People had long been complaining about the state of childcare centers in Idaho, one of the lowest ranked in the nation, where smaller care centers are not even required to have a working telephone or smoke detector and where the child-staff ratio is far from being ideal.

Yesterday 2 babies and a woman were stabbed to death in a daycare center in Dendermonde, Belgium. 8 other children between 6 months and 3 years old were severely wounded as well. Witnesses say the killer, a 20 year old man, walked into the daycare center and started attacking children immediately. The killer escaped but was caught by the police an hour later.

Commercial broadcasters are doing the “bare minimum and not much more” for children’s educational programming, according to University of Illinois communication professor Barbara Wilson, one of two lead researchers on a study released today (Nov. 12) by the organization Children Now.

Contrary to popular belief, grandparent care is not associated with more childhood injuries

Predators will often target parents and children in crisis and find ways to work themselves into their lives, he said. They "scope out who's a likely mark, the types that are easy prey and offer some kind of help," he said.

With more new mothers in the workplace than ever before, there has been a corresponding increase in the number of child-care facilities in the United States.

Nine-month-old infants regularly cared for by someone other than a parent appear to have higher rates of unfavorable feeding practices and to weigh more than infants cared for only by parents, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Children examined by the same doctor during their first six months of life are more likely to receive appropriate preventive health screenings -- for lead poisoning, anemia and tuberculosis - by age two. Pediatric researchers said being cared for repeatedly by the same physician, often referred to as continuity of care, was a very important factor in the children they studied.

Modern new line of baby blankets offers parents stylish yet practical blankets that baby will flaunt from birth through toddlerhood.

Newly published research in the journal Science confirms that institutionalized orphans placed into foster care have much better intellectual development than those who remain behind. The authors say the results have implications for countries "grappling with how best to care for abandoned, orphaned and maltreated young children."

Actress Brooke Burke is pregnant with her fourth child and has launched a new online baby store, Baboosh Baby, that features eco-friendly post-partum wraps.

Children play harder and longer when their child care centers provide portable play equipment (like balls, hoola hoops, jump ropes and riding toys), more opportunities for active play and physical activity training and education for staff and students, according to a study published in the January 2008 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.