The price of divorce. You might think that the current trend of having and raising children out or wedlock or from divorced families does not effect you, but it does. It effects every taxpaying American. Studies estimate that the cost to US taxpayers is about $112 billion a year. They are calling it “family fragmentation”, and these days, nearly 40% of children are born out of wedlock. What makes up the $112 billion?

“…calculations were based on the assumption that households headed by a single female have relatively high poverty rates, leading to higher spending on welfare, health care, criminal justice and education for those raised in the disadvantaged homes. The $112 billion estimate includes the cost of federal, state and local government programs, and lost tax revenue at all levels of government.”

The study was commissioned by 4 groups who are trying to encourage more traditional families, and would like to see government money going into programs that benefit married couples. Those with opposing views say that these marriage programs are a good idea but by themselves are not going to put a dent in the $112 billion amount, and think that creating more decent, stable jobs is the way forward.

What would you do… to save your child’s life? A couple in Canada are in the middle of a controversy because they are trying to conceive a child that is a genetic match to their existing child who is battling leukemia. They are wanting to do pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, where the embryo is tested to ensure a match before it is implanted. Canadian hospitals are unwilling to do this, so the couple will be traveling to America for the procedure. The father can see how it could raise ethical questions, but all they are trying to do is save the life of their child.

Where is it???? Nicole Kidman is in her seventh month of pregnancy… where is she hiding the baby? (ok…I admit to being a wee bit jealous!)

Celebrity mothers are not realistic. These days in the tabloids, much is said about how quickly celeb moms lose the baby weight. Resist temptation to be jealous. Most of us don’t make our living by being camera ready at all moments. Nor do we have private chefs, full time personal trainers and nannies to take our babies while we workout hours on end per day. The Today show is showing how some celeb moms got quickly back into shape. It seems that although some were a bit extreme, they all were pretty healthy about doing it.

What do I recommend? Taking the time to enjoy your newborn - being a mommy is tough enough without the additional stress of how you look. Take care of yourself and your infant, and when you have it together enough to concentrate on losing weight, join us over at the Health & Fitness board for lots of support and ideas on how “real” moms can get back into shape!

Dyslexia is different in different cultures. Studies suggest that there is a genetic link with dyslexia and that it is caused by a genetic mutilation. Further research suggests that different genes cause dyslexia in different cultures. They have been studying the differences between Chinese and English speaking children - starting from how the children learn the language.

English speaking children learn by first listening to sounds and them associating them with the words. Chinese speaking children learn their language quite differently, by first memorizing hundreds of symbols. This takes different areas of the brain to do, and leads to the conclusion that different genetic mutilations cause the similar disease in all. In understanding this, they can further develop treatment to the cultural differences.

Dyslexia is very common, affecting millions of people worldwide. Estimates project that 8-13% of the population is somehow impacted.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! Being a red-haired lass with Irish origins myself, I am making my ancestors proud and wearing some green socks today!

No smoking means a happier baby? Well, I imagine that no baby likes breathing smoke, so perhaps that is stating the obvious. However the researchers are at it again and they have somehow figured out that women who quite smoking while pregnant tend to give birth to happier babies. And it gets more interesting - the “moms who smoked and quit” group had even happier babies than the moms who never smoked. So researchers are wondering if there is something in the actions/personality of those mothers that was even better.

Momma Berry. Halle gave birth yesterday to a 7lb 4oz baby girl! No news yet on the name.

Minnie is pregnant! Minnie Driver announced her pregnancy on The Tonight Show. She is struggling to pick a name that goes well with her last name. And she is tight lipped about who the baby daddy is.

Guess that bump! People has a fun little quiz where you have to guess the baby bump of 9 celebrities. I scored a perfect score, although I do admit the clues helped for a few! Give it a try - fun for a Friday!

Don’t forget gym class! With all the pressures these days for even the youngest to perform academically, it is important for children to still get to gym class. And no, it is not only to discourage childhood obesity and encourage good health. A recent study on girls shows that girls who regularly attend gym class will score higher academically than girls who don’t.

Researchers believe that physical education is very important for children. But schools are very slow to catch up. These days, most schools offer phys-ed only one or two times per week. And only 12.5% are following the Healthy People 2010 objective of daily participation in phys-ed. If your child does not have the opportunity to attend gym class regularly, please contact your school board to request this.

Toys for Tots expanding to books. With the great success of the annual Christmas toy drive, Toys for Tots have decided to expand their program with a year-long book drive. They are working with Scholastic and UPS.

The program is called “Buck a Book“. How it works is that UPS will accept $1 donations in any of their stores. They have an agreement with Scholastic who will provide age-appropriate books for $1 each. UPS will cover all overhead costs, ensuring that 100% of the donations will go to the children. Also to note that the books will be distributed in the same community that the donations are received. If you ever find yourself with the opportunity to donate, please do so for this worthy cause and help stop illiteracy in America!

