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A brave two-year-old boy is winning his battle against an inoperable brain tumour – and doctors hope a pioneering drug will stop it from returning. Joseph Middlemass was diagnosed in May last year after his parents noticed he had stopped crawling and later had a seizure. Doctors found the nursery pupil from Newcastle had a pea-sized [...]

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Levi Brailsford’s grandmother was reportedly driving when she heard him unbuckle the harness in his car seat and friends say she was trying to pull over to re-fasten the buckle when the door opened and he fell out.   Police are investigating the possibility that Levi was then crushed under the wheels of the car [...]

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No three-year-old’s birthday would be complete without a brightly-coloured cake with candles on top. But Oscar Barlow was left in tears when police swooped on his party at a play centre – after staff said his cake was a health and safety risk. Bosses at Rumble Tumble play centre said the candles constituted a safety [...]

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You might not have realised it, but men are being oppressed. In many walks of life, they are routinely discriminated against in ways women are not. So unrecognised is this phenomenon that the mere mention of it will appear laughable to some. That, at least, is the premise of a book by a South African philosophy [...]

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The free vouchers will be distributed through Boots, the high street chemist, and will offer parents up to 10 two-hour sessions of advice on how best to bring up their children.   Initially, it will be piloted in three areas, Middlesbrough, Camden in north London and High Peak, Derbyshire, but it could be extended throughout [...]

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The UK Border Agency (UKBA) is detaining children in “degrading and disgraceful” conditions at Heathrow airport, an official report claims today. Children are held “almost every day and sometimes overnight” in premises that are “wholly unsuitable for the detention of children”, the Independent Monitoring Board for Heathrow said. The board said little had changed since [...]

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Mariah Carey’s twins are quickly developing a taste for the millionaire lifestyle. The singer hosted a lavish first birthday party for Moroccan and Monroe in Paris, where she showered them with gifts, including a toy Ferrari. This is how I roll: Mariah Carey’s daughter takes a spin in her new toy Ferrari at a birthday [...]

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The child’s parents told ABC television network affiliate WPBF they believe they were targeted because they are of Middle Eastern descent and the mother wears a hijab. “We were put on display like a circus act because my wife wears a hijab,” the baby’s father told the network. An airline employee boarded the Newark, New Jersey-bound [...]

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Footage from a traffic camera broadcast on Chinese state television shows the child slipping out of the front door of the car and onto the road, narrowly missing the back wheel of the car.   The child falls into the path of a taxi following behind which manages to pull up just in time. via [...]

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To all outward appearances Logan Knowles is a healthy, active little boy. The football-mad four-year-old loves nothing more than kicking a ball about in the garden after school, and if he’s not practising his goal-scoring skills then he’s usually to be found tearing around on his bike. So imagine his mother Stefanie’s shock — and [...]

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A toddler has died after being mauled by her grandparents’ dog and her grandmother was shot when she tried to rescue her. The 16-month-old was savaged in the back yard at a house in La Cruces and a neighbour fired a shot to try and kill the Pit Bull but instead hit the grandmother in [...]

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Mother doesn’t always know best when it comes to judging her own child’s size, according to researchers. A study of mothers and their toddlers suggests they often have inaccurate perceptions of their youngster’s body size – especially if they are overweight. The researchers said this could lead to inappropriate feeding habits, such as encouraging a [...]

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The parents of a toddler who died in a day home mystery have spoken of their pride after their young daughters organs have since been used to give life to four children. Mackenzy Woolfsmith was rushed from a day home on Elgin Heath S.E. in Calgary last Wednesday after reports she had fallen down the [...]

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The river takes its time to meander through a wooded valley. You’ll want to, too, as you wind gently along its banks, crossing the water by this famed Exmoor monument. The River Barle is knee-deep to a toddler, every shining blue-grey stone visible on its bed. Children scout in the shallows for sticklebacks and splash [...]

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Two enterprising mothers have been busy celebrating their first invention – a light up potty. Kerry Marriott, 35, and Rachael Forder, 40, from Southsea, Hampshire, came up with the idea when they realised their own youngsters were finding it difficult to locate the toilet in the dark. The pair hope their LumiPotti, which illuminates when [...]

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A child has been caught on camera at a zoo, seemingly oblivious to the desperate efforts of one of its residents to make a meal out of him. Jack was on a trip in Portland, Oregon, when he attracted the attention of Kya. But the toddler showed little sign of fear. via BBC News – [...]

