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Children who are homeless or moving from home to home face longer odds when it comes to succeeding in school, but studies from the University of Minnesota have identified two key ways to help them overcome the obstacles of their living situations.

A review of 18,000 students in the Minneapolis Public Schools found achievement gaps in the first grade, with homeless children being more at risk than other children living in poverty. But solid reading skills offered a protective effect for homeless children. Higher reading scores in 1st grade predicted more academic success for these children by 3rd grade and 8th grade -- despite all of the potential barriers to success created by their homelessness.

"While early reading skills are clearly important for the later achievement of all students," said U of M researcher Janette Herbers, "they are even more important for the success of students whose future achievement is threatened by homelessness and extreme poverty."

A study of 138 five- and six-year-old children living in emergency family shelters in 2008 and 2009 found that children with better "executive function skills" had easier transitions to school and did better academically. The term refers to one's general level of attention, memory and self-control.

U of M researcher Ann Masten said it was important to confirm the link between executive function and academic success for homeless children, because researchers can now develop shelter preschools programs that focus on boosting executive function skills. Masten is collaborating with local shelter leaders to develop just such a program.

Daniel Gumnit of the People Serving People family shelter in Minneapolis said this kind of preschool approach is critical. "If we are serious about breaking the cycle of poverty for homeless and highly mobile children," he said, "we must focus on their executive functioning skills and emotional resiliency."

The two U of M studies were published in a special edition of the trade journal Educational Researcher.

... a new study published by the Minneapolis-based American Academy of Neurology found that African Americans generally had slower rates of cognitive decline in their senior years if they had gone without eating at points in their childhood or were slimmer than most children when they were 12.

The finding was surprising to researchers, in part because child poverty and the deprivation of food have all sorts of well-documented negative consequences on children -- including higher rates of mental illnesses and learning problems over time.

Researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago interviewed more than 6,100 elderly adults about their histories and then had them complete cognitive tests every three years for a period of 16 years. The tests showed more rapid cognitive declines among those who hadn't suffered from hunger early in life. The association held up -- albeit only for black people in the study -- even when factoring out other possible influences on cognitive decline such as heart conditions or education levels.

Why? The researchers aren't sure. Other studies have found some benefits of calorie restriction in terms of delaying age-related conditions and increasing lifespan. Another explanation could be a selective survival effect. The older participants in the study "may represent the hardiest and most resilient; those with the most extreme adversity may have died before reaching old age." The proportion of whites in the study who reported childhood hunger was also fairly low. So it's possible the study didn't have enough white participants to notice any connection between early hunger and later cognitive decline in that racial group.

The occasion of a princess being hospitalized for severe morning sickness -- which brings about the risk of dehydration and other complications -- sure brought up a lot of jokes. Take a comment in a recent Gawker article on the hospital admission of pregnant Princess Kate Middleton:

"The Palace also reported that Kate was admitted to the hospital today with “hyperemesis gravidarum,” which is what they call regular old morning sickness when you are a princess."

Kinda funny. Of course, the crack is belittling to women who suffer from this condition and have such bad pregnancy-induced nausea that serious health problems are possible. But I digress. I'll let this CNN article on the condition and this first-person account of a husband with an ill wife do the explaining.

Adolescents often know what they are supposed to do, but don't do it anyway. (See: homework, chores, junk food, hygiene, etc.) Turns out, they can be just as reckless when dealing with their own type 1 diabetes.

National studies show that blood sugar levels worsen when diabetic children reach their adolescent and teen years. Often due to disbelief or despair -- or because they assume more responsibility from their parents -- diabetic teens get a little sloppy with their diet, exercise and medication habits.

"The most difficult time for kids … is the transition from being sort of under the care of their parents to more of an independent role as they are maturing to become adults," said Dr. Brandon Nathan, a specialist in pediatric endocrinology at the University of Minnesota. "It's a time when adolescent patients are really looking at 'why me? I don't want to do this any more,' even though they often times know the consequences of not dealing with the disease."

A U of M study is testing a solution that researchers hope will motivate teens with type 1 diabetes to take better care of themselves. Instead of the usual treks to clinics to talk with doctors and nurses, diabetic teens will participate in online clinic visits and view educational materials created at the U of M in which the information is delivered by teens.

"We really wanted to harness the power of an adolescent delivering information to another adolescent," Nathan said. "What doesn't work with adolescents is adults giving them the scared straight talk ... That's just not an effective way to communicate with them and get messages across."

Getting a handle on teen diabetes is significant. Some public health experts predict a tripling of type 1 diabetes cases in teens over the next 40 years. Type 1 is an autoimmune disease in which the body produces no insulin at all to move sugar from the bloodstream. Type 2 is when the body starts to produce too little insulin, often as a result of poor diet and exercise. Both diseases can result in severe health problems if they aren't managed.

