Educational TV for under-twos has little benefit, says US report
TV programmes and films marketed as "educational" are of little value to children under two, according to US paediatricians. They say there is even some evidence that exposure to TV at this age has a "negative effect" on language ....
Egg donor compensation expected to triple
The UK's fertility watchdog is considering tripling the compensation given to women who donate eggs to help infertile couples have a child. Donors currently receive up to £250 to cover expenses and lost earnings. The Human Fertilisation and E....
Mum-derated! Two thirds of mothers reveal they feel insulted by 'housewife' label
They pride themselves on taking care of the children while running the family home. Just don’t insult them by calling them housewives. Two-thirds of mothers who have given up work detest the term ‘housewife’ and prefer to be des....
Hearing Bilingual: How Babies Sort Out Language
Once, experts feared that young children exposed to more than one language would suffer “language confusion,” which might delay their speech development. Today, parents often are urged to capitalize on that early knack for acquiring langu....
Breastfed babies are smarter and get a better chance in life
Encouraging disadvantaged mothers to breastfeed should be a key part of the government's plan for improving social mobility, according to leading academics and health experts. Their demand comes as research into the effects of breastfeeding, to be p....
Why the fairer sex is also the tougher one: Women have superior systems to men
For centuries they’ve been labelled as the weaker sex. But when it comes to the battlefield of illness and infections, women are far more robust than their male counterparts. For it appears Mother Nature has given women a superior immune syste....
Coffee may prevent depression, scientists say
Women who drink two or more cups of coffee a day are less likely to get depressed, research suggests. It is not clear why it might have this effect, but the authors believe caffeine in coffee may alter the brain's chemistry. Decaffeinated coffee did....
School kids 'need 9 hours of sleep'
Young children who sleep for less than nine hours per night and have no bedtime routine do not perform as well in school as their peers, the results of a new study indicate. Spanish researchers looked at almost 150 children aged six and seven from d....
Damning report claims parents shower offspring with gifts to make up for lack of quality care
Pressured parents mistakenly shower their children with expensive gadgets and designer labels in a bid to keep them happy - but all youngsters want is a secure family life, a new report reveals. In an alarming move towards 'compulsive consumerism' m....
