I was showing my favorite photograph of the baby to an acquaintance. She commented on the girl's sweet thighs sticking out of her flowered onesie and her kissable cheeks, and I said, with maternal pride, "She's such a chubby bunny." The other woman seemed mildly horrified that I would call my daughter chubby, even in an admiring way. "Don't worry," she said. "She'll grow out of it. Read on.

With all the nutty fads and misguided emphases that pop culture can inflict on American society, there's a harmful health issue that our celebrity-obsessed nation needs to let go of: Idolizing stars who appear to instantly shed every ounce of pregnancy weight gain immediately after giving birth, while ignoring most real women's struggles with pre- and post-partum pounds. Read on.

A study in BMJ reports that the risk for serious complications, such as pre-eclampsia, diabetes and premature birth can be safely reduced even in overweight and obese pregnant women by following a healthy calorie controlled diet during pregnancy.

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By Medical News Today, 05/19/2012

Many moms of chubby toddlers don't realize their babies are large for their age, and this misperception may be setting the stage for their tots to grow up to be overweight or obese, a new study shows. Read the full article here.

By WebMD, 05/08/2012

Women who are obese and/or have diabetes or high blood pressure during pregnancy may be about 60% more likely to have babies with autism, a new study suggests. While the new research points to an association between mom's health during pregnancy and autism, it's important to note that "we can't really draw causal links," says researcher Paula Krakowiak. She is a PhD candidate in epidemiology at the University of California, Davis. But "it is already known that any of these conditions have downstream risks in terms of pregnancy complications and delivery complications. The take-home message would be that any modifiable changes that one can make in their lifestyle or diet can benefit these conditions and potentially benefit the baby." Read the full article here.

By WebMD, 04/09/2012

THE high-achieving mother publicly laid out her methods, strict and punishing. She wrote of how her young daughter, told that she needed to change, resisted, rebelled, sometimes threw a tantrum. But in the end, the mother proclaimed, her tactics triumphed. Amy Chua may have to hand off the title of Tiger Mother to Dara-Lynn Weiss, whose article in the April issue of Vogue painfully detailed her effort to get her 7-year-old daughter, Bea, to lose weight. Read the full article here.

By The New York Times, 03/30/2012

 A mother's health during pregnancy has measurable effects on her baby's well-being, but a new study shows that her fitness before pregnancy matters too. Researchers say that cognitive deficits found in premature babies can be traced to a number of mom-related factors, and one of them is a woman's pre-pregnancy weight. Read the full article here.

By TIME, 03/12/2012

As long as children ride in a properly positioned seat for their height and weight, child safety and booster seats provide adequate protection in a crash, regardless of whether a child is underweight or overweight, according to a study released by the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's Center for Injury Research and Prevention. Read the full article here.

By The New York Times, 11/28/2011