INDfamily

THE MOTHER LOAD: Kids tip the scales, more moms stay home and the power of baby aspirin

by Amanda Bedgood

Newsy bits for the whole fam

Obesity on the rise

Childhood obesity rates are headed up, according to a study published Monday. U.S. childhood obesity rates have increased in the past 14 years, despite conflicting reports earlier in the year.

"It [the study] found increases in obesity for children age 2 to 19, and a marked rise in the percentage who were severely obese," according to an article from Reuters.

Nearly 30,000 children between 2 and 19 were surveyed from 1999 through 2012 and overall obesity rates increased from 14.5 percent in 1999 to 17.3 percent in 2012. (Obesity is defined by a body mass index more than 95 percent of peers the same age and sex.)

While the increase weren't huge in the rates of children who are overweight or obese, there were clearly more in the categories that are severely obsese, according to experts.

"There were especially noticeable increases in the rates of severe obesity among black boys, Hispanic girls and white girls," according to the study.

Home girls

More moms are staying at home, according to a Pew Research Center report released Tuesday. And why? Because paying someone else to keep the kids is just too much.

The number of mothers that do not work outside of the home rose to 29 percent by 2012 - up from 23 percent in 2000 - just as the cost of childcare rose more than 70 percent between 1985 and 2011 (and, yes, that accounts for inflation). There are other factors that may contribute to the trend - more immigrant mothers who tend to stay at home more than U.S.-born moms, more women unable to find work.

The report has breakdowns on everything from race and income status to education with one of the more interesting facts being that few married at-home mothers with working husbands qualify as "affluent."

Baby aspirin, baby

A draft recommendation from a leading U.S. health taste force is looking to baby aspirin to help reduce the risk of preeclampsia in some women.

Accordig to the review released this week from the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, a single pill of baby aspirin beginning in the second trimester could reduce the risk of preeclampia by 24 percent.

"That single pill of so-called baby aspirin may also lower the risk of premature birth by 14 percent and cut by 20 percent the risk of intrauterine growth restriction or IUGR, a condition in which a baby grows slower than expected in the mother's womb."