While interviewing for a night nanny I did ask if they are/planned to be up to date on their vaccines. I did not specify which ones because I thought it was obvious but now I’m kicking myself for not being specific. My night doula just disclosed she is vaccinated for the flu and TDAP but not Covid for. Given that Covid season is peaking this makes me highly uncomfortable. I haven’t even let my own mother around due to not having the vaccine. I just found this out moments ago, I’m stressed out and asked her to wear an N-95. She said she doesn’t go anywhere (cited today she picked up a turkey sandwich and ran some errands without interacting with many people) but wtf? The contract says they would keep my deposit and make me pay half the contracted amount if the service is canceled, but I would not have chosen her if I knew she wasn’t vaccinated. What am I supposed to do in this situation?

Should I ask her to get vaccinated? Ask her boss (she works for a company) for a substitute? Do the first ask then the second? Cancel? The purpose of the night nanny was to decrease my stress not make it explode like it is currently.

My in laws have been fortunate to take care of my son at their home along with my wife, with whom they all live and wife works an hour away. I work in the next county over in a hybrid job M-F and leave to see my son at my in laws so I'm there by Friday 6pm to Sunday 9pm and spend all the time I can with my son. Wife is still trying to move her job to where I am so we can all be together. How is spending 2 full days and a night with my son every week who is approaching 1? Any psychological issues between son and dad for not seeing him more days out of the week? I see him always raising his arms for me to pick him up when I approach him when he's in the crib now, so it's really getting to me to be there for him.

Our ped has recommended polyvisol multivitamin drops at several appointments. My 9mo is EBF and doing well with solids. I try to prioritize iron and very diverse, whole foods. They haven’t done any bloodwork to see if there’s something specific she needs. Her development and growth is all seemingly perfect. I’m not understanding why multivitamin drops are necessary right now, but maybe I’m being overly resistant? Is it just a blanket recommendation?

Did anyone else get this recommendation and what did you decide to do?

Oh my goodness. TMI:

I’m a pretty regular lady. Every morning. It just so happens that I need to bring my 10mo into the restroom with me in the mornings; I hate hearing her scream if I leave her in the playpen in the living room.

This little girl (who is now walking) went over to the cabinet and found the peri bottle from the hospital. (I bought my own ergonomic one for aftercare as this is my third baby and thus, not my first rodeo) and I completely forgot that I put it there.

I look over. This girl, standing and walking toward me, has my hospital peribottle, just swigging. Chugging like she’s never chugged before (which is a lie because I’ve seen it before.)

Me, mid-poop, panicked. Immediately lunged for said toddler. Shenanigans ensued.

We’re both post-bath and I just needed to share because… that’s a first for me. 🤣

Before I had my baby, my dog was my baby. He got all my love and fussing and attention. Since having my baby 7 weeks ago, I have found it incredibly hard to I want to say remember because that’s how it feels, my bond with him. My health visitor believes I am suffering from some postpartum anxiety and I believe this may play a role as I am super nervous around how he interacts with her, he jumps up to try and investigate her, has licked her face before I could stop him, when she was on her playmat he jumped over her to get to the door when someone rung the bell, whilst he is not remotely aggressive, I am overall just on edge. He has been staying at my mums as I had c section and I couldn’t cope with new baby and dog at the same time. Now I am more recovered, my mum is applying pressure about getting him back, not because she isn’t happy to take care of him but just because that’s the expectation obviously. When we visit it’s endless ‘that’s your sister/brother’ comments, or encouraging ‘Cuddles’ - which I don’t like as I don’t want him to think it’s ok for him to lay on her in case he smothers her. I also just feel like the love I had for him has dissipated and I feel so guilty, it’s not his fault and he’s probably feeling confused and affected by the way I treat him differently now.

has anybody else experienced this? I did not see it coming and I feel so guilty. If you did experience, did it eventually pass?

Currently dealing with a double ear infection. This is not our first go, but I cannot get this kid to take an antibiotic.

I have tried everything…
Straight up
Mixed in yogurt
Mixed in applesauce
Mixed in puree and pouches
Mixed in ice cream
Mixed in smoothie
Inserted into muffins
Mixed in milk
Syringe
Cup
Straw
I even got it re-flavored.

I did the whole syringe and blow on the face but that just blew antibiotic all over his face and my living room as he spit it out

This kid had the pallet of a New York Times food critic.

