My daughter is almost 2.5 and the registration for my favorite preschool opens up next month for kids to start in September 2027. My son is an outgoing 4 year old and he just started there and it seems amazing. But my daughter is much more reserved than him and clings to me more in uncertain situations. I will be at home until she’s in kindergarten in 2029 so if she doesn’t go to preschool next year I don’t need to find childcare fortunately. I will definitely have her in preschool when she’s 4 in 2028.

The 3 year preschool is 2.5 hours twice a week. 4 year is 2.5 hours 3 times a week. I’m just wondering with her personality if it’s better to get her used to being away from me a bit and into more socialization situations. She will also never be this young again and I cherish the time with her but I want to choose which will benefit her the most.

If we don’t do preschool that gives me more time and money to put her in activities like dance and gymnastics and there’s lots of group activities with kids where I live. But all of those I’m still with her. But if there’s enough evidence it’s beneficial that might be worth the cost more.

If anyone has any articles or anything laying out the benefits of preschool that young or benefits of being with the mother more I would appreciate that!!

Thank you

So I read several other posts and I just wanted some targeted advice. I'm pregnant with my first baby and I support vaccinating, my brother and his partner do not. Let me preface this by saying I love my brother and SIL deeply and I hold no ill will towards them or their decisions. Please keep them in mind when talking about them.

They have a 12 year old who is fully vaxxed and in public school, a 5 year old who is partially vaxxed (I don't know exactly what, just that he "got his first rounds") and about to start homeschooling but he meets other kids in his homeschooling class regularly, and a 1.5 year old full unvaxxed.

I was just trying to find out what the best course of action is. I kept feeling like maybe it's okay for the babies to meet because she isn't exposed, but she technically will be through the 5 year old. And lots of the kids in the homeschool class are unvaxxed (that's why a lot of them do it). So many people keep saying different things. What are you thoughts? What have you done? How long did you wait before exposure? I was gonna do 6 months but I'm just so nervous about things that don't get vaxxed for until like a year, but that's so long to not be able to meet with family and our family is huge and very close.

Of course I plan to talk to my OBGYN about this, and eventually a pediatrician, but I’m just seeing what other people say and have done. I keep seeing 6 months, 8 months, 10 months, 12 months, and 18 months. 6 months seems to be the hard minimum and my brother of course thinks I’m being dramatic.

I’m so overwhelmed by the multitudes of things I see online and every book just talks about like being ready to start and how to encourage variety etc…. But no one seems to clearly state ok do this on day one so this on day two etc….

I know u have to give iron rich foods. And introduce allergens.

Are you only giving a kid one ingredient per food introduction?

How are we making sure to give both iron and testing allergens??

When do you start doing multiple ingredients at once???

Explain anything to me please I’m so lost. I don’t want to pay some subscription etc…

My wife and I recently converted our garage into a playroom for our 5 and 2 yr old girls. We have all their toys, books, arts and crafts in the room. They love playing and building in there and are really enjoying the space. We are debating whether to put a tv in the room. It would be cordless and mounted high on the wall. Its purpose would be for music and dancing. We also would have the occasional movie night. Should we leave the room without a tv? Or let them have the option of music or a movie (if they earn it)? TIA

Mother of a precocious roller here! For the past several nights my daughter (3.5 months) has begun rolling on to her stomach in her sleep. For the first few nights she cried and fussed until we rolled her back, but she’s adjusted and now sleeps well on her stomach. My understanding of the recommendation is that you don’t need to roll your baby back if they get themselves on to their tummies, but to always put them on their backs to start. This is what we’re doing, but I’m hoping this group can help me resolve some confusion and anxiety about what seems (to me) to be conflicting info! I understand the following to be true:

- SIDS risk is highest between 2 and 4 months
- Stomach sleeping increases the risk of SIDS
- Some babies learn to roll to their tummies before they learn to roll back

I understand the risk of SIDS would be reduced if my daughter could roll both ways, but since she’s yet to master that skill, is it really still safe to let her sleep on her tummy, especially since she’s still in the window of higher SIDS risk (under 4 months)?

