Maximize your pill’s effectiveness. Despite claims that the pill can be 99% effective, each year 2-8% of women using the pill end up pregnant. If starting or adding to your family isn’t currently in your plans, please consider these following tips:

Timing. Over the years for health reasons, the levels of Estrogen in the pill have been reduced. Ensure you take the pill at the same day every day.

Don’t skip. If you miss a day, double the does the enxt day. Watch out for breakthrough bleeding and consider using secondary birth control that cycle.

Watch your alcohol consumption. Alcohol is metabolized by the liver and that may also affect the way the pill is absorbed by the body.

Antiboitics. The jury is currently out on this, some say it impacts the pills effectiveness, others say the blood levels are not impacted. If in doubt, break out the secondary birth control.

Generic drugs. FDA allows for generic drugs to contain up to 15% variation. So if you are a fertile myrtle, you might want to consider speading the extra bit of money for the assurance.

Am I taking away her childhood? My almost 3 year old loves everything that her 9 year old big sister loves, but she especially loves High School Musical. I have always thought it cute that she dances to the songs mimicing the gestures. (gratuitous picture to the right) But I never actually thought that exposing her to this could cause her to grow up too fast, that it would expose her to things that are too big for her to understand.

Did I do a big no-no? I don’t think so. Firstly, I think it would be hard for her to to not be exposed to some degree to the things her big sis loves. We don’t own a lot of paraphenalia, but my youngest does have her sisters HSM dolls in her Barbie box. I don’t see a big difference there. and I honestly don’t think she understand the whole storyline/theme of the movies - she appears to only like the songs and dances. So, if I am burying my head in the sand here, so be it. I will save my abundance of “mommy guilt” for things a little bit more significant, thank you very much!

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.

Suffering from menstrual pain? Try acupuncture. A study shows that of women undergoing acupuncture treatments, 65 showed a 33% improvement in their pain levels. A few Midol tablets may cure most women’s cramps, but there are some who suffer from severe pain. I myself suffered miserably during my teen years, and going in the mini-pill seemed to finally provide some relief. If I had known about this back then I would definitely have given it a try.

Call your senator!… and tell him to vote for the new legislation that will nearly double the budget for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, with the intention of increasing programs on child toy safety.

It also would ban lead from children’s products and establish a publicly available database of information collected from consumers, hospitals and other sources about injuries, illnesses and deaths from consumer products.

Concerned parents unite and demand the safety of your children’s toys!

A little off topic… but since some of the gals on the board love hunting eggs and steering their wagons down the Oregon trail, I found it interesting today to read that Mark Zuckerberg, the person who created Facebook 4 years ago, is Forbes youngest billionaire. He is currently worth $1.5 billion. Impressive!

Childhood abuse leads to smoking. Children who are physically or sexually abused have much greater chances of smoking within one year of the abuse. It is seen as a coping mechanism for these children who just want life to return to normal. 80% of smokers start before they are 18 years old, and even casual smoking can lead to heavier smoking later on in life.

I see a few things from this. First, it is important for children who are abused to have access to professional help to get over it - I am sure that smoking is not the only issue they face in trying to reconcile themselves with the trauma they experienced. Secondly, I am not quite sure I buy this as an “excuse” for smokers. To smoke or not is a choice that people make. It is still legal, so people have the right to do so. Let’s not blame childhood instances on this. People should take responsibility for their actions.

What to take when you are pregnant and sick. With flu season in full swing, pregnant women who get sick often wonder what they can safely take get some relief. With each of my three pregnancies I ended up with a doozie of a cold, each time inconveniently towards the end of my first trimester when I was concerned with taking any medicines at all. With my third pregnancy, I found www.safefetus.com, a great site that explains the risks to nearly any drug out there. It is easy to use, you can search by generic or brand names. I even used the site to double check medicines that my doctors prescribed, just in case…

Thumbs down to the military. OK, I have to say that I am generally a VERY big supporter of our troops. So I guess I was just really disappointed to read how terrible their maternity benefits are. Women have only 6 weeks of maternity until they are back to duty. And within 4 months they can be deployed far away from their infants. Shocking to me. How can these moms breastfeed their infants?

The military relies heavily on women to meet their voluntary quotas. Without this, the “d” word (draft) starts to be whispered - something that I am pretty sure no one wants. What I don’t get is why there can’t be some kind of a compromise that allows women to be with their infants during that critical bonding period while still actively contributing to the military. The military needs to come up with some creative ways to accommodate this situation so that they can continue to encourage women to sign up.

Stress can contribute to cervical cancer. Most sexually active women will get HPV at some time in their lives. And most of them will fight it off without it turning to cancer. Doctors are trying to figure out why that small percentage of others aren’t fighting it off. They have found a link to stress and its impact to the immune system. They are not saying that stress causes cancer, but that immunosuppressed women have a higher risk, and stress is one factor that can play a part. This could also be another good reason to get vaccinated against HPV.