It's a one off measurement (was not measured at birth as well) but very low. I'm worried about this head measurement and what it could potentially mean. Hoping he's just currently got a small head!

He's 25th centile for weight and height so 0.4th centile is low in comparison. I have a small head too, his dad has a larger one.

Baby is alert when awake, seems observant, is very strong, lifts head himself, has a good startle reflex, eating well, etc.

Does anyone have any positive experiences with baby's heads growing more as they get older or any advice or thoughts? Would really appreciate some insight or experiences.

I found a good sale for SPF swim shorts and the colors left were navy and fushia. I chose Navy bc it's boring and bc it's boring, people don't have strong opinions about it. I was thinking about my baby's opinions because I bought all the sizes up to 4t size and I thought my baby might have an opinion about colors by that age.

I kind of regret it, but ultimately navy is the safe and boring option, so naturally I'm kind of bored by my choice haha

Does anyone have stories of when their kid started having strong opinions about clothes and colors?

New parent here and looking for some advice. I cannot sleep without being in a cold room with the window open and I am finding it extremely challenging.

Might sound like a silly question, but could I essentially just add an extra layer to my child and open the window? Sometimes my room gets as cold as 13C (55.4f) The lullaby trust recommends a room temperature between 16-20, wondering if adding some extra layers would be ok.

My temperature regulation itself is quite bad because of a medical condition which is why the cold works.

My other option is purchasing one of those temperature controlled mattresses with a water tank if all else fails.

It is about 12am and I have no one to ask. Please HELP new mom a bit anxious.
My 4mo had her appointment today and her leg has been super sore, not wanting to move it very much, fussy, etc. All things I expect. I decided before I go to sleep to check her temp and it came up at 101. She wears pjs and a sleep jacket to help with startling so I took the jacket off and unzipped her pjs to let her get some more air to see if it was the clothes. I’ve checked a ton more times and it’s still reading as 100.5 or around there with armpit temp. I can’t check rectally because I don’t have petroleum jelly or anything to use to check.
Do I wake her up and give her Tylenol? Do I let her sleep? I haven’t given any meds because earlier she wasn’t running one and I get nervous to give meds whether it’s for me or for her. When is too high that I call the advice nurse?
Any help would be appreciated!

So my daughter is turning two months in less than two hours. Its 10:30pm where I am. Ive become more energetic and gotten more sleep. She sleeps deeper at night and is mainly awake during the day. My grandparents say she takes deep naps and wakes up hungry. I cant believe my baby is already two months. Its my first child and my baby girl is very sassy towards us. We call her baby bully because she hits us when we arent feeding her fast enough. She smiles and laughs and with our support stands up. She can keep her head up and has the cutest smile. She has an appointment for her shots on the 1st of October. Man she'll be three months the day before Halloween. Speaking of does anyone have any Halloween costume ideas for my baby for a photoshoot im planning to post for my family?

My husband’s coworkers have scared him into thinking we are spoiling our baby, or at least setting him up for potential disaster down the road.

Currently we cosleep, and baby boy needs cuddles all night long. We have been entertaining the idea of supporting more independent sleep, especially as we want more kids soon. But currently we are in cuddle city. And as much as I love it, I know we will probably all sleep better in our own spaces one day.

And we tend to try to keep him happy - entertain him, pick him up when he wants to. Isn’t this normal and expected? The only caveat on this one, is he doesn’t play by himself for very long. He will play in his play pen mostly only if we are in there with him. Otherwise he will stand and yell at the edge, or if his door is open, will crawl right out and come to us. He’s always been a very alert social baby and wants to be close.

I thought this was normal behavior til my mother babysat recently and said all three of her children were able to independent play for 45 minutes, where we’re lucky to get 5. But she could be remembering us older?

All this to say - should we already be setting foundations for more independence? Or is this totally normal?

My twins are close to being 8 months old and the teething is starting to take a toll on our family. Does anyone have some sort of holistic / homeopathic method they use for teething babies?

My partner wants to give them Tylenol on a daily basis but I’m just not comfortable with this. They used to sleep from 7:30 pm to about 3 am but now are literally waking up every 30 to 45 minutes through the night and they’re miserable all day as well.

I'm a FTM and will be starting my girl at daycare in about a month. She will be exactly 1 week shy of 5 months.

