“Pregnant women who eat more fish, which contains omega-3 fatty acids, tend to have brighter, more sociable children, claim researchers.
The amount of omega-3 helps to determine the child’s intelligence, fine motor skills – the ability to manipulate small objects and hand and eye co-ordination – and the propensity to anti-social behaviour, says a study by Dr Joseph Hibbeln, of the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.
The findings, which were presented to a meeting in London this week, show that the children of women who consumed the smallest amounts of omega-3 fatty acids during their pregnancies had a verbal IQ six points lower than average.
This is striking because pregnant women have been advised to limit their consumption of oily fish and seafood in order to avoid exposing their foetuses to trace amounts of dioxins and brain-damaging methyl mercury.
Dr Hibbeln, whose research is reported today in the Economist, says that his work shows that the benefits of eating such foods vastly outweigh the risks. The findings show that the children of women who consumed the smallest amounts of omega-3 fatty acids during their pregnancies had a verbal IQ six points lower than average.
Dr Hibbeln worked with Prof Jean Golding from Bristol University’s Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, which has data on 14,000 expectant mothers and their offspring, so that he could study the effects of omega-3 intake.
The researchers found that at 3½ years of age, those children with the best measures of motor performance had mothers with the highest intake of omega-3s. A low intake during pregnancy led to higher levels of pathological social interactions such as an inability to make friends as a child grew up, which are also linked to antisocial behaviour in later life.
About 14 per cent of seven-year-olds whose mothers had the lowest intake of omega-3s in pregnancy demonstrated such behaviour, compared with eight per cent born to women on high-intake.
Fish is a good source of omega-3 but because of dioxins, the Food Standards Agency recommends that women who might have a child one day, and women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, should have only two portions of oily fish a week.”
I don’t cook alot of fish, but I do keep sardines on hand when I am pregnant and breastfeeding. It is my “fast food” of choice. I usually eat them with crackers and sour cream when I am having a busy day. I purchase the brands that are packed in Olive Oil, sprinkle some sea salt on them and chow it down.
Jenny Hatch

“So what’s the solution? The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation thinks it has one – redesign the high schools:
The key problem is political will. Elected officials have not yet done away with the idea underlying the old design. The idea behind the old design was that you could train an adequate workforce by sending only a third of your kids to college and that the other kids either couldn’t do college work or didn’t need to. The idea behind the new design is that all students can do rigorous work, and – for their sake and ours – they have to.
And Gates has put his money where his mouth is. His foundation has already invested almost $1 billion thus far to help redesign the American high school.
I am always amazed at the ignorance of billionaires, smart enough to create great new industries, but totally misinformed when it comes to the problems of our education system. The problems do not start in high school. They start in primary school, and often in kindergarten and pre-school. The blatant educational malpractice that takes place in those early school years is what sets our students on the road to academic disaster.
The educators can get away with this academic genocide because their methods seem to produce acceptable results up to the 4th grade. But after that, it’s all downhill to the bottom of the slope in 12th grade. And by the time we get to the 12th grade, everyone – including Mr. Gates – forgets what happened in the 1st grade.
We’ve written extensively about how the teaching of reading by the whole-word method produces the symptoms of dyslexia. We’ve explained how these teaching methods were devised by our top educators to produce the results they wanted: the dumbing down of America. And Mr. Gates believes that he can stop the dumbing-down process by redesigning the American high school with more rigorous courses in math and science.”
“Dr. Samuel L. Blumenfeld is the author of eight books on education, including: “Is Public Education Necessary?” “NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education,” “The Whole Language/OBE Fraud” and “Homeschooling: A Parents Guide to Teaching Children.” His books are available on Amazon.com.”
Jenny Hatch

“The Democrats are trying to “reframe” their message to make people think they believe abortion is wrong. I think this is going to be a hard sell if they plan to continue ferociously defending abortion-on-demand right up until the moment the baby’s head is through the birth canal.
But both the New York Times and the Washington Post have recently run op-eds by liberals calling for Democrats to abandon their single-minded devotion to Roe v. Wade.
In the Post, Richard Cohen said it was time for liberals to “untether abortion rights from Roe.” Cohen admitted that conservatives (and “some liberals,” he claimed implausibly) have a point when they say abortion ought to be decided by the states. This is another way of saying abortion is not a constitutional right. Kate Michelman: Call your abortion mill!
In the New York Times, William Saletan gently counseled feminists that it was time to admit: “It’s bad to kill a fetus.” And they say liberals have no values!”
Jenny Hatch
UPDATE:
Abortion increases sleep disorders

We have a family rule that on odd birthdays we have only a family party, and on even birthdays we have a friend and a family party. After much deliberation and thought, Allison decided to have an ice skating party and a family party. She turned 14 on the 23rd of January. Since all of the children have even birthdays this year – (Allison 14, Jeffrey 12, Andrew 10, Michelle 18, and Ben 4) we will be having quite a few birthday parties this year.

Allison with Jenny and Ben just before we left for the ice rink. This outdoor rink is a small but fun place to skate. It was very cold that night.

Allison and Ben with her store bought cake. We have a running family joke that Mom can’t bake a decent cake, so for the friend parties, we always get a bakery cake.

Allison and Michelle putting on skates

Allison helped to relight the candles after the wind blew a couple of them out.

Allison skating party

Andy at Allison’s party

Ben and Shelly at the party

Ben at the party

Ben eating pizza

All the girls skating on the rink

Jeff at the party

Of course we still had our family party, Allison baked her own cake and it was delicious. She requested strawberries and pastry for breakfast and hoagie sandwiches for supper. I let the children pick whatever foods they desire for birthdays and such an easy meal was a treat for me. Everyone just made their own sandwich.

Ben and Allison blowing out candles

Licking the icing off the candles
It is hard to believe our sweet girl is fourteen. I was pregnant with her when we showed up here in Boulder so many years ago. It has been a happy time, having her in our home. She is such a bright light, and so fun to be around. We really had a great time at the parties.
Jenny Hatch