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For nearly six weeks, student Kathleen Hawkins struggled to overcome the devastating after-effects of meningitis B.

The disease had triggered septicaemia, and Kathleen, then 19, had suffered multiple organ failure — for three weeks she’d been on life support and kidney dialysis.

Finally, she was on the slow road to recovery; tragically, however, her legs were not — they were black and swollen, irreparably damaged by bacterial infection. The news was bleak. ‘The plastic surgeon very gently told me I would have to have my left and possibly my right leg amputated below the knee,’ says Kathleen.

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iHealth, makers of a Bluetooth blood pressure monitor for your iPhone, is now launching an iPhone-compatible baby monitor next month, reports mobile tech website Mobihealthnews. Also, the company plans to debut a Bluetooth-enabled iHealth Digital Scale, with both new products aiming to compete with Withings’ versions.

While exact release dates and prices have not yet been announced, Mobihealthnews reports that the iHealth Digital Scale will offer similar features to the Withings model. Users can record and upload weight via Bluetooth to a free app, then aggregate the info for data-crunching, or upload details to doctors or social networks.

High-tech baby monitors are an emerging trend, and the iBaby Monitor lets parents remotely monitor their children on their iPhone via an app. Mobihealthnews also recently reported on another competitor: Evoz, a beta-version app that allows parents to listen to their baby from their iPhone or iPad from anywhere in the world, or watch using a WiFi-connected monitor. An Android version is expected to launch sometime this year.

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The Rugby World Cup will inspire children to take up the game, but is the increasing risk of serious injury a cause for concern?

Poor Lewis Moody; your heart bleeds for the man. The England rugby captain stood forlornly on the edge of the pitch last week, his blond head bowed, looking dismayed, dejected and alone. And who could blame him? While his team-mates were colliding with Argentina in their opening match of the Rugby World Cup, Moody was out injured. Damaged knee ligaments had put the sportsman on the sidelines before the tournament had even begun.
Moody’s replacement in the opening game was Mike Tindall who, just a few years ago, suffered one of the worst injuries in recent international rugby history when he punctured his lung, tore his liver and spent five days in intensive care. Few thought he would play rugby again. But no sooner had he left hospital than he was jogging around the pitch and was soon running out at Twickenham, defying all medical predictions.

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Boy had to lie about Christmas presents and pretend he was given Action Man figures instead of Barbie dolls

Branded a ‘freak’ by cruel adults when he dressed in girls’ clothes
Mother says she knew something was different since he was two-and-a-half years old.

A boy of ten has returned to school dressed as a girl because he believes he was born the wrong sex, it was revealed yesterday.
The year six pupil was born a boy physically but has suffered from gender dysphoria, a disorder that makes a person unhappy with the gender they were born with.

His mother is supporting his decision. She has allowed him to dress as a girl and says he will start hormone blocker therapy – the first step to changing gender – when he is 12.

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I’m the lead neurosurgeon for the craniofacial unit at Great Ormond Street Hospital, where we treat babies born with skulls that aren’t growing properly.

Babies have growth lines in between the bones in their face and head to allow the skull to grow along with the brain, the eyes and everything else. In some children – and we don’t quite understand why, it’s a genetic problem – all or some of these growth lines are fused. The baby is forming normally otherwise, the eyes and brain are growing, but the bony sockets and the bony cage for the eyes and the brain just aren’t; the skull is rigid.

In the past, these children unfortunately died because nothing could be done. Over the past two decades or so, surgeons would have to remove half the skull to make space for the brain, which would save the child but it was a horrific treatment.

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Having children is not only bad for your sleep and the family budget – it also saps testosterone levels in fathers, according to a study which suggests that men are genetically programmed for fatherhood.

High testosterone levels could be linked with the chances of finding a sexual partner, but once a man becomes a father for the first time, his testosterone levels fall significantly, a study of 624 young men found.

Scientists believe this decline shows that men are biologically “hard-wired” to care for offspring, rather than paternal care being a purely a cultural phenomenon. They say that other species in which males show a similar testosterone decline are generally those in which there is innate paternal care for offspring, compared to species where there is no paternal care after mating. “Humans are unusual among mammals in that our offspring are dependent upon older individuals for feeding and protection for more than a decade,” said Christopher Kuzawa, a professor of anthropology at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. “Raising human offspring is such an effort that it is co-operative by necessity, and our study shows that human fathers are biologically wired to help with the job.”