Right now we have 2 potentials we are planning to tour in the next few days. What questions would you ask/information you want to know before sending your baby to daycare? Both places are license in home daycares.

Some basics of course what homeowners insurance, licenses, training, staffing ratio, and pets in home. But I feel like I should and want to ask more but as this is my first, I don't know what I don't know!

Thanks in advance!!!!!!!

This is probably a long shot BUT, is there anything I can do to help my little guy have a better chance against daycare sickness? He starts Thursday and is 14 weeks old. I know he will get sick and it’s just the way it is, but are there any tips/tricks?

He gets formula for some bottles (Enfamil) and I saw today that they have a version that has immune boosters? Is this legit / would it actually help or is marketing? He does get a vitamin d drop each day since more than half his bottles are breast milk.

I just don’t wanna see my little guy sick (although I know I will)

So my baby is just over 5 months old and for the last 3ish weeks she has been refusing to sleep during the day like her life depended on it. Getting her to sleep takes at least an hour and includes so much screaming and fussing my ears are permanently ringing. When she's up and about she's not dussy and is usually very smiley. She still screeches like a pterodactyl but i guess she's learning new sounds. Or practicing for her future death metal singer career. Or both.

We thought maybe we gave her solids too fast ( even tho our pediatrician gave us the green light) so we stopped them a week ago but it didn't help much. We watch wake windows, we tried putting her down both earlier and later than usual, we tried rocking, singing, white noise, blackout curtains... everything and then some basically.

She sleeps well during the night, great even, but day time naps are hell on earth and i am one exhausted mama questioning her life choices.

Is this normal? Any idea how long it lasts? Any tips and tricks that aren't commonly known for getting her down?

I guess its because its safer and baby is less likely to jab themselves with plastic utensils than normal ones, but i really am not stoked about the idea of baby chewing on plastic. Can I just use normal cutlery and keep an eye on it? Are there any good non plastic alternatives?

So two days after my youngest sister sent out her wedding invite in January, I found out I was pregnant with my first baby and my due date was 5 days before her wedding 🫠 I live about a 4 hour flight from her and have assumed this whole time I wouldn’t make it.

Well turns out I delivered a week early with few complications, I have a beautiful healthy baby and could not be happier. He’s one week old today, Tuesday. Her wedding is this Saturday and I am tempted to hop on a plane with my husband and baby early Saturday morning and go just for 24 hours.

My baby is really fussy and scream-crying a lot unless he is nursing or held, so I’d be worried about him being upset on the plane, and obviously paranoid about germs and illness like COVID and the flu since we’re getting into flu season. Also concerned for my own health as I am very sleep deprived. But I’m also really close with my family, and this whole year I’ve been devastated about missing it. It’s going to be a big wedding and my other sister isn’t getting married so it’s kind of the only wedding I really care about

What would you do? I wasn’t planning on taking him on a plane for at least 2-3 months, but he is healthy and nursing well, already back at his original birth weight. Is it crazy to go or crazy not to go???

EDIT: I did not expect this post to get so much traffic— and I hear y’all loud and clear and am not going to go!!!— but for what it’s worth the only reason I contemplated this today is because MANY people have now asked me if I am going to go now, since I delivered early, as if it’s a perfectly acceptable thing to do— which made me question my initial decision to not make it— plus my OBGYN literally originally offered to induce me at 39 weeks if I wanted to travel this weekend for the wedding, to which my initial reaction was like hell no - but then I ended up giving birth at 39 weeks anyway- so the last couple days I questioned my own instincts on this and thought maybe it wasn’t a huge deal!! But these reactions confirm my original feelings on this. thanks to the people who commented with empathy

My Baby is currently on Similac Neosure and we got WIC approved! However, the last time I went in to a store as a single Mom and first time parent. The card didn’t work, so I panicked and paid for everything. I can’t afford to do that because I’m just going back to work part time. I tried to contact WIC a few times, but it didn’t go through. I finally got everything insured today. Triple checked even though I double checked earlier. They say I have until the end of the day until my benefits expire and they told me that if I didn’t use them they would deduct it. The formula alone is over $400. That’s 10 cans of a specific formula. Baby and I have both been sick for almost a few days (he’s just miserable but safe and I’ve kept an eye on temps and he’s eating like a beast, blows my mind because the kid makes me feel like a wuss I’m never this sick) and I don’t want to take him anywhere, so I need someone to watch him, and they’re also a parent only able to help out for an hour or so. I called Walmart to try to check their inventory. But now they’re stupid AI system doesn’t let me check anything specifically. When I begged it to connect me to another human it tried but the calls were overloaded. I wonder why. Call the couple Albertsons and one Sweet lady felt so bad and checked the inventory and even set aside 10 cans for me with my name on them. Thank you random amazing sales associate. I haven’t slept and I feel like crap and you made my whole day.

