Women who experience stress during pregnancy could 'stunt their child's intelligence', the Daily Mail warned. A study of 70 mothers found that stress doubled the risk of toddlers having a below-average IQ, and that they were more likely to be hyperactive or have emotional problems.
Depriving children of cuddles can alter their brain development, leaving them anxious and poor at forming relationships in later life, The Guardian said, reporting a study that compared the progress of children raised by their biological parents in the US with children who were adopted from crowded orphanages in Russia and Romania.
Meanwhile a report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation revealed that malnutrition and hunger kill nearly six million children a year. The millennium development goal of halving the world's hungry by 2015 is distant but attainable, The Times said.
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