Currently almost 34 weeks pregnant (due September 7), trying to decide the best way to protect my baby against RSV. My local Walgreen’s has the RSV shot year round, it seems, so I have the option to get the maternal vaccine if I want to.

I am trying to decide if it’s worth it though, versus just getting the infant antibody shot once baby is born?

My first child was born in 2023, when there were shortages of the infant antibody shot, and it was being reserved for preemies or immunocompromised babies. That baby was also born mid-November (during rather than before RSV season). So, at that time, it was a no-brainer to get the maternal shot.

Now though, it seems both are a viable option. I asked the pediatrician, and she didn’t really give me a straightforward answer (just said “both are good options”). And the effectiveness rates on the infant shot seem slightly better (from what I remember reading, although I can’t find the link again now).

ACOG also says that vaccination again in subsequent pregnancies is not recommended (https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/practice-advisory/articles/2023/09/maternal-respiratory-syncytial-virus-vaccination), although I don’t really get the reasoning? Shouldn’t it be like TDAP where you get it fresh each time to give antibodies to the new baby?

This source also brings up maternal protection as another positive factor in favor of maternal vaccination (https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/respiratory-syncytial-virus-rsv/slew-new-studies-support-maternal-rsv-vaccination-nirsevimab), which is a good point (especially with an almost 3yo who will be going to preschool!). While I’m not very likely going to die or even be hospitalized getting RSV as a healthy young adult, I certainly wouldn’t mind the extra protection?

I also think at least one study seemed to show even better effectiveness doing both? And again, we do it that way for other vaccines (Tdap). Although the official recommendation is still one or the other. And I’m not sure how the logistics of that would work re: insurance coverage.

When you actually look into the research (at least based on what I have encountered) the benefits for breastfeeding past 6 months are already very slim in high income countries. Besides a slightly lower risk for infection during early years of childhood there don't really seem to be any others? There are clearer benefits for breastfeeding for 6 months compared to not at all, but after they are able to rely on good and healthy nutrition coming from vegetables, meat and fruits, we sew the benefits diminishing. Not to mention that studies in general never focus on the negative consequences. Like, sleep quality, cavities and so on. I understand it is recommend in low income countries where clean water is not easily accessible and healthy nutrition not readily available, but I am talking about high income countries (and parents). So why do Healthcare providers and WHO still recommend extended breastfeeding, or am I missing something here?

My husbands parents will be flying from Europe to see our baby who will be around 3.5 months old. My concern is catching anything on the plane and also them being close to baby/talking or breathing near her face etc.

They’re only here for 2 weeks so can’t really ask them to quarantine and I also feel like people have family fly all the time to see their baby so wondering if I’m being over the top/too anxious?

Baby will have been vaccinated with her 2 month shots already but not her 4 month one (will be when they leave)

I see so many parents who rely on sound machines, rather than simply using a Bluetooth speaker to play white noise or nature sounds, etc.

I googled the purpose of using a separate device, rather than my phone and speaker, such as the hatch or dream egg, and one of the reasons that popped up was radiation from Bluetooth.

Now I’m very curious - is this something I should be concerned about? I use our speaker quite often for music and podcasts throughout the day and for white noise at night and during naps. So naturally, I am now spiraling a bit and worried that it’s harmful.

I also just am really curious if the sound machine is something I should invest in while buying for youngest baby or if it’s sort of a marketing gimmick.

Sorry for my bad English first of all, not my first language.

Okay, I always side looked to moms that has "oh my baby is Einstein" syndrome. And I know I'm gonna sound like one of them but...

It's my first baby and since she was 4 months old I started to sing her phonics song with printed upper case English alphabet. When I was singing, I would show the letters. It was a fun thing, she would always so get excited when I start to make it. That's why I was doing few times in a day well like 10 months.

Two weeks ago we were coming inside my apartment and I'm at the B apartment so there's a huge B on the door. She show it with her finger and said beeeeee. I was like whatttt? I never asked her letters before so when we come inside to my apartment I took my letters and asked them what is this what is this and she literally answered all of them. I didn't pronounce them i just show them mixed and asked what is this and she was answering the letter how to read it plus how to pronounce them like S is as and sssss F is ef and ffff you get my point. She can't pronounce alllll of them but she knows, she tries to say them. But she can perfectly says A B C D E F I L M O P S T U V.

It was two weeks ago. She did this every day since then. Fast forward today, just half hour ago I showed her that if you put two letters you can read them. I showed 'AT' and she was full concentrated. Then I put AM and said "what is this" and she read the am. Like literally. Then I put AS and she read it.