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Twenty-three children suffering from a rare genetic disorder have been infected with HIV after receiving tainted blood in western India, it emerged today.

All the children had received free transfusions at a government-run hospital in the Junagadh district of Gujarat state between January and August.

The youngsters, who are all from poor families, all suffer from thalassemia, a genetic disorder that requires regular transfusions. Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder that causes the body to not produce the correct globulin protein, creating unusable blood and resulting in anaemia.

State government spokesman Jai Narayan Vyas said a team of doctors has been sent to investigate.

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It’s one of the most controversial subjects for parents, but can a regular routine help your baby learn to get to sleep?

Nothing (except perhaps breastfeeding) gets parents more worked up than whether or not you should sleep-train your baby. Babies are not programmed to sleep through the night until they are at least six months old. A study in the BMJ showed that mothers of babies who didn’t sleep had increased rates of postnatal depression. Other studies suggest babies who don’t sleep may develop more slowly.

There are various techniques, not supported by much research, that involve setting regular routines and then either leaving your baby to get to sleep on its own or sleeping alongside it.

The dilemma: You don’t want to harm your baby, but you’re desperate for a few hours’ sleep and what if your baby just can’t learn to sleep without help? Is there a nice way to do it?

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Men are “biologically wired” to be fathers – not just to father children – according to authors of a study which found testosterone falls when a baby arrives.

Levels appear to drop to enable the more caring side of a man’s character to emerge, concluded scientists.
They found men with higher testosterone levels – associated with dominant and potentially violent behaviour – were both more likely to secure a partner and father children.
But after the birth itself testosterone levels in these men dropped, according to academics at Northwestern University in Chicago.
Christopher Kuzawa, a faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern, and a co-author of the study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said: “Humans are unusual among mammals in that our offspring are dependent upon older individuals for feeding and protection for more than a decade.

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Scientists claim animations can over-tax young brains

Watching fast-paced cartoons harms toddlers’ ability to concentrate and solve logic-based puzzles, as well as undermining their short-term memory, according to research.

Four-year-olds shown clips of animations with rapid scene changes, such as the popular SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon, performed significantly worse in problem-solving and attention tests than those shown slower sequences.

Psychologists who led the research believe that watching animations with constant changes of setting can over-tax young children’s brains, especially the part that controls ‘executive function’ – including goal-directed behaviour, working memory and delay of gratification.

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Sending babies and toddlers to day-care could do untold damage to the development of their brains and their future health, a leading psychologist has claimed.

Aric Sigman, a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, has warned that spending long periods being cared for by strangers in the first years of life can send levels of stress hormones soaring.

This could raise the odds of a host of problems, from coughs and colds in the short-term, to heart disease in the years to come. Children deprived of their mother’s attention during the vital years in which the brain blossoms may also find it harder to form relationships as adults.

Dr Sigman, who has worked with the Department of Health on education campaigns, said that the emphasis on women’s rights, including the right to return to work after becoming a mother, means that the potential dangers of day-care are ignored.

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Hospitals could be barred from telling expectant mothers the sex of their unborn baby, following a ruling in Europe.

Medical staff should be instructed to “withhold information about the sex of the foetus” according to a draft resolution passed by a Council of Europe committee.
The plan is an attempt to prevent parents “selectively aborting” foetuses – usually female – as means of ‘choosing’ the sex of their child.
The practice has reached worrying proportions in some former Soviet states that are members of the Council.
However, the recommendation covers all 47 member states, meaning all NHS midwives and doctors could be blocked from telling expectant parents whether they will have a boy or a girl.

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Parents who lose a new baby run a high risk themselves of dying prematurely, according to a British study published on Thursday.

Investigators delved into a random sample of national death registrations for the years 1971 to 2006.

They compared deaths among parents who had been bereaved in the first year of a child’s life or whose child had been stillborn, against deaths among parents whose baby had survived beyond the first year.

