As a mum, there are a number of essentials that you should should keep iny our handbag to help with those emergency moments, or to keep the little ones entertained. Here are some items that we recommend you try to keep on you at all times:-

• wet wipes
• tissues
• pack of wax crayons
• notebook (for sheets of paper)
• dry snacks
• bottle of water
• mobile phone

Of course, if your little ones are still in nappies then there's a whole load more that you'll be carrying around with you!

Look out for practical and small versions of everything. Carry handy packs of wet wipes and tissues, a small pack of crayons, the sort that restaurants give away with kids' meals, and small packets of dry snacks, such as the little boxes of raisins or other dry fruits.  Although all of these are more expensive than full sized items, many are available in multipacks which makes for slightly better value. You don't want to become a pack horse, but having these to hand could be helpful when you find yourself stuck outside of home.

No one goes anywhere without their mobile these days but beside being available those emergency calls ('I've locked myself out of the house!' or 'The car won't start!'), smart phones can store photos and music. Download a few toddler friendly games too to help kill time when you're stuck in a queue, or waiting for a doctor's appointment etc.

If you're not the sort naturally to be inclined to go on long walks, then make it into a great game and join the geocaching craze!  If you've never heard of it, there's a whole secret world waiting to be discovered by you, and it starts just outside your doorstep!  Take the kids out to your favourite parks and open spaces and you'll almost certainly find hidden treasure waiting for you - even in parks that you thought you knew like the back of your hand.  The kids will quickly become addicted and you'll find yourself geocaching wherever you go.

Geocaching is a treasure hunt.  All over the country, in fact the world, are thousands and thousands of little treasure chests.  The majority are actually old film canisters (remember those?!) while larger ones might be small tupperware boxes.  Inside you will find little toys and often a pencil and a log sheet.  The idea is that you have to find them and when you do so, you are entitled to take one of the toys as a prize, but you must also replace it with something else for the next person.  Small prizes might be a coin, marble, plastic soldier, rubber creepy-crawlies,  or anything else.

How to find them?  These things are, quite literally, littered across the nation.  A central database has them all logged by GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude).  If you have a smartphone then go along to your app store and you'll find a variety of apps to help you locate and navigate to these secret hideaways.  Your mobile phone will help you arrive at the right place through its GPS system, you'll see your progress on an onscreen map as you close in on the cache.  Coordinates are accurate to a few metres, and caches have a hint that helps you find them, often describing a tree or bench where the container will be found.  Find out more and view the database of geocaches online at http://www.geocaching.com.

Using mobile phones during pregnancy may lead to behavioural problems in children according to a team of scientists from two Californian universities (UCLA and USC).  The research studied mobile phone use of 29,000 mothers and repeated research published in 2008 that reached similar conclusions on a study of 13,000 mothers.  Mother's who used a mobile phone four or more times a day during their pregnancy were at greater risk of their children developing behavioural problems.

The British media have cited many scientists leaping to the defense of mobiles, stating that it may not be mobile phone usage alone that leads to behavioural problems, pointing out that it could be lifestyle factors linked to heavier mobile users.

Over the years there have been many scare stories about the use of mobile phones, but today there is no conclusive evidence that mobiles cause any danger at all.  It probably doesn't help that there is an industry willing to pour millions of pounds into research to show that mobiles are safe, while it's not really in anyone's interest to fund research proving health or other problems.  Our advice is to err on the side of caution, if you are pregnant, bear in mind that heavy use could be linked to behavioural problems in children and keep phone usage to a minimum!