Blog Posts by Sarah B. Weir, Yahoo! blogger

Brandi Bellew's first husband, Brian Sprout, died of sepsis from a leg injury after failing to seek medical treatment, but still she wasn't moved to bring her son Austin, 16, to the hospital during the week he languished at home before he passed away last December. The Daily Mail reports the cause death has not been released but investigators said it was "highly treatable."

According to the Register-Guard, Brandi and her second husband, Russel Bellew and their six other children, are members on the General Assembly of the Church and of the First Born in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, a congregation that believes in using prayer to treat illness.

On Monday, April 15, 2012, the county juvenile court ruled that the remaining children would be wards of the state. They can remain home but under the watch of an approved "safety provider" who is mandated to immediately notify the Department of Human Services if the children display any signs of illness or injury. The parents are facing

Police in South Carolina say that a McDonald's worker spit in two customers' cups of iced tea after they returned them because they weren't sweet enough. A video shows the employee,19-year-old Marvin Washington Jr., leaning over the open cups before giving them back. The fast food chain patrons claim they discovered phlegm in the drinks when they removed their tops. He was arrested Wednesday and charged with malicious tampering with food.

Related: The 11 Worst Burgers in America

Eating out can be an exercise in suspended disbelief. Wide eyed, we assume the food is fresh and wholesome and that workers have followed the "employees must wash hands" decree posted in the bathroom. Nevertheless, the McDonald's incident is so sickening because it actually bears out the urban legend that a disdainful waiter can and will contaminate your food if you tick him off.

Kitchen Confidential

Chef and television personality Anthony Bourdain's bestseller, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in

Healthy swaps add up to weight lossLet's face it, dieting is not fun. Eating is fun and moreover, necessary. However, if you, like many of us, have padded out with a few extra pounds this winter, you might be considering a slim-down plan for summer.

Here's a secret: losing five to ten pounds doesn't have to be torture. Unless your eating habits have truly gone off the rails (in which case you should speak with your doctor who may refer you to a registered dietician or nutritionist), you don't need to, and shouldn't, drastically alter your regular routine.

Crash diets are unhealthy. They cause unpleasant side effects such as dehydration, kidney stones, bad breath, and dizziness. Dramatically cutting back on calories can also lead to weight cycling—when you gain back more than you initially lost. In fact, the majority of dieters regain all those hard lost pounds plus more within a couple of years.

The no-diet plan

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics says the safest and most realistic weight loss goal is

Germ farm? Working in a cubicle recently, I slouched down in my chair wondering if I could duck the germs my neighbor was hacking and sneezing in an invisible mist over our common wall. Thankfully, I managed to avoid her bug, but it got me thinking about all the microscopic creepy crawlies that were probably lurking about just waiting to invade my system.

Related: What Workers Really Do on Sick Days

Public bathrooms, subways, and even movie theaters are all spots that give germaphobes the shivers. With today's poorly ventilated, open plan work places, they can add offices to the list. Here are the dirtiest spots:

Ahh, wouldn't a nice, hot cup of coffee taste good right now? Maybe not. NBC reports that coffee pot handles have been shown to harbor more bacteria than a toilet seat. The same goes for other break room hot spots: faucets, sinks, and refrigerator handles.

Related: Surprising Ways You May be Grossing Out Your Co-Workers

Another germ factory is the meeting room,

Use caution with OTC drugsThe death of five-year-old Kimber Michelle Brown in February highlights the potential dangers of over the counter (OTC) drugs for children. The autopsy report, which was released Monday, April 15, says the little girl died of an overdose of cold medications. She had twice the level of dextromethorphan, a cough syrup ingredient, and elevated levels of another medication, Cetirizine, in her system. Her grandmother administered the medicine.

A double dose of cough syrup is only the difference between grabbing a teaspoon and a soupspoon out of the silverware drawer. The Centers for Disease Control estimate that 70,000 kids end up in the hospital each year poisoned by common household medicines.

Diane Murphy, M.D., director of the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Pediatric Therapeutics offers these basic guidelines for dispensing medicine to children:

• Just because a medicine is labeled for children, doesn't mean it is intended for any age. Read the package closely.

The Duggar FamilyIt costs nearly a quarter of a million dollars to raise a kid from birth to 18, according to the most recent calculations by the United States Department of Agriculture—and that's before college tuition. Multiply that by 19 children plus mom and dad and it is a little mind bending that the Duggar family, of reality television fame, manage to support themselves without government assistance and, what's more, are completely debt-free.

Related: How Octomom Birthed Her Way to the Welfare Line

These days, the family earns its money from their popular TLC program, 19 Kids and Counting as well as from real estate investments. E!Online estimates each episode makes them a cushy $25,000 to $40,000. However, even before the brood hit the big time on television, they were self-sufficient and lived comfortably. How did they do it?

Related: Michelle Duggar Doesn't Believe in Overpopulation

Neither dad Jim Bob nor mom Michelle Duggar attended college. They married when he was 19-years-old

Does being skinny lead to happiness?Are you too embarrassed to change clothes in front of others because of your body size? Do you regularly have "I feel fat" days? Join the club. Not only is there an epidemic of overweight and obesity in the United States, there is also an epidemic of feeling ashamed about it.

Related link: Twenty Habits That Make You Fat

According to a survey of over 2,000 adults carried out by Yahoo! Shine and Fitness Magazine, only 37% of women are happy with their weight. Men are a little more comfortable with their current body size—45% say they are "very happy or pretty pleased" with their appearance.

The majority of adults want to lose at least 10 to 20 pounds and being overweight carries a psychological burden for them. About 44% of women and 38% of men believe they would be happier at their goal weight. This is especially true for younger women. Among 18 to 34 year-olds, 52% believe they would be happier if they were thinner, and 23% believe that their love life would improve.

Bridal Diet CrazesEvery woman wants to look her best on her wedding day. All eyes (and camera phones) will be focused on her as she teeters down the aisle on brand new heels or attempts to look elegant while being fed a crumbling hunk of wedding cake. There was a time when brides prepped with a spa day and professional makeup and hair styling; now, according to a report by the New York Times, they are turning to extended juice fasts and radical weight loss plans such as the K-E Diet which involves being administered a mere 800 calories a day through a tube that runs from the nose through the esophagus and into the stomach. And like marked-up wedding dresses and exorbitant caterers, it all comes with a hefty price tag.

Related: Study Weighs in on Diets for Kids

"People think I'm sick, I'm dying," Jessica Schnaider, 41, of Surfside Florida, told the Times referring to people's reaction to seeing her wearing a nasogastric feeding tube attached to a portable plastic bag of low-cal liquid