So I grew up in a household that was fairly health "conscious". I realize now that some of it was just weird hearsay but a lot is based in science and a care for how the sausage is made. My mom always encouraged us to thrift clothes. Reduce and reuse and all that jazz. But she insisted on buying us new all cotton underwear twice a year (we always knew what Santa would put in our stocking and to expect more for birthdays). There could be elastic in the waistband, but all cotton for the main part of the underwear was mandatory, bonus points for organic cotton.

Now that I have kids of my own, I am looking for more information on if this is actually good practice. My kiddo wants Bluey and Mickey on their underwear and likes the feel of bamboo and rayon. But do I need to go out of my way and still buy the cotton version? How likely is pfas to be a concern for underwear? Is this mainly for girls or boys too? Appreciate expert consensus and links to research when possible. Thanks.

I'm a FTM to a wonderful 5 month old. We have recently been transitioning to the crib from the sidecar bassinet (still in the same room). She's been doing super great but is still waking 2-3 times a night to breastfeed (she gets a couple supplemented bottles during the day but breastfeeds when I'm home).

My MIL insists her 2 formula-fed babies slept through the night in their own room once they were born (which is unlikely). She tells me I should just stop feeding her at night and the baby will sleep through. Is there any evidence this is recommended? I feel like if she's hungry, I should feed her, regardless of the time of night. My own mother says I should trust my instincts, but it would be nice to have something I can send my MIL to get her to drop it.

To be clear - I do NOT intend to give baby honey but I’m curious.

Question: Health advice states children under one should not have honey due to risk of botulism. Is there actual data on this? Is it a material risk or is more “hey better safe than sorry and your baby doesn’t need honey anyway so might as well”?

Has anyone looked into the research on short inter-pregnancy intervals and autism risk?

I came across this study, and wanted to share and ask how others interpret it.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4474747/

The study found an association between conceiving less than 12 months after a previous birth and a higher risk of ASD compared with an inter-pregnancy interval of 24–47 months. I understand that an association doesn’t necessarily mean the shorter interval causes autism, and this is an older observational study, so I’m trying not to over-interpret it.

For anyone familiar with this: how strong do you think the evidence is for this association overall? Have you come across anything else around this topic? And is there any meaningful difference between, for example, conceiving at 10–11 months postpartum versus much earlier within the <12-month category?

Would really appreciate thoughtful perspectives. Thank you!

Hi all! I was wondering if there’s any evidence on the effects of working (vs not working) during pregnancy in terms of pregnancy outcomes or babies‘ health. Just the effects of extra physical/cognitive effort, stress, less rest, etc. Considering “not working” as really not working (not stay at home moms with other kids).

thank you!

I am wondering, with all the controversy around parental alienation, if there is any actual quality research showing that this is a thing. In particular:
-Can a parent’s denigration of the other parent actually impact the child’s relationship with that parent? I have seen a study saying this tended to backfire and distance the child from the denigrating parent.

-Can family court officials actually measure whether this has happened in their reports? And if so, how, and how reliable is the methodology? Are there evidence-based signs that are specific for alienation rather than abuse/fear of unknown/different parenting styles?

-Is there any evidence-based methodology for rectifying this? Eg reunification camps- but that literature does not consider any other outcome variables than the restoration of the relationship with the alienated parent. For example, I’d want to know about long term and short term child well-being, future abuse, and long term relationship outcomes.

If any one of these 3 things is a poorly developed field, what on earth is the family court doing awarding custody based on findings of “parental alienation”??

Contemplating getting an MMR dose for my child when she is 2 weeks shy of one year old. We have an international trip planned when she's exactly one, and I'd like her to have an MMR dose first (I know it takes about 2 weeks to be effective). When given I 6 months I know the efficacy is about 50%, 9 months I think believed to be about 84% (I think that's correct), but was wondering how close to the 93 percent it is when given at 11.5 months versus 12. Of course I'd like as close to 93 percent as possible so am torn what to do. Any insight is greatly appreciated.

Hi all, this is my favorite subreddit in the world and I have a question.

My husband is from another country (Germany) and we had a baby (Canada). She is now 5 months old. We are invited to a family gathering and my husband really wants to go as a family.

My social media algorithm is absolutely torturing me and my PPA regarding the measles outbreaks that are happening in the US to the point where I am terrified to go through an airport or on a plane with her before she gets her immunizations at 12 months for it (even though we aren’t flying there). At the same time, I don’t want to deny my husband the experience of his parents meeting our baby, I’m over ridden with guilt either way 😭.

As it stands right now he is going to go alone, and I am trying to get the guts to go but I feel like its too risky, The six month MMR isnt something i’m interested in doing as she will still require two doses.

