Attention-seeking wife abandons her own baby at a taxi stand.

SHE abandoned her toddler at a taxi stand - all because she craved her husband's attention.
Yesterday, Anne (not her real name), 32, was sentenced to 18 months of supervised probation for wilful neglect of a child under 12.
She cannot be named because her child is a minor.
She said, 'I didn't plan it at all, I wasn't thinking. My mind was a complete blank.'
In an unusual ruling, Community Court Judge May Mesenas ordered that the mother cannot be left alone with her child when they go out. The judge also ordered that from now on, either the 2 1/2-year-old boy's father or grandmother would have to accompany the woman when the child is around.
Last 11 Sep, Anne pushed her son in a pram from Beo Crescent to Tiong Bahru Plaza. She recalled: 'When I walked past the taxi stand, I just let go.'
She left the pram at the taxi stand and walked away.
Looking down, she added: 'I really don't know why I did that.'
She later said that she was frustrated that her husband, Paul (not his real name), was neglecting her. The husband is a 29-year-old security officer who works shifts.
Anne also felt trapped between her husband and her mother.
'I always have to be the middle person, it's very difficult,' she added.
In an Institute of Mental Health (IMH) report submitted to the court, Anne's mother described Paul as being 'non-communicative, immature, not taking on any responsibility for the care of his child'.
It was not the first time Anne had left her baby unattended. Court documents revealed that she left her son in his pram at a taxi stand at Marsiling MRT Station at 9pm on 1 Sep.
She had an argument with Paul earlier that day and thought he would pass the taxi stand on his way home and see the baby.
The charge of wilful neglect for the 1 Sep incident was taken into consideration during sentencing.
It was also not the first time Anne had run afoul of the law. According to the IMH report, she was jailed a year in 1998 for taking ecstasy and also spent time behind bars in 2002 and 2003 for stealing cosmetics.
On the rocks
Anne's mother revealed in the report that her daughter knew Paul for only two months before they married and that her child was illegitimate.
Anne's lawyer, Mr Noor Mohamed Marican, said she wanted to use their son to get close to Paul again. Yesterday, the couple held hands before and after her time in court.
Paul told The New Paper: 'When I found out what she did, I wasn't angry. But I felt guilty that I hadn't been spending much time with her.'
Anne interrupted: 'It's not too late.'
Both exchanged smiles and held hands tightly. They have talked about their problems and learnt the importance of communication, Paul said.
Anne added: 'Before, we never really talked because he works almost every day. He works shifts and he had no time for me.'
He said that they are now closer than before.
She was charged originally with child abandonment, but it was later reduced to a lesser charge of wilful neglect of a child under 12.
Court documents revealed that Anne suffers from post-natal depression and has borderline IQ.
Under the probation order, Anne has to attend regular psychiatric follow-up treatment and counselling, and take her medication regularly.
Paul posted a $5,000 bond to ensure his wife's good behaviour.
Judge Mesenas advised him: 'You must be on top of things, know what's happening with your child.'
The couple must also attend marital and parental counselling sessions.
Judge Mesenas warned that if she commits the offence again, her child could be taken away and placed in foster care.
She also voiced concerns about the couple's living arrangements. Without a flat of their own, they alternate between their parents' homes, which are far from each other.
Judge Mesenas said: 'You have to sit down and think about what is practical. Think of a solution for both you and your child.'
The couple are applying for a new HDB flat, but said they will also consider buying a resale flat.
Judge Mesenas ordered a review of the case in three months.
Anne could have been fined up to $4,000, jailed for up to four years, or both.

A nice quote to advise your daughters.

Girls are like apples on trees.
The best ones are at the top of the tree.
The boys don't want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt.
Instead, they just get the rotten apples from the ground that aren't as good, but easy.
So the apples at the top think something is wrong with them, when in reality, they're amazing.
They just have to wait for the right boy to come along, the one who's brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree.

Never take a chance with your baby's life.