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A toddler was among five people killed yesterday when a gunman opened fire in the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert, Arizona. The shootings occurred in a residential area of single-family homes, according to the Arizona Republic. Authorities say the man was armed with several firearms, and officers recovered two handguns and a shotgun. The gunman’s identity [...]

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Teething necklaces made from amber stones could snap and choke babies who have been given them to ease mouth pain, parents have been warned. The small necklaces have amber gems on a string but mothers have complained that some have snapped, sending the tiny stones spilling onto the ground. There are fears that curious tots [...]

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A toddler can’t play the game peek-a-boo because of a rare condition that means an unexpected shock can cause a fatal fit. Two-year-old Abi Marshall suffers from Reflex Anoxic Seizures, which means extreme emotions can make her heart and breathing stop temporarily. The youngster was just ten-months-old when she had a first fit and has [...]

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Wearing an oversized life-jacket and scuba-diving gear on top of a cute pink jumper, three-year-old Emmelyn Roettger, of Washington D.C., looks like she should be playing dress-up with other children. But what the tot enjoys doing more than anything else is knuckling down and studying. She loves writing, spelling and counting and is fascinated by [...]

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A two-year-old boy died when he became trapped in his cot by a mattress, an inquest heard. The upright mattress was being used as a vertical divider between Harrison Upton’s bed and that of his brother, Caleb, four, when it fell on him. Paramedics were called to his home in St Mary’s Avenue, Barnoldswick, Lancashire, [...]

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Worries about money, jobs and the recession have become a part of everyday life for many of us. But the strain has become too much to bear for youngsters in Germany, resulting in the first kindergarten for stressed-out under-fives. Toddlers as young as three chill out with massages, foot baths and by walking through wet [...]

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A new campaign should be launched to show mothers and fathers the importance of putting children to bed on time and reading to them every day, it is claimed. The all-party Parliamentary group on social mobility also said that children aged just three should be given basic literacy lessons to get them fully ready for [...]

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Social mobility in Britain is the worst in the Western world and the gap between rich and poor has become ingrained in children as young as three, MPs conclude today. They quote a study showing that the prospects of half of all children born in the UK can be almost entirely linked to the circumstances [...]

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Friends have invited us (and our two-year old) to stay with them for the weekend. They are suggesting we go out for dinner, but I know from experience that our son will go berserk if he wakes to find a baby-sitter there. I’d rather stay in, but don’t want to be a) an overprotective mother [...]

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Having children brings an increased sense of meaning into people’s lives, according to the Prime Minister’s national happiness survey. The latest measure of the country’s well-being yesterday revealed that having children does not necessarily make people happier or more satisfied with their lot. But it does make them feel they have more of a reason for [...]

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Children as young as 11 months showed more interest in live animals than toys, even ones made to replicate real living creatures, it was found. Parents should consider having a pet in the home to help their child learn and develop, expert said.   In addition toddlers are not naturally afraid of spiders and snakes but [...]

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Det Ch Insp Andy Redwood told the BBC’s Panorama his team were “seeking to bring closure to the case”. Madeleine, aged three at the time, went missing from a Portuguese holiday apartment five years ago this week. The UK review began last May after Prime Minister David Cameron responded to a plea from Madeleine’s parents. DCI Redwood [...]

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Nurseries have been told to provide camp beds so staff can sleep over at work to ensure a service for working parents during the Olympics. Managers warned that whole nurseries will be forced to shut if Tube delays make childcare staff late for work. June O’Sullivan, chief executive of the London Early Years Foundation, is [...]

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Terrified toddlers scream and sob as they’re shaken by men in robes and tossed from a balcony 30ft above the ground. It’s not the plot of horror film – but an ages-old annual ritual carried in southern India, meant to bring participating infants good luck, health and prosperity. Hard-to-watch footage of the ceremony, held each [...]

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The warning, from academics involved in an EC-funded project to make nurseries healthier, comes amid growing fears that too many children are overweight or obese when they start school. The “ToyBox” survey found that obesity among European pre-schoolers is at record levels. Nearly 40 per cent of pre-school girls in Spain are now classified as overweight or [...]

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Martin Waddell’s Owl Babies with its superb illustrations by Patrick Benson has long been regarded as a classic because of the poignant simplicity and emotional integrity of its storyline and the way it is matched by its illustrations. The story of how three little owlets manage to keep their spirits up while their mother is [...]

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Before I had children, people were always very keen to give advice. But one situation they never prepared me for was for the time when Darrell, my then four-year-old son, insisted on being lifted up on to an imaginary horse named William Wallace. We were taking a stroll through our village at the time, with [...]

