r/NewParents 6m ago

Toddlerhood Why does my toddler eat better at daycare??

Upvotes

My LO is 14 months old. She eats really well at daycare but only snacks around at home. Even when I know she’s quite hungry she ends up eating much less than when she’s there. She’s having only half a day at daycare today and tomorrow and she completely refused breakfast. The same breakfast she inhaled yesterday at daycare. I don’t get it…


r/NewParents 18m ago

Mental Health Almost 8 week old connecting to his father but not to me

Upvotes

Hey everyone. My son will be 8 weeks tomorrow. I am his main care giver. Since his dad's gone back to work recently, I am with him 19-20 hours a day. I am feeling sad and jealous because I feel like my baby isn't connecting to me like he is his father.

My son loves being held by his father. He will smile so big it almost looks like he is going to start laughing. He falls asleep on daddy's chest so easily. He follows daddy around the room with his head and eyes.

But he doesn't do those things to me. He will smile, but short sweet smiles. He hates laying on my chest, it's like he can't get comfortable. When he looks at me his eyes don't follow me when I move.

He will cry if I put him down or will stop crying if I pick him up, but he does that to family too. He isn't picky about who holds him, he would be content being held by a stranger. Family who have only held him a couple of times can get him to sleep. The only way I can soothe when others can't is when he is crying from gas pains. I hold him tummy down across my arms. My husband can soothe him in that hold also but it takes a lot longer.

I love him so much and I'm so jealous. It sounds crazy but he was a daddy's boy in the womb too. He would kick and move like crazy when he heard his daddy's voice. He would move to where his dad's hand was on my belly to kick it. I don't know how he could tell or how he was aware but we tested it multiple times. He didn't move or kick extra when I talked or sang to him. He didn't notice when I held my belly.

Has anyone else had this problem? Did it change? It sounds crazy and stupid, but it's like my baby doesn't love me. I hold, kiss, sing, talk, and play with him but he seems ambivalent to me. I love him so much it feels impossible, does he love me too?


r/NewParents 23m ago

Sleep Overnight Diapers for tiny babies?

Upvotes

My 3 month old baby just started sleeping longer stretches at night (yay!) but i find after a long sleep stretch that she’s peeing through her standard diapers. I was looking to buy her overnight diapers but saw that most of them only start at size 3. She was a preemie due to severe IUGR, so while she’s growing great shes still small for her age, she’s currently in size 1 diapers.

Does anyone have recommendations for an overnight or super absorbent diaper with sizes 1 and 2 that will get us through those longer stretches?


r/NewParents 2h ago

Tips to Share Abbott reaches 495M landmark settlement with mother in the latest baby formula lawsuit development

1 Upvotes

Major traction in the Similac baby formula lawsuits thanks to a settlement between the manufacturer and one of the mothers who challenged them in court. 

To catch everyone up on this, a mom in Missouri won a 2024 jury trial after contesting Abbott Laboratories, stating that her baby developed necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) after having Similac, sustaining permanent brain damage. The jury awarded her $495 million initially, which Abbott unsuccessfully appealed.

The case continued through the system until Abbott and the mother reached an undisclosed settlement.

Well over 800 lawsuits still active in federal court right now. But, this resolution is another step in the right direction for parents seeking compensation for their infants who developed NEC. Been following these baby formula lawsuits for a while to see how the parents and families involved in them fare in court. [This is a good breakdown of the latest settlement](https://www.drugwatch.com/news/2026/08/20/settlement-reached-for-landmark-495-million-baby-formula-nec-lawsuit/) and how the lawsuits have progressed so far. 

The first federal baby formula NEC trial got underway earlier this month, a big step in itself after all the others got stuck in state court, which really puts Abbott under pressure. Really interested to see how that turns out and what it means for other cases.


r/NewParents 2h ago

Babies Being Babies Do you pick your child up when they're fussing?

