When you choose to Adopt a Child in a rather Unconventional Way

Your friend has been going on out her plans to adopt a child for months; and now, the day seems to finally have arrived. She proudly shows you a darling tiny little engraved silver feeding cup that she's planning to give the daughter arriving that day. You’re kind of happy for her and you decide to show up that evening and you go shopping for a nice fluffy teddy bear for the little tot. When you arrive at your friend's house, the welcome is rather gracious; but you wonder about the funny look they give your teddy bear present. They take you to the living room to introduce you to their new daughter. Why, she must be 30 years old.

Perhaps your friend should have warned you that when she spoke about her plans to adopt a child, she planned to get on board America's hottest adoption trend - adult adoptions. Evidence that this happens to be a popular trend is anecdotal at best; adoption records are sealed in most states. But the trend clearly exists. So is this something crazy that people have thought of – like adopting virtual babies or something? Well, not exactly.

In many of these cases, it's just a very healthy and deeply meaningful thing going on. Foster parents who raise foster children can grow very attached to them; often, they find it heartbreaking when the children are moved to another home. When the child grows up though, these foster families reunite with their foster children in a ritual of adoption. In other cases, children who for some reason end up losing touch with their biological families, miss being part of a family so much that they become friendly with childless couples they come to know of and ask to be adopted. A family isn't just something you crave when you are a child. While people may joke about having to meet their crazy families over Christmas or Thanksgiving, people who don't have families can truly crave such a connection their whole lives.

We live in a time when the definition of family appears to be in for some serious change. Same-sex couples who can't legally marry in their state, sometimes use adult adoption to make sure that when one partner dies, they can make sure their property goes to the other partner. But then, there are adoptions like the friend described above where there is no previous relationship in existence that could justify the whole exercise. In the case above, the adoptive child (or adult, rather), happened to have parents of her own. But they were terrible parents - drunken, abusive, promiscuous. That unfortunate child picked herself up by the bootstraps to make something of herself. She met her adoptive parents as colleagues at her place of work and just formed a bond.

In some states, the law requires that there be a certain age gap between adoptive parents and children. But in most states, no such requirement exists. Since the child being adopted is an adult, the parents don't even need the permission of the adult child's parents. It’s the new wave in choosing to adopt a child.

Finally - Something Real to Help Your Colicky Baby With

For a condition that affects such a large number of babies (the government believes that one out of five babies in the country suffers from colic), doctors sure seem to know precious little about it. And yet, colic is a condition that is familiar to anyone - anyone who's lived in the same home as a baby - and heard a colicky baby crying incessantly for some reason to do with their tummies.

Scientists, as they try to gain some kind of understanding into what exactly causes colic, have from time to time suspected everything from hormonal additives to milk to stress during pregnancy and all kinds of allergies. As of now, medical researchers have abandoned the more exotic possibilities in favor of something far more plausible and far more regular - they believe that a colicky baby is a baby that suffers from inflamed intestines that get that way because the baby doesn't have enough good bacteria in her tummy. And a surfeit of the bad ones. Studies such as a famous one done at the University of Texas for instance, found that a baby with colic often had, not just some kind of inflammation of the intestines, but also bad bacteria that usually do tend to inflamed things. They also found that babies that are healthy have all kinds of bacteria that a colicky baby never does. So is it that simple? Do you just need to get a doctor to write out a prescription for a capsule (small enough for a baby to swallow of course) of beneficial bacteria? Is that all that it's going to take to solve a problem that's never left mothers or babies in peace for a very long time - probiotics?

You might be tempted into thinking that all this comes about because mothers tend to not breast-feed their babies enough anymore. Actually, it seems to have very little to do with breast-feeding. Research done about five years ago in Italy took up dozens of babies up to study for the colicky baby syndrome. And all of those babies were breast-fed ones. The study ran to about a month and involved giving some babies with colic, medication to help with gas called simethicone; and others, a probiotic supplement with the same bacteria found in yogurt (called L.Reuteri). They found that every colicky baby that received the probiotic cried far, far less than the babies on the simethicone.

Since then, they've studied this time and time again and found nearly the same thing. The next time your colicky baby acts up, perhaps you could give your baby a probiotic supplement. It really is that simple.