Natural Baby Products

Upon reaching the age of one or beginning to walk, infants are subsequently referred to as "toddlers" (generally 12-36 months). Daycares with an "infant room" often call all children in it "infants" even if they are older than a year and/or walking; they sometimes use the term "walking infant".

Children need a relatively larger amount of sleep to function correctly (up to 18 hours for newborn babies, with a declining rate as the child ages), specially after feeding.

LOS ANGELES – Ken Ober, who hosted the 1980s MTV game show "Remote Control" and helped produce the shows "Mind of Mencia" and "The New Adventures of Old Christine," has died. He was 52.
His agent, Lee Kernis, says Ober was found dead Sunday in his Santa Monica home. Kernis says Ober complained of headaches and flu-like symptoms on Saturday night but the cause of his death wasn't clear.
Ober hosted five seasons of "Remote Control" beginning in 1987. Contestants in lounge chairs were asked pop-culture questions from categories such as "Dead or Canadian?" The show featured early appearances by comedians Adam Sandler, Denis Leary and Colin Quinn.
Ober, who was born Ken Oberding in Massachusetts, is survived by his parents and a brother.

TUESDAY, Nov. 17 (HealthDay News) -- Surging obesity rates,
especially among children, may be putting the brakes on progress made in
the past few decades against heart disease, researchers report.

And it doesn't help that many obese or overweight Americans still
consider their weight "normal," as one study found.

One of several studies on the subject of obesity presented Tuesday at
the American Heart Association (AHA) annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.,
found that adults' blood pressure and blood sugar levels are continuing to
rise, fueled in large part by expanding waistlines.

This is swamping recent heart-health improvements such as lowered blood
levels of LDL ("bad") cholesterol or fewer people smoking, experts
said.

Poring over government data between 1988-1994 and 2005-2006,
researchers found that adult Americans' average body mass index (BMI) rose
from 26.5 to 28.8 over that time span. To put that in context, a BMI of 25
marks the beginning of overweight, while doctors use a BMI of 30 as the
threshold for obesity.

More people did achieve optimal LDL levels (22 percent versus 28
percent) and were non-smokers (rising from 45 percent to 50 percent)
during the same time period, but those gains were outweighed by fewer
people having good blood pressure (48 percent versus 43 percent) or blood
sugar control (falling from 67 percent to 58 percent).

In fact, "many people feel the decline in [heart] risk factors is
leveling off and there will be an acceleration of cardiovascular disease,"
said AHA spokesman Dr. Roger Blumenthal, professor of medicine in the
division of cardiology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore.

Things don't bode well for the next generation, either: U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention statistics now put the number of obese
children and teens in the United States at about one-third.

"The prevalence of obesity and oversight in the U.S. and all developed
countries is on the rise and reaching epidemic proportions among both
adults and children," said Dr. David Crowley, lead author of a study on
child obesity and a cardiology fellow at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.
"In the course of the past three decades, the prevalence of obesity has
doubled or in some cases tripled across all pediatric age groups."

Not only have children and teens become heavier, their hearts have
become unhealthily thicker, as measured by left ventricular mass (LVM),
indicating a higher risk for heart disease down the line.

"Left ventricular mass is a marker of stress on the heart and a
predictor of heart attack and stroke," Crowley explained.

Between the mid-1980s and today, average BMIs in this sample of
children went from 18.1 to 19.9, while LVM jumped from 31.4 to 32.7. Males
and blacks fared worse than their female and/or white peers.

There were nearly twice as many overweight and obese children in the
later period compared to the earlier era: 35 percent versus 20 percent.
And the number of children with abnormally thick hearts more than doubled,
Crowley reported.

"The obesity epidemic is indeed having adverse effects on the hearts of
children compared to two decades ago," he said. "Today's children have
higher BMI and higher LVM and therefore are at a higher risk of heart
attack and stroke. If we do not get a handle on this in this country, if
kids continue to get heavier, their hearts will inevitably get thicker and
kids will be at higher risk of heart attacks and stroke."

Simple denial may be a component of this disaster, speculated a third
study. It found that a large proportion of obese people believe their body
size is normal and that they don't need to shrink. Some even believe they
could safely gain more weight.