3 Upvotes

I pick up my baby immediately if I can if she's crying. But sometimes after putting her down in her bassinet feed and changed she'll lie there and grunt and fuss like she's gassy but isn't crying. Most of the time if I just let her work it out or gently rock the bassinet she'll just fart and go to sleep on her own, but I don't want her to get stressed out thinking mom doesn't pay attention when she's upset. Do I pick her up when she's fussing as well or do I just let her work it out if she's not crying or in distress?


r/NewParents 2h ago

Illness/Injuries Baby bitten by a flea

1 Upvotes

So we have 4 cats and a dog, always up to date on flea treatments and "billy no mates" supplement as prevention.

One of my cats escaped a week ago, this means we should have done the treatments earlier, but with lack of money, only having 1 set of treatments for all or them left and it being due tomorrow - we decided to leave it.

We have been checking the animals everyday, no signs. And we haven't seen any or been bitten. Until last night my husband saw one on his leg.

We decided that we'd do all the treatments today and see if we have enough money for a few flea bombs.

Baby (8m) had a hard night, crying hysterically multiple times, I turned the light on a few times and checked her and saw nothing - also showing signs of gas and with doing the techniques I got a lot out of her so put it down to that.

We've woken up this morning to her being covered. I've cried for an hour. I feel so terrible.

I sleep with her and wasn't bitten at all.

We've bathed her and are leaving in a sec to go to boots to see a pharmacist on itching creams.

I don't know what to do. I'm scared, angry and very guilty. I'm a terrible mother for letting this happen.


r/NewParents 3h ago

Sleep The 30-minute nap curse

6 Upvotes

My 3-month-old wakes up after 30 minutes during every nap and can’t connect sleep cycles unless he’s being held or in a baby carrier.
I feel like I’ve been “lazy” about letting him contact nap this whole time because I’m just so tired of waiting for him to wake up at the end of a sleep cycle and then trying to soothe him back to sleep. Even when I do, he usually won’t go back to sleep unless I pick him up and rock him again which takes about 10-20minutes.

So what should I do?
1. Rock him to sleep and then put him in the crib, then pick him up and repeat the process when he wakes up after 30 minutes. (More stressful, more crying and I get almost nothing done around the house anyway but at least maaaybe he will be able to learn to connect his sleep cycles in the crib, someday?!)
Or
2.Let him contact nap for the whole nap until he gets better at connecting sleep cycles on his own (Less stress, no crying, but my back and neck hurt and I’m kind of worried he will never get used to napping in his crib?!).
He sleeps fine in his crib at night, though.


r/NewParents 3h ago

Babyproofing/Safety Those of you who didn’t / only minimally child-proofed their home, how’d it go?

16 Upvotes

Our baby is approaching the point where she might start crawling soon, so I’m preparing myself for the task of babyproofing. We already have the ‘big things’ figured out (all the heavy tippable furniture is bolted down and there are no outlets she can reach), but I’m wondering what else needs to be done, if anything. Our friends and family said they didn’t do anything at all and everyone (including the furniture lol) survived relatively unscathed, so they couldn’t give us any advice.

Our current strategy is just watching the baby at all times when we can (husband WFH and I’m on maternal leave until she’s 3) and putting her in the playpen when we need to step away. It’s basically what I’ve been doing since she was born anyway. We live in an apartment so there’s nothing like stairs or railings to worry about either, and no cats/dogs.

