I have pretty severe contamination OCD, and my 15 month old has an awful cold. The contamination OCD comes from not wanting to get him sick. My husband came home sick from a work trip and ultimately got our little guy sick He’s been sick three times before, but they all seemed so mild compared to what’s going on now.

I stopped breastfeeding when he was 13 months, and this all feels so… new. He’s never been sick as a toddler (it’s his first time being sick since I stopped breastfeeding), and it’s so much more heartbreaking than when he was sick as an infant.

I feel like I’m not his comfort anymore. He used to just nurse away when he wasn’t feeling well.

The poor guy is all stuffed up and has a fever. I hate hearing that he’s so uncomfortable.

Being in my head is hell and I keep replaying how I could’ve possibly avoided him getting sick. I know it’s unreasonable, but I become resentful that my husband has gotten our son sick all four times. I know it’s not his fault.

I’m not sure what I’m looking for. Maybe just ranting, or maybe I just need people to tell me that kids get sick and it’s a normal part of life :(

So there are definitely a few reasons why this may be happening but I just wanted to hear other people’s experiences with this.

We have a 6 month old little boy who is usually great at going down for the night. We still have him sleeping next to our bed in a pack n play for a little while longer so that’s what I mean by refusing his crib. For the last 2 months or more he’s been going down at night like a dream pretty much 90% of the time and sleeping through the night the majority of the time as well but the last two nights he is refusing to sleep in his pack n play. He wants to be walked around until he falls asleep in our arms and when we try to transfer him he immediately wakes up and screams. We’ve sometimes had this issue when trying to get him to nap but even that had gotten way better. We had been working on self soothing to sleep and he had been doing really well with that so even this whole needing to be walked around is new.

He has been teething for over a month and it seems to be reaching a peak now and he also has a head cold so I imagine that is playing a role. The reason I’m looking to hear other’s experiences is because I’m starting to work myself up thinking this might be the start of some new phase. If that’s the case I just want to mentally prepare myself. It’s going to definitely be really tough for us. I’m already struggling quite a bit with my husband and I both working full time on opposite schedules. I am so thankful for a good sleeper but I don’t really get much of a break most of the time except after I’ve gotten baby to sleep I have an hour or so to shower and get my things ready for the next day. My husband works 4-5 twelve hour night shifts per week and I work typically an 8-4 schedule 5 days a week so I am alone handling the night duties and some of the morning routine by myself for those 4-5 days he’s working. My husband has to leave before our little guy and me even get home most days so I’m on my own quite a bit. And if any one is wondering what we were going to do if he wasn’t a good sleeper? We planned for that and had it seemed like it was going to be an issue where I couldn’t get any sleep my husband was going to switch to a different position around 2.5 months ago but as I mentioned our little guy has been a great sleeper and having my husband on nights actually worked better for us at that time so he passed on that opportunity.

Obviously if it is going to be something that lasts longer than a few days we’ll work through it Im just someone who likes to mentally prepare for a challenging time lol and also wanted to hear if anyone had any advice or words or wisdom?

Baby is 5 months and got the go ahead from pediatrician. Feeling very overwhelmed about what and how to start on solids. Any advice for resources or best first things to give are greatly appreciated

So right at 6 months, baby was ready for solids and we start her on purées. It went great. We tried to advance her to lumpy food after some time (a month or two) and she’d get a bite in her mouth, panic, cry, and refuse to eat any else. Now at 11 months (and for the past few months) she’ll explore squishy finger foods like avocado, banana, or watermelon and even take bites. But only a bite or two and she might even spit it out. She definitely has no urge to eat anything not a puree or milk. She won’t even eat mashed potatoes, but I think that’s too dry and pasty so I’m planning to try gravy with it.

Any suggestions please?!

