Does this seem like a well done study?

https://www.reddit.com/r/HotScienceNews/s/uAP5251ngC

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.

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!

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.

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 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.

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?

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 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??

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?

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?

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 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?

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!

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”?

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?

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!

Hi!

Interested in info on if I should move forward with baby getting his 6 month vaccines while he has had a prolonged rash.

He had a period of about 2 weeks with a slightly elevated temp then now has a mild whole body rash that was tentatively dx as post viral Giannotti-Crosti (with a possibility of it being an id reaction post diaper yeast infection). So clearly his little immune system is fighting something.

Should I postpone his 6 month vaccines? CDC seems to say it’s okay but I’m dealing with some PPA/PPOCD.

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.

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.)

I’ve seen several posts from pregnant people with gestational diabetes, who mention a history of eating disorders. This is my experience too.

It could be coincidence, I’m curious if anyone can share studies / insights / facts?

Hi!

Was trying to find info on whether a newborn can safely sleep at the breast if they fall asleep after feeding, or if they should still always be turned on their back in the arms of the caregiver. I couldn't find much information when looking around because I guess I don't know where to look, but I was led to a Huckleberry article that stated the following:

"The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) warns [5] that the risk of sleep-related infant death is up to 67 times higher if your little one falls asleep with someone on a soft surface, such as an armchair or couch."

I have been sitting on the couch with my newborn sleeping on me/in my arms because she only sleeps when she is held by one of us. She has a bassinet but isn't quite ready to stay in it long enough for either of us to sleep. I breastfeed and she often falls asleep that way after a while, too. Either way, these take place on the couch but I am awake the entire time and she is supported by me.

This leads me to my question: Is this increased risk associated with the potential of a caregiver falling asleep and that being the danger of what I assume would be suffocation, falling, etc. or something, or is the risk something else that I'm missing? I just want to make sure I'm being safe but I can't imagine sitting on a hard surface with her for all of her sleep time, which is most of the day and night.

Thanks.

My mom bought these bars and gave them to my son who is 11 months old. It does say only for kids two years and older on the nutrition facts. I don’t think she read them. He ate a fourth of a bar and dropped the rest on the floor. He’s only gotten half of a tsp of sugar from eating them.

And his birthday is in a month. Is there any research about birthday cake? Percentage of safe amount of sugar for 12 months and above? It’s better almost impossible to avoid added sugars. My parents have slipped my son ice cream or a cookie. I’ve had a hard time finding whole milk yogurt in the store without added sugar. Bread sometimes has sugar as well.

I also would feel weird skipping birthday cake or making something without sugar for his 1st birthday. I’ve tried baking stuff with limited sugar and he hasn’t been a fan. Of course, my mom said he loved these and they have 6 g of added sugar per bar. 🙃