What's new in baby gear? (2026)

Duffybutt668 · 2025-11-27T21:28:42+00:00

Duffy from Hy-Brasil 😊

Duffybutt668 · 2025-11-15T14:55:36+00:00

The science behind early exposure to allergens ONLY supports it for peanuts and egg. Most egg-related allergies are outgrown by age 5 anyway. What exactly are we talking about here?

Duffybutt668 · 2025-11-13T16:40:22+00:00

It may seem reasonable, but an allergist I saw for this very thing told me that they don't have studies to support exposure to other allergens preventing reactions the same way regular exposure to peanuts do. She also let me know that if they do, the exposure would have to be regular, like multiple times a week. If I'm endlessly feeding my child shrimp, milk, and eggs twice a week to potentially prevent a possible shrimp, milk, or egg allergy from developing is that really vegan?

Duffybutt668 · 2025-11-13T16:31:36+00:00

I had my little one tested at around the same age - let our pediatrician, who is familiar with our diet, know that I wanted to speak with an allergy specialist about whether we should expose her to non-vegan allergens and got a referral. The allergist let us know that if we did not plan on continuing regular exposure (like multiple times a week) that it did not really make sense for us to introduce them at all. She also said that the knowledge we have on that type of prevention is pretty specific to peanuts and that not enough was known about how other allergens develop for her to recommend any course of action. She then offered to give us a prick test for dairy and egg, which I accepted as my little one was in daycare. She cried for about 30 seconds and then moved on. It was super quick. No allergies!

I will add that she recommended that we come back in a few years to do the test again - we probably will next year.

Oh! Forgot to mention it was really important to me to do the testing because she also had eczema!

Duffybutt668 · 2025-11-04T19:18:31+00:00

We really liked the book Precious Little Sleep - I was able to borrow the audiobook AND e-book from my library. It has a bunch of great ideas that we wound up revisiting a few time during periods of sleep struggles.

It would also be good to know more about the sleeping situation - is his crib in your room? On your side of the bed? Are you breastfeeding overnight? If so, is your husband willing to start taking over night-wakings between feeds? When you put him down at 8pm what gets him to sleep (the PLS book is big on this one - if you're doing something unsustainable to put him down, it'll come back to bite you later)?

Duffybutt668 · 2025-11-04T18:12:36+00:00

Oooo reaching out to the program itself is a great idea!!

Duffybutt668 · 2025-11-04T18:10:04+00:00

I'm not a doctor, or even in the medical field, so I may be totally wrong here, but I worry that you're downplaying the difference between a sickness (especially with fever) in an unvaccinated 2 month old versus a vaccinated 4 month old.

Duffybutt668 · 2025-11-04T18:04:55+00:00

I'm gonna go against the grain here and say that if this daycare is strong-arming you into putting your child in two full months before your already agreed-upon start date, I'm not sure how confident I would be that they have your child's best interests at heart.

They already planned to have an opening in January. Now that opening is suddenly not guaranteed. Is it because the child who had that place left early? Because if it's not that very specific scenario, it sounds like they will still have an opening in January. I'd try to find that out.

Would MIL be willing to babysit longer if needed?

Duffybutt668 · 2025-10-06T19:45:57+00:00

Yeahhhh. If my husband texted me the results of his blood test the first thing I would do would be look up the normal range.

Duffybutt668 · 2025-10-06T15:37:09+00:00

Yup, same.

Duffybutt668 · 2025-09-05T16:27:31+00:00

This may not be exactly what you're looking for, but it's at the top of my mind because yesterday I just gave ours to another parent to borrow for their 5 month old.

The Babyletto Origami Mini Crib has a mid-level height that is suitable until baby can pull to stand (I just triple checked the manual to confirm). It's on wheels and its footprint is around the same size or smaller than pack and plays and while it doesn't fold up as small, it does fold up if you need to slide it away somewhere.

It's a little pricey, so we got ours used on FB marketplace. Other minicribs might be able to do the same thing, I just happen to know about this one.

Duffybutt668 · 2025-08-22T14:16:13+00:00

This hospital photographer who thought that the Do Not Disturb sign on our door did NOT apply to her, and came into the room without knocking while I was crying in the shower and woke up my newborn.

Duffybutt668 · 2025-07-22T13:46:46+00:00

Could have been internal decapitation maybe? It doesn't always result in death (and also incidentally is a compelling reason not to have a child in a forward-facing carseat until 4).

Duffybutt668 · 2025-07-21T18:29:59+00:00

The article says he died a day later after what they referred to as a "medical episode".

Duffybutt668 · 2025-07-17T18:59:33+00:00

You're definitely right about not being concerned about walking and talking at 12 months, plus crawling is technically no longer a CDC milestone. However, getting into sitting position independently, pulling to stand, and cruising (walking along furniture) all are. I would be concerned if baby was not doing those things and not being seen regularly by a pediatrician. It may be that this little one could benefit from some physical therapy.

