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A schoolgirl was found hanged after rowing with her mum over a pair of trainers, an inquest heard yesterday. Maenga Morupisi, aged 14, had argued about a list of items she wanted to be bought, including the trainers, clothes and a laptop. The teenager pretended to take an overdose two days after the row and [...]

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Tiger Moms, as made famous by Amy Chua’s infamous book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, may have it all wrong. Fiercely pushy Chinese mothers, whose parenting style heaps pressure onto their young ones to succeed both academically and in pastimes, may in fact contribute to low self-esteem and high levels of depression. Professor Desiree [...]

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We were told by David Cameron that the end of the nanny state was here and people would be trusted to use a bit of common sense. However, that appears to have been forgotten by the Department for Education and School Fund Trust which has produced an 80-page guide for people who look after pre-school [...]

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Ben Elliot, the Duchess of Cornwall’s nephew, does not yet have any children with his glamorous new wife, but he may soon be the guardian to the offspring of numerous oligarchs. Mandrake can disclose that Elliot is extending his concierge service, Quintessentially, into the increasingly lucrative market for children’s tutors. As part of his service, [...]

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On a day at the seaside last summer, David Wren watched a father and his son playing crazy golf in the sunshine. “They just looked so happy together. I turned to my partner and said: ‘I want a kid.’ He replied: ‘Me too’ and that was how we came to apply to adopt.” The same-sex [...]

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Undeterred by the tepid reviews that Sophie Dahl received for her television cookery series, her fellow model Donna Air tells me about her own culinary ambitions. “I can’t cook like chefs like Heston [Blumenthal], but I love food, so I’d like to work more in the field,” says Air, who has a daughter, Freya, eight, [...]

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A new vaccine against meningitis B gives full protection to teenagers, according to the first large-scale trial and could be available this Spring. There is currently no vaccine to protect against Meningococcal B in this country. It is the most common form of bacterial meningitis and the toughest challenge for scientists because there are so [...]

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A wife who cared for her dying husband has revealed that the experience made her mentally ‘crash’ – essentially driving her to the brink of madness. Speaking to ABC News, Catherine Graves, 45, described the trauma of caring for her husband, who had brain cancer, and explained that the lack of support she felt as [...]

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It is using its investigative powers to look at emergency care at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, as a way of looking at the care patients receive throughout their whole stay. Last summer the CQC published a highly critical report of the trust’s maternity service at Furness General Hospital in Cumbria, threatening [...]

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Babies don’t learn to talk just from hearing your voice. New research suggests they’re lip-readers too. It happens around the age of six months when a baby begins shifting from the intent eye gaze of early infancy to studying mouths when people talk to them. Their babbling then gradually changes from gibberish into syllables and [...]

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The toddler whose brave fight against an excruciating skin disorder prompted a worldwide crusade to battle the illness has died. Tripp Roth, from Ponchatoula, Louisiana, outlived all medical predictions during his battle with junctional epidermolysis bullosa, which caused his skin to blister at the slightest touch. The two-year-old boy died in his mother’s arms on [...]

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A boy of ten trapped up to his waist in thick mud was rescued after his quick-thinking dad used a tip he learnt from Bear Grylls. Schoolboy Harry Brooks plunged waist-deep into the quagmire in freezing conditions after running in to help his younger brother find a lost shoe. Harry had been walking with his [...]

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I’m not sure how old I was when I was first instructed that boys don’t cry – at a guess, maybe six or seven. Once it began, it came at me from all angles: family, teachers, friends, the myriad voices of media and culture. Like pretty much all boys, I learned that tears and sobs [...]

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Gemma Barker, 19, created three separate fictional characters on the internet who went on to introduce themselves to the 16-year-old victims online as potential dates, the court heard. Even though the girls knew Barker well they were totally taken in when she dressed up as two different teenage males and started real-life relationships with them. [...]

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This new three-part series explores the sprawling lives of some of the UK’s biggest families. In tonight’s opener we meet Sue Radford from Morecambe in Lancashire, mother to 14 children. Sue is expecting another child in just a few months, and doesn’t rule out still more after that. “It’s usually when they’re between six and [...]

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Jenny Genge was 34 when she made the decision to have a hysterectomy. For nearly two decades she’d suffered the agony of endometriosis and, after trying everything from hormone therapy to laser surgery, this dramatic solution was all that was left to her. ‘I’d had years of terrible pain,’ says Jenny, an administrator from Minehead, [...]

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The Fifties and Sixties radically changed British couples’ habits — sweeping away time-honoured traditions of how people ate, raised their children and behaved socially. Women tried to keep fashionably slim, took office jobs, bought convenience meals, had babies in quick succession, spurned breastfeeding and felt the pressure of their fast-paced lifestyles. To our parents’ generation [...]

