hello, i am combo feeding with slightly less than 50% breast milk (through exclusive pumping)

i undedstand there is basically very little statistical significance in benefits of combo feeding over formula feeding for the baby (correct me if im wrong)

however i am wondering if i am getting any benefits as the mother, like the touted benefits of reduced breast cancer risks.

i plan to stop soon and would like to know if theres any research as length of time pumping, like 2 months as opposed to 6 months.

alternatively, are the benefits applicable if you continue for 6 months, regardless of output? like if i continue pumping once a day until 6 months, will that get me the benefits?

My understanding is the WHO is how children should grow and the CDC is how children are actually growing.

Is there more to it though? Which once should I use tho? I don’t obsess over my child’s % but I just think it’s a fun thing to know how he’s doing but on one scale he’s in the 80s and 90s and on the other he’s alll the way down in the 10s-20s 😭

His ped uses the WHO I believe which is the scale he’s small on.

When I was a child my mother was against any toy that required batteries. Now that I have my own baby I realized I have not purchased any toys with batteries without thinking about it. Is there any research that backs the idea that wooden non electric toys are much better for development than anything with lights or movement/sound?

Explanation: the saying goes "small kids small problems big kids big problems". Also, a lot of people seem to agree that the younger years are so much better and easier, and parents should try to cherish those, as it doesn't get better than that.

I get it regarding the countless living unique moments, and I really hope a lot of times that those moments last. Thing is:

The worst drain, daily, are the moments when my nearly 4yo does things that are understandable, but hard to keep cool through. Classic example: the one day in the week one can sleep in, Sunday. 5am lights go on, she wants cuddles, gets bored after a few minutes, and gets more noisy and annoying by the minute to get one of us to play.

Or, she has a meltdown about something stupid, like I cut the bread she asked me to cut. Or she doesn't want to get dressed, and the already calculated buffer time is running out, and and and...

I feel I can't wait for her to grasp more of her impact on the world, more understanding. And I feel like more relatable problems I can deal with easier. Crashed the car, failed a test, got drunk, and so on....

So, are there studies or so regarding main triggers and their impact on the family?

I consistently reach 100-120g protein per day. This is how I always ate. Some days I reach 150g. Is this excessive? I'm 136lbs and in second trimester

Basically title. I'll appreciate any professional or published or anecdotal guidance for helping my kids deal with the inevitable from my husbands condition. We don't know how long he has, but i read its usually between months to 5 years. We don't have biopsy results yet.

The kids only know dad has been in the hospital (rehab) to try to get better.

My understanding is that SIDS prevention is basically different ways to stop babies getting into a super super deep sleep that they don't wake up from for whatever (unknown) reason, or ways to stop them getting smothered.

Of all the things that increase the likelihood of super deep deep sleep (laying on belly or curled up, no pacifier, warmer temperature, sleeping on parent, swaddling etc), what increases deep sleep the least ie. Which rule break increases the risk of SIDS the least?

Sometimes baby just will not sleep in their safe space, so if co sleeping in the bed isn't an option with an exhausted parent, why is the sofa so bad?

If the parent is sat holding the baby with their arms propped up on cushions either side in a way that neither the baby (laying on their back) or the parents arms can't move when the parent is asleep/fully relaxed, what's the problem? No chance of baby getting wedged in pillows or being dropped on floor.

Note: I'm not including things that increase suffocation risk like heavy blankets, arms under blankets, smoking, bed sharing with pets/drunk parents, cot bumpers, teddies in crib etc

Edit: can to can't, typo

As the title suggests, my oldest is now 4years old and he's always had the kind of personality where he doesn't mingle with other children. He's more likely to get on with an adult.

He's in his second year of Nursery and definitely has come on leaps and bounds, even then his go to at Nursery is straight to the teacher and he'll mingle more with them.

I took him to gymnastics today to help grow his skills confidence etc, he was not interested at all in leaving my side or watching the other kids😅went straight for the door out.

Will be trying swimming tomorrow...