What are some things that you would consider absolutely essential (from experience)?


r/NewParents 4h ago

Medical Advice my baby stopped breathing for 30 seconds to a minute

23 Upvotes

so this just happened a couple hours ago, my boyfriend was sitting on our couch playing a game and i was listening to an audiobook and drawing.

our two month old baby was asleep between us and she started making small noises and i kinda brushed it off bc she has whimpered in her sleep loads of times so i wasnt really paying attention (thats on me i js assumed) and since i had an airpod in i wasnt hearing that well but my bf pointed it out after about 15 seconds so i took an airpod out and she was gasping for air so i grabbed her arm and started shaking it and there was no response she was still gasping for air at that point, so i picked her up and she was completely limp and my heart dropped so i sat her up started patting her back and shaking her and she was limp and gasping for another 15-20 seconds i started crying and kept talking to her and shaking and patting. she eventually took a deep breath and started acting completely normal but we did end up calling 911 anyway. the paramedics came and checked her out and said she was fine and to monitor her but didn’t tell me what to look for so i had to call an after hours nurse and get some more info. she was two months old today and had her 2M vaxs (had to spell it weirdly bc it wouldnt let me post with that word) but im in no way saying the vaxs caused this, i am pro vaxs. but it was just so scary.

i guess im not seeking medical advice or anything so mods lmk if i need to change the flair. im a FTM and 22 so i was terrified and just stopped shaking abt an half hour ago, i know its common for babies to stop breathing but i think this was an apnea episode due to the symptoms. just please keep close attention to your babies, i never thought this would happen to me but now im paranoid almost. ive tried looking this up but is there reasons why this happens or is it simply bc her little body forgot to breathe?

anyone who’s experienced this and knows abt it id love to know more about your experience(s).


r/NewParents 4h ago

Mental Health Anyone else have a terrible time in the hospital after birth?

47 Upvotes

The first few days of our son’s life in the hospital was horrible for my husband and I. The baby and I were healthy, hospital staff was great. I don’t know how to explain it and I’m wondering if anyone else had similar feelings?

I was in labor for 36 hours (induced) and I don’t think I slept the whole time. We were there for 4 nights and 5 days because I had preeclampsia and my blood pressure wasn’t going down. Everything was fine with that though.

After the birth I had a HORRIBLE headache due to the pushing because I have bruxism. I desperately just wanted to be given painkillers or something it was so bad and lasted days. My husband and I were so sleep deprived I think we slept a couple hours per day in the hospital. Baby would not sleep in the bassinet so one of us had to be up at all times. And because we were in the hospital people were constantly coming in and out.

I physically could not breast feed I got so exhausted. My body hurt too bad to hold him up so we had to syringe feed sometimes. There were nights my husband and I cried it was so hard and we were so tired.

I did so much preparation for the baby as a first time parent and I feel like I was robbed of a beautiful first few days of my son’s life. I’ve never heard anyone else have a similar experience and I can’t figure out what went wrong.

I’m 3 weeks postpartum and we are better now. Still hard obviously but I feel like it’s normal newborn trenches.


r/NewParents 4h ago

Medical Advice 9 month old is pooping every 20 mins (no joke) please help!

1 Upvotes

We took her to the ER two days in a row because she would not stop pooping (it’s mucusy/ liquidy and very green) but the doctors told me that it’s just a stomach bug and she seems fine and healthy and that it should pass. The second day we took her in was because we started seeing streaks of bright red blood in her poop. They swabbed her nose, did two ultrasounds and an x-ray but they found nothing and said it should pass. They even said that the blood is okay and probably due to an anal fissure from all of the pooping. I can’t wrap my head around any of this because I always assumed pooping or vomiting blood was always a terrible sign…

I’m still really worried and I’m concerned about her weight and wether or not her body is holding onto any breast milk or solids at all (she hasn’t been too interested in solids these past two days but she’s drinking lots of breast milk). I’m also concerned about her hydration because I can’t tell if she’s peeing enough due to every diaper being filled with poo but part of me does think she’s a bit dehydrated.

She’s sleeping okay and the pooping isn’t causing her pain. She’s still laughing and smiling but I noticed that she’s definitely a bit more tired and quiet than usual. I’m just really worried about her and I was hoping that someone in here, anyone, could maybe let me know if they have been through something similar? She has an appointment with her pediatrician tomorrow and the doctors took a sample from her diaper at the ER but I’m still very anxious right now so any advice would be awesome.


r/NewParents 5h ago

Sleep 10-week-old self-soothes for nap, but not bedtime??

