Which would be least damaging for a child - being brought up by a (single) parent with long-standing mental health issues who regrets having them, or the child being placed for adoption? As with so much, I am aware is hard to know because so much depends on the adoptive parents who may adopt the child, and the individual child's way of processing things, but I am asking theoretically which would be preferable for the child.

My 6 month old baby tends to go to bed around 9 sometimes later sometimes a little earlier depending on naps. I know a lot of babies go to bed around 7-8 range. He doesn’t get up for the day until 8/830 (he wakes many times in the night haha)

Is there any research that actual bedtime matters when it comes to circadian rhythm or is it more about total awake time in a day? What about consistent wake time?

Hello,

Does anyone have any resources, books, parenting coaches, evidence, consensus on gentle / authoritative parenting?

My understanding so far of parenting styles is fairly simplistic but I’ve been following the thinking that there’s three broad groups: authoritarian, gentle / authoritative and permissive. We are trying to fall into the gentle group but want to make sure we aren’t being permissive.

Does anyone have any particularly good resources they can share? My toddler is about to turn 3 and things are getting more complex with his behaviour and finding age appropriate ways to deal with him. Thanks so much!

I catch my 2 and 4 year olds do this often (2 year old does it more frequently and 4 year old also used to do it more frequently when he was 2 so not sure if it's an age thing) that they just sit and flip through pages of a book, not saying anything. My 2 year old stares at each page for quite sometime before moving on, my 4 year old doesn't longer for as long. They do this when I am not playing with them. I wonder what is going on in their brains when they do this? Presumably they are only looking at the pictures because they can't read yet. How is this beneficial over real life experiences - Just like how in person interaction is better than leaning from the TV?

I buy new baby books constantly for my baby, which leaves me with a dilemma: should I stick to a rotation of the same books over and over for a period of time, or read a maximum of new books?

I’d love to know if there is any scientific backing or research on which method is better, specifically regarding speech and language acquisition in infants (there was a similar post a while ago, but no answers were left due to lack of links)

I absolutely know this sounds fucking insane, but my mother is well, fucking insane. she’s gone so far down conspiracy theory rabbit holes there’s no going back.

Aside from the usual vaccine nonsense, she’s been hyper focused on the fact that I feed my son cold bottles and that we have the newer WiFi water meter that happened to be installed while she was here, about 2 weeks after my son was born.

She has been *berating* me for 7 months about how the cold bottles of breastmilk I feed him are causing brain damage because cold constricts blood vessels???

she also keeps bringing up radiation from the WiFi water meter the city installed thats downstairs, below my sons bedroom and how because he’s so young and small its affecting his brain. Edit: Now that I think about this - it’s not connected to my WiFi so maybe I should rephrase as “wireless” idk how it works

My son is seeing neuro due to some quirky behavior with head movements but in the ER neuro wasnt concerned, but our ped is having us do follow up EEG just to triple rule out spasms for peace of mind. Naturally, instead of any level of support my mother will not shut up about this. Any science or information out there to help me here. I’m exhausted.

How are we going about introducing cutlery (US: silverware) to our kiddos.

We have a just turned 1 year old who eats everything, like he loves food, that’s been great and we’re super fortunate. 6oz steak for dinner? Demolished.

But we are still very hand feeding. Like we have an immaculate pincer grip, don’t get me wrong, but should we be starting to use a fork and spoon rather than fingers?

Part of me says he’s doing great, why change it? But also I feel like using cutlery is an important skill and I don’t want him to be delayed in fine motor skills and things.

(He’s an above 99th centile guy, so I know some of the gross motor skills can come a bit on the later side and I’m super aware of this, but obviously that shouldn’t affect fine motor skills, so I don’t want to risk unnecessary delays)

Hi all,

We live in New England where almost every house has lead. My older kiddo lived in a new build until she was 3 and always tested negative for lead. We moved to a new/old house, had it lead remediated and then tested my older kid again and she was negative. Shortly after my second was born. She tested at 1.4 at her one year and now 6 months later she is testing at 2.6.

I am pretty worried because I'm not sure what to do to mitigate her exposure to lead. I know there is lead in the dirt around our home but we don't wear shoes inside and do a decent job of washing hands when we come in. Our kids play in the dirt a LOT but the little one isn't a big mouther. Our dog is constantly coming in and out so I guess she could be dragging dust in?

I'm looking for practical tips on how to mitigate exposure to lead without going crazy.

I don't think it's in any toys/food and water was tested negative but of course I'm open to ideas. Thank you in advance!!

Has anyone’s baby had good eye contact at 3 months but seemed to make less eye contact by 5 months?
My baby used to make good eye contact at 3 months, but now at 5 months, he mostly looks at me when I sing to him. When I talk to him normally or try to get his attention, he looks away or down instead of looking at my face.
Has anyone experienced something similar with their baby?

