Household chores drive me nuts. As the only woman in a household of men – even the cats are male – I seem to be not only endlessly, single-handedly doing everything around the house, but also endlessly nagging 'the boys' to just try and do their fair share. The reason it bugs me so much is that all my "free" time is taken up with housework instead of doing the things I want to do, like, say, spending some time on my career. I know I'm not the only woman in this situation. Up until recently, all of my nagging about chores has fallen on deaf ears.

Then I discovered Chorewars.

Chorewars is a free Dungeons and Dragons-like online role playing game which "lets you claim experience points for household chores. By getting other people in your house or workplace to sign up to the site, you can assign experience point rewards to individual tasks and chores, and see how quickly each of you levels up." For each "adventure" (ie chore), you not only win points, but also may end up having a battle with a monster and winning prizes such as gold coins. It turns housework into a game.

You can use the game in almost any way you want to. Perhaps you want to make a rule that the person with the highest number of points at the end of the week gets to choose the film you all watch on Saturday night. Perhaps the one with the lowest number of points at the end of the week has to clean the litterbox. Perhaps you want to link the points or the prizes to real world rewards. Or maybe you just want to use it to keep track of what chores everyone does.

Scare stories about the Internet are most often lead by people who don't use the Internet, have little understanding of how the Internet works, use either anecdotal evidence or outdated research to back up their claims, have little or no understanding of 'risk', do not understand how the Internet benefits its users and, perhaps, want to use the Internet as a scapegoat rather than dealing with the considerably more difficult-to-address or difficult-to-accept real world causes of the problems facing children.

American research (View a discussion of results by the researchers. Or read the research in full.) on the risks to children of online sexual predation has shown that every arrest of a man accused of 'seeking out children for sex online' in the year of the study involved a police officer in a sting. As the researchers said, 'If you go online, pose as a 12-year-old, ask for naked photos and offer sex, you will eventually find someone who will take you up on it. Real teenagers and children, however, are NOT doing this. Teenagers and children use the web to chat with their friends and socialise generally, they do not want to talk to "creeps".'

This has been a tough week for proponents of alternative medicine.

First, the Science and Technology Select Committee announced its verdict on homeopathy. After interviewing scientists, doctors and homeopaths, the Select Committee concluded that homeopathy is "unethical" and performs "no better than placebos". It also called for the NHS to stop funding homeopathy and criticised the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, which in their own words is "the government agency which is responsible for ensuring that medicines and medical devices work, and are acceptably safe.") for allowing homeopathic remedies to make health claims despite the fact there is no reliable evidence to back up the claims.

Next, science writer Simon Singh had a good day in court, defending himself in a libel case brought about by the British Chiropractic Association. If you've not heard of this case, Simon Singh wrote an article for the Guardian's Comment is Free section about how there is no reliable evidence to back up the claims of chiropractors who say they can cure children of conditions such as colic, ear infection and asthma. (For a lawyer's take on the day in court, please read Jack of Kent's blog post. Of course, there is a chance that Simon will lose his case on technicalities, but the case has shone a bright light on the claims of some chiropractors and, hopefully, made people more aware that chiropractic is not a conventional medical treatment.

There are a lot of snake oil salesmen who pray on the very natural worries and fears of parents who only want the best for their children. Though I've tried a homeopathic remedy myself in the past (Loratadine was no longer working for me, so I tried Superdrug's own brand homeopathic hayfever treatment, which was on the shelf next to my normal medicine. Didn't work. I now use Acrivastine. It works.), I have never been tempted to eschew conventional medical advice for my children.

I must preface this post by pointing out that I am not a doctor. If you have concerns about the health of your child, do not hesitate to take them to your GP.

My nine-month-old has been ill this week. Not seriously, but enough to give him a slight temperature and diarrhoea. He had two days of not being himself, during which I gave him baby paracetamol in order to lower his temperature. My main concern was the diarrhoea.

Diarrhoea in babies can be caused by many things: a viral infection, a bacterial infection, a food intolerance or allergy, and some people say that teething could even be a cause. One thing is clear, as long as your baby isn't running a high temperature, lethargic, vomiting or has blood in his poo, then diarrhoea itself isn't terribly serious. It must, however, be properly managed.

Dehydration is caused by either losing fluids through illness or exercise, for example, and not replacing those fluids. Dehydration can be much more than simply 'being a bit thirsty' and in babies and children can warrant a stay in hospital.

There are two types of dehydration:

Isotonic dehydration. This is when you lose both water and salts in the same proportions in which they are found in your cells. This can be caused by vomiting or diarrhoea.

Hypernatraemic dehydration. This is when one loses proportionately more water than salt and so there are high levels of salts in the blood. This most often happens in infants and children and can be caused by excessive vomiting or diarrhoea.

Mild dehydration is rarely a cause for concern as long as the underlying problem is being treated and fluid levels are kept up. Severe dehydration, however, can cause seizures, respiratory arrest or even life-threatening changes in heart functions. There is also a point at which severe dehydration cannot be treated at home and will require hospitalisation and being put on a drip.

Perhaps you were given a whole bunch of hand-me-down toys from a relative.

Perhaps you buy toys second-hand because you don't have a lot of money right now.

Perhaps you buy second-hand because you have concerns about waste and consumption.

Perhaps, like me, you can't stand all the new-fangled electronic toys, so you want old-fashioned ones.

Whatever the reason you have second-hand toys, you will still want to make sure the toys are clean before giving them to your children.

