Short course

There is no need to worry about harming your toddlers intellectual or social development if bed-sharing works for your family,researchers say.

Sharing moms bed wont harm kids social skills

There is no need to worry about harming your toddlers intellectual or social development if bed-sharing works for your family,researchers say. At least not after the baby has turned one the age where sudden infant death syndrome is no longer considered a risk.

Parents can do what works best for their family and not feel guilty if they choose to bed-share,because there probably arent lasting impacts, said Lauren Hale of Stony Brook University School of Medicine in New York,who led the study. To investigate,Hale and her

colleagues tapped into data on 944 poor US mothers,who reported whether they shared their bed with their toddlers at ages one,two and three. Almost half the mothers said they had shared their bed at some point,with Hispanic and black women doing so more often than whites. When the kids behaviour and intellectual development were tested at age five,initially those who slept with their moms appeared to be worse off than the rest. But that didnt hold up,once the researchers had accounted for other characteristics of the mothers and children. Its just reassuring to know that it doesnt appear to be dangerous in terms of the psychological impact,Hauck said.

Face too square? Theres a surgery for that

Story continues below this ad

Plastic surgery isnt just about wrinkles and nose jobs anymore. Both men and women are getting procedures to make square faces with blunt jawlines more rounded or feminine. The surgeries are done in the US,but researchers say they have really taken off in East Asia,including in China and Korea.What this is coming down to…is that beauty is not just skin deep, said Dr Jeffrey Spiegel,chief of facial plastic and reconstructive surgery at the Boston University School of Medicine,who said he does two to four of the procedures each week.

A study published earlier this week showed that square-faced men who got the procedure in Nanjing,China,were generally satisfied with their appearance and didnt have any complications a few months down the line.

Surgeons sawed off part of the jaw bone of 19 men and with titanium plates and screws also narrowed patients chins. Finally,they surgically removed fat from prominent cheeks to make them smaller; there were no serious complications or injuries. The researchers,led by Dr Xiaoping Chen of the Nanjing Medical Center,said most people who want the face-rounding procedure done are women.

Study links male infertility to a missing protein

Scientists say they have found a potential cause for many otherwise unexplained cases of male infertility: the absence of a protein that coats sperm and allows them to reach an egg more easily. In a study published online in the journal Science Translational Medicine,researchers report that the protein is generated by a specific gene. Men with two copies of the defective gene do not produce the protein. The researchers said the absence of the protein might slow or,in fewer cases,hamper a couples ability to conceive. Studying about 500 couples in China who were trying to become pregnant,the scientists found those with men with two copies of the abnormal gene were 30 percent less likely to have a baby in about two years. Those couples who had babies,it took two months longer if the men had two copies of the abnormal gene.