oh, ok - so you had barely anytime to figure out how it worked. The extremes scare me.

Massive sleep-training vibes to Jess and Ethan, and tiredness-ma in abundance to Dylan.

Amy, I'm completely in awe of you for doing it and making it work. Zmayhem's method is more grim, sour endurance of our collective nightly purgatory and frequent reminders that nobody's kid ever went off to college unable to sleep for more than two hours without waking up screaming.

Ah, the Obesity Scare(TM): making "malnourished" the new "healthy."

Apropos of which, I now present to you a newspaper clipping from the 12/16/1932 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle, which I believe we can all agree is made of win:

We think more about candy during holiday time than we do ordinarily, but sweets are an important part of a child's diet at any time. children's systems demand the complete food contained in good candy. Sugar, cream, butter and chocolate are all body and bone builders and should not be omitted from the diet of a growing child. Every mother should see that each child has a large piece of candy a half hour after lunch and dinner. This will do much to stop between-meal nibbling and will supply the body with needed food. If underweight children are given a piece of candy and a glass of milk midmorning and midafternoon, the complete food of the two will tend to rapidly build up the child.

Sadly, the person who gave me this clipping is herself at the lowest end of "healthy weight for her height and build" and only permits herself one full meal a day.

My mom has tut-tutted that I give Matilda 2% milk because it sets a bad precedent; it's really actually 30% fat, and it sets such a bad precedent for later years! Sigh. I have finally managed, as politely as possible, to convince her to keep her (fat free angel food) cake hole away from the SALVATION THROUGH FAT HATRED megaphone where Matilda is concerned, but it's distressing.

we should encourage toddlers to drink low-fat milk (instead of whole, which is what's currently recommended). You know, because it's not like fats are necessary for brain development or anything.

Question - what if the kid is lactose-intolerant? Or does that not show up until after 2?

My mom has tut-tutted that I give Matilda 2% milk

Man, this is making me nostalgic for the 1970s, when my family was viewed as freaks because we drank 2% milk....as opposed to whole milk.

Also, I fully support the "Candy, Yay!" theory.

I wonder if 15 or 20 years from now, when the kids who are being raised with this paranoia about obesity are hitting college age, if there will be some kind of major health problems - weak bones, bad teeth, metabolic problems.

I mean, I'm fat and I know it, my mother put me on a diet for the first time when I was 12 and I've been struggling with my weight ever since. But it seems that thin has become the primary gauge of whether a person's healthy and the standard for thin enough seems to be becoming thinner and thinner.

But it seems that thin has become the primary gauge of whether a person's healthy

The problem is that thin is being equated with good health and healthy habits, and, conversely, overweight is being equated with poor health and crappy health habits. And neither one of those correlations is automatically true.

Man, this is making me nostalgic for the 1970s, when my family was viewed as freaks because we drank 2% milk....as opposed to whole milk.

I had this idea that only Protestants drank non-whole milk because my best friend's family did (her father was a Methodist minister) and nobody else I knew (pretty much all Catholic) did.

It's the puritan work ethic applied to food - if it tastes good, it's sinful.

I had this idea that only Protestants drank non-whole milk because my best friend's family did (her father was a Methodist minister) and nobody else I knew (pretty much all Catholic) did.

Total Liberty Heights / Barry Levinson flash right there.

re: diabetes

When Hubby was first diagnosed, his sugars were all over the place. He once got down to 17, according to his meter. Granted, he had just passed out in the street and was curious as to why he felt weird. In any case, his doctor swore he had a bad meter, so Hubby offered to test it on the meter of Doc's choice. Pre-meal number--32. 35 on a second meter. Hubby smiled and continued his then-standard breakfast of a pint of Haagen Daz, which would get his blood sugar up to a blistering 140.

The metabolism. It's weird.