This week, I will ask our pediatrician whether my toddler son needs to start taking vitamins like these, Dr. Sears Brainy Kidz Go Fish Omega 3 soft chews and Little Champions Children’s Multivitamin soft chews.

I am willing to do anything to beef up my kids’ immunity and brain development. But there’s plenty of pros who say vitamins aren’t necessary if your child eats a healthy diet.

The question of Do Kids Need Vitamins? is a hot topic on blogs like Babble. Read the contrasting answers here.

Do you think vitamins for kids improve their health? Or are they just a marketing ploy and waste of money?

Get ready to do cartwheels, hand-springs and somersaults over this week’s SouthernMamas giveaway.

CoachWayne2GO, whose team of gymnasts bring their mobile gym and gymnastic and tumbling instruction to your neighborhood or child’s school, is giving away FOUR weeks of classes for free for one student (either preschool or schoolage, the winner’s choice).

Typically, four weeks of a preschool class cost $50 and four weeks of school-age class (6+ yrs.) costs $70.

If the winner chooses to sign up after the free classes,  he or she will not charged the $35 registration fee.

Check out the rules below to enter to win:

To enter to win, find the answer to this question. CoachWayne2Go currently offers lessons at six locations. Name one. Hint: visit the CoachWayne2GO Web site by clicking here and scroll down.  Email your answer and YOUR NAME to anne@southernmamas.com. Entry period closes 9 pm Thurs. Feb. 19.

We’ll pick a name at random and announce the winner Fri. Feb. 20.

CoachWayne2GO’s mobile gym teaches budding gymnasts, as well as cheerleaders, martial artists, baton twirlers, dancers or anyone else who needs to improve their tumbling skills.

Sign up by calling 1-888-548-4545 or 912.238.1747 or email: Coach@CoachWayne.com.

Confused about which peanut butter brands and products are not affected by the historic outbreak of salmonella stemming from one plant in Georgia?

Click here to read the official list of brands NOT affected by the recall. Looks like Jif, Skippy, Peter Pan are all fine.

Dianne Humes, a Savannah mother of two, has a rare form of lymphoma and needs a bone marrow match to save her life.

You may be her miracle match.

Dianne’s incredibly supportive friends have organized two bone marrow donor drives:

• 8:30 AM-6 PM, Fri. Feb. 13 in the Eckburg Lobby @ Savannah Christian Preparatory school.

OR

• 10 AM – 6 PM Sat. Feb. 28 @ Vickery’s in Southbridge.

Anyone, age 18-60, who meets the health guidelines, is eligible to donate and could end up being the life-saving match for Dianne.

We know y’all are busy. But donating is cinchy and will take only about 15 minutes. At the drive, you just fill out some paperwork requesting basic information as well as some health info. No needles. No blood. (Read more about donating by clicking here.)  A $25 cost pays for typing of the marrow and is 100-percent tax deductible. You will be given four cotton swabs to swab the inside of your mouth in the cheek areas. The swabs are then placed in a plastic bag and ready to go for typing. Viola.

The information is then confidentially placed on a NATIONAL DONOR registry. If you are a match, then further testing will be required.

There are thousands and thousands of different bone marrow types, says Dianne’s friend Suzanne Smallwood. “This is why it is so critical to get as many people on the list as we possibly can,” says Suzanne. “Our priority is to find a match for Dianne. But our hopes are that we will not only find Dianne’s match, but others as well.”

Once on the registry, you can remove your name at anytime for any reason.

We wish Dianne and her family all the strength in the world to beat this cancer.

(Dianne is pictured here with husband Chris and children Molly and Hayden)

Are you concerned about complications associated with c-sections? This new study here details some of the risks, including breathing and feeding problems and infections.

Many moms who undergo c-sections want vaginal births after a c-section (also known as VBAC), but are denied that option. I write about c-sections vs. VBACs in my Sunday column this week in the Accent section of the Savannah Morning News. Read it here.

Whereas VBACs were briefly popular a few years ago, increasing from 3 percent to 28 percent from 1981 and 1996, now the trend is more toward “once a cesarean, always a cesarean.” More and more doctors have banned VBACs. One of the few local practices that still offers VBACs when appropriate is Provident OB/GYN Associates.

To find out more about the risky rise of c-sections nationally, visit the Georgia chapter of the International Cesarean Awareness Network here.

Dyslexia is one of the most misunderstood learning difficulties.

But help is available. The Reading Quest Learning Center in Pooler – a new sponsor of SouthernMamas – specializes in dyslexia and non-medication programs for ADD/ADHD. Recently, Reading Quest also added a program for autism.

