Longevity is decreasing. Children of today may be the first generation who live a shorter life span than their parents. We are (not so) slowly but surely destroying our future health with the obesity epidemic. Obesity in children has tripled since the 1970’s. I guess this is not so surprising when you consider that two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese. Yup… two-thirds.

More and more children are getting adults diseases, such as Type-2 diabetes. It is called “advanced aging” and it means that these children will have a lower life expectancy. And it is important to point out again that annual health care costs of of treating obesity and its complications currently run at $70 to 100 billion a year.

And it is also important to consider not only the life expectancy, but the quality of life, which probably will be hindered if dealing with obesity and its further complications. So please do your children a favor and permit them a childhood where they grow up with healthy and active habits.

A bowl of cereal a day to have a baby boy. It has been proven that a woman can further influence the chance of having either a boy or a girl by the foods she eats. Eating a bowl of cereal (calcium), more bananas (potassium), salty foods (sodium) and eating generally more calories overall can increase chances of conceiving a boy. 59% of women eating a bowl of cereal per day had baby boys, compared to 43% of women who ate 1 bowl or less per week. To be honest, I am not sure how that works considering it is the male sperm that determines gender, but apparently it does. Go figure.

Watch out for lemonade! A dad in Detroit has his son removed from the home by authorities for a few days while they determined whether or not he was negligent. He was at a ballgame with his 7 year son and accidentally got him drunk on “Mike’s Hard Lemonade”. Dad did not realize there was alcohol in the drink. In the end, the child’s blood test showed no signs of alcohol and the family has since been reunited.

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!)

Genetically modified babies? Scientists in Britain claim to have created an embryo that contains the genetic DNA of three persons. They mixed in some DNA from a third donor that replaces defective genes. The hope is that one day embryo’s can be produced that are free of inherited diseases. A quote from the hospital:

“We are not trying to alter genes, we’re just trying to swap a small proportion of the bad ones for some good ones,” said Patrick Chinnery, a professor of neurogenetics at Newcastle University involved in the research.

Maybe that is the original intention, but what is to stop it from going any further. Am I in the minority these days in still believing that things (even heartbreaking and horrible) happen for a reason. Stuff like this scares the bejesus out of me and it makes me wonder what kind of world my grandchildren will live in.

Anyone else want to weigh in here?

Preggo brain is real! Scientists have confirmed that yes, pregnant women do experience memory loss. Fortunately it tends to be lesser important things, or things that are newer or less familiar to them. And yes, forgetfulness can continue after the birth.

Let’s see… for me, pregnancy number 1 I left my purse under the table at McDonald’s. Thankfully when I went back about 10 minutes later one of the staff had kept it and it was returned to me. Pregnancy number 2, I left my brand new glasses on the McDonald’s (notice a trend here?) food tray and threw it out with the trash. When I went back, literally 5 minutes later the trash bin was just emptied. I asked the staff if I could look through the old trash bag . They went to the back of the store and came back with a compacted square cube about 10″ big. Bye bye glasses. Pregnancy 3, I don’t remember what forgetful things I did. (giggle)

Vaccine Controversy: One Maryland county got some unwanted international media attention when it asked parents of potentially unvaccinated children to appear at a courthouse to update their kids’ medical records or get them vaccinated. Word got out that the county planned to jail parents who refused to vaccinate their kids. The state’s attorney insisted that the idea was only to get records up-to-date and get children who were possibly out of compliance back into school. But critics said the tactics amounted to intimidation and complained that parents were not given information about their rights or potential risks and side effects of the vaccines. Furthermore, children without medical records were in danger of being re-vaccinated, protesters warned.

Keeping Safe from the “Superbug”: Tips from the CDC for avoiding or recognizing MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus:

• What to avoid: The bacteria is transmitted through person-to-person contact or by using an infected person’s belongings. So to prevent the infection, wash your hands frequently with soap and water — using soap from a bottle, not bar soap, which can breed the bacteria — or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Avoid sharing personal items such as towels or razors. And keep cuts and scrapes clean, apply antibiotic ointment and cover them with a bandage.

• Recognize: If any cut or scrape becomes red, hot or infected, see a doctor immediately. In its early stages, MRSA infections may resemble pimples or boils, and they’re commonly mistaken for spider bites. It also can manifest as a rash, and may be accompanied by fever or fatigue.

• Hospital: About 85 percent of MRSA infections originate in health-care settings. So hospital patients should be on the lookout for the symptoms mentioned above and notify a nurse if any arise.

• Treatment: Skin abscesses must be drained by a doctor, and patients are then given an antibiotic, one of the drugs that MRSA hasn’t developed a resistance against. More serious infections may require hospitalization, intravenous antibiotics and other treatments.

Miracle Baby: After doctors determined that one of the twins was not growing, Rebecca and Mark Jones of the U.K. had to make the difficult decision to allow doctors to terminate one twin to save the others. Doctors at first tried to sever the umbilical cord to cut off the blood supply to the baby. That procedure didn’t work, so the doctors made a second attempt by cutting the placenta in half. This procedure had the opposite effect - the baby began to grow. In March the babies were born by emergency c-section at 31 weeks, healthy and weighing in at 3 pounds 8 ounces and the miracle baby weighed in at 1 pound 15 ounces. Now 7 months old, both babies are at home and weighing in at 15 pounds and 12 pounds

Drinking while pregnant = nasty kid?: A new study shows that drinking while pregnant seems to be related to conduct problems in the child. Earlier research had linked pre-natal drinking with many problems in offspring, including conduct problems, criminal behavior, attention and impulsivity problems and alcohol disorders. However, this research was in question because it didn’t consider whether certain certain family processes or genetic risk factors could be associated with both maternal drinking and childhood problems. This study was able to show that for each week a mother drank alcohol during pregnancy, the child exhibited an increase in conduct problems. The study, however, showed that other factors related to prenatal alcohol drinking, such as tobacco, illegal drugs and other substances, were more likely causes of attention and impulsivity problems in the offspring rather than alcohol use alone. “the study was able to rule out a host of other explanations for the conduct problems in part because the study included multiple children per mother, which allowed researchers to look at siblings who were exposed differently to alcohol prenatally because their mothers varied their drinking during different pregnancies. The study found that children more frequently exposed to alcohol during pregnancy had more conduct problems than their siblings who were exposed to less prenatal alcohol.”

