St. Patrick's Hospital (Cork) Ltd has announced the formal launch of its new hospice and hospital project.

A reader was wondering how to best succeed with potty training her toddler. She writes, "My two-and-a-half year-old is currently being toilet trained. What is the best way to go about this without scaring him?"

Mums and dads are being urged to take note of new guidelines on preparing bottle feeds for babies. According to the new guidelines, adding boiling water to powdered infant formula, may not actually be the best way to prepare your baby's bottle.

"Dear Dan, my husband is away from home mid week due to work. He only comes home at the weekends. I have two sons, one seven years old and the other is three. They fight constantly from Monday to Friday but are like angels around my husband. What can I do?"

Cconcerns are being raised about new research which indicates that 82 per cent of 15 to 24-year-olds and 41 per cent of all adults aged over 15 are regularly wearing headphones.

Go into any bookshop nowadays, and a brief search will yield an armful of books on 'parenting.' The large chain-stores have entire sections devoted to this subject. I once counted over 120 different titles on parenting in just one bookshop.