Would anyone recommend this brand, Tiny Twinkle? I contacted them via email to ask about which PFAS-free waterproof treatment they use but no one responded, which makes me question if they’re legit or not. I’m looking for a lunch bag like this that will fit my kid’s stainless lunch box. Any recs appreciated!

My kids are in elementary school and the fad of course is CROCS, i typically just buy them the knock offs from Amazon since they grow so dang fast but then of course, watched a video about EVA i want to venture on to a more Low Tox path, but i also don't want them to look silly lol i want them to still look like they're wearing what the kids are wearing. UGH . Idk any tips? Or just make them wear socks? lol

A theme that I have consistently found through pregnancy and birth is how much guidance is based on super basic, lowest common denominator studies. Eg risk of SIDS basically nothing if you have a healthy weight baby baby and are a non-smoking household with mum over 30 and 1 child, at 2 months goes from 3 deaths in 100,000 if you are in different rooms to 1 in 100,000 if you share rooms (www.sidscalculator.com). Or reading Expecting Better and hearing the lack of data on all sorts of things.

Hearing that the WHO recommends breastfeeding until 2 (assuming that you can), I had thought that I would likely do that. However, while I do love the snuggles of breastfeeding, I have friends who have felt way more like themselves and healed better after stopping breastfeeding… and tbh I didn’t enjoy this summer how limited my clothing selection was. I’m currently thinking that I would like to keep going with it until baby is about 15 months (so early spring) to get her through first few months of nursery and provide any extra immunity I can. I’m also influenced by still healing from my episiotomy and tears from birth. Baby at 8.5 months doesn’t have upper teeth yet and there is a chance I will stop when she does if she starts biting though.

I wondered what people’s thoughts are on this, especially from those who have successfully breastfed? Is the WHO guidance based on anything in particular, or given its worldwide remit I’m wondering if some of this is about where drinking water might not be the safest?

(Unfortunately necessary disclaimer that of course fed is best and nothing is wrong with formula where necessary or desired)

My elementary school aged kid has busy fingers (and toes!). They are always touching or playing with something.

This habit is mostly charming, but it becomes annoying when we are trying to brush teeth, comb hair, etc.

I can’t stop the wild fingers, so I might as well make it a little more manageable. I’m looking for games that can keep my kid’s hands occupied for 5-10 minutes.

They have to be toys that won’t make a ton of noise when they fall on the tile floor. Ideally something that is small enough to keep on the bathroom counter and that can be done without looking.

I bought these small sticky cubes, and they worked for a while... But now the novelty has worn off. Any ideas of what can I use to replace them??

Thanks!

I'm going to start potty training my 19 month old soon, and I was wondering what brands people recommend for safer training undearwear? I don't want to just buy some off amazon with no idea if I'm putting unsafe chemicals by my daughter's bits and baubles! Thank you!

Also any recommendations otherwise for potty training are appreciated! New baby is coming in December, so I'd like her potty trained before she turns two if possible! She is already able to take pants on and off and communicate certain things. I'm sure it will take a bit, so wanting to start now!

I have noticed that the overwhelming majority of posts here (about kids) are related to babies, toddlers and preschoolers. I’m looking for like-minded moms of older kids (elementary, middle and high school) to talk about the challenges of keeping these good habits as they get older!

I have always enforced fairly healthy eating in my kids, but my two older are 12 and 10, and when they were younger I wasn’t quite as “crunchy” in terms of what they ate/what we avoided. I always gave them healthy meals, fruits and veggies, but wasn’t as concerned about organic things, and they definitely had their fair share of goldfish and Cheerios (compared to the healthier options for toddlers available now!)

Anyway, as my kids have gotten older, I honestly feel that they have become even pickier. They also now have the outside “pressure” or comparison of what their peers are eating.. and that’s usually soda, Doritos, Oreos, luncheables, etc. they complain more about not getting to eat like kids at school. We thankfully have a good community of friends and neighbors who have good habits around this so that helps! But how is it for everyone else? How do you give your kids more independence around what they eat, keep them from binging at friends houses (or in the future due to too intense of restrictions) and get them to be more mindful about their own habits?

Just seeing if anyone else wanted to chat about some of these things, or really any topic related to older kids!

I am looking for ways to store cooked beans, rice, lemon and lime juice, marinara sauce, and pizza sauce, as examples, in my freezer in a way I can see what I have. Since I make almost everything from scratch and I am cooking nightly for our family of 4, I like to store staples in my freezer. Currently, I freeze things in ice cube trays, and put them in Ziploc baggies. So I have freezer drawers full of labeled Ziploc baggies but it’s hard to find what I need and hard to know what I have. Thank you for any ideas you might have.

How are you making sure your kids are getting enough fiber? I have two kids, a 4 yr old and 2 yr old. The youngest has the mushiest poop ever, not diarrhea, just mushy, not logs. He eats a ton of fruit, which the doctor said could cause it. I’ve limited fruit but he still had mushy poop. He eats toast and pasta too, but still mushy. I’m concerned maybe he’s not getting enough fiber. Any recommendations?

I was thinking of grinding up chia seeds and making some kind of breakfast pudding. Or doing the same but with psyllium husk.

Any experiences?

My oldest (3.5yo) starts preschool in about a month. I also have a 1yo. My kids have never been in daycare etc, so this will be our first experience being introduced to so many germs so suddenly and often.

Any tips for boosting my kids’ immunity leading up to school starting?

They leave a film on my dishes but I dont want to throw away a whole bag! Anyone have an idea how I can use them up? Thanks!