Lesa Hall, who holds a B.S. in Education and has 15 years of teaching experience, founded Reading Quest Learning Center in May 2006. She uses the Davis Dyslexia Correction Program that addresses the learning styles of children and adults with dyslexia and ADD/ADHD.

The center’s philosophy is that dyslexia is not a disease, defect, or malformation of the brain, but a highly creative thought process and a special way of reacting to confusion.

The goal of Reading Quest’s 5-day intensive/one-on-one dyslexia program – which is also open to adults – is for the student to acquire the basic tools of literacy including:
-The ability to recognize and correct disorientations at will
-The ability to focus attention
-The knowledge of how to eliminate confusions in words and symbols
-Increased self-confidence and ability in reading writing math or physical skills

Reading Quest is offering a free consultation and assessment with a 10 percent discount off the program fee.

Read more about Reading Quest’ s dyslexia sessions by clicking here; by calling 912.330.8577 or emailing lesa@readingquestga.com.

The center’s new autism program is for children 8 and older as well as adults. Non-verbal students are accepted. For more info on the one-on-one, 4 to 5 week autism sessions, click here. Call 912.330.8577 to schedule a free presentation of the program.

We gripe a little on SouthernMamas about how tough it can be for some to lose that baby weight.

But just imagine if you had roughly 350 pounds to drop or risk serious health consequences, i.e. death. And you decided to try to lose the weight on national TV.

Meet longtime Savannah resident and 500-pound Ruby Gettinger who is doing just that. Ruby is the subject of my column today in the Accent section of the Savannah Morning News. Read the column here.

Ruby will be the star of an upcoming reality series on the Style Network that documents her struggle to become a fit, healthy person. Ruby’s been overweight since she was 8 years old.

As a society, we tend to have little sympathy for people who are obese. But I predict viewers – thin and fat – will fall in love with Ruby and her quirky sense of humor after the reality show “Ruby” premieres Nov. 9. And we’ll all be rooting for Ruby.

You’ve done everything to lose that baby weight, but you still can’t fit into your skinny jeans.

A new Savannah group provides fitness you can do with your child in tote. Stroller Fitness meets @ 9 am Tues/Thurs @ Daffin Park playground @ the corner of Washington and Waters avenues.

The class will consist of walking, running, and strength training for moms in need of exercise. Kristen Pate, former Fleet Feet store manager and new mom, is going to be joining the workouts and helping out.

The first workout is tomorrow, 9 am Tues., Sept. 23. Cost: free for Sept 23 and then $10 a session.

Contact: Melissa Safrit Bowen at melissasafrit@aol.com

Bring: Stroller with child, weights(3-5lbs-can buy at Target), towel, 2 bottles of water and optional (sports drink & snack).

Thank you to Jordan Chase for telling us about this new group!

Bellybar is giving away a gift package of nutritious treats to a lucky SouthernMamas subscriber.

The package is teeming with Bellybar’s delicious, all-natural snacks for women before, during and after pregnancy – bars, chews, shakes and more. DHA never tasted so good! Even if you aren’t pregnant or a recent new mom, these make fun shower and baby gifts.

The winner goody bag includes:

1-5 count box of our improved Berry Nutty Cravings flavor – now with yogurt coating

1-pouch of Citrus On Board Bellybar Chews

1-bar of each additional flavor: Baby Needs Chocolate, Mellow Oat, and Burstin’ Chocolate

1-of each flavor Bellybar Shake, Vanilla Dreams and Due for Chocolate

To be eligible to win, email us the correct answer to this question. This week, a free puppet show is being performed @ two Live Oak public library branches. What classic book is the puppet show based on? Hint: read the post below “Online Newsletter: Best Bets for the Week Ahead.”

Email the answer and your name to anne@southernmamas.com. Deadline is 9 pm Thurs. Sept. 25. Send email to anne@southernmamas.com. We’ll pick a name at random and announce the winner here Friday.

You have to be a SouthernMamas subscriber to participate. Subscribing is free. Click here to do so.

Bellybar has the tastes you crave, the nutrition you need. For more nutrition info, click here or or call 800-95-BELLY. Enter to win great prizes each month through the Bellybytes Newsletter! Sign up here.

Anyone else relieved to see that Target is finally carrying BPA-free BornFree bottles?

So are other retailers, which is good news to moms concerned about using plastics containing the risky chemical BPA. The FDA says BPA is safe, but other agencies – and tests – say differently. Prompting some to question whether the FDA is biased toward the industry that profits from BPA-laden baby products.

