No, that’s not some plea for dirty comments.

The ’sex talk’ I mean is the ‘birds and bees’ conversation of old. You know, The Moment when you tell your kids where babies really come from, and how they get there. A new study shows that the big talk should really be more of an ongoing discussion.

“It’s important that parents set a foundation early on in talking with their kids about sex so that it becomes part of the norm in their household,” said study lead author Steven Martino, a behavioral scientist at RAND in Pittsburgh. “As children grow and have experiences, you want them to feel it’s natural to talk to their parents. When asked where they’d like to get their information, kids say from their parents more than anyone else.”

I don’t remember feeling that way as a teen. Hmm.

The study followed hundreds of teens and their parents. The families were divided into two groups. One group of parents completed a course in how to keep a discourse on sex and related topics open with your child; the other group did not.

Follow-up surveys were completed at one week, three months and nine months after the intervention began. The surveys were designed to assess 22 sex-related topics, such as the consequences of sex, how to make decisions about when to have sex, how to say no if you didn’t want to have sex, how well condoms prevent sexually transmitted diseases, and more.

[W]hen teens and their parents had more conversations — repetition — teens reported feeling closer to their parents and felt they could talk more openly with their parents about sex and other topics.

Go figure - the more you talk about something, the less taboo it becomes.

While I obviously haven’t been a parent long enough to encounter this situation, I can’t imagine making sex as closed-off a topic as it was during my adolescence. My parents basically told me, “Don’t do it before you’re married - premarital sex is a sin,” and left it at that. I didn’t follow their advice, such as it was, and I hope I can create a more informative, open atmosphere for conversations on sex when my kids are old enough to be curious. I’d love to not have to think about my kids having sex until they’re 40, but since that’s not rational, I’d still rather them come to me than shut me out.

Posted by Sunshine.

My husband, despite being repeatedly shown how my daughter’s dresser is organized, can never find an outfit for her without shouting to me for help at least once. He just doesn’t get my system for clothes. He also doesn’t get why I don’t like it when he puts the sippy cups on the top shelf instead of the bottom one (it’s because I can’t reach the top shelf with a kid in my arms!) or why it matters whether he thoroughly dries the dishes before he puts them away (his mother doesn’t either - ewww, water spots!).

My better half doesn’t mind if the kids silently invoke the five-second (or ten-minute) rule. “What good is an immune system if you never get to use it?” he says as I cringe in my chair. He doesn’t neatly roll up dirty diapers and stick the tabs around them like I do, and he doesn’t mix rice cereal into the baby’s food the way I do it.

Despite our differences on domestic and kiddie details, I’ve come to understand that there are some things he does that are firmly in the realm of what I can only call daddy magic.

When my 2 1/2-year-old won’t eat, Daddy invents a story about the magical properties of ham, and suddenly she’s tearing into her sandwich with gusto. If I told her the same story, she would shake her head and say, “No, mommy, it’s not like ‘dat!”

He gets her to do the bath/teeth/bed thing with nothing but smiles when she was crying in my lap moments before. He gets the Tylenol into my teething son’s irritable mouth after that pint-sized prince spit half a dose all over me earlier in the day. And he gets the best hugs.

When we go shopping for new clothes for the kids (which doesn’t happen nearly as often as I’d have it), I stare at tags and wonder if I can trust that a 3T or 12m in one brand will fit the same way their clothes in another brand do at home. I go back and forth, wondering whether I need to get bigger sizes.

Invariably, my husband comes up with the kids and peers over my shoulder, saying, “Nope, that’s not going to fit her. Get one up” or “Those pants will be just right on him.” Sometimes he makes a show of putting a shirt up to my daughter’s back, acting like he’s thinking hard about it, but he rarely actually needs to do that. I have no idea how he does it, but he’s never been wrong.

The clothing thing is neat (and useful!), but flying fairy ham in my daughter’s tummy - well that’s pure magic. Daddy magic.

Posted by Sunshine.

We’re in the midst of flu season, but so far my household has escaped this misery-inducing virus. I’d like to say that’s because I’ve been doing all the right things, but truth be told, I hadn’t given it much thought until the flu started making the rounds at my husband’s workplace. I don’t worry so much about him or me, but I’d hate for one of my kids to get the flu. What should I be doing to protect my family?

