Magazine

A squished floret of cooked green broccoli on a baby high chair tray.

The Midnight Baby Broccoli Incident And How We Survived

2:14 AM. That’s exactly when the smell hit me. It wasn’t a dirty diaper, though heaven knows I checked with the flashlight on my phone while trying not to wake my husband. It was this creeping, sulfurous cloud rising from...

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Steamed baby bok choy cut into small pieces on a silicone baby plate

How to cook baby bok choy so your infant actually swallows it

It's somehow already dinner time in Chicago. The radiator is hissing, the kitchen smells vaguely of sesame oil and parental desperation, and my toddler is methodically wiping a bright green leaf across her forehead like a damp washcloth. I'm staring...

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A mom holding a bowl of roasted carrots in her kitchen

How are baby carrots made: The paranoid mom's guide

I was standing in my Chicago kitchen at two in the afternoon holding a plastic bag of orange nubs, just staring blindly at my phone. My six-month-old was sitting in the high chair, banging a silicone spoon against his tray,...

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A very sticky toddler looking confused while holding a rib

Dear Tom: Put down the Sweet Baby Ray's immediately

Dear Tom of six months ago. It's Sunday afternoon, you're standing in the back garden holding a plastic squeeze bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's, and you're about to make a terrible, deeply sticky mistake. I know exactly what you're thinking....

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Toddler reaching for a colorful candy wrapper on a kitchen counter

The Honest Truth About Giving Sugar Candy To Babies Before Two

Listen. My mother-in-law had a literal sugar babies candy poised right over my six-month-old's mouth at a family Diwali party last year. I intercepted that little caramel nugget like an off-duty linebacker. She looked at me like I'd just slapped...

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Toddler bundled in a winter coat eating fruit

Why I Stopped Trying to Replicate the Niche Chinese Babies Trend

It's 6:43 AM on a Tuesday, and Florence has gone fully rigid, achieving a level of plank-like stiffness that would genuinely impress an Olympic gymnast, purely to prevent me from putting her left arm into a winter coat. In a...

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Twin girls covered in sweet potato puree sitting in highchairs at the kitchen table

When Do Babies Start Eating Baby Food? A Twin Dad's Messy Guide

Dear Tom of eighteen months ago, You're currently standing in the kitchen at 3am, staring at a very expensive, totally unused baby food maker, frantically typing misspelled queries like "when do I feed my babi" into your phone with one...

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Dad wiping lentil puree off twin babies faces in highchairs

The Great Lentil Smear: Iron Rich Foods for Babies Explained

I'm currently standing in my kitchen, staring at a beige splatter on the ceiling that used to be a highly nutritious, iron-fortified chicken and white bean puree, wondering where my journalism career went so spectacularly wrong. Twin A (Florence) is...

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A messy kitchen counter with a puffed up baked pancake in a cast iron skillet next to a spilled cup of coffee.

Why Dutch Baby Pancakes Actually Saved My Sanity on a Tuesday

It was 5:43 AM and I was wearing a pair of maternity leggings that I definitely should have retired in 2019. There was a weird crusty spot on the left knee that was either dried oatmeal or... actually, I don't...

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