Rob Pegley investigates the fascinating, and often downright frightening, world of children’s classics. Like most parents of preschool children, we try to shield the kids from television programs of a slightly adult nature with borderline offensive content. Even something as universally accepted as The Simpsons fails...
Victorian newborns who do not pass their routine hearing screening tests are being invited to join a pilot program screening for the most common viral cause of disability. The study, a collaboration between the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, the University of Melbourne and four maternity hospitals...
Lavinia Day reports personal space seemed to be missing with some of the younger kids in her child's class and her daughter's friends come just a bit too close too often! As adults, we feel uncomfortable when someone we are talking to stands too close. I...
Sarah Harris writes about the night that changed her family’s life forever and the challenges that they have subsequently faced. Her mouth had dropped down on one side and her right arm and leg were twisted in an unusual way. I knew something was desperately wrong. When...
Anne-Maree Brown pockets the ‘answer’ to coping with life as a new mum. I have never really been good at being a bad girl. Whether it was my Catholic upbringing or ruddy Irish complexion, I was always transparent. I grew up in the depths of suburbia. It...
The kitchen is the most dangerous room in the house with half of all child burn injuries occurring here. The call comes as June is National Burns Awareness Month – an Australia wide campaign launched by Kidsafe Australia – which focuses on raising awareness of...
The birth of a child changes little for Australian fathers’ working lives, according to an analysis of employment trends in the past few decades by Emma Walsh, CEO Australian Institute of Family Studies. Institute Director Anne Hollonds said that while mothers’ employment alters dramatically after having...
Evelyn Santoro, My Forever Family NSW spokesperson, says they hope to inspire more people to consider becoming a foster carer and to understand there are a variety of ways they can do so. There are currently over 17,000 children living in out of home care in...
Deanne O’Keefe was given full-time care of her grandson nine days after his birth. His mother, Deanne’s second-eldest daughter, was schizophrenic, an alcoholic and addicted to heroin. Deanne had little contact with her daughter in the years that followed, but she did find out that a...
Spina bifida comes from the term for ‘split spine’ in Latin. It is a serious birth defect that involves damage to the spine and to the nervous tissue of the spinal cord. In people affected with spina bifida, some of the vertebrae of the spine don’t...
