r/raisingkids

I've been looking into switching my 8yo to a different multivitamin before school starts, and I keep seeing brands talk about using methylated folate instead of folic acid.

Then I went down a Google rabbit hole and read that a lot of people don't process folic acid very well, which honestly surprised me because I'd never even heard there was a difference. Now I'm wondering if that's actually something parents should be paying attention to or if it's mostly marketing.

Has anyone looked into this or talked to their pediatrician about it? If you're buying a multivitamin anyway, is methylated folate something worth prioritizing?

I've noticed that whenever we have a completely empty weekend, I immediately start looking for things to do.

Park Saturday morning.

Something fun Saturday afternoon.

Maybe brunch Sunday.

Maybe an activity Sunday afternoon.

And then everyone is exhausted.

Part of me wonders if kids actually need all of that, or if they'd be just as happy having a slow weekend at home with nothing planned.

Do you intentionally leave weekends completely unplanned?

looking to make a few changes to my daughter's room and trying to keep it practical rather than just making it look cute lol.

what are things you've added to your kids' rooms that they actually love/use?

extra points for things that make bedtime easier too.

The stakes feel a bit high because we feel like the guinea pig parents of like do your best handling the tik tok trends and humans having smart glasses, phones, watches, so on.

We all still remember that adults didn’t have phones when we were growing up. If you watch any show from the 90s the characters all go about their day without phones etc. People weren’t marrying their ai companions. For our kids they will know no difference and also need to be told this change just happened and it wasn’t always like this.

This is something new. What concerns do you have about this, if anything, and what do you hope we are getting right as parents that after several generations will become cultural standard parenting around big tech?

I'm sorry about the long text but I really want clarity.

She randomly got a fever that immediately shot up to 102°-103°F, she was mostly fine, just a little tired when it got too high.

The 1st night, Paracetamol wouldn't work at all. The fever stayed put and she went through the entire night with a fluctuating temp of 101°-103°F. I felt so helpless. We gave her another dose in the morning, but she was still hot the entire time.

We took her to the doctor the morning of the 2nd day, and he said it was a viral flu, very in season right now, and just gave us Paracetamol and general measures.

The medicine finally acted during the afternoon dose of the second day and she was able to sleep a little. But it shot up again within 6 hours of dosage.

We gave a night dose on the 2nd day, and again there were zero effect.

But then at 6 AM in the morning of the 3rd day, the fever seemed to break on its own. We thought it had broken for good but it started acting up again in the afternoon, around 12 hours after the last dose, it was maddening! We gave her a dose, and she was sweating, was able to sleep, i thought it would be enough. But there was a temperature rise around 8 hours after the previous dose. I waited a while and gave her a night dose. The fever broke that night for good. The night of the 3rd day, more or less, morning of the 4th day.

4th day she was all good. Tired but going about her usual routines. 5th day same, and maybe I didn't notice until today, the 6th day, that she had rashes.

I spotted them because we decided to take a walk and it was more visible in the sunlight. On her forearm, few on her arms, very scattered and kinda like mosquitoe bites. Also on one side of her back, again scattered. Some on her forehead. Occasional itching. No other symptoms.

Has anyone experienced something similar?

Is this all typical of Roseola?

I've been seeing a couple of posts with the exact timeline of fever, but the details about the rash were vague or the age was different.

Please share your thoughts!

My partner (31F) and I (28F) have a blended family that includes her child (8F) and my two children (8M and 6F). The past couple weeks, our 8s have been putting us through our paces. They’re so moody, they’ve been at each other and us (including 6) nonstop. They’ve both felt like it’s them versus the world and everyone is out to get them. I can tell they’re both trying, but they’re so disregulated. They’re screaming at each other, at us, can’t control their emotions at all. Anything that goes a tiny bit wrong is the end of the world. (ex: I told my 8M he needed to walk on our hike rather than run, told 8F we were setting the projector up on a wall adjacent to the one she wanted, both of those things resulted in screaming and crying.) They’re entitled, bossy, defiant, yet refuse to accept responsibility for anything.

I’m at a total loss in how to help them. I don’t want them to be in trouble all the time, but you can’t talk to people like that and doing so won’t be tolerated. Until recently, I’ve felt like they both had better social skills than they’ve demonstrated lately. If you had angry, emotional 8s, what worked to help them feel more stable and you as the parent to not feel so crazy?

Honestly I feel like I have the technical habilities to teach more or less everything that my kids need to learn to becomen functioning adults, but i the truth is I'm a little afraid of getting lost in day to day life and ending up forgeting things. Am I the only one who feels that way or how do you manage that?

