Has anyone realized that there were more babies born in the United States last year (2007) than ever before?

About 4,315,000 children were born in 2007, which is about 15,000 more births than at the peak of the baby boom in 1957. Although during that time, the “baby boom” was influenced by a fewer number of woman having more than one baby. So why the drastic increase? Well, as far as I’m concerned, there are two reasons:

The first being the overall increase in population. Each year the U.S. population grows, and in turn its only natural that the number of newborns increase as well. You gotta love science!

But secondly, and in my (humble) opinion, the REAL root of this growth: plain, good old fashioned boredom. I’ll explain – the rapid (and disappointing) increase in the number of reality shows, the writer strike in Hollywood, the mindless movie plots being released every week has left us nothing to do with our spare time. (Although there are a handful of exceptions, such as Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog. If you haven’t seen it, watch it!)

Not to mention the economic factors that come into play. With everyone trying to save money, fewer people are going out for entertainment (movies, dinner, etc.) so we stay in and get comfortable, and with that leads to, eh hem, other “entertaining” things.

So if we really want to point the finger, lets aim it towards Hollywood…or the economy…or Deal or No Deal – that Howie Mandel has got to answer to someone!

There is currently a class action lawsuit against Playtex Products because of the use of bisphenol A (BPA). The suit claims that “Playtex failed to adequately disclose that its plastic bottle products are formulated using BPA.”

There’s been some discussion regarding some “concern” about BPA from experiments on animals, which leads people to believe that there could be possible effects on humans - hence the lawsuit.

Since there is no REAL evidence to support either argument, I guess it’s just better to use your own judgment. Personally, If I knew there were (potentially) harmful chemicals used to make my child’s bottle, I wouldn’t use it. But the again, my son seems to like Avent bottles regardless of any other type we give him, so in the end - he’’s the boss!

In an article that only proves that statement, “Anyone can make a baby, but it takes a real parent to raise one,” Dr. Heather Paradis of the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York researched the amount of knowledge that a new parent has in regards to overall child development. She presented her findings at a Pediatric Academic Society meeting:

“…once a baby is born, an astonishing number of parents are not only unsure of what to anticipate as their child develops, but are also uncertain of when, how or how much they are to help their babies reach various milestones, such as talking, grabbing, discerning right from wrong, or even potty-training.”

By no means would I claim myself to be an expert in child development, but with all the books, magazines and news articles available - its hard for me to understand how anyone can miss any type of “informative tid-bit” on what milestones your baby will reach.

You can read more about Dr. Paradis’ findings here.

** Has your baby reached a milestone? Share it with us by commenting or by posting it in Thoughts & Advice within your Parents Overnight profile.