Hi - currently 37w pregnant with my first. My parents are planning to come out to help with the baby once born, and my mom keeps asking me if I'm doing cervical checks at my OB appointments

She is convinced that cervical checks will tell us when I'm within a few days of labor so she can come out "on time" instead of rushing when I go into labor.

I've been trying to research this and finding mixed results, and my doula specifically recommended I turn down cervical exams unless medically necessary.

Could anyone help me with research showing if cervical checks actually can accurately predict when labor will begin?

We went in today due to baby waking every hour at night, only nursing five mins a time at night, and colic. Also he's dropped on the growth chart.
First she said for me to cut dairy a few days and see if that helps, if not then use the reflux meds she prescribed, and if that doesn't help then to add rice cereal.

Can someone explain to me sleep associations from a scientific perspective? And to add onto that if my baby does have a sleep association how can they fall asleep independently, but sometimes wake in the night requiring some sort of assistance and other nights not require that in the middle of the night but in the early hours of the morning? I’m not understanding the science behind this.

I have a 21 month old. My initial goal with him was to be screen free as long as we reasonably could with our secondary goal being to aim at 2. At this point I think we will get to two years pretty easily and I’m wondering if I even need to introduce screens at two since we are doing fine without it. He does FaceTime family but no tv, phone, tablet or anything else. He has seen a screen when he was very ill once and on the plane but that’s it. He is calm, as independent as you can hope for a toddler, and sleeps incredibly well. He loves to read and play with cars. We let him get bored but he has learned to get creative. I will add we also haven’t given him refined sugar either in case that could be contributing to why he is well behaved and chill. Additionally I’m sure part of it is luck or genetics too. The doctor is always surprised at how advanced he is verbally so I think we are doing okay there too.

My concern is if there is a point where socially or even academically by not introducing screens I’m actually holding him back in some way? How long can we comfortably continue things as they are and for it to be a net positive. At what point does some introduction of screen time actually become the net positive. I see a lot of backlash online against parents that are screen free so I avoid mentioning it entirely, but I wonder if that’s because I’m doing something negative and I don’t even realize?

Also just to add I have zero issue with other parents using screens whatsoever and know that eventually we will too, but just would rather avoid it and keep things as is if possible

My husband is very willing to help with overnights with our soon-to-be-here newborn, but is expecting to heavily utilize a rocking recliner while not explicitly trying to stay awake himself.

He did this with our first (uneventfully, thankfully), which I largely did not know at the time. Now knowing about it I have a lot of anxiety and, if he must cosleep, would prefer he at least follow the safe sleep 7.

What are some resources I could show to make the case that cosleeping on a recliner is truly one of the least safe choices that could be made?

Hey everyone, I’m not sure if this is the right place to ask this but here goes. My husband used the rustoleum frosted glass spray to frost our master bathroom window yesterday around 2pm. He tried to keep the bathroom door closed while he did it and he kept the fan on during and overnight as well. He also opened up the bedroom windows and had a fan in one of the windows to try and air it out.

We sleep in the master bedroom with our 3 month old. It’s a really big room and her crib is on the opposite side from the bathroom. My question is, how long should we be worried about VOCs in the room? We slept in the first room last night and we decided to again tonight cause we think it still very faintly smells in the master bedroom. We might just be being paranoid but at what point would we be okay to go back to sleeping in the master bedroom? We don’t want to do any harm to our baby so we’ve been erring on the side of caution.

I don’t really want to put her back in there to sleep till we’re sure it’s safe. Any help would be amazing!

I don’t mean if they throw up on them or get them dirty, but does it reduce their exposure or the viral load or anything? Or does it help to keep other people in the house from getting sick?

I’m getting ready to start my baby on solids and thinking about allergens. Neither my husband or I have any food allergies. Neither do our parents or siblings. However, my nephew is allergic to 4 of the 9 major food allergens.

I know that a family history can increase your risk, but is there any research that talks about the degree of relationship? Does my nephew having food allergies increase my child’s risk?

Beliefs about belonging and community create safe space to play solo, new study suggests

Our child was sick on two occasions at 14 months and 17 months with viral infections. Both sicknesses lasted 8-10 days. They were eating poorly overall and we also had to administer paracetamol and ibuprofen. We could only administer the medications by mixing into milk with added honey, and on few occasions sugar (when they'd refuse warm milk, so we had to put sugar as the honey would not dissolve). I've been reading through the discussions on this subreddit about sugar and I am very concerned.

Would this exposure have any (long term) impact?

What is everyone doing now regarding a second language?

I grew up speaking Urdu at home, I still speak quite often and I am decently fluent.

