Age specific questions from about 1 year to about 3 years. Younger: infant. Older: pre-schooler.
24
votes
17answers
2k views
What are some do's and dont's for an effective bedtime ritual?
I think most parents agree that it's helpful to follow some fixed ritual when putting a child to bed.
What elements in such rituals are particularly useful, and what should be avoided?
There are ...
61
votes
16answers
4k views
How can you deal with tantrums without spanking?
My son just turned 2, and he started throwing more tantrums on us.
He doesn't eat well or drink enough milk ... and he is becoming more adamant and says "No" more often. If we force him to drink ...
13
votes
4answers
1k views
How can we potty-train our pre-schooler outside the home?
We're having problems with our 3.5 year-old boy concerning potty training:
Since his birth it seems, that being cleaned is much more unpleasing to him than running around with brimful diapers for ...
14
votes
4answers
8k views
Getting a 2-year-old back to sleep in the middle of the night
We have always had trouble with our little boy not sleeping through the night. He will do it in spells (every night for a week, then not at all for a fortnight). But he has recently developed a ...
8
votes
1answer
914 views
How do you discourage a toddler from hitting people?
From talking to other parents, it seems like most boys (children?) go through an early stage of hitting at around 1. I have a 14-month old (2nd) son who occasionally hits me in the face, and ...
15
votes
8answers
504 views
What do we do when timeouts are not effective?
We have a three year old toddler, and he has just seemed to realize that timeouts are nothing more than him sitting in a corner for a few minutes. He has recently started doing a whole suite of bad ...
15
votes
9answers
18k views
How do you know when it is time to take a child to the Doctor?
Our children have recently been sick and I am wondering when is the right time to take them to the doctor. They both have had runny noses with coughs, diarrhea, and fevers off and on for a week, ...
12
votes
3answers
691 views
How can we discipline our toddler?
TL;DR version: Toddler doesn't understand disciplining. Help needed.
At 22 months, our toddler is incredibly active and always has been. He's also mostly very well-behaved, especially when being ...
10
votes
7answers
1k views
How do I cope with my toddler's jealousy towards her newborn brother and sister?
We had 2 adorable twins in January. Our older daughter is jealous of them and our life has become a nightmare. How can we address her jealousy and improve our situation?
13
votes
8answers
4k views
How to calm a toddler before bedtime?
I don't know about older children, but toddlers often get more agitated as they get more tired and by the time they are in bed it can take a while before they actually sleep.
I often read that taking ...
16
votes
5answers
3k views
How can I potty train a 12 month old?
I want to potty train much earlier than is common, when my son is 12 to 14 months old. What's the best way to go about it?
18
votes
13answers
1k views
How do my wife and I stop our son from learning to swear from us?
My wife and I both tend to have... colorful language (for me it tends to be far worse when driving). Our son just turned one, and is starting to become more verbal. He's not quite at the point where ...
18
votes
3answers
266 views
Is it reasonable/common for a daycare to show TV shows during the day?
My son is 18-months-old and he is in a daycare room with kids 16-months to 2.5 years. Most days when I pick him up they are watching TV. The shows range from somewhat educational (Dora, Sesame St.) ...
15
votes
5answers
2k views
At what age can/should a child be able to clean themselves after bowel movements?
How can parents find the right time to encourage a child to clean itself after bowel movements?
Our son is nearly 4 years old and it is still difficult for him to get to the toilet early enough (see ...
11
votes
9answers
1k views
When should I transition a 2 year old toddler from the cot to a bed?
My son turned 2 today, and we have been considering for a long time to transition him to a bed. Specially since he already sleeps in a bed at the daycare.
I am afraid that he will not want to stay in ...
9
votes
9answers
591 views
How can I get my toddler to eat as well for us as he does at daycare?
My son (currently 23 months old) attends an in-home daycare 5 days a week. The daycare provider cooks homemade meals for the kids, and provides snacks.
By every report she gives, our son gives her ...
8
votes
5answers
9k views
How do you prevent a toddler from waking too early?
My 18 month old has started waking up progressively earlier every morning for the past couple of weeks. It used to be that he would wake up between 6am-7am, which was no problem because I would wake ...