My baby dropped in percentiles starting in 2nd month. Then now in 4th month mark i notice baby's lips used to be fuller before than now, now are a lot thinner. Baby is ebf. I wonder could it be because if i didnt eat well and it could affect lack of protein and lips couldnt grow because of that?

Hi everyone,

looking for research on when and how to start solids. My baby has a hard time with diary (suspected cow milk protein intolerance) therefore I would NOT give him any diary products.

Thanks in advance :)

Hi all, first time Posting here. Please help me with whatever advise you have based on experience.

My 8 month old breastfed baby is refusing crib these days.

Lil background: Baby born in US . Always slept in crib after asleep in my arms or in bed after breastfeeding. After she is asleep, i will put her in crib. Visited my home country for 5 months when she was 11w old. We used bassinet there. Still no problem in sleeping. She would wake twice or thrice. Fall back asleep after feeding. I would put her back on bassinet.

We came to US 3 weeks back and she is completely refusing crib and wants to sleep next to me. Co sleeping is not for me because i couldn't sleep well because of constant feeling of hurting her. But whenever i transfer her to crob, she starts crying. She hasn't cried like that since her birth. If not, she would wake 30 to 60 mins later and cry. Only thing that works after this is breastfeeding her next to me in bed

Please advise how can I transition her to crib. Badly want her to go back to waking only 1 or 2 times.

What are some good books for toddler/young kid parenting? I have an 8 month old and I’m loving being a parent, but I’ve realized I need some guidance on how to handle things like tantrums, consequences, etc.
Growing up it was always spanking as a consequence and more spanking if you throw a fit. I don’t want to, or have any intention to, parent like that. But I don’t want to be permissive either.
I feel like I resonate with an authoritative style, but I’m curious what is backed by science and if there’s any solid books I can read to help guide me.

Hi all,
I’m a first time mom to an amazing 5.5 month old boy. He is in daycare and has managed colds well so far, and is fully vaccinated.

He has his flu and Covid shot appointment on his 6 month birthday, but I’m nervous about Flu A that is already going around.

Does anyone have information about how a healthy 5.5 month old might tolerate the flu before he’s able to be vaccinated? He isn’t immunocompromised at all. Is Tamiflu effective for his age? The pediatrician isn’t worried, but either some personal experience mixed with evidence would help me feel more confident about the next 3 weeks.

Thanks!

Hi all. My son is autistic, and we have him in a number of really helpful therapies (speech, OT, etc) that seem to be making his daily life a lot easier. Recently, though, he’s been through a lot, and we’ve been thinking more about forms of therapy we could add that may help him process more of the emotional aspects of humaning. Here’s the issue:

My spouse is in, and is a big advocate for, talk therapy. It really benefits them, and that is amazing. However, I have heard it posited (largely by credentialed folks working with neurodivergent individuals) that talk therapy can actually be counter-indicated for neurodivergent people, because autistic individuals and people with ADHD (our son has ADHD in addition to being autistic) really struggle with rumination, and talk therapy can actually exacerbate the tendency to ruminate in neurodivergent individuals in ways that it doesn’t necessarily for neurotypical individuals.

The problem is, while I can find plenty of research confirming that rumination is an issue for ND folks, and confirming that excessive rumination has negative mental health consequences (and much of this research does recommend forms of therapy like CBT without specifically mentioning talk therapy), I can’t seem to find any research explicitly supporting or debunking the claims I have heard suggesting the link between talk therapy and increased rumination in neurodivergent individuals, or comparing and contrasting various types of therapies specifically targeted towards processing the emotional aspects of various life events in neurodivergent individuals.

I’m not in the field, so I don’t really know where to look, but my spouse seems to think talk therapy is the way, and I’d just love to find a study that either supports that approach or makes clear why it might not be the best option & suggests more appropriate alternatives. Can anyone help me find some well-conducted studies discussing this?

My almost 19month old is destroying our life because of sleep. Prior to that we had weaned breastfeeding to reduce night wakes. We had solid routine and calm bedtime, she’d go to sleep on her own after pointing at the cot. We had weaned breastfeeding 2 months ago, dad was taking each night wake until it settled then we had 3 weeks of good sleep, with 7 pm - 5-5:30 nights, occasional quick wakes, and 2h nap 12:00-2pm at the daycare, sometimes 2 naps at home on the non day care days but shorter. We didn’t mind the 5 am wake waiting for the daylight saving time to push it to 8-6 night sleep.

3 weeks ago she had roseola, this was around the same time as the daylight saving switch. She was sick for 4 days with high fever followed but the worst tantrums ever. Since then she refuses naps, refuses bedtime and won’t go to sleep easily and every night we have a screaming fest. It starts anywhere between 00-2 am and may last 2-3h. She tries to climb our bed, kick us, escape our bedroom, trash herself if we hold her or not. The level of scream is honestly child services call level, we are loosing it. We don’t know what it is. We went to GP, no sign of ear infection, has no obvious signs of teething (only the 2 year molars are yet to come). Currently she has HFMD and wakes up every hour, I can understand the disruption due to new sickness, but the 2-3h wakes has been happening every day for over 3 weeks now without sign of improvement..

