News

Check out this interesting article published in the UK Times Online. Time to swap to a more natural remedy?

"The risk of children suffering from flu can be halved if they take vitamin D, doctors in Japan have found. The finding has implications for flu epidemics since vitamin D, which is naturally produced by the human body when exposed to direct sunlight, has no significant side effects, costs little and can be several times more effective than anti-viral drugs or vaccine.

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There have been some baby bottles and aluminum cans with traces of Bisphenol (BPA), which leads to asthma. Read more from efitness.com news. This update comes after a recall of plastic sippy cups in Canada – our blog here.

In a recent article, the Guardian reveals that a South Korean couple left their daughter to starve to death while gaming online. Addicted to Internet games, the couple spent most of their time on a role-playing game called Prius Online, in which they raised a virtual daughter. After spending a reported 12 hours at a Seoul Internet café, they returned to find their newborn daughter dead. An autopsy confirmed the infant’s cause of death to be malnourishment.

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Adopting a child from China is a long, difficult process. And now, it’s even harder.

Chicago Tribune reports:

“Three of the most popular countries — China, Guatemala and Russia — have scaled back, tightened rules or temporarily halted adoptions as they struggle to establish more transparency and accountability.”

“Countries also have raised the eligibility bar, excluding more prospective parents based on income, marital status and even — in the case of China — body mass index.”

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The ice is thawing, the trees are sprouting tiny flower buds, and spring is on it's way. As we come out of hibernation, it’s time to reconnect with the roots of this fair city. That’s why the March issue is all about what makes Beijing a great place to live.

See what goes on in a week in the life of a local Chinese family. Find a new Chinese restaurant, museum, or hidden market. Read what parents have to say about sending their kids to local Chinese schools. While Kara Chin tracks down the best Mandarin teachers and discovers their top tips for perfecting Putonghua. If it’s time to say goodbye to Beijing, Kaatje Schreurs Harrison’s got you covered with advice from families who’ve done it before.

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Parents and babies beware of the milk! Despite the scandal of deadly melamine milk powder in 2008, 170 tons of milk powder are being recalled. Although China made efforts to punish those responsible, including the execution of two workers (a dairy farmer and a salesman), government officials were only moved around, most to the same position if not a higher one, and tainted milk products went back into circulation after being repackaged and resold. Read more from Business Week and BBC News.

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"A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down," but then again, maybe not a spoonful. A recent article on MyHealthBeijing suggests that children are receiving incorrect doses of medicine due to different shapes and sizes of kitchen spoons.

The article states: “In the study, first printed in the Annals of Internal Medicine and reviewed in Pediatrics JournalWatch, patients tried to pour 5ml into a series of spoons. They found a 20% error in under/overdosing.”

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Good news: The H1N1 flu virus is on the decline.
Bad news: The virus is not completely gone, patients have stopped asking for the vaccine, and doctors are worried about another outbreak.

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The Internet is such a big part of our lives, but how big is too big? Check out this article from the China Daily:

"Many Chinese teens feel most happy when they are surfing the Internet rather than spending time with family or friends, latest research on the country's post-90s generation has found.

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We stumbled across this disturbing article in the Shanghai Daily:

"THERE has been a 10-fold increase in the number of children in the city hospitalized for cancer in the past decade, local medical experts said yesterday ..."

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