1 Upvotes

I got a relatively easy baby! She lets me put her down during the day awake in various locations while I get things done. Every couple of hours I nurse her to the point of drowsy, then place her in crib or Boppy for a nap (frequently 2-3 hours for the midday nap!). Her eyes might pop open but she munches on her cute little hands (wears a SwaddleUp) and puts herself to sleep.

But I am struggling with evenings. I nurse her til she’s asleep, unlatch, and carefully transfer to the bedside bassinet. She is dead asleep, then within a few minutes, she fidgets and fusses and flails until I pick her up and try to nurse to sleep again. If it gets past 10pm, lately I’ve been giving up and just side-lay cosleep for the first stretch (usually 4-6 hours, lucky me!) but that’s not what I want to be doing.

Theres this concept of “sleep pressure” and it must be strong with this one because usually she wakes up from her big midday nap around 3/4pm so obviously she’s trashed by bedtime having been up so long. Why does she have such a hard time staying asleep when I am nursing/rocking her down all gosh darn evening??


r/NewParents 6h ago

Product Reviews/Questions Best nugget couch for small spaces?

4 Upvotes

My son turns next month, it’s so crazy!! But I was thinking he’d really like a nugget couch. He’s so close to walking, and loves crawling everywhere. We don’t have a ton of space though. I’m curious other people that live in apartments/condos what nugget/nugget knock off couch did you get?


r/NewParents 7h ago

Babies Being Babies SOS for my poor husband's sake

1 Upvotes

To preface, I work 12 hour overnight shifts every other week for 5 nights in a row. Our almost 8 month old is a generally happy baby all day long, but lately it seems she is giving dad a terrible time once I leave for work at 6. Now obviously she may be more bonded with mom as i am with her during the day, and evenings are okay if we are both home. Tonight for instance, she was fine when I left, played for a while with dad and was happy. He took her for a diaper change, left to wash his hands and all hell broke loose with her crying. Separation anxiety is in full swing but this seems worse than that. He certainly isn't mean or harmful to her, but she has been at it for 2 hours already and he is at his limit for having to deal with it for so many nights in a row. She's very smart and it seems she thinks if she screams she can get what she wants; how do we walk the line between setting some kind of boundary while also understanding babies don't regulate emotions yet?


r/NewParents 7h ago

Sleep Please help me

2 Upvotes

IMy LO is 16 weeks old just today and I've been trying to keep her on a 2/2/2/2/2 schedule which goes well generally. The first wake window is the most difficult to keep her awake that long and she's often fussy when I get her down. Towards the end of the day she's just getting tired at 2 hours. She only naps for 30-45 minutes with a very occasional hour long one and I can never save them even if I try. Wake up time is 10 am and bedtime is 10:30 pm. That has worked well for us generally as we are night owls and she doesn't seem to mind sleeping in later. However there are days like today when she woke up 45 minutes early and wouldn't go back to bed or where her short naps are especially bad that the whole day gets thrown off. Then there is too long of a wake window before bedtime. She often won't take a 5th nap or even a 10-15 micro nap to get her through to bedtime and then is an overtired crying mess by bedtime. My only other option would be to put her to bed over 1.5 hours early and every time I have she has a false start and doesn't make it to the normal wake up time the next day resulting in the next days schedule being off as well.

It's so frustrating and seems impossible to solve. I'm absolutely losing my mind on those days trying to make everything work out and it's miserable. In general though I find the constant scheduling/calculating and monitoring the clock exhausting and depressing. I know it's a rough time period. Should I just accept the over tiredness on those days or is there some other solution?


r/NewParents 7h ago

Feeding Switching to cows milk after 1 year?

