Going for percentage, a third of the parents involved confessed that they would rather not discipline their children in public. A little less – three in ten – even owned up to being pushovers.

The majority of the covered parents agreed that they hand out far less discipline than they were subjected to when they were children (55 per cent).

In the meantime 90 per cent adults are satisfied with the way they were controlled when they were children, disciplinary measures including smacking, and being sent away to their bedroom for 60 per cent and being sent off to bed early for 50 per cent.

20 per cent were left without dinner for their misbehavior, and ten had to go through even stricter punishment like having their ears boxed.

A spokesman for Cadet150 summed up: “Discipline is all part of growing up and it’s important for children that they are taught the difference between right and wrong.

“It seems children these days get a far easier ride than parents did twenty or thirty years ago.”

Source of the image: sxc.hu/profile/batluck.

It happens due to the setting of food preferences – by this age the child usually has figured out what his or her favorite food is, which forms the base of eating habits later in life.

Some children already begin to gain weight too fast before they are two, their lifestyle having proved to be conducive to becoming obese.

The study accentuates that an unbalanced and insufficient diet, solid food taken too early backed up by physical inactivity are the factors that make up the serious threat of future obesity.

Although statistics tell us that childhood obesity isn’t growing like it used to, its level is still high enough for scientists and medics to keep looking for new strategies that would ensure slimmer figures and healthier hearts for our children.
Lead researcher John Harrington says that the study focuses our attention to the earlier stages of the child’s life in order to find a better strategy that will allow us to control the current trend of obesity.

Source of the image: photl.com.

Forbes Magazine polled over 2,000 working women, asking them what the best time to become a mother is. 76 percent of those polled said the best period for having a baby for career-focused women is between the ages of 25 to 34 years old. More than 40 percent said the best age for giving birth is between the ages of 25 to 29 years old. It is by that age that working women are able to attain financial strength so they can build a family with children.

11 percent believed it would be reasonable to postpone motherhood until at least the age of 35 years. The poll further revealed 56 percent of women wanted to have two children, 27 percent – three children, and 8 percent – four children and more.

More than 60 percent said motherhood can harm the career, with 30 percent of women saying that from their own experience. 23 percent of those polled didn’t experience a negative impact on their career after having a child, while 16 percent said they even felt positive changes in the career with the birth of their first baby.

Source of the image: photl.com.

Portable devices like this are expected to indentify cries of hunger, fear or other emotions in future. It would be a lot of help to mothers and fathers who don’t sleep at nights wringing their hands wondering why their baby is crying.

Source of the image: flickr.com/photos/nathanrussell.

“The results of our study suggest an effect of antidepressant exposure on fetal brain development,” lead researcher Lars Henning Pedersen warns in his article published in Pediatrics. The effect of antidepressants, especially if taken during the last months of pregnancy, may tell on the motor development of the child, showing more in boys.
Babies’ ability to sit and walk may develop significantly later if their mothers used medications to fight their depression while they were with the child, compared to babies whose mothers withstood their depression without the aid of antidepressants.

Children affected by antidepressants show two times more cases when a child remains unable to sit unsupported by the age of six months. When they grow to be a year and half, attention problems begin to set in, and they reveal impaired ability to concentrate for a period of time proper for their age.

Source of the image: photl.com

The actor saw his lawyer before coming face-to-face with his daughter and her mother. Informed sources say Jude feels great responsibility for fatherhood (deliberately evading the fact he hasn’t seen his baby for almost half a year). Rumors have it that Jude was very worried about the meeting. Samantha’s pregnancy was unwanted and he wants to do things right. He can’t be hiding because Sophia will find out who her father is anyway as soon as she can use the web.

Jude Law, Samantha and little Sophia met in Florida, discussing future child support issues and financial arrangements.

There was a word about four million dollars to be paid by the actor during next eighteen years, until his daughter comes of age. Law is supposed to pay $10,000 dollars monthly to cover Sophia’s living costs. Sounds like a nice allowance for a baby mama.

Sources of the images: blogs.coventrytelegraph.net, growingyourbaby.com.

At 27 Bergholdt started chemotherapy and other treatments to fight down bone cancer. Aware that she may develop infertility as the side effect of the treatment, she decided to have her ovary removed and frozen until she is through with the procedures and transplanted it afterwards.

