Expecting parents refused to budge from the most popular baby names in 2007. Emily and Jacob locked up the top spots. For Emily, that’s 11 straight years as the most popular girl’s name. Every year the US Social Security Administration releases the baby name line-up. Here’s how the top 10 stands for boys and girls.

Girls: 1) Emily, 2) Isabella, 3) Emma, 4) Ava, 5) Madison, 6) Sophia, 7) Olivia, Abigail, 9) Hannah and 10) Elizabeth.
Boys: 1) Jacob, 2) Michael, 3) Joshua, 4) Matthew, 5) Ethan, 6) Daniel, 7) Christopher, Anthony, 9) William and 10) Andrew.

Whitney Moss and Heather Gibbs Flett were fledgling moms three years ago, juggling newborns and that housebound angst familiar to every new parent. So the two friends challenged each other to come up with a list of cool activities that would get them - and their adorable new babies - out of the house and back in the human race. The results became the RookieMoms blog. Now, it’s a book - “The Rookie Mom’s Handbook: 250 Activities to Do With (and Without) Your Baby.”

The small melon- and lavender-tinged paperback is the perfect size to tuck in a diaper bag and it’s loaded with activities that are vastly “more fun than wiping someone’s tushy.”

Sipping lattes and mochas at Berkeley’s Caffe Trieste the other day, Moss and Flett chatted about the book’s inspiration. Every other parenting book, they said, focused on how to play with, educate or hasten the develop of your baby. Those books are all about fun for the baby, not fun for the anxious, isolated, sleep-deprived mom.
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Moms-to-be who consume more calories and have a better nutritional intake, specifically those who eat breakfast, are more likely to have a boy. At least that’s what a new British study would have us believe. Critics call it rubbish. Science has told us that a baby’s gender is determined by the father’s sperm. Yet researches from universities in Exeter and Oxford discovered in a study that moms who scored high on the nutrition scale before conceiving were almost 24 percent more likely to conceive a boy than moms who skimped on breakfast. (For more on the story, read here.)

Don’t you just love how studies can make almost any premise true? More than two years ago, I wrote an article about tricks some women use to select or predict their baby’s gender. (You can find that full story here.) No offense to the British researchers, but I think I’ll add this little morsel to the baby gender game list.

A startling study released today shows a possible link between premature birth and autism. Boston researchers found that a quarter of the preemies they studied showed signs of autism as they neared their second birthdays. The children are still awaiting a final diagnosis, but the study is the first to associate low birth weight - 3 lbs., 4 oz. or less - with autism. The last 20 years have brought dramatic increases in autism rates - they’ve also brought enormous hikes in the survival rate for very premature babies, notes lead researcher Catherine Limperopoulos.

The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a recommendation last fall that all babies be screened for autism at 18 months and again at 24 months. The idea is that new parents may be less likely to notice developmental symptoms, and many children are not being diagnosed until age 3 or 4. Now, it appears that kids who are born 10 weeks or more early, may be at even greater risk.
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We’re not usually paranoid, but maybe … a cabal of publicists is out to get us. How else do you explain baby products like baby tattoos, sanitized glovies, or the peepee teepee? Hint: those are not wizard hats to your left.

1. Anyone who’s ever diapered a baby boy is familiar with the Unexpected Splash. Sure, you could drape a kleenex or washcloth over your son’s member, change his diaper faster or just endure the occasional splashy surprise for the couple of weeks it takes for the problem to resolve itself … or you could spend $12 on a cone-shaped Peepee Teepee decorated with skulls.
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Stop the presses! There’s war in the Middle East and recession at home, but J Lo and Marc Anthony have finally announced their babies’ names and we’ve got the multiple, enthralled press releases to prove it - Max and Emme, in case you were wondering. So it’s with a certain bemusement - and the realization that we’ll have to read volumes of Proust to balance this out - that we’ve been skimming through the fluffy announcements. And there, wayyy down in the BabyCenter.com press releases, were these little nuggets:

First, 48 percent of moms claim celebrity names don’t influence them at all. Suuuuuure. They may think that, but then explain the “Grey’s Anatomy” effect…

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There’s been a lot in the news recently about phthalates (pronounced THA-lates) – the potentially toxic chemicals found in everything from vinyl flooring to baby teethers, toys and other soft rubber objects. Last fall, California banned phthalates in infant toys, after concerns arose over possible links to disruptions in babies’ developing reproductive and endocrine systems. Thing is, phthalates are everywhere including, it seems, the sweet baby shampoo you lather into your little darling’s curls - and you may not know, because that info doesn’t have to appear on the label.

