By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

Obesity, once seen as a failure of personal responsibility and lack of willpower, has been repackaged in a four-part HBO documentary airing tonight through Thursday as a complicated phenomenon that’s largely resulting from societal pressures that make it far easier for us to commute by car rather than by bike and to eat McDonald’s rather than steamed vegetables with tofu.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

Time magazine’s controversial cover photo showing a mother breastfeeding her 3-year-old son raises the question: Is there such a thing as too much parental attachment when a child is young? On the 20th anniversary of Dr. Bill Sears’ best-selling book on attachment parenting, little is known about the long term effects of co-sleeping, baby wearing, and breast-feeding as long as possible.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

In order to reverse the American obesity epidemic that has left 1 out of 3 children and 2 out of 3 adults overweight, the nation needs to pool its resources to implement a number of key steps, according to 462-page report issued Tuesday by the influential Institute of Medicine.

While the report has earnest goals, the suggested measures -- exercise more, eat healthier, get schools involved in obesity prevention -- have been underscored and proclaimed by others time and time again.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

The apparent suicide Wednesday of former Patriots linebacker Junior Seau has raised an important concern for parents with children involved in contact sports: Did repeat concussions through years of getting tackled lead to the depression that may have ultimately caused him to take his own life? While it’s easy to connect the dots, experts say more research is needed to determine the extent to which concussions lead to permanent brain injuries that then cause mental disorders down the road.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

Despite all the dollars we spend on health care, American babies are getting short shrift when it comes to good health outcomes. The premature birth rate in the United States is abysmal; our country ranks 131st -- with a preterm birth rate of 12 per 100 live births -- which puts us near Somalia, Thailand, and Turkey, according to a report released Wednesday by the March of Dimes and the World Health Organization.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

It’s the unofficial start of the playground season and all the pediatric injuries that result from tumbles off trampolines and smashes on slides. Dr. Benjamin Shore lists the most common injuries he sees as a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Children’s Hospital Boston and what parents are doing to cause them.

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

What would you do if you had a healthy smiling baby one day and then received devastating news that the baby had a rare genetic disorder and would only live another 18 months at most? One Texas couple, confronted with their 6-month-old’s recent diagnosis of the fatal Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Type One, decided to create a blog -- written in their daughter’s voice -- with a bucket list of things she hopes to do before she dies.