Toys are essential to the development of babies and children.  Play and entertainment are fundamental elements that form the foundations for reading, writing, numeracy and creativity.  Age-appropriate games and toys keep a child focused on an activity and provide them with much needed entertainment.  Over the generations, favorite toys have emerged but with each new generation, comes a new and exciting toy.  Boys and girls of all ages can always find something to play with that appeals to their personality and favorite pursuits.

Many experts say kids watch too much TV today. But what can you do about this?

Frankly, you can’t stop your child from watching TV totally. This is simply not practical. Being too extreme is not the way. Somehow you have to allow some entertainment time in your kid’s life.

If you agree that we should allow the kids to watch TV, read on. I will share with you a tip that can turn TV watching into a powerful life lesson for your kids.

Laying Down the Rules

But first, let’s set the limits and rules:

1)    limit the hours
2)    you watch with them
3)    you decide what they watch

A mutated version of a common cold virus has caused 10 deaths in the last 18 months, U.S. health officials said Thursday.

Adenoviruses usually cause respiratory infections that aren't considered lethal. But a new variant has caused at least 140 illnesses in New York, Oregon, Washington and Texas, according to a report issued Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The illness made headlines in Texas earlier this year, when a so-called boot camp flu sickened hundreds at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. The most serious cases were blamed on the emerging virus and one 19-year-old trainee died.

"What really got people's attention is these are healthy young adults landing in the hospital and, in some cases, the ICU," said Dr. John Su, an infectious diseases investigator with the CDC.

There are more than 50 distinct types of adenoviruses tied to human illnesses. They are one cause of the common cold, and also trigger pneumonia and bronchitis. Severe illnesses are more likely in people with weaker immune systems.

Some adenoviruses have also been blamed for gastroenteritis, conjunctivitis and cystitis.

Full report: CDC: New respiratory bug has killed 10

More than 1 million cases of chlamydia were reported in the United States last year - the most ever reported for a sexually transmitted disease, federal health officials said Tuesday.
"A new U.S. record," said Dr. John M. Douglas Jr. of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More bad news: Gonorrhea rates are jumping again after hitting a record low, and an increasing number of cases are caused by a "superbug" version resistant to common antibiotics, federal officials said Tuesday.

Syphilis is rising, too. The rate of congenital syphilis - which can deform or kill babies - rose for the first time in 15 years.

"Hopefully we will not see this turn into a trend," said Dr. Khalil Ghanem, an infectious diseases specialist at Johns Hopkins University's School of medicine.

The CDC releases a report each year on chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis, three diseases caused by sexually transmitted bacteria.

Chlamydia is the most common. Nearly 1,031,000 cases were reported last year, up from 976,000 the year before.

The count broke the single-year record for reported cases of a sexually transmitted disease, which was 1,013,436 cases of gonorrhea, set in 1978.

Putting those numbers into rates, there were about 349 cases of chlamydia per 100,000 people in 2006, up 5.6 percent from the 329 per 100,000 rate in 2005.

CDC officials say the chlamydia record may not be all bad news: They think the higher number is largely a result of better and more intensive screening.

Full report: U.S. Sets Record in Sexual Disease Cases

Nike Inc is recalling 235,000 football helmet chin straps after receiving reports of head and face injuries because the straps broke, the

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said on Tuesday.

The recalled football helmet chin strap was made in China and was sold at sporting good stores throughout the United States from April 2006 through October 2007, the safety agency said.

Consumers should stop using the chin strap immediately and contact Nike for a redeemable product voucher, it said.

Nike received 18 reports of the chin strap breaking and injuries that included two concussions, two facial cuts that required stitches and a broken nose, the safety agency said.

The chin strap consists of a plastic cup with a foam liner, straps and four metal snaps. The strap sold for about $20 and was offered in both youth and adult sizes.

The safety agency posted photographs of recalled chin strap and details on its Web site at http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml08/08081.html.

Source: Nike recalls 235,000 U.S. helmet chin straps

Any proud papa would be excited and expectant about the impending arrival of a new baby.  For him, however, he has the added anxiety of seeing his partner go through discomfort, mood swings, pain, morning sickness, childbirth and so on, not knowing how he can really be of assistance.  Well here is a checklist of things that are of wonderful benefit to an expectant Mom … even if she may not realize it at the time.

During the pregnancy

1.    Jobs, big and small: When your partner is pregnant, one of the most important things you can do for her is to offer support, understanding and able-bodied assistance.  From simple jobs such as stacking the dishwasher to more high-expectation tasks such as buying sanitary products for use in hospital, a new Dad-to-be should be the calming influence.

2.    Just be there: When she’s irritable and uncomfortable, having a haven at home can be bliss.  Try to keep in mind why she’s irritable and do your best to smooth things over.  After all, she’s weighed down and not feeling the best so try to soften the impact.

Children and teenagers with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder have developmental delays of up to three years in some regions of the brain, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

"The sequence in which different parts of the brain matured in the kids with ADHD was exactly the same as in healthy kids. It's just that everything was delayed by a couple of years," said Dr. Philip Shaw National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Mental Health.

Shaw said the delays are most pronounced in regions of the brain that are important for controlling thought, attention and planning.

ADHD is a condition suffered by about 2 million U.S. children that often becomes apparent in preschool and early school years. Children with ADHD have a tougher time controlling their behavior and paying attention.

Shaw said the study helps settle the question of whether the brain develops differently in children with ADHD or is just delayed. "This is very much in favor of a delay," said Shaw, whose study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

The finding was based on imaging studies involving 223 children and teens with ADHD and 223 without the disorder.

