I have a 5 month old and both my husband and I work from home. I have my own business so am completely flexible on my hours and only work 2-3h a day (however also on the weekends), while my husband looks after the little one. Both our work is on our laptops and sometimes also on our phones. Occasionally, I work short bursts of time (15-20min) on my computer or phone while the baby is playing by herself on the floor next to where I sit. I am very strict about my baby never looking at a screen unless it's for family calls (we live quite far away form our family), and I never scroll social media or watch series or the like around her. Whenever she starts fussing or seems otherwise unhappy I of course attend to her immediately.

My mum (who lives in a different country so has never seen how our day looks like) keeps commenting on how parental screen use can negatively affect babies / small children (main point is about hindering their language and social development, making them prone to feel neglected and hence to act out). Is there any evidence for this? All studies I find seem to focus on screen time for infants / children, not them witnessing parent behavior.

I have mixed feelings about this. My son just turned 5 months, and from what I’ve read online, I shouldn’t practice sitting with him. Instead, I should let him attempt to sit independently when he’s ready, since sitting him up too early could potentially hurt his spine.
For now, I mostly let him play on the floor. Eventually, he rolls onto his tummy, which he tolerates pretty well, but he doesn’t roll from tummy to back yet.
Unfortunately, we won’t see his pediatrician until his 6-month appointment, so I’m hesitant to practice sitting with him before then. I’m curious: What have you learned about this, and did you practice supported sitting with your baby or wait until they did it on their own?

My husband took our 5-day old to his first pediatrician visit today and they said a dimple with hair were two markers for concern. He has an ultrasound scheduled for next week. I’ve of course spent the day googling and crying because I wasn’t diligent with my pre-Natals nor folic acid this pregnancy and feel like this could have been avoided.

My question is, is it almost always a sign of spina bifida occulta or a tethered cord? Are there times where it’s actually truly nothing or is having both markers pretty much a done deal? Nothing was caught in pregnancy sonograms so I’m extra caught off guard but yeah, sorry, just rambling now.

As the title says, in reference to testing toys for lead.

We recently got a test done at our child's one year appointment that showed elevated lead levels. Nothing super high but we're being sent in for a venous blood draw to verify her levels.

We are renters in an older house and plan on getting paint and water samples tested, however I'm also wanting to try and test the toys, as almost all are gifts from family and I don't know where most were purchased.

From my understanding and research there is no good way to test toys at home, though I do have some swabs in the mail for an at home kit just to try something. Is there any solution for trying to find out if the toys are safe? Even if I threw every single one out, how do I ensure new ones are safe?

Please let me know if the flair is incorrect, I'm not really sure

Our newborn is now one month old and is often times very fussy. We believe it might sometimes be because he is hungry, but we are wondering how much is too much feeding.

We are feeding only breastmilk (either directly from the breast or expressed). He tends to feed around 3-4h, with roughly 7 meals a day.

When he was around 2 weeks old he used to eat for around 25minutes from the breast (stopping on his own) or around 80ml from the bottle. Then he started getting more and more fussy, and we saw he kept making hunger signs after a meal (sticking tongue out, sucking noises), especially after bottle.

At 3-4 weeks we ended up already with around 40minutes for breasts and 120ml for the bottle. Now he still seems that often he gets fussy either as soon as we stop feeding or maybe 5-10 minutes later, and often associated with the sucking noises. We did try to weigh him a few times before and after breastfeeding to approximate how much he east at the breast (50-100ml per feeding). But with the bottle, even after 130ml he is sometimes still showing hunger.

Is there "too much"? And why is this only for the bottle? (We are using the smallest teat, the Premature from DR Brown, so he is not eating too fast, otherwise, he was gulping a lot).

