If you’re like most people, your car is more than just a means of transportation — much, much more. It represents freedom. Your independence to go places, choose your own path and for the adventurous types, discovering the previously unexplored.

For nearly a century the hyper-mobile society we live in has meant we have developed a deep love affair with our automobiles. The social interdependence between human and machine is undeniable, but it goes farther than that.

There’s a psychological dependence too...

BBC News is reporting that there is a new ‘Guide to help parents to spot ‘problem behaviour’’, while The Daily Telegraph claims that ‘More than one million parents could be offered state-funded lessons in how to play with their children under NHS guidelines’.

Both reports are based on new guidelines, published today by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), into a condition known as conduct disorder.

Conduct disorder is a relatively common but often overlooked mental health condition in children and you...

There may be no common pain worse than an earache—for babies, kids and parents alike. Even a mild one can be crippling, and the misery can usually be traced to acute otitis media, a.k.a. the dreaded ear infection.

Ear infections occur in the middle ear region behind the eardrum, when the Eustachian tube that connects the throat to this space swells and prevents air from entering the middle ear. The resulting suction can pull in fluid instead. If this fluid becomes infected, an earache isn’t far behind.

Once upon a time, that meant antibiotics, but experts say that only one in eight childre...

“Almost 2,000 British children a year die from ‘avoidable’ causes because family doctors lack training in paediatric care,” The Independent alarmingly claims.

The story comes from a review of health services for children across 15 countries in the European Union. It found that while child survival rates have improved greatly in the past 30 years, many countries are not keeping pace with changing patterns in child health.

Increasingly, non-infectious chronic disorders such as asthma have become causes of disability and death, as have accidental causes such as poisoning and injury.

The revie...

The federal agency that protects patients in U.S. clinical trials has concluded that leading universities didn’t adequately inform parents of the risk of death or blindness in a study of how much oxygen should be given to very premature infants.

The Office for Human Research Protections concluded that the study of 1,300 babies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and elsewhere between 2004 and 2009 posed risks to the patients that weren’t adequately described to parents...

One of my best memories of childhood was the wonderful feeling I got at the beginning of the school holidays. The prospect of weeks of days spreading ahead with absolutely nothing to do – except have fun!

My family didn’t go away on holidays much: all my overseas travel I have done as an adult, and we only travelled to see family in Townsville, Canberra and Melbourne on a few occasions. Most of our holidays were spent at home and we made the most of what was before us: our back yard, our friends and the park two blocks up the road.

The feeling of being able to ‘figure out’ what we were goi...

The list of foods you’re not supposed to eat during pregnancy can be mind-boggling. Will one sushi roll or a tuna sandwich really make a difference? Registered dietician Bridget Swinney weighs in on the dos and don’ts of food safety when you’re expecting.

Giving up your favorite foods isn’t fun, and it’s OK to give in to pregnancy cravings once in a while. The question of what’s safe to eat during pregnancy is best answered by what’s not.

Some fish is fine, but skip sushi

High mercury content in fish like ahi tuna, orange roughy, swordfish and others can be dangerous, but it doesn’t mean you ...

Scientists at the Sixth World Congress of Paediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery, held this week in Cape Town, spoke of promising new developments in their field. “It is the best of times – we are achieving amazing new insights in cardiac development,” said Dudley Woodrow Benson, cardiology department researcher at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre.

The congress, which is hosting over 2 400 delegates from around the world, is being held in Africa for the first time...

When a child comes down with a cold, many parents head straight for a bottle of children’s cold medicine. Don’t bother.

A common cold is the most frequent illness people get with more than 200 viruses causing these infections. Older children and adults get two to four colds per year; young children get them six to 10 times a year. Because colds are more common during the school year, some kids will get a cold every month between fall and spring.

It’s worth it to give children lots of fluid, acetaminophen or ibuprofen if they are uncomfortable and liberal doses of books, games and TV...

Children are spending more than half their spare time in front of a screen after embracing smart device technology, a study has found.

Tablets and smart phones have joined TV as the major entertainers of children, the New Generations study found.

Kids spend more than half their spare time in front of devices, sparking concerns children are not spending enough time interacting with real people and getting exercise.

More than half of the children surveyed had a smart phone and two-thirds of children have used an app device, the study found.

On average children are accessing 7.1 apps a month.

Chi...