Bereaved parents were between two and four times likelier to die or become widowed in the first 10 years of the child’s death compared with non-bereaved counterparts.

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Police are investigating the deaths of a number of babies at a hospital that was severely criticised over its maternity services at an inquest in June.

Fifteen detectives are working on the case, investigating the deaths at Furness General Hospital in Barrow, Cumbria, and ‘major’ incident rooms have been set up in the town and nearby Penrith.
In October 2008 Joshua Titcombe bled to death, nine days after his birth at Furness General Hospital in Barrow, Cumbria.
He died from a common lung infection after staff there failed to identify tell-tale signs.
Midwives were subsequently accused by the coroner at the baby’s inquest of colluding to hide mistakes over his care.

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A young mother has revealed she was diagnosed with breast cancer at 19 – because she was pregnant.

Lisa Clough, 26, was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer and had her left breast removed before undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

As she recovered, the mother-of-one was stunned to be told that she had developed the cancer while she was pregnant with daughter Isabelle Lilly due to the changes in her hormones. During pregnancy, women’s breasts are exposed to large amounts of estrogen and other hormones that may prompt the growth of some breast cancers.

Sales assistant Lisa has now been given the all-clear and has recently begun reconstructive surgery.

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Babies begin to recognise pain before they are born, a study has shown.

They learn to tell the difference between pain and touch as early as the 35th week of pregnancy, researchers have discovered.

Scientists measured the brain waves of 25 normal-term and 21 premature babies to look for differences in activity.

As the electroencephalograph (EEG) recordings were made the infants had samples of blood taken by lancing their heels, a routine standard procedure.

Among premature babies, the heel lances produced general bursts of electrical activity in the brain. But after 35 to 37 weeks the babies’ response switched to localised activity in specific brain areas

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Feeding babies and toddlers is a notoriously tricky business – as frazzled new parent Guy Adams is discovering. He talks to behavioural experts about how to stop mealtimes turning into a battleground

There I was, at the breakfast table a few days ago. A newspaper sat in one hand; freshly-marmaladed toast in the other. My wife was upstairs; our infant son, William, was playing somewhere on the floor. And the Today programme jabbered away in the background. It was, to those of a bourgeois persuasion, a picture-perfect scene of domestic bliss.

Then disaster struck. Realising, with a parental sixth sense, that something wasn’t quite right, I looked up. My child was not in his usual place. Neither were his toys. Instead, strange, gurgling sounds were coming from a corner of the kitchen. And there, when I finally clocked him, sat William. He was scoffing the contents of the dog’s bowl.

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The finest chefs are often inspired by recipes they remember from their youth. Charlotte Philby asks a selection to recall the dish that evokes their fondest memories

Hélène Darroze: French toast with figs: ‘My grandmother used to make me this dish when I came in hungry after school’

French toast is the dish I associate most strongly with childhood. Even now, if I see it on a menu, I have to have it. It used to be made for me by my grandmother who was of a generation of women who didn’t want to put anything in the dustbin; she taught us to use up every last bit of food. Every other day or so, she would make French toast from days-old bread, which she would serve with some marmalade or jam and a little bit of cream. It could be eaten as a meal on its own when we came in hungry from school, or as a dessert after dinner. I always knew if she’d made it by the smell as soon as I walked through the front door.

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The government is failing to protect thousands of children at risk from obesity and cardiovascular disease, a leading food charity has warned.

The group Sustain says the Department of Health is not doing enough to regulate the sale and marketing of junk foods with a high salt and fat content, which have been linked to thousands of preventable deaths. Children were particularly susceptible to advertising, their report claimed. The charity urged the Government to introduce a 9pm watershed on junk food adverts on TV.

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From the eight-year-old organic fanatic to the teenage cake decorator, the new gastro generation is cooking up a storm, as Nick Harding discovers

“Mummy, I wanted globe artichoke, not Jerusalem… and my babyccino is cold,” are not words you’d expect to hear in a restaurant. After languishing in the pizza and pasta wilderness for years, the children’s menu is undergoing a renaissance as restaurants cash in on the foodie revolution. Children’s bento boxes, smoked eel with scrambled eggs and almond milk, and roast quail with sweet potato purée are just some of the dishes that enlightened establishments are now offering to their mini-gastronome clientele.

