of their days away from their babies.

'Babies' MPAA rating: PG for cultural and maternal nudity throughout Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes Playing: In general release

In her prolific career, singer Margaret Whiting recorded 500 songs, including such signature hits as "It Might as Well Be Spring," "That Old Black Magic" and "Baby It's Cold Outside. " Along with such legends as Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, Whiting was regarded as one of the premiere interpreters of what is known as the Great American Songbook - songs written by such renowned composers and lyricists of the 20th century as George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Oscar Hammerstein II, Frank Loesser, Johnny Mercer and Richard Whiting, Margaret's father.

Malin Akerman has given birth to a baby boy. The "Children's Hospital" and "Burning Love" actress and her husband, the Petalstones drummer Roberto Zincone, welcomed their first child Tuesday. And she took to Twitter to make the announcement. PHOTOS: Hollywood baby boom "My husband and I welcomed our beautiful, healthy baby boy to this world this morning! Biggest joy of my life!!! #l ovemykid " she tweeted . And in case you were wondering what the little guy's name is, Akerman had that covered.