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Every woman knows, deep down, that the much-vaunted maternal instinct isn’t nearly as ‘natural’ as society makes it out to be. In fact in my experience – and I know I will be roundly condemned for this view – this means that some women can even be better at taking care of and understanding a [...]

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When doctors told Margaret Park’s family the 89-year-old was dying, her devoted granddaughter resolutely refused to accept the hospital’s prognosis. Hazel Carter, 41, stayed by her grandmother’s side for two weeks – determined to help her recover. Meanwhile, she kept a moving diary, which gives a shocking insight into how easily old people can be [...]

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A 5-year-old New Jersey girl with leukaemia has received a potentially life-saving bone marrow transplant from her older Salvadoran sister whose initial attempts to come to the U.S. were blocked. Yarelis Bonilla received the transplant yesterday at Hackensack University Medical Center from 7-year-old Gisselle Bonilla Ramirez. The U.S. government twice denied Gisselle a visitor visa, [...]

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It was a year of ups and downs. A college junior completed a back-flip every day in 2011, to win a $100 bet he made with his father. Athletic Sam Morrison from Sparta, New Jersey, posted his outlandish flips, with backdrops that vary from his university campus to snow fields, river banks to beaches. The [...]

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The mixed breed dog stayed with Mr Holder, 73, when he fell 40ft down a ravine and blacked out as the waters rose around him. Mr Holder, who had suffered six broken ribs and a head injury, regained consciousness 15 minutes later to find his loyal pet watching him. The 11-year-old dog then left him [...]

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Two senior paediatric pathologists say they have discovered vitamin D deficiency in a significant number of children who have died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The doctors say that vitamin D deficiency and associated diseases such as the bone disease rickets could potentially explain deaths and injuries that are often thought to be suspicious. And [...]

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Kingsman Wilkie, from the Second Battalion the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, was sent to Afghanistan aged just 17 when the standby battalion was called on to reinforce troops in Helmand. Despite being too young to buy an alcoholic drink or get married without his parents’ permission, Adam was able to serve in the battle against [...]

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Scarlett Anne Mary Brooks was born at 4.05pm on Wednesday at the Portland Hospital, central London, weighing six lb 1oz. Mrs Brooks and her husband, Charlie Brooks, a racehorse trainer, were said to be “overjoyed” at the safe arrival of their first child, in a surrogate birth. The surrogate mother, who has declined to be [...]

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The Prime Minister was forced to deny pranging his children’s nanny Gita Lama’s car after offering to reverse park it for her at Downing Street on Tuesday. Mr Cameron had just returned from a morning run with his trainer, Matt Roberts, when he noticed Mrs Lama, 32, struggle to squeeze her newly bought Honda Jazz [...]

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A mob of up to 60 masked schoolboys, some of them armed, descended on a rival north London school to attack a pupil but were thwarted by police, it emerged today. Eight police cars went to Islington Arts and Media School in Stroud Green after teachers dialled 999 to prevent a mass brawl. The mob, [...]

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Children starting secondary school start to yearn for a golden tan at the same time as their parents hand over the task of applying their own suncream, a survey has found. The worrying trend could raise the risk of teenagers developing deadly skin cancer later on in life. Researchers from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center [...]

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Teenage drivers can now be tracked using a mobile phone app that automatically alerts their parents if they exceed the speed limit. It can also tell if their child switches off the app and if they try to drive too far from home. The “teen agree app”, which is free, is available for iPhones and [...]

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When Georgina Brown was born in the front bedroom of her home, the Titanic had not even set sail. One hundred years on and  Mrs Brown is still going  strong – and still living in the same cottage. The great-grandmother is the fifth generation of her family to own the three-bedroom village property, which they [...]

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One in five children from broken homes lose one parent from their lives for good, official figures reveal. Preparing to unveil plans to tackle the problem, families minister Maria Miller said parents should take responsibility for their offspring for life and reach civilised agreements. ‘We want to make sure parents are aware of the effect [...]

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A mother is suing the obstetrician who she claims misdiagnosed her pregnancy as ectopic and injected her foetus with an abortant, resulting in birth defects. Thirty-five-year-old Rachel Schoger of Caldwell, Idaho, says she was four weeks five days pregnant with her daughter, Seraphine, when her doctor injected her foetus with chemotherapy drug methotrexate in 2006. [...]

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A killer infection that claimed the lives of three babies in a Belfast hospital has been traced to taps in the neo-natal unit, Northern Ireland’s health minister said. All the taps and connected pipe work in the room at the Royal Jubilee Maternity Hospital are to be removed as experts try to eradicate all traces [...]

