Bedtime Stories on iPods

There is now a trend to reading your kid's bedtime stories on iPods. The kingpin of this idea is a guy named Don Katz who has this vision that technology should meet the Brother's Grimm. In fact I am sure he is right about this theory that more kids would know a little more about culture if only it was a little more high tech in practice. I know this could be true because I have seen how much my own children absolutely adore gadgets – especially their iPods. Of course they are going to want to listen to bed time stories more than they are going to want to read them.

Nearly one third of children who are between six and ten years old regularly take advantage of digital audio plyers. Don Katz has a site called Audible Kids where your kid can easily download their books directly onto digital audio players. It does not seem that this will ever do much for reading. Maybe it will do something for making kids a little more culturally literate.

I have also heard my friends talk about this remarkable phenomenon where you just put headphones on kids, put on the bedtime story and they just fall asleep.

Last year in 2007 Katz says that kid and teen books made up for 13% of all audiobook downloads. He got this figure from the Audio Publishers Association. This is probably a trend that will explode, especially when they find out how easily it can put kids asleep.

On AudibleKids social skills are taught as well. Kids are encouraged to get online and talk about the audio book they just listened with them. There are also teachers and moderators on AudibleKids and sometimes even authors show up on the site.

AudibleKids has a lot of books from the Random House Listening Library. Fisher-Price and Disney are now getting into the game and even manufacture kid-friendly audio players that a kid as young as two years old can manage.

So will a reliance on audio books make a child more reluctant when it comes to learning how to read? Katz says no. He things that starting them off on digital media will encourage a life long love affair with books and prompt them to be more curious about the print form of the story that they listen to digitally.

Movie stars are getting into reading these things in a big way. Tony Shaloub and Gwyneth Paltrow are the voices reading audiobooks right now. Of course they were inspired to do this from reading bedtime stories to their own children.

One thing I am a little wary of is the way that Katz markets these books as being a replacement for the bedtime story that the busy parent would usually read to the child. I don't think I want to be replaced by an iPod.

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Tests Preventing Miscarriages

Miscarriage is a terrible experience to go through. Many women have them before they conceive their first child. Even more have them after conceiving that first child. The older you are, the more stressed you are – the more likely you are to miscarry.

So what causes miscarriages really? Scientists say it is a random flaw in our chromosomes. This accident is known as a random chromosomal error. Mother Nature makes an fertilized egg that is a dud and tells our body to get rid of it. Usually this happens in the first trimester. Women who have tow or even three miscarriages are also likely to just be told again and again that the chromosomes are to blame and that it is normal. It takes at least three big losses before a doctor will investigate this matter further. This is because, in essence the miscarriage is more the norm than the exception. They are considered to be natural occurrence.

However according to an article by Rachel Rabkin Pechmien in Parenting magazine it is now crucial to ask your doctor to test you. This si because research has shown that nearly one third of pregnancy losses are actually caused by a disease or disorder that is treatable. The challenge is that it was not diagnosed before the woman got pregnant.

Some doctors such as Mary Stephenson who is an expert on the subject and an M.D. at the Chicago Recurrent Pregnancy Loss Program says that you need to ask your doctor directly for that chromosomal testing. If you have lost more than one fetus you should ask rather than waste your time going through the nausea and other symptoms of first trimester pregnancy.

Testing is simple. When you have a miscarriage tell the doctor you want the tissue from it to be tested. It needs to be sent to a genetics lab by your doctor so it can be analyzed.

Basically if the resuts show that the miscarriage was due to a random chromosomal error then you probably are not at risk for a miscarriage in the near future. If there is no result like this then your doctor should test you again before you conceive. This can help prevent future tragedies.

Keep in mind that there are all kinds of tests available to prevent problems with miscarriages. There are also all sorts of causes. These include proboems such as an inherited genetic abnormalty, endocrine disorders, problems with the uterus being disfigured or problems with an immune system (especially a compromised immune system.)

The reason you want to get that early testing is because some of these conditions may be treatable. Getting tested early and a quick diagnosis could be your first step toward having a healthy baby and avoiding the heartbreak of miscarriage. All you have to do is ask for the test.

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