Parenting

Babies aren’t born racist, but a new study has found that they start discriminating against other races by the time they are nine months old. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts studied 48 Caucasian babies and found that as they got older, they found it easier to interact with white adults than adults from other […]

She seems to have the perfect life, but even Victoria Beckham is prone to bouts of baby brain.

The pressure to be thin has claimed a young model’s life, with British teen covergirl Bethaney Wallace dying in her sleep after a battle with anorexia. Bethaney, 19, died of suspected heart failure on April 18 after her weight plummeted to just 38kg. The beautiful teen from Newmarket, Suffolk, was 12 when she started modelling […]

The debate over circumcision is heating up, with new evidence showing it might prevent disease, writes Jordan Baker. Professor Andrew Li circumcises men. About half his patients seek the procedure for medical reasons (infections, pain) and the rest for “personal” — mostly cosmetic — ones. Of the latter, many are marched to the surgery by […]

Visitation with his mother is very much to her convenience, she drives a nice car and lives in a wealthy neighbourhood yet she only pays $100 a month in child support! My husband refuses to remodify the payments because he doesn’t want to cause waves. I can kind of see his point of view, however, […]

Just when you thought Toddlers and Tiaras couldn’t get any more controversial, we meet this mum who says her toddler loves lingerie and is a fan of Victoria’s Secret. In one of the latest episodes of the show, which airs on TLC in the US, Oklahoma mother-of-four Tricia explains that she has no problem posing […]

Alicia Silverstone has defended her controversial “mouth-to-mouth” method of feeding her 11-month-old son, saying it “makes me laugh”. Alicia, 35, was widely condemned when she posted a Youtube video of herself chewing son Bear Blu’s food before passing it from her mouth to his. Related: Is it ever okay to tell your child they’re fat? […]

Obese mothers are 60 percent more likely to have a child with autism, a new study has found. Researchers from the University of California, Davis and Vanderbilt University studied over 1000 children aged two to five, some of whom had autism or other developmental disorders. Related: The joys and challenges of raising an autistic child […]

Parents might say they don’t have favourites, but research shows they are lying. Jordan Baker reports on the science of parental preference and its life-long effects. When US writer Kate Tietje confessed that she loved her son “just a little bit more” than her daughter, she provoked an enormous response. Yet, surprisingly, there was more […]

As a feisty 16-year-old, Cassi van den Dungen earned the runner-up title on Australia’s Next Top Model — and notoriety after turning down a New York modelling contract. Three years on, Cassi talks for the first time about the arrival of her son, Drake, and why his cleft palate doesn’t make him any less perfect. […]