Magazine

Mother inspecting her baby's mouth for white oral thrush patches

Getting rid of oral thrush without losing your mind

It's three in the morning in Chicago. You're holding your phone flashlight in your mouth, trying to pry your screaming infant's lips apart in the dark. You see a thick white coating all over their tongue. You immediately assume the...

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Tired mom holding a congested infant wearing a sleeveless organic cotton bodysuit

Spotting the Symptoms of RSV in Babies Before You Panic

"Just put sliced raw onions in his socks," my neighbor Brenda texted me at 11 PM on a Tuesday, which is honestly unhinged behavior but I was too tired to block her. Meanwhile, my mother-in-law had already called twice to...

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Dad inspecting his baby's mouth for white patches of oral thrush

Is That Milk Or Thrush? A Dad’s Guide To The White Tongue Panic

My mother-in-law told me it was just leftover milk and to leave it alone. The triage nurse on the pediatric hotline asked if my wife's nipples felt like they were on fire. A guy on a Portland dads' subreddit told...

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An exhausted British dad holding a crying newborn baby with a tongue tie.

The Messy Reality of a Tongue Tie Baby: A Dad's Survival Guide

The first time someone suggested our daughter's mouth was structurally defective, we were sitting in a sweltering hospital side-room smelling faintly of industrial bleach and desperation. We received exactly three pieces of conflicting advice within a single twenty-four-hour period, which...

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Exhausted dad figuring out the correct medication dosage for his sick baby at night.

Tylenol for Babies: What I Wish I Knew Before the 3 AM Fever Spike

Dear Marcus from six months ago. You're currently standing barefoot on the cold hardwood floor of the nursery at 3:17 AM. You're holding a sticky plastic syringe filled with an unnervingly bright purple liquid. Your wife is gently rocking a...

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Safe wooden baby toys scattered on a rug instead of toxic plants

Why I Almost Put Hawaiian Baby Woodrose in My Baby's Nursery

I'm sitting on the floor of my oldest kid's room at 2 AM, folding a mountain of tiny mismatched socks, trying to figure out how to make baby number three's nursery look like one of those minimalist forest-fairy wonderlands you...

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A tired dad holding a baby using a whisper-quiet Frida Baby nebulizer

Debugging Infant Nasal Congestion With the Frida Baby Nebulizer

It was 2:14 AM on a Tuesday, the room temperature was exactly 71.5 degrees, and the humidifier was running at maximum capacity to make our Portland bedroom feel like a tropical rainforest. And yet, the 11-month-old was still whistling through...

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An exhausted mom holding a drooling infant who is chewing on a silicone squirrel teether.

The Brutal Truth About Teething: When Does the Drooling Actually End?

Dear Sarah from exactly six months ago, You're currently packing a suspiciously large overnight bag. You've volunteered to watch your sister's five-month-old niece, Chloe, for a long weekend so she and her husband can go to a wedding. You're feeling...

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A tired mom holding a teething baby in a dimly lit nursery

The 3 AM Teething Triage: Surviving the First Tooth

It was three in the morning, mid-January in Chicago, and the wind was howling off Lake Michigan. My toddler was thrashing in her crib like she was possessed, her sleep sack completely saturated with drool. I stood there running through...

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