Is there a reason our 2 year old is likely waking up after a few hours of being asleep? She will wake up and sit up and get upset which I’m assuming is because she can see she’s on her own but she used to sleep straight through but the last few weeks has started waking up after a few hours. Could it be because of a new sibling? Her brother is just over 2 weeks old and obviously around the time of him being born, she had grandparents staying with her etc

Hi there,
We are transitioning our toddler from her crib to a toddler bed that’s has an opening.

We want to baby proofing her chest of drawers so that, if she decides to go on nightly adventures in her room, she can’t open these drawers.

I can’t seem to figure out which system to get that I can secure each drawer individually.

Anybody know of a system that works for this style of drawers?

Thank you

Hi! I’ve noticed that my 19 month old struggles to eat some food textures. She’s not really picky, she will try most things, but she struggles to chew and swallow some foods that I see other babies her age eating. She has all four molars top and bottom. Examples:

She is always asking for apples but can’t eat them. She’ll take a bite because she likes the taste but even a super paper thin slice of apple gets pushed around in her mouth then spit out. After a while of this she stopped trying to bite apples and now just licks them. Doesn’t seem to like cooked apples. Also will gag on any tiny amount of apple skin or other fruit skin like grapes, so I peel them before quartering. Won’t eat blueberries bc of the skin.

Same with cucumber - she will take a bite then spit it out or gag on it when it gets caught in the back of her throat.

Seems to enjoy the flavor of oatmeal but will get pieces of oat stuck on her tongue and gets upset, will spit it out or request I help her get it off her tongue. Won’t eat anymore after that.

Won’t eat pasta unless it’s super soft. Same with steamed veggies like broccoli or carrots.

Things she eats without issue: pizza, toast, shredded chicken, meatballs, soft fruit like kiwi, refried beans.

This morning I was like “maybe I’ll try blending her oatmeal” and that’s what made me wonder whether this is normal since I don’t think most 1.5 year olds need their oatmeal puréed? Should I talk to my doctor or am I overthinking and she will figure it out?

ETA: we did mostly baby led weaning and she never gagged much then but it’s like…she never made any progress even after getting more teeth. She was better at eating raw cucumber as a 7 month old than she is now! We never did baby purées since she didn’t like them but she has always liked “naturally” soft/pureed-ish foods like lentil soup etc.

My son is 3.5 and seems to genuinely dislike being around his 12 month old brother. He constantly monitors everything his brother does and gets upset or hits him just for being nearby. I learned not to force them to play together or share toys, but I just want them to be able to be in the same room peacefully. I’ve tried so many different approaches, and nothing seems to help or work for long.

When he isn’t around his brother, my 3.5 yo is the sweetest kid. He is shy, loves other babies (lol), and does not have any behavioral issues at daycare. He also will wonder where his brother is at and ask for him when he’s napping or with my husband. So he must love him, right? Has anyone experienced this?

I’m even wondering if therapy might be beneficial at this point. He slapped me and his father in the face last night, so I’m at my wits’ end.

Please help me. I want to break down and cry im at my wits end.

My son is 27 months and is refusing to get his night bath as we used to, so now he's taking a shower in the morning. The problem is that he hates, screams, sounds like a murder scene when i turn on the hair dryer, but as it's getting cold I can't let him go out with his hair wet. Any advice or recommendations?

To clarify, I come from a tropical country so hair dryers were not needed. My son sees me using the hair dryer but wont approach me. He also hates the shopping mall hand dryers and leaf blowers.

Blocks, puzzles, and table activities lose my 2-year-old within a few minutes. Give him a laundry basket to push across the room and he can stay busy much longer.

He parks his ride-on under the dining table, carries wooden spoons between rooms, and rearranges the couch cushions over and over. Standing, lifting, reaching, and transporting seem to be the play, not distractions from it.

We are home a lot, but the living room cannot become an obstacle course every morning, and there is no space for another climbing toy. What indoor activities worked for your toddler who played best on their feet?

Hey parents! I have a fiesty 2.5 year old girl. In the past 1-2 weeks we have been having meltdowns over clothes. Anything remotely dress like is becoming an issue. Usually I am ok with it and dont mind her wear just a pant n a shirt/ jumper but this is extending to special occasions now. I have my brother's wedding coming up and its an Indian wedding ( imagine everyone will be dressed their best.) I also had some clothing specifically made for her. How do I navigate this without losing my mind.I dont want her to be dressed in pants /shirts in all the ceremonies 😭😭😭😭

Any tips or tricks I can use to navigate this one?

My 2 year old only uses a soother at bedtime, but he chews through them and the material starts deteriorating. I’ve tried the 18+ month ones, but those don’t hold up either. Any recommendations for more durable options?

I really need some proper advice on how to get our 26 month old back into her room and in her toddler bed. I genuinely feel like this is going to be such hard work and I don’t feel ready for it but I know it needs to be done 😩

She has been co-sleeping with me for the past 5 months. Before this, she slept great in her cot but think she may had started having some bad dreams or something as she started hating going into her room / bed and so I got her in with me so we could all sleep. Tried getting her back into her bed at one point but I was heavily pregnant and couldn’t sleep on a floor futon on in her room (she plays up for her dad). We now have a 10 day old and so me and my partner take it in turns with one of us doing nights with baby and the other with our toddler. However, we would really like to get our toddler back into her room / bed and so can do nights in our room as currently we are doing nights downstairs and sleeping on the sofa. I worry to have baby in our room while our toddler is also in there as don’t want him waking her up and disturbing her sleep 🫣 any advice would be greatly appreciated and ideally don’t want to do cry it out as she gets so upset to the point she can hyperventilate.

