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.

The coverage by the New York Times and the Associated Press of the newest report from the nation's longest running study of child care got picked up by news organizations everywhere. The report gave top billing to the positive effects of high quality care on vocabulary although it also acknowledged a slight increase in problem behaviors among fifth graders, apparently correlated with the amount of time they spent being cared for outside the home.

The Associated Press produced a Sunday story follow-up that also was widely carried. This is a story any news organization could have done. Why do it? Try, survival? A blog called World Views posted a four paragraph excerpt from the Times' first day story. At last count, the item had attracted 65 comments. Many of the comments are thoughtful and even anguished considerations of the tradeoffs facing families with children needing two incomes.

The Times carried six letters in response to the story. Here's an excerpt from one:

We live in a country in which most women work outside the home and are also responsible for child rearing; ours is also one of the only developed countries with no national policy on maternity leave. It is no surprise, then, that we have no coherent philosophy for day care.

As money is poured into studies, American day care continues to morph into an increasingly unstable structure, one with no real foundation or plan.

Suzanne Perez Tobias of the Wichita Eagle Beacon reports that the Kansas Health Foundation is spending $400,000 to develop an assessment of how ready five-year-olds in the state are to start school.The Kansas Health Institute will develop the assessment. "Until now, we haven't really had a systematic way of understanding how 'school-ready' children are," Robert St. Peter, a pediatrician and president of the Institute, told the paper. "This will give us some look at how we're doing, but even more importantly, the ability to track it over time."

Tobias did what many reporters writing such stories do not: she included some specific details of what it means to be "ready" for school. " 'Ready to learn' means using the bathroom by yourself, sharing a toy, listening to a story, being curious. It means holding a pencil correctly, treating books gently, asking questions and taking turns."

She also, however, reports that researchers contend that at least a third of American children are not ready to learn. And she implies that children's brains are virtually complete by the age of five, meaning that their capacity to keep learning is established and set by that age. I'd like to see journalists temper such statements: all children, regardless of their circumstances, are "ready to learn." They simply can't help it. Humans are learning machines.And they keep learning until they die. At least I hope they do.

She also noted that the results of the asssessment would be ready prior to the 2008 legislative session in the state. Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius made investing in pre-k a centerpiece of her re-election campaign but offered only modest programs in her legislative agenda. Tobias reports that even these timid efforts are unlikely to be approved. The results of the assessments will no doubt be used to justify more spending. Journalists need to make sure they don't get caught up in campaigns, no matter how worthy.