HealthDay is offering these tips for keeping your kids flu-free (courtesy of the Children’s Hospital of the University of California, San Francisco):

* Flu vaccine is recommended for all healthy children aged 6 months to 5 years.
* Hand washing also is an easy way to help prevent flu. Your child should wash her hands thoroughly and frequently, with soap and warm water.
* Parents and caregivers should also should wash their hands often, and get a flu vaccine.
* Teach your child to cover her mouth when she coughs or sneezes, and to wash her hands afterward.
* Try to keep your child away from others who are sick. Keep her home from school if she has symptoms of a cold or the flu.

For more information about influenza, check out flufacts.com.

Posted by Sunshine.

The vast majority of us might describe our lives as hectic on any given day. Many of us barely see some of our family members on certain days, much less sit down at a table for a meal with them, especially during sports seasons and academic crunches.

Here’s a sound reason to clear those schedules and plop everyone down together for supper: New findings from a recent study suggest that adolescent girls who sit down with their families for at least five meals a week may be less likely to develop eating disorders.

Makes sense to me…as long as the family is enforcing positive eating habits and the mealtime environment is a pleasant one (that doesn’t include parents saying things like, “Are you eating another biscuit? Your jeans won’t fit tomorrow!” at the table - and yes, I had friends in high school whose parents said those things). We can bolster our girls’ self-confidence and help them embrace a healthy body weight, and apparently sitting down at the table with them is a great way to do that.

The study is unclear as to exactly why family meals may help girls stay away from eating disorders, but does it really matter after a certain point? Mealtime together is important in so many other ways - it’s a chance to reconnect, to let everyone unwind after a busy day or before a big event. My household could stand a few more of those family meals, and even though my kids are pretty small, I think I’ll go ahead and work on that so that by the time my daughter enters those fragile self-esteem years, it’ll be a routine she can look forward to, a bit of stability in the everyday rush.

Posted by Sunshine.

Changing advice for childrens allergies. Doctors are changing their recommendations for childrens allergies. It used to be that they thought children’s allergies could be avoided by avoiding certain foods during pregnancy, drinking soy milk, or delaying solid food until after 6 month of age. Not any more. Pretty much the only advice that still holds true is that breast feeding does appear to prevent children’s allergies. As for the others, there is no scientific evidence to prove that they work.

Another good reason to eat together as a family. Studies show that girls who regularly eat meals with their families are less likely to have eating disorders. The same does not hold true for boys. Researchers are not sure why there is a gender difference, but speculate that this could be a result of girls being more influenced by interpersonal and familial relationships present at family meals, or perhaps that they are more involved in the food preparation process.

Poor piggies! Scientists in China have successfully bred florescent green piglets. These were born from a mother who was injected with this. Scientists are all happy because they now think they can breed special pigs, and especially ones that are suitable for human organ transplants. Honestly, this kind of creeps me out. I am still not sure how I feel about all of these amazing medical advances. On one side it sees like a great thing to cure all of these strange diseases, but the other side of me wonders if we wouldn’t have all these strange diseases if we weren’t constantly destroying our environments with all of the chemicals we produce in the first place? I mean, florescent green chemically altered pigs doesn’t seem too healthy now, does it?

Even more outsourcing to India. First it is all those telemarketers and customer service lines… now baby-making is being outsourced to India as well! “rent-a-womb”, as it is being referred to, gives Indian women a chance to make an equivalent of 15 years salary with one pregnancy.

But India is the leader in making it a viable industry rather than a rare fertility treatment. Experts say it could take off for the same reasons outsourcing in other industries has been successful: a wide labor pool working for relatively low rates.

Is this creative entrepreneurship, or exploitation of the poor? What do you think?

Parents in denial. The disturbing results of a childhood obesity study show that nearly 50% of parents with obese or severely overweight children ages 6-12 consider their children to be “about the right weight”. Isn’t the first step in getting help and fixing an obesity problem recognizing that there is a problem there in the first place? Perhaps they think their children will outgrow their weight issues. They probably won’t. And these children will be at increased health risks as they grow up. And this will cost our country billions and billions more in healthcare costs. 2008 starts tomorrow… a good opportunity to make lifestyle decision to change the health and happiness of our children.