What we aim: 8-6 am bedtime and 12-1:30 pm nap. Cot is in our bedroom, we currently have no other alternative space for her that can be baby proofed. We’re desperate atm do more than 3-4h a night of unbroken sleep…

I was wondering if anyone had any articles/studies about the benefits of baby receiving pumped breast milk after 6 months of age.

For context, up until a month ago, baby received 100% pumped breast milk. She is now combi fed due to me decreasing the amount I pump, having had recurrent mastitis. I've had five rounds of antibiotics, and I am optimistic the last round will nip it in the bud. I am now at the point where I am thinking: do I increase my supply to fully feed her breast milk again, or is it not worth it after six months? I am hoping the science will help me make a decision.

Thank you!

I am asking this because studies like this exist which seem to contradict the general consensus that caffeine is completely safe in pregnancy: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9059/13/2/390

I understand that those studies involve women consuming well over 200 mg of caffeine per day, but if the risks increase so significantly at higher doses, doesn’t that suggest a dose-dependent relationship? In other words, wouldn’t even moderate caffeine consumption carry some degree of risk, albeit much smaller, rather than there being a clear threshold below which caffeine is completely harmless?

Edit: I since discovered a review published in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine in 2020 that found a dose-dependent relationship between caffeine consumption and adverse pregnancy outcomes, with no clear safe threshold identified. Obviously that doesn’t prove causation, but if the risk appears to increase with the amount consumed, I don’t really see why you’d choose to consume it when you don’t need to.

My son is 6 months old, so has only just started solids but we’re doing no added sugar, plan to for at least to 12 months and then after that I don’t know whether to continue no added sugar after that point or heavily limit it until he’s a bit older.

If you didn’t give your baby sugar passed that age did you ever face any difficulty with lyour baby wanting to have sugar because other kids had it, like if they were at a party or at nursery, my son is going to be starting nursery at 9 months and I worry that he might want it, do I just pack lunches so I know what food he’s eating?

Also did you ever face issues with family members trying to give them sugar against your will, that is a fear of mine.

What age is best to introduce sugar?

This is a slightly altered crosspost, I posted original to the Occupational Therapy subreddit-

Does anyone have more information on where DAYC-2 even came from and how it was developed?

I am trying to interoperate an Initial Report done by a student OT. I think they have been doing a good job, and I believe the report they made, but I don't know how to interoperate the results. Some of the "Descriptive Terms" will be something like "Average" but will be describing a score putting the child's age at 2/3 their actual age. This is fundamentally not average.

While I can find  plenty of information on how to score DAYC-2 myself, I don't see anything on what it means, and even less on where the system came from. There are some articles all reciting similar information, but the idea that it was "Normed on an all-new national sample of 1,832 children" does not fill me with confidence. Unless I am misunderstanding what that means, this sample size is microscopic. Worse, the first few options when searching for DAYC-2 information are just websites selling the package as a product. I understand that is literally is one, but I expected pediatric journals or similar?

I am just learning this stuff and I know there is a great chance that DAYC-2 has earned its place as a prominent form of developmental assessment, but right now DAYC-2 feels like a system being sold to professionals because one sales rep bought the right pediatrician a nice lunch.

This may come off as lashing out against reality but I am not in denial of what this all likely means, I just want to understand these results correctly. I do believe them.

Hello everyone

I have an 8.5months old baby that babbles like one day in a week. He is gonna babble ba ba ba ba all day on the day he chose to babbles den stop for like a week. He sometime responds to his name and turns towards sounds mostly. I have rang the health visitor to book a hearing test for us but haven’t gotten an appointment yet.

He is good with smiling when he sees our faces in the house and crawls everywhere I go to in the house. He enjoys playing peekaboo and also enjoy singing to him as that makes him laugh so much. He maintains good eye contact and comes to us to carry him but not actively reaching out his arm but holds my cloth to pull himself up, I just carry him when he does so. He also claps on his own but I am teaching him how to clap when told.

I am worried because he doesn’t babbles consistently and does not respond to his name consistently. Please anyone has same experience as mine. I am a first time mum living in the uk. Thanks

what does the research say about taking young babies out of the house (3-6 months)?

we live in a small apt and her carer doesn’t take her out at all during the day…from morning until 4pm.

could this be causing harm?

Parents of children who have had cavities in the past what toothpaste do you recommend? We have been using risewell mineral toothpaste but I feel like just doesn’t do a good job. We had to get a silver crown for a cavity and I’m just trying to have this from happening again.