«Meningitis link to smoking in pregnancy: Cigarettes can treble child’s chance of developing the disease,» the Daily Mail reports.

The headlines follow the publication of a review that has looked at whether children exposed to secondhand smoke (passive smoking) could be at increased risk of meningococcal meningitis. Meningococcal meningitis (caused by the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis) is the most common type of bacterial meningitis in the UK. If it progresses to a blood infection (septicaemia), the condition can be fatal.

The 18 studies included in the review found that children and adoles...

It is a nasty little habit that most parents try to dissuade their children from engaging in as early on in their childhood years as possible. But one particular piece of scientific research actually suggests that kids who eat their own boogers may end up building stronger immunity compared to their peers, and go on to live healthier, happier lives.

This is the somewhat unusual assessment made by Dr. Friedrich Bischinger, a professor and lung specialist out of Austria, whose research involving boogers and immunity led him to make this somewhat shocking claim. According to Dr...

How long could you live off the food you have in your home? A month? A week? A day? One mom says she could probably go for a whole year without grocery shopping! She keeps a well-stocked pantry, plus a food storage closet in the basement and plenty of frozen meat and vegetables besides. And it’s all just to help feed needy families along with her family.

It’s amazing what some people do with their space and resources! And after a disaster like Hurricane Sandy, I think we all started wondering how self-sufficient we’d be — and for how long — if we were caught in an emergency.

Growing up Morm...

‘Family meals aid five-a-day: Eating together at the table boosts children’s intake of fruit and vegetables,’ the Daily Mail reports.

The news is from a study that aimed to explore the influence that the home environment has upon a child’s fruit and vegetable intake, in particular parental attitudes to fruit and vegetables. The study included 2,383 primary school children from London who had food diaries completed for them at school and home over a single 24-hour period...

From his toy-cluttered Brooklyn apartment, the man in the red suit was making his list and checking it twice. But he made no distinction between naughty or nice: Every child on it would receive a gift from this Santa Claus.

For the children whose toys floated away during Superstorm Sandy, Michael Sciaraffo is playing the role of a real-life Saint Nick. Every afternoon and night, he stuffs his red sack to the brim with presents and heads out to storm-ravaged homes, personally delivering new toys to awestruck little kids whose play rooms were destroyed by floodwaters...

Reports of Adam Lanza’s war-game obsession and the new FTC rules on children’s online privacy help refocus concerns on the effects of digital media on children. But parental anxiety can be channeled toward solutions.

Here is what many parents face this Christmas:

Among 6-to-12-year-olds, the top wish in gifts is a mobile device – either a tablet computer or a smart phone.

And the top two bestselling video games (names withheld on purpose) involve military shooting.

Add these two together and parents may wonder how they can better safeguard their children from the head-spinning advances in di...

Eating meals together as a family, even if only once or twice a week, increases children’s daily fruit and vegetable intake to near the recommended 5 A Day, according to researchers at the University of Leeds.

The study of primary school-aged children, funded by the National Institute for Health Research Public Health Research (NIHR PHR) Programme, also suggests parental consumption of fruit and vegetables and cutting up portions of these foods boosted children’s intake. It is published today in the British Medical Journal’s Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

Overall, this study found...

Sensory disorders in children need to be identified early for proper intervention. Discussion of the symptoms that present themselves in the 7 sensory categories.

Does your child overreact to loud noises, avoid certain textures, appear overly uncoordinated, or simply seem to lack self-control? If so, he or she may be experiencing some kind of sensory disorder. Of course, all children usually undergo a variety of sensory issues while exploring and interacting within their environments...

A study into the impact of parental drinking habits was in the papers today, with the Independent reporting that parents “should drink alcohol less in front of the children” and the Daily Mail claiming that women drinkers “pass on bad habits to their teenage children”.

The study was published by the think-tank Demos. Demos states that its work is driven by “the goal of a society populated by free, capable, secure and powerful citizens”.

The study, entitled ‘Feeling the Effects’, was carried out to assess whether there were alcohol-related harms occurring, to quote the report, ‘beh...

THE nation’s oldest new mother gave birth at the age of 60, official records have revealed.
The unidentified woman, who gave birth in 2010, is among dozens of menopausal women who had babies that year, newly released Federal Government data shows.
It is the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’ s most recent survey year.
Institute perinatal statistics director Elizabeth Sullivan yesterday said «fewer than 50» women in their 50s had babies in 2010.
Professor Sullivan would not reveal the precise number, to avoid identifying any of the middle-aged mums, but said most of the births would ha...