Well, thankfully it’s Friday. I thought I would lighten it up with some celebrity mommy gossip:

They’re here! I am talking about Jennifer Lopez’s twins. She gave birth to a bouncing baby boy and girl. No names yet. If rumors are to believed, she is set to receive a whopping $6 million payment for selling her babies first pictures to People/OK. Wow, that is a cool push present!

Nicole won’t tell. Apparently, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban already know the sex of their baby but they won’t say what it is. I am guessing that as she is of “advanced maternal age” she probably had an amnio. In any case, she is about half way through her pregnancy and check out this picture of here just a few days ago… where is her baby bump??? (yeah, I am jealous I never looked that great during pregnancy)

And can I just add that I am thrilled for her that she is pregnant after so many years and a few miscarriages. And I still am curious as to the real story behind why she and Tom adopted. I bet it has something to do with Scientology…

It’s hard being in the public eye… in general, let alone being an unmarried pregnant 16 year old. Teen mom-to-be, Jamie Lynn Spears, seems to be having some issues as reality of her pregnancy is sinking in. Family and friends are worried as she apparently wraps ace bandages around her tummy to hide her bump. I wish for her sake she was able to go through this more privately. I remember that Keisha Castle Hughes was able to go through her pregnancy at 16 without too much paparazzi disruptions. But then again, she is not a Nickelodeon children’s show star. Nor is her sister Britney Spears…

More news on the Children’s Health bill. Last week there was another vote to try to overrule George Bush’s veto of the proposed Children’s Health bill. The 260 to 152 result was not quite enough for it to pass.

At the moment in the USA there is a kind of no-man’s-land. There are families who cannot afford private health insurance, but do not qualify for Medicaid because they are not poor enough. The program is aimed at these very people.

Bush is vetoing the bill because he believes that it is too close to a “state-run” system similar to Canada and Western Europe. Currently in the US, our government spends 16% of our economy on healthcare, compared to Western Europe who spends about 8%. There are currently 50 million Americans without health insurance, comparatively all persons in Western Europe are covered.

As an American living in Europe, I have a view to both systems and there are pros and cons to each. I can see why the “European” system as it is probably would not work in America. I think what is bugging me here is that if this bill helps improve things in America, so what if it bears a similarity to the European system? It’s not the European system - so what is there to be afraid of if in the end this piece will work for America and it will help millions of children? I would be interested in understanding in a bit more detail why Bush decided to veto it, there surely is a better reason than that. And I am even more interested in hearing what the presidential candidates have to say on the issue.

What would you do? In a sad story (a warning to any weepy preggos out there) at four months pregnant, a woman in the UK found out that she had bowel cancer and she made the difficult decision to delay her cancer treatment until after her child was born. The baby was born at 25 weeks, and she began treatment immediately after the birth yet died two months later.

I would like to say that I would make the same decision, but to be honest I don’t know if I would be strong enough of a person. Her cancer was at an advanced stage, it would have been a difficult battle in any case. A tragic story all around. My condolences go out to her family. (And little baby Liam does look adorable in the last picture at the bottom of the article.)

Is she or isn’t she? After wearing a very flowy gown to yesterday’s SAG awards, the tabloids are yet again abuzz with rumors that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are expecting their second biological child. Some are even saying that she is pregnant with twins! Keep in mind, it was only a few short months ago that the same rumor was going around about Jennifer Lopez…

More on childhood obesity. The news reports are sounding like a broken record regarding this, but it bears repeating because it is one of the most important things that could impact your children. About one-third of children and teens in the USA — about 25 million children — are overweight or on the brink of becoming so, government data show.

• Excess body weight in children dramatically increases their risk of developing heart disease in adulthood, research shows, including a decades-long study in Denmark that tracked what happened to 277,000 children as they grew up.

• Childhood obesity could decrease life expectancy by two to five years if something isn’t done about the epidemic, according to provocative research by pediatric endocrinologist David Ludwig, an associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.

• One in three obese children have excess fat in their liver, which could lead to hepatitis, cirrhosis or liver failure, Ludwig says.

The article gives tips to help motivate positive lifestyle changes:

1. Stock up on good food - Fill your house with foods that are both delicious and nutritious (fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, beans, fish, lean protein, reduced-fat dairy products) and don’t bring home junk food such as cookies, cakes, sweetened cereals and sugary drinks.

2. Make sweets a treat - Save treats for special occasions. You don’t have to give up sweets entirely, but go out for them instead of having them at home, he says.

3. Ditch the drive-through - Avoid fast food, he says. Ludwig did a study that showed overweight teens consume about 400 more calories on a day when they consume fast food compared with a day in which they don’t.

4. Turn off the TV - Make physical activity the focus of the home instead of television. Don’t allow TVs in the kitchen or bedrooms.

