Many children live a fast paced lifestyle between school, busy parents, sports and activities. It may not seem like it, but they are inundated with stresses such as peer pressure, competition, finding balance and over stimulation. Teaching yoga to children at a young age has tremendous health benefits and can give them the means they need to handle many life situations.

Help grow the body, mind and soul

Physical benefits include increased strength, flexibility, body awareness and coordination. Yoga helps to improve concentration and relaxation...

New research has answered one of the most common questions parents ask their doctors: How much milk should I be giving my children? The answer is two cups per day.

«We started to research the question because professional recommendations around milk intake were unclear and doctors and parents were seeking answers,» said Dr. Jonathon Maguire, a pediatrician at St. Michael’s Hospital and the lead author of the study.
Dr...

Are you facing up to your very first Christmas with a baby? Need some advice on how to deal with flying, the long car trip, critical relatives or even Santa? Kate Gillan is a parenting expert who has some older and wiser advice for brand new parents who are going to be highly strung this holiday season. We first posted this story a year ago but since our first timers last year are now hardened graduates of Christmas with Baby, we think there might be some worried newcomers who could use this advice!

Christmas can be a minefield of family grudges and temper tantrums...

Babies may learn better when they’re sitting up, a new study suggests.
«An important part of human cognitive development is the ability to understand whether an object in view is the same or different from an object seen earlier,» Rebecca Woods, an assistant professor of human development and family science and doctoral psychology lecturer at North Dakota State University, said in a university news release.
«Cognitive development» refers to abilities like thinking, perception and memory.
She and colleague Teresa Wilcox, a psychology professor at Texas A&M University, found that infants at age...

I remember when my son was finally old enough to go on «drop-off» play dates. I just walked him over to his friend’s house, handed him over to another family for the afternoon … and then tried not to worry! When you think about it, there’s a lot of trust involved in a play date.

You want your kids to have fun on their play dates. And no one wants to be «that mom» — the one who gets all neurotic and asks if all the snacks will be organic. But now that your kids are making new friends at school away from you, a few questions are totally reasonable to ask...

If parents find advice from health professionals too dictatorial, it can put them off asking for help in the future

For Starters, a new report published by thinktank Demos on child nutrition, shows many parents are confused and anxious about healthy eating for their babies and toddlers.

A survey of more than 1,800 mothers of children aged 0-2, conducted for the report, found that one in five felt they had not received enough advice on breastfeeding; over a quarter of mothers wanted more advice about introducing solid food and a third wanted more information about toddler nutrition...

There is something to be said for allowing your children copious amounts of free time outdoors to ride their bicycles, engage in sports activities, and play with their friends, especially if you want them to grow up to be healthy, strong, and vibrant members of society. And a recent study published in the journal Pediatrics clearly illustrates this point, having found that many of the most critically ill children are also the ones with the most severe vitamin D deficiencies, which means these young ones are not getting enough natural sunlight exposure to maintain proper health.

For their study...

Few parents feel entirely comfortable with their children meeting their online acquaintances in real life. But a new study published in the pioneering Journal of Children and Media sets out to put the risks and benefits of such meetings in perspective.

Monica Barbovschi’s study uses data collected as part of the cross-national EU Kids Online II project investigating children’s experiences of (and parental concerns about) the Internet. As part of the project, children completed a questionnaire about making contact with new people online...

There is nothing quite like travelling with children to make you nostalgic for your pre-children days! Jumping in the car at the last minute, flinging some gear in a backpack to board a plane seem like distant memories as you load baby gear, clothing, equipment and toys into over-loaded suitcases. I sometimes suspect that less equipment was needed to invade Russia than to take one small child half way across the country. So how do you make this Christmas season work? After all it is Christmas and you just have to go!

The writers of the Hollywood flop «Snakes on a Plane» really hadn’t done thei...

In the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre, people are finally motivated to look more closely how society fosters aggression.
Some blame technology and the media—pointing a finger at violent video games and violent television shows and movies.
First, it should be said that there is not sufficient evidence proving video games or movies or television cause violence...