Soft play is a nightmare – so why are adults leaping into the ball pit?

Our galloping infantilisation continues at a new centre where there will presumably be less screaming than usual, greater participant continence and a bar. Is this what modern life has come to, asks Zoe Williams

My daughter will only eat junk food. How can I get her on a healthy diet?

Having a fussy eater is far from unusual, but your child may have a food disorder that can be treated – just don’t put pressure on her

Breast is best if you want top marks for your children? You’ve got to be kidding

A piece of research that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny is piling the guilt on to mothers

Ministers urged to restrict marketing of vapes to children in England

Rachel de Souza points to research showing evidence about pressure to vape and its subsequent effects

Toddlers’ gut bacteria may predict future obesity, study suggests

Researchers identify differences in bacteria that colonise the gut in adults living with obesity

Babies are dying because of NHS failings, poverty and inequality, charities warn

Maternity services need urgent improvement and investment to meet government target of halving stillbirths and neonatal deaths

A psychologist’s guide to talking to teens about online porn

Listen, be non-confrontational, and be clear about what is unacceptable behaviour in online pornography

Sex education review is ‘politically motivated’, say teaching unions

Tory MPs’ claims of extreme graphic lessons at England’s schools written off as ‘inflammatory rhetoric’

Post-birth surfing was my source of joy, and parental guilt

While pregnant, surfer Gill Hutchison voluntarily ‘beached herself’. Her return to the waves required a new type of balancing act

‘Don’t tell us the bad news all at once’: how to talk to kids about grown-up things

Abortion, toxic masculinity, human extinction ... What’s the best way to talk to children about the big issues of the day? We ask the experts