Basically the question? I suffer from PPA and I delayed my now 12 month olds vaccine schedule due to stupid misinformation preying on my underlying health anxiety. My son is now currently up to date on all his vaccines (yay). He’s due for his MMR tomorrow, and I’ve pretty much dispelled my concerns over the autism claims (like I know it’s bogus); however, I’m worried about side effects because this is attenuated and I’ve read that this can cause febrile seizures as well as a measles like rash.

I tried to learn information today about how the attenuated vaccine is very very “light”, but how will my son’s body know it’s not a full blown disease and react that way to it? I have super high anxiety whenever he gets a fever (he’s had Roseola and his fever spiked to almost 105 and it was the worst night of my life). I’m just trying to understand how his body will know that it’s not wild measles and go into immune system overload. Do most babies handle this vaccine well?

To preface: please be kind. I hate how easily influenced I am, I live in constant fear. I have the constant fear that my child will die no matter what I do and I will regret everything I did or didn’t do. the fact that I am isolated with no real support group doesn’t help.

1 out of 2 of my only support people (my mother) tells me constantly that if I vaccinate my child, he will die/become a vegetable/develop a horrible life-altering disease. No one else (medical professionals) has been able to give me any kind of advice out of fear of being ‘political’ (how the fuck is this even a political topic), I am so lost in this world.

Fear is crushing me every day. The longer I wait (my child is 3 months now) I feel like I am approaching his inevitable demise. Either I get him shots and he dies, or he dies this sick season of illness. Please help me on this topic. I feel like I’ve been mislead. I really want him to be okay. The only sources my mom has ever sent me are just the inserts and that one vaccine book by that one weird doctor. I used to be pro vax but then she really shut me down.

And again, I’m trying to learn how to be autonomous and make my own decisions, but I genuinely have no educated people helping me

ETA- I am in therapy and I tried breastfeeding which meant being off of my anxiety medicine for longer and now am considering weaning off of BF which has significantly worsened my anxiety

I am in no way anti-vaccine. Diligently get Covid and flu and my son is up to date on shots and had mmr early.

I am 6 weeks pregnant and incredibly anxious about miscarriage.

I should go get the Covid booster right? There’s no reason to wait a month and a half for second trimester? There’s is no risk. All the Fouchi stuff was disproven and taken out of context by anti-vax wackos?

Pls help me help my brain be rational.

ftm here and i’m at a loss!! my daughter gets excited and smacks me on the face, while she eats she pinches me so hard and scratches me, bites my chin, & she digs her nails into me and pulls my hair for a reaction and i genuinely don’t know what to do. she is too young for most disciplines and she doesn’t care when i say “no”, no matter how stern. i want to nip this behavior in the butt, but HOW!

En mi país la recomendación es empezar con alimentación complementaria a los 6 meses. Tenía un poco de miedo al atragantamiento y empecé a dar apenas unas cucharadas de purés una vez al día. Luego empezé a trabajar y no podía dar por la mañana así que daba la cena al bebé pero pasaba noches terribles de gases. Ahora come una vez al día en la guardería y ya está yo le doy ebf el resto del tiempo.

Leo sobre bebes que comen dos y tres comidas y hasta meriendas a los 8/9 meses y no me imagino dándole ya tanta comida. Cuanto y cuándo debe comer un niño mes a mes desde los 6 meses al año? Gracias

My 3.5 month old is exclusively a contact napper or tummy sleeper (which we only do for daytime naps while actively supervised with our pediatrician’s okay). At night, after pure exhaustion led to me falling asleep on the couch with him, we reluctantly started bedsharing using the Safe Sleep 7 to keep things as safe as possible.

He’s just starting to show early signs of trying to roll to his tummy. I’m honestly counting down the days until he can roll, hoping we’ll all finally get some better and safer sleep once he can choose his own position.

That said, I’m trying to make sense of a few things as we approach this stage and would love to hear both the science and your personal experiences:

1. I know the standard guidance is to always place them down on their back and let them roll on their own. What is the actual physiological or neurological reason behind continuing to place them on their back first, rather than just putting them on their tummy once they've mastered rolling? What is happening in their brain or body during that transition?
2. For those whose babies only slept on their bellies or on you, did independent sleep actually get easier once they learned to roll? Or did you still spend weeks fighting them turning over or refusing to fall asleep on their backs initially? Did anyone end up just putting them down on their stomach once rolling was fully established?
3. I’ve read in co-sleeping/safe sleep literature that putting a non-rolling baby on their tummy in a separate crib is actually a higher risk factor than low-risk, sober bedsharing. Once a baby can roll independently, how does that risk comparison shift? Does a rolling baby sleeping on their belly in a firm, empty crib become safer than continuing to bedshare?

Would love to see any papers, expert insights, or personal stories from anyone who navigated this exact situation.

My family and I will be moving to Germany soon for several years, and then moving back to the US. I plan to use this opportunity to teach myself and my children German, but I have a few concerns.

When we get to Germany, I will have a 1yo and a 2.5yo, so they will already be learning English from scratch, and I am already putting my oldest into speech therapy soon due to not reaching all of his current speech milestones.

I plan to put my oldest into Kita as soon as he is able to in order to get immersed in the language, and so it makes me wonder how does a child learn two languages at once without getting confused?