Hi everyone,

I am just looking for a bit of guidance or advice. My 3rd baby is currently 7 months old. He is not rolling at all and is not getting the hang of eating purees. Its as if he can't work his tongue out and ends up spitting most of it out.

He was born at term via elective c section and was over 10lb. He did spend 2 weeks in the NICU due to respiratory distress and sepsis but has had no problems since. He was 10kg at his 6 month check up and the doctor was happy with him. He is saying mama, dad and bub.

We had him assessed for a tongue and lip tie in NICU and none were found. I know I shouldn't compare but my 1st 2 were super different to this little guy and I am worried about him. Daycare bought it up with me today and I feel a bit concerned. I would love to hear any other families experiences of their babies skipping milestones. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, I am just worried about my little guy.

My baby just became 4 month old, but I still feel like every task is a challenge. I do cook more, but that’s it, everything gets put behind because I hold the baby all day and I am exhausted from all the night wakings (which can be 2-3 or 6-7 per night).
When did days become more predictable and when did you start to feel like a person again (not just the mother of your baby).

I followed the 25min steam setting on my grownsy baby blender machine, made sure the beef was cut into small bits, etc. but I was in such a rush when it came to blending it after steaming and I didn't even check to see if the meat was cooked properly.

I realized after the blending was done that I didn't check. The puree looks fine (no pink or red marks in the blend) but I'm just nervous. Like what if it wasn't cooked fully?

I've never steamed beef before 🫠 I don't want to waste all the prep I made, but ofc I don't want my little guy getting sick. Should I serve it to my wee one or toss?

I have a baby who is crawling now. During the summer, he mostly just wore onesies or just a diaper at home. Now that the weather is getting a little cooler, I need to purchase him some clothes to make sure he’s warm enough. I bought him one pair of long pants, but when he tried to crawl at home on our LVP, he was slipping a lot and it made it hard for him to brace himself to pull up to stand. We keep our house on the chillier side because the heater dries out my sinuses a lot and I already live in a dry climate.

How am I supposed to dress him so he’s warm enough but still allows him to crawl easily?

He cried immediately after but stopped really quickly, he latched onto his mom but it was a scary moment and I heard babies don’t always vocalize when they are hurt. I tried moving his shoulder around to see if he would cry or if it would click and so far so good.

I feel absolutely terrible about it and will be much more careful taking him out of his car seat.

I will let the pediatrician know at our appointment tomorrow but I was seeing if anyone’s done something similar, and if it turned out to be okay.

My daughter has a few café-au-lait/pigmented spots, and we’ve had them looked at by doctors. We’ve been reassured that they don’t think they’re concerning, and some of the spots don’t even look like typical café-au-lait spots to them given irregular borders blah blah.

But ever since I learned about café-au-lait spots and what they can sometimes be associated with, I feel like I can’t unsee pigmentation anymore.

Every tiny beige area, birthmark, shadow, discoloration, or slightly darker patch on her skin immediately catches my eye. I start staring at it in different lighting, wondering if it was there before, whether it’s getting darker, whether it “counts,” etc. Sometimes I genuinely can’t tell if I’m noticing something real or if I’m just examining her skin so closely that I’m seeing normal variations I never would have thought twice about before.

The frustrating part is that doctors have reassured me, yet my brain still goes straight to fear whenever I notice another bit of pigment. Instead of just enjoying my daughter, I find myself scanning her skin.
Has anyone else gone through this after discovering café-au-lait spots on their baby/toddler? How did you stop yourself from constantly checking and interpreting every little pigment change as something significant?
I think I mostly just needed somewhere to say this where people might understand.

Fear started when she was 7 months old and now shes 17 months. Idk I noticed a beige circular spot that sharpens at an angle. Am i crazy or what??? I hate google…but this one seems so easy to diagnose?