You may not have considered using play time to help your new baby grow and develop, but that is exactly what healthy infants need!

Not only is visual, auditory and sensory stimulation important for your child’s development, but if you offer your child this kind of stimulation from an early age, your child will become more involved in the world around him and his natural curiosity will lead the way.

Japanese youngsters are getting so addicted to Internet-linking cell phones that the government is starting a program warning parents and schools to limit their use among children.

The government is worried about how elementary and junior high school students are getting sucked into cyberspace crimes, spending long hours exchanging mobile e-mail and suffering other negative effects of cell phone overuse, Masaharu Kuba, a government official overseeing the initiative, said Tuesday.

"Japanese parents are giving cell phones to their children without giving it enough thought," he said. "In Japan, cell phones have become an expensive toy."

The recommendations have been submitted from an education reform panel to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's administration, and were approved this week.

The panel is also asking Japanese makers to develop cell phones with only the talking function, and GPS, or global positioning system, a satellite-navigation feature that can help ensure a child's safety.

About a third of Japanese sixth graders have cell phones, while 60 percent of ninth graders have them, according to the education ministry.

Most mobile phones in Japan are sophisticated gadgets offering high-speed Internet access called 3G, for "third-generation."

But the panel said better filtering programming is needed for Internet access to protect children.

Some youngsters are spending hours at night on e-mail with their friends. One fad is "the 30 minute rule," in which a child who doesn't respond to e-mail within half an hour gets targeted and picked on by other schoolmates.

Full story: Japan urges limiting kids' cell phones

Unfortunately all too soon after the birth of a child, the mother starts thinking about how quickly she can lose weight after the pregnancy. Possible part of this problem stems from the Medias obsession with celebrity mothers and how quickly they lose the pounds they put on during pregnancy. The point that is always neglected about their miraculous weight loss after pregnancy is they can have a team of specialist to help tem because their public image is so important.

Tickets, check. Passports, check. Luggage, check. Baby ... oops.

A family boarded a flight on Monday in westernmost Canada, and forgot their tot at the Vancouver international airport, media said today.

The 23-month-old boy's family had just arrived in Canada from the Philippines, but they were forced to repack their overweight bags before catching a connecting flight to Winnipeg, causing them to run late.

In their sprint to the gate, the family became separated.

The boy's father Jun Parreno, told local media he had thought his son was with his wife and the boy's grandparents, who ran ahead. They thought the boy was with his dad.

On the plane, the family members were seated separately and so did not immediately realise they had left the child behind.

Full story: Parents board flight, forget toddler at airport

There are joys and difficulties in raising one child. Children who have no siblings do not necessary turn out to be selfish and spoilt. They can be more matured for their age and kind to others. Of course, there are those ‘only child’ persons who are reputed to be notoriously demanding and bossy.

Michelle Duggar, 41, is due on New Year's Day, and the latest addition will join seven sisters and 10 brothers. There are two sets of twins.

"We've had three in January, three in December. Those two months are a busy time for us," she said, laughing.

The fast-growing family lives in Tontitown in northwest Arkansas in a 7,000-square-foot home. All the children — whose names start with the letter J — are home-schooled.

Duggar has been been pregnant for more than 11 years of her life, and the family is in the process of filming another series for Discovery Health.

Full story: Happy Mother's Day: Woman Pregnant With 18th Child

There is a great way for you to influence your child’s intelligence to help him excel later in life.  Teach him healthy sleep patterns while he is a baby.  This is one of the best ways to influence your child’s intelligence.

As your child crosses over into that strange and wonderful land called ‘adolescence’ you may find yourself thinking you have an alien living in your house.  The combined stress of exploring her independence, the pressures of schoolwork and societal expectations and the hormonal changes your child experiences may create problems for everyone in your family.

Women can influence the gender of their child with what they eat before they conceive, according to new research that lends scientific support to age-old superstitions about pregnancy.

The discovery shows higher calorie intake prior to conception can significantly increase the chances of having a son while women on restricted diets are more likely to produce daughters.

Scientists at Britain's Oxford and Exeter Universities, who studied eating habits of 740 women during their first-time pregnancies, say that their findings seem to back certain traditional links between diet and gender while disproving others.

"We were able to confirm the old wives' tale that eating bananas and so having a high potassium intake was associated with having a boy, as was a high sodium intake," research leader Fiona Mathews, a specialist in mammalian biology at Exeter University, told the Guardian newspaper.

Full story: Study shows bananas make baby boys

Momentum is crucial.

After a week of holidays, my preschool daughter, J, had lost the momentum of going to kindergarten. On the first day after the school reopened, she told me this with sadness in her eyes:

I don’t want to go to school.

To encourage your child, there’s a set of encouraging vocabulary that parents can use. This language focuses on the process a child does, not so much on the results. Let’s explore the seven aspects of this encouraging lingo.

Women seeking a lifelong mate might do well to choose the guy a notch below them in the looks category. New research reveals couples in which the wife is better looking than her husband are more positive and supportive than other match-ups.

The reason, researchers suspect, is that men place great value on beauty, whereas women are more interested in having a supportive husband.

Researchers admit that looks are subjective, but studies show there are some universal standards, including large eyes, "baby face" features, symmetric faces, so-called average faces, and specific waist-hip ratios in men versus women.

Past research has shown that individuals with comparable stunning looks are attracted to each other and once they hook up they report greater relationship satisfaction. These studies, however, are mainly based on new couples, showing that absolute beauty is important in the earliest stages of couple-hood, said lead researcher James McNulty of the University of Tennessee. But the role of physical attractiveness in well-established partnerships, such as marriage, is somewhat of a mystery.

Full report: Why Beautiful Women Marry Less Attractive Men

Have your kids been hampering you to buy a pet?  If so, here are 5 kid friendly pets which are not only conducive to children, but will offer enjoyment to the entire family.

When a marriage has broken down, divorce is often inevitable and a divorce lawyer needs to be found; some guidelines on what to look for are listed below:

• Skilled in this area of law
• Have the right disposition
• Be trustworthy