Parenting

Four years after doctors said she probably wouldn’t live, let alone walk, Veronika Davie took her first independent steps. Here, her mother Kylee shares her story. Veronika’s struggle to stay alive began before she was even born. Sometime during her last few days in the womb, Veronika suffered a massive stroke, so severe it would […]

Popular video games, TV shows, films and even comic books are making our children violent and aggressive, a new study has found. The International Society for Research on Aggression (ISRA) conducted a major study into the link between television, films, illustrated books and video games and anti-social behaviour. They concluded that people who consume violent […]

Why is the number of children with autism doubling every five years? For Louise Milligan, the quest for an answer is deeply personal. There is no other way to describe the feeling, except to say I felt I had been shot. We were sitting in a psychologist’s office, being told that our son, our delicious […]

Everyone knows breast milk is best for babies, and a new study has found yet another reason mother’s should try to use their own milk instead of formula. Researchers at Duke University Medical Center found that breastfed newborns developed a healthier gut than those bottle-fed baby formula. The study — published in the August issue […]

Circumcision has fallen from favour in Australia recent years but a new study suggests it could help protect baby boys from an array of diseases and infections. The surgical removal of the foreskin of newborn boys has been fiercely debated among parents and medical professionals for decades. Until recently, popular opinion deemed circumcision at best […]

Fashion designer Collette Dinnigan considers herself “very very lucky” to be expecting her second child at age 46, but wants to warn other women not to leave pregnancy so late. Dinnigan, who will be 47 when her son is due in November, underwent years of IVF treatments with her husband Bradley Cocks, 36, before falling […]

A leading breastfeeding advocate has sparked outrage by telling expectant mothers that baby formula was “like AIDS”. The shocking statement was made during an Australian Breastfeeding Association class that an undercover Sunday Mail journalist attended after a pregnant woman called the paper to complain about a previous class. Couples were also told baby formula killed […]

Thousands of angry parents have called on Target to stop selling children’s clothing that makes young girls look like “tramps”. The retailer’s Facebook page has been flooded with more than 2500 comments complaining its clothing line for girls aged 7 to 14 is “age-inappropriate” and designed for “little hookers”. Related: Why girls are having sex […]

Girls as young as 14 are being given breastfeeding lessons as part of a controversial new programme in UK high schools. Bizarre puppets and knitted breasts were used to teach 40 students at Liverpool’s Litherland High School how to breastfeed and express milk. The girls — aged 14 to 15 years old — were also […]

It’s unpleasant but true — kids can be nasty, and the advent of new technologies has seen schoolyard taunting go cyber and become potentially even more damaging. Cyberbullying can take the form of abusive e-mails or SMS threats, spreading rumours online, nasty comments in Internet chat rooms or on blogs, or degrading photos (often doctored) […]