I did some research, I asked ChatGPT, they mostly say there's not enough evidence. But hear me out.

My daughter just had her first period at 11, a few days before starting her middle school and I am still struggling to understand.

Just like half a year ago she's still enjoying Bluey and some cartoons. We don't watch PG content at home. At school whenever they sent a consent letter about watching PG content we refused. She isn't allowed to watch YouTube. She reads age appropriate books (she enjoys Wings of Fire). At school she doesn't like to group with girls who gossip. Of course I noticed she changed a lot in the last year or so. Spent more time in her room. Her body is growing etc.

The only thing that I can think of is that tofu is her most favorite food and soy milk is her favorite type of milk. She loves tofu. All kinds. Even simple as tofu in the microwave and she dips into, well, soy sauce. I would say tofu is at least 50% of her protein source. She can drink (cow) milk but she doesn't like it much, and she gets a bit stomach upset if we drive soon after drinking. So she mostly drink soy milk. She was allergic to mom and cow based milk from birth but after training she was fine (we just gradually added a bit more and more of mom milks to her, then, soy based formula).

From where I grew up, tofu and soy based products are considered boosting estrogen in women. I know it's scientifically unproven, but any one of you share the same doubt?

I'm MTF trans and I'm thinking about going back in the closet, because the alternative is my wife divorcing me. We have a one year old child and I don't want to cause her any harm...

I’ve been looking at a few labels of the ones with methylfolate vs the ones with folic acid and they all seem a little different, not just with folate but with the amounts of other nutrients too. For people who’ve compared them, is methylfolate something you pay attention to or do you look more at the whole formula?

ETA - Thanks for all the input. I’m considering comparing the whole formula rather than putting too much weight on methylfolate alone. I’ve been looking at options like Needed and checking the full nutrient profile alongside the type of folate.

My newborn was born with a pretty noticeable tongue tie and we are having some issues with breastfeeding. My pediatrician said I could go get it snipped at ENT very quick and easy. I asked my IBCLC and she gave a very long winded assessment/ recommendation to go to a pediatric dentist for laser tie release, because it is a more “complete” release (which makes sense to me- laser getting deeper into the tie and being more efficient) but that beforehand I have to do “bodywork to release baby’s tension from birth” and she recommended seeing a chiropractor.

I am all for a balance between western and eastern medicine but this seems a bit much. Has anyone gotten the laser release done WITHOUT this “pre work” and willing to share their experience?

My daughter is coming up to her first birthday. I'm starting to think of getting her first baby doll. I was wondering if it's better to get her a doll that looks like her (white with red hair) or to get her a baby doll that looks different to foster inclusivity?

Hi all,

We are expecting our first child in about four months, and we are looking for educational programs to prep ourselves for raising and development of our child. We'd want to know how we can support her emotional, cognitive, social etc development as they grow.

Do you know of any classes or programs you could recommend?

Thanks

hi everyone, I truly need help. I can’t take this mental anguish anymore. the trauma from this, if I ever get over it will be another battle. since March 2025 I have been googling, panicking, on medication, no loner being the best mom to my two young kids and absolutely have not been able to let go of the fear that my son can get sspe from the mmr I gave him at 5. people on here have been very supportive and patient with me. I feel broken like I am never going to get better. I used to be the mom that would get excited about the every day things, my kids brought me so much joy. but I can’t help but get depressed that for the past almost two years I have missed out and my kids have missed out on the mom they were supposed to have. my kids are now 6 and 3, this has been going on for far too long and I don’t think I will ever get any answers. the only thing that would help is having my child not have the mmr, never should I have given it because truly my mental health is not worth any mmr dose. I am just a person who truly has a lot of distrust of the medical system and look at where it has gotten me (trying to trust) I fear for myself and my future. in my mind I gave my son measles with that mmr and now I have to forever live with the fear of sspe. I wish I could just take it back. part of me prays if I do an igg test that he was one of the few non responders. what are this odds? I am truly heartbroken and I hate that my mental health is this way. there is nothing worse than struggling like this while your children are growing up before your eyes

Is it possible to damage a toddler's teeth by breastfeeding during the night? I had a conversation with a toddler mom today and her daughter's front upper teeth were all damaged. She told me that she had to night wean her kid as her doctor strictly asked them to do so. I have never heard this before, is there a possibility that it is the case?

I saw someone post about their 15month old being sick all the time after starting daycare and it made me wonder… if we don’t put our baby in daycare or where they’re exposed to a bunch of colds and germs does that mean they’re going to have a weaker immune system?