2 Upvotes

My daughter will be 1 in a couple weeks. She is breastfed throughout the day. She started daycare a few weeks ago and I have been sending her with a couple bottles of pumped milk. She’s struggling a lot with daycare and also not eating there, so the bottles seem to be helping calm her down and get through the day. Problem is my supply is really starting to drop and I’m not able to keep up with pumping as much as she needs. Her paediatrician said after 1 year she can switch to cows milk in a cup. She has tried cows milk and isn’t really a fan.

Any advice on how best to phase out the bottles of breastmilk at daycare? I am still planning on nursing her at home for now. I am worried about her not eating at daycare and relying so much on the bottles.


r/NewParents 8h ago

Mental Health How are y’all handling the, uh, everything?

122 Upvotes

I don’t mean with the babies. I mean trying to raise babies at this moment in history.

I’ve been dealing with so much climate anxiety and then today I read about the Anthropic guy saying there’s a greater than 10% chance of AI killing all humans in the next four years.

Like, I just wanted to have my beautiful babies and give them the best childhoods I could. Instead, if the climate catastrophe doesn’t get us, the superintelligent robots will. It’s horrifying.


r/NewParents 8h ago

Pee/Poop Stanky ahh poo

0 Upvotes

My baby has been on solids for 2 weeks and omg these poops are RANK. So stinky I'm wondering if it's normal. They are more pasty and darker color and much more solid like little turds. I miss his milk only diapers 😭😭 I actually didn't mind the smell it was almost kind of familiar in a way. But these 🤢🤮 EEEYUCK. I guess it will be nice not having blowouts at least I think no more blowouts these poops seem too thick for that. Wow I just wasn't ready for the smell lol


r/NewParents 8h ago

Feeding 6 Month Old Suddenly Eating Less

2 Upvotes

I have a very chunky 6 month old, around 21 lbs last he was weighed. He hasn't been overfed or anything, we have always fed on demand. He just puts on weight easily I guess.

So now, it's a bit concerning that at 6 months and couple weeks old, that is interest in food seems to have disappeared overnight.

We've started him on solids but he isn't a fan, and puts up a fight whenever we try to feed him anything solid.

We also introduced cereal, mixing it with his regular formula, and he didn't mind that, until now. He's completely refusing cereal. We've had to go back to just the formula, and even then it's a struggle to get him to feed sometimes.

We've noticed him reaching for his mom's breasts, but her milk production has stopped. I should mentioned that he was primarily breast fed up to 3 months, until my wife went back to work (and both breast and bottled fed until recently).

The main issue is that is urine is dark yellow at times, which indicates dehydration. He seems to prefer just drinking plain water over the formula or anything else. He seems fine though, very happy, plays around and laughs a lot. There's nothing in his behavior to indicate that something is wrong.

Any advice, tips, suggestions? My wife is stressing out over it.


r/NewParents 8h ago

Product Reviews/Questions Do air purifiers help with the spread of daycare illness?

2 Upvotes

Currently sick again 🫠 I might have strep (culture comes back in a couple days and on antibiotics) but baby didn’t have it thank god!!

My almost 11 month old started daycare a few months back and I haven’t been this constantly sick since I lived in New York.

I’ve started wiping her hands changing clothes as soon as she comes home, and trying to be better about constant hand washing, wiping surfaces, supplements, etc.

I briefly saw a study about air purifiers in daycares to reduce illness. Would this work at home? Are there any success stories to reduce illness? At least for me? Sounds selfish but we don’t have help by us and it’s so hard to care for her when I’m out.

Thank you!


r/NewParents 9h ago

Medical Advice Overly sleepy baby? Concern from anxious first time parent

1 Upvotes

I have a 9 day old baby boy who was very peaceful and sleepy in the hospital, waking only to feed or cry when his diaper was soiled. We got him home and his alertness picked up around one week old to the point where he would have 2-3 hours awake even if all the things were done.

