One out of three babies that does poorly on routine developmental tests does not receive necessary follow-up care, according to a Reuters report.

Extra care, or intervention services, can mean a lot to make a difference for kids who may trail their peers in physical or intellectual development according to the report, which is based on a Stanford University School of Medicine study involving more than 5,000 California children.

“I think it was really shocking to see that… a significant proportion of them weren’t getting referrals,” Dr. Brian Tang, lead author of the study, said to Reuters.

Children who spent time in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) are especially at risk for such delays, the study reported.

Remember the case from Pennsylvania last year, when a restaurant owner banned kids younger than 6?

Well a Tampa pizzeria hasn’t gone that far. But it has banned young children from it’s outdoor patio and has posted a warning that “if you allow your child to run, scream or misbehave, you will be asked to leave,”  the Tampa Bay Times reported.

The paper noted that, “Although no one has yet been ejected since the sign went up, it has caused an uproar among Seminole Heights parents and diners, with as many people castigating the restaurant owner as applauding his courage.”

I’m hardly a perfect parent. I have plenty of days when not-messing-up-too-badly seems about the best thing I can do.

But I really don’t get why parents allow such bad behavior in public places. I don’t mean you can always stop it — but you can pretty much always get up and leave. Or decide your child is just too young to do the restaurant thing.

Which, I think , is what most parents do. But the owner of Cappy’s pizzeria told the paper he’s seen too many cases of kids running, screaming and playing, unsupervised, on his patio, even damaging his property.

It seems to me learning good restaurant/movie/airplane/other public places/ manners is part of growing up. Kids won’t be perfect, but parents should step in with reminders as soon as they get too loud or do anything else that might disturb the next table.

“Honey, we don’t sing in restaurants,” I said  just this weekend, even if given the restaurant’s loud music and high-backed booths no one was likely to hear my 7-year-old’s quiet little rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.

That’s just common sense, right? So are these restaurant owners over-reacting based on a few bad examples?

Or have too many parents just gotten so lax they’ve forgotten about manners? Does the fact that so many of us go out to eat so often make restaurants seem less special and more like our own family room where, perhaps, anything goes?

I’m not sure.

Nope.

I may not need summer day care, per se, but I also don’t want my teen hanging around doing nothing (or getting into trouble) all summer. But I’m finding that organized activities for that age are pretty slim — and very expensive. So far, I’ve only lined up three weeks’ worth of activities over the course of the summer. He has 10 weeks off. I’d like to come up with at least three more weeks of stuff to do.

I found a weeklong film-making course. He loves that sort of thing, so that would be ideal. The $1,500 price-tag, however, was not. Likewise a tech course that teaches teens how to create video games. $895 for a week? I don’t think so.

If you have any ideas, send them my way and I will share them here.

I’m sure you know men who are more involved in their children’s lives than their own fathers would ever have dreamed of being — and the statistics show that those devoted dads are growing in number.

A U.S. Census Bureau report shows that about 32 percent of dads with children younger than 15 are regularly involved in childcare responsibilities, according to the Wall Street Journal.

I know, I know. That’s less than a third. Given that barely a quarter of dads could say the same thing ten years ago, though, I think that’s a statistic worth praising. As the trend picks up steam, maybe the percentage of dads with routine childcare responsibilities will be up to half by 2022.

The problem for these active dads is that they’re now realizing that they have to work at the same things that have concerned their wives all these years: How do you remain a go-getter at work while giving enough time to your kids, maintaining your own health and making sure that your marriage stays fresh? It’s never been easy for working moms, and working dads are now finding that the juggle takes more of their time and energy too.

You know what? I’m OK with that. I’m confident that just as women have found ways to rise to that challenge, men will do the same.

Good luck, dads!

The Social Security Administration, which compiles the list, announced the top names today.  Sophia, number 2  last year, was the most popular girl’s name. For the 13th year in a row, Jacob was the top boy’s name.

The girl’s list wasn’t much different than last year’s, but the boys had a few surprises.

 Mason was the No. 2 name, jumping 10 spots to claim that popular place.  That could be the influence of reality TV star Kourtney Kardashian, who had a son named Mason in 2010.  And Michael fell to No. 6, it’s lowest ranking since 1948.

 You can find the lists here, as well as explore popular names by the decade.  This lets you learn — or remember — that Jessica was the top girls name in 1990 and Jennifer topped the list in both 1980 and 1970.  You also can find out that Michael was the top boy’s name from 1961 through 1998, when it was supplanted by the now popular Jacob.

Girls Top 10 of 2011: Sophia, Isabella, Emma, Olivia, Ava, Emily, Abigail, Madison, Mia and Chloe.

Boys Top 10 of 2011: Jacob, Mason, William, Jayden, Noah, Michael, Ethan, Alexander, Aiden and Daniel.