A new study, “Baby Care Products: Possible Sources of Infant Phthalate Exposure,” released yesterday in the journal Pediatrics, found evidence that babies may be absorbing those chemicals through their baby shampoo, lotion and powder. Scientists found increased concentrations of monoethyl phthalate, monomethyl phthalate and monoisobutyl phthalate in the urine of babies who’d been dusted with baby powder, dabbed with baby lotion or sudsed with baby shampoo in the 24 hours prior.
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UPDATE: A new study, released Jan. 30 by researchers at the University of Rochester, further debunks the myth that thimerosal, the mercury-tinged preservative in vaccines used in the 1990s, can be linked to autism. Read it here.
There’s been plenty of buzz about the new lawyer-and-hallucinating-prophet TV show, “Eli Stone,” which debuts on ABC Thursday night. Now there’s more. The American Academy of Pediatrics has demanded that ABC cancel the series opener (pictured at left) because the series’ first legal case argues a link between vaccines and a child’s autism. The show includes statements that science has disproved any link between autism and vaccines, but the episode’s ending implies the opposite when the fictional jury awards the mother $5.2 million. Needless to say, pediatricians are apoplectic. The president of the pediatric association, Dr. Renee Jenkins, called ABC’s perpetuation of the myth that vaccines cause autism “the height of reckless irresponsibility.”
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Theaters for babies. Hand-sewn storyboards. Purple “Gak.” Those are just a few of the things you missed if you couldn’t attend Saturday’s 10th annual East Bay Moms Preschool & Childhood Resource Fair in Oakland. Here are five participants who grabbed our attention. (For a complete list of participants and to order a copy of East Bay Moms’ Preschool & Child Care Program Directory, visit their Web site or call 510-653-7867.)

1. Pacific Kid in Walnut Creek — This educational toy company is appealing when you consider the fears about lead-based toys. The gorgeous cloth storyboards and play walls (pictured right) come with hand-sewn felt animals featuring Velcro for easy movability. The animals are made by women in Thailand, which helps their economic situation, says co-owner Karen McHugh.

2. Small World of Lamorinda and My Early Start in San Francisco — Small World offers Mandarin immersion and music programs for kids ages 1-6. My Early Start sells DVDs that teach Mandarin Chinese. Mandarin has become popular among programs teaching young children foreign languages.

3. Baby Brigade at Speakeasy Theaters — Parents with infants 1 year and under are invited to dinner and a movie (where crying babies won’t be asked to leave, promises Cerrito general manager Jenny Martens). Baby Brigade is at the Oakland location on Mondays and El Cerrito on Tuesdays.

4. Habitot Children’s Museum in Berkeley — At the fair, children could play with purple “Gak,” (pictured left) an interesting clay-like substance that looked a little like slime. (Is it any wonder kids were loving this stuff? You can buy the recipe at the museum and make your own.) Thursday evenings the museum offers free admission from 5-7 p.m. See its Web site for a list of activities.

5. Tumble & Tea Cafe in Oakland — The cafe for parents and tots has expanded to include a New Parent Resource Center. Workshops range from support groups to feeding instruction and an effective parenting series (the latter taught by MarRem Remington, LMFT).

Dr. Alan Greene, a pediatric professor at Stanford University and author of “Raising Baby Green,” is doing a cool Q&A session on the New York Times web site  this week, and providing some really interesting responses to questions a lot of us have had, such as — the FDA has banned over-the-counter cough and cold medicines for the tot set (and its experts warn against their use for kids under 6 too), so what do we use instead?

Greene’s answer: honey is just as effective as cough meds … and so is dark chocolate. Chocolate!? *cough *cough … pass the Scharffen Berger, please.
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