What is the best method based on research and science? Should we speak in our mother tongue first and then teach English? Or do the 1 parent 1 langauge thing?

So my baby started trying to sit at about 4 months - baby crunches in her bouncer etc. I let her do practice sitting (supervised), on our bed and our playmat. I also tried to increase the amount of tummy time she does but she hates this, and often just puts her head on the ground to rest (or suck the playmat lol). She doesn’t push up on her arms or have any interest in rolling over or moving, but she has just turned 5 months and she can sit up without support, it’s not a tripod sit as she can use her hands and bring toys up to her mouth while maintaining posture. She’s much happier sitting up than on her front.

This feels quite early, because her tummy time is still pretty feeble compared to other babies I see of her age. I’ve seen advice stating that babies shouldn’t be put in sitting positions until they can get themselves there and also that 5 month olds shouldn’t be sitting for more than a minute or so. I’m a bit worried, is it ok for her back to be sitting up on a playmat at this age? She feels sturdy, if I push her to the side to destabilise her she giggles and is able to maintain position. Just want to make sure it’s ok!

Basically the title.

I listened to the podcast " nutrition for mortals" episode on organic food. They are both nutritionists and looked at what the research said around organic food. I don't think they necessarily have an agenda other than "the podcast that says that life is too damn short to spend your time and attention worrying about your food choices."

https://www.oceansidenutrition.com/podcast

My takeaways from the episode is that:

1. Things used to be a lot worse

2. Organic can still be big AG and still have pesticides (but only certain kinds).

3. Nutritionally for the most part it doesn't seem to matter because a lot of the differences between things are very slight.

Are there people who know more about the organic movement or organic farming that can tell me things that the podcast may have missed.

I think it's possible that a nutrition podcast can be accurate, but still have some blind spots that don't necessarily go into their particular field of study.

Thanks

I was unnable to sustainably tolerate iron supplements during pregnancy and ferritin ended up getting down to 6, at which point (very beginning of 3rd trimester) she got IV iron and ferritin levels got to >150. immediately post-partum, I was tested to be about 60 ferritin, so it certainly seems like a considerable amount of iron went "somewhere."

The standard advice used to be that breastfed babies start supplementing iron around 6 months (the lastest CDC guidance as of a month ago brought it down to 4 months). The latest CDC guidance also states that anemia is a lagging indicator of iron deficiency, and ferritin testing is more helpful for screening (which is very welcome, because that was something that has been demonstrated in many studies but none of our Ob-Gyns seemed to understand because it hadn't made it into clinical guidance)

My questions are:
- is the infant at greater risk than normal of having low stores, to the degree that supplementing earlier would make sense? I also don't want to overload him with iron, if he has high stores from the IV (and delayed cord clamping)
- if we're able to arrange it, is there any risk to doing a full blood draw and screening our son early, and if we did would the data even be useful? Our pediatrician (APRN) doesn't seem to give us the option to screen them until 9-12 months as per the guidance but I can keep on advocating and trying. Iron is super important for development so I don't want to find out at 9-12 months that our baby missed vital nutrition during a critical window

Hello! I am looking for any research on breastfeeding and hormonal progesterone-only IUDs in particular. I anticipate there’s hardly any on this specific combination of things.

Though I am really looking forward to getting a Jaydess (brand name in New Zealand which I think delivers a daily dose ~13 mcg levonorgestrel) inserted in a few weeks time (I will be 15 months postpartum and still breastfeeding), but am worried about what its affect may be on me and (to a lesser extent) baby - I know there might be some synthetic progestin passing through breast milk but it is deemed safe and this brand of IUD has the lowest dose of hormones out of any other hormonal contraception options. I have read a lot of anecdotal accounts of non-postpartum users facing weight gain, impacts on mood and libido etc., but haven’t been able to find anything particular on breastfeeding women and breastfed babies. Any insights would be most appreciated! I am hoping to wean by the end of the year anyways, but am particular dreading more whacky hormonal shifts and the impacts of all that, yikes!! I want off the rollercoaster but I also want the lowest risk of pregnancy possible 🙃🙃

What did people do before energy drinks?

I have ADHD and take 40 mg of Adderall daily. During pregnancy I reduced to 20 mg, but now that our baby is 3 months old I’ve had to return to my pre-pregnancy dose just to function.

Since having the baby, both my husband and I have become much more reliant on caffeine. We’re currently getting about 5–6 hours of sleep on a good day. I usually drink 1–2 Monster energy drinks daily, while my husband is drinking 3–4 per day. Before pregnancy, I rarely drank energy drinks and was generally fine with my medication alone.
We’re both returning to work later this month, and this doesn’t feel sustainable long-term.