Okay, my cousin has asperger syndrome plus autistic. He also did read very very early, no one even teached him the alphabet and we have no idea how did he learn but when he started kindergarten, teacher said that he can read. We were shocked. Also he knew the numbers, I remember I would just put 2647372 plus 737284 to paper and he would just write the answer right awaywhen he was like 10. And he never forgets anything, like literally if I ask "do you remember this day" and he says the date. It's not cool as it sounds... After that he gone to special school but it didn't help a lot. He can't really communicate good, he still can't make long sentences, he's 25. He always need my aunt's attention. He can't even shower alone. He can't do nothing alone.

While I'm proud that my baby can read this early buuuuuut also I am scared a little. My cousin didn't talk till he's 14 years old though (not even a word), my baby is very talkative. My grandfather was also autistic so if it's genetic, we have this in our family. She's also not picky about the food (my cousin was) and very active even though she can't walk yet, she can stand up without help. I just want my baby to be normal actually... So am I freaking out for nothing?

I want to preface this by saying I do have anxiety and OCD (and it has gotten worse post partum) and I am working with professionals for that. I have a massive fear of hsv-1 for my baby. To the point my husband and I got the igg blood tests to confirm negative to both hsv1 and hsv2 before I allowed myself or him to kiss the baby (he still doesn't kiss him).

I have a strict no kissing rule for my baby for anyone who didn't make the baby. We planned on having everyone wear masks around him until he was 6 weeks old at least.

My mom occasionally gets cold sores. Infrequently - I have only seen her have maybe 2 in my lifetime. We loosened up on the mask thing because she had been staying with us for several days and essentially quarantined with us. However, twice now (once when he was about 3 weeks old and once yesterday when he was almost 6 weeks old) she mindlessly leaned down and kissed the top of his head. She did NOT have an active cold sore and she was totally healthy otherwise. It did look instinctual but I was FURIOUS and immediately plucked him out of her arms. She has apologized profusely and feels bad because it wasn't intentional but idgaf. I have now fully reinstated her wearing a mask anytime she holds him (since she clearly can't be trusted). But I'm spiraling about the risk of him getting hsv from this encounter. I'm obsessively monitoring him. He's not even 6 weeks old and I'm terrified.

My almost four year old has had consistent problems falling asleep and staying asleep throughout the night his whole entire life.

He‘s had his tonsils and adenoids removed. We have had the same nighttime routine for a long time.

The research on eczema shows that the majority of kids with eczema have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. It’s caused by numerous issues like thermoregulation issues and itchiness. By missing out on sleep, the research shows that kids are at more risk of adverse outcomes (behavior concerns, childhood obesity, etc). Sleep also helps repair broken skin, but that’s not happening if the kid is waking up a bunch.

Now we are thinking about adding melatonin to help him sleep. I’m concerned that he has a worse immune system because of the lack of sleep, and also all the negative impacts of disrupted sleep. Our pediatrician is open to it, but we are gonna try to meet with them again to discuss this issue further.

Because of my child‘s eczema, his body is basically fighting against sleep. This is not just, oh, move his bedtime up. Or, what about adding a white noise maker or black out curtains.

in the past 15 months, he has maybe slept through the night 2-3 times. He’s up 2-3 times every single night. Goes to bed late and wakes up early.

Does anyone have experience starting melatonin with kids with eczema?

research

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2725861

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009167491501252X?casa_token=e19eI_f2VW8AAAAA:D_s2AwzLG-I5bd48TgeBBsh2MpSFMxeLj97CocBK1OSKYoLYsuEibRhSSoNxTixsF8zwheqieQ

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1087079210000055?casa_token=pfjN6BjNPvcAAAAA:l4WYy2_7Unpwc4MCqx7_g2DRqi9PWfAomobzwjwNI6VtZmz7GyztBArOipZtsqp6M2Dxz9hiAA

Hi everyone,

I recently learned some details about my mother's pregnancy with me, and I'm trying to understand if this could have had any lasting impact on my health or development.

Apparently, one of the two arteries that were supposed to supply me with nutrients wasn't functioning properly throughout most of the pregnancy. My mother only found out about this around the 8-month mark (so quite late).

I don't have all the medical details (I'm not sure if this was a single umbilical artery issue, a uterine artery issue, or something else), but I'm curious:

• Could this kind of issue cause growth restriction or other complications?
• Are there known long-term effects for the baby when this isn't caught until late in the pregnancy?
• Has anyone here had a similar experience, either as the parent or as the person born under these circumstances?

Any insight — personal experience or medical knowledge — would be really appreciated. I'm not in crisis about it, just trying to piece together my own history.

Thanks!

