Apples, carrot sticks or raisins? Puh-leeze.

When it comes to snack time, more kids are reaching for salty chips, candy and junk food than ever before, according to a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study released this week.

Snacks now account for 27 percent of children's calorie intake, according to Barry Popkin, professor of nutrition at UNC's Gillings School of Global Public Health.

The increase in unhealthy snacks has occurred while childhood obesity is on the rise.

With a young son in need of a bone marrow transplant to beat a deadly disease, doctors urged Laurie Strongin to get pregnant. The goal: genetically engineer a perfect donor for Henry.

Using science to conceive a third child and save her oldest son's life seemed almost "too good to be true," Strongin, of Washington, D.C., recalls. The strategy, which the family and their doctors pioneered, raised ethical debates among researchers and parents, and was dramatized in a best-selling novel.

Henry was born in 1995 with Fanconi anemia, a rare genetic disease that causes bone marrow failure and can lead to leukemia and cancer. Her second son, Jack, did not have the disease but was not a genetic match to Henry. Doctors offered Strongin and her husband, Allen Goldberg, the opportunity to use preimplantation genetic diagnosis to select and implant embryos that did not carry the disease and would be a genetic match for Henry. Strongin underwent in vitro fertilization with the hopes of carrying a child whose umbilical cord blood could be used for a bone marrow transplant for Henry.

"There's clearly a benefit to being in a family that has not experienced the death of a child," says Strongin, of her decision to pursue the procedure.

Like it or not, crying is a major form of communication for babies.

"Babies cry hours and hours a day," says Amy Guiot, a clinical instructor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. "I mean hours. It's normal."

It's their way of telling you that they're hungry, wet or unhappy, she says. Addressing the unhappy cry can make for some tense parenting moments, so ParentDish asked Guiot and James Peinkofer, author of "101 Ways to Soothe a Crying Baby," for some tips.

There's no shortage of love songs, or kid songs. But finding a tune that succeeds on both levels isn't easy come Valentine's Day. Here's ParentDish's mixtape for the generation that's never even seen a cassette.

1. "When I'm Sixty-Four" by the Beatles
Start planting the seed early to head off your move to a nursing home. "Will you still need me, will you still feed me when I'm 64." With honking clarinets and bells, this 1966 lover's lament could just as easily pass as a silly cartoon soundtrack. (That's a good thing.) As a bonus, it actually mentions Valentine's Day.

Students at a Windsor, Conn., high school caught dropping the F-bomb and using other curse words will soon learn a new four-letter word: fine.

The Windsor High School principal has asked police officers assigned to the building to charge swearing students with creating a public disturbance.

That charge carries a $103 fine.

Principal Russell Sills notified parents about the new practice in a letter sent home last month. The policy went into effect this week.

When it comes to teaching manners to tweens and teenagers, think feelings, not fussy rules.

Kids will tune out discussions about formal decree, etiquette guru Thomas P. Farley tells ParentDish, but you may be able to engage them in a conversation about feelings.

"Manners, at their core, are being aware of how your actions are going to make other people feel," he says. "They're less about what fork should I be using when I have caviar."

People with poor manners are more likely to hurt other people's feelings – and hurt feelings are something young people can relate to, says Farley, who gives manner advice online at whatmannersmost.com. If you make the lessons relevant, teenagers and tweens will pay attention, adds Cindy Post Senning, a director at the Emily Post Institute.

"This isn't a bunch of rules," she tells ParentDish. "It's how we get along with people."

Driving while overtired can be just as dangerous as driving drunk, Australian researchers warn new mothers.

A study released last week of mothers of newborns reveals that many felt as though they were living in a "mental haze," according to an article in Australia's Whitsunday Times.

The Queensland University of Technology study was looking at the impact of postpartum fatigue on the everyday functioning of new mothers.

Milk from nursing mothers in Ohio and around the country is on its way to nourish sick babies in earthquake-ravished Haiti.

The Mothers' Milk Bank of Ohio answered the call from a Navy doctor treating ailing infants on the USNS Comfort, a floating hospital docked off the Haitian coast.

The doctor requested the milk because it can help save lives, says Georgia Morrow, coordinator of the milk bank operated by Grant Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio.

"We would not go through all of this if we did not believe this will allow the babies the best opportunity for survival," Morrow tells ParentDish.

Breast milk contains antibodies that will help the babies fight infections,a common problem children face after a disaster, she explains. Breast milk also is safer option because, unlike some types of formula, it does not have to be mixed with water, she says. Clean drinking water is in short supply in Haiti.

Watching TV is not good for young children, according to a new study.

A new report suggests that tuning into television puts 3-year-olds at a greater risk of aggressive behavior, which can cause problems as they mature. The study used data from 3,128 mothers of children born from 1998 to 2000 in 20 large American cities.

"Early childhood aggression can be problematic for parents, teachers and childhood peers and sometimes is predictive of more serious behavior problems to come, such as juvenile delinquency, adulthood violence and criminal behavior," according to background information in the report that was included in an article published by PsychCentral.com.

The latest study builds on previous findings of other studies that draw connections between aggressive behavior and TV, child psychologist Douglas Tynan says in an interview with ParentDish.