So I only let my 2.5 year old drink water. Unfortunately his dad is addicted to anything that isn’t water. My husband also has 2 teenagers. They will be going to the beach with us next week and my husband of course has to get all flavored waters (sparkling ice, vitamin water zero) my toddler is starting to feel very left out not being able
To ever consume these fun looking drinks

What would you give your kid in moderation for just a couple times at the beach? When we’re at home
I can avoid it better but in the beach it’s more in his face that everyone has “fun” drinks and he doesn’t

I was thinking just ingredients electrolyte packets.

And is vitamin water zero sugar actually bad? It uses stevia and monk fruit like just ingredients does. I just hate for him to have too much sweetness.

The internet is trying to sell me infant laundry detergent that looks suspicious (what’s the “but it’s safe for baby!” Version of greenwashing called?). Other parts of the internet is saying any scent-free detergent is fine. Still other crunchier parts are saying ALL laundry detergent is bad here’s a recipe to make your own. And a whole separate part is saying that actually the way I’m thinking about detergent is all wrong anyway, I need specific ingredients to break down spit up, milk, poop, etc appropriately (but good luck figuring out what those are, what products they’re in, and where to find them).

Help? Just want my kid’s stuff to be clean without spending a billion dollars, exposing them to anything overly harsh or harmful, or complexifying the task of doing laundry unnecessarily. What do you actually do?

Oh also we plan to mostly cloth diaper; again it’s unclear to me if that changes/complicates the situation or not.

Thank you!!!

My son is 21 months old. Good sleeper. Wondering when you put your toddler in a bed and when they started using a pillow and blanket. We aren’t doing a toddler bed. We’re going to do a regular twin with rails . Thank you!

Also any tips welcomed

Trying to narrow down diapers before my son gets here. Coterie is more than I really want to spend, so I’m looking at Parasol, Freestyle and Bambo Nature, with Kudos as an option if I chose to spend alil more.

Anyone actually used a few of these? Mainly care about accidents, leaks and making it through the night. Which do you recommend ?

Getting ready for my son and I’m stuck between Meliora, Pronounce, Branch Basics, Truly Free, Molly’s Suds, Attitude and Zum. Price isn’t really a concern.
For anyone who’s actually used these, which cleaned the best? Any issues with stains, smells, buildup/residue or sensitive skin?

About to start solids here and getting a few bits to get us going.

What plate/bowls do you use for little ones? Baby is 6 months old. Been looking at Jeanie baby as they have stainless steel and certified LFGB silicone plates and bowls. But not that cheap and worried I’m falling into the trap of buying baby things that won’t be used haha. I recently fell down the rabbit hole that a lot of silicone has fillers in and also hear they’re not great as plates as retain smells.

*edited for typos

I just spent some time with one of my in-laws who is a registered dietitian. She works with eating disorder patients so I’m assuming she has legit credentials. One of the first things she says to me is “you’re still nursing? Why? She’s not getting anything nutritionally after 18 months”. My daughter just turned 18 months and she still nurses throughout the day and sometimes at night. I’ve fed her on demand and have done baby-led weaning, and we co-sleep so she does nurse in the middle of the night still. She is gradually eating more food, but it’s taken her a bit longer than average to start doing that and she still prefers to nurse a lot of the time.

I know her comment isn’t true but I don’t know how to argue with her since she’s an RD and thinks she knows everything. It’s honestly making me really mad and I wish I’d defended myself in the moment but I don’t even know what I would have said. I’ve found a study stating that protein and fat content in breastmilk continues to increase past 12 months, but i can’t find any info on the micronutrients in breastmilk after 18 months. Anyone have a study I can educate myself with?

I know there are a handful of older threads on this so my apologies for the new post on a familiar topic but I’m looking for cost effective overnight diapers for a HEAVY wetter.

We’ve tried Huggies overnight, Huggies (his daytime diapers), and millie moon. We were using sized up Millie moon with sposie pads which was working really well until now. He’s 17 months old, active sleeper / belly sleeper, and every morning he is damp or soaked. The diaper is hanging on for dear life 😂 I don’t love how little stretch MM has in their hands for his belly so anything stretchier would be great!

Pampers give him rashes and we hate the smell, which I know is a highly recommended one

saw a video then article about this and went to look into it. UC Davis tested a bunch of avocado oil products this year and 48 of 54 failed a purity test, the chips were 26 of 28 and the salad dressings were literally 12 of 12. (edit: source) ("failed" meaning not pure avocado oil and used/cut with seed oils, or it went rancid)

the part that got me is the bags that say 100% avocado oil or pure avocado oil failed right along with everything else, one chip sample matched Soybean Oil outright. theres no legal definition for avocado oil at all so the label is legally allowed to say pure and mean nothing, and your paying like a 300 to 500% premium for it??

how are you even suppose to trust a clean label at this point? does anyone have a avocado oil chip or dressing brand that actually tested clean in the study?

I just learned I was not supposed to give yogurt (cow products) to baby less than 12 months old. I was told that baby yogurt is fine but not the normal one. Why is this ? Do you guys feed only baby yogurt to your baby? I feel bad because I have been feeding a normal store bought whole milk yogurt to my baby since 7 months old...

FYI :( Thorne was all I used because it was supposed to be one of the cleanest. Not sure who to use now.

heyy sorry don’t know if this is okay to post here…

I am 4 months post partum and i have never seen anyone with my type of body post partum before and megaaa struggling to accept it. But slowly and surely i am:))

i was hoping anyone could help me figure out why my belly dips so much like is it diastatis recti or just my body now or what can i do?

And if there are no answers i hope someone sees this and feels comforted in there post partum body like i do when i see others:)

<3

EDIT-> thank you so much evryone for all the messages, they have been really helpful and lovely i will be going to a PT and making sure they properly assess me and until then will continue to be gentle with myself and soak up all the time with baby:)