Lara Mattson Radle, a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor in Missoula and the Montana Coordinator for Postpartum Support International, just sent me this notice about the upcoming 2010 Perinatal Mood Disorders Conference.

Presented by Perinatal Support of Montana, which was founded by Mattson Radle, the two-day conference is offered as a certification course for health-care professionals.

According to her Web site, “The mission of PS MT is to overcome the effects of Postpartum Mood and Anxiety Disorders (PMAD) through early identification and treatment, thereby ensuring a healthy environment in which both mother and baby can thrive together. To these ends we have three goals: to provide personal support to women with PMAD and their families, to educate the public concerning the nature and management of these disorders, and to promote networking among related professionals. Our core services include a telephone support line, community referrals, support groups, and educational outreach to those in our community.”

The site goes on to note that “PMAD affects 10-20% of mothers during their postpartum year. At least one in 10 new mothers experiences various degrees of Postpartum Depression. Postpartum complications can occur within days of the delivery or appear gradually, sometimes up to a year later.”

I’ll be meeting with Mattson Radle next week to talk about postpartum issues and this conference. So check back for more information in a few days!

- MM

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I was busy, busy, busy yesterday and neglected to post this link to the Missoulian article about Sussex School growing, and growing greener.

The article details Sussex’s plans to raise $1 million – and it’s nearly halfway there already! – in order to build five new classrooms in place of one of the older buildings and expand the courtyard.

And not just any classrooms. The plans fit with the private school’s philosophy that promotes sustainability, so the new building will be LEED-certified.

School leaders are hoping to wrap up construction in time for the new school year in September. In the meantime, the school will be gradually expanding the number of students, so if you’re looking to enroll your child at Sussex, now would be the perfect time.

- MM

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It seemed about time for the Child Nutrition Act, which must be reauthorized every five years, to make a reappearance on the national stage – and sure enough, I just got an update noting that Congress is expected to take up the bill within the next few months.

Thanks to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s press blitz in advance of the looming congressional discussion, I just plowed through an avalanche of information about the federal act, which would reauthorize many of the nation’s school-based nutrition programs. The USDA, you see, thinks this is the perfect time to tweak some of the programs.

In particular, USDA officials would like to see some programs better address childhood obesity, which it names as the fastest-growing public health issue in the U.S. In fact, it says that an estimated 1 in 3 children is overweight or obese: “They will face obesity-related problems such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer and high blood pressure. Some estimates show that obesity will cost $344 billion in medical-related expenses by 2018. That’s 21 percent of health-care spending.”

Ironically, the USDA cites not only obesity, but also hunger, as a result of the lack of access to proper nutrition.

The start of a solution, the USDA says, can be made in promoting a healthy school environment – and that’s where the Child Nutrition Programs come in. These programs provide a daily lunch for more than 31 million kids, and breakfast for more than 11 million. With that in mind, the USDA is proposing to reduce the fat content of school meals, and teach children healthy eating and exercise habits, among other changes.

I’ll try to keep an eye on this in the coming months and post updates for you as I run across new information. In the meantime, if you come across an interesting aspect of the national discussion or have a question about the bill’s particulars, feel free to post it here.

- MM

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Montana Momoirs alerted me to this story about a California school district’s decision to remove dictionaries from its classrooms because a parent complained that the phrase “oral sex” could be found in them.

O-kaaaaay. Must have been that parent’s first time cracking open a dictionary, huh? Even my condensed, 1,000-word pocket dictionary has the word “sex” in it, among other salacious words and explicit descriptions.

Salacious? Look it up.

- MM

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Being the Missoulian’s Opinion page editor and all, people are always sending me letters. The newspaper gives preference to letters from people who live in western Montana, but that doesn’t stop people from as far away as Washington, D.C., from writing to us, too.

A few minutes ago I got this letter about childhood obesity from Kathryn Strong, staff dietitian for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine out of Washington, D.C.

“A new study may make parents think twice before handing their children Happy Meals. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that one in five teens across the nation has cholesterol levels that put them at risk for heart disease. The rate more than doubled for those teens who were obese. As a dietitian, I see this as an urgent call to get serious about childhood obesity.