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At the age of 53, Debbie Hughes imagined the only babies she would be looking after would be her granddaughters. Instead, despite taking the contraceptive Pill, she has become one of Britain’s oldest ever naturally conceiving mothers – giving birth to a healthy baby boy named Kyle. Miss Hughes took a pregnancy test after her [...]

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Sink taps were the source of an infection which killed three babies at a Belfast hospital, the Northern Ireland health minister has confirmed. Edwin Poots told the NI Assembly that the Pseudomonas bacteria had been traced to taps at a neo-natal unit in the Royal Jubilee Maternity Hospital. The unit was deep cleaned at the [...]

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A schoolboy fell down a flight of stairs and died after smoking strong cannabis, it emerged today. David Norkett, 16, died from brain injuries six days after he staggered backwards and plunged down seven steps at a multi-storey car park used as a frequent haunt for drug taking, a coroner was told. At an inquest [...]

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Two teenage girls trapped on rocks during a rising tide were rescued after putting out a Facebook alert. In a sign of the times, the two girls’ first thought was to highlight their danger on the social networking site – despite having a phone. Luckily for them, a Facebook friend also happened to be an RNLI volunteer who quickly messaged [...]

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London 2012 organisers are facing a backlash from prospective parents who have learned they will need tickets for their newborn babies – even if they were not conceived when the highly prized seats were bought. The situation, which has been described as “ridiculous” and “bloody stupid” by angry ticketholders, has arisen because most tickets went [...]

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A quarter of all toddlers in the UK are lacking Vitamin D, according to research. Despite a recommendation that all children under five should take Vitamin D supplements, 74 per cent of parents know nothing about the guidelines. And more than half of health professionals are also unaware of them. Vitamin D supplements are also [...]

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Babies will be banned from the Olympics unless they have their own ticket – even if they were not conceived when their parents bought seats. 2012 organiser Locog has said every child, including babies carried in their parents’ arms, must have a ticket. A press spokesman said the Olympics helpline had received calls from pregnant [...]

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While it may appear that infants are helpless creatures that only blink, eat, cry and sleep, infant brains actually come equipped with knowledge of ‘intuitive physics’, according to a study. ‘We study infant knowledge of the world by measuring a child’s gaze when presented with different scenarios,’ said Kristy vanMarle, an assistant professor in the [...]

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A father whose son drowned in rough seas off Anglesey has praised the “unstinting bravery” of the friend who died trying to save him. Lewis Darroch, from Valley, dived into the water at Cable Bay on 24 August last year when Callum Mackay, also 22, from Llanfairpwll, got into trouble. Mr Darroch was forced to [...]

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Finding a new man to take home for the holidays proved surprisingly easy for Lily Li. He had to be reliable, taciturn – and available for a few hundred yuan. “I was not looking for some perfect guy to marry. Just someone tall – my parents like tall guys a lot – honest and not [...]

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But the fact that we find a screaming baby almost impossible to ignore could be a simple result of evolution, according to a new study. Even when surrounded by other noises and distractions, our ears automatically tune in to an infant’s wails because adults are biologically programmed to respond to a child in distress, experts [...]

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Sir Richard Branson believes three quarters of young adults have smoked cannabis and told MPs today that use of drugs should be treated as a public health problem and not a crime. The Virgin boss, who admitted using marijuana, said current policies have failed to abate people’s addictions. Asked about his own admission that he [...]

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It’s difficult enough for the average family to time their morning routines. So spare a thought for long-suffering Charles Lewis, who has a staggering 12 sisters to contend with. The 24-year-old, who lives at home with nine of his dozen female siblings ranging in age from eight to 28, has spent so many hours waiting [...]

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In the sociolinguistics of teen slang there’s an absurd circle that goes like this: a group of young people find that they’re using a word or phrase – let’s say it’s the word “zid”. They don’t quite know how they got to saying “zid”, though some swear blind (and swearing is important) they know the [...]

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Taking brief moments to savour life helps patients make better decisions about their health, according to a new report. Researchers said consciously thinking of happy thoughts as soon as you wake up has a therapeutic effect. They even offer examples including babies in hats and beautiful sunrises. The approach was shown to be successful for [...]

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A pedestrian killed on a road in Cumbria died saving his disabled son’s life, his family has said. George Tyson was walking with his son on the A5087 at Conishead Bardsea on Sunday when they were hit by a car. The 61-year-old, of Ulverston, died at the scene. His son, Garry, was injured, but not [...]

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A four-year-old boy has amazed doctors by recovering from a severe brain injury after copying his twin brother. At just three months old, in February 2008, Finn Jordan was diagnosed with a brain tumour the size of a golf-ball. Doctors managed to operate on the tumour – but just a week later, the youngster contracted [...]