Almost one in 10 surveyed said they were okay with the size of their
bodies after picking from a series of silhouettes the one they felt best
represented their image of themselves.

This same group also thought they were healthy, even though many of
them had risk factors for heart disease such as diabetes or high blood
pressure.

Ironically, individuals who were actually average or thin thought they
were larger than they really were.

"Obesity is not benign," noted study lead author Dr. Tiffany Powell, a
cardiology fellow at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
in Dallas. "This underscores the need for us as physicians to understand
that we not only need to target those who have misperceptions in clinical
settings, but we also need to do work at developing community programs
targeting those who avoid the health-care system," Powell said.

"From our data, it looks like those who have misperceptions of body
size are much less likely to be seen by physicians," she added.

Two other groups of researchers at the AHA meeting presented yet more
reasons to lose weight. In one study, obese patients who lost weight saw a
healthy normalization of the chambers in the right side of the heart
(although it's unclear if this results in decreased risk for actual heart
problems). And in another study, weight-loss surgery reduced the size of
enlarged hearts. Enlarged hearts carry with them the risk of heart
failure.

More information

There's more on obesity's impact on heart disease at the American Heart Association.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Social-networking site Twitter plans to end a service that links prominent message posters with new users, a service that was criticized in California because of perceived unfairness toward GOP gubernatorial candidates.
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said Monday the San Francisco-based company will overhaul its "suggested users" list, which links Twitter users with a pool of about 500 celebrities, sports figures and politicians they might want to follow.
"That list will be going away," Stone said at a conference in Malaysia. "In its stead will be something that is more programmatically chosen, something that actually delivers more relevant suggestions."
Names on the suggested user list are selected by company officials. In California, Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls were placed on the list, a move that greatly boosted their number of followers. Republican candidates were left off until recently.
The difference in treatment drew outcries from good government groups and contributed to a decision by the California Fair Political Practices Commission to hold hearings next year. The commission plans to examine whether it needs to regulate how campaigns intersect with social media.
In the three weeks since an Associated Press story about the suggested user list, Twitter executives added all three of the Republican candidates seeking to replace Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is termed out of office after next year.
The switch gave each Republican a significant bump in followers, demonstrating the list's reach and influence.
Former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman, who led the Republican field with 4,160 Twitter followers, jumped to nearly 61,000 followers. Former Congressman Tom Campbell went from 1,660 followers to 57,500, while state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner's nearly 2,600 followers increased to 56,500.
By comparison, Attorney General Jerry Brown, the presumed Democratic gubernatorial candidate, increased from 960,000 followers to 1 million during the same three-week period.
Twitter also added Carly Fiorina, who is seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer next year.
The list's expansion drew praise from Kim Alexander, president of the nonprofit California Voter Foundation. She wants to see the site continue as an avenue for political discussion, saying it can serve as a valuable tool for voters who are just starting to get engaged in next year's campaign season.
California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring, however, urged Twitter to drop politicians from its favorites list if it doesn't end the list entirely.
"To include political candidates among suggested users is begging for some government entity to come in and regulate it," Nehring said.
Barbara O'Connor, a professor of political communication at Sacramento State University who teaches classes on social networking and its influence on politics, said politicians could disappear naturally from the list if users are allowed to choose their own favorites. Surveys show most would not gravitate to candidates as their first choice, she said.
The effect on political campaigns still is uncertain, said consultants to Brown and to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.
Newsom had 1.1 million followers, the most of any governor candidate. Yet it didn't translate into enough campaign funding to keep him from dropping out of the race this month, said Newsom adviser Garry South.
"They're not a magic bullet," South said of social networking sites. "You have to do all the new media stuff as well as all the old traditional campaign techniques."
The list already included a few national political figures from both parties, including former vice president Al Gore, Sen. John McCain and former House speaker Newt Gingrich.

Stone did not say what kind of service would take the place of the suggested user list but said it could be tailored to new users' interests. In an e-mail, Twitter spokeswoman Jenna Sampson said the company could provide no more details.

___

Associated Press Writer Julia Zappei contributed to this story from Malaysia.