A zoo like no other
After spending time over Easter reflecting on your faith and the importance of family, you can wrap up your Easter Weekend with a visit to the Electric Zoo, which returns to the Wells House and Gardens in Gorey on Easter Monday.
The Electric Zoo is full of fun, drivable electronic animals that even play their own music. Children will be able to drive the animals around safely (they travel at about five miles per hour) and the Electric Zoo staff make sure that everyone gets their turn and keep an eye on them.
There’s 10 animals to choose from and face-painters who will be around the whole day. Parents will be free to enjoy some live music and barbecue on the terrace, and take a break from what was surely a hectic weekend!
The perfect baby balancer
A baby’s first step is always a watershed moment, as they are finally able to stand and balance on their own two feet (before they quickly fall again!). Helping your child to walk is an important stage in their development but this can often place strain on the parent’s back as they are constantly hunched or bent over.
The Willa Walker is a simple and smart tool that solves this problem by allowing parents to stand up straight and still give their child balance as they learn to walk. It is made up of a wooden handle, two ropes and two wooden rings.
The parent holds the top of the wooden handle, and the child holds onto the two hanging rings, allowing them to have a balanced walk. It’s also an ideal tool for outdoor parents who want to make sure their child won’t fall on uneven ground.
Anti-depressants: the verdict is in
A new study has settled one of medicine’s biggest debates by confirming the effectiveness of anti-depressants.
The study, which analysed data from 522 trials involving 116,477 people, found 21 common anti-depressants were all more effective at reducing symptoms of acute depression than dummy pills.
It found that anti-depressants ranged from being a third more effective than a placebo to more than twice as effective.
The authors of the report, published in the Lancet, said it showed many more people could benefit from the drugs.
Lead researcher Dr Andrea Cipriani, from the University of Oxford, told the BBC: “This study is the final answer to a long-standing controversy about whether anti-depressants work for depression.
“We found the most commonly prescribed anti-depressants work for moderate to severe depression and I think this is very good news for patients and clinicians.”