Sleep Aid For Children

Skinny and gap-toothed, her nose smudged with black dust, grandmother Kanotu Mumo sorts charcoal into small pots for sale on the stoop of her slum hut. Mumo is an "Aids granny" in Kibera, Nairobi, one of Africa's biggest slums. Like grandmothers all over Africa, they have been left to fend for orphans after their own children and husbands died. Her hut, stacked with sacks of charcoal, measures 3m by 2,5m and it is too dark inside to see more than a few centimetres, even in the middle of the day. Somehow she shelters four grandchildren, two great grandchildren and the child of a dead relative, who sleep on mattresses and two beds. There is no toilet or running water. According to United Nations figures, at least 12-million children in Africa have lost one or both parents because of Aids. This accounts for 80% of all Aids orphans in the developing world.

Woman killed self, 2 children when she walked onto I-495

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) Marcelle Thibault was a stay-at-home mom so she could take care of her own teenage children. She volunteered to organize activities for teens at her church.

She often threw parties for her young nieces and nephews, like the pirates and princesses sleep-over she picked up her twin sisters only children for Jan. 11.

That night, driving on Interstate 495 in Lowell with 5-year-old Kaleigh Lambert and her 4-year-old brother, Shane, Thibault turned her car sharply, crossed the median and began driving against traffic in the breakdown lane.

Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said Friday that she stopped on the right side of the road, got out of the car, removed her clothes and undressed the children.

She took them in her arms and walked onto the highway.

Wellness campaigns often muddied by commercialism

If you've been too busy with the holidays to have paid attention to those worthy causes, however, worry not.

January marks Healthy Weight Week and National Glaucoma Month, and February's the month to beef up your knowledge of Marfan syndrome, children's dental health and congenital heart defects.

So many months, so much to be aware of.

All that awareness is likely to cause insomnia, so it's fortunate that National Sleep Awareness Week falls in March. You'll need some coffee after tossing and turning all night, so grab a cappuccino and mull over the irony that March also marks Caffeine Awareness Month.

With so many commemorative health events ranging from the well-established (Breast Cancer Awareness Month) to the ridiculous (Genital Cleanliness Month), it's certainly easy to mock their proliferation.