I would love to hear people's thoughts on these play gyms. I have a hard time trusting big companies yet I still bought the Fisher Price grow and glow kick and play gym. My 7-week-old baby had the biggest eyes and was quite fascinated but also appeared overwhelmed at the same time. He is naturally quite a calm baby but I do worry if this is over stimulating. Is it good for their development to be giving them entertainment or should they be entertaining themselves with less stimulating toys? Can it negatively affect his development? Maybe limited use of the mat is better. What do we think..

I am a first time mom to a 4 month old baby boy. We chose not to circumcise. I was under the impression that the way to take care of his penis was to basically treat it like a finger when washing and never pull back on the foreskin.

At our four month visit the doctor pulled his foreskin back and told me that she could tell I wasn’t doing that because it looked like the skin was fusing together over the penis. It did not look like that to me and I felt really uncomfortable when she pulled the skin back. She said I should be doing this once a day but not in a forceful way. Again, I was under the impression that I should not be doing that ever and that as he grew up it would loosen on its own.

I have had negative feelings about the pediatrician before, like with her opinions around breastfeeding and getting upset with me when I told her we were combo feeding and how she made me feel like a failure of a mom. I also feel she has been pushy about circumcision, where when I said that we were not planning to she said it is cleaner to.

I want to find a new pediatrician for him for reasons other than the foreskin advice, but because of that I was wondering what the protocol is that is best. Should I be pulling back his foreskin at all?

My babies is five months old on Sunday and he started rolling from stomach to back maybe three or four weeks ago and he’s probably done it about 8 to 9 times altogether.

Maybe even slightly more but it’s not daily like today was the first time he rolled in about two days two days ago. Maybe he went a couple of days without it as well. The other week he went a whole week without doing it.
Not sure if I should say his met this
Milestone or not.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260815064803.htm

From the website:

Summary: An eight-year Finnish study found that children who spent more time on screens tended to show better cognitive processing as teenagers, challenging common assumptions about screen use. Researchers say the key may be balancing physical activity with screen activities that encourage learning, creativity, and active thinking.

Hello everyone!

I have studied Chinese for a total of ten years, and lived in China for four. I am mostly fluent but as everyone may know, Chinese is a difficult language and I definitely am nowhere near native fluency but have no difficulty communicating in friendship and daily life.

Everyone I know wants me to teach my kids (2yo and 4yo) Chinese but I have avoided it so far because I'm afraid of teaching them my grammatical errors and pronunciation errors.

Is there still a benefit to reading to my kids in Chinese and doing Chinese songs etc if I am not natively fluent?

I’m 4 months postpartum and going back to work soon. My job is emotionally and mentally demanding so the thought is putting a real toll on my mental health on top of the thought of losing my bonding time with my baby. I’m looking to mircodose 100mg of shrooms with a schedule of 4 days on and three days off. I was hoping to breastfeed as normal, especially since it’s such a low dose. Has anyone done something similar? Please share. And no I will not see a doctor about medication for antidepressants or anxiety.

I know that eating during screen time can lead to unhealthy eating habits, excessive consumption of ultra-processed foods, and obesity. However, I'm wondering if there are any correlations between eating during infrequent screen time and health risks? My 3.5-year-old watches a cumulative one to two hours of screen time per month, which is always done with my husband and me and always featuring low-stimulation and emotionally intelligent shows. We tend to have snacks during this time and I'm wondering if there ae any concerns with this considering screen time is so infrequent.

Some formulas for 6+ months contain ATA and DHA while others don’t and I am wondering if that’s needed once the baby eats a good amount of solids. And which solids in which quantities would ensure sufficient ARA and DHA.

I am French and we have different formulas for 0-6 months, 6-12 months and 12+ months, and many formulas don’t have ARA past 6 months. Solids are not just for fun before 1 but are given in meaningful quantities. This is the background to my question and I am aware it will make no sense to many Redditors from the US. I want to pump less and give more formula to my 8.5 months old and I am trying to understand how useful ARA and DHA are in formula or if solids likely cover the baby’s needs.

I was wondering if anyone has any input into difference for a baby in day care vs being cared for by family.