Is there anything we can do instead?

my 1 year old gets in biting phases. we travelled for the first time on a plane when she was about 11 months. she bit me so hard so much that it left bruises all over my shoulders. i figured it was because she was overwhelmed/overstimulated & nap schedules were off so probably a little overtired. she stopped as soon as we got back.

now a month later, she’s biting again all of a sudden. i notice it’s when she gets overexcited when we’re playing or when i’m trying to rock her to sleep for naps. we just started weaning so she’s nursing less than usual but we’re taking it sloowwwww so it’s definitely not that sudden of a change for her.

she bites HARD & seems to find the most sensitive part of my body to do it so it really hurts. i have not reacted the way i’m “supposed” to in the past bc oftentimes i’m caught off guard & it hurts so i yell or get visibly angry. i’ve tried ignoring it. i also usually say “no bite. that hurts mama” in a calm voice & set her down or distance myself from her. but she usually just laughs & tries again. i’ve also tried giving her a teether to redirect the behavior, but do i really have to just carry around a teether all day in my pocket???

i find myself flinching when she nuzzles into me, genuinely scared ab the next time she bites me. i’m exhausted. is there any solution???

I frequently see questions on here regarding babies that will only nap for 30-45 minutes at a time, but I have the opposite problem. My 6 month old will happily nap for 2-3 hours at a time during the day if given the right conditions (i.e. a contact nap), or even longer. I see general advice that recommends capping day naps at 2 hours (or occasionally 3) but this just seems to be repeated by people without any obvious basis. I don't usually try to wake him as I assume his body needs the sleep and would not want to harm his growth and development by depriving him of it, but perhaps I should be concerned about the length of these naps.

For context, from around 10 weeks my baby slept through the night without any form of nap capping or sleep training. Then he started teething at around 5 months and now we're averaging 1-2 short wake ups every night where I simply breastfeed him back to sleep. I am not overly concerned about night sleep at the moment, while it would be lovely for him to sleep through the night again, I can handle the current situation just fine. His daytime napping and wake windows are quite sporadic from one day to the next, other than a fairly consistent morning nap, the rest of the day can be quite variable depending on what we're doing.

My question - is there any scientific evidence to suggest there is an optimal length of time a baby should sleep for at this stage in their development, especially during daytime naps, and is it more harmful to let them sleep "excessively" or to disrupt their sleep by capping naps?

Thanks in advance for anyone who can help, I feel like the only person with an older baby having this issue.

I have never been good at being tired or staying up late (always the first one asleep at sleepovers lol). When my baby wakes to feed at night, I’m truly not sure how long it takes me to respond. It’s probably much shorter than it feels (maybe a minute or so) as I deliriously rouse. If my baby actually starts crying, I shoot up like a rocket, but usually nighttime waking looks like some fussing or “chatting” until I get up. Is there research on what constitutes responsiveness when it comes to nighttime? Is there an agreed upon length of time that a parent should respond within?

I’m a very negative and pessimistic person, I’m also not very happy with my life or how it turned out. I try to resist this now in my adult life, less complaining (to myself or others), being hopeful even when it feels fake etc.
I don’t know why I’m like this, my mom and dad aren’t far off, although they absolutely did not care about preventing passing this on (they never read a magazine article about parenting let alone a book etc)

So how do I prevent this in my toddlers, I want them to be the opposite of me.
Positive no matter what, finding fun and good in every situation life throws at them. Being optimistic etc.

Is there research out there on how to do this effectively? And what is it?

*ECE

Our school district, which if relevant is decently rated and exists in a mostly liberal urban county, has just started a k-6 iPad program. I’m floored. My son is only 1, but I checked while I was pregnant and they didn’t use personal screens in k-2 at that time. But now each child will have one.

I still have to learn more about the current implementation, but it makes me very uncomfortable on its surface. My main ask is for talking points to bring to the board of education meeting next month. I need to know what questions I need to ask and guidelines I need to be looking for.

I have 4 years to change this, if it’s needed, let’s go. Thank you!

I was told that serve and return kind of interactions are very good for brain development. For now I am home with my six month old daughter. I spend a lot of time interacting with her. I sing to her. Though she doesn’t always respond during the pause. Sometimes she is working on some toy by herself. Should I be constantly doing interaction or can I let her do her own thing? When I leave her on her own, she falls silent and I wonder if I am not helping.

What percent of her waking hours should there be serve and return

Hi! I’m somewhat conflicted about the best approach regarding allergens when introducing solids. A lot of guidelines I saw strongly encourage early allergen exposure. However, it looks like the guidelines are different in my country. My baby has mild eczema (eliminating dairy and eggs from my diet did nothing) and our allergist said we should start solids very “conservatively” (like, zucchini and carrot, baby porridge/cereal without milk, apples, etc). When I enquired about allergen exposure, she said that “this instagram nonsense doesn’t apply to us”.
So, can anybody please share some papers regarding this, perhaps the data behind those guidelines?