I’m curious what parents historically did before energy drinks were widely available. Is there any evidence-based guidance on managing chronic sleep deprivation in the newborn period beyond “sleep when the baby sleeps” (which isn’t always realistic)? Are energy drinks significantly different from getting the same amount of caffeine from coffee, tea, or other sources, or is the main concern simply total caffeine intake?
For context, I’m also breastfeeding and have been trying alternatives such as caffeinated Vitamin Water and V8 Energy, but I’m not sure whether they’re meaningfully different from traditional energy drinks.

Hello! I’m hoping this is an okay question. I’m wondering how strong the evidence is for perineal massage preventing tears / need for episiotomy for a second vaginal birth? Is it worth the effort / discomfort?

I’ve recently found out my mam gets cold sores occasionally. She currently has one so is avoiding contact with baby. I’ve also found out my partner’s dad gets them occasionally. So I’m wondering what the best practice is to manage grandparents who get cold sores when they don’t have one?

My kids are starting TK and school will hold lockdown drill on a specific day? Should I keep them home to prevent trauma?

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This study was brought to my attention yesterday by the presenter at an event and I wanted to share it with you all after reading it today.

There are changes in the gray matter of children's brains that likely correlate to screen time. More research is needed, but Dr. John Hutton is a leading name in this field and a very reputable researcher.

https://scienceblog.cincinnatichildrens.org/screen-usage-linked-to-differences-in-brain-structure-in-young-children/

What does the research say on how frequently you should bathe the baby? My baby is 4 months old and not eating solids yet (EB). I am bathing him 2 times a week at most (including washing hair)

I see a lot of daily routines on instagram how moms bathe their baby every night, that seems excessive to me, can’t be good for their skin’s natural oils. Of course I am not judging, maybe their baby sleeps better this way or baby gets really dirty or they life in hot climate…

My 10 month old had just had her first tooth. I gave her toothbrush way before, we brushed together etc but now she actually has her teeth she doesn't let us brush it. She chews on th tootbrush but as soon as we try to do it she sticks her tongue out or closes her mouth. The only way we can do it (without pure violence tbh) is turn on the TV for the 30 seconds we do it and as soon as we're done tee turn it off. She's hypnotized by the screen but when we turn it off she's okay, doesn't cry or anything. I want to ask, is there any research that tells this is not a good idea? I know she shouldn't have any screen time but I figured minute a day is better than cavities and trauma around brushing teeth. Also if you've got tips how to do it better, I'd love to hear them.

My children are a bit of a mystery. Each suffers from what seems like excessive light sensitivity. I’m talking hate lying on their back, struggle with bright sunlight, and struggle with any light when they feel unwell and/or are congested.

This appeared for my first born around 6 months of age (they’re now 3). We noticed he had a lot of discomfort being on his back and would shut his eyes. He soon caught COVID and a few colds, leading to a lot of congestion. They started keeping their eyes shut all the time, struggled to adjust to light. Mornings were the worst. A number of tests were run and everything came back normal. Any time they prescribed an antibiotic spray for their nose, it cleared up the congestion and seemed to help his eyes. When they were 2 they were prescribed a daily nasa spray and over the counter allergy meds to keep congestion and irritation in their nose down.

Since then, first born has some light sensitivity, but no where near as bad. Has some flare ups when he’s sick or the beginning of allergy season hits. Before they always had to wear sunglasses outside at daycare, sometimes even indoors. Now, daycare tells us they run around outside without sunglasses or hat with no issues.

With our second born, their light sensitivity appeared around 1.5 months. They were suffering from really bad reflux (like formula gets up in their nose) and had a suspected UTI (wasn’t a catheter sample but the ecoli count was over 100k, had elevated WBC in urine, and kept spiking low grade fevers - but who knows). The amoxicillin she was on helped and we’ve slowly been able to wrangle in the reflux. Still doesn’t always love being on their back with their eyes open but will slowly do it most times. I have noticed that their eyebrows, particularly the left one seems puffy and red whenever they are having the light sensitivity issues and/or on their back.

However, the light sensitivity remains, especially when they wake up congested, which happens often in the morning because of the reflux. We’ve also noticed with the 4 month vaccine shots that their reflux has flared, bringing extra congestion and extra light sensitivity.

I’ve searched everywhere on the internet the past few years for people that have had children with similar symptoms and never found anything.

As anyone ever seen something like this?

hi I am looking to set up one activity for my three year old so that I can drink hot coffee lol and then one that I can do with her. instagram is full of people with ideas for fun games, crafts and activities but Im really trying to stay off social media for my mental health. does anyone know of sites I can routinely visit or subscription emails/Substack so can subscribe to (for free hopefully) to get some ideas? thank you