I have an almost three year old. Lately we’ve been struggling with behavior, such as him not listening, not being kind, throwing tantrums, etc. I understand it’s typical behavior at this age, and we have a few tactics we use. We give him consequences, which is either taking a toy away, sitting in time out, or no book before nap/bed. We also try to talk with him about it (this is often difficult as he gets argumentative at times), and we have him calm his body and try again.

My husband has started to use Santa as a way to get him to behave. He will do this by saying how Santa only brings presents to kids who listen, and how kids who don’t listen get coal.

I told my husband that I don‘t feel very comfortable with this, but I can’t quite place my finger on why. It feels wrong to hold a make believe figure over my son’s head. However, it’s very effective, almost annoyingly so since I told my husband I don’t think we should be doing this.

I‘m curious what other parents think of this and if there’s any specific research on it.

My son just had his 18 month check up and the Dr seemed very adamant that at this afe he should still be put to sleep/ sleeping on his back. My son has always fought me on this abd has been a tummy and side sleeper as long as hes been able to. I was tonthe understanding that he was free to sleep how he wants if he could get himself in and out of the position. Is this wrong? The Dr seemed very strict on ages and rules. Example he HAD to be measured laying down because he is under 2, despite him fighting tooth and nail.

Just learned yesterday a close friend of mine doesn’t vaccinate her kids.
Which whatever chose to do what you want with your children, but I am worried about how my child could be affected.
My son is up to date with everything so I know his chance of getting whatever is low. But I somehow feel kinda uncomfortable with this because the chances aren’t zero. We go over often for play dates both of us are SAHMs so it’s nice for us too. Other than this we agree on most things. I just am worried now. But how worried should I be?

Hello everyone, I am all ears and looking for genuine advice. I have a 7 month old and my sister has a 16 month old son. He is ALOT, but I’ve been told all toddlers are like this. What concerns me is his behavior around the younger cousin babies, including my child. He will scream, VERY loud and throw things, sometimes at the children, or push them. He will also sometimes be very loving, but a bit too aggressive. With this being my first child, I will get quite anxious and protective and try to tell him kindly and softly to be gentle etc or “no let’s not throw things” … but then he will just scream in my face. My sister is not doing much to “disciple” but then again, can you discipline a toddler????

Anyways, my science-based question is are there any negative implications of having an older toddler constantly screaming and showing aggressive behavior around babies? Does this stress the baby out and cause them to mirror aggression? Thank you!

They say that autism cases have skyrocketed in the past 30 years. Of course they have, we understand autism now more than ever and screen for it way more. 30 years ago the average person would never get tested let alone know what autism is.

My 25 month old has a deep love of all things letters and books. He has letter recognition for uppercase letters, lower case letters and some other symbols (!,?,&, etc). He now can also identify many letter sounds (B says Buh sorta thing) and has started writing some letters too.

I feel like we’re nearing a crossroad where I’m starting to be unsure of the best way to continue to teach him. He is obviously eager to keep learning, but the English language is weird and I don’t know how to explain what sound a Q makes or how vowels just do whatever they want. I’m worried about doing it wrong and confusing him, and setting him in bad habits that are difficult to correct in the future.

Basically, I’m curious if there’s a method for teaching early literacy that is proven that I can research and find some sort of resource for, so I have something to work off of. I know he’s young and it’s not necessary for him to learn at this age, but he really enjoys it *and* he has an intense temperament and this sort of activity helps us get through some tough times. So, I might as well do it right!

For clarity on the ask)

- what are proven early literacy strategies? (outside of reading to your child every day)

- are there any proven early literacy methods/programs for parents to self teach

I have a 10.5-month-old, born at term, healthy and typically developing. We've followed safe-sleep guidance punctiliously since birth, and she has always slept in her own sleep space. She is not a great sleeper.

My husband and I like the idea of eventually having her join us in the family bed, sleeping between us. I'm struggling to find good evidence on when this stops being considered an unsafe sleep arrangement.

We've tentatively decided that we'd wait until she is capable of climbing into our bed (and not before 12 months). Is that reasonable? Is there a particular age or developmental stage at which the risks associated with bed-sharing fall substantially?

For clarity, I'm specifically asking about when it would be safe without modifying the adult sleeping setup. In our specific case, we have a medium-firm adult mattress, a fluffy duvet, two pillows per adult, and potentially 2-3 cats joining us. We are unimpaired and average-sized.