My son is six years old and has progressively gotten worse towards Halloween decorations. He used to be able to walk through Spirit, head turned or hiding behind a parent, but he was able to walk through the store after getting past the initial entrance. This year though I had to carry him while he cried until we got over to the kids costume section. He won’t even use our stairwell because our downstairs neighbor has a Halloween mask decoration hanging on their door so he uses the next stairwell over to avoid it.

I cannot see how he will be able to do Halloween or trick or treating this year when his reaction is this severe. Last year he struggled with certain houses because of their decorations and because of that I’m already anticipating this year to be even worse.

My partner wears horror merch(ghostface, art the clown, etc) and he’s been fine with those but then the ghostface door decoration next to his grandmas apartment he hides from and won’t look.

We’ve tried reassuring him, we’ve tried talking and explaining it, we’ve tried videos with no sound. I’m at a loss. I don’t know what to do or how to help him. It’s at the point where we have told him that if he is too scared of the decorations then we can’t go trick or treating this year. I hate that. I want him to be able to have fun and not miss out on Halloween stuff just because he’s scared. When asked why he’s scared or what makes it scary he doesn’t give an answer and just says because it is or because he’s scared. What can we do? Anything to help him understand or to help him overcome his fear???

My child has a completely ordinary object that they absolutely adore, and I genuinely don't understand why. It's not a special toy or anything expensive — just some random little thing they found one day. My kid is currently obsessed with a tiny plastic spoon from an old playset and takes it everywhere, while the actual toys we spent money on are basically ignored. 😂 What random object has your kid become emotionally attached to?

My toddler used to play with literally anything. Blocks, stuffed animals, books, random kitchen utensils — whatever was around.

Now if I suggest playing with something, the answer is basically “no.” But if I mention TV or my phone, suddenly they're interested.

I know screens are more stimulating, but I didn't expect regular toys to become this boring to her.

Has anyone else gone through this? Did you just keep offering other things until they became interesting again, or did you have to make a bigger change?

We currently live in Estonia, and in rural areas (near Nõo in particular) we notice children of perhaps 6 years old, or even younger, getting on inter-town/suburban busses by themselves, taking their seats and getting off on their stop. Probably, their parents / grandparents take them to the bus stop and meet them when they arrive, but it is still impressive.

How is it in your country / region?

I am at my absolute wits end. Sleep has been a struggle literally my daughter’s entire life, and I do not know what to do anymore. I’m going insane. She is four now, just started Pre-K and still will not sleep alone. She still wakes multiple times a night. Refuses to go to bed unless someone lays with her until she falls asleep. Then she wakes a few hours later and sneaks into our bed. If we take her back to her own bed, all heck breaks loose and the entire house is wide awake at 1am. We have tried multiple times to get her to a place where we can tuck her in, read her a book and leave the room. It never works. She immediately freaks out and chases after us. We have tried to just hold firm but every single night for nearly a month she would have an absolute MELTDOWN for hours before finally just passing out absolutely exhausted and delirious. She screams at the top of her lungs, gets violent, and cries the entire time begging to stay up or sleep with someone to the point she is hyperventilating and nearly vomiting. We have brought this up to her pediatrician multiple times over the years and we keep being told it’s normal and she will grow out of it. When she was an infant I was awake for days on end because she would NOT sleep, no matter what we did. Swaddle, rocker, swing, car rides, bouncer. Nothing worked. She would fall asleep and then immediately jerk herself awake and scream. This would go on for hours until she became so exhausted her body couldn’t go on anymore. When she was 8-12 months, she would try to launch herself out of my arms if I tried to rock her or hold her. If she thought I was trying to put her down for a nap or bed, she would go absolutely feral. For about three years, I got maybe 2-3 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period. Mostly because my husband would take over on weekends and after work to let me nap, not because she was actually sleeping. She would stay awake for days if her body wouldn’t shut down first. We’ve tried adjusting the sleep schedule, white noise machines, multiple types of nightlights, calming music, melatonin, weighted blankets. You name it, we’ve tried it and a combination of other things. Literally nothing has worked. I cannot keep doing this every night. Bedtime is at 8pm and this can go on until midnight or later. I just don’t know what to do anymore. It was over an hour tonight of a full on crash out, nothing I did to try to calm her down worked and she screamed and cried until she finally just passed out. We can’t do this every night before school but we cannot keep laying in her bed with her for two hours begging her to go to sleep or co-sleeping anymore. She will not nap during the day at home or at school, so how she has the energy to force herself to stay awake and fight us so long I do not know. I’m on my hands and knees BEGGING for help at this point. I don’t think her doctor really understands what I’ve been trying to tell her. This isn’t a “I’m thirsty, I’m hungry, can I tell the dog goodnight?” type of stalling or push back. She flips a switch and dang near blacks out until she falls over every single time. I’ve never seen a child go this berserk over sleeping in their own bed, let alone just going to sleep period. She’s acted like she’s absolutely terrified of falling asleep her entire life and I don’t know what to do to fix it.