9
votes
4answers
1k views
How can I switch an exclusively breastfed 1-year-old to food?
My 1 year old daughter eats very little. Infact she doesn't even drink bottled milk. Not to mention she hasn't gained much weight in the last couple of months. She mostly survives on mothers milk.
...
8
votes
3answers
244 views
How to get 2 year old to vocalize words?
I have a two year old (just turned two) boy that doesn't speak much. He vocalizes only a few words (like "mom", "up", and "grandpa") clearly but other than those, he's largely silent. He seems ...
14
votes
6answers
3k views
When should a child stop using a pacifier, and how can I help with this transition?
I am curious how a child can be helped to move on from his/her pacifier, and what age is a good age to do this?
11
votes
6answers
1k views
How to better engage myself with my 15 month old
My 15 month old toddler is very active and I often find it challenging to match his pace.
He seems to get bored with his toys very quickly. Earlier he used to be very much interested in my laptop and ...
11
votes
7answers
6k views
How can I get my toddler to sleep later in the mornings?
My son, now 15 months old, was sleeping through the night, and waking up consistently at 6am. However, over the past few months he had been gradually waking up earlier. Now he wakes up consistently ...
9
votes
7answers
1k views
How can we make a long road trip pleasant for a toddler and the parents?
We're planning to drive to visit my family later this year. It is roughly a 10-11 hour drive if we go straight through (I'm planning on making fairly frequent stops, however, as I think it would be ...
8
votes
11answers
699 views
How to deal with a child in an “I can't” phase?
A 3 1/2 year old child has entered an "I can't" phase. He says "he can't" about things he really can do. It becomes hard to detect when to help or not help, because you're supposed to help children ...
7
votes
3answers
929 views
Encouraging my 2-year-old to play independently
My little boy is 2½, and has never been very good at playing by himself.
When we take him to play-groups he won't ever go more than a few feet away from us at any time; At a party last week, he ...
6
votes
6answers
5k views
Advice for carrying out the “Stay in Bed” technique with our 2-year-old
My two-year old has always had trouble settling and sleeping through the night, but recently the problem seems to have become an awful lot worse. It all came to a head one night a few weeks ago after ...
6
votes
4answers
365 views
Should I stop teaching my toddler a second language if his exposure to it will be limited?
I have stared to talk exclusively in English to my son when he was less than 6 months old. However, we have decided not to move to an English speaking country, so I ended up practically alone.
It's ...
8
votes
5answers
308 views
Kids Website, is it a good idea?
My daughter is just 4 months old. Being a software developer, I register two domains on her name, as soon as her name is finalized.
Now I was looking for some really eye catching kid website ...
6
votes
5answers
2k views
How can I keep a 14 month old busy at some activity for longer than 3 minutes
Our boy loses interest in any activity - playing with toys /playing with us/mock singing/you-name-it very soon
The only exception is watching TV (which can go on for 30 minutes uninterrupted) and he ...
6
votes
7answers
318 views
How do we get an eight month old back to sleeping in his crib?
Our son's crib is in our bedroom, and he was mostly sleeping the whole night in his crib with no issues. Do to a series of events (power outage, spending the night at relatives with no crib, needing ...
2
votes
6answers
223 views
How can I move my toddler's interest from toys to playmates?
My kid is 2 years and 9 months now. For a year now we've been in USA and we were buying him electronic toys (buttons, music, lights, shapes, numbers), so he is very sharp at those, he can say number ...
29
votes
28answers
5k views
How can I brush my toddlers' teeth when he won't let me?
My toddler doesn't like to get his teeth brushed. How do I get him to be more cooperative?
He knows it's part of the bedtime routine and doesn't try to avoid it. He will happily grab and hold out his ...
31
votes
11answers
4k views
What is a positive way to handle a boy who acts like a girl?
My 3yo regularly plays and acts like a girl. For example, he likes to take his arm out of one sleeve on his shirt and pretend he's a princess. He loves to dress up in his mom and sister's clothes. He ...
20
votes
7answers
3k views
How do you teach a toddler rhythm and melody?
