the scoop

A 15-year-old boy who doctors all but gave up hope for is now thriving and pursuing a Ph.D. in physics, thanks to his mom's perseverance, Good Morning America reports.

According to Indiana mom Kristine Barnett, her son Jacob was diagnosed with moderate to severe autism when he was 2 and lost his ability to speak. He began seeing a developmental therapist, occupational therapist, and speech therapist. But she believed all those hours spent with specialists were taking time away from what he should be doing — being a kid.

"We were forgetting his childhood. His spirit was being crushed by the opinion that everything was wrong," she said. 

Resolved to give her son back his childhood, one night she took him outside, put Louis Armstrong on, and laid on the hood of her car to look at the stars. Stargazing refreshed the light in his eyes, he started taking trips to the planetarium, and he regained his speech. Kristine now realizes that whenever Jacob seemed "lost," he simply was bored. For instance, grade schools wouldn't indulge him by teaching him algebra in first grade, so the family now feels fortunate that Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) has accepted him at an earlier-than-usual age so he can pursue advanced studies at an "accelerated pace."

News about celebrities in the media is having at least one negative influence on kids. A new survey reveals parents might need to have an important conversation with their children about the dangers of tanning starting as early as grade school.

Of the 1,000 children between the ages of 6 and 16, who the British beauty retailer Superdrug polled, 62 percent wanted a tanner complexion, one-third said they sunbathe, and 21 percent said they "would think nothing of putting body oils and lotions on arms and legs" to get tanner.

Doctors fear that because many respondents are influenced by celebrities they see in the media, it could lead to an increase in "tanorexia."

Read the whole story at the Huffington Post.

There's never a shortage of news in the parenting world — from new studies to differing parenting styles. It all provides us with fodder to discuss on the playground, in the pickup line, and online. Take a look at the five stories that had our moms talking the most this week.

1. The Dangerous "Challenge" to Discuss With Your Kids
   

   More than 300 readers have weighed in on the dangers of the "Cinnamon Challenge." The challenge, which involves kids challenging each other to swallow a tablespoonful of the spice (without any liquids) in a minute, has led to choking, aspirating, asthma attacks, and hospitalization for collapsed lungs. For the most part, readers are outraged by the entire concept.

2. Does Birth Order Affect Your Child's Personality?
   

   More than 180 Moms readers have chimed in on how birth order affects their kids' personalities. A lot of factors can affect your child's personality, such as age, gender, the gap between siblings, family income, demographics, and more. But generally speaking, eldest children "identify with parents and authority and support the status quo, whereas younger children rebel against it," according to Frank Sulloway, adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and one of the world's experts on birth order and family dynamics.

Keep reading for the rest of the most-talked-about stories this week.

Nine years ago, Ann Perry-Smith's car was broken into in Bamberton, British Columbia, and the thief stole her diaper bag that held two cameras, including pictures of her newborn daughter, Today reports. Perry-Smith assumed the photos were lost forever. But when good samaritan Helen Maslyk recently pulled off the highway in Victoria because of car trouble, her children ran into the woods, where they discovered a film canister.

Maslyk believed finding the lost film was fate. So she developed it and published the images of a newborn, man, and dog on Facebook, asking the social media community: "Do you know who this is???"

"I'm the type of person (who thinks) everything happens for a reason so it didn't even strike me as funny or strange to take it and want to go get it developed, find out what was on it and see if I could return it to the owner," she said.

Perry-Smith's friend saw the posting, tagged the people in the photos, and alerted her. "My jaw dropped," Perry-Smith says. "I sat there, and then I called for my husband, 'You have to see this.'" Maslyk arranged a meeting, and Perry-Smith's family is "thrilled" to be reunited with her photos and show her now nearly 9-year-old daughter what she looked like as a baby.

How's that for a "picture-perfect" ending?

An Oregon teen has turned into a hero by alerting authorities that another classmate threatened to bomb their school.

According to Truman Templeton, a 17-year-old junior, fellow classmate Grant Acord made him nervous when he talked about making bombs, so he shared his concerns with his mother, Good Morning America reports.

"School is supposed to be a safe and secure environment. I should not have to worry about this kind of stuff," Templeton said.

Upon receiving the tip, police found pipe bombs, Molotov cocktails, Drano bombs, detailed plans, and a timeline to attack the school hidden in a compartment beneath Acord's bedroom floor. He was arrested on charges of attempted aggravated murder, manufacture and possession of a destructive device, and possession of a deadly weapon with intent to use against another person, Good Morning America said.

West Albany High School Principal Susie Osborn said Templeton is a hero for saving the school from potential tragedy, when other students might not have been brave enough to come forward with the information.

