You’re a working mom-to-be and your life is about to change radically. You have an exciting but also enormously challenging time ahead of you, which means that you need to be well prepared. Here are a few handy questions you should be asking.

In South Africa, pregnant workers are well protected by the law. There is specific legislation that regulates maternity leave and also protects women from discrimination related to pregnancy. These are found in the Basic Conditions of Employment Act and the Constitution of South Africa (Section 9 (3))...

If ‘toddlers and sleep’ sounds like a contradiction in terms, have a read of these tips from Caroline’s Angels.

We sometimes wonder if the words ‘toddler’ and ‘sleep’ belong in the same sentence. It seems that we interact with many families that experience sleep difficulties with their toddler.

Some families explain that their toddler has never slept well and they have now decided to address their child’s sleep. Yet others tell us that as a baby, their child slept wonderfully and the difficulties that they are now experiencing are new.

There are many reasons why toddlers either do no...

A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found many mothers are feeding babies solid foods earlier than the recommended age of six months, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends solid foods are introduced to infants no earlier than six months of age.

“Solid foods were being started before 4 months in about half of those kids,” said Dr. Deb Lonzer, a pediatrician from the Cleveland Clinic, who did not participate in the study. “And in about 10 percent of them, it was actually being started in the first four weeks of life...

Parents who are more anxious about their children’s injuries may unknowingly contribute to their kids receiving unnecessary imaging tests, including radiation, a new study from Japan suggests.

Kids in the study with «minor blunt head trauma,» who had bumped their heads seriously enough to warrant an emergency room visit, were more likely to wind up undergoing a CT scan if their parents preferred that the doctor order the scan, compared with kids whose parents deferred to the doctor’s judgment, according to the researchers. CT scans involve radiation.

«Our results indicate that medically irre...

Lego-loving children have a new way to pursue their passion: as an undercover cop in a delightful city made completely of Lego blocks. In “Lego City Undercover” kids don disguises to catch baddies while exploring a colorful, massive city made from their favorite toy construction sets.

Not only do you play as hero Chase McCain in this charming world filled with Lego characters (blocky bodies with claw hands and tons of swagger), but you also get to drive more than 100 Lego vehicles...

Children whose parents divorce are more likely to smoke as adults than kids from families of divorce, according to a new study.

Men who were younger than 18 when their parents divorced were 48 percent more likely to have smoked at least 100 or more cigarettes than men whose parents did not divorce. For women, the risk was 39 percent higher, according to the researchers from the University of Toronto.

«Finding this link between parental divorce and smoking is very disturbing,» study lead author Esme Fuller-Thomson, chairwoman of the social work faculty, said in a university news release.

The re...

In the 26th Annual Kids’ Choice Awards, this year’s host, Josh Duhamel said that a record-breaking 350 million votes had been cast for the kids’ favorites in film, music, sports and TV.  However, the awards weren’t complete without the traditional green slime.

Singers Pitbull and Christina Aguilera opened the show with their song “Feel This Moment” and when Aguilera pushed the slime button at the end of their performance, Pitbull and the backup dancers were covered in green.

Duhamel also got his share of the slime but got a kick out of dumping the slime on Los Angele Lakers player...

Here’s a quick parenting tip: It’s not OK to offer to sell your children on Facebook, even if you really need the money.

Misty VanHorn, a mother of two in Oklahoma, found that out the hard way over the weekend. VanHorn, 22, was arrested Saturday for alleged trafficking of minors on Facebook — offering her 10-month old and her 2 year-old for $4,000.

According to the police report, VanHorn offered the kids several times on the social network — offering the 10-month old girl for $1,000, or a package deal with the two of them for $4,000. And she had a taker.

VanHorn was dealing with a woman i...

When you think of accidental poisoning, you may imagine a toddler drinking a liquid soap or eating a brightly colored cleaner. Unfortunately, for every child in the emergency department for household product poisoning, there are two children there for medication poisoning.

Symptoms of accidental poisoning depend on what has been ingested and how much. Some symptoms that could indicate poisoning are as follows:

• Nausea

• Vomiting

• Abdominal pain

• Throat pain

• Drooling

• Sleepiness or confusion

• Anxiousness or irritability

• Tremors or seizures

• Difficulty breathi...

A team of researchers from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the University of Massachusetts Medical School describe the first case of a so-called «functional cure» in an HIV-infected infant. The finding, the investigators say, may help pave the way to eliminating HIV infection in children.

A report on the case was presented at a press conference on Sunday, March 3, at the 20th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Atlanta. Johns Hopkins Children’s Center virologist Deborah Persaud, M.D...