Culinary crusaders such as Jamie Oliver, and his battle for the hearts and lunch boxes of the nation, have already encouraged more children to get interested in food and where it comes from. Jamie’s Home Cooking Skills course focuses on giving young people the skills they need to prepare good, home-cooked food, while television programmes such as Big Cook Little Cook make food fun for pre-schoolers. Junior Masterchef is now so cool that JLS have appeared on it. Online, there are scores of cookery websites solely for young foodies; catering summer camps and cookery classes for children have been one of rare success stories of the recession.

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Chloe Gray, 15 months, is youngest in UK to be fitted with chest port after her veins collapsed

A toddler has become the youngest in the country to be fitted with a life-saving device after constant blood transfusions caused her veins to fail.

Chloe Gray suffers from a rare blood disorder and has depended on blood transfusions her whole life, receiving her first two while still in the womb.

At just 15 months old, little Chloe’s veins have collapsed, exhausted by the constant and invasive procedures.

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Mothers who breastfeed their babies are twice as aggressive as bottle-feeding moms and women without children when confronted by a threat, a study has found.

Researchers found that the so-called ‘mama bear’ effect means that the psychological effect of breastfeeding gives women extra courage to defend themselves and their babies.

‘Maternal defence does not involve nursing mothers going out and looking for bar fights, but when they have a helpless baby, they’re more likely to defend themselves when the fight comes to them,’ said Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook, of UCLA’s Department of Health Psychology.

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Mothers-to-be can reduce the chances of their babies developing food allergies by eating a diet rich in oily fish and nuts, new research indicates.

Academics have discovered that omega-3 fatty acids – found in fish like salmon, mackerel and tuna, as well as walnuts, pumpkin seeds and linseeds – prompt the gut to develop in a way that boosts the immune system.
And they warn that more children could now be at risk of food allergies than in the past because consumption of such foods has fallen.
The team, from France’s National Agricultural Research Institute (INRA), found that when mothers-to-be ate a diet high in a particular group of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), the gut walls of their offspring were more permeable.

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This is Liana-Jean Lisle who it is believed could be the tallest five-year-old in Britain.

She was born at an average weight and height but quickly started growing at double the rate of other children the same age.

By the time she was two she was 3ft 7in tall – the same as a five-year-old – and now, as she starts at a primary school in South West London she will be the same height as children in the top year.

She already wears adult shoes and is thought to be the tallest five year old in Britain.

Her mother, Donna Lisle, 28, and 5ft 10in, said: ‘People always think Liana-Jean is older, about nine or ten. They assume she is really immature or even has learning difficulties and it really upsets me.

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Fussy parents have been warned not to hover over their children’s every move – or risk preventing healthy play and encouraging obesity.

A new study, which looked at families in parks, found so-called ‘helicopter parents’ who show too much concern while their children are playing in the park actually cause them to be less active.

They found these parents often interrupted their children’s spontaneous play – making them more sedentary.

Lead researcher Dr Jason Bocarro said: ‘It’s a catch-22 for today’s parents, unfortunately. Many parents are worried about the safety of their children, so they tend to hover.

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Social services are recommending that more children than ever be taken into care, figures showed today.

Record increases in care applications have been seen since the furore sparked in November 2008 by the trial over the death of Baby P, the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) said.

The number of applications has reached monthly highs every month bar one so far in 2011, with 885 in August alone – the second highest monthly figure since records began 10 years ago.

Along with the record high of 894 in March this year, the latest figures take the 2011 monthly average to 814, compared with 754 last year, 710 in 2009 and 460 in 2008.

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Maternity ward falls silent as mother gives birth to huge 12LB daughter

A mother stunned hospital staff when she gave birth to a 12lb baby girl.

Rachael Riddick’s third child, Mia, tipped the scales when she was born at Nottingham City Hospital.

Mrs Riddick, 31, said: ‘I knew she was going to be big, but it was still a huge surprise. When she came out, the whole room went quiet. She was enormous.