Read my column in today’s Accent section of the Savannah Morning News to find out more. Click here to read it.

You can find more products that are BPA, PVC and phthalates free @ The Soft Landing, a site started by an RN and mother of three. In addition to sippy cups etc., the site also has toothbrushes, teething rings, and bibs — all without risky chemicals.

Babble.com also put together a guide of BPA-free bottles – with photos of the products – so you don’t have to settle for risky bottles. Click here.

UPDATE: Just for Baby & More dropped all of feeding products that were not BPA free. The Savannah store @ 7701 Waters Ave. also carries Born Free bottles; Dr Browns new BPA-free bottles; the Medela bottles, which also is BPA free. Just for Baby & More also has the full line of BPA-free feeding accessories- sippy cup, bowl, snack ball, silverware – from Boone and toddler sippy cup/bottles from iplay.

Does Sarah ‘Barracuda’ Palin make you marvel and wonder “How does the supermom do it all?”

If so, you’re not alone. Be sure to read my column “Pitbull in lipstick’ puts moms to the test” in today’s Savannah Morning News Accent section. Read the column by clicking here.

But a much better article is this one from the New York Times about parents of special-needs children being divided over Palin’s promise to help. Read it by clicking here. The question raised is what Palin, whose youngest son has Down syndrome, would seek to accomplish for disabled children as vice president.

Parents of special-needs children ask whether her promise to help in her nomination speech means she will improve services and financing for special-needs children; get rid of Medicaid wait lists to get kids services; quickly pass the American with Disabilities restoration act?

Would love to hear from any parents of special-needs kids about your take on Palin’s promise that you would “have a friend and advocate in the White House” in a McCain-Palin administration. As the NYT article points out:

“The last time a candidate explicitly appealed to families of the disabled at a national convention, advocates said, was 20 years ago, when the presidential nominee, George H.W. Bush, endorsed the Americans with Disabilities Act — and got a 10 percentage point bump among voters who identified themselves as having disabilities.”

More than 11,100 U.S. women younger than 40 will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year. More than 1,100 will die.

Not trying to depress you, but trying to illustrate the need for young women to take the risk of breast cancer seriously. Don’t ignore a lump or other irregularity in your breast because you think you are too young for breast cancer.

My column in today’s Accent section of the Savannah Morning News is about the journey of a Wilmington Island woman diagnosed at 37, when her daughters were 7 and 4. Read the column here. She went on to form a local support group through the Young Survival Coalition for other young women facing breast cancer.

Learn more about the support group, which meets once a month on a Sunday (to accommodate working women), by attending the Pink Tea “Celebration of Life” , Sun., Sept. 7, 2-4 pm @ the Wilmington Island Club, 501 Wilmington Island Road. Tickets are $5 per person and must be purchased in advance. Purchase tickets by clicking here or call Susan Richardson at 912.897.3933 or srisland@aol.com.

Ladies of all ages are encouraged to attend and there will even be activities for young girls if you would like to include your daughters.

Tickets can also be purchased at the following spots:

Wilmington Island Golf Shop: 501 Wilmington Island Road, 912.897.1615

Transformation Station, Nancy N and J.C. Lewis Cancer & Research Pavilion, 912.819.8386

The Misty Marsh Shoppe, 7906 US 80 E, 912.898.9399

Merle Norman Studio, 216 Johnny Mercer Blvd # A, 912.897.5705

Colonial Quilts, 11710-A Largo Drive, 912.925.0055

Popular Thursday morning story and sing-along time @ Bull Street Library goes on summer holiday this week until after Labor Day.

So what’s a mom to do come Thursday morning? Check out Squats N’ Tots – a mommy-and-me fitness class held every Thursday, 11:30 am-12:15 pm @ the Heart & Lung Building, Suite 120, on the Candler Hospital campus, 5353 Reynolds St.

The class helps stretch and strengthen overused body parts, as well as focus on muscle endurance, low impact aerobics and abdominal work. Babies ages 6 weeks to 1 year can participate or watch sitting next to Mom. To pre-register, call 912.819.6463.

The foreboding fall doesn’t have to signal a swimming hiatus for your kids.

The Chatham County Aquatic Center offers swim lessons, teams and camps during even the coldest months. Find out more about Starfish Swim School classes and the Savannah swim team @ a Parents Open House. It will be 6-8 pm Thurs. Aug. 21 at the indoor swim center @ 7420 Sallie Mood Drive.

Deadline for registration for swim classes is Aug. 29!! So don’t delay.