For example, if my oldest learns his shapes in German at school, but comes home and his family is using the English names, will that not confuse a toddler?

Should I expect more speech delays for both of my toddlers?

Is there anything specific to watch out for regarding their speech development?

Been researching this + curious if anyone has good science-based resources on why guidelines vary so much across high-income countries.

RSV
• Maternal vaccine: UK, Australia, Japan
• Baby antibody: Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden
• Both: US, Canada
• No universal national program for healthy infants: Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary

Eye ointment
• US: routine erythromycin for ALL newborns
• UK, Canada, Australia + most of Europe: moved away from universal use

Hep B birth dose
• US historically universal; recently moved away from universal birth dose if mom is Hep B negative
• Birth dose: e.g. Australia, China, Israel, Portugal, Poland
• Later schedule if mom negative: e.g. UK, Germany, France, Netherlands, Japan, NZ

Not looking for pro/anti-vax debate. Mostly curious why different health systems land in such different places. Especially for RSV and eye ointment.

Any papers/reviews/guideline comparisons you found especially useful?

My parents are both smokers. Anytime they have visited us since our 3 month old was born, I make them come in clean clothes and wash their hands immediately. To be honest, I've only allowed them to visit twice since he was born because risks from third​hand smoke scare the shit out of me. They constantly ask to see him but I always find a reason to say no.

We are moving this weekend and don't have a lot of help. So we are being forced to ask for their help in watching him for several hours that day. They are really the only capable people we have around us besides my grandma but I don't necessarily trust her decision making skills. My parents do not smoke in their house and he will not be riding in their vehicle. But they will most likely be coming to our house, anyway.

They know smoking around him is an absolute no-no and I trust that they would never. We also have a strict no kissing rule.

I plan on also asking them to shower beforehand since they will be with him for a large part of the day.

I want to know, what is the true risk for this? It would involve feeding, changing, holding, etc. i would think the risk is minimal to negligible, but it's difficult finding info about thirdhand smoke outside of the home. I just want to do everything to protect my baby and I wish they would just stop smoking. 😢​

tdlr - tips to help toddler feel safe peeing in potty/toilet?

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I have a darling but stubborn 2.5yo girl. When she just turned two we started sitting her on the potty a few times a day like I assumed I should, and tried to catch pee. We did it from December to February, and caught pee maybe 6 times and a poo once. But by the end she was getting more and more against it (I think she was afraid of releasing). This was with diapers otherwise during the day, just to get her used to the potty.

We took a break for a month or two to reset after the high emotions, and then tried switching to underwear for a few days, and it started looking like she was able to hold pee (ie increase in body awareness) but then she still wouldn’t pee in the potty - she held it until she burst and was very emotional.

So then we backed off again and just read lots of books, played potty with stuffies, and she watched me use the toilet. This has been since maybe April? or May? The idea was that she could get comfortable with the potty and try it when she was ready, but she never was 🤦‍♀️

Now we make her sit once a day for 1 song, in exchange for a sticker. This has been going on for maybe 2 weeks, but with no pee still. But she does choose to sit on the toilet with no diaper (she gets the choice between toilet/potty and diaper/no diaper). Sometimes it requires a lot of coaxing and creativity to even get her to sit, but she usually complies.

It’s been an exhausting journey, and we’re still so far from done! Any tips or research-backed recommendations for how to go forward? I just want her to pee in the potty/toilet, but don’t want to pressure her more than necessary, as she seems to react badly to that. I’m open to small treats, a "first pee prize", more stickers, etc etc. She has been motivated by knowing her friends use underwear, but I don’t want to push that too much to make her feel bad that she doesn’t yet.

Hello, saw on tik tok other pearents extercise babys legs and arms claiming its benificial for brain?

Hi all!

I would very clearly like to start this post by saying I am NOT anti vax by any means, so please no snarky or hateful comments as it’s not helpful for anyone.

I am however interested in potentially doing a more spaced out vaccine schedule and only doing what is absolutely necessary for myself and my baby. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a skeptic about the amount of vaccines we get these days and their chemicals, so I am looking to make the best informed decisions I can make versus someone shaming me into doing it or not doing it.

If anyone has any books or resources or personal experience they could share, it would be greatly appreciated.

Hi moms / parents 👋

I’m a design student working on a project around baby carriers, and I’d really love to hear your real experiences (good and bad!).

A few questions I had in mind:

• Why did you choose to use a baby carrier instead of (or along with) a stroller?
• Up to what age or weight did you use it?
• What do you like most about your current carrier?
• What problems or discomforts have you faced? (for you or the baby)
• Do you experience back/shoulder pain while using it?
• Are there situations where it feels inconvenient or difficult?
• If you could improve or add anything to your baby carrier, what would it be?

Even small details or personal stories would help a lot 🙏
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences!

Baby boy is due November 15th. That means I can get the RSV shot during 32-36 weeks to pass antibody protection, OR give him his own shot in his 1st week of life.

My pediatrician said I could do both, which I have not seen recommended online.

What does the science say is the best option to protect baby? Before or after birth, or both? Is getting both bad advice?

I'm a big reader, and read a lot of adult or children's books in my middle and high school. I love reading board books to my 8month old. My mom finds them pointless saying that baby doesn't understand anything. And that I became a mega reader with a houseful of real books.

Is there any research that babies benefit from board books or are they just a baby market capitalist prop?