‘The doctor said he hadn’t seen such a big baby in 25 years, and we were the talk of the hospital. Apparently 9lb is big for a baby, so Mia’s huge.’

Mia was born on August 10, and, after their initial shock, the seven staff attending the birth started trying to guess the baby’s weight.

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Parents who lose a baby during its first year of life are much more likely to die early, new research suggests.

While it is commonly believed that people can die of a ‘broken heart’ when losing a partner, little research has been done on the risks to bereaved parents.

Now a new study published in the journal BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care has found that bereaved parents are between two and four times more likely to die early or become widowed in the first 10 years after losing a child compared with those who are not bereaved.

This applied to parents who suffered a stillbirth, or whose baby died in the first year of life.

The effect is particularly pronounced in mothers, who are 1.5 times more likely to die early in the first 25 years after a death compared to mothers who have not lost a baby.

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If feeding the kids has become a daily battle of wills, consider sitting down at the dinner table and sharing a family meal.

According to a new study out of the UK that studied the eating habits of 75 families, friendly interaction between mother and child was shown to help young children become more open to trying new foods.

Instead of coercive strategies like pressure and physical prompting, friendly, laid-back dining environments were shown to help develop less food-fussy children, the study said.

The findings will be presented at the Developmental Psychology Section Annual Conference in Newcastle this week, where researchers will provide more details.

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Four teams of doctors in Shanghai managed to separate twins girls who were born joined at the breast and abdomen.

In a 6-hour long operation, An An and Min Min had their shared hearts sacs and one single liver split.

According to the hospital, both are recovering well.

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Why do so many women fall into the trap of using the fruit bowl as a symbol of how sophisticated their families are?

I’m much looking forward to seeing the film of Allison Pearson’s excellent novel I Don’t Know How She Does It, starring Sarah Jessica Parker. The book describes, with exuberant wit, the pressures handled by mothers who are also attending to careers, and how fathers get what they are reluctant to believe is a relatively easy ride. That experience certainly resonates with me, and with many of my peers.

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Father had a single cigar at a wedding and a work do

A couple who applied to become foster parents say they were rejected after the husband admitted having smoked two cigars in the previous 18 months.

Clare and Paul Baker were ten months into the year-long process and were hoping to take a young child into their home by Christmas when they say they were told they were no longer eligible.

During an interview with a social worker, 36-year-old Mr Baker mentioned having a cigar at a wedding and another at an office party although the couple never smoke at home.

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Three years ago, 27-year-old Gareth Wilkinson lost his battle with bone cancer.

His dying wish was that his widow Lisa, now 29, start a family.

Last September, after a single round of IVF using sperm Gareth banked before his treatment began, Lisa gave birth to a son.

As Jack approaches his first birthday, she writes an emotional open letter to Gareth…

Dear Gareth,

Sitting down to write this, I barely know where to begin.

As our beautiful boy reaches his first birthday, there is so much I wish that I could say to you.

I long to close my eyes and hear you downstairs playing cars with our son Jack — a passion of yours that he seems to share.

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A haunting dispatch from inside the hospital that saves children from starving themselves to death… before they’ve even reached their teens

Slumped semi-conscious on the sofa, Megan Archer summoned up what little strength she had left and fixed the paramedic attempting to hand her a vital glucose tablet with a determined gaze. ‘How many calories does it have in it?’ she said.

Looking at the fragile frame of their 13-year-old daughter — appearing years younger thanks to a cruel illness — Jane and Phil Archer were hit by a wave of utter despair. Those few plaintive words summed up how, in a few short months, anorexia had transformed their healthy daughter into a painfully thin shadow of her former self.

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Men are being encouraged to have vasectomies, as Africa’s most densely populated country launches a campaign to curb population growth.

Family planning is seen as an important factor in the development of Rwanda, a small nation with a population of 11 million people, which is hoping to compete with regional powerhouses Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

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Just like thousands of other ‘first timers’ nervously putting on their new uniforms today, identical twins Gracie May and Evie look forward to starting school.

But theirs is a remarkable story of bravery and battling to beat the odds to survive and reach the landmark.

