All Questions
15
votes
10answers
1k views
What can I do to encourage my 12 year old son to enjoy productive activities?
I have a 12 year old son who if completely left up to his own devices, will spend almost all of his free time doing one of two things, playing casual computer games, and watching TV. I would like to ...
14
votes
5answers
408 views
Help child overcome fear of water on head
My 22-month-old daughter absolutely hates getting her hair wet.
At bathtime, she complains (crying, but without tears) when I pour water on her head in preparation for washing her hair (even if I'm ...
14
votes
5answers
1k views
How long is breastfeeding effective and worthwhile?
I realize that this question can have many personal or subjective viewpoints, so the answer I'm looking for is what the best-known data shows us from two perspectives:
1) Is there an average ...
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 ...
10
votes
6answers
672 views
Does using sign language really accelerate a child's ability to speak?
I have often heard that using sign language is really good in teaching a baby to talk. Is this really true, or is this an urban legend?
Related: Can toddlers learn sign
language?
9
votes
9answers
605 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 ...
9
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.
...
6
votes
7answers
1k views
When should I stop swaddling my baby?
I swaddled my baby in a swaddling blanket for a short time after he was born, and then moved on to a Halo combination sleep sack and swaddle blanket. He is now nearly 3 months old, and I'm still using ...
19
votes
3answers
977 views
When should you start talking with your children about sex?
In a recent episode of Super Nanny (a UK and US show on parenting), I noticed that Jo Frost was openly talking to the parents and older sibling of a family about sex in front of a 6-7 year old.
My ...
12
votes
3answers
483 views
Are there any reputable studies on spanking?
Is there any scientific evidence that non-harmful spanking does or does not exist? Furthermore, is it ever effective (whether or not it is harmful)?
11
votes
6answers
532 views
How do I get my overachiever to accept her mistakes and live up to her abilities?
My seven year old child is a perfectionist and I believe it holds her back. She is so afraid of making a mistake or "failing" that she is afraid to put herself out there. She is similarly afraid to be ...
10
votes
4answers
2k views
What constitutes verbal abuse of one's child?
I frequently see parents engaging in behavior that I perceive to be verbal abuse. However, with so many parents falling in different places with regard to the strictness of their discipline, the ...
10
votes
8answers
7k views
Is the “1 2 3 Magic” strategy for disciplining effective?
Has anyone had experience with the discipline strategies put forth in the book "1 2 3 Magic" by Thomas W Phelan?
"1-2-3 Magic" involves counting your child for bad behavior. For example, your ...
9
votes
3answers
483 views
How can I motivate my child who doesn't care about rewards?
My son is 8 and has always been argumentative and basically lazy with doing ANYTHING since he could talk.
If he has homework that takes ten minutes, he will take two hours due to just leaving the ...
9
votes
9answers
3k views
Help! My 5 year old just won't poop on the toilet
I don't know what to do. We have been trying to get our son to poop in the toilet since he was 3. He is now 5 and shows no signs of starting any time ever. He has done it once or twice but he poops in ...
9
votes
7answers
411 views
When should I introduce different foods to an infant or toddler?
It is often said that you should introduce certain foods in a certain order. These reasons often have to do with allergies, choking hazards, digestive system maturity, etc. What ages should your child ...
8
votes
3answers
257 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 ...
8
votes
5answers
210 views
What are some age-appropriate tasks that my pre-schooler can do around the house?
My wife and I both work full time, this means when we are at home we are both quite busy with housework. This could be in the yard or inside.
As my son is an only child and he wants to spend more ...
8
votes
7answers
1k views
How strict should we be with our 14 month old boy?
Our baby is really sweet :)
Generally can be considered as a good / easy going baby. There are times though, when he gets totally out of control.
I've had a discussion with a child-psychologist who ...
6
votes
1answer
8k views
How can we get our newborn to sleep at night as soundly as he does in the day?
We've just had a new arrival- a little boy, now 7 days old.
During the day he sleeps like a dream. As I write this, he has been asleep for around 4 hours without really stirring at all.
The only ...
6
votes
11answers
882 views
What aspects should we consider when choosing a name for our child?
I thought of this question while writing an answer to this related question. I think it would be useful to compile some ideas:
When we were expecting our first child, we discovered how hard it can be ...
2
votes
4answers
160 views
Music for gestation - what should baby be hearing while in the womb?