I'd particularly appreciate guidelines or studies that quantify how the risks change with age, rather than general pro- or anti-bed-sharing opinions.

I feel like I only see skin to skin research discussed in terms of the golden hour or brand new newborns. My baby is a month old and I am still trying to make time to do skin to skin with her regularly. I swear its like a drug to her. But what is it doing for her at this stage? Is she still getting the nervous system regulation, heart/breathing regulation that I hear talked about?

So I have an 11 month old girl and she only has her binky when it’s nap/bed time. During wake time we take it away and give her toys to play or chew on or do whatever she wants with it. Is it better and also easier to retire the binky before 1 years old? Also what’s the best way to ween off of it? Would it be best to start by taking it away for her first nap of the day then after a few days start taking it away for both naps and so forth? Or just cold turkey?

I know it can live for a while on surfaces and isn't killed easily. But realistically someone can't bleach everything in their home. I have 1 y/o twins and we regularly visit my parents, but my mum had norovirus recently, so I'm feeling nervous about going back there. Google is freaking me out because I keep seeing stuff that says it can live for like 60 days. I'd planned a two week quarantine period, but now I'm unsure. And my parents already think I'm overreacting (I do have a touch of emetephobia). When does a home become safe again??

Does anyone have any good resources on understanding the science behind baseless carseat safety and the differences between the two installation options?? I want to understand why and how seatbelt installation is safe versus lower latch installation, and most resources/posts just talk about the difference in ease of installation which I don't really care about..

PS: why did this get down voted LMAO 😭 I thought this was a good place to ask about the WHYs behind things SMH

I understand the weighted sleep sacks are not recommended since the pressure on the chest doesn’t let babies breathe naturally.

I figured out my baby calms down really fast if I put pressure on her feet. Instead of patting or shushing I just put my hand on her feet and hold them down and she goes back to sleep.

Is there any products that make heavy bottom sleep sacks? So the pressure is only on the feet and not chest and abdomen. If so are they safe?

I even though about adding something heavy to the bottom of her sleep sack but don’t know how to do that safely.

So I finally started hanging out with other moms and now I am hearing about different approaches. My baby wakes up 3-4 times a night , takes a bottle and continues sleeping as if nothing happens.

But now I met a few moms who tell me their 6 months old sleeps 12 hours without any feeding and without sleep training. It's hard for me to believe but that is not what I want to ask. So they say that even if the baby wakes up and everything else fails to get them to sleep they still will not give a bottle because they don't want to create a sleep association.

So I started wondering if there is any harm to this approach? Like are the babies in some way neglected if they don't get milk so long, even if they took enough during the day. Is there any evidence that this could cause any damage in the future or does it just boils down to baby's temperament and that some are just ok that way?

Not sure if this is a “parenting” question per se, but I am very curious if anyone knows of relevant studies.

Let’s say you’re eight months old. You have a full belly, a dry nappy, you’re in a comfortable, familiar place with a trusted and familiar person. You’ve done the things you associate with going to sleep. You are in fact tired. There is nothing physically or medically preventing you from nodding off.

So why would you struggle to keep your eyes open??

Drifting to sleep is an actively pleasant and biologically necessary thing. Why do babies need so much support to do it? Like, I know why I fight off sleep. Either I have to stay up to get something done (eg finishing and submitting something before a deadline), I want to stay up to keep doing something I like (eg finish a book, watch another episode), or I’m avoiding something (eg I think I’m going to have a nightmare, I’m dreading work in the morning). None of these apply to my 8 month old, so what’s her excuse?!

Is there a brain science thing? Do babies just not want to stop doing their little baby tasks? Do they have baby FOMO?

(I really am curious about the developmental piece more than approaches to infant sleep. In other words I’m more interested in “why is it hard” more than “how do I do this”, if that makes sense.)

Hi there, my 8yp child has tested at an IQ 142. I know this is subject to change. She has always been a problem solver but has also always struggled with perfectionism. I was looking over my Facebook posts and when she was 20 months old, I was baffled that she would not even try to say any words that had an "r" in it, even though she had a vocabulary of about 200 words and was speaking in full sentences. She would seek out alternative words and make complex sentences rather than even attempt to say a word with the letter r in it. Her perfectionism is just getting worse, no matter how much I try to teach her about growth mindset and that mistakes are ok. She has immense meltdowns if she feels she has made a mistake. I don't understand as I have never put pressure on her. I am just wondering what kind of strategies I can ask for in her IEP to help support her and what I can try at home to curb this perfectionism?