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A boy of 19 months died despite being seen by four doctors in three days, an inquest heard yesterday. Harry Connolly’s parents begged for their son to be kept in hospital after he was admitted suffering severe diarrhoea and dehydration. But doctors there failed to carry out vital tests on the toddler, instead dismissing his [...]

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Her eyes are big, blue and adorned with eyeshadow and mascara. Her mouth is accentuated with pink lipstick and long, blonde curls tumble down her back. She has a wardrobe bulging with pretty, strappy dresses, and each month another £400 worth of new garments are added. Among her many new acquisitions is the attention-grabbing outfit [...]

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A three-year-old boy has been kept alive with an artificial heart for 251 days – longer than any other child in the UK. Joe Skerratt underwent a successful heart transplant at Great Ormond Street Hospital last year and is now the picture of health. But it was touch and go for the youngster who was [...]

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Mayim Bialik rose to fame through her television portrayal of a free-spirited teenager named Blossom and it seems her character’s personality traits are now mirrored in her own life. The actress, who played the lead role in the Eighties American sitcom Blossom, has written a parenting book titled Beyond The Sling: A Real-Life Guide To [...]

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The new series of Toddlers & Tiaras aired last night, and true to form it presented a whole new set of shocking behaviours from fame-hungry pageant parents. The hit TLC show, which has focused on child beauty pageants in Texas and Maryland in the past, launched its new season in New York where we met [...]

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Parents should remove televisions from children’s bedrooms to combat record rates of obesity in youngsters, experts have warned. And nurseries need to ban toddlers from watching programmes in a bid to prevent a growing number of children from starting school dangerously overweight, according to academics involved in an EC-funded project. The ‘ToyBox’ survey found that [...]

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A man accused of stealing a car and kidnapping two toddlers who were trapped inside grinned and waved at relatives during a court appearance in Birmingham on Thursday. Cedric Brown, 44 faces two counts of kidnapping, robbery and possession of a knife, following the incident on Tuesday. A woman was dragged from the driver’s seat [...]

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A three-year-old girl suddenly collapsed and died in a hospital lift – moments after dancing around like a ballerina, an inquest heard. Whitney Caves had been imitating her favourite character Angelina Ballerina at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, where she was visiting her cousin on October 22 last year. The ‘chatty and bubbly’ youngster [...]

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A three-year-old boy has been left terrified of animals after a pony he was feeding grabbed him by the chest and tossed him through the air. Little Steven Goldsmith suffered a nasty shock when the animal lunged at him, seized his T-shirt in its teeth and threw him more than 5ft. His frantic mother Sarah [...]

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The “lion’s share” of children who were sent to state-subsidised nurseries at a young age had lower test scores in later life than those who stayed at home, the study claims. Boys were worst affected, with noticeably levels of aggression and hyperactivity higher among those sent to nursery. The study blames a sharp reduction in [...]

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Toddlers will be assessed by nurseries and childminders to see if they can use basic words, respond to familiar sounds and interact properly with friends, it is revealed today. Ministers are proposing that all parents in England will be given a written summary of their child’s progress in key areas before their third birthday. It [...]

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When she lost her toes and part of her feet to meningitis, Ava Bainbridge had barely even learned how to walk. More than a year later, the two-year-old is ready to try again – thanks to a unique pair of slippers. The prosthetics are the first to be made for someone so young, and were [...]

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TV presenter Anna Ryder Richardson will be prosecuted on health and safety charges after a toddler and his mother were crushed by a tree at her zoo. Mum Emma Davies-Hughes, 28, and her son Gruff, three, were on a family day trip to the former I’m a Celebrity contestant wildlife park when the accident happened. [...]

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A father has spoken out about a cruel condition that has robbed his daughter of her ability to walk and talk, after scientists made a breakthrough that could lead to a cure. Marc Souter’s daughter Dylan was born in July 2009 and by the time she was one had learned to crawl and say a [...]

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A new parenting handbook is advocating a relaxed approach to child rearing, with babies sleeping on “floor beds” rather than in cots, and no punishment for toddlers who misbehave. The book will be published this week by the Montessori movement, whose 600 nurseries, where children choose their own activities, are a favourite with many middle-class [...]

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I was at a friend’s house recently for an early-evening drink, and couldn’t believe my eyes when she gave her 18-month-old son a hefty slurp from her glass of sherry. I said nothing at the time but later wondered if I should have done, especially as an over-fondness for alcohol runs in her family (by [...]

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