The U of M will test its online education on 20 teens with levels of type 1 diabetes that are so severe that they need insulin pumps to maintain their blood sugar levels. Half the teens will receive the online education and the other half will receive standard medical care and education. Nathan said the researchers will monitor the teens in part by how they use their insulin pumps and whether they are able to maintain consistent, healthy blood sugar levels.

"The goal is to really empower them with this knowledge so it's not just us telling them what to do," Nathan said. "We never want to let diabetes get in the way of what they want to do, whether it’s a sport ... or some other activity. We want them to learn how to make sure their diabetes fits into whatever they want to do."

The study is part of the postdoctoral fellowship of Ewa Oberdorfer in the U of M's pediatric endocrinology program. If the approach proves effective, it could be studied in a larger group and then one day used broadly by clinicians. Interested families can contact Nathan at natha039@umn.edu or 612-625-6738.

A judge in Racine, Wisc., did exactly that Monday when he told a man behind on child support payments that he couldn't have more kids until his debts were paid in full. The man owes $100,000 in child support, and has nine children with six different mothers.

At the prompting of the Racine County prosecutor, judge Tim Boyle stated the no-more-kids condition as part of a probation sentence for the father, Corey Curtis. Boyle lamented that he didn't have the legal authority to order sterilization.

"Common sense dictates you shouldn't have kids you can't afford," the judge said.

Legal scholars debate whether such an order is constitutional in the U.S., but there is legal precedent in the state of Wisconsin. A 4-3 decision in a 2001 case by the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that another father -- who coincidentally had also fathered nine children -- could be barred from having more kids until he showed he could financially support his current children. (Among the arguments in that majority opinion: the man was being given probation instead of time in prison, where he surely wouldn't have any kids.)

The judge in Racine determined that his ruling was sufficiently narrow, in that Curtis had a way to have children again if he so desired, said Mike Steenson, a professor who teaches constitutional law at the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul. "He can pay his way out of the restriction. If he pays his child support, he can have more children."

Steenson disagrees with the ruling, though, and believes that it -- and other rulings like it -- violate the U.S. Constitution and the American right to procreation. He said there are more rulings like this than are known, and that most receive little attention and don't get appealed. (In news coverage of the Curtis case, it does not appear that Curtis will appeal either.)

American legal history on this issue traces back to 1927, when the U.S. Supreme Court made a ruling in favor of a Virginia statute permitting the sterilization of a woman who was deemed mentally retarded. In reference to the fact that the woman's mother and first child also had mental disabilities, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes issued the infamous quote that "three generations of imbeciles is enough."

American law has gradually moved away from this decision, though, which was based on the notion of "eugenics" and that the nation should weed out deficient gene pools.

Regarding forced sterilization of criminals, the High Court ruled in 1942 in the case of Skinner vs. Oklahoma that sterilization could not be a condition of sentencing for a crime.

Steenson said there is no guiding Minnesota case law on this issue. He wondered how law enforcement could possible trace and enforce such a condition.

The gun control debate following the murder-suicide by a Kansas City Chiefs player -- and NBC commentator Bob Costas' bold statement on the matter -- got me thinking about a tangent issue I have covered a lot in the past: the relationship between gun access and teen suicide.

There is ample research showing that states with higher rates of gun ownership tend to have higher rates of teen suicide. A study out of the University of Washington also showed that teen suicide was less likely in homes with guns when the owners locked the guns and bullets in separate locations. Many communities have now given out free trigger locks to gun owners, hoping to make guns harder to access and use in the transient moments when people consider taking their own lives.

But the latest data shows that the solution when it comes to teen suicide, anyway, isn't quite as simple as locking up the guns. Firearms used to be the most common means of teen suicide in Minnesota by far. But since 2005, guns have accounted for less than half of the deaths. Hanging/strangulation is now the most common means in Minnesota. (There were 45 teen suicides in Minnesota in 2010; 14 involving guns and 21 involving hanging. The annual number of teen suicides overall in Minnesota has hovered around 40 to 45 for the past 30 years.)

"If you just address firearms, you're going to still lose people," said Dan Reidenberg of the Bloomington-based SAVE suicide prevention organization. "We cant just think about it in terms of addressing one mechanism, because when someone is in that much pain and suffering, and hurting so deeply, they will look for other means. They will most often look for what is easily accessible."

Prevention campaigns still need to focus on firearms, which account for roughly half of the suicides nationally, he said, but other means can be restricted as well. Barriers can be erected on bridges from which people have jumped. Windows can be sealed on college campuses. In terms of restricting access to sources of strangulation, parents can take steps, he said, by limiting access to cords or ropes or plastic bags -- especially for teens who have been depressed or thought about suicide.

Gun restriction "is effective, but it's not the only thing that is effective," Reidenberg said. "That's the most important message."