Like most new parents, Allison Hope felt a lot of anxiety when her maternity leave ended, and she readied to return to her job. She wondered how the demands at home might affect her job performance. She was surprised but pleased to discover that being a mom actually made her better at her job. Being a mom gave her a

Prenatal health is critical for fetal development, but a lot of women don’t know that they can them before they are pregnant. Many women know they need to take them, but don’t realize the role they play other than keeping the baby healthy. They also help the mother to remain healthy as well by replenishing lost minerals. Iron is a key one,

Although co-sleeping with one’s children is not an approved of decision by most, one mother found that there are several surprising benefits to letting her child share her bed. For starters, co-sleeping diminishes the chance of the occurrence of SIDs. When breastfeeding their child, women do not have to leave the comfort of their own bed. Children also tend to

Over 11 genes play a role in determining how much dark melanin is found in baby’s eyes, and these genes can interact in unpredictable ways that leave children with neither parents’ eye color. There is no completely reliable way of predicting a baby’s eye color, even with one of the popular eye color charts, and many babies are born with

Poor single parents, especially mothers, often have a difficult time with summer break. Lacking the resources to send kids to camp and with the necessity of working undiminished, life can become an endless and exhausting cycle of tasks. Full-time childcare is a very expensive proposition, and many summer attractions are too costly for working-class parents. This means that even parents

Becoming a parent for the second time can mean a new set of challenges and lessons, especially with 20/2 hindsight. Switching to showers from baths and avoiding bath toys can make bathing faster and easier, and horsing a first child’s toy clutter for a second child often turns out to be a waste of the second kid has different preferences.

Touch is a funny thing. We all crave it and need it. But, some of us are leery of it, for a variety of reasons. Once mom believes that even in a world full of legitimate reasons for valuing personal space, even understanding that young children need to understand that their bodies are sacrosanct and should not be invaded by

Despite some overhyped reports to the contrary, the timeless custom of mothers bed-sharing with bany’s Is another case of maternal intuition working out for the best. Bed-sharing (aka sleep-sharing) can foster changes in the brains of mother and baby that foster the bond between them and even help stabilize blood oxygen and heart and breathing rates. Most research suggesting that

Taking small children on family vacations works best if you put away some of your preconceived notions about what they will enjoy and how they will react to things. Young children will often fixate in mundane, totally unexpected things like bus rides and ice machines instead of on more important experiences, which can be exasperating. However, fixating too much on

Researchers are now finding that formula-fed individuals have a higher chance of developing digestive issues in the future. This is because as an infant, the stomach lining is much more vulnerable to the dangerous impact of various additives that are involved in the manufacturing process. Breastfed infants are not only shown to have less gut issues due to the absence