My question is, if we decide to go, what are the chances my baby will be exposed if the plan is to just go from a to b and be relatively low key.

Difficult to answer, I know.

When my baby was trying to roll on a foam mat at 4 months I just let her fall when she fell. Then when she was trying to sit she only fell 2-3 times splotched on her back, we didn’t purposely let her fall but we were also not always behind her back and she learned to sit quickly (from the first trial to sitting to play comfortably, within a weekend, she learned that close to 9 months old and most babies learn earlier so it went quickly) so we didn’t have time to think about it.

Now that she is trying to stand by holding the sofa we’re behind her and we catch her.

I am wondering if she should fall or if she should be caught. If she falls I feel like she will learn how balance works better (we also let her spill her water open cup on herself until she learned to hold it), but obviously I don’t want her to injure herself.

I’m currently triple feeding and it’s exhausting. I’m seeing a lactation consultant soon to see if we can make a plan to move onto mostly breastfeeding and maybe just formula top ups, as I’m finding pumping around the clock exhausting. If that doesn’t work out, I’m ready to thrown in the towel and move to formula, however someone in a different thread suggested that even small amount of breastmilk still carry benefits. I tried to look it up, but I couldn’t find anything - does anyone have any research discussing this? I wouldn’t mind pumping a couple of times a day, but this every 2-3h regimen is unsustainable.

My daughter is gonna be one soon and we are very serious inflexible about the ABCs of sleep. She does not sleep in her crib for more than an hour at a time, So I get 3-4 stretches of 45 minute rest a night and the rest of the time is contact napping. Sometimes she will take a 2 hour nap in the crib. AT 7AM. We currently room share, does baby having their own room make a big difference in long stretches of crib sleep?

Her first birthday is coming up and it’s hard to find science based resources for sleep after the first year. . All the info I find is for under 1 or after 2. So what do people do in the months from 12-23? Is it the same as the first 12 months? I’m more than willing to do my own research just having trouble finding resources.

My husband and I are very pro-vaccine and have followed the recommended childhood schedule, including optional vaccines. COVID is the only one we’ve really paused on.

In my country, it’s routinely recommended from 6 months and offered free through the public health system. But my husband became hesitant after seeing that some other countries don’t routinely recommend it for healthy babies and young children.

That’s what I’m trying to understand. If the safety data are reassuring, do those countries simply think the benefit for healthy babies is too small to recommend it routinely? Or are they interpreting the risks differently?

I’m basically torn between giving a vaccine that might not add much for a healthy baby but still carries some risk, and skipping something that could actually make a difference if they get COVID.

I'm looking for a 6 month old baby who is enthusiastic about eating. We don't want to go overboard or replace breastmilk/formula calories with solids more than we should, but we also don't want to unnecessarily limit solids. I understand most intake should be breastmilk / formula. He's combo fed, but mostly from nursing, so we don't have a measurement on how much liquid milk/formula he gets per day.

Stanford's website makes me think it's ~ 9tbs spoons of food per day, over ~3 feedings per day: https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default%3Fid=feeding-guide-for-the-first-year-90-P02209

Solid Starts recommends 1 meal per day (but up to two) of only 1-2 tablespoons with breastmilk / formula ~20 min before and after: https://solidstarts.com/articles/feeding-schedules/#6-to-7-months-old-feeding-schedule

CDC doesn't have details.

Is there anything more specific?

Thank you :)

Hi! My daughter is turning one in two weeks, and I’ve gradually started relaxing a bit about the C-curl position while bedsharing, since she no longer gravitates toward my breast while asleep. She's also been sleeping on her stomach/side ever since she was able to get herself into that position. Her nurse at the Swedish child health clinic (BVC) told me there’s nothing I can do once babies choose to sleep that way, and the Swedish recommendation for babies to sleep in their own crib only applies up to 3 months, regardless of how they sleep. So I’ve interpreted SS7 as meaning that I need to put her down on her back, but that I don’t need to reposition her if she moves onto her side or stomach herself. I still follow the rest of the SS7 recommendations, although I do use a tucked in blanket, but I’ve realized that I actually don’t know if there's safe-sleep recommendations after the first year.

I know that the US recommendations generally apply until 12 months, while the Swedish recommendations say that babies under 3 months sleep safest in their own crib. The rest of the recommendations are basically the same during the first year.

So what actually changes once a baby turns one? Is it basically “anything goes” from a safe-sleep perspective, or are there still things that are recommended to avoid, such as pillows, duvets/blankets, certain bedsharing situations, etc.?

I’m only interested in what the evidence-based recommendations are for the 12+ month stage.