My wife now is in twentieth week of pregnancy. I would like to know which kind of music is the best for the baby's development, of if you can point me to some literature on the subject.
22
votes
10answers
4k views
What are the pros and cons of a chicken-pox party vs immunization?
Growing up in the US, most kids I knew (myself included) were exposed to Chicken Pox through Chicken-Pox parties where kids were allowed to play with a child who already had the Chicken Pox. Now that ...
14
votes
6answers
1k views
What can be done to help bright children stuck in a boring school?
My kids (grades 2&4) are very bright and very active. The traditional school setting does not seem to be working for them. This is evident by their perpetual visits to the principal's office for ...
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?
13
votes
6answers
7k views
At what age should siblings stop sharing their bedroom?
Currently we have one bedroom for our two daughters. Until what age can they share their room?
12
votes
7answers
6k views
Why does my child eat so slowly?
When we have a family meal, the middle daughter will always take her time. I mean up to 2 hours, to finish a meal, especially if its not her kind of food. She'll get very easily distracted, sing to ...
11
votes
6answers
2k 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 ...
9
votes
7answers
729 views
What should we pack when going camping with an infant?
My family and I are going camping in a couple of weeks and were wondering if anyone had any tips or just precautions we should take. I have been camping only a couple of times in my life; however, my ...
9
votes
5answers
878 views
At what age should I expect my daughter to talk?
At what age should I expect my daughter to form words? When should I expect her to be capable of simple sentences?
8
votes
11answers
769 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 ...
8
votes
5answers
7k views
At what age should I enroll my child in dental and vision plans?
Background:
Most insurance coverage in the US has separate policies and payroll withholding for health, dental, and vision insurance plans. One can typically decide who's covered independently for ...
8
votes
2answers
561 views
Should I let my 3 year old play educational games on my iPhone?
There are some great educational-type games for smart phones. Our daughter was able to navigate my iPhone pretty early on.
She seems to learn a lot from the games she is playing - letter sounds, ...
7
votes
3answers
1k 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 ...
7
votes
4answers
380 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 ...
7
votes
3answers
3k views
Are there things to watch out for after a tongue-tie operation?
My son is going in for a Tongue Tie clip, basically to do a small snip under his tongue to free it up, he fed well when he was young so it never came up until our dentist noticed it with his teeth and ...
7
votes
5answers
2k views
How to prevent children from sucking their thumb?
My 4-years-old daughter still sucks her thumb while sleeping.
How can help her stopping this habit?
I have tried to give her a pacifier, but she refuses it.
She does not have this habit during the ...
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
5answers
438 views
Nightowl at 5 years old. Any way of dealing with it?
My son is 5 and a typical night-owl he becomes pretty active when sun goes down. This is all well and good but when we put him to bed we can hear him play until at least 11 pm. That wouldn't worry ...
3
votes
2answers
305 views
Are there any studies about whether learning to read in two languages is slower?
I don't know the details of any studies, but I think the general consensus these days is that bringing up children multilingual from the start is a positive thing to do, even if it can slightly delay ...
3
votes
5answers
230 views
What elements make a parenting book good?
It seems there are more books on parenting than fish in the sea. But which ones are good, and more importantly, what makes them good? Since any specific book recommendations would be too localized ...
20
votes
4answers
829 views
How do you handle a teacher that teaches pseudo science?
It is not uncommon, that some teachers or schools introduce pseudo-science, like creationism, as a part of curriculum.
Given that it is hard to change school quickly, how to deal with such situation?
...
13
votes
18answers
2k views
How can I teach my son to ride a bike?
My son is almost seven years old and still can't ride a bike. He loves to be outside and play, and he wants to ride a bike. His bike has training wheels, but the moment I take them off and try to ...
10
votes
6answers
1k views
What can I do to baby-proof my home entertainment system?
My home entertainment system is a mess - there are cables, remote controls, various units, multiple plugs, DVDs, Blu-Ray disks, corners, glass bits and other various components which make for a fun ...
8
votes
5answers
312 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 ...
7
votes
2answers
398 views
How can we make the most of Parent-Teacher consultations?
We attend parent-teacher consultations once a term and we sometimes come out feeling as if we've just received the the boilerplate script. Little X is doing fine, reaching all appropriate milestones ...
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 ...