They were born suffering from a rare syndrome and by the time they were eighteen months old, Evie was walking but Gracie May could not even stand up. It has been a long road for proud parents Adam Fuller, a 32-year-old car window repairman, and his wife Mandy, 33, from Shanklin on the Isle of Wight.

‘When we see our twin girls walk through those school gates this week it will be such an emotional moment – a day we thought we might not see,’ said Mandy.

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Boys with absent fathers are likely to have their first child earlier than those who grow up with two parents, a study found.

Boys who grow up in homes without fathers from the age of seven or earlier are almost seven per cent more likely to become young fathers than those who do not, according to a study by London School of Economics scientists.
Losing their father between the ages of seven and 16 made boys four to five per cent more likely to have a child by the age of 23 than boys who continue to live with a male parent, the research showed.
But the departure of their father, particularly between the ages of 11 and 16, was also linked to a delay in the age at which boys began puberty.

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A blood test which could tell mothers if they are at high risk of giving birth prematurely could be available soon.

Scientists have found 80 per cent of premature births can be spotted early using a test given during the second trimester of pregnancy.

Currently women are only assessed as high risk if they have already had one premature child or if there have been complications during labour.

Those deemed to be at risk are advised to modify their lifestyle by taking lots of rest and can be given hormones that help keep the baby in the womb for longer.

Around 50,000 babies a year are born at less than 37 weeks in Britain, which represents around eight per cent of all births.

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A mother who refused to accept her sick young daughter just had hay fever was proved right after a scan revealed she was suffering from a life-threatening brain tumour.

Maddy Zgraja took her two-year-old daughter Keira on weekly visits to the GP after she began suffering from bouts of nausea, vomiting as well as weakness in her left side. However, she said doctors dismissed her concerns about her daughter’s ailing health, telling her it was probably hay fever and a blocked tear duct.

After eight months, Keira was referred to Basildon Hospital, where blood tests and an MRI scan revealed the youngster had a large tumour on her brain stem.

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A mother delighted to discover she was pregnant was somewhat daunted after learning she was expecting three non-identical triplets.

Catherine Cunningham and her husband Brendan were astonished by the news when they went for a 12-week scan because they had conceived their children naturally.

The chances of having three children from three eggs fertilised simultaneously is only one in 25,000. Catherine gave birth by caesarian to Max, Sam and Jamie in May at St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester.

Max, who weighed 5lb 4oz, and Jamie, 5lb 8oz, were initially rushed to special care, but four months on all are doing well. Sam weighed in at 4lb 10.

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The NHS watchdog for England is considering giving all women the option to have a Caesarean delivery even if there is no medical need.

Currently women do not have an automatic right to choose a C-section.

The change has been suggested in a draft of a report to be published by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence later this year.

Obstetricians say this is welcome and will “formalise” what many hospitals are doing already.

The C-section rate in England has remained approximately static at about one in every four births or 25%.

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New research shows that taking certain painkillers in first 20 weeks increases risk of miscarriage by 2.4 times

Women who take even a small dose of painkillers such as ibuprofen early in their pregnancy more than double their risk of suffering a miscarriage, research shows.

The findings prompted medical experts to advise mothers-to-be to avoid taking the drug and instead to use paracetamol for pain relief. Taking any painkillers from the class of medicines known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) – such as ibuprofen, naproxen and Diclofenac – in the first 20 weeks after conception increases the risk of miscarriage by 2.4 times, the study found. The paper, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, found that pregnant women taking any type of NSAID, and any dose of one, ran that scale of extra risk of spontaneous abortion.

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Will your relatives’ health problems be passed on to you and your children?

Tara Sinclair always considered her family to be healthy.

‘My sister, brother and I are all hale and hearty, and rarely ill,’ says the 39-year-old from Lichfield, Staffordshire.

But when Tara began researching her family history, she got a shock.

‘My parents divorced when I was very young, and when I made contact with my dad’s side of the family many years later I realised how ill the gene pool is. Bad hearts, diabetes, even depression — miserable stuff. Now I’m starting to wonder how healthy we really are.’

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About 3,000 women a year are diagnosed with cervical cancer and for many the only option has been a hysterectomy.

