MomSquawk Biggest Loser round 2 started yesterday! I would like to give a shout out to all the gals who participated in the last round - I am so proud of you all and know we will do great for round 2! Let me give a hint to help keep off those pounds - be sure you get the right amount of sleep. 7 to 8 hours a night is optimal, if you get more or less you could gain weight. Lacking sleep can cause you to be too tired to exercise, and can also lead to binge eating from fatigue. Docs are not sure why oversleeping causes gain, but they think it might be because those people who gained may be short sleepers who have sleep issues. As a mom of 3, I know that it is often hard for mommy to get a solid restful nights sleep, so I am going to sprinkle some ~~good sleep dust~~ over all the participants and wish everyone best of luck!

Eat fish when pregnant. Apparently it will make your kids brighter. Preschool children whose mother ate two servings per week scored higher on tests of verbal, visual and motor development. Be careful not to eat fish with too much mercury! A good guideline is:

Good fish: canned light tuna and small oily fish like salmon and sardines are best. White-meat fish, like cod and haddock tend to be low in mercury, but have less omega-3 than fattier fish.

Bad fish: shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish. (tilefish? never heard of it)

Personally, I don’t like fish and nothing could convince me to choke it down on make my future children smarter. I did happily eat a fast food chicken sandwich, fries and coke nearly every day for lunch with my first pregnancy… wonder if that counts for anything?

Premature birth can be a contributing factor to Autism. Preliminary survey results are out, and 25% of children born prematurely show signs of Autism in early tests (around 2 years old). Experts recommend that all children, especially those born prematurely, are screened for Autism by the age of 2. Previously, this was not diagnosed until 3 or 4. However, early behavior therapy can lessen the severity.