About a year after the transplantation she employed artificial means of pregnancy and had daughter Aviaja, who is now 3.

The successful birth and the joy at having a healthy child inspired the Bergholdts into planning another attempt. They approached the doctors with a request to repeat in-vitro fertilization, upon which it was discovered that Stinne Holm Bergholdt was already pregnant naturally!

It took quite a while for the happy parents to believe in their luck. “It’s like a dream that I never would have thought possible a few years ago,” Bergholdt shares.

Her second daughter, Lucca, is also going on strong, while her mother has to use birth control to ensure that she won’t become pregnant again out of the blue!

Source of the image: sxc.hu/profile/bjearwicke.

A study delivered at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections gives the following figures: 2.6 to 4.4 per cent of expectant mothers found HIV-negative at prenatal checkups get the infection in a matter of a few weeks.
Pregnancy is accompanied by vast hormonal and immune changes that may enhance women’s vulnerability and make them yield to the infection more easily.

Besides repeated testing of expectant mothers other measures should be taken to diminish the risk. Lead researcher Wafaa El-Sadr warned pregnant women to take every precaution to ensure safe sex with a reliable partner during the crucial period as one of the measures that may protect them against the infection.

Mothers should bear in mind that their babies are also threatened. Mary Pat Kieffer, the director for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, accentuates the fact that “a huge percentage of infections in infants are coming from these women.”

Source of the image: sxc.hu/profile/bsilder.

Simple tests helped reveal the link between the pace of child development and his or her performance and behavior at school. The ability to perform all kinds of actions is linked to the development of muscles fine motor skills. 96 percent of nine-month olds could sit unsupported, 92 percent could crawl, 60 percent could stand supported by parents, 4 percent were taking their first steps. 99 percent could grip a toy, 95 percent could shift it from one hand to the other. Overall, 10 percent of children lagged behind their peers and had problems with school performance and behavior as five-year olds. Researchers empathized that children are different and every child has an individual pace of development, but parents need to be aware of possible problems to get everything on track in time.

Source of the image: flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik.

Researchers at the Kyushu University in Japan interviewed almost 2,000 school-goers and found that those who go to bed early are less likely to face behavioral problems and have better classroom performance. Researchers say that the lack of sleep interferes with biorhythms, leading to tiredness, nervousness and tendency to behave abnormally. In addition, children who go to bed late typically watch more TV and do not attend extracurricular classes at school.

Source of the image: sxc.hu/profile/duchesssa.

According to Dr. Gertrude Neumann, pomegranate consumption may help successful delivery. Onset of labor is followed by the release of oxytocin hormone. In case of oxytocin deficiency, doctors would administer it to a parturient woman.  These efforts, however, will always produce the required effect.

To relieve delivery pains, doctors may hopefully use pomegranate based medication in a near future to compensate for oxytocin deficiency. Previous studies also discovered health benefits of pomegranate for women. Pomegranate was found to provide lots of ellagitannins known as a remedy to prevent breast cancer.

Source of the image: photl.com.

Researchers at the National Australian University, who conducted the study for twenty five years, analyzed mental function of women before and after pregnancy as well as during early motherhood.  According to the study lead, Prof Helen Christensen there was no difference between women before and after pregnancy, or before and after motherhood. There was also no difference between the non-mothers, the mothers and the pregnant women.

The women had memory and cognitive speed tests three times during the period of eight years as part of the National Mental Health Surveillance Program that involved a total of 7,500 individuals.

Prof Helen Christensen emphasized that the findings were unique because the women were not told they were tested for “baby brain” so they could not deliberately manipulate the result. By the way, a lot of prominent scientists previously assumed poorer mental abilities in pregnant women and mothers.

The only thing the Australian researchers did establish was some decline in cognitive speed at later stages of pregnancy. Helen Christensen says that lapses of memory normally happen to anyone but people have the tendency to blame it on the fact that they are pregnant.

The study appears in British Journal of Psychiatry.

Source of the image: sxc.hu/profile/coobee.