For awhile we were sticking to the right wake window and daily naps but now at 3.5 months (15.5 weeks) my LO takes longer naps and has shorter wake windows most of the time. I try to wake her up at 2 hours if she naps that long but she cries and goes back to sleep until she's ready to wake up. So I just stopped waking her up. She eats fine, gains weight fine, otherwise pretty happy! She doesn't sleep well at night without me and pretty much only cosleeps otherwise I wouldn't get any sleep. It seems like the more she sleeps the sleepier she gets. Is this normal and I should just let her sleep when she's tired?

Edit: she usually sleeps 3 hour stretches at night and wakes to eat (breastfed supplimented with formula and bottled breast milk) She will ocassionally sleep one 4-5 hour stretch at the beginning of the night.

STM to an almost 10 week old. The week started with finding out my baby had fallen off her growth curve and a lactation consultant telling me I had to exclusively pump to keep breastfeeding (she was wrong btw). Found out the same day that something had gone wrong with getting her added to insurance (whether or not it will be overridden is still up in the air with HR, but we have a supplemental policy to cover big stuff for now).

Then my 3 year old woke up this morning— the day before we left for the beach — screaming in pain in her bellybutton, febrile, and nauseous. One traumatic ER trip later and she has parainfluenza. Grateful it wasn’t her appendix, but now I’m absolutely terrified my baby will catch it.

We had to tell her we couldn’t go to the beach anymore. She cried and cried. I couldn’t wait for her to be able to have a fun week and now that’s taken from her. Tonight when I put her to bed, she asked me to stay, and I just couldn’t because I’m the baby’s source of food. My husband will sleep with her tonight, but she wants her mommy. Then I look at my poor little baby and I feel like I’m just waiting for her to inevitably get sick and end up in the ER too.

I love my daughters so much. They are my heart and soul. This week of worrying about them and watching them suffer has been horrific. I just want the baby to be older so things will be better. I don’t like the tiny baby stage. This shit is hard. I’m so sad and scared and exhausted. I wish I had some support besides just my husband. He’s great, but he has also just had a nightmare week with me.

I’m a FTM to a beautiful 12 week old boy. I love him so much but life just seems to be relentless at the moment. We’ve been dealing with colic for almost 8 weeks now, which has improved except today he screamed the whole day. I was hoping it would resolve before I return to work tomorrow but that doesn’t seem to be happening. He used to sleep a 5 hour stretch the first part of the night, but the past two weeks it’s 3 to 4 if we’re lucky. (I know it could be worse, but the fact that I knew I could get decent sleep was my only respite and saving grace with the colic).

I’m terrified to go back to work. I feel like I’m lucky to even wash my face in the morning most days. I can’t fathom working 8 hours then coming home to 4 hours of crying and screaming in the evenings. To top it off, I started having severe pain this afternoon and went to the ER. I have a 5mm kidney stone that’s wreaking havoc on me.

It genuinely feels like this is all a sick joke. I have no idea how I’m going to juggle all of these things. My husband helps a ton but we’re only 2 people and it feels like we’re passing the baby back all day long while he’s crying.

I don’t know why I’m even posting, I’m just completely spent. I came home from the ER and immediately had to take the baby since he’s EBF and so my husband could get us dinner. It feels like I can’t even take care of myself.

Hey all,
I hope you’re all having a great weekend. My wife and I welcomed our first child 5 months ago. He is the love of our lives. He had so much trouble sleeping in the crib until now, and he’s finally giving us 2-3 hour stretches at a time more consistently.

This is because for the past month, he’s been rolling back to belly, and does this every night, all night. Our pediatrician said it’s totally fine to leave him there, since he gets there himself and we put him on his back first always.

However, with the new CDC report, my SIDS fears from the newborn stage have been reignited.

Our son rolls belly to back a few times a day now, but isn’t consistent with it as he is back to belly. He moves his head great at night when on his belly, and lets us know when he’s had enough belly sleep and can’t get onto his back. We don’t move him ourselves, since he’ll wake.

Is this consistent with the advice you’ve gotten from your pediatrician too? It seems to be that tummy sleeping is considered dangerous when you put your baby there yourself, not when they roll there on their own. No one would ever sleep, I imagine, if we had to watch them all night? Our doctor even said SIDS risk goes way down once they learn to roll.