I get it, his comfort zone is with me, but how can I encourage him or even organically help his confidence to mingle and partake in these classes/ activities?

I have seen lots of studies around vaping but are there any detrimental effects on an infant when a parent uses smokeless tobacco (snus) around them? Specifically how it could impact SIDS/SUDC or from exposure to the chemicals?

I know it’s a terrible habit, and I am trying to encourage my partner to stop using smokeless tobacco such as snus now that we have a baby at home.

Hi all,
I recently had a baby girl and I wanted to know what evidence based approaches could I follow to build trust with my baby. More specifically, how can I make sure they feel comfortable enough to confide in me if some one behaves inappropriately with her, or if someone asks her to hide something from me, etc.
The anxiety surrounding someone hurting her/taking advantage of her is debilitating.

I come from a family that is vulnerable to personality disorders. We also have addiction, bipolar, schizophrenia and autism.

I haven’t much thought about passing the former down to my children as I know, from my understanding, it’s more of a biological vulnerability plus trauma that leads to the development of a personality disorder. I’ve worked really hard to heal from my own childhood and learn how to parent children appropriately. So, it never really occurred to me to worry about this.

My oldest has received two concussions. The first was several years ago after a car accident. The second was two years ago falling on roller skates. Both times they were taken to the ER, assessed and sent home with a concussion protocol. They were not in-patient.

Other than the typical worry immediately after the injuries, and extra attention to her use of a helmet (she had stood up to grab it and slipped backwards, cracking her head on a table), I haven’t been worrying much about these concussions.

The other day, she admitted that since the second concussion, there are memories that are gone. Pictures and videos I’ve shown her, stories we’ve told, that she has no memory of. They were all recent to the concussion and have been stable. We were warned this might happen.

But I was talking with my sister about it, and that’s when she brought up she thought my daughter’s personality has changed since the concussion. She brought up that none of her friends are the same, and that she’s significantly more selfish and narcissistic.

My daughter is 13. Prime age for changing of friendships, selfishness, and narcissism. She is difficult, yes. But, I’ve been assuming it’s partially the developmental stage she’s in as well as the trauma triggers she’s been blithely pressing while navigating this stage. As that’s my issue, not hers, I’ve increased my therapy sessions and am reinforcing my boundary-setting skills.

I’ve done more work than my sibling in trauma recovery and in learning about childhood development. So my knee-jerk - like it always is that when my sister gives me parenting advice - is to nod and smile and do what I was going to do all along. But… siblings press each others’ buttons, too. And I do feel like I’d be a poor parent if I didn’t at least consider the possibility that CTEs could be included in the “trauma” category.

To be clear, I DON’T think my daughter has a personality disorder. That’s crazy-pants talking and my sister needs to take a chill pill.

I’m talking about the potential for future CTEs here. Do I need to wrap my baby’s skull up in bubble wrap for more reasons than I already want to? is basically my question. Does this need to go on the list of why she isn’t allowed to go on her friend’s motorized scooter?

Hi all! I will be having a planned C section at 38 weeks due to some medical complications.
I have been offered the opportunity to be involved in a clinical trial to receive steroids prior to the c section, with the question being to investigate the use of steroids in early term babies.
Does anyone have any further known information about the possible risks and benefits for babies past 36 weeks gestation. The information I’ve been given so far doesn’t fully answer my questions about what the risks could be.

At the risk of sounding very “oh no, my steak is too juicy”, I need some advice! FTM to a 6 week old.

I think we’ve been blessed with a champion sleeper. I say I think because since birth I’ve been waking her to feed, mainly in the night, but also in the day. For the first 4 weeks I woke her every 3 hours from beginning of last feed, then 4, now I’ll allow 5.5 max.

She’s regained her birthweight (took her a few days longer than usual), is about 70th percentile and now 2lb up from birth. Tonight I let her sleep a 5 hour stint and then woke to feed, allowing 6 hours from start of last feed, but I did need to wake her so she would’ve slept even more!