Researchers at the UC Davis M.I.N.D Institute studied an extensive data base of 4.9 million birth records and found that women who gave birth after 40 were nearly twice as likely to have an autistic child as women aged between 25 and 29.  Men who are older than thirty faced the increased risk of becoming a father of autistic child provided that the mother was younger than 30. Researchers emphasize their target is not to put a blame on older parents but to understand how autism develops. For example, people tend to face fertility problems as they reach the age of 40 years so they have to take toxic medications which could damage eggs and sperm. 1 percent of American children are diagnosed with autism. Researchers look at different factors which can potentially cause autism including household cleaning products, food additives and medications.

Source of the image: sxc.hu/profile/theblooms.

One Animated Film Per Day

In early years, extra stress on the eyes could seriously impair a child’s vision so pediatricians recommend that children younger than 2 shouldn’t watch any television. Afterwards, child’s exposure to TV can be gradually increased, starting with 20 to 30 minutes a day.

It is common belief that watching TV for about an hour is appropriate for older preschoolers, so it’s obvious that preschoolers shouldn’t watch more than one animated feature-length film per day. The duration of viewing can be doubled for younger school-goers, though make sure you take a 15 minute break throughout the session.

Creating Healthy Viewing Environment

It is not recommended to watch TV in a dark room because abrupt jumps in screen brightness can quickly strain a child’s eyes. The best time for watching animated films would be at daytime or in the evenings in a light room.

Your child should be at least 8-10 feet away from the screen, sitting on a coach or chair with upright backrest for back support. Don’t let your child eat while watching TV. Obviously, you shouldn’t eat, either, to set a good example.

Take Care of Picture Quality

Viewing animated films for reasonable duration undoubtedly promotes healthy development of children. The lack of visual experiences at early age may cause an amblyopia, or lazy eye, which is a poor transmission of the visual image to the brain. This is why the picture should be clear and free of blinking or any other flaws.

Choose Positive Animated Films

Animated films may boost your child’s imagination and creativity. However, you have to keep a close watch on what your child’s viewing. Animated characters are supposed to be different – mischievous, restless or calm, but never violent – and experience both positive and negative emotions. Animated films should promote friendship, cooperation and good behavior.

Watch Animated Films Together

Nothing develops a bond stronger than having a pastime together! Since children are more responsive to what’s happening on the screen than adults you need to share your child’s excitement. Children always want to let somebody know how they feel. After viewing, you can discuss the film with your child, or draw the characters or even invent a different story about them and act it with your child.

Moreover, watching animated films together is educational as you can explain the difference between right and wrong to your child.

Source of the image: sxc.hu/profile/Annalog85.

The daily routine of a new mom necessarily includes taking the baby out in a pushchair, usually to a park in the vicinity or to friends. Or around shops. Which amounts to a couple of miles on average.

2 miles multiplied by 6 days give us about 14 miles each week and almost 750 miles, at least during the first year. That’s some journey – and some strain!

80 per cent moms admit that these baby buggy walks provide the only exercise they get and help them shake off the afterbirth weight. 10 per cent even jog with the buggy now and then.

Liz Day reminds of the importance of fresh air and exercising, as well as of a chance to find new friends for yourself and maybe for the little one too.

And finally, about husbands. Mostly they come along on the pushchair walk once or twice a week… some of them think a DVD player fixed on the chair will make a good incentive to accompany their family more often.

Source of the image: flickr.com/photos/treehouse1977.

They studied diet patterns of over 35,000 pregnant women. 199 of them subsequently had children with multiple sclerosis. Those children whose mothers had 4 glasses of milk every day were 56% less likely to get the disease compared to those whose mothers drank just 3 glasses of milk a month. Vitamin D intake was also reported to affect the risk. Those children whose mothers got enough vitamin D during the pregnancy were twice less likely to develop multiple sclerosis. Vitamin D improves calcium uptake and influence the development of multiple sclerosis.

Source of the image: photl.com.

Actually although women approaching their middle age are less likely to get pregnant than younger ones, age alone and even the coming of the menopause do not provide a real guarantee. Preventive measures ought to be taken if no pregnancy is planned.

Julie Bentley, FPA’s Chief Executive, warns: “Whilst the message about fertility declining with age is an important one, it is often overplayed, alongside disproportionate messaging about unplanned teenage pregnancies.