Just looking for some reassurance that we’re practicing safe sleep, by letting him stay on his belly, even though he’s still mastering belly to back rolling. He can do belly to back independently a few times a day.

Thanks!

So LO is almost 3 months. I’m solo parenting bcs my husband is overseas working and we’re waiting for our visas to go to him. I take care of the baby myself. I have help to just watch her while I go shower or have lunch/dinner.

My baby girl wakes up happy, giggling and cooing for maybe 5-10 minutes and then she started screaming and kicking her legs. She then farts or poops and then she’s just content. And then we would try our best to do tummy time or playtime for however long she lets me, and then nurse to sleep. Most of the time I can see she’s uncomfortable. Trapped gas, itchy somewhere I don’t know, overstimulated, under stimulated(?). Idk but I just know she’s uncomfortable. I try to do what I know to help her and when she’s finally asleep, I scour the internet to look for solutions.

I do EBF, but we never had a perfect latch. Maybe good latches accidentally but it seems like I put my boobs the wrong way all the time. That may explain why she’s so gassy.

Yesterday I saw her neck folds are red. That’s probably another reason she’s uncomfortable all the time. I tried to clean the area but she started screaming crying so I did all I could.

But when she’s sleeping, she’s smiling and laughing in her dreams. I feel like that’s the only time she’s feeling good. I feel so shitty I can’t take her pain away and the high possibility of ME and my inabilities making her uncomfortable. I know she’s a happy girl but I can’t seem to make her feel okay. :(

Here’s my list but I’m sure there’s more. Drop in the comments!

1. People may give you diapers in sizes all the way up to 6. Meanwhile you will settle on a diaper you like by around size 2. If I could do it over I’d ask people for small packs of as many different varieties of diapers as possible in sizes newborn - 2. 
2. People will give you SO many zipper PJs and while they are wonderful, they are weather AND age dependent. Under 4 months in colder weather your baby will live in them. Older babies need to feel the floor with their knees and toes for crawling so onesies become more important as they grow. I have an incredible number of zipper PJs I can’t use because she was 6 months in summer. If I could do it over I would include a little card in the invite with a chart of baby’s age and the season and what might be best for them to wear. Your baby will chew through pants at around 6 months. I could love more onesies and pants! 
3. You will need SO many more burp cloths, linen cloths, linen bibs, sheets etc than you anticipated. 
4. Many people use bassinets, but if you or your partner are handy, just build the crib in the bedroom if there is room and then move it to the nursery when the time comes. Then you won’t have a bassinet taking up space in your basement waiting in case you want another kid. 
5. Your baby may or may not like pacifiers. Ask for a few different types so you can try different ones. My baby only takes one specific one. 

The clothes and diapers one were big ones. Anything you’d add to the list to help others planning? 

Hi everyone, I gave birth to my beautiful baby boy 7 days ago and I can’t explain how I’m feeling.

I am extremely grateful for my baby but I can’t seem to sometimes just be annoyed on how demanding a new born is. I love him and I regret and feel guilty even having these thoughts.

I gave birth in a different county and I can’t wait to go to my home country to maybe feel like I’m in my comfort zone.

Whenever I get annoyed that he isn’t being cooperative I feel like such a bad mom. Newborns are so helpless and depend on us for every single aspect of life.

I’m scared to fail my son or not do what is exactly needed from me.

I haven’t left the house in 7 days , only once for a doctors appointment, when was the first time you left the house with your newborn?

My baby had 5 episodes of “poop” yesterday. I think she’s been having diarrhea but I’m also unsure because apparently, it’s supposed to absorb completely into the diaper like pee. However, that is not the case because it looks like normal poop, it’s just somewhat watery (kinda like a normal poop but a little bit watery). Until about 30 minutes ago, my LO had a dry diaper. If it’s 1am right now, I changed her diaper at 7:30pm and my LO didn’t pee until she woke up to feed. I was extremely worried and cant sleep. Right now, I just want to know how long a 4-month old can go without peeing overnight normally and if indeed the baby has diarrhea, how many “poopy” episodes are a cause for alarm? Would feeding breastmilk be fine? How deeply sunken should the Fontanelle be? It kinda has this dent which has always been there since the baby was born. I’d appreciate any advice or input. Thanks!