Advice seems to be conflicting on whether we need to wake her to feed, particularly given she is swaddled so wouldn’t that affect her reflexes? I’m an anxious person so want to be sure before just leaving her to sleep till she wakes. Eg. If she’d do a full night stint, is she really big enough for that?

Other info in case helpful: - she takes 120-150ml of expressed breast milk every time I feed her via bottle incl in the night - I wake up to pump anyway but don’t set an alarm for this I just do it naturally - that still gets me more sleep as she takes about 2-3x the time to feed than it takes me to pump - we cluster feed like crazy in the evenings, which seems to really help the sleep

I appreciate the evidence shows that screen time is bad.

However I remember reading before that age appropriate video games for short periods have benefits. Is this true?

If it is what age/how long is suggested?

I know—another screen time question. But very curious and a little different than what I’ve seen asked.

It’s always quoted that children under 2 do not learn from screens. What is the reason that it seems like they can? For example, when parents say that their kids learned sign language that was not introduced to them outside of Ms. Rachel? I assume that songs that accompany screens are different because babies can very obviously pick up musical melodies.

My own daughter learned all her letter sounds from Leapfrog Letter factory well before 2. She has still retained them very well, also.

So is it child dependent? Content dependent? Or is the statement just untrue or misquoted?

Child is 2.5, we are deep in the toddler trenches. Often times she is simply incapable of doing what we ask, and I understand that. But when its been 10 hours straight of it and im exhausted and frustrated, I tend to run out of patience steam and dont know what to do.

For example, road trip home after a long day, she had to use the potty. While cleaning it up, asked her to get in her seat so I could come buckle her up but instead she starts running around in the car having me chase her to grab her. She wanted to press all the buttons and play.

What is the best way to work on listening and the capacity to follow instructions, while remaining kind and authoritative? I want her to be able to ask questions, give opinions. I dont want to dictate her. (Obviously, in this case we had to go, there was little to no room for opinions on staying and running around the car, but this question is also broad for lots of other scenarios as well).

Is constant operant conditioning with positive reinforcement the only answer?? What does that look like realistically?

Thank you

I just thought about this recently as I am about a month or two into my pregnancy and I am still breastfeeding my current 1 year old. I'm taking a prenatal vitamin everyday, and was also taking magnesium since it was helping with the nausea but I had to stop as it was clearly affecting my toddler while she was nursing. This made me wonder, does taking a prenatal vitamin while breastfeeding reduce the amount of vitamins that are going to the fetus, since some of the vitamins would also be included in breast milk?

I know my doctor suggested continuing to take a prenatal vitamin while breastfeeding for this very reason, that the vitamins would go into the breast milk and help the baby. Since I don't have a doctor's appointment for a couple weeks where I will bring up this question, I'm wondering if there is any research on this topic that I could review to make an informed decision during the important first trimester time period.

TLDR - having a hard time finding a COVID shot for my 21mo daycare toddler and have a baby coming in Feb. How risky is it to newborn if toddler doesn't get the vaccine?

More background - Baby #2 is due in the middle of respiratory illness season. My husband and I both got our flu and COVID shots, I'll get the RSV vaccine closer to my due date, and our toddler will get his flu shot next week. However, our toddler's pediatrician's office hasn't received any doses of the COVID vaccine, doesn't know when or if they will, and last year they never got any. Finding another practice that has the shots and taking him to an appointment would take a good bit of time, since we live in a rural area. Toddler attends daycare, so he's a walking germ factory.

Is there any research available on 1) the short and long-term effects of a newborn catching COVID, or 2) how much immediate family vaccination reduces the risk of transmission or severity of the illness passed on? I know there are dozens of other fun illnesses our toddler can and will pass on, but my instinct is to try to mitigate the risks where I can.

hi all, my 7 week old boy developed a perianal abscess. the ER prescribed antibiotics for the infection to see if it goes away before needing to be put under for surgery to drain it.

i’m worried about the adverse affects of giving him antibiotics so young. please comment if you’ve had to give your little one antibiotics and if they still grew up to have a great immune system? or are they sick constantly? i read a journal that said it could affect his lungs negatively the rest of his life. please make this worried mom feel better.

he’s been on the antibiotics for 24 hours and he seems to be extremely upset, his tummy seems to hurt and his stool has turned a green mucousy texture that looks freaky. my husband wants us to stop the antibiotics but i explained that you should always finish a round and never stop the course.

