We spend a lot of time without shoes in my family. We have a "shoes off" policy year round when we enter the house, which cuts (but by no means eliminates) the amount of mud that gets tracked through.

But in summer, it's hard to keep the shoes on wherever we are, inside or out. And when I was looking at my little guy's toes the other day as he got ready to head outside, I was struck by how far he has come since coming home from Sakhalin Island in October 2005.

Then,... more

Think Russia is the only country with a drinking problem that affects its kids? Think again.

A new study estimates that almost one American in three--30.3% to be exact--has a problem with alcohol at some time in their lives. Of that group, 17.8% say they abuse alcohol and 12.5% say they have problems because of alcohol dependence. And most of these problems go untreated.

The study, which is published in the July issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, was an enormous undertaking. Researchers including Columbia University... more

Last week's post on the startling death rate among Russian men from drinking alcohol not meant to be a beverage struck a chord with many readers. And it made me realize that I have not lived up to an early promise I made to this blog, which was to explore the impact of Russia's alcohol troubles on adoption. Yes, there are problems: Even President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged that in his speeches. But concerns about the impact of a birth mother's drinking on her... more

Last week, I took a look at a new study about why alcoholism is killing Russian men. But Russia is also grappling with another big medical problem, and there's been a surprising amount of reporting on it in the last week: HIV.

The human immunodeficiency virus, as most people know, causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS. The World Health Organization has estimated that more than 25 million people around the world have died of AIDS since it was identified... more

Almost half of all the deaths of working age men in Russia may be caused by the drinking of alcohol not meant to be a beverage. So says a study released this morning by Britain's national school of public health.

Researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine found that the percentage of deaths caused by the drinking of so-called hazardous alcohol--alcohol-containing substances that were not supposed to be beverages--was significantly higher than previously thought. The study, which was carried out in Izhevsk, Russia by... more

One of the most useful things my adoption agency made me do, as I was working on my second Russian adoption in 2004-2005 was to create what I'll call a Russian Resources list: One document on which I collected all the Russia-related help I might need, from cultural to medical. If you're among the many prospective parents waiting for Moscow to finish the re-accreditation process, compiling this list can be a great, productive way to pass the time.

The object is to list everything you might need to help you and your newly adopted child settle... more

We're in the midst of another banana blitz at my house.

My kids are, thankfully, big eaters of fresh fruits and vegetables. I've already noted their disproportionately large consumption of potatoes, cucumbers and beets, which I think may have something to do with their Russian heritage.

But every few months, I notice another eating trend: A huge consumption of bananas. Huge--a pound every other day huge. I don't know for sure, but my guess... more

This Friday, the March of Dimes will be presenting a lifetime achievement award in genetics to Dr. Kenneth Lyons Jones, one of the two doctors who first identified Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Dr. Jones has done research on FAS not only in the United States, but also in Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union, so he deserves a round of applause from this blog, too.

Dr. Jones is chief of the Division of Dysmorphology/Teratology in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of... more

My little guy came home from a playdate yesterday all excited. "We went to the park," he related, "we played on the swings, and then we got a soda."

As the cops say, "Busted".

I don't buy soda for my kids, who were both adopted from Russia, or anything else with sugar or high-fructose corn syrup as a primary ingredient. Yes, before the folks at Archer Daniels Midland get on my case, I know that there have been no concrete links yet between the latter and obesity. But water is just fine as a beverage and there is absolutely... more

My kids would eat their own weight in bacon if I let them. And maybe now I am going to have to.

According to a study released on March 8 by the Duke University Medical Center, cholesterol may help prevent some of the neurological and physical defects caused by pre-natal exposure to alcohol.

Yes, you read that right, cholesterol. It made me stop when I read it too.

It turns out that cholesterol is very important to... more