AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard wrote about a study of obesity among toddlers that got a lot of play nationally last week. Thirty-two percent of white youngsters were overweight or obese compared to 44 percent of the Hispanic children. The only factors researchers could find that seemed correlated were the weight of the mother and whether the toddlers were still going to bed with a bottle at age 3. Authors of the study included Rachel Kimbro of the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn of Teachers College. All of the children studied were poor. Only four percent of the black children and six percent of white children went to bed with a bottle; among Hispanic children, 14 percent did so. Overweight preschoolers have a five times higher risk of being fat at age 12 than do lean preschoolers, scientists reported last fall, according to the AP article.

It would take some delicate reporting. But other journalists could ask the directors of Head Start programs, pre-kindergarten programs and others what they're doing to try to help their young students learn new ways of eating. Another line of inquiry involves asking them what they're doing to help parents learn to feed their children better.