Is she or isn’t she? There have been multiple reports of a Nicole Kidman pregnancy. Even moreso, people are wondering what “really” went on with her decade long childless marriage to Tom Cruise. There was always speculation it was a fertility issue, however with Suri’s birth and Nicole possibly pregnant, tongues are wagging. Nicole did help the rumor along recently when she said that “someday, maybe, that story might be told.”

In our health-conscious postmodern society, why are children breaking their arms more often? Why are they developing rickets, the 19th century “soft bone” disease? And why might they be at greater risk of osteoporosis than our own parents and grandparents?

The answer: a lack of this critical bone-friendly trio: sunlight, calcium, and exercise.

Almost half of peak bone mass develops during adolescence, and the concern is that missing out on the strongest possible bones in childhood could haunt people decades later. By the 30s, bone is broken down faster than it’s rebuilt. Then it’s a race to maintain bone and avoid the thin bones of osteoporosis in old age.

“There’s some early data showing that even a 10 percent deficit in your bone mass when you finish your adolescent years can increase your potential risk of having osteoporosis and fractures as much as 50 percent,” says Dr. James Beaty, president of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

Less than 25% of all adolescents get the recommended amount of calcium.

I thought that calcium was the most important factor by far in bone density and bone growth, but I was wrong: Strong bones require more than calcium alone. Exercise is at least as important. Consider: The dominant arm of a tennis player has 35 percent more bone than the non-dominant arm.

We already know that our children get less exercise than kids in generations past. But what does sunlight have to do with it?

Vitamin D (which the body absorbs from sunlight) is crucial to calcium absorption. If kids aren’t getting outside often, their bodies probably aren’t getting enough vitamin D, which in turn ratchets down how much calcium their bodies are absorbing.

It sounds to me like the best remedy for this disturbing trend is to get outside with the kids, have some good old-fashioned winter fun, and then come in for hot chocolate made with vitamin D-fortified milk. I can handle that!

Posted by Sunshine.

Turn off the TV and head for the park: Studies show that not enough milk, sunshine and exercise are causing bone problems in children. Weaker bone density can result in more broken bones and fractures , and even possibly rickets. It can also have impacts later in life with increased chances of developing osteoporosis. Half of peak bone mass develops during adolescence, and by the time a person is in their 30’s, bone mass is breaking down faster than it is created, so don’t underestimate the importance of taking care of your children’s body and health now. (Our very own Sunshine will say more on this topic.)

Baby Usher: R&B star Usher and his wife Tameka have just welcomed a baby boy, yet to be named. He is daddy’s first child, mommy’s fourth. This lucky little boy will surely be lulled to sleep with some beautiful lullabys.

Can’t decide on a name? Why not consider Jordan - currently America’s top unisex baby name. Other contenders are Alexis, Angel, Riley, Peyton and Taylor. Angel is currently the 32nd most popular boys name - anyone else surprised about that?

As we all wake from our tryptophan-induced comas (those of us who celebrated Thanksgiving, anyway), let’s reflect on what the big holidays mean to us. What will they mean to our children?

It’s easy to get swept up in the tide of commercialism, especially around Christmastime. As parents, we need to make sure that our kids are seeing the big picture - not just round after round of food and gifts.

HealthDay offers these tips to help us make holidays meaningful for the kids:

• Create traditions in the family that your children can look forward to. Talk about why it’s important to have traditions, and which ones are their favorites.
• Encourage children to volunteer, and to make donations and gifts for those who are less fortunate.
• As a family, make homemade gifts to give to friends and family members. Help your children understand that a gift doesn’t need to be something that’s bought from a store.
• Don’t let yourself get stressed during the holidays. Let your children see that it’s a time to enjoy spending together as a family. (I’ll let you know if I ever figure out how to remain stress-free during the biggest holidays of the year!)

What does your family do to celebrate the holidays in ways that outlast the turkey and the fat guy laden with presents?

Posted by Sunshine.

“Watching the leaves change color” by Nadia, 3.