This year’s flu season is a bad one. Doctors are now predicting that the flu vaccine will only work on about 40% of the flu viruses out there (instead of 70-90% in “good” years). So please don’t only rely on that shot to stay healthy. As Mel just posted, be smart about washing your hands, eating well and staying warm. Try to keep the flu away from yourself and your children!

Women and domestic violence. A very sobering statistic - it is estimated that nearly 25% of all women are victims of domestic violence. Over 1,200 women are killed and over 2 million are injured at the hands of their “intimate partner”.

Black women were more likely to report domestic violence than whites or Hispanics, but it was most frequent among multiracial, American Indian and Alaska native women.

Women of all income and education levels suffer such abuse, although it was more frequent among the poorest and those who attended but did not graduate from college.

And there are other impacts to these abused women - they are 70% more likely to drink to excess, 50% more likely to use a cane, wheelchair or other disabled equipment, 80% more likely to have a stroke, 70% more likely to have heart disease, and 60% more likely to have arthritis.

This is something we never envision when we fall in love with the man of our dreams. I know it is so much easier said than done, but if you do find yourself in an abusive situation, please have the courage to get help and get to a safe place. Especially when there are children involved.

Don’t be a meddling parent! With the newly coined phrase “emerging adulthood” we now see a lot of grown kids who aren’t ready yet to be grownups. And how the parents handle the relationship during this in between time can have a significant impact to their future relationship. The trick seems to be to not meddle too much - even though you might think your 20-something is not acting their age. If you push too much, they might just pull ever further away. I might need to email this article to my mother in law who still at times just doesn’t get it - even though her “child” is now 40!

Need help for your pelvic floor muscles? Perhaps you are like me - having children has wrecked havoc on my pelvic floor muscles. And I constantly forget to do my kegel exercises, only being reminded of this after a big sneeze. Well… wearing heels can help this! Good news it, you don’t have to wear stilettos! Apparently, having the feet at a 15% angle provides women with a good a posture as flat shoes while providing the best exercise for those special muscles. Do you think this is a valid survey, or just a bunch of men trying to convince us to wear sexier shoes? (btw - the shoes in the pic are Louboutins, my dream shoe! someday…)

Acupuncture can help those who are TTC. There are no scientific tests to this non-traditional practice, although they did run some tests with different groups of women undergoing fertility treatment and it seems as though acupuncture can help the chances of conceiving. It is one of those “It can’t hurt, it is relatively easy enough and inexpensive, so why not try it”

I had acupuncture treatments when my third child went overdue. It was amazing how fast and hard my contractions came when they put these needles in the webs of my hand and twisted them. She arrived the evening of the third daily treatment, but unfortunately I cannot say it was the treatment or the fact that she was 6 days overdue. It did put my mind at ease that I at least was doing something (short of castor oil) to get her out!

Genetics over environment for obesity. In researching twins, doctors have determined that genetics have a much greater impact on children’s weight than environmental factors. They weigh it at 77% genetics, 23% environment. This does not mean that some people are doomed from birth to be obese, but it can explain why some people have a harder time with their weight. And all that tempting fatty food surely does not help. “Genetics” should never be used as an excuse for bad lifestyle decisions. In the end, it is still the responsibility of the parent to instill good eating habits in their children to give them the best start at life, whatever their weight is.

Even though many medical groups aren’t supportive of certain types of genetic testing, research shows that the next generation will probably not feel that way. A new study shows that children of people with certain mutations that may make them more susceptible to developing breast or ovarian cancer later in life are heartily in favor of genetic testing for these markers.

Dr. Angela Bradbury, of the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, and her colleagues interviewed 53 people (all parents) with BRCA mutations and 22 adult children of those parents. The researchers found that 40 percent of the parents and children supported genetic testing of minors, with half of those in favor only under certain circumstances.

Meanwhile, a majority of the adult children — potential consumers of genetic testing — supported the idea.

Wouldn’t you, if you were in that situation? I’d sure like to know if I had the mutations that might mean I was more likely to have cancer! It’s not so much that they could do much about it, but I’d rather know that it might be my reality than to be totally blindsided by it later on.

I suppose a lot of it has to do with our generation and any after us being much more comfortable with the whole idea. I mean, genetics was a large segment of my AP Biology class in high school. It wasn’t some science fiction concept - it was hands-on reality. To my grandparents, the idea is nearly incomprehensible, and even my parents don’t know much about genetics as a whole. Maybe that’s the difference in relative comfort levels and support for this testing.

The study’s authors admit that more needs to be done to study the potential benefits and drawbacks of early genetic testing for predisposition to cancer.

Posted by Sunshine.