Most toys can be cleaned with "natural" products already in your kitchen, namely vinegar, bicarbonate of soda and lemon juice. It may take more than one go at cleaning, but the toys will end up spick and span without being covered in chemicals.

OK. It's happened to many of us, but it still doesn't make me feel any less rubbish a mother. My eight-month-old fell off my bed the other night.

We were co-sleeping until fairly recently when I got him a bedside cot. It is flush against the wall with our bed pressed right up to it. I left the side down for ease of nighttime breastfeeding (yeah, yeah, I know he doesn't need it at night anymore) and was simply piling our superking-sized duvet in front of the opening to block him in if he woke up.

As he was calling out each time he woke up, I figured I'd be in the room having heard him on the monitor well before he was able to get over the giant duvet wall. And I was right until the other night.

I had just finished brushing my teeth before bed and was right outside my bedroom door when I heard *fluddathud* and my son started to cry. I rushed in the room to see him on his stomach on the floor (wood) next to my bed.

I picked him up, shhhhed him for a bit, then breastfed him to see if that would calm him down. I figured if he was genuinely hurt, feeding wouldn't help. Despite having a red mark on his forehead, he quieted right away. I took this as a good sign.

I went downstairs to phone NHS Direct http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/ (0845 4647). The person who answered the phone asked a few questions, then referred me onto a nurse who phoned me back within 10 minutes.

By this point my son was awake and happy and playing, I knew he was fine, but wanted to make sure. The nurse talked me through loads of things, asked a lot of questions and gave some advice. I'll pass on some of it in case your baby ever falls.

We've been hearing about Bisphenol A (BPA) for years – that exposure to it can mimic oestrogen, may increase the likelihood of obesity, and can have adverse neurological effects on memory, learning and mood.

BPA is used to make clear, shatter-proof plastics including baby bottles and the insides of food and drink cans.

Just this month the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that "the National Toxicology Program at the National Institutes of Health and FDA have some concern about the potential effects of BPA on the brain, behaviour, and prostate gland in foetuses, infants, and young children." They are now making moves to remove BPA from the food supply.

If you are concerned about BPA affecting your child's development, you should not change or cut out infant formula or food. The benefits of good nutrition greatly outweigh the risk of adverse affects from BPA exposure.

There is, however, something you can do to remove some exposure to BPA right now.

After last week's post on 'sex after having a baby', I thought I'd write a bit about sex during pregnancy as, in my experience, this is when your sexual relationship first starts to change.

Whether you are pregnant now, trying to get pregnant or have already given birth, you will have definitely read or have been told by a health professional that, specific pregnancy complications aside, sex during pregnancy is perfectly safe. Though you know that is true theoretically, emotionally it can be an entirely different story.

If getting pregnant was difficult or if you suffered previous miscarriages, then you may understandably be less than keen to have sex even if your doctor or midwife says it's fine.

I've had two children with two different fathers, and both were so concerned with "hurting" the baby, that they were quite simply too freaked out to continue our sex life as it was pre-pregnancy.

When writing a post on 'sex after having a baby' some may be tempted to just put up an entirely blank page, then go back to bed to try and catch up on some sleep.

For those readers who are pregnant for the first time or indeed trying to get pregnant for the first time, it really isn't all bad as that. Honest. *ahem*

There are many reasons why your sex life can take a back seat after the birth of a baby, but with a bit of patience and time they can be overcome.

Probably the biggest reason couples have less sex after having a baby is tiredness. At the end of yet another endlessly exhausting day, the only thing on your mind is sleep.

Despite the fact that my first son slept through the night from the age of four months, I was still incredibly exhausted as he woke every morning at 5.30. My partner never got up with him, so it was always my responsibility to drag myself out of bed, in the dark, day after day after day. In order for me to get a good eight hours sleep a night, I would have had to be asleep by 9.30pm. With my partner getting home from work at around 9pm every day, I either would go to sleep on my own or stay up to attempt to spend time with my partner... then end up exhausted the next day. Once I went back to work, there was no way I could catch up on my sleep during the day. Sex was the last thing on my mind.

If tiredness is causing you problems in the bedroom and you can't nap during the day, your partner will need to help you out. If he refuses to wake up first thing, then perhaps he can look after your little one(s) for a few hours during the day on the weekends so you can catch up on your sleep. If he, for whatever reason, won't do that, then you should discuss either getting a nanny or sending your little one to a nursery for a few hours, a couple of days a week, again so you can get some sleep. If none of these things are an option, then you may just have to wait until your little ones are older...

The UK has been hit by snow and cold these past few weeks. If your kids have had enough of building snowmen and sledging, here are a few winter snow activities to keep them amused.

FOR A VERY COLD DAY
Frozen Bubbles

This can only be done on a very cold (ie below freezing) day that isn't windy. Ideally a bitterly cold, sunny day.

You should make your own bubble solution. Mix one part soap powder, one part sugar and six parts hot water. Mix it until the soap and the sugar are dissolved, then cool it down in the refrigerator.

If you don't already have any bubble wands around the house, you can make them with an old wire coat hanger, string, pipe cleaners, a cut-out plastic lid.... experiment!

Take the bubble solution and the wand(s) outside. Blow a bubble, then catch it on the wand. Let it sit in the cold to freeze. Depending on how cold it it outside, this could take from mere seconds to minutes. Make sure you don't breathe hot air onto it!

You should be able to see little ice crystals growing on the surface of the bubble. When you think it is frozen, try popping it to see what happens. Experiment with different sized bubbles.