The Violence to Young Children Continues

It’s getting so bad that I do not want to read the latest news. A mother left her two year old girl and an almost one year old boy with her boyfriend. He had agreed to bring them to meet her in the store parking lot where she was employed when she got off work. When they picked her up, the mother apparently realized that the little girl was seriously injured. They took her to a local hospital. The hospital immediately “life flighted” her to a trauma center where she died that evening. The cause of death was a brain … Continue reading

Child Killer Executed in Texas

A man was executed tonight by the State of Texas for the 1998 murder of a three year old child. Carlos Granados was the ex-boyfriend of Katherine Jiminez. When her marriage to another man failed, he moved from New York to Texas to live with her. Sometime later, their relationship faltered She had told him to move out of the apartment that they shared. He did not want to leave and a brutal fight ensued. He stabbed her over 25 times with a large butcher knife. He also killed her three year old son with the same weapon. Relatives of … Continue reading

Halloween: A Parent’s Worst Nightmare

If you watched ABC’s Good Morning America earlier today, then you probably wish that Halloween would be cancelled all together, especially if you are a parent. The morning show did a bang up job trying to scare the daylights out of moms and dads with a segment about the many, many, many, many ways kids could die on October 31st. Actually, I think piece was designed to increase safety and parental awareness regarding the dangers that lurk on All Hallows’ Eve, but all I walked away with was a dozen or so ways my kid could meet her maker on … Continue reading

It Makes You Think

I love TV shows and books that make me think. Last night we watched Boston Legal. Apart from the wacky sense of humor that permeates David E. Kelley shows, one of the reasons I like this show is because it is concerned with the law and makes me think. Legal shows always fascinate me. It also makes me think about things I might not otherwise think about. It may be only a TV script and not an actual case, but it’s enough to start the brain ticking over. Take the episode we watched where Alan Shore was to go before … Continue reading

The “Baby Moses Law”

There are a number of newborn or very young babies abandoned every year. Too often, they are left somewhere that they cannot survive for a long enough time to be found. In 1999, the Texas legislature passed a “Baby Moses Law”. This law set up a procedure by which a parent could abandon a baby safely and without further responsibility or criminal liability. Many states have since passed similar laws. The nickname “Baby Moses” comes from the biblical account of how the mother of Moses abandoned him in a place where he would be rescued and nursed to health. She … Continue reading

Another Baby Left With Boyfriend Tragedy

It is another verse of the same song that seems to be playing everywhere. The twenty year old mother of a fourteen month old little girl went to work and left the child with her twenty-one year old boy friend who lived with them. When she came back to the couple’s apartment from her job, she discovered that the child was unconscious. She summoned help in the apartment complex and someone administered CPR to the child. It was too late. The child was dead when they arrived at a local hospital. Upon examining the baby, medical personnel noticed unusual swelling … Continue reading

Toddler Brutally Murdered by His Father

Two years ago, twenty-five year old Daniel Hernandez was arrested for brutally shaking his one month old son and severely injuring him. Since then, he had been free on bond. The agreement on which his freedom was based stipulated that he would not be with the boy. Now the child is dead and Hernandez is in jail once again. After the 2005 incident, the child lived with Hernandez’s aunt. The mother, twenty-one year old Jessica Ann Emhoolah, was required to go to counseling and take parenting skills classes. She did everything that the court asked her to do and this … Continue reading

New Moms Are at Risk for More than PPD

One of the largest studies ever conducted on postpartum mental illness has found that first time moms are at a much greater risk for a variety of mental illnesses during the first three months after giving birth. Not just post partum depression but other more serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. The Study Danish researchers looked at the records of one million women over a course of 32 years from the time their child was born. According to their data, new, first time mothers are seven times more likely to be admitted to a mental hospital for … Continue reading