Emmeline Collin, 34, a bank worker from Whittlesey, near Peterborough, underwent a procedure that spared her fertility. About two-and-a-half years ago, I got a letter from my GP’s surgery reminding me to book a routine smear test. I’ve always taken good care of my health, so I went for the test straight away.

But two weeks later I got a letter from our local hospital saying I had severe abnormalities in my cervix. I had to go back for another test — a colposcopy — which is where they look at the cervix through a microscope.

I was worried, but I had some friends who’d had abnormalities which turned out to be nothing, so I tried not to panic.

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Identical twin little sisters struck down by leukaemia within a week of each other are winning their desperate battle to beat the killer disease.

Heroic Megan and Gracie Garwood made worldwide headlines after they were both tragically diagnosed with the deadly cancer in September 2009 when they were just four.

Their devastated mum, Emma Garwood, 40, and her husband Mark, 37, said they felt as if they had been thrown into oblivion after being given the heartbreaking news.

But almost exactly two years on they said the inspirational six-year-olds were ‘doing brilliant’.

And Emma said they are keeping their fingers crossed her oldest daughters will achieve an initial clean bill of health in the New Year as they fight to beat all the odds.

She said: ‘We want the all-clear in February and I want them to carry on fighting this and become stronger little girls from this.

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A ‘peek-a-boo’ baby owes his life to his determined mother and her aunt after he remained hidden from view on a pregnancy scan.

Doctors told first-time-mother Amy-Lou Howard she should seek a termination because her son Edward didn’t show up on the screen.

The scan appeared to show an empty sac in Amy-Lou’s womb, which lead them to diagnose an ectopic pregnancy. This potentially fatal condition is where the foetus grows outside the womb and Amy-Lou was advised she would need an injection to flush out her fallopian tubes to remove the foetus.

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Newly single, nearing 40 and longing to be a mother, Karin Thayer decided to go it alone. But little did she know how difficult her journey to parenthood would prove to be

I always wanted to be a mother. I just didn’t find the right partner. So I became a walking political debate by accident, by deciding to become a single mum. It’s been a long, confusing and at times very difficult journey. I have doubts every day as to whether I’ll be a good mother to Aidan, who was born in April, and I really miss having someone at my side who is as invested in him as I am, but I am happier than I have ever been and I’ll never regret it.

Aidan comes with me everywhere, whether that’s shopping or for a haircut, and I am treated very differently to how I was before. There’s a validation I receive from society, for example, doors are opened and people smile at us, that I’m not sure I’d get if they were aware I was a single mother.

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A girl who cannot eat without pain is preparing to take her lunchbox to school anyway – so she can fit in with her friends.

Ella Campbell, 5, has a severe condition called eosinophilic gastrointestinal disease. It means she is mostly fed by tube because eating causes severe pain and nausea.

But despite school lunches being a stressful experience for the courageous child – she still insists on taking her Disney Princess lunchbox every day. Her mother Karen Campbell, 31 from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, said: ‘Ella finds lunchtime very stressful.

‘She takes a packed lunch with her because she feels pressured to eat, but for her it is just too painful.

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The number of off-licence premises in an area is statistically linked to the number of underage drinkers admitted to hospital for alcohol-related problems, a study suggests.

The research for campaign group Alcohol Concern relates to 2006 to 2009 and is for England, excluding London.

On average for every two stores per 100,000 of population selling drink, one under 18-year-old sought treatment.

The report says the government may need to control off-licence numbers.

It also argues authorities must be given powers under the Licensing Act to refuse applications on the grounds of local health considerations and calls for improved analysis of alcohol-related hospital admissions.

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Children should be screened for anxiety disorders to prevent them developing severe mental problems in later life.

Treating anxiety early would be the single most effective way of reducing the burden of mental disorders – one of the most common causes of disability in the developed world, according to Professor Hans Ulrich Witten, lead author of study of the state of Europe’s mental health.

It is estimated that 38.2 per cent – 165 million people – of people in Europe suffers from a mental disorder and that anxiety is the commonest. All age groups are affected but some conditions, such as eating disorders, are more prevalent among the young and others, such as dementia, commoner in the elderly. The findings of the three-year study, which covered 30 countries and more than 500 million people have been published in the journal European Psychopharmacology.

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