A variety of classes are offered, including Starbabies for ages 6 months to 36 months. That class helps such very young children develop a high comfort level in the water while at the same time training parents in water safety. One parent must be in the water with each child. Be prepared for lots of singing (“Splashes. Splashes. We all blow bubbles….”) Sessions offered include Tuesdays/Thursdays or Saturdays. Click here for the fall class schedule.

Other classes include:

SeaSprites for ages 3-5: swim skills through creative water activities.
SeaStars for ages 6-8: core swimming skills and the opportunity to progress to advanced strokes;
SwimStars for ages 9 and older: swimming skills, water safety, water sports and adventure learning activities.
StrokeStars for any age that meets the skills requirement: refine freestyle and learn stroke technique for backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and more.
AngelFish program for special-needs children

Classes cost $50 for non members and $45 for non-member consecutive session/second child; $38 for members and $33 for member consecutive session/second child. Call 912.652.6793. Learn more by clicking here.

Would love to know your thoughts on my column today in the Savannah Morning News Accent section. The subject: to spank or not to spank? You can read it here.

The column prompted several emails from anti-spanking advocates, including the folks @ the Center for Effective Discipline, which subscribes to the belief “Spare the child, lose the rod.” They pointed me to a Q&A for parents with experts answering parents’ questions about discipline. Read it by clicking here. Their Web site also offers a theory on the origin of Biblical quote “Spare the rod, spoil the child.” Read it here.

Check out an extremely detailed debate about spanking between parenting expert John Rosemond, pro-spanking, and the Center for Effective Discipline, anti-spanking. Click here to read it.

Here’s a chance to wear your summer pinks one last time AND support breast cancer survivors.

Pink Tea “Celebration of Life” will be Sun., Sept. 7, 2-4 pm @ the Wilmington Island Club, 501 Wilmington Island Road.
Tickets are $5 per person and proceeds benefit Young Survival Coalition Volunteers, which is a group that supports young women living with breast cancer.

Ladies of all ages are encouraged to attend and there will even be activities for young girls if you would like to include your daughters.

Purchase tickets by clicking here or call Susan Richardson at 912.897.3933 or srisland@aol.com.

The tea is a casual event. Dress in pink or just your casual attire. There will be informational displays, raffle/silent auction items and refreshments.

Tossing out all your baby bottles that contained BPA and replacing them with BPA-free bottles?

If those bad bottles came from Babies R Us, the chain store is making it easy to dump them. Babies R Us reportedly has a generous return policy when it comes to allowing concerned parents to exchange the hard, plastic bottles that contain bisphenol-A for ones that are BPA-free.

Bisphenol-A, which is added to polycarbonate plastic, has come under scrutiny in recent months after studies linked it to potential health problems in animals and humans. A draft report issued by the National Toxicology Program in April found BPA could cause “neural and behavioral effects in fetuses, infants and children” and may be linked to breast cancer, prostate cancer and early puberty in girls.”

Babies R U saw sales of glass baby bottles and BPA-free bottles jump in 2007 and will phase out baby products containing BPA by the end of the year. Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, and Toys R Us, the largest toy seller, have said that by January their shelves will be free of children’s products containing BPA.

The bottle exchange reportedly various from store to store. So call ahead to find a store that honors the BPA-free return policy.

Read more about the BPA-free bottle exchange here. For a list of BPA-free bottles and sippy cups, click here.

Looking for a soccer league for the kids?

Fall registration is under way with Savannah Celtic, a league that started with over 250 kids its first year and jumped to more than 500 two seasons later.

Savannah Celtic strives to keep the cost of its programs as affordable as possible so that as many children as possible can enjoy soccer. Started by two men from the United Kingdom, the premise of the club is to promote soccer locally to everyone, no matter of age, gender, race, ability or social demographic.

For more info and to register online, click here

The league is also always seeking coaches who’d like to make a contribution to the community by supporting local children. Interested in coaching? Call 912.495.9996

Happy Easter.

Of course, it’s a busy day. But when you get a chance, please check out my column today in the Savannah Morning News about a remarkable Savannah couple’s story “When a miscarriage is prevented.”

Anyone who has suffered a miscarriage knows you’re usually told that, chances are, the loss was your body’s way of ending an unhealthy pregnancy. But not all miscarriages are the result of fetal chromosome abnormalities.

The story of Sean and Stefanie Reeder and their very healthy 22-month old son, Grant (pictured here) is proof that some miscarriages can and should be prevented. Thank you Sean and Stefanie for sharing such a personal, emotional story.

To see the Lori Grice photo of Sean and Stefanie – the one which captures their “I’m pregnant!” moment and is mentioned in the column – click here.