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...

Most kids go through a dinosaur phase, and who could blame them? The mysterious creatures come in so many shapes and sizes that there’s an endless amount of detail to study. Here are five great ways to take kids to learn more about dinosaurs beyond just checking out the skeletons on display in the museum’s collection.

• Field Museum (Chicago)

  Sue, the world’s largest, best-preserved, and most complete T-Rex anchors the Field Museum’s excellent collection, and on Friday nights you can have a slumber party with Sue...

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day — so why are you letting your kid pick what you’ll eat? A new study from the NPD Group shows that parents defer to their children about a third of the time when it comes to deciding what to eat for breakfast, and about a quarter of the time for lunch. (The family members who are old enough to bring home the bacon are still the ones calling the shots on dinner, with only 3% of kids dictating that menu...

Newborn babies’ immune systems and vitamin D levels differ – depending on which month of the year they were born, Medical News Today reported.

The study, published in the journal JAMA Neurology, helps explain why a person’s risk of developing the neurological condition multiple sclerosis (MS) is impacted by their birth month.

Multiple sclerosis is a neurological condition in which the body’s own immune system harms the central nervous system...

If you are kind, helpful and struggle to say no, people will always expect you to say yes unless you become more assertive. When you realise you’re giving all your time and energy to things you don’t want to do, it’s a problem.

You can be lovely as long as you have a choice in it. Before any tricky situation, ask yourself, ‘Do I believe I have the right to say no?’ If you do, then put your needs first. Just remember, that doesn’t make you a horrible person.

In your hands

Saying no in the workplace can be difficult, so if someone asks you to help with something or do them a favour, ...

Lake Annabelle Hall wouldn’t be alive today if doctors at Children’s Hospital of Colorado hadn’t operated on a cyst on her left lung before she was born.

Doctors pulled her halfway out of her mother’s womb, leaving her connected to her the umbilical cord and placenta, which served as life support for her while a team of 43 doctors and nurses operated on her.

She is now 5 months old after the medical procedure for a rare condition that saved her life. Dr. Timothy Crombleholme performed the surgery just before Lake’s birth Nov...

The new report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest on kids’ meals shocked me. First, I was surprised to learn that of the 3,498 meal combinations in restaurant chains evaluated by the authors of the report, 97 percent do not meet nutrition standards for children’s meals.

Then, I was a bit ashamed to be reminded that I’m also one of these parents feeding their kids these unhealthy meals...