We're recently coming to realize that our 2 year old (3 in September) has an extreme food aversion to anything that's both smooth & yellow.

A few months ago my husband offered him a cheese stick. He looked at it and started gagging, then puked.

A few weeks ago I offered him a tiny banana laffy taffy after taking a bite myself, he looked at it in my hand and started gagging, then puked.

Today the baby (10 months) was eating those Gerber pick-me-ups that are sauceless raviolis. Toddler took a peak at his brother, saw what he was eating, and immediately started gagging. My husband scooped him up and distracted him at the other half of the room so that he didn't puke.

I didn't realize that this extremely specific food aversion could be a thing and am not sure where it even came from? 😭 Has anyone dealt with this? Is there a way to help him get past it so he doesn't have such a strong reaction? Is this a symptom of something else? Thank you for any advice 😭💖

Obviously not EVERYTHING, but it feels like a lot of stuff.

He’ll be 10 in 2 weeks. He’s terrified of the dark. He’s afraid of mushrooms. He has a fear of grass. He won’t eat new things, won’t try new activities, and considers most movies “scary” on some level. Etc etc.

He’s a walking ball of anxiety and I don’t know how to help him.

He’s lies awake at night and can’t sleep because of the dark (he has 5 nightlights, the bathroom light on, and the hall light on) and the fear that surrounds it.

I had him in therapy for about 6 months but the therapist said he wouldn’t consider my son overly anxious and didn’t feel like therapy was necessary at this time.

But my boy wakes up tired and is constantly on edge.

What can I do? What am I missing?

My child has been dealing with occasional tummy discomfort and I’ve been wondering whether probiotics are actually helpful Did you notice a difference with bloating, gas, or general stomach aches? I know every kid is different, but I’d love to hear what worked for others

My 15mo son is finally having tantrums, but they’ve seem to taken a turn for slapping, throwing & hitting things.

Currently we got him a new water bottle with a latch opening, and I was trying to teach him how to open it with my help, but he got mad and threw it, so i take it away until he’s calmed down- i talk to him while he’s mad/crying.

i know that for older kids sports are “a way to take out anger” and i was wondering if that take could be applied for toddlers too, or if that could grow into a dangerous mindset. Something for him to be able to freely use.

Like the title says, my son is nearly 9 and has recently started crying over every tiny disappointment. It can be as insignificant as asking for pepsi or a snack and being told to wait, or being asked to clean his room or do something else he doesn't want to do. He isn't doing it to throw a tantrum or anything, he always goes to his room or the basement to cry alone but I can see the tears in his eyes as he walks away. This is new behaviour so I'm wondering if it's a hormonal shift? He has also experienced a few voice cracks recently so I'm wondering if this is the beginning of puberty? It feels young but I've only ever had female relatives so male puberty is a new experience for me.

I'll add that nothing about his home life has changed recently and he has a very stable home life so I don't believe it would have anything to do with that. Thanks for any responses!

I knew kids could be opinionated, but I never expected to have so many serious debates over the smallest things. My child can happily eat the same sandwich every day, but somehow the moment I cut it into the “wrong” shape, it becomes unacceptable. Same food, same kid, completely different reaction. 😂 What are some completely unexpected things your kids have very strong opinions about?

My son is 9 and doesn't have a phone yet. Some of his friends do. I keep going back and forth on this and I genuinely can't tell anymore if I'm protecting him or holding him back.

The case for getting him one, as I see it: he'd have access to basically all human knowledge in his pocket, and he's a curious kid. I could actually reach him when he's outside playing instead of yelling down the street. I know some of the social life at that age starts to happen online. And part of me thinks it's better he learns to manage a phone while he's under my roof and I can guide him, instead of getting unlimited access at later with zero practice.

The case against: I've watched what happens when he gets YouTube time. It's not documentaries. It's an hour of brain-rot shorts before I even notice. I worry about the algorithm getting its hooks in, about his attention span, about sleep, and later about the comparison and group-chat drama stuff everyone here talks about.

What's messing with my head is that his school went phone-free this year — locked away bell to bell. Part of me reads that as "even the schools decided these things are harmful." But the other part thinks it actually lowers the risk of giving him one, since school hours are covered now and the phone would only exist on evenings and weekends where I can see it.