“It sends an inaccurate message to women and society that only the young fall pregnant and is leading older women to believe their fertility has gone long before it actually has.”

The best proof of that is abortion rates which show the same results for women over 40 and under 16 in England and Wales – four of 1,000 women find themselves with an unexpected child. The highest fertility rate – 113.1 for every thousand women – falls on the ages between 30 and 34, according to reports from Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Source of the image: flickr.com/photos/arwen-abendstern.

The word goes round that she is currently discussing a UK pregnancy reality series with British moguls and simultaneously finding her way back to Australia’s Got Talent.

The British project, somewhat reminiscent of Katie Price’s What Katie Did Next made with her ex-husband Peter Andre and revising the idea of a UK-Australia couple, is intended as a six-part reality series for ITV which will also feature the child’s father Kris Smith. $400,000 is the sum mentioned in connection with the project.

On the other side of the globe Minogue is to appear on Australia’s Got Talent as a judge together with an old friend, DJ Kyle Sandilands. Sandilands, in Los Angeles at present, voiced his pleasure at the invitation at Seven’s Sunrise show the other day, saying “When Dannii Minogue is on the phone and says ‘I would love nothing better than sitting alongside you’ … well…”

The eloquent Sandilands is back on the show after a year’s retreat caused by his on-air clumsy handling of a talk about an alleged rape of an underage girl.

Source of the image: freshnews.in.

A new study on the processes behind SIDS published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reveals the interrelations between a high SIDS risk and a low level of a neurochemical known as serotonin in the brain. Serotonin regulates breathing and heart rate during sleep, the period when children are threatened by SIDS most. A change in the serotonin level may influence the breathing to a fairly great extent, which can be especially serious when an infant falls asleep face down and is likely to breathe in most of the carbon dioxide he or she exhales.

Therefore one of the most effective ways to ward off SIDS is to see that the child goes to sleep face up, reminds Alan Guttmacher, director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Infants who died of SIDS also show a low level of the enzyme tryptophan hydroxylase, a brain chemical involved in the production of serotonin.

Source of the image: sxc.hu/profile/pcioca.

While helping you manage your sleep and deal with emotional upheavals, antidepressants can interfere with the milk secretion process, causing difficulty with breastfeeding and probably inability to breastfeed for an adequate period. Quite a number of women seem to be susceptible to this influence, especially those who are going to give birth for the first time.

The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism published a study that describes the processes triggered off by the intake of antidepressants, mainly those that belong to the SSRI group (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors). They are fluoxetine, sertraline, paroxetine and some others. They are reported to affect serotonin regulation not only in the brain, but also in the breast.

Lead researcher Nelson Horseman remarked that the breasts, being serotonin-regulated glands, are closely connected with serotonin-related processes in the whole body.

Yet the discovery doesn’t undermine the importance of the SSRI antidepressants, Horseman says, calling them “very helpful medications for many moms” that “help them achieve their goals for breastfeeding their babies”.
The article also reports that mothers who had to cope with delayed lactation problems at early stages were perfectly able to breastfeed their babies later.

Source of the image: sxc.hu/profile/pawel_231.

The glorious model gave birth to her son less than two months ago at her home in Boston. She had a water birth and refused to take any serious pain killers because she wished to remain completely conscious and feel every stage of the delivery. And she was pleasantly surprised at the fact that it didn’t hurt at all!

The birth “wasn’t painful, not even a little bit,” according to Bündchen. “The whole time, my head was so focused – every contraction, the baby is closer, the baby is closer. So, it wasn’t like, ‘Oh, what pain.’ It was, ‘With every contraction, he is getting closer to me.’ ”
On the second day she was already up and about, having practically no difficulty in going about her usual household tasks, making pancakes, washing dishes.

The greatest trouble over the baby was choosing a name. The first prenatal idea rejected, Bündchen and her husband, American quarterback Tom Brady, held long discussions trying hard to hit upon a name that would sound equally well for an American and Brazilian ear – the model wants her son to embrace the origins of both of his parents.

Bündchen’s favorite names, David and Joaquim, were also discharged, and eventually the couple agreed on Benjamin. Yet, the Brazilian model hasn’t grown used to the name yet. “For me, there is no name. He is my benzinho [which means simply “my beloved”].”

