Guessing what babies and toddlers are thinking about can be difficult before they have words to tell the story. Over the first year parents usually do get increasingly adept at recognizing when their babies feel tired or hungry or have a poopy diaper. And at some point, many notice their babies staring impolitely at what the parents are eating – usually just around the time for the babies to start solids. Of course they would be fascinated by food! This is also about the time they start to stare at the mouth when you speak.

Medscape Pediatrics, a leading source of medical information for physicians (if not the leading source of info for physicians), has released the Medscape Top 10 for in 2011 – this year’s 10 most important articles, chosen by being the most read articles of the year. ***Spoiler Alert*** This is tremendous news for WhiteOut, our campaign to upgrade from white rice cereal for babies. What pediatricians are reading:

10. An article on the best way to sedate kids who need a head CT.

Last Thanksgiving I announced a bold campaign, spearheaded by an amazing band of volunteers, to upgrade babies’ first foods to real foods – and babies’ first grains to whole grains – and to do this in 2011.

It’s November, and we still have a ways to go, but we also have an exciting reason to celebrate!

Each year thousands of pediatricians gather for a national conference to catch up on the latest science and with each other. There’s also a huge exhibit hall, as in so many professional and trade conferences, where the latest products are displayed. At our meeting, vendors pass out logo bags that pediatricians can use going up and down the aisle picking up bagfuls of free samples, information and trinkets. This year at our October meeting in Boston, the dominant bags pediatricians were carrying up and down the aisles were Coca-Cola bags.

Food Day, my favorite new holiday, is a simple but profound celebration of something all humans share – we become the food we eat. The first annual Food Day (foodday.org), debuts October 24, sponsored by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the nonprofit group that has led successful fights for food labeling, better nutrition, and safer food since 1971. Food Day is being championed by more than 70 partner organizations and many stars of good food.

Babies have more taste buds before birth than at any later time. Why would they be designed to form extra taste buds only for them to disappear before they are even born?

Colic can be very distressing both for babies and their parents. Parents often feel their baby’s screaming is an indictment of their parenting ability: there’s something wrong with me; there’s something wrong with my milk; or there’s something wrong with my baby! It’s no wonder that so many feel frustrated, exhausted, guilty, angry, or helpless.

Autism diagnoses have increased rapidly over the last two decades; so has the number of women taking antidepressants during pregnancy – from somewhere between 1% and 6% in the early 1990s to 7-13% more recently. The most common antidepressants alter serotonin levels; children with autism tend to have atypical serotonin levels in their blood. Antidepressants are known to affect our brains and to cross the placenta at a time when a baby’s brain is developing. We know that serotonin is critical in brain development, especially in the first trimester.

It’s taken a long time for science to quantify what mothers have always known: the skin of babies and toddlers is very different from the skin of older children and adults. Babies’ skin is softer because the outermost protective layer, the stratum corneum, isn’t mature until at least age two. In babies and toddlers the total epidermis is also thinner, with increased absorption:

Ultraviolet radiation can penetrate more deeply.

You've heard of DM cough syrups. How about DC cough remedies? DM is an abbreviation for an over-the-counter cough suppressant called dextromethorphan. What is DC? It.s the nickname given by members of the DrGreene.com community to dark chocolate. Codeine is stronger against coughs than DM. Could DC be even more effective? And if so, how much chocolate would it take? Research published in the The FASEB Journal in February 2005 makes a strong case that dark chocolate can be a powerful cough suppressant.