What is "sexting" you might ask? It's the practice of sending nude or explicit pictures via text message - and teens are major offenders! Roughly 20 percent of teens admit to participating in "sexting," according to a nationwide survey by the National Campaign to Support Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. Has pornography gone mainstream; I think the answer is clear when we have 14 and 15 year old's sending nude or sexually explicit pictures to their casual "friends with benefits". What has society become? What happened to going out for a...

  A statistic advertised in our local paper really stuck in my head and got me thinking. The statistic referenced child abuse in my home state of Louisiana and read; “Over 5,280 children were abused in Louisiana last year.” Wow! That one line got my attention and kind of woke me up this morning. I spent a good part of the day researching child abuse on a national level. Below are some very real, very scary and very sad facts and trends regarding child abuse in the United States. National Child Abuse...

My wife and I are expecting our second child in May. We have a beautiful three year old girl and this time a boy is on the way. During the second trimester ultrasound the tech saw some things that are "soft markers" for Downs Syndrome. The Radiologist and my wifes' OBGYN confirmed the technicians findings. These were two so called "soft markers" which means that the baby may be at greater risk of having Downs. The first sign was cardiac focus or a small calcification around the left ventricle of...

Child Safety Parents, guardians, and adults who care for children face constant challenges when trying to help keep children safer in today's fast-paced world. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) offers easy-to-use safety resources to help address these challenges. For decades, children were taught to stay away from "strangers." But this concept is difficult for children to grasp and often the perpetrator is someone the child knows. It is more beneficial to help build children's confidence and teach them to respond to a potentially dangerous situation, rather...