“The best way to fight this growing epidemic is to help children develop healthy eating habits early on. The government could cut down on obesity rates—and health spending—by making low-fat, nutrient-rich foods more available in school lunches. Studies show that vegetables, fruits, legumes, and whole grains—all 100 percent cholesterol-free—can help lower the risk of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.

“We must join the American Public Health Association and the American Medical Association in calling for vegetarian school meal options when the Child Nutrition Act comes up for reauthorization this year. Adding low-fat vegetarian foods in schools would pay off in a big way when our nation’s youth have lower rates of obesity and need less medical care.”

Cheese pizza counts as vegetarian, right?

- MM

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My 22-year old daughter and I perched on the end of her Ikea mattress while staring up at the wall-hanging: a framed map of the Paris Metro dated 1974 when I had first traveled there. It was enormous, filling the entire wall space—the authentic charting of underground avenues that pulse through the City of Lights. And it was really all about these tunnels; the avenues and streets were only faintly visible while the lines of transportation beneath them were heavily outlined in red, green, black and blue.

“It’s a much easier way to get around,” my daughter spoke authoritatively as she gazed off into the warm air of her newly rented apartment.

She was living on the edge of Chinatown, a sudden shift from deep safety in the suburbs behind the “Orange Curtain.”

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One very important weapon that should be in every parent’s arsenol is a good sense of humor. The ability to laugh at the strange things you find in your child’s diaper, the skill it takes to pull a kiddo out of a meltdown by suddenly talking like a pirate, making the choice to get goofy when things are getting too serious – all can make daily life with our zany little offspring just a little bit easier, and a lot more fun to boot.

Parents in need of a laugh themselves can get a good dose of “mom humor” on Feb. 6, a Saturday, at the Roxy Theater when Teresa Waldorf and Ann Szalda-Petree open their stand-up comedy routine to audiences in Missoula.

For $20 in advance or $25 at the door, the evening’s entertainment includes appetizers, a cash bar, an auction and, of course, “The Ann and Teresa and Ann Show,” a bit described as “stand-up comedy including game show segments, original parenting songs, and humorous parenting tips.” The doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Call 721.7690 for tickets, or check out the Families First Web site, www.FamiliesFirstMontana.org, for more info.

- MM

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January 25 through January 29 is “No Name-Calling Week,” according to the e-mail I got from Mike Dreiblatt, author of the book “How to Stop Bullying and Social Aggression.”

His note explained that the No Name-Calling Week project has its roots in the James Howe book “The Misfits,” which is a young adult novel about four seventh-graders trying to survive their school days despite the daily onslaught of insults from their peers. The kids eventually band together to create a No Name-Calling Day at their school.

The fictional story sparked the formation of the real-life No Name-Calling Week Coalition which, the e-mail says, was created by GLSEN and Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing. The group organized its first No Name-Calling Week back in March 2004, and has since grown to include some 40 national partner organizations.

The point of No Name-Calling Week is to “focus national attention on the problem of name-calling in schools, and to provide students and educators with the tools and inspiration to launch an on-going dialogue about ways to eliminate name-calling in their communities.”

Alrighty. Who’s on board in Missoula?

- MM

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While reorganizing a bedside table drawer, I unearthed the miniature book of poetry that my mother had scripted in the 1930s during her youthful girlhood.

These secret compositions she had, for 60 years, sheltered inside a shoebox at the top of her closet. Holding the sonnets, the scribblings of her soul, for the first time in the 11 years since her passing, I stumbled upon the chance to revisit her meanderings. This time, I really read her thoughts, now that the ache of her absence had somewhat softened.

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This press release just came in from the state Office of Public Instruction:

New Education Trust Report on Student Progress, Achievement Gap Highlights Montana’s Gains

Helena, Mont. – A new report by the Education Trust is further evidence that Montana is making strides in narrowing gaps in achievement on standardized tests while increasing the progress of individual student groups.

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