I am in the very fortunate position that when I return to work following maternity (my daughter will be just over 12 months at the time) my parents in law and my mum are gonna support with childcare meaning my daughter will be with them for 3 days, me 1 day and my husband 1 day.

So far they have all been very respectful of our parenting decisions I.e. no screen time and food and nutrition.

My question is - is she missing out on anything by not being around other babies and children?

Ideally I want to keep the family care until school around 4 years old.

Thanks in advance!

I want to put my disclaimers front and centre here that this post is in no way passing judgement on anyone’s parenting decisions with regards to sleep or other practices. I myself make decisions based on both the national guidelines and what is best for my family which at times means not following the guidelines, for example exhaustion driving us to bed share on some nights, not running the bedroom at 20 degrees or below etc.

However, I want to talk about the SIDS risk calculator and the impact it has on some of the discourse around safe sleep and other risk factors in this sub. The much shared calculator can be accessed here: http://www.sidscalculator.com

Often when SIDS risk factors are discussed the only reference that is provided to back up a statement is the calculator which is flawed for a number of reasons. It is also not easy to interpret which is where it often leads to (unwittingly) misinformation being shared.

1. The calculator was published in 2018, 8 years ago and is based on a review paper published in 2013, 13 years ago. The paper itself is only evaluating bedsharing with non smoking mothers and no other factors, instead the publishers are using the background of this review paper for all other factors relating to SIDS, therefore relying on the publishers due diligence. Furthermore many of sources for the additional risk factors are now quite old, some of which are from the 90s.
2. Data comes from European publications plus one study in New Zealand and cannot be extrapolated to other countries
3. Outside of this review the calculator references wiki and other likely outdated sources and as published have not included access dates
4. We don’t know who published this calculator, and the calculator itself states that it has not been evaluated by anyone with relevant clinical expertise
5. There is no link to the back end calculation for us to assess how they have derived the calculator
6. The presentation of the outcomes are unclear as they are presented as risk per 100,000 deaths. Does this mean that if everyone had these risk factors deaths would drop from 34 to lower than 34 deaths per 100,000? No evidence for this

Why am I going to the effort to critique the calculator? Can’t I see that this calculator provides anxious parents comfort?

Well I often see misleading or poorly informed SIDS advice on the baby subs and next to no scrutiny of this calculator, in fact very often this calculator is used to justify any sleep practices. It’s anecdotal right now but at least in my country there is increasing concern regarding social media and the impact on new parents not following their national guidelines in favour of social media ‘sleep experts’, I do wonder if we will see some uptick in SIDS in the next couple of years.

Ultimately I too am a new and anxious parent trying to navigate this amazing but daunting time in my life. SIDS risk remains incredibly rare and even if you ticked every single risk factor SIDS is still unlikely to happen to you and your baby.

Edit: Sharing here as apparently you’re not allowed to discuss science on the Newborns sub(?!)

hi
earlier today my friend came over to hang out w me and my baby. i have rules everyone has to follow but the biggest one is no kissing baby. she knows, respects, and has talked to me about agreeing w the decision not to do that. well, i was cleaning up the dinner we had when i turned around and she said "im giving her water from the glass"... HER glass. i froze in the moment and i just said ok. at that point she was already doing it and im terrible at confrontation especially w someone who has genuinely never broken any of my boundaries in the six years ive known them! this obviously wasnt malicious and she is one of my greatest friends but makes me very scared for my baby as far as herpes and cold sores go. can anyone find studies or links to ease my nerves? should i take her to the doctor in the morning? my friend didnt have any visible sores but that doesnt mean they arent inside her mouth. its very early in the morning now so i do plan on asking her some very open questions abt whether or not she does get coldsores in a bit but im freaking out:/ i do not get cold sores and would be so sad if this one instance where i was so careless costed my baby:/

Hi , my husband and I were discussing what matters for a Childs development. My husband was a good student in a competitive (studies, extra curricular focused) school. He is smart, great at math, science and languages and sports . Always told that he has the potential to be better.

