Safety Alert: The FDA has issued an update to a 2011 warning regarding the link between infant digestive aid “Simply Thick” and the inflammatory intestinal disorder, necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in premature infants. While the previous warning related only to infants born before 37 weeks gestation, the FDA now recommends no use of the product with [...]
Author Archives: Katie Ranftle
News Roundup: September 20
News Roundup: September 12
Prenatal Care Finding high-quality prenatal care is often challenging, particularly if it’s not just physical care that’s required. In Slate’s recent three-part series, Not Just the Pregnancy Blues, Jessica Grose explores some of the complex issues surrounding mental health care during pregnancy—from her own and other women’s stories of struggling with depression and finding the [...]
Champions in the Field: Dr. T. Berry Brazelton
Our knowledge about what’s going on in babies’ brains in their earliest days, weeks, and months has grown by leaps and bounds in the last 65 years, and Dr. T. Berry Brazelton has seen it happen. But more than just watching, Dr. Brazelton has been an instrumental force for change in how we understand and [...]
Paid Leave Policies: Google Steps Up
For more than a decade, Google has been where millions of people go daily in the quest for answers. But according to an article published by the New York Times on August 22, the company recently had to do some digging for answers of their own. In particular, they found themselves asking what, exactly, they [...]
What Does It Mean to Be a Dad Now? Looking at “The New Dad” Reports
It’s a mother’s job to nurture; a good father just needs to be a good provider. Sound familiar? It’s one of the most common myths of the American family, and in the past it may even have been a mostly true description of how some families functioned. But the world as we were shown it [...]
News Roundup: June 14
We’ve got a lot of wide-ranging news to share with you this week, from an interview with a business owner turned stay-at-home dad to research on how preschool teachers are (or are not) prepared for dealing with young children’s emotional development. But before that, just a reminder to all the dads out there that we’d [...]
How Do Babies Learn? Exploring the Work of Dr. Alison Gopnik
It’s almost universally recognizable, the wide-eyed, curious gaze of a baby experiencing things for the first time. For babies, everything is new and holding almost infinite possibility, which is one of the things that makes their process of learning how to interact with the world so fascinating. With a background in Psychology and Philosophy, Dr. [...]
News Roundup: June 7
Rhode Island Kids Count knows how important a strong start is for giving children the best chance is in life. In a recent presentation on on the economic, health, educational, and developmental trends for children in Pawtucket, representatives for the organization discussed the positive impact that timely prenatal care, high-quality childcare, and in-home support programs [...]
Calling All Dads! It’s Time to Share Your Stories
With Father’s Day just around the corner, we’ll be spending some time next week looking at dads’ experiences in their children’s early years. You can help us explore the challenges and triumphs of fatherhood by sharing your stories. What kinds of stories? For starters, we’d love to hear about: How you’ve balanced job and family [...]
News Roundup: May 24
For Our Babies @ The Huffington Post In his most recent blog for the Huffington Post, Ron Lally discusses how the lack of paid family leave in the United States does great disservice to families, increasing the risks of physical, emotional, and financial strain. It’s not just the lack of paid leave, though, that leaves [...]