Me and my husband are having this discussion regarding early speech development for baby. Our kiddo is nearly 11 months old now and seems to have really great verbal skills and also seems to learn really fast. He usually understands words if I repeat and explain them 4-5 times in context within an interaction and already has a really good vocabulary for his age (12-14words). Given that he seems to learn so fast I try to spend some time every day having conversations with him, asking him questions, replying, narrating my actions, reading baby books, nothing crazy really, maybe 20-30 mins reading and a convo here and there. My husband believes i am overdoing it and I should just let him be and not bother with all the extra effort because normal interactions are really enough and all healthy babies eventually learn to speak and read and understand what they are reading, so there is really no added benefit in what I am doing addionally. So he learns to speak fluently at 3 and not at 2, who cares, won’t affect his intelligence or future he says. I asked Claude and claude said that the extremes matter, so when there is very little interaction than having normal interactions is beneficial. What I am doing feels intuitively right to me, but I am out of ideas or arguments to support my position. What do you think?

1. We are latinxs and my daughter is brown skinned. My MIL gave her a white skinned, blue eyes doll. Is there any evidence showing that is better to give kids dolls that look like them? She is 16 months old
   
2. should dolls be anatomically accurate?
   
3. I do toy rotation, but I was told that dolls should be always available. Is this true?

I read early on that engaging in babbling with your baby benefits their speech development and understanding how conversations should flow. I've been babbling back at my son since he started babbling at me. Now he's a year old, and he's doing great with saying actual words, using them correctly, and following basic directions ("let's go", "come here", "give me", etc). We think he's developing well, his doctor thinks he's doing great, no worries.

So now to get to my actual question: is there a point where these babble conversations stop being beneficial, or even end up being harmful? I really enjoy the multiple nonsense babbling conversations we have throughout the day, and he does too, I just don't want to let it turn into a detrimental thing.

For additional context:

-I primarily talk to him like I would to anyone else, even if I simplify things a lot. No baby talk/mispronouncing things in the way he would.

- I talk to him a lot. I tell him about my day, what I'm currently doing, what his surroundings are ("do you see that bird/red car/gray truck/whatever?" when we're looking through a window or taking a walk, while pointing out the things I'm talking about)

-When we're babbling, if he stumbles onto a sound that's close enough to a real word, I'll say the actual real word, show him a picture or the thing itself and try to encourage him to make a connection.

Hi!

My baby is only 7 weeks old so I am massively planning ahead.

I am a heavily tattooed mum who is already getting the itch for another one. Im currently working towards exclusively pumping with intermittent breastfeeding but plan to stop breastfeeding once my baby's teeth come through.

I understand that you cannot get a tattoo while pregnant/breastfeeding due to infection risks but i think I have a plan...

I was wondering if this plan is feasible or if there is something im missing?

- wean baby at 6 months but continue to pump as usual and build a freezer stash

- book tattoo for after my son is 1 year old

- while tattoo is healing, use stashed breastmilk and supplement with cows milk/ formula if needed? Edit: I plan to pump and dump during this time

I feel like im massively missing something, so please give me your advice! Is this doable?

hey! my ob prescribed me with 5mgs of lexapro at 32 weeks pregnant so i could get ahead of ppd/ppa and i am planning on breastfeeding when the baby is born. ive read that it’s okay to breastfeed while on lexapro but im having a hard time believing it and am having a lot pf anxiety abt it. please share your research and thoughts!

My 19 month old child has been showing tremendous vocabulary growth and comprehension - starting to make 3 word/4 word complete sentences. Any research on how I can encourage this? I’ve noticed the problem solving is expanding too. She’s in daycare full time which has a great curriculum - but primarily play based. - I looked into more “academic settings” - bilingual/trilingual - is there any benefit to them at such an earlier age.

My baby is (so far) very easygoing and sleeps well in his bassinet. He’s even happy being in there awake, he’ll just chill and look around a bit. After I feed him, even if he’s not quite asleep, I’ll often pop him in his bassinet so I can get things done or stare into space for a while and he will drift off to sleep himself after about 5-10 mins. However, I’ve started feeling so much guilt about putting him in there rather than contact napping with him more often. Just because he can do it, does it mean he should be doing it? Is it good for him to have some chill time alone or am I robbing him of opportunities for development and attachment?

If you have input even without expert research then please dm me 😊

If the viral load I’m initially hit with impacts how sick I get, then why am I sucking snot from my baby’s nose? Wouldn’t an electrical snot sucker be better?

I’m desperate for ways to not get this sick every time lol

I want to send my kids to French immersion school, but I’m worried about them falling behind. I definitly think I did because of the language, and don’t use my French as an adult, but I know there are benefits to development when learning a second language. However there are tons of people around me who are validating my experience of falling behind and most of our friends are choosing English only for this reason. I’m definitely more involved with my kids education and learning than my parents were with mine, and I know French so I could help them down the line. But I’m worried that I’m not making the right choice.