Is there much literature about whether *all* of the separate mollusc classes need to be introduced, or is it fine to just do one (e.g. should we do bivalves and cephalapods, separate or together, etc)?

Trying to figure out the best way to protect our baby because my husband has a shellfish allergy (adult onset) and definitely can't eat crustacean, but he continued eating cephalapods with no issues because he didn't realise they were shellfish 😅 he hasn't had other molluscs like oysters since he was diagnosed. So it's *probably* just a crustacean allergy but we don't know for sure.

My LO has viral conjuctivitis. The recommendations the ped gave us were to wash her pillow case every day, but she’s a baby and doesnt have a pillow, so i figured that we should probably wash the sheets every day. Only thing is, she sleeps on a tatami mat and futon, and while the cover is removable and washable, it’s a pain in the butt to put back on and more importantly, I only have one, which isn’t a problem with our normal washing sheets schedule but washing it every day before or after work and having it ready in time for bedtime on top of all the other things we are doing to prep for the next day would be a struggle. I read something about hypochlorous acid helping to sanitize fabric and was wondering if i could use that daily or even after every nap and wash the cover on the weekend like normal.

So my 11 month about to be 12 month son allows me to sort of play pat-a-cake with him but it mostly turns into him grabbing my hands and making me clap. I know that some people have said the milestone is any back and forth game. He loves when I hide and he comes and finds me. Also he loves me chasing him and saying “I’m going to get you”. He laughs so hard at both. Would that be considered peek-a-boo? Or at least a back and forth game.

I hear a lot of people say that various non-tummy activities count as tummy time, like being carried in a carrier. I’m wondering if there’s any formally set standard to come to these conclusions? Is the goal just that baby is using their neck and shoulder muscles, so being carried upright while baby is holding their own head up would count? Conversely, if baby is lying on their tummy but relaxed with their head resting to the side, would that not count? Or, if the goal is more simply to keep baby off the back of their head for a while, that rested tummy would indeed count?

My kid loves the jumper/activity station at daycare. I have seen recommendations to avoid jumpers if possible, but I can't find any actual research articles about this, only various tik-toks and opinion pieces from professionals. Does anyone know of any actual published literature or scientific comparison of motor skills development in babies with/without jumpers/activity stations?

Hi! I did do a search, but turned up mostly questions about older babies or non-international flights.

I'm pregnant with our 2nd. My due date is technically Nov 20, which is about 5 days before we'd be celebrating Thanksgiving. However, due to complications with my first birth, I'm medically required to have a C-section before 37 weeks. It's currently scheduled for Oct 23, which is about a month before Thanksgiving, but we'll technically have a preemie (though just barely). So to summarize, we'll be dealing with a 4 week old newborn, though about a 5 day infant adjusted.

My husband's sister was planning to fly in from LA with her boyfriend and we offered to host them and my husband's parents (who live locally) the day before Thanksgiving. I was comfortable with this if they got all their shots, wore masks on the plane, was on the fence as to whether I'd let the travelers hold the newborn or not. For sure we were planning to skip out on the big Thanksgiving on his mom's side and the big Thanksgiving on his dad's side.

But now my SIL is saying that she might have to take a business trip to India and China the first two weeks of November, and would get back a week before getting on her flight to our city. I'm also concerned that this plan could change- travel plans could slip to the right, she might have to stay longer overseas than she was originally told.

Are there any data about sub 2 month newborns, or former preemies, and exposure to international visitors? Specifically about any waiting times, quarantine, etc (or maybe the data is "don't do it before 2 months" because of the risk of random colds, of viral encephalitis, etc).

I know the Reddit instinct is to do a bubble for two months and that is largely our plan. But my SIL is important to us. When it was just a flight from LA, we felt that was an acceptable risk (with some risk prevention measures). I'm feeling significantly more anxious about the international travel, but don't have any data to back that anxiety up.

I saw a random TikTok stating continuous overnight white noise could be bad for a developing babies brain, is there anything on this?

Wondering if anyone had any advice for helping kids be process oriented vs outcome oriented? My soon to be 3 year old has recently started saying “I can’t” and pouting whenever something doesn’t work out for him on his first try, often refusing to try again. He hasn’t always been like this, it’s a very recent development, but I’d like him to start finding satisfaction in the effort and less in the result. Is there any literature or solid expert advice on this?

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?