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A 15-year-old girl called police in the middle of the night and asked to be put in a Christian children’s shelter after she heard her mother and boyfriend having sex. The teenager dialled 911 at 4am  last Thursday after confronting her 35-year-old mother. The girl told police that she felt ‘disrespected’. An officer went to [...]

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A quarter of all toddlers in the UK are lacking Vitamin D, according to research. Vitamin D supplements are recommended for those people at risk of deficiency, including all pregnant and breastfeeding women, children under five, and the elderly, but 74% of parents know nothing about them and more than half of healthcare professionals are [...]

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Nine months after revealing to classmates that she had faked her pregnancy for a senior class project, a Washington state teenager is promoting a new book that details the experience and explores her reasons for taking on the project. Gaby Rodriguez of Toppenish, Washington, earned international headlines last April when she announced at a high [...]

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Many children are spending plenty of time playing outside in the sun – but are failing to wear protective sunscreen, according to a new study. A shocking three-quarters of pre-adolescent children are not wearing any suncream, despite warnings about skin cancer and associated risks of skin exposure to sun. And, though young, many appear to [...]

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Beyonce may have opted for the unusual Blue Ivy for her new baby daughter, but when it comes to the rest of America, it seems rather more traditional baby names have been winning favour. A new poll has revealed James and Charlotte to be the most popular names for newborns in 2011. Baby name website [...]

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The fostering system is failing thousands of vulnerable children who end up in jail and lacking basic qualifications, a report has warned. The number of youngsters in placements has risen 16% since 2006 to more than 48,000, putting carers under huge strain. Only a third of youngsters in the system achieve basic levels in maths [...]

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Looking out of the kitchen window, Susan Stamper let her mind wander to a time when the apple tree in her garden wasn’t bare, but bright with blossom and the promise of spring. One of her favourite memories flooded into focus. Annabel’s chubby fingers scrabbled around a hole in the bark of the tree. ‘Nanny, [...]

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Every so often a new parenting book triggers the sort of conflicting passions most recently associated with the Arab Spring. Pamela Druckerman’s French Children Don’t Throw Food, is just such an incendiary work. We mothers are a notoriously touchy lot at the best of times, so when another woman dares to suggest there might be [...]

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David Cameron has revealed that his daughter Nancy is a budding entrepreneur who sold mince pies to his protection officers for £1 each. At the launch of a new business campaign, the Prime Minister told how his eldest daughter asked to make the pies on New Year’s day and then flogged them to his detectives. [...]

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The dragon is the most auspicious sign in the Chinese zodiac as it is the only year represented by a mythical character, rather than an animal, as in the eleven others of the dozen-year cycle. The symbol of royalty, it is thought by superstitious ethnic Chinese to be the bringer of wealth, wisdom, courage and [...]

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With a size six figure and 36DD chest, this petite blonde thought she would have no trouble getting into a nightclub. But 28-year-old Lisa Woodman has been banned from every hotspot in her home town – after being told she is too old to wear skimpy outfits. The furious mother-of-four was barred from three venues [...]

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Large families are once again in the spotlight as the £26,000 annual benefits cap proposed by work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith would hit them the hardest. Tim Leuning explains on Comment is free: “The worst hit, of course, are large families in the south-east, where rents are higher. Even in Tolworth, described by [...]

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Bread-winning wives who earn more than their stay-at-home husbands are crippled by guilt about ‘abandoning’ their children, research reveals today. About 1.4million families in Britain rely on a high-earning woman whose husband or boyfriend is raising their children full-time, or works part-time. In this dramatic reversal of the traditional family set-up, four in ten mothers [...]

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Newsreader Kate Silverton has shown off the baby she thought she would never have – and said the little girl is everything she could have hoped for. The BBC presenter gave birth to first child Clemency in November after years of IVF heartbreak and fears she would be unable to give birth. And showing off [...]

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Six people, including five teenagers, were injured when gunfire erupted at a girl’s 16th birthday party in the San Francisco Bay area, authorities said on Sunday. Police in Antioch believe three or four male partygoers opened fire Saturday night when two groups began arguing, police Lt. Scott Willerford said. ‘Weapons were brandished and numerous shots [...]

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Whether it’s Victoria Beckham (back to a skinny size 6 just weeks after giving birth to baby Harper), model Miranda Kerr (rarely seen out of tiny leather shorts, with baby on hip) or even presenter Myleene Klass (back in a teeny bikini), it seems not a week goes by without a celebrity pinging back into [...]

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Bringing up a baby is not what it used to be. Ten fingers and ten toes, crying, hunger and diapers: check. But when it comes to modern child rearing, the path is fraught and can be a minefield of contrasting and often confusing confusing ‘correct ways’ as to sleep cycles, routines, breast feeding and child [...]

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