A little over a year ago, I had my first real health scare when I was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy. I didn’t panic at the echocardiogram report until I Googled and found out that people with this condition are at risk for heart failure or sudden cardiac death. I was horrified. Here I’d been gearing up for my midlife crisis, and I was learning that I might have grossly miscalculated. And I had two toddlers to raise.

I was extremely lucky, more so than I can express. My condition was apparently the result of thyroid disorder. Once my medication was adjusted, my heart self-corrected. All tests since then have come back normal.

But I’m a changed woman. I think differently about my heart. I cherish it. And I ask you, if you do not do so already, to cherish your own heart as well.

Tomorrow, February 1st, is National Go Red for Women Day. We’re asked to get educated about heart disease. For starters, consider these facts and statistics from First Lady Laura Bush’s web site:

• Heart disease is the leading cause of death of American women, accounting for 32 percent of all deaths per year. Nearly 366,000 women in America die every year of heart disease.
• 8 million American women are currently living with heart disease and of those, 6 million have a family history of heart disease.
• Fewer than half of all women are aware that heart disease is the number 1 killer of American women. Most women identify cancer as the leading cause of death.
• In the United States, all cardiovascular diseases combined claim the lives of more women’s every year than the next 16 causes of death combined — and almost twice as many as all forms of cancer.
• One in three women will die from heart disease, while one in 25 women die from breast cancer.
• Every year since 1984, more women than men have died of cardiovascular disease.
• There is no previous evidence of coronary heart disease in 63 percent of the women who suddenly die from the disease.
• Smoking is the most prevalent and preventable risk factor for cardiovascular disease in women younger than 45.
• 40 percent to 50 percent of women older than 45 have high blood pressure and an elevated total cholesterol level — both well-documented risk factors.
• Heart disease is often preventable.

According to the Mayo Clinic, these are the five important steps we can take to help protect ourselves from heart disease:

• Don’t smoke, or quit if you do.
• Be physically active.
• Eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables and low in saturated fats (and skip the trans fats altogether - these are the worst for the heart).
• Maintain a healthy weight.
• Get regular health screenings. (May I add, ask for a blood test to look at thyroid function.)

We need to be our own advocates. When I told my doctor I was afraid something was wrong with my heart and described my symptoms, she wrote it off as “holiday stress” and gave me a prescription for a tranquilizer. The only reason I was tested was because, even though I was painfully self-conscious about it, I was persistent.

And my story is not unusual. As far as heart disease goes:

“Research shows that women may not be diagnosed or treated as aggressively as men,” says the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Since my brush with heart disease, I’ve not been perfect. I let some weight creep back on me (which I’m kicking with the Biggest Loser moms over on the Health and Fitness board), and I’ve scarfed my share of Milk Duds without checking the label first for saturated fat content (3.5 grams per 13 comforting duds). So I’m grateful to the Go Red campaign for reminding me that our hearts serve us well so long as they are treated well. They are resilient - I’m living proof - but they are not invincible.

Wear red tomorrow and help educate other women about heart disease. Look at your little ones and remember that one day you’ll be advising them on how to take care of their own children, so long as your heart is healthy and strong.

Posted by MommaSteph.

Interesting ADHD-bullying link. Studies show that children with ADHD are four times more likely to be bullies in school. Even more interesting is that children with ADHD symptoms were ten times more likely to have been the target of bullying prior to the symptoms appearing. Problems with bullying are ever increasing in the schools, and this Swedish study only further highlights the importance of observing children’s behavior - not only the educators, but the parents involvement is critical. Some schools are making efforts to improve the situation by providing support and education to both the bullies and the bullied.

Think twice about buying your child a pet turtle. Even though they are seem to be a good pet for kids (and parents who don’t want to deal with the mess and noise of other housepets as dogs, cats, hamsters, etc), you should think twice about buying one for your child. Turtles are known to spread salmonella, and last year 103 people were infected from pet turtles. You might not be aware, but these turtles have actually been outlawed in the US since 1975, but they are still commonly found for sale in pet shops, online, and other places.

How to get rid of those dreaded stretch marks. A lot of us moms have them one place or another. Many aren’t that noticeable - but if you look closely those silver lines are there. We wear them as badges of honor celebrating the miracle of a woman’s ability to give birth. But let’s face it - if we could do something to prevent or get rid of them we would.

There are some things you can do to avoid them or lessen their appearance:

Use Retin-A cream to keep the body moisturized any time it goes through a weight change, especially hormonal (pregnancy) driven. (Editor’s note: Be sure to talk to your doctor before using, though, as the jury is still out as to whether or not Retin-A is safe during pregnancy.)

Exercise to reduce your stress level and help keep those hormones under control.

Drink your water and eat healthy to keep your body hydrated.

If all else fails, there are laser treatments currently available that will help.