In Singapore, an Indonesian maid did not tell her employers that their baby boy had knocked his head against the toilet bowl while she was bathing him until almost six hours later, a coroner's court heard.
Two-month-old Jordan Teo Ka Jun died of bleeding in the membrane of the skull as a result on Sept 10 last year.
On Thursday, the maid, named a potential defendant at an inquiry into baby Jordan's death, elected to remain silent.
The investigating officer, said the maid had fed the baby that morning at her employers' flat before bathing him in the master bedroom toilet. The maid was squatting to bathe him in a tub beside the toilet bowl when she turned left while still holding the baby on her left arm to retrieve a towel on the lid of the toilet bowl. Just then, she heard a knock as Jordan's head hit against the side of the toilet bowl. He started crying. She gave him a pacifier and he stopped crying about three minutes later. She put the baby back into the stroller and dressed him up.

Meanwhile, Jordan's grandmother was in the kitchen toilet when she heard the baby cry. She then went to check on the baby. The maid kept mum about the head knocking incident as she was afraid of being reprimanded. The baby kept crying on and off and refused to drink his milk.
At about 1.45pm when he started to cry again, the maid told his nine-year-old half-brother who had just returned from school that Jordan had refused to drink milk and had been crying non-stop. Later, when the baby continued to cry, the maid told the boy to call his mother, Madam Lau. She told her to rub some medicated oil on the baby which she did. The maid observed that the baby's cries became softer and his face became pale. He also appeared to be weaker.

At about 3.05pm the baby's grandmother noticed the baby's intermittent breathing, she immediately carried him to a clinic nearby where the doctor performed cardio-pulmonary resuscitation on the infant.

An ambulance was called and Jordan was taken to hospital where he died.

Anxious babies have more bad dreams as preschoolers

NEW YORK - PRESCHOOLERS' odds of having nightmares may be related to their temperament as infants, which may be noticed as early as 5 months old, new research suggests.
In a study that followed 987 children from infancy to age 6, Canadian researchers found that the majority had an occasional bad dream, while a few had them frequently. The odds of having nightmares - and of having them consistently through the preschool years - were higher among children who were considered to be more anxious or 'difficult' as babies.

The findings suggest that young children's bad dreams 'are trait-like in nature and associated with personality characteristics measured as early as 5 months,' the researchers report in the medical journal Sleep.

A previous study with identical and non-identical twins suggested that people may inherit a certain vulnerability to having nightmares, Dr Tore Nielsen, one of the researchers on the new study, said.

In this study, 'bad dreams' as early as the age of 2.5 were predicted by signs of anxiety at the ages of 5 months and 17 months, explained Dr Nielsen, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Montreal.

Environmental stressors - starting school for the first time, for instance - may conspire with an inherited vulnerability to spur young children's nightmares, according to Dr Nielsen.

The study found that the percentage of children having an occasional bad dream held steady from the age of 29 months to age 6 - about two thirds at each age, according to parents.

Similarly, less than 2 per cent of children had frequent nightmares at each age.

When the researchers looked at mothers' reports on their children's temperaments during infancy, they noted differences between children who had no bad dreams and those who had them consistently through early childhood.

Children in the latter group tended to be more restless and cry more at the age of 5 months, and they were more difficult to calm at 17 months, according to mothers' reports.

The results raise the possibility that calming infants' persistent distress may relieve them of some bad dreams later in childhood, according to the researchers.

However, he added that based on other research, a good starting point would be to improve children's early bonding, or 'secure attachment', with their parents.

For older children who are having distressing dreams, Dr Nielsen said he and his colleagues have found that having the children 'draw the dream' and share it with their parents can be helpful.

Mother jailed for dumping dead son in rubbish

In Hong Kong, a 29-year-old mother was jailed for 32 months on Tuesday for dumping the body of her three-year-old son in the rubbish after he choked to death on a sticky dumpling.

Leung Man Ki, a single mother, was sentenced in Hong Kong's district court for 32 months for preventing the burial of a corpse, according to a judiciary spokeswoman.

The court had heard how Leung had fed her son a glutinous chicken dumpling for breakfast last June, but it got lodged in the child's throat and caused his death.

She then discarded the boy's body in a plastic bag and left it with other trash on the street. The body was taken away by a rubbish truck to a landfill and has never been recovered.

Leung had originally been charged with murder, but the charge was reduced to the lesser offences of cruelty and prevention of burial.