There’s no sorrier sight than a puking preschooler. That’s the conclusion I recently reached around 2 a.m. as my poor 4-year-old heaved into the dim abyss. Luckily, her bout with the stomach flu was brief, and she was feeling better by the next day.
Stomach flu, also known as gastroenteritis, is a common affliction caused by bacteria or viruses that inflame the gut. Though mercifully short, the misery this brings is complete, for both the sufferer and the person charged with scrubbing chunks out of sheets, carpet and a stuffed toy cupcake.
So when presented with something that could potentially cut short the puking, any parent would jump at the chance. That’s the promise of probiotics, “good” bacteria (typically in pill form) that some people think might help restore the irritated gut and get kids feeling better faster. But according to two big studies (here and here) of... Read More
I love to hate the phrase “sleep like a baby.” It’s a beautiful example of a saying that’s based on the exact opposite of what it’s intended to convey. Babies (many of them, anyway) are rotten sleepers.During my last pregnancy, I wondered if I might... Read More
Sometime around 9 p.m., before the second leg of a cross-country flight, my just-turned-4-year-old decided she had had enough. She let out a scream and went full noodle right at the end of a moving walkway in Chicago Midway. I had the baby in a... Read More
I’m relatively new to Oregon, but one of the ways I know I’m starting to settle in is my ability to recognize marijuana shops. Some are easy. But others, with names like The Agrestic and Mr. Nice Guy, are a little trickier to identify for someone... Read More
At 11:47 p.m. on July 25, 1978, a baby girl was born by cesarean section at the Royal Oldham Hospital in England. This part of her arrival was much like many other babies’ births: 10 fingers and 10 toes, 5 pounds, 12 ounces of screaming, perfect... Read More
I’m making my way through my third round of breastfeeding a newborn and taking stock of how things are going. Some aspects are definitely easier: My milk came in really quickly (a perk of being a repeat lactator), the fancy breastfeeding baby holds... Read More
Getting help from a toddler is a bit like not getting help: They mean well, but you may end up with more of a mess than when you started.But given the choice, many kids prefer “real” activities to imaginary games, Bruce Bower recently... Read More
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I love to hate the phrase “sleep like a baby.” It’s a beautiful example of a saying that’s based on the exact opposite of what it’s intended to convey. Babies (many of them, anyway) are rotten sleepers.During my last pregnancy, I wondered if I might... Read More
Sometime around 9 p.m., before the second leg of a cross-country flight, my just-turned-4-year-old decided she had had enough. She let out a scream and went full noodle right at the end of a moving walkway in Chicago Midway. I had the baby in a... Read More
I’m relatively new to Oregon, but one of the ways I know I’m starting to settle in is my ability to recognize marijuana shops. Some are easy. But others, with names like The Agrestic and Mr. Nice Guy, are a little trickier to identify for someone... Read More
At 11:47 p.m. on July 25, 1978, a baby girl was born by cesarean section at the Royal Oldham Hospital in England. This part of her arrival was much like many other babies’ births: 10 fingers and 10 toes, 5 pounds, 12 ounces of screaming, perfect... Read More
I’m making my way through my third round of breastfeeding a newborn and taking stock of how things are going. Some aspects are definitely easier: My milk came in really quickly (a perk of being a repeat lactator), the fancy breastfeeding baby holds... Read More
Getting help from a toddler is a bit like not getting help: They mean well, but you may end up with more of a mess than when you started.But given the choice, many kids prefer “real” activities to imaginary games, Bruce Bower recently... Read More