ParentsDigest in the News: Chicago Tribune

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Finish any good parenting books lately? We didn't think so

By Heidi Stevens

Tribune reporter

November 16, 2008

Next time you're invited to a baby shower, may we suggest a gift idea that few moms think to register for: a boatload of bookmarks. Post-it Notes would even work. Something, anything, to mark the pages of the many, many parenting books she will earnestly crack open, read to Page 11, and then never lay eyes on again.

Pam McLaughlin, a Larkspur, Calif., mom of three, knows that experience firsthand. But instead of buying bookmarks, she founded ParentsDigest.com, a new service that writes Cliffs Notes-like versions of parenting manuals and e-mails them to subscribers.

"Our goal is to be experts in parenting so no matter how old your kid is, you're getting information every step of the way," says Kira Swain, editor in chief of Parents Digest.

Here's how it works: McLaughlin and her small team of professional writers (mostly moms) read classic and newly published parenting books in every category imaginable: special-needs kids, greening your family, temper tantrums, eating disorders, divorce, bullying, etc. Then they write eight-page summaries, which cover the book's nuts and bolts.

"You can sit down with a cup of coffee and 20 or 30 minutes and get really good information," says Swain. "You get the problem-solving information, the statistics and the factual information and see, 'Here's a solution for what my kid is going through or what I'm going through.' "

Of course, if you're left wanting more upon completing the summary, you can always buy the book to read at your, ahem, leisure. You can purchase the books from the site's catalog right at ParentsDigest.com, often at a subscriber discount.

Subscribers receive two summaries per month, which they can choose from the constantly updated list of new summaries or the Parents Digest catalog, which currently contains about 150 titles. A three-month trial subscription costs $19.45 and a one-year subscription costs $68.

On the site, McLaughlin writes: "My hope is that our summaries will enrich your family, lighten your load, or simply put a smile on your face."

OK, maybe that's better than the bookmark idea.

hstevens@tribune.com

Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune

Beans Shrink Babes?

Pregnant? Or planning to be? A new study suggests that moms who drink coffee, tea or cola put their feti at risk for low birth rate.

Researchers recruited 2,635 women at between eight and 12 weeks of pregnancy, interviewed them about their eating habits and monitored their saliva, and found that women who drank between 100 and 199 milligrams of caffeine per day faced a 20 percent increased risk of having a baby with a relatively lower birth weight compared with counterparts whose intake was less than 100 mg per day. 100 mg equals about one cup of coffee or two cups of tea. For moms drinking 3-4 cups of coffee the risk rose to 40%, and six cups was 50%.

More bad news for chocoholics: caffeine is also present in cola, chocolate, cocoa and some drugs.

This is the first study that also sees a link in tea, which comprised 60 percent of the caffeine consumed by the women.

Check ParentsDigest.com for the latest book summaries on parenting and nutrition. Cheers!