My 1 year old daughter loves all kinds of music and rhythm. She dances and "plays" enthusiastically on both guitars, the piano and her toy glockenspiel. This has, since she was just four month, always ...
18
votes
12answers
1k views
What are some tips for making an international flight with a toddler?
We're traveling from SF to Paris (direct) with our 20-month old soon. What are tips for surviving the flight and not having everyone hate us?
15
votes
7answers
735 views
How can I negotiate with a toddler successfully?
Recently our 2.5 daughter started being really annoying about doing simple daily things, like brushing her teeth, dressing, undressing, putting on shoes to go out, etc. Often we need to negotiate up ...
9
votes
5answers
280 views
Should I encourage my 2½ year old to attempt to “read” his own stories?
My little boy is 2½ now, and has enjoyed being read to at bedtime since he was small.
But lately he's started refusing to be read to at all. Instead he says "No, I want to read it" and takes the ...
8
votes
2answers
729 views
When to allow children to consume sugar/candy/sweets/junk?
We have so far not allowed our toddler (20-months) any foods that contain sugar (chocolate, cake, sweets, sweetened juice, etc.) on the premise that consuming sugar is not needed and only causes ...
12
votes
7answers
501 views
Can a toddler spend too much time with books?
Back when we were still expecting our son to be born, we were told all about how important it was to read to our son, even before he was born.
Being avid readers ourselves, my wife and I felt this ...
11
votes
6answers
7k views
How to handle a toddler does not want to fall asleep?
My 2½ year old son does not want to sleep, regardless how tired he is. He will do anything and everything he can think of, just to avoid falling asleep. It usually takes 1-1½ hours (sometimes even ...
9
votes
4answers
251 views
How do you introduce video games without pushing other activities into the background?
I am a gamer.
I enjoy playing video games, and they've been a part of my life since I was a kid.
I believe there are a lot of potential benefits from playing video games, and I want to be able to ...
9
votes
3answers
4k views
How do you teach young kids to defend themselves?
How do you teach kids to defend themselves, without becoming bullies? I'm talking about younger kids (1.5 to 3yo) who are not mature enough (or old enough) to take self-defense classes.
My son is two ...
8
votes
4answers
304 views
Is it normal that a 2½ year old omits any “s” in the start of words?
My son is not quite 3 years old yet. He's doing great in terms of speaking except for one detail: whenever a word begins with an s he will just skip that sound. For instance he consistently says top ...
8
votes
6answers
1k views
How do we help our toddler to sleep through the night?
My 14-month old daughter is no longer breastfeeding, and sleeps happily in her bed, although it is still in our room. But she wakes up around three times at night, and as far as we can determine it's ...
6
votes
3answers
626 views
Attention-promoting activities for a toddler
ADD runs in our family ("in fact, it practically stampedes"), and I'm starting to see my toddler's attention become more and more difficult for him to control; he's beginning to have difficulty ...
6
votes
2answers
371 views
How important is the pronunciation of a toddler's first words?
My 11 month old son has started to talk. He currently has a two-word vocabulary: "uh-oh", and "balloon".
He clearly understands the meaning of the word balloon, and uses it appropriately (his use of ...
5
votes
5answers
268 views
How should I deal with my toddler's difficult behavior towards food?
My daughter is almost 15 months old and has always been a small eater. She was breastfed for the first 5 months then solids were gradually introduced. It went okay for the first few weeks but soon it ...
5
votes
7answers
1k views
When should we allow children to experience spices in food?
Based on this question, I think it would be interesting to hear opinions on use of spices in foods for toddlers.
When we prepare meals, we add the seasoning/spices fairly late. This allows us to ...
17
votes
3answers
4k views
How do you potty train for overnight?
My three year old is well on her way to being potty trained. She rarely has any accidents, , at least during the day. My wife and I put her in pull ups to sleep at night.
My question is, whats the ...
12
votes
4answers
389 views
My son witnessed a friend receiving corporal punishment; how do I prevent this from sending the wrong message?
As I was picking my son up from daycare the other day, another boy's "Nanny" (grandmother, I presume) was picking him up at the same time. The boy was playing, and grabbing on to other children's ...
