Vaccines--we delay and skipped a few.

RIE - took the parts I liked and discarded the rest. I love what narration and conversation as a new born on did for my daughter - she was communicating at a very, very young age and is the most verbal 23 month old I have ever encountered. Also read a lot about sensory stuff, sign language and brain synapses. We read to DD from the day she was born and she loves books now.

I wish I had learned more about actual breastfeeding prior to her birth - I pumped for nearly a year but never enjoyed nursing - and neither did she.

Anonymous wrote:Child development. By far. knowing stages and phases, what to expect, what’s outside the realm of expected behavior is the most helpful information I’ve had. My kids are teens now and I still read about what typically happens with each new age.

What happens when they are teens?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None. I go by what I learned growing up

How did you learn how to breastfeed or sleep train an infant? How could you remember that.

A lot of cultures breastfeed. There's not a huge debate of what a mother will do.

Sleep training is also a very modern/western custom. A lot of things like not letting an infant cry or reading the signs of tiredness