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Teenagers are prone to being moody, self-centred and reckless because their brains function differently when they do something they enjoy, say scientists. A study of rats found more neurons were activated in adolscents’ brains as they received tasty treats than those of adults – meaning they ‘over-process’ rewards and become vulnerable to addictive or impulsive [...]

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A baby’s relationship with their mother during the first 18 months of life affects their behaviour in future romances, a study has shown. The ability to trust, love and work through arguments is defined early on in childhood. A mistreated infant becomes a defensive arguer while the baby whose mother was attentive and supportive is [...]

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Some people’s lives are almost unimaginably hard, stricken by bad luck. The welfare state is there to mitigate misfortune, or it was. Emma and Chris Ford have three severely autistic children below the age of eight. Emma was once a well-paid PA, but that life is a world away, as both parents have given up [...]

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A 15-year-old girl has died during a school trampoline lesson in Stowmarket. Lily Webster, a year 11 pupil at Stowmarket High School, was taking part in the PE lesson at Mid Suffolk Leisure Centre when she collapsed. The ambulance service was called at 14:30 GMT on Monday, but she was pronounced dead at the scene. [...]

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A teenager fell to her death from a bridge after being peer pressured to drink vodka in the playground and wandering out of school. Wendy Maguire, 16, was allowed to leave the school grounds even though her teachers realised she had been fed alcohol by other pupils, it is claimed. Her family say she had [...]

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A doctor in Sweden has come under fierce scrutiny after he glued a 22-month-old child’s eyes together. The youngster whose parents had initially checked him into a hospital after he sustained a gash on his forehead, ended up needing corrective surgery to counter the error. It is not yet known whether the physician who works [...]

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The distraught family of a 17-year-old girl killed by a disqualified drink-driver who lied about being behind the wheel have branded his prison sentence ‘a joke’. Banned Zahoor Hussain, 25, was driving his father’s Mini Cooper at 50mph on a 30mph road when he lost control, causing the death of his friend and back-seat passenger [...]

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All children under five in care in London should be sent a free book a month to boost their reading and prospects later in life, the Commons was being told today. Senior Labour MP John Healey urged Mayor Boris Johnson and his Labour challenger Ken Livingstone to back the Imagination Library scheme, already running in [...]

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Sky-high tuition loans are turning more college-aged girls to the internet in hopes of wrangling in a wealthy suitor through an online dating service since it appears to be more profitable than an extra shift at the local coffee shop. One such woman, Christine Morris, added herself onto a site called SeekingArrangement.com in hopes of [...]

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It’s been suggested women and children were not given priority for lifeboats when the Costa Concordia capsized. But are there rules governing who leaves a sinking ship first? It’s a famous moment in the Titanic story. “Women and children first!” went the cry as the liner listed ever more precariously. It’s too early to know [...]

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As more and more women dress in pricier versions of their teenagers’ skinny jeans, chunky knits and LBDs, dressing like you mother is no longer the embarrassment it once was. And, to celebrate, savvy school-goers are raiding their parents’ wardrobes, a new survey has revealed. In an indication of how young people are being hit [...]

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Taxpayers are forking out thousands of pounds a year on DNA paternity tests after mothers seeking maintenance wrongly identified the father of their child. Last year, around £100,000 went on tests which turned out to be the wrong man because the mother has slept with so many men that she has no idea who the [...]

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Sallyanne Jones is cradling her seven-month-old baby on her lap, smiling at her little face. But how would she feel if she had to give her child up this afternoon, knowing she wouldn’t see her again for at least 18 years, and possibly never? It’s not a question you would usually put to a new [...]

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The great tragedy of modern parenting is that we’ve forgotten its history – and mothers are paying the price. Contrary to popular belief, the superdad who takes on a serious share of childcare and housework is not a new invention. Before the industrial revolution – a mere couple of hundred years ago – most men [...]

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A mother who has just given birth to twins – bringing her number of children to 11 – refuses to claim benefits despite the size of her family. Tania Sullivan, from Hoo, Kent, gave birth to twins Elizabeth and Anna in October. Amazingly, the 37-year-old only gave up work as a recruitment consultant after the [...]

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A 12-year-old boy found guilty of murdering his 11-year-old sister said he was forced to confess to the murder after hours of ‘terrifying’ police interrogation – although he had nothing to do with it. Police suspected Thomas Cogdell, now 18, had strangled his sister at their Camden, Arkansas home after his shock at her death [...]