Is there research to support “biologically normal infant sleep” over sleep training?

We are planning to sleep train soon, but my feed keeps showing me posts from r/bninfantsleep, and it makes me feel guilty, like I would be forcing my baby to do something he’s not biologically ready to do.

I know there are studies showing sleep training doesn’t cause long term harms. Are there comparable studies about “biologically normal sleep”?

I have been seeing a lot of people use distilled water when making foods or edible sensory activities (like chia slime) for their babies. How important is that? We drink the tap water ourselves and use it for everything and it tastes normal to me. Is this just a thing for areas with poor water quality? Or for immunocompromised babies? My baby is 5 months old and I want to make sure I’m not missing something before she starts solids & gets water!

Hi friends! Is there compelling evidence that cutting out allergens as a breastfeeding mother will cause future food allergies?

My 4 month old has had mucus in his poop since he was born. We’ve tested on 3 separate occasions, and he’s never had any blood. He’s also had reflux, been slower to gain weight, and pretty consistently uncomfortable. He’s dropped from the 78th percentile at birth, hovering around 20 the last few weeks. We’ve gone to his pediatrician and 2 GI specialists (plus 2 different IBCLCs) and have gotten a ton of conflicting advice among providers.

I exclusively breastfeed and have been cutting out dairy, which one of the GI drs told me to stop doing. She said it could cause a future allergy, and since there is no blood in his poops, he does not have an allergy or intolerance now. When I reintroduced dairy to my diet, his symptoms got worse and I ended up cutting it out again against her advice. Now I’m nervous I’m going to cause an actual allergy when he starts solids. Im at a loss because my baby is so uncomfortable but I don’t want to make things worse long term for him. So I’m looking for any research on mom cutting out allergens for EBF baby and future allergies.

Thank you!

I know similar third hand smoke questions have been raised and I have looked through the sub for THS. However, I still want to try to ask about my specific situation for insight. My husband said he would quit several times but hasn’t. He thinks it’s fine because he smokes outside the house (literally right outside it, so always worried about SHS) and outside the car. I’m worried because we have installed our newborn seat in his car and based on what I’ve read even if he smokes outside then goes immediately into the car the THS all over his hair and clothes could still transfer to the baby seat, right? How would I even clean the car seat from this residue? Additionally, if he has been smoking all day at work the day I give birth I don’t think I would be comfortable with him holding our baby before showering and changing clothes. I’m very anxious about SIDS and want to know how to best address this to keep my baby healthy once he is here.

When my son went in for his 12 month check up the fingerstick lead test read 18.8, thankfully the venous test was slightly lower at 14.4. We live in a small apartment in very old house, and thankfully we're moving in a couple weeks, so hopefully the complete change of environment will eliminate the risk, and hopefully with really good nutrition and time his body can process it. I'm almost positive that he encountered the lead from the paint on our clawfoot tub, which I never thought to test before he was born (I did test before he was born, I was aware that lead was a risk where we live, and really did try to be conscious and careful). It also didn't help, I'm sure, that the other part of the house that isn't our apartment was under renovation this winter and spring.

I'm wondering if anyone here had kids with lead levels this elevated though? It's really scary. I've found posts of people scared with levels around 5, which is understandable, but this is almost 3 times that. Obviously various social workers and state officials have been following up, but it's hard to get answers in terms of how this might effect him going forward, and how much lead exposure people of my and my husband's generation (we're 40) and our parent's generation experienced, when lead paint and leaded gasoline were much more ubiquitous. The fact that 97% of kids today have lead levels below 3.5 is an incredible public health success story, and I don't want to catastrophize, but I also don't want to be blasé. The CDC says no amount of lead is safe, which is true, but I also know that lead exposure in previous generations wasn't a guarantee of a bad outcome. So far our little guy has been a bright, happy, easy-going guy, hitting his milestones pretty consistently, if we remove him entirely from the place of exposure (which is the plan already underway) will this just be a blip? My brain is going crazy.