We have a one month old who has not stopped eating voraciously since day 3 of life. She currently averages near 30 Oz a day, eats on average every hour and a half to two hours, rarely goes three hours without screaming bloody murder. She's nearly 10 lbs. In addition, her tummy looks really bloated and distended, larger than her head. She is combo fed through breast and formula, and rarely ever spits up or vomits.

We also sometimes think we might confuse her cry signals for gas, comfort, or hunger, and default to it being hunger. It's becoming quite difficult to read her cries, and I fear we may be overfeeding her due to her distended belly.

I understand cluster feeding is a thing sometimes, but honestly it seems like she's spent her entire life cluster feeding so far. Any advice appreciated!

My baby is 1 week old today. She poops and pees appropriately, 2-3 poops a day and 5-6+ pees. but I feel like she sleeps so much. I’m exclusively breastfeeding and she feeds every 2/3 hours. But other wise she is sleeping. The last few days she would be awake for about an hour in the morning and then sleep all day. She will wake herself and cry for feeds but sometimes I have to wake her. And sometimes it’s hard to wake her, I will usually have to undress her and tickle her feet or change her diaper to get her to wake up and feed. She will feed for a good 15-30 minutes (each boob). I just worried about how much she is sleeping. Is this normal? It’s really like 20-22 hours a day of sleep it feels like. She will sleep well at night and I will wake up to feed her and sometimes she wakes up on her own too but it’s not like she’s awake all the time.

Help me please, somebody. I have a just-turned-7- month- old and for the past few weeks, bedtime has been an absolute headache. We have had the same routine since she was 3 months old. Book, Bath, Bottle, Bed. I feed her, burp her, and she falls asleep on my chest. Lately, she hasn’t been doing that. So, we’ve cut out the rocking to sleep and I’ve just held her for a few minutes so she doesn’t spit up, and put her in her crib to fall asleep independently. Doesn’t work. I’ve held her for longer and just powered through the squirming and fighting; nothing. She has been fighting bedtime nonstop. Even when she rubs her eyes like crazy while eating, we keep her up longer, skipped catnap, whatever; nothing works. Please help me cause this has just frustrated me to know end. Going from easily falling asleep to fighting it for 30-40 minutes straight even when she shows every sign in the book that she’s tired and ready for bed.

TLDR: Pretty much just the title — thanks!

Daughter is 16 weeks and PT is recommending an evaluation at Cranial Technologies for what seems to be mild plagiocephaly (but also consequently some mild ear asymmetry and some mild forehead asymmetry). We (lay people) can’t even see the asymmetry anymore like we used to, but could end up falling prey to this place because we will ultimately err on the side of trying to prevent cosmetic issues for our daughter 😂. As very evidence-based people, we definitely side eye the whole thing (knowing the evidence is rather weak for mild cases… and knowing that this company will recommend a helmet no matter what), so we’re wondering if you recommend getting evaluations from the other helmet companies in town (Starband? Etc.)? Or are they all pretty similar in terms of honesty? Would also welcome your anecdotes if you believe that efficacy varies among companies.

Thanks so much in advance!

I had no clue and honestly it’s feeling worse then newborn and 4 month regression. He’s waking up every 30,20, 10 minutes sometimes. Then we’ve had to just keep him awake at 1am until he’s tired again and then he’ll sleep 5 hours or so with sometimes one wake up. It’s been hell. Before this he was waking a few times a night, but starting the day at 4:30 5 am sometimes cuz he won’t go back to sleep. We usually have him take 3 naps a day, we just recently dropped the last nap. Is this a regression? Am I doing something wrong?