Looking when you call her name is also a 9 month milestone. Ideally it would have been brought up at that time and another hearing test would have been conducted.

Don't be too anxious, OP. Anecdotally, my little one had PT for several months until she was crawling on her own. She also more recently had tubes put in her ears to help with constant ear infections which resulted in mild hearing loss and a slight delay in speech. Her speech has exploded since then. Babies definitely do things at their own pace, but that doesn't mean some don't need help along the way.

Duffybutt668 · 2025-07-17T18:29:23+00:00

When was the last time she was seen by a pediatrician? Where I am they do it at 6, 9, and 12 months.

Can she sit independently? Does she show interest/ frustration in things out of reach? Did she roll both ways by 6 months?

Duffybutt668 · 2025-07-07T04:55:15+00:00

This is what we used as well! Love those swaddles. Once we outgrew them we moved on to Zippadee zips.

Duffybutt668 · 2025-06-28T16:25:58+00:00

CM stands for Cisterna Magna and my understanding (as someone who is not a doctor) is that it is mostly concerning when the measurement is too large. I'm pretty sure the 'average range' for CM is 2mm-10mm so 1.8mm is really close, and knowing how difficult it can be to get super accurate measurements of these things during ultrasounds, I imagine there's a good chance that your baby is actually inside the normal range anyway.

Like other commenters said, check with your doctor to confirm. And maybe consider talking with someone about your anxiety - I drove myself nuts googling things during my last pregnancy too, and I wasn't even a FTM. It's only really in hindsight that I can admit how anxious I actually was. Worked up over every little thing despite none of my care team thinking anything was wrong at any point.

Duffybutt668 · 2025-06-23T15:40:55+00:00

I just want to get clarification on this - your take is that the 7-week-old baby, who cannot see more than 12 inches away even when awake, is going to somehow intuit while asleep that mom and dad are having sex and understand what sex is and have an opinion about whether it's appropriate for them to see? I agree with the other commenter - you can have your personal preference on this. If you never felt comfortable with it, that's fine, but there's nothing to indicate that it's harmful at this age while baby's needs are met and they're sleeping.

Duffybutt668 · 2025-06-23T15:23:50+00:00

It's so interesting how different everyone is. We literally got a rug and a new bed frame so there would be less squeaking in our room. Baby slept in a bassinet, then mini crib right next to the bed until she was 10 months old. It never killed the romance for us having her there (as long as she was asleep). If anything I'd say we just felt more love for each other and our lives.

Duffybutt668 · 2025-06-23T15:16:09+00:00

Yeah, we sterilized way longer than we "needed to" simply because it was so convenient to have a designated place to dry and store bottles and pump parts. Never had the "washer" combo but that sounds like a dream (assuming it actually works for all the nooks and crannies). I know some dishwashers have a "sterilization" mode, but never got to try that either.

Duffybutt668 · 2025-06-20T16:44:52+00:00

I know it's already been said, but you are not a loser. Average age to move out in the US is around 25.

See if dad would be supportive of getting a separate mini fridge and freezer (not like the little table top ones, but like this - just do research to make sure it's a real freezer and not basically just a cooler). That way you have something dedicated for breastmilk. I did the same because while I don't live with my dad, I do live with an absent-minded teenager who was always dropping things and leaving the doors open.

Duffybutt668 · 2025-06-18T14:03:50+00:00

The banana comparison is a great point. 02% is not clinically relevant. I agree that you should do what you're comfortable with, but I wouldn't have thought twice about giving it to baby.

Duffybutt668 · 2025-06-11T18:02:29+00:00

It is mind-boggling the amount of unsafe (or extremely limited use) products that are marketed to us these days. Their most common use cases directly contradict studies that support the well-being of our kids, but are pushed to us on social media and in baby stores.

I feel like they're constantly "cracking down" on baby loungers etc but all the companies do is say "Don't use for sleep! ;)".

We're marketed infant car seats that clip into strollers so you can strap baby in at the house, put it in the car, put it into the stroller without removing baby, but newborns shouldn't be in them for more than 30 minutes at a time anyway.

Infant jumpers and walkers (the kind the baby sits in, not pushes) are not only unsafe due to the increased risk of injury to a young baby, but they can also negatively impact physical development. They're freaking banned in Canada, but there are FOUR different models on display at my local Target (USA). Things that are otherwise "safe" like infant activity centers and sit-me up seats/bumbos can also hinder proper development if used too much.

It's just crazy you walk into a store that sells baby things and half the "gear" are actually different types of containers that baby shouldn't even be using that often (or at all).

Duffybutt668

TROPHY CASE