Magazine

Baby chewing on a chilled silicone panda teether next to a wet washcloth.

Dear past Priya: Drop the toxic gel teething ring right now

Dear Priya from six months ago. You're currently standing barefoot on the cold kitchen tile at three in the morning. The refrigerator compressor is humming, and your son is doing that raspy, exhausted whimpering thing that makes you feel like...

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Pediatric nurse evaluating the safety of a heavy fur blanket in a crib

The Brutal Truth About Fox Pelt Blankets in Your Baby's Nursery

When my mother-in-law's sister visited right after my daughter was born, she brought a genuine silver fox fur throw in a massive garment bag. She told me real pelts were the only way to keep winter babies properly insulated, citing...

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Silicone baby toothbrush resting on a clean white cotton towel

Babys erste ZahnbΓΌrste and the absolute chaos of tiny teeth

My mother-in-law told me to just rub a pinch of turmeric on his gums and call it a day. The pediatric dentist I worked with back in my hospital days told me I needed to establish a rigid, twice-a-day brushing...

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Priya inspecting leftover baby yarn batches on a wooden table

Why baby wolle restposten changed my mind about knitting

There I was, thirty-four weeks pregnant, standing under the humming fluorescent lights of a big box craft store with three skeins of neon yellow acrylic yarn in my basket. I had this sudden, hormonal conviction that I was going to...

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A tired dad staring analytically at an organic cotton baby play mat on the floor

Debugging Tummy Time: What You Actually Need From A Baby Mat

There's this deeply embedded cultural myth that to successfully raise a functional human infant, you must provide them with a floor space that looks and sounds exactly like a Las Vegas casino. When Leo was about two months old, I...

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A baby sleeping safely in a stroller with a short-pile lambskin insert and an organic cotton blanket during a cold walk.

Kinderwagen Lammfell Winter: Why I Stopped Panicking

I was standing outside a coffee shop on Division Street in 38-degree freezing drizzle, intensely watching my eleven-month-old's chest rise and fall. My wife's mother had just proudly installed a fluffy sheepskin insert into our UPPAbaby stroller, and I was...

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A messy pile of ribbed organic baumwoll leggings next to a half-folded laundry basket

The Ugly Truth About My Switch to Bio Baumwoll Leggings

I was standing in my laundry room at eleven o'clock on a Tuesday night, aggressively peeling a pair of toddler pants out of the dryer lint trap, when it actually hit me. The pants were crackling. Literally throwing off visible...

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A half-chewed natural rubber teething ring sitting on a burp cloth

Why Freezing Your Natural Rubber Teether Is a Terrible Idea

I was standing in my kitchen at 2:14 AM wearing nothing but an oversized t-shirt and nursing pads, violently chipping ice off a rubber ring with a butter knife. My oldest son, Leo, was in the background doing that high-pitched,...

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A baby chewing on a silicone panda teether while sitting on a playmat.

The Brutal Truth About Buying Safe Non Toxic Teethers Today

Your mother-in-law is convinced the baby's 102-degree fever and explosive blowout are just teething signs. I've seen a thousand of these exact cases roll through the pediatric triage desk, usually accompanied by a panicked parent holding a drool-soaked infant at...

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