Full report: Brain development found to be slower in children with ADHD

Jesse Lackman says his son spends a dozen hours a week waging medieval combat across the dreary dreamscapes of computer games. Just don't expect to find Lackman sitting beside him battling ogres and dragons.

"It's just such a waste of time," said Lackman, 47, a power plant operator from Center, N.D. "I tell him, "Do something that has some lasting value.'"

Lackman's avoidance of the digital diversions that captivate his 15-year-old son, Tyrus, is shared by many parents. More than four in 10, or 43 percent, of those whose young children play video or computer games never play along with them, according to an Associated Press-AOL Games poll released Monday.

While experts debate whether electronic gaming is bad news or a blessing for children and their families, many parents are voicing their preference by never — or seldom — joining their kids when it's time to slay cyber scoundrels.

Besides those who simply don't play the games with their children, another 30 percent say they spend less than an hour a week doing so. All told, about three in four parents of young gamers never or hardly ever touch the stuff.

Full report: Many Parents Avoid Video Games With Kids

Most of us have delighted in the story of The Wizard of Oz. Parents have passed this tale down to their children for ages, but have you ever taken the time to consider its true meaning? If you give some serious thought to the underlying theme, you will find that there is quite a connection between the lion and your shy child - and there is a very important lesson to be learned about how to parent a child who is shy or reserved.

Think about the beloved lion. Throughout the story the lion is searching for courage, something he is sure he does not possess. This supposedly cowardly creature is off to see the wizard, an ordinary man who turns out to be quite brilliant. The wizard informs the beast that he has had the courage all along but needed to believe in himself. With encouragement, the lion comes to see that he was courageous after all.

China-made toys seized in Hong Kong were being tested Thursday after scientists in Australia found that similar ones contained a chemical that converts into a powerful "date rape" drug when ingested, officials said.

At least five children - two in the United States and three in Australia - have been hospitalized after swallowing the toy beads, which are used in arts and crafts projects. They can be arranged into designs and fused when sprayed with water.

Australian scientists say a chemical coating on the beads, when ingested, metabolizes into the so-called "date-rape" drug gamma hydroxy butyrate. When eaten, the compound - made from common and easily available ingredients - can induce unconsciousness, seizures, drowsiness, coma and death.

The toys were sent to a laboratory in Hong Kong for tests, a customs official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of policy. If the tests come back positive for the chemical, suppliers of the toy in Hong Kong could face a year in jail and fines of $12,877, she said.

Full report: Hong Kong Tests Toys for Date Rape Drug

Reading is one of the most important habits we can pass down to our children. Early exposure to books is essential.

As for my preschooler, J, she was presented with different kinds of books from when she was a baby to what she is today. From flash cards to cardboard books, from puzzle books to short story books.

We make it a routine to read together before sleep. Recently, what surprised me was she could read (in fact, memorize) a story. We used to read to her this story but this time around, she read it to us instead. She could read the book (even though without knowing the words) because she has read the book for gazillion times.

A European study released on Tuesday has raised new concerns about the safety of women's long-term use of the birth control pill, suggesting increased risk of heart attack or stroke.

Women who had used oral contraceptives were more likely than those who did not take the pill to have a buildup of plaque in their arteries, the researchers told an American Heart Association meeting.

"The main concern is if you have higher plaque levels that you might develop a clot on one of these plaques and have a stroke or a myocardial infarction (heart attack) or sudden cardiac death," Dr. Ernst Rietzschel of Ghent University in Belgium, who led the research, told reporters.

"That's the main risk with having plaque, with having atherosclerosis."

Rietzschel's team studied 1,301 women ages 35 to 55.

Of them, 81 percent had used the pill, for an average of 13 years. The researchers saw a rise of 20 to 30 percent in arterial plaque in two big arteries -- the carotid in the neck and the femoral in the leg -- for each decade of use.

The researchers measured plaque levels using a technique called vascular echography.

Full report: Study links birth control pill to arterial plaque

Revered by some in her village as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess, a 2-year-old girl born with four arms and four legs was undergoing surgery Tuesday to leave her with a normal body.

The girl named Lakshmi is joined to a ``parasitic twin'' that stopped developing in the mother's womb. The surviving fetus absorbed the limbs, kidneys and other body parts of the undeveloped fetus.

A team of 30 doctors was removing the extra limbs and organs, surgery that if successful would give her a good chance to live past adolescence. They have already separated the fused spines and the next step will be to remove the extra limbs and the rest of the ``parasite,'' said Dr. Sharan Patil, the orthopedic surgeon leading the operation.

"As of now, the child has been responding very well," Patil said several hours into the operation.

Full report: Girl Born With 8 Limbs Undergoes Surgery

Here's another reason to get the kids to bed early: More sleep may lower their risk of becoming obese. Researchers have found that every additional hour per night a third-grader spends sleeping reduces the child's chances of being obese in sixth grade by 40 percent.

The less sleep they got, the more likely the children were to be obese in sixth grade, no matter what the child's weight was in third grade, said Dr. Julie Lumeng of the University of Michigan, who led the research.

If there was a magic number for the third-graders, it was nine hours, 45 minutes of sleep. Sleeping more than that lowered the risk significantly.

The study gives parents one more reason to enforce bedtimes, restrict caffeine and yank the TV from the bedroom. The study appears in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Lack of sleep plays havoc with two hormones that are the "yin and yang of appetite regulation," said endocrinologist Eve Van Cauter of the University of Chicago, who was not involved in the new study.

Full report: Lack of Sleep May Lead to Fatter Kids