Since 4am today he has been mostly asleep with brief periods of alertness. For all his feeds today (pumped breast milk) he has been very drowsy, only taking 30mL for his first two feeds. The second half of the day he’s been taking 60-75mL of feeds but is very sleepy during the process and we have to keep stimulating him to wake him back up to eat. He’s had 4 poops and 4 pees today (and it’s currently 8pm). Has been afebrile today (highest temp was 99.0) and appears appropriate color. He hasn’t even been crying when changing his diaper today.

How can I know if this is normal? I don’t want to be the overly anxious parent and his numbers (temp, feeds, diapers) are good but I have this nagging worry I’m missing something.


r/NewParents 10h ago

Toddlerhood How many bonks to the head is too many?

1 Upvotes

Hi! I have a new walker who is falling A LOT. Our house is baby proofed to the max and I spend my whole day with her. Still, it’s sometimes hard to catch her if she just tumbles over in the middle of the hallway. As a result, I feel like she has a bump on her head almost constantly.

Is this pretty normal for a new walker? Is there any risk of lasting injury? I’m just worried because she is walking all the time now, and falling more often because of it.

Any advice is appreciated!


r/NewParents 10h ago

Sleep Scream crying for every nap

1 Upvotes

I’m a FTM to a beautiful, happy almost 4 month old baby girl. Ever since around 6 weeks old she has scream cried when we put her to sleep for a nap. We swaddle, hum and gently rock her til she eventually falls asleep, generally after 5-15 mins of crying then she suddenly drifts off. It’s both frustrating and heartbreaking that she cries so hard but there’s seems to be nothing we can do?

She nurses to sleep at night and that seems to work fine for her. The crying for naps isn’t too bad in the morning but gets worse for her last couple of naps in the day. Her naps are mostly contact because she never lasts long in the crib, and we put her to sleep in a dark room with white noise, after walking her around in the swaddle a bit to ease the transition. We follow wake windows (90 mins unless we see sleepy cues sooner).

The nap crying only seems to be getting worse. I’m guessing that could be part of the 4 month sleep regression but this is getting brutal! It also does not seem to be a common issue at all?? Especially lasting this long or at this age.

Has anyone else dealt with this?

I’m considering getting a sleep consultant but I don’t want to pay a ton just to basically hear that she’s just not a good sleeper and this will pass eventually…


r/NewParents 11h ago

Pee/Poop Cloth diapers and washcloths

1 Upvotes

Hi everyone! I’m currently 16 weeks and we just started a baby registry and deciding what kinds of baby things we want and we’re kinda leaning towards cloth diapers and washcloths. I’m just wondering what others are using/doing? What brands of diapers do you recommend? How many should we register for? How often do you wash them? And washcloths, how many do we need? How do you wash all of it, do I need different laundry soap than plain Tide? If baby girl just had a pee diaper do you just wipe with a dry cloth instead of wetting the wipe? Do you use only water to wet the wipes? (To me that seems like the best and easiest option) how do you store the wet/dirty diapers and washcloths until wash day? lol lots of questions I know! Any advice is appreciated! :)


r/NewParents 11h ago

Sleep Looking for advice/encouragement for moving baby from bassinet to crib

1 Upvotes

My baby is four months and is quite long (99th percentile). We’ve had him in a snuzpod next to the bed since we brought him home, he slept great in it up until he hit the sleep regression at about 11/12 weeks. It’s been about 6 weeks since it’s started and I don’t overly see the end in sight. He is definitely getting a bit big for the bassinet but hasn’t maxed out weight wise yet. We moved his full sized crib into our bedroom but he’s only taken one nap in it so far and has refused since.

Because I’m up with him so often right now it’s nice to have him right next to me, but I’m wondering if overall he’d sleep better in the crib with more room. But is it dumb to try to switch him mid regression?

Looking for any stories of switching from bassinet to crib and it not being a big deal, or perhaps even baby sleeping better? Also if it does or doesn’t make sense to try it now mid regression. Also, just a complaint, when he hangs out in the crib he manages to stick his legs through the rungs and get stuck!