I’m not one of those women who feels cheated by their delivery experience(s). I’m also not an advocate for natural, unmedicated childbirth (though there’s nothing wrong with that route). Both of my deliveries resulted in healthy children…but after reading this article, I realized there are still things I didn’t know that might have affected my decisions and experiences.

A new survey of mothers reveals some disturbing things about hospital maternity care that may make pregnant women want to take a closer look at their options.

What choices do we really have, and what choices are being made without our involvement?

The article explaining the survey results is not easily summarized, so I’ll just highlight five facts that surprised me (please take a few moments to read it for yourself - you may be startled by what you learn!). Did you know these things?

1. Maternal mortality is on the rise in this country - it was up to 13 deaths per 100,000 in the United States in 2004, up from 11 in 2000. Forty-one (that’s 41!) other developed nations have lower maternal death rates.

2. 73% of the women interviewed who had an episiotomy were not asked for their consent. (This was true of my first delivery as well.)

3. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has never approved Pitocin for the use of augmenting labor and it has been suggested now that mismanagement of Pitocin is the leading cause of liability suits and damage awards. Say what??

4. A woman with private insurance is more likely to end up with a Cesarean section than an uninsured woman or one on Medicaid.

5. Eleven states prohibit births with homebirth-trained attendants, such as certified professional midwives (CPMs), or ban homebirths outright. My state is one of them. Seventeen states have no birthing centers.

Well…good thing I was OK with my children being delivered at the local hospital, I guess! It’s appalling to me that so many of our options are dependent on where we live, and that our experiences differ based on what sort of insurance we carry (or don’t have) - and on how forthright our doctors are with us regarding decisions about the birth itself and care afterward.

Keep your eyes and ears open, moms! Every woman has the right to be involved in the decision-making process when it comes to her health and that of her child.

(Via Radical Catholic Mom.)

Posted by Sunshine.

King Middle School in Portland, Maine, plans to offer birth control - and I don’t mean just condoms and a wish-you-well - to its students, who are usually in the 11-13 age range.

Students would need parental permission to use the city-run health center in the school, but they wouldn’t have to tell them they were seeking birth control.

Naturally, this decision has caused quite a firestorm. (See what MomSquawkers think here - register and weigh in!)

Defenders of the decision say the notion that young children can now easily get birth-control pills is flat wrong.

“They don’t just have a giant punch bowl full of pills,” [Portland School Committee member Robert O’Brien] said. The birth control will be given out only after extensive counseling, and no prepubescent children will get it, he claims.

Also, the school notes, condoms have been offered since 2000, but students were referred elsewhere for other birth control options. Students often did not follow up on that, so having birth control available at the school’s health center would ensure that those who need such protection would be more likely to get it.

Opponents of the measure say that children as young as 11 could manipulate the system to acquire birth control. Even Maine Governor John Baldacci has expressed concerns.

“I appreciate local officials trying to address a need in a medically appropriate way, but these are children,” he said in an interview with the AP. “An appropriate balance must be struck addressing the troubling situation that a small number of students find themselves in and recognizing the important role that parents and other family should play.”

What do you think? Is offering birth control to middle school students simply protecting our kids from pregnancies/STDs at an earlier age, or is the school making birth control too accessible too soon? Squawk back and share your thoughts!

Posted by Sunshining.

My husband forwarded me a rather freaky essay from the nerd site TCS Daily on how embryo testing and genius may intersect in the near future. Already, parents are using preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to screen out embryos that carry the genes for certain diseases or conditions. As geneticists begin to understand which combinations of genes increase the likelihood for genius, choosing embryos for IQ will enter the picture.

Next step: Increasing the odds. Two British clinics have found a way to safely harvest thousands of eggs from a woman, which means that in the future, couples may be offered thousands of embryos to choose from when conceiving a child. If under normal circumstances, the couple has a 1% chance of having a baby with the potential for genius, with thousands of embryos to be screened the couple is virtually guaranteed a super-smart baby.

Now for the creepy late night reading part:

Embryo selection gets even more interesting when we consider how a nation such as China might use it. Imagine that in ten years China forces all its college students to get genetic tests. Students with intelligence genes in the top 1% of the top 1% of humankind are then forced to donate sperm or eggs. China then uses the sperm and eggs to create a billion embryos each year. The genetic intellectual potential of all these embryos is checked. Those in the top 10,000 are implanted into women. Each of these embryos has the intellectual potential to be in the top one-billionth of humankind. Now because of environmental factors many of these embryos won’t turn into intellectual titans. But let’s say that one in ten does. This means that each year 1,000 people with the scientific ability of Einstein will be born. By 2035 they will become adults and start doing scientific research. I imagine these Einsteins will be rather helpful to China’s economy and military.

Yes, I imagine so…

Posted by MommaSteph.