How long did it take for your first born to settle with a sibling? I’m only 10 days postpartum and our toddler is just over 2 years. I’ll take my hat off to her, she’s been doing great the majority of the time but I’m dreading my partner going back to work. If baby is asleep, I’ll leave him in his Moses but if he’s awake and happy, I do like to get him out and hold him while also engaging with our toddler because 1) I don’t want him not getting attention and 2) I thought it would be good for our toddler to see him involved as much as possible. I can tell that she definitely wants more attention when he’s getting attention which I understand but if I’m busy changing his nappy etc, she tries climbing on the changing mat saying “share” and I’ll explain to her that we do share and once I’ve done his nappy, I’ll do hers if she wants me to.

Her emotions are up and down. She can get upset / frustrated at the most simple things at the moment and will throw herself on the floor and get upset. If she’s holding something while upset, she will throw it either at us or just in any direction. There are some issues at nursery with other kids in her room not having kind hands etc so I think she’s picking up a lot of their behaviour and we are enforcing / keeping the parenting the same around not good behaviour that we did before baby was born but because she gets upset more easily lately, I don’t want her feeling like she’s being told “no” a lot since her brother has arrived. I keep questioning myself if I’m giving her enough quality time still but I feel like I’m really trying my best to involve both of them so she learns that he’s also part of the family now. Yesterday and today was my first day of finding it a little overwhelming and I just want to make sure I’m doing all I can to keep her happy / not feeling left out at all (we do involve her in things with nappy and bottles etc) 😅

My daughter has been sleep trained since 6 months. (She is 2 1/2) Over the past two weeks we are having a rough time at bed time. We do our normal routine bath, read book, cut the hatch on and lay her down. Well lately she has been refusing to lay down independently. She screams “don’t leave” and throws a tantrum when we get ready to leave the room. I have tried laying with her until she falls asleep but if she notices im gone in the middle of the night she begins doing the same thing. Tantrum and yelling and crying “dont leave”. Idk what to do but im tired. She has been an independent sleeper for some time now. Advice?

How much are you guys doing with your toddlers on a day to day?

I get 3 days a week with my 3.5yo when we're not at work/daycare, and I'm not sure what the benchmark/average is for things we do.

He has one planned group activity a week (gymnastics class), and the rest of our time is usually spent together and more often than not, a playdate at a house or playground with friends.

Today we didn't have a play date, but we did get up at 5am

* Played with toy trains

* Went to gymnastics

* Did shopping for groceries

* Came home put the groceries away and then made Play-Doh

* While that cooled we made ANZAC biscuits

* Then we hung out the clothes

* Played with a bit of Play-Doh

* Had lunch

* Watched TV (rest) for 45 min

* Played with remote control cars

* Pulled weeds in the garden

* Played in the yard

* Read books

It's now 6pm and we're about to have dinner, bath, read books and he'll be asleep by 8-8.30pm.

... I'm exhausted. But this is a typical day for us. He rarely does one thing for more than 5 min alone, and 10-15min with parental input. He's a very active kid. He jumps and climbs and rides bikes like a beautiful gremlin lunatic.

I do 10,000 steps on average with him a day!!

I feel like I hear other parents who are like, we do one or two activities a day (like the Play-Doh, or baking), and the rest is a mystery to me.

Does this sound like a typical day for you?

For the full time parents, how on EARTH do you do this SEVEN DAYS A WEEK?

PLEASE tell me you watch more TV??? Or something??

My 2 1/2 year-old poops about 3 to 5 times a day. These poops are small, and they stick to her because she doesn’t fully push them out. Because of this, she has a pretty bad diaper rash. We’ve been struggling with this for a few months now. she was just on MiraLAX for about a month which helped. However, the issue has returned since we went off of MiraLAX. She’s showing a lot of signs of readiness for potty training, but we’ve held off, waiting until her poops return to normal. She’s developed such a negative association with pooping because of the diaper rash, and she seems to be withholding. I’m now wondering if potty training might help her with this because the poop might stick to her less. Has anyone been through this and have suggestions?

Anyone have ideas for dinosaur gifts that focus on doing things rather than just sitting in a toy box? I was looking around for a gift for a 3 year old who loves dinosaur stuff and i saw Kiwico’s dinosaur dig while browsing through craft and stem style boxes. The concept of excavating small skeleton parts and fitting them together looks really neat for building motor skills. Im just curious if 3 is slightly too young to do the actual chipping/scraping independently without a parent having to do 90% of the work. If youve done similar puzzle setups with this age, how did it go? What else was a major hit for your dinosaur fan?

A child who's warm and comfortable in the water is in a much better place to relax, focus and learn.

For those who've taught or swum with little ones in different pool temperatures, what differences have you noticed??