Source of the image: blogs.glam.com.

Sleep apnea in children is closely linked with the size of the tonsils and is generally treated by removal of the tonsils and adenoids (an operation called adenotonsillectomy). In adults the disorder is usually aggravated by obesity. The influence of obesity in children has been studied but recently.

A study published in Thorax investigates into the cases of OSA in children.

Naturally, large tonsils remain the main indication of the OSA risk and are found in 53 per cent of cases. But the majority of the children participating in the research showed their condition worsened by excessive weight.

The researchers wish to impress on parents and physicians that children who have large tonsils and waistlines be checked for the symptoms of OSA for timely prevention of possible complications. They also accentuate the importance of weight control in the management of bad cases of sleep apnea.

Source of the image: flickr.com/photos/clash.

In a recent TLC’s A Baby Story show Dr. Charles Hux, an obstetrician and expert for mother and fetus health, told what precautions pregnant women have to take so traveling don’t cause them any trouble.

Here are some tips from Dr.Hux for pregnant women who are going to travel.

• See your doctor about your plans. Since most of pregnancy complications occur during the first and the third trimesters, the best time for traveling would be the second trimester.
• Reschedule your travel dates if you have complications. You doctor would advise you to stay home if you have vaginal bleeding, previous hospitalization for premature labor, preeclampsia (pregnancy-induced high blood pressure), type 1 or type 2 diabetes or sickle cell anemia.
• Air travel is safe for most women up to 34 weeks of pregnancy. But different airlines have different policies on this issue. Some airlines permit women to fly during later periods of pregnancy if they have a letter from doctor stating how many weeks pregnant you are at the time of the flight.
• Prior to the trip, learn about the hospital nearest to your place of destination. Make sure you carry along all necessary medications and the set of documents just in case of an emergency.
• Spend some time doing low-risk physical activity. You don’t want to take a shot at some new sports such as surfing or water-skiing. Pregnancy substantially affects the coordination of body movements.
• Avoid swimming in the sea to prevent catching vaginal infections.
• Drink plenty of non-caffeine fluids while on the road. Dehydration may cause uterus contractions.
• If you suffer from nausea, have pregnancy-safe anti-nausea medications with you.
• Make sure you move during the travel. Get up and walk once every hour to prevent fluid accumulation in your arms and legs.
• Use your seat belt. Don’t forget to fasten the seat belt under your belly.

Source of the image: sxc.hu/profile/elessar_x.

Cesarean section, scientists found, or instrument-helped birth do not deteriorate in any way mothers’ breastfeeding rate.

A study published in BMC Pediatrics states that there is no correlation between the way the baby came into the world and the mother’s breastfeeding ability; the use of helping techniques does not interfere with breastfeeding nor does it shorten its possible period.

Breastfeeding duration also shows an insignificant link with the time that elapsed between the baby’s birth and putting to the breast.

The most influential factors affecting the rate of breastfeeding are, according to the article, the mother’s ethnicity and the number of pregnancies. Whereas the economic factor has hardly any influence on the issue as well as the mother’s and marital status.

Source of the image: flickr.com/photos/benklocek.

There’s a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that fills us up on this omission.

The study reports that there is direct correlation between the time when parents begin to introduce complementary food into the child’s diet and the child’s body mass indexes (BMI) when he or she grows up.
The chief factor that is certain to lower BMIs in adulthood is, of course, long breastfeeding. But the time spoon-feeding begins also proved to be of importance. The earlier the child gets complementary food the greater his or her risk of gaining weight later in life. Therefore it is better to postpone spoon-feeding until the baby is past the sixth month.

“The later you introduce complementary feeding to an infant, within the range of 2 to 6 months, the smaller is the risk that the infant will be overweight as adult,” is the conclusion of lead researcher Kim Fleischer Michaelson of the University of Copenhagen.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and American Academy of Pediatrics are unanimous in recommending breastfeeding for the first six months and postponing complementary food for as long as possible. Late spoon-feeding can reduce the risk of becoming obese by 5 to 10 percent.

Michaelson holds that spoon-feeding should better be delayed until the fifth month in any case.

Source of the image: flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik/.