By The Defender Staff
Supreme Court Sides With Couple in Case Involving Baby Food Sold at Whole Foods
The Supreme Court cleared the way on Tuesday for a Texas couple who claimed that tainted baby food had sickened their son to press ahead with a lawsuit against Whole Foods. In a unanimous decision, the court agreed that the couple should be able to continue to pursue their lawsuit in state court.
In an opinion written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court found that a federal appeals court had correctly cleared the way for the couple to continue their legal fight, writing that the couple had “exercised their right” to choose to bring a lawsuit in state court.
In 2021, Sarah and Grant Palmquist sued the grocery chain and an organic baby food maker, arguing that food bought at the store had harmed their young son.
The couple said that their son, Ethan, had normal development until he was 2½ years old. He then suddenly regressed and was diagnosed with seizures and autism spectrum disorder. Tests showed that the boy had high levels of toxic metals in his body, the couple asserted in court filings, and showed signs of heavy-metal poisoning.
The Palmquists blamed their son’s medical problems on his near-exclusive diet of Earth’s Best Organic baby food, a brand made by the Hain Celestial Group that the family bought at Whole Foods.
In their lawsuit, they pointed to a 2021 report from the House Oversight Committee that found that certain commercial baby foods, including Earth’s Best, were tainted with significant levels of toxic heavy metals, including “arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury.”
US Child, Teen Obesity Rates Reach Record High While Adult Trends Appear to Slow, CDC Report Finds
U.S. childhood and teen obesity rates have reached record-highs while adult obesity rates may be slowing, according to two new reports published early Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Researchers used measured heights and weights from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) — run by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics — to track trends over more than six decades. In the first report, the team found that, in the most recent survey conducted between August 2021 and August 2023, 40.3% of adults aged 20 and older were found to be obese, including 9.7% with severe obesity and another 31.7% classified as overweight.
By comparison, for the survey conducted between 1988 and 1994, 22.9% adults aged 20 and older were found to be obese including 2.8% with severe obesity and 33.1% classified as overweight.
Is Autism Preventable in Certain Cases After All? Some Scientists Say Yes.
Obstetrician Jeanne Conry has long paid attention to the “1,300-day window” — the months before conception through a child’s second birthday. Studies show nutrition and lifestyle during this period can shape pregnancy outcomes and the long-term health of the babies. Conry began to wonder if such factors could also influence autism.
She is now helping lead an educational push aimed at alerting women to their exposure to toxins, stress and infections during this narrow and consequential window — guided by the idea that what happens then may subtly shape eggs or sperm, and in turn, influence a child’s development long before pregnancy begins.
“The more we research, the more we see links between different chemical exposures and autism so if we reduce those links we will ideally reduce cases,” Conry said.
For years, movements like this existed on the fringes. But recent studies are giving it new weight, raising a provocative question that was once almost taboo: could some cases of autism actually be preventable?
Study Suggests Cutting Sugar Before Age 2 Could Lower Heart Disease Risk
U.S. News & World Report reported:
Cookies, cupcakes, fruit snacks, juice boxes, oh my! These sweet treats are often part of childhood. But when it comes to babies and toddlers, new research suggests less sugar may be better for the heart later on. Researchers found that people whose sugar intake was restricted before birth and during the first two years of life were less likely to develop serious heart problems as adults, including heart attack, heart failure and stroke.
The study, published recently in The BMJ, looked at people born around the time the United Kingdom ended sugar rationing in 1953, a rare opportunity to study the long-term effects of early sugar intake. Historically, sugar was tightly rationed in the U.K. That changed in September 1953 when sugar limits were lifted. A team led by Jiazhen Zheng, a doctoral student at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in Guangzhou, China, conducted the study.
New Orleans Brings Back the House Call, Sending Nurses to Visit Newborns and Moms
When Lisa Bonfield gave birth to daughter Adele in late November, she was thrust into the new world of parenting, and faced an onslaught of challenges and skills to learn: breastfeeding, diapering, sleep routines, colic, crying, and all the little warning signs that something could be wrong with the baby. But unlike parents in most of the U.S., she had extra help that was once much more common: house calls.
Adele was only a few weeks old when a registered nurse showed up at Bonfield’s door on Dec. 10 to check on them and offer hands-on help and advice. As a city resident who had recently given birth, she was eligible for up to three home visits from Family Connects New Orleans, a program of the city health department.
She didn’t need to feed and change the baby before packing everything up for a car trip to the pediatrician or a clinic. It was a relief; Bonfield was exhausted and was still trying to figure out how to use the infant car seat. “Everything is so abstract before you have a baby,” Bonfield said. “You are going to have questions you never even thought about.”
Reddit Hit With $20 Million UK Data Privacy Fine Over Child Safety Failings
Britain’s data privacy watchdog slapped online forum Reddit on Tuesday with a fine worth nearly $20 million for failures involving children’s personal information. The Information Commissioner’s Office said it issued the penalty worth $19.5 million because the failures resulted in the platform using children’s data “unlawfully.”
“Children under 13 had their personal information collected and used in ways they could not understand, consent to or control. That left them potentially exposed to content they should not have seen,” said Information Commissioner John Edwards. “This is unacceptable and has resulted in today’s fine.”
The U.K. privacy regulator has been escalating scrutiny of online platforms over child safety. Earlier this month it hit MediaLab, owner of image-sharing site Imgur, with a fine of about $335,000 over similar failures and it has also been investigating TikTok since last year. The watchdog took issue with Reddit’s age verification measures. It said that even though the platform doesn’t allow children under 13 to use its service, it didn’t have any way to check the ages of its users before July 2025.
Edwards said online platforms that are likely to be accessed by children are responsible for protecting them by making sure they’re not exposed to any risks “through the way their data is used.” They can do this with “effective age assurance measures,” he said.
The post Supreme Court Sides With Couple in Case Involving Baby Food Sold at Whole Foods + More appeared first on Children’s Health Defense.
IPAK-EDU is grateful to The Defender as this piece was originally published there and is included in this news feed with mutual agreement. Read More
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