babies

NYC Puts at Least One Restriction on Mohels Sucking Freshly Circumcised Baby Penises

Cord Jefferson · 09/28/12 06:55PM

Call me crazy, but I don't think it should be legal for adults to suck the blood from freshly circumcised baby penises. Alas, doing just that is a very important ritual for some Orthodox Jews. Called metzitzah b'peh, the process involves the mohel snipping away the foreskin and then sucking the blood from the penis to "cleanse" the wound. Obviously putting saliva on an open wound isn't considered an antiseptic practice in any realm of modern medicine, especially when that open wound belongs to an infant with a barely there immune system. Indeed, since 2002, metzitzah b'peh has been responsible for spreading Type 1 herpes, a very common condition in American adults, to 11 different babies, killing two of them and giving two others brain damage, according to ABC News.

Caity Weaver · 09/27/12 10:36AM

Reese Witherspoon named her new baby boy Tennessee, probably because "he's the only 10 I see." Her other kids are 9's.

Bad Days for Babies: A California Woman Tried to Steal a Newborn from a Hospital Just After a Florida Man Attempted to Trade a Baby for Food

Taylor Berman · 08/06/12 10:30PM

Garden Grove Medical Center employees thwarted a baby theft this weekend after Grisel Ramierez allegedly tried to walk out with a newborn girl she'd hidden in a tote bag. Ramierez had disguised herself in nurses' scrubs and led the newborn's mother to the bathroom, instructing her to shower before the doctor's examination. Once the mother left the room, Ramirez put the infant in her tote bag and was on her way out when the baby somehow set off an alarm after crossing an "imaginary line," which seems impossible if it was actually imaginary but, you know, technology is crazy these days.

Blue Ivy Exists

Caity Weaver · 07/18/12 05:10PM

Beyoncé was spotted shopping Wednesday with Earth's favorite and most important baby, Blue Ivy Carter.