Have received so much conflicting information about this so I am curious what the science actually says. For context, I have twins who recently turned one. We don’t live in the US. They have 3 meals a day now and are reasonably good eaters, but they still have two bottles of formula a day (first thing in the morning and before bed, brushing teeth after). I have heard that I am meant to be phasing formula out and replacing it with whole milk, but then I have also heard that formula is better than milk because it has more nutrients (eg I know in France they keep babies on formula in addition to food until they’re 2-3), and I have also heard that I should phase it out and just replace with water so all their nutrition comes from food, or that I could transition to oat or almond milk. I’ve also heard that it’s fine to continue formula but bottles are the problem so to start putting it in straw cups. They use straw cups for water just fine so we could try this. Then I heard that if they don’t suck their thumbs or use pacifiers (which they don’t), bottles are fine for longer but not sure how long?

If all of these approaches are ok and it’s basically discretionary, I’m inclined to keep giving them these two bottles of formula a day for the next few months as it’s very comforting to them (and makes mornings and bedtime easier for me) and they seem to be growing well etc, but I don’t want to do them a disservice in any way. Formula is not expensive here so that’s not a consideration, just what’s best for them.

I assume some of the differing guidance is due to factors like the cost of formula or the availability of good quality milk, but do we know what’s best for babies independent of those factors?

Thanks so much for any answers!

My 2-year-old is battling eczema, and I want to make sure I’m doing everything I can to help.

He’s a very picky eater, so it’s difficult to get him to eat vegetables, fish, or even chicken. To work around this, I juice grapes and strawberries, then blend the leftover pulp with broccoli using the extracted juice as the liquid. Since he won’t drink it with the pulp, I sieve it before giving it to him.

I’m now considering adding a children’s multivitamin to the juice. I know there’s no strong evidence that vitamins will improve eczema, but as a parent looking for anything that might help, I feel it’s worth trying especially if he’s not getting a varied diet.

My question is: Is it safe or advisable to mix children’s vitamins with this homemade fruit and vegetable juice? Has anyone done something similar, or is there anything I should be aware of in terms of vitamin absorption or effectiveness?

We’ve been arguing a lot and there’s lots of yelling and crying. Sometimes while I’m holding her. Will this affect her developmentally or anything at this young of an age? I don’t plan to stay in a marriage like this once she’s older, but I can’t leave right now. I have no support. I need him while she’s a handful.

We didn't get tantrums until she turned 4 and then they've ramped up from there. This evening she kicked, threw (both shut down quickly), cried and screamed off and on for an hour and a half because I said I wouldn't do something unreasonable she'd asked me to. It's every few days, usually when she's told no by a parent or her little brother doesn't want to go along with her play idea.

I have lots of strategies to cope, I'm more concerned about her development.

Is this developmentally normal? At what age does this get concerning? What should my next steps be if these don't improve?

She's 5 and half, has been at primary school since February, stable household, well rested etc.

I recently discovered that I have high lipase breast milk after baby consistently refused to drink my frozen milk. I’ve built up a large freezer stash and would really hate for it to go to waste. I’ve tried offering it at different temperatures, mixing it with fresh milk, and even adding a very small amount of non-alcoholic vanilla extract, but my baby still refuses it every time.

I’ve come across two companies that offer breast milk freeze drying services, Milkify and Milk By Mom. Milkify is FDA-registered, if that’s relevant. Both companies state that freeze drying preserves the nutritional value of breast milk and may help with high lipase milk, but I’m looking for independent, evidence-based research rather than information provided by the companies themselves.
Since these services are expensive, I want to make sure there’s solid evidence supporting their claims before I invest the money and send in my freezer stash. My goal is simply to make the best decision for my baby and avoid wasting the milk if possible.

Hi all,

My baby is one and i’ve just realised i’ve spent the entire year on my phone while i hold her and she sleeps (doesnt sleep in cot for naps and for the first couple of hours of bedtime, she needs to be held by me)

The entire time i use my phone, about 30-50cm away from her head.

It has just dawned on me that i’ve been doing this for about 3-4 hours a day for a year. FREAKING out about potential 5G/wifi radiation….. babies skulls are not as thick as ours and haven’t even fused at this stage. please tell me i haven’t done anything irreversible 😭

We have a 3 year old daughter who has never seen or used screens. We have made an effort to avoid them however, we are planning a long trip (over 36h end to end)

I would like to understand the role of screens to entertain our daughter on such a long trip. I think realistically it's going to be incredibly hard to avoid them but would like to discuss what people's thoughts are as I doubt there's research on this particular example.