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Baby Tech

IT 2009. 5. 5. 08:20

Wooden toys are nice, but Baby Brain for the iPhone makes Mom's job easier.

In Pictures: 10 Cool Gadgets For New Moms

BURLINGAME, Calif.--Jackie Ashton's first child was born a week late. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Apple ( AAPL - news - people )'s iPhone had just made its debut, and Ashton spent her pregnancy countdown hours enamored with the new gadget. She continued to use the iPhone after her daughter's birth, mainly for e-mailing with other moms and her pediatrician.

Then Ashton's entrepreneurial bent struck. She'd been diligently keeping notes on her daughter's sleep and feeding patterns in a binder, and wondered how her iPhone, which she carried with her constantly, could make it simpler.

In Pictures: 10 Cool Gadgets For New Moms

She asked other San Francisco moms about their baby data-tracking habits, and decided there was a business in it. Ashton's iPhone application, called Baby Brain, is set to launch on Apple's App Store some time in early May. Apple is currently reviewing the software, which will cost $4.99.

The software aims to be a time-saver for new moms who want to track every minute, and moment, in their babies' lives. It has a timer for breast feedings and sleep, and a log to track diaper changes and bottles. The collected data can be shared via e-mail with doctors, spouses and friends. Baby Brain also has features that show trends over time.

"My husband and I are constantly thinking of new business ideas. This one stuck because it was so simple," says Ashton, 33. "We knew there was demand for just talking to moms, and Apple makes it easy to launch applications for the iPhone."

Ashton and her husband, Jay, have worked on Baby Brain part-time since November. She previously worked in software sales, then taught sixth and seventh grades. Jay, 36, ran luxury hotel booking Web site Five Star Alliance, until selling it to Questex Media Group in July 2007. He is now launching a travel software firm.

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How To Market To The Modern Mom

Business 2009. 1. 9. 09:41

In Pictures: Eight Ways To Market To The Modern Mom

U.S. moms control the purse strings at home--to the tune of $2.1 trillion per year, roughly equivalent to the gross domestic product of Italy, the seventh largest economy in the world.

But for all their efforts, marketers could do a better job reaching this audience. According to a recent survey of 3,500 American moms by BSM Media, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.,-based marketing firm that targets the mother demographic, 65% feel that they are "underserved" by advertisers--either because the mom-focused ads don't resonate or because the ads aren't aimed at moms at all.

Strike the right nerve, though, and there's a pile of money to be made, even in a rough economy.

In Pictures: Eight Ways To Market To The Modern Mom

In Pictures: 12 Innovative Marketing Techniques

Successfully targeting the mom segment means communicating with them in their lingo, according to Nancy Lowman LaBadie, an executive vice president at Marina Maher Communications, a public relations agency that has handled many of Procter & Gamble's female-focused products, like Secret deodorant, Dawn dish soap and Clairol hair color. "I think companies who learn [that language], understand it and connect with it will reap the rewards," she says.

How to connect? Start by knowing where moms mingle--and, increasingly, that means online. According to the recent BSM Media survey, 71% of moms use the Internet to get product information.

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Japan: Mom held girl captive at home for 8 years

World News 2008. 11. 9. 03:57

TOKYO -- A Japanese girl was held captive at home for eight years by her mother, officials revealed for the first time Thursday, acknowledging that authorities repeatedly missed the abuse despite several warning signs.

The girl was first locked away in 1998 _ when she was just 11 _ and kept in confinement until 2006, when she was rescued after a neighbor reported possible abuse, officials in northern Sapporo city said.

Officials had planned to keep the case from the public to protect her privacy, Sapporo official Hisashi Okada said. But after it was reported in local media on Thursday, the officials gave a news conference.

Okada said the victim, now 21 years old, has lost all memory of the confinement _ a typical symptom of trauma _ but that the abuse has left its mark, and she is still undergoing rehabilitation. Among the effects of the abuse are intellectual disabilities: The woman only has the reading ability of a 6-year-old.

Okada said Thursday that authorities missed several opportunities to catch the abuse.

"Regrettably, we had repeatedly missed important signs, even though we had a feeling that something was wrong with the family," Okada said. "We should have taken another look and gone a step further."

The mother started pulling her daughter out of school in her third year of elementary school. In the sixth grade, she attended only one day of school and just two the following year. In 2000, she stopped attending altogether. But teachers did not suspect abuse.

School officials contacted the mother by phone and arranged house visits, Okada said, but the woman never let them see her daughter.

At the behest of city officials, the girl _ by then a young woman of 19 _ was finally rescued by her father and other relatives in August 2006, when a neighbor reported hearing yelling and hitting coming from the home.

She was found sitting against the wall inside a room, unable to talk or stand, despite having no obvious injuries, Okada said. She did not show signs of malnutrition either. No other details were given of her condition.

Kazunaga Shibata, director of the city's juvenile center, said she is considered a victim of neglect, rather than physical abuse.

Authorities have not pursued criminal charges against the woman's parents. But her mother has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and hospitalized.

The victim's father, who separated from his wife in 2004, contacted city officials several times but consultations only focused on his wife's mental state, Okada said.

Child abuse is a growing problem in Japan, where the number of cases rose to a new record high of more than 40,000 in the year through March, nearly a 10 percent jump from the previous year, according to the health ministry.

Government efforts to fight abuse have been hindered because children were long considered the belongings of their parents, who often justified the use of violence as discipline.

Child abuse has grabbed headlines in recent years with several shocking cases. Last year police arrested a mother whose 3-year-old son died after she allegedly forced him to swallow large amounts of hot red pepper.

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An overwhelmed mom's deadly mistake

US News 2008. 10. 21. 06:37

OPRAH.com) -- For any mom who's ever felt frazzled, overwhelmed or rushed, Oprah says this show is for you. "It's your wake-up call to slow down," she says. "What happened to my guest today could so easily happen to any of you."

Brenda Slaby still blames herself for her daughter's death. She tells moms to slow down and appreciate their kids.

Brenda Slaby says she was once an assistant principal and mother of two who tried her best to be "supermom."

"It was very hard trying to be the perfect mom and the perfect employee," she says. "I try to be everything to everybody... I've always been the kind of person that lived for doing things for other people."

Then, on a hot August afternoon in 2007, she says she went from being a good role model for children, a good administrator and a good parent to being the most hated mom in America.

When Brenda woke up on August 23, 2007, she says she knew she had a busy day ahead of her. Summer vacation was coming to a close, and it was the first day back for teachers at her school. That morning, the rush to get out the door was more frantic than usual, she says.

Brenda and her husband, Gary, got their two young daughters, Allison and Cecilia, dressed and ready to go. Then, in a departure from their regular routine, Brenda loaded 2-year-old Cecilia into her car to take her to the babysitter's house.

"I had a dentist appointment, and I asked Brenda to take Cecilia," Gary says. "I normally took both Cecilia and Allison, dropped Cecilia off at the sitter and Allison off at preschool."