"All I can say is what story would you want to see on the news? One person being arrested or dozens of kids dying because of disaster that could have been prevented?" Templeton said.

A single bite from a tick might have your child turning his nose up at eating meat. Researchers at the University of Virginia recently discovered that about 50 percent of children who were bitten by the lone star tick, or Amblyomma americanum, developed an allergic reaction to meat, ranging from a rash to anaphylactic shock, ABC Good Morning America reports.

Dr. Scott Cummins, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, believes the bug's saliva seeps into the bite wound and triggers the allergy. "We were surprised by how many kids were having reactions when we started looking in pediatric clinics for it," he says.

If the children ate meat, most developed a rash at the site of the tick bite, then three to six hours later they would have a more severe reaction from eating meat, such as hives or anaphylactic shock. "If a child has an exaggerated skin response to a tick bite, I would make an appointment with an allergist to have a blood test done, especially if the child happens to be one who eats meat."

The good news, Cummins says, is that the allergy seems to wane over time — unless the child is bitten by another tick.

The sight of a smiling baby can help brighten any mom's day, but Texas mom Erica Nigrelli literally was brought to life at the sight of her child.

English teacher Nigrelli was 36 weeks pregnant when she started feeling faint while at work one February morning. When she passed out, the school called 911 and two co-workers started CPR to try to restart her heart, the Huffington Post reports.

When Nigrelli arrived at the hospital, the doctors stopped CPR so that they could deliver the baby.

"The doctors told me that Erica delivered post-mortem because she did not have a heartbeat when they took the baby out," Nathan Nigrelli told The Star. "But I married a fighter, and now I had a baby girl who was a fighter, too." After the C-section, doctors diagnosed Erica with the heart condition hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and gave her a pacemaker, reports KHOU 11.

Read the full story at the Huffington Post.

The Disney Channel needs to do a better job of self-censorship, according to a Pennsylvania mom. That's because the channel recently insulted her children and others who suffer from celiac disease, says mom Amy Raslevich.

In a recent On-Demand episode of the show Jessie, a boy named Stuart who is sensitive to gluten has pancakes thrown in his face and is portrayed as annoying, the Huffington Post reports. When Raslevich and her two children (who have celiac disease) viewed the video, "There were tears in my daughter's eyes, and my son's fist was clenched," she told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Disney is a trusted brand among parents and kids, so the company needs to be more conscientious, Raslevich notes. By airing the video, "Disney gave children permission, and an example, to further isolate my children and others like them because of their medical conditions. Their characters made it OK to characterize a real illness as an annoyance that is justification for the 'cool kids' to make fun of the 'others'. This isn't acceptable for anyone. It is the definition of bullying."

Raslevich says her children are often alienated because of their restrictive diets, so she petitioned the channel to pull the episode. Disney complied — plus apologized for its callousness.

Do you think the Disney Channel needs to be more discerning about what it airs on TV?

Young children often joke about "boyfriends," "girlfriends," and "getting married" to their classmates, but 22 third graders recently got to be part of a wedding ceremony in Annapolis, CA.

When teacher Travis Meiers got engaged, that stimulated a class discussion about the meaning of marriage and the elements of a wedding ceremony. The students "eventually arrived at the conclusion that the most significant element of a wedding is the act of standing up in front of all of your friends and family and declaring your feelings for one another," the Huffington Post reports.

Following the discussion, Meiers asked his students to write what they thought he should say to his fiancée at the wedding. The responses — such as "Mr. Meiers promises to always sit by Ms. Racheal on roller coasters" — were read during the ceremony. Additionally, Meiers got his students to create the name cards for the reception. "My kids got really into customizing the name cards according to the personal interests of whomever they were making a card for, so they were asking me tons of hilarious questions about my family and friends," Meiers says.

Now that's one way to reduce the printing price tag for a wedding.

Children may be big fans of Pixar's Cars, but an inflatable pool decorated with the movie characters may be dead in the water once parents get a close-up view of the product's packaging. Reddit user Matenbock has discovered that the image on the box was (presumably) accidentally photoshopped so that it shows a mom with her hands in her son's pants, The Huffington Post reports.

Consumerist's Chris Morran says one possible explanation for the inappropriate image is that it is a composite of multiple stock photographs. "You can tell as much from the above image because the woman's crudely cut-off legs are floating in the foreground when they should be behind the pool," he says. The original image of the mom also was used for a different product, he adds.

Disney hasn't said whether anyone from the company got into hot water for publishing the image, but the product manufacturer appears to have cleaned up its act. People seeking to purchase the pool on Amazon are privy to a more family-friendly image.