Just wondering where to draw the line here…

We just fed our baby “real food” for the first time at 6mos. We used the Earth’s Best Infant Oatmeal mixed with a bit of breast milk as recommended by the pediatrician. All was going well until measuring the portions.

I am way overthinking this but is it bad to use the same measuring spoons we use for daily use in our kitchen? They’ve been washed in the dishwasher, and by hand, many times, but have definitely touched honey in their lifetimes. I had also eaten /handled honey that morning . What if my handwashing although I would call it vigorous, wasn’t sufficient?

Spiraling… please calm me down with some research. Do other people have these thoughts? 🫣😅

I just went through a purge of all of my car seats and most of them are now expired and need to be replaced, but I’m curious about my booster seats. I’m seeing some information that says they expire, but I’m not seeing anything backing up how or why that would be the case. Does anyone know why they might become less safe with age? For context I’m a foster parent so my kids aren’t going to follow the standard age progression (I’ll have an older child and then a younger child) and I like to have a wide variety of safe seats available in my home.

Hi,

I’m a mom to a 4m-old baby and have been cooking with part fresh produce and part canned food to save time.

Canned food is usually vegetables (green beans, corn, green peas), beans, crushed tomatoes, and maybe salmon/tuna that are low sodium and have no other ingredients except for preservatives (citric acid and other common ones.)

I feel guilty.. with concerns that I’m exposing the baby to the preservatives and heavy metal through breastmilk.

I’d love to cook exclusively with fresh produce from scratch again, but that day will have to wait a bit.

Are my concerns warranted? How much of the “bad” of the canned food can transfer through breastmilk?

Any insights are appreciated. Thank you!

- Sleep-deprived and worried mama.

/ Cross-posted.

“So far (the FDA) hasn’t finalized enforceable limits on arsenic, cadmium or mercury in baby food — only lead.”

Hi there
I’m a mom of a 10 month old who seems to be behind on milestones: he doesnt get into sitting position and he doesn’t pull himself to stand unless I help. He says babababa but cannot point, doesn’t wave back and generally doesnt imitate much. I have a lot of anxiety (which I need to work on) because two of his cousins have autism. When I started noticing he’s behind his cohort of babies, I started to worry if this was symptomatic of a broader delay that’s gonna come … I’m spiralling and some research may help. I know this sub is strict on comments but any sharing of similar experience will help me.
Thank you

I came across a paper that challenges the conventional recommendation to avoid adding salt to foods for infants aged 6–12 months.

The researchers reviewed studies and dietary guidelines published between 1904 and 2021 and reached these conclusions:

• Kidney function: By 6 months, infants generally have sufficient kidney function to excrete sodium. The authors argue that many concerns about immature kidneys originate from studies involving newborns and infants younger than 3 months.
• Blood pressure: There is insufficient evidence that higher sodium intake during infancy causes hypertension later in life. Some studies found small differences in blood pressure, but long-term results were inconclusive.
• Salt preference: There is insufficient evidence that introducing salt during infancy creates a lifelong preference for salty foods.
• Sodium requirements: The U.S. National Academies established an adequate intake of 370 mg of sodium daily for infants aged 7–12 months. The researchers suggest that infants eating unsalted complementary foods may consume only 150–300 mg daily.
• Potentially inadequate intake: The authors argue that avoiding added salt altogether could result in insufficient sodium intake during an important period of growth and development.

Based on the findings from the article, I think there's a reasonable argument that babies' food should be salted to taste rather than automatically prepared without any added salt.

Link to Paper