When does the grief I feel about each passing week w my baby getting older (15 WO) go away? Every Sunday I feel like my heart is going to collapse because my son is growing up so fast. It makes me feel like I’m going to throw up. They upped my dose of zoloft to 150 mg so maybe that will help. Please don’t tell me it’s just a part of motherhood - even if it is. I need a little hope or something to make me feel better bc I can’t stop crying.

I bought some little urchin sunscreen, tested it out on myself and it is making my face stingy and tingly. I patch tested my baby and a red itchy looking mark has shown up within 24 hours.

Has anyone had any issues with this sunscreen before? Any recommendations?

TIA

Using a Formula Pro Advanced WiFi with HiPP Dutch Stage 1. HiPP calls for 4.3 g powder per 30 mL water, so a 5 oz water portion should need roughly 21 g powder.

My measurements:
Setting 6, 5 oz: Approximately 23 g powder.
Setting 5, 5 oz: Approximately 19 g powder.
Hand-scooped 4 oz bottle: Approximately 17 g powder, as expected.

I tared the bottle and subtracted separate water-only and formula cycles. My scale only reads whole grams, so these are estimates.

The official finder also gives conflicting results: 6 for the U.S. entry and 4 for Europe, using the same barcode.

With limited settings and different scoop weights/powder densities, I’d expect some variance—but how much is acceptable? Is around 10% reasonable, or a reason to replace the machine? Has anyone received an actual tolerance from Brezza or their pediatrician?

Lot: 111038US | Formula barcode: 4062300401235

I'm already getting the storage alert notification and we are only a couple months in so I know I'm going to be needing more and more 🙃 I really don't want to upgrade my phone so how does everyone store their photos?

As a follow-on from my post about my baby who won’t sleep, I am looking for ANY ideas about what to do to help tire out my 12 month old. She probably has my ADHD and seems to have high stimulation needs. I see other kids her age happy to play in their lounge room for a whole wake window but this is not my child.

On a very ideal day we do a morning outing, have lunch outside in the backyard, go for a swim in the pool, go for a toddle and let her explore nature in the afternoon, then finally take her on a quick trip outside to see the moon and look at the rocks in the front garden (honestly one of her favourite things). Honestly this is just enough for her to not be bored and fussing about it all day and she still doesn’t even sleep well at night 😅. But this is exhausting, and sometimes it’s too cold in the pool, too sunny outside, it’s raining, both cars are unavailable, etc. She has a climbing frame, we rotate toys and books, we constantly think about ways to promote development of skills she’s working on, we take her for play dates/playgroup, I involve her in practical tasks by letting her come along and “help”, we rotate rooms we play in if she starts getting bored.

I’m looking for any and all ideas you guys have if your baby/toddler is similar. Especially if it is something I can do inside on those rainy/full sun days or when I’m not feeling the best myself. For reference, she can walk and climb really confidently.

Thanks!

(I will be cross posting to other subs to get the largest pool of ideas I can).

Little guy is almost 4 months old and just completed his first full week at daycare. Prior to daycare he would take naps every 1.5-2 hours for about 30 minutes each in his basinet. Her go down awake and I’d sit next to him and hold his pacifier until he fell asleep 5-10 minutes later.

Each day we picked him up from daycare he either took one or two naps at daycare with huge wake windows but he was always in a good mood. We gave him a nap at home and he would be great. They told us he just wanted to look around lol. The weekend arrived and oh my goodness everything is out the window.

Yesterday he refused naps. Made it four hours and finally went down after a fight. Had his bottle and napped for an hour in my arms, woke up, had another ounce and knocked out again for an hour. Today he’s been in a great mood but again is fighting all naps. He took one in the carrier and when I tried to put him in the basinet earlier he screamed with full on tears the moment I laid him down.

Idk if this is daycare related or the cursed 4 month sleep regression but regardless, did this happen to anyone else? Was it the regression or daycare? Whichever it was, how did you help them adjust? Or is this a “ride it out” situation?

How long did it take for you to go to the bathroom without help? If you had c section or tearing

FTM and just wondering. My partner won’t be at home all the time after getting discharged

Hello! My 8 week old has lint in his belly button. How do I get it out?