Hi all,

My baby had their MMR vaccine 5 days ago. Right on queue, they've picked up a flu bug (high fever, respiratory symptoms) that's going around our area.

I know a fever is part of fighting off the flu, but does having a high fever and an active flu infection a week post-MMR impact the body’s ability to build full immunity to measles? Or does the immune system just process both at the same time?

Just feeling anxious about the MMR side of things.

Appreciate any insights!

Sorry I should add, it’s confirmed flu A and not normal side effects.

We have a 7 and a half month old and he getting to the age where we have to direct his energy and focus elsewhere. Lots of hair pulling, lots of grabbing our dog hard, lots of screaming to scream. We have no intention on punishing or really admonishing at this point but I was curious how others start to introduce no to baby. It’s very common to see on parenting socials right now that people don’t want to say no to their kids. Is there any research to back up saying no to our children and if it harms their emotional development and relationship with us?

​

I live in Sweden and have a relative who wants to come from Portugal and visit my newborn who'll be 8 weeks then. I warned him to take the Tdap vaccine before coming. I'm worried though of things that he might encounter on the way here though (at the airport, airplane, and train). He'll only stay for 3 days, so it'll be hard to enforce a quarantine.

Baby will take the rotavírus vaccine at 6 weeks. After that, the next vaccines are scheduled for the third month.

What precautions should we take when the person is visiting and what are the dangers we might not be considering?

I’m due in December, and have shared with my family I’d like them to have their COVID and flu vaccines. (Upon an article I found on Cleveland Clinic, I’ll also be asking for Tdap).

Unfortunately, there’s some drama around that. I won’t get into it. How old should baby be before getting around people who may not be vaccinated?

TLDR; My 12 month old breastfed baby had a bad, full body reaction with hives and swelling to bottled milk this week - first to cow milk, then to a bottle of my breastmilk the next day. Has anyone seen this before???

Ive been weaning my 12 month old breastfed baby. He eats solid food like a champ including dairy (yogurt and cheese almost daily for months now). Never had an allergic reaction of any kind, except mild contact irritation once or twice to yogurt. As I wean off BM, ive instead given a small bottle of milk some mornings. First, I gave him about 1-2 oz of cow milk. He vomited some of this up about an hour later. The next few days, I did goats milk instead, no reaction and he loved it.

Then I ran out of goats milk, and tried about 3 oz of cow milk again. No reaction. The very next day gave him another 3 oz of cow milk and 20 minutes later he got a bad rash and crazy hives all over his body (bright red, inflamed skin, hives everywhere, and swollen ears), but no issues breathing or swallowing. We gave benadryl and had our first doc visit.

The next day, i thawed his last bag of frozen breastmilk and gave that to him. (The same thing hes had nearly every day of his life until recently. He hadn't nursed or had bottled BM in a few days at this pt). 20 minutes later, he got the same full body rash, inflammation, and hives again!! I was shocked! More benadryl and back to the doc.

Its been 2 days now, no more bottled milk of any kind, and no more reactions as of now. No changes to detergent, or anything else in his diet from the norm.

And yes, I drink dairy so that's in my BM... but I always have!

The doctors tell me they think he reacted to the cow milk but likely does not have an actual allergy, and that an anaphalactic reaction is unlikely. They think the reaction to the BM was just coincidence. Which seems unrealistic to me.

Has this happened to anyone else's breastfed babies??? Im so confused at what his immune system is doing.

Mon bébé a bientôt 10 mois et fait principalement du babillage auto-centré, (bababa, mamama) sans échange de regard ni rien. Ça arrive principalement quand il est promené en poussette ou dans son coin en train de jouer. Je serais curieuse de savoir quand votre bébé a commencé à babiller de manière conversationnelle, en question réponse, en te regardant ?

Le mien n’est pas encore très sociable, il ne pointe pas vraiment, ne fait pas de signe, et n’applaudit pas.

Sinon il a un bon sourire social et maintient le regard 50% du temps. Il ne fait pas les deux quand il est fatigué ou nerveux.
J’essaie beaucoup d’interagir avec lui mais pour l’instant il ne semble pas intéressé.
Je dois avouer que cela m’inquiète.

My baby is 8 months old (7 adjusted) and we are travelling in September to Indonesia. We will also be visiting UK and Europe in December and January. If my baby gets an early MMR vaccine dose now will it cover her through December and January? She will receive her normal two full doses next year after the travel.
Is it better to do the third dose closer to the UK trip as there will be more socialising etc on that trip than Indonesia.

I see a ton of stuff about the damage our phones have on baby’s connection with us during the day when we “disappear”. I’m curious if reading (quietly) a physical book while they are independently playing has a similar disconnect?