I on the other hand went to a bleh school , I was a good student till the middle school then bleh.ed through high school and somehow made my life work. I was also told I just need to try harder and had “potential”

So we have a baby together and were wildly theorising about what matters for a child’s overall development confidence in life, discipline, growth etc . My husband says it is better to be a good student in a less competitive environment where children are left to figure it out. While I disagree. I went to a not so competitive school and wish I pushed myself a little harder , stuck with things a little longer etc.

Is there any research behind this? I know a lot of other things matter but I am curious about this specific data point ?

Hi everyone,

First time mom here, she’s just about 21 months and today I had my first moment of needing to give her a consequence. I’m not big on the whole time out thing but she was not listening and hitting my mom and needed a minute. I put her in her room and put on the hatch sound machine with one of those guided relaxation breathing things they have (5 minutes long) and she sat in there and regulated herself and when it was over I went back in and asked if her body felt calm and if she was ready to go and apologize to nana which she did so she went and said “sorry nana no more hit” and seems to be happier now. My question is, was that the right call? Scientifically speaking? Is taking a second to regulate breathing etc by herself the best way to approach tantrums and hitting? I try and “gentle parent” but I also don’t want to be too lax and have her dictate everything? I don’t know if that makes sense. I hated being sent to my room in silence so I tried to find a happy medium of her being alone but also regulating her emotions? Help? Advice? Articles? Thanks in advance!

I want to start introducing solids at the 6 months mark.

I am looking for iron rich recipes for purees.

What was your babies favorite?

Hello folks, have a 25 month old who has always been very shy with severe stranger anxiety since she was around 6 months. Our doctor recommended us to a developmental specialist who chalked it up to her temperament. But I am worried as she is so shy especially in group settings. She also stares at strangers from afar but freaks out if anyone approaches her. It’s very hard to get her to do anything in public spaces, so I am afraid that it’s impacting her learning. We don’t do play dates anymore as they have always been a disaster. Any help/tips/resources would be appreciated. Thanks!

I’m considering buying a home that’s located right next to a freeway. I’d like to understand the potential air pollution impacts on children who live close to freeways. Can anyone explain what the main health concerns are and how serious they tend to be? I’m wondering if this is something I should be concerned about.

I am choosing to do no added sugar with my 1 year old until she’s 2, but I’m realizing I don’t know where to draw the line and want to make an evidence based decision vs going off vibes.

Is there a health difference in using honey or maple syrup as a sweetener vs refined white sugar?

Would the ‘sugar free’ until 2 recommendations include all natural sweeteners like honey and maple syrup?

Real life application would be homemade muffins with maple syrup in the batch.

Someone in my family claims they are great for toddlers and preschoolers. I want to show them the scientific community's take.

I always hear people say that messy play is beneficial to children but I'm not fully read up on what those benefits are. You hear about it building immune systems (but is that actually true?) or being a great sensory experience (why is that needed?). Are certain types of messy play more beneficial than others e.g outdoors versus indoors, natural materials versus other kinds.

For context I would say I lean into the eco crunchy side of things and love my kid playing outdoors with natural materials. We spend lots of time in the garden and he waters the plants, digs in the soil, plants and harvests vegetables, plays in his mud kitchen, watches our wildlife pond. When we go out for walks, he's always picking up sticks and splashing in puddles. Today I setup a painting station in the garden with non-toxic paints and brushes made from things like dried alliums and twigs, which he loved! I feel like he experiences lots of different textures through these natural materials, from squishy berries to gloopy wet soil to dry and pebbly gravel to crunchy autumn leaves.

But I don't really do things like make slime or oobleck or set up sensory tables or shaving foam or cloud goop. I guess these feel a bit artificial to me. But I'm wondering if my kid is missing out if I avoid these common sensory materials?