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The 22-year-old said her father, Bob Geldof, was “overwhelmed” when she told him on Boxing Day that she was expecting a baby boy with her fiance Thomas Cohen. She told Hello! magazine: “Oh my God, he was so happy, especially as I’m having a boy. The poor man’s been surrounded by women up till now. [...]

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A 30-year-old, who last year became Britain’s youngest grandfather, has been dumped by his girlfriend who claims he is a useless parent and regularly drinks up to 14 pints of lager a night. Unemployed Shem Davies, from Bridgend, Wales, hit the headlines after his daughter Tia gave birth to baby girl Ava Grace a week [...]

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A teenager’s pancreas was ‘falling apart’ after she drank six litres of strong cider a day from the age of 14. Two major operations saved the life of the young girl after years of cheap alcohol consumption led to her developing severe acute pancreatitiis, her doctor revealed. She ‘only just’ recovered from the serious alcohol [...]

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Jean Gross, a former teacher, was appointed Communications Champion after a review led by John Bercow before he became Speaker of the Commons. In a report published today she argued that checks on the language of toddlers needs to become as routine as health assessments of weight and growth. Those with poor speech at two [...]

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Jean Gross, the outgoing ‘communication champion’ for children, said parents should be advised by text to switch the television off, if they had it on all day, and reminded to speak to their babies. She raised the idea in her last report on how to improve the speaking, reading and writing skills of children. Gross [...]

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tem cells harvested from an infant’s umbilical cord may be used to save the life of the baby’s brother who is suffering from cancer. Nathan Shorey, 3, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in 2010 and may need a stem cell transplant if his condition deteriorates. The stem cells from the umbilical cord of his [...]

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Talking to other fathers at a kid’s party is awkward. I go to pick up Ed from a friend’s birthday bash. The party bags are still being distributed and the other dads and I mill around the kitchen waiting to whisk our offspring away. I don’t know why, but I always feel like an outsider [...]

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Bob and Anne Sears look out at the walled garden from their two-bedroom cottage in a “retirement village” near Maidstone in Kent, and say: “We’ve never regretted moving here.” Three years ago they sold their five-bedroom house in Essex and became the first people to move to Mote House, then still under construction by Audley, [...]

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My father is turning 90 soon, and, though he is sprightly for his age, I worry that time is running out for him. He fell out with my brother more than 50 years ago, and they rarely meet. It upsets me and I’d like to find a way for them to be reconciled before it’s [...]

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This story struck a chord with me because I once participated in a work experience programme. This was in 1980. I’d left school at the age of 16, having failed all but one of my O-levels, and my father suggested I join this scheme whereby I had to do unpaid work as a condition of [...]

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It’s a question some new mothers and fathers may secretly wonder about, but when asked who her favourite parent is this adorable baby showed little hesitation. The video of Australian Mick Tippett quizzing his young daughter Maddie is one that many fathers can probably relate to. During the hilarious video Mick repeatedly asks one-year-old Maddie [...]

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For the first time, a moms-only catwalk show, featuring fashion styles targeted at busy mothers and modelled by moms, will be included in the New York Fashion Week line-up. Strut: The Fashionable Mom Show will, according to WWD, give women inspiration when it comes to wearing outfits that are not simply kid-friendly but can be [...]

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Teenager Cassie McCord was killed by an 87-year-old motorist who drove into her as she walked on the pavement – three days after he refused to surrender his licence to police. Colin Horsfall had been in a minor accident and failed an on-the-spot eye test but held onto his driving licence, an inquest heard. Cassie, [...]

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He’s done just about everything: flown hot air balloons in the Arctic and crashed them in Morocco, sailed in storms across the Atlantic, set up more than 400 Virgin companies, appeared in Friends and worked with legends such as Nelson Mandela on saving the world. So what’s left for Sir Richard Branson to do? The [...]

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A little girl, who underwent life-saving surgery aged nine days old, is today celebrating her first birthday. Weighing just 3lb 5oz, Eleana Hasting, was the smallest baby in Britain to have open heart surgery. She arrived six weeks prematurely with a missing valve, a hole between two chambers of her heart and dilated pulmonary arteries. [...]

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Losing one’s hair at any age would be hard to cope with. But high school years, already blighted by teenage insecurities and potential bullies, must surely be more challenging still. Now one young alopecia sufferer has described exactly what it feels like to go through life without hair. Olivia Rusk, 14, from Fishers, Indiana, has [...]

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Lakisha Myers was found dead by her younger sister Savanna at their family home in Tooting on the morning of August 8 last year. At an inquest yesterday, family GP Bernard Ogoe said there were concerns she had not been using her inhalers properly since she was diagnosed with asthma in February 2003. Savanna, 11, [...]

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