This New York Times story does nothing to make me feel better. It talks about graduates who are buried under student debt — one woman just graduated from Ohio Northern University owing $120,000. That is not a typo: $120,000!

The story also pointed out that there is currently $1 trillion in student loans in the United States.

What’s a parent to do? My husband and I have been saving for college ever since my son was born, but I have to say the account balance looks pretty meager when compared to some tuition rates. Can we squeeze our budget each month to save a bit more? We’re going to try.

We’ve always told our son that his only job is to get good grades so that he will have lots of options when it comes time to apply for college. But is that fair? What if we can’t afford the school he chooses?

I’ve written before about how I struggled to pay for my own college, and I don’t want that for my son. I also don’t want him graduating with a ton of debt. If he goes to an in-state school, we’re fine because we did prepaid tuition. But his dream school is NYU — where tuition is currently $55,000 a year.

So yes … I guess we will keep saving and hope for the best.

This is the cover of Time magazine.

Time magazine’s cover story this week is about attachment parents, the Olympic athletes of child-rearing. If you’re an attachment parent, or you know one, you know the drill. It involves co-sleeping and babywearing as long as possible, among other things.

The idea, as advanced by renowned pediatrician Dr. William Sears, is that AP is about creating a sustained parent-child connection in a child’s earliest years. While there are some great ideas in the attachment parenting movement (babywearing is great!), some other things are raised-eyebrow-worthy.

Which brings me back to breastfeeding, and the cover, which features Los Angeles mom Jamie Lynne Grumet and her nearly-four-year-old son.

I’m supportive of breastfeeding. Really, I am (I nursed my own daughter until she was 13 months old). And I certainly understand and have read the studies showing that while children throughout the world self-wean at different times, many choose not to do so until they’re toddlers (this is especially the case in food-insecure countries).

But that photo gives me pause, especially in our society. In this country, it’s just, well, odd to breastfeed a preschool-age child. I’ve been known to joke that a child is too old for breastfeeding when the child can ask to nurse in a complete sentence.

I can’t imagine nursing a 3-year-old in this society. Sorry. I just can’t. And while I support any mom’s right to extended breastfeeding, I haven’t been able to figure out why any mom would want to do it. I loved nursing my kid, but I was thrilled when she began to self-wean, because I wanted full control of my own body again. And believe me, I feel plenty connected to her.

I also worry that photos like the one on Time’s cover will turn off women who are considering breastfeeding, because they’ll associate it with women like Grumet, whose approach to raising her children is certainly extreme compared with the parenting philosophy of the average American.

How long did you nurse? What did you think of the cover?

The 83-year-old was best known for ‘Where the Wild Things Are,’ a book whose pictures and story captivated my kids — and countless others.

Something about the boy in a wolf suit making mischief of one kind and another struck a cord with the preschool set, as did the monsters who “roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth” and then held a “wild rumpus.”  Because rumpus is a funny word, the monsters looked both fierce and lovable, and everyone understood the need to go a little nutty.

But the book also spoke of the reassurance of home and family, as the boy told the monsters  “No” — and headed back. Where, of course, dinner was waiting, still hot.

It was perfect.

Sugar, palm oil, hazelnuts and cocoa may yield a deliciously divine concoction, but they also provide a whopping 200 calories and 11 grams of fat in every two tablespoons.

I think my 7-year-old, if called to testify, could explain that Nutella was basically a spreadable dessert and, therefore, not a health food.

So why a lawsuit about whether Nutella could be part of a healthy, “balanced breakfast?”  Well Nutella said it was – on its package, its website and its commercials.

 In my house, we saw those commercials and giggled because, come on, it’s Nutella!

But the plaintiffs in the lawsuit said they felt duped, felt they’d been serving their kids something under false pretenses. So they sued.

“I thought it was at least as nutritious as peanut butter if not more and that’s the impression I got from the advertisement. I thought it had health benefits and it clearly doesn’t,” one of the mothers told ABC news.

Thanks to the lawsuit — which ended in a settlement with Nutella’s makers –anyone who purchased Nutella in the past several years can now file a claim and get reimbursed up to $4 per jar, for up to 5 jars.

We qualify, but we will not be seeking to join this particular action.  Because the ingredients and nutrition facts are right there on the label, so I figured we ate at our own peril and, as a result, only once in awhile.

 As the Chicago Tribune wrote, Nutella’s stats makes it a ”a poor nutritional choice when eaten straight from the jar, which is how we like it.”

But then, a quick stroll through Internet-land always makes me feel just a tiny bit better about myself. Last week, we had the New Jersey mom charged with child endangerment after allegedly taking her 5-year-old daughter into a tanning bed. (That story got so much attention that SNL did a skit on it.)

And today, there’s this: A mom who is accused of helping her 13-year-old daughter take nude photos of herself to send to her 30-year-old boyfriend. Classy.

Suddenly, I’m feeling like mother of the year!