5. Equip for exercise - Give older children the basic tools to be active: jump ropes, balls, baseball gloves, Frisbees.

6. Shake it! - Encourage them to dance. Dancing is an excellent activity, he says. “Kids love to dance in a non-judgmental setting. When they are having fun, they are not thinking about it as exercise.”

Some hearts might be broken… Matthew McConaughey has impregnated his girlfriend. He is gonna be a daddy and he is thrilled. The little one is due in about 6 months. Sorry Tab…

Precocious puberty. Precocious puberty is when girls under the age of ten years old begin puberty due to an estrogen imbalance. It is now thought that nearly 10% of all girls might be impacted. In the most extreme of cases, it has been noted in little girls as young as three years old. In the more extreme cases, this can be treated to allow the girl to develop at a relatively normal age, however for many they are faced with some awkward years at a young age.

I have heard other mommy friends make the occasional comment like “girls should not eat Chicken McNuggets because the hormones injected into the chicken meat can make girls enter into early puberty” and I always thought that was silly, but now I wonder if there is some truth to this. Is it possible that genetically modified meats and produce are harming our children? I attempted to do some googling on the topic, but most articles I saw were biased towards a certain agenda, so I am just not sure what to believe. In any case, back to topic. If you have concerns about your own daughter, please raise them with your doctor.

A seven year old life saver! When seven year old Ben Mathensia saw a classmate choking on a plastic toy figurine, he used his smarts to give the boy the heimlich maneuver, saving the boys life. I never thought to teach my children this at such a young age. This is inspirational and you bet my kids are going to be enrolled in an age-appropriate first aid course!

New celebrity mommy’s. Both Nicole Richie and Christina Aguilara gave birth one day apart in the same hospital. Nicole is proud momma to a baby girl, Harlow Winter Kate Madden, while Christina named her little boy Max Liron Bratman.

Lock up the cough syrup. 3.1 million children have consumed large quantities of OTC cough syrup to get high. Yup. By children, they consider 12 years old and up. But still, that is pretty concerning, especially from my point of view as a mom of a few tweens. This comes form the results of a 2006 survey conducted by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The increase is higher among black and Hispanic youths. The increased instances of OTC drug abuse is worrying.

A lot of teens are having sex. But they are being responsible about it. A study of teens across Europe and North America is in, and a “substantial minority” of 15 year old teens admit to having sex. The number varies from country to country, with boys being more apt to report having had intercourse than girls. The good news is that of those who admit to having sex, 82% report having safe sex - using condoms or pills to protect themselves.

Pammy is preggo. I assume when I say Pammy most know I am referring to Pamela Anderson. In case you are wondering, she is still going ahead with the divorce of baby-daddy Rick Salomon. They were married a few months ago. It will be Pamela’s third child. I wish her the best of luck!

Elective C-sections gain popularity. It seems as though this is a topic that a women usually have a very passionate stance about - one way or the other. Some wonder why in the world a woman would actually elect to have a C-section over a vaginal birth, others consider it a perfectly acceptable way to give birth and wonder why everyone else, stranger or not, feels free to weigh in (and often criticize) their personal decision to have this elective surgery.

The safest way to give birth is an uncomplicated vaginal delivery. The problem is, that is an impossible thing to predict in advance. More and more women these days are electing to have a C-section, even first time mothers with no previous birthing experience. Doctors are not sure why this is gaining in popularity. As the rate of elective C-sections has increased, so has the rate of maternal mortality. At least it has in 2003 and 2004, data from 2005 and onwards is not yet available. But it has not been proven that the maternal mortality rate is linked to the increase in C-sections.

Doctors and researchers would really like to figure this out and have a factual basis to the question “which one is safer”, however structuring how to research this as an unbiased test proves very difficult - it basically would amount to a large group of women agreeing to being randomly chosen to give birth either vaginally or by C-section.

My bet is that this will remain the topic of heated discussion for years to come - research will not change women’s passion regarding this. In the end, it is the woman’s body and her individual choice as to her birthing plan. So please be supportive of your friends and loved ones no matter what they decide!

A girls self-esteem impacts her chances of obesity. A study shows that girls who consider themselves to be “popular” gain less weight as they grow up then those who consider themselves “unpopular”. What is interesting is that researchers now see that a girl’s perceived social status is not just something she can grow out of as she grows up, it can as well have future health impacts. On a somewhat related note, studies have shown that obese girls also more likely to avoid going to college. Having a tween daughter myself, I am always hopeful that she will not grow up to be one of those uber-popular girls a-la the “Mean Girls” movie. But I do hope to instill in her a healthy dose of self-esteem, and I hope that her teen years aren’t too dramatic. Time will tell…

Is she or isn’t she? She IS! Nicole Kidman’s publicist just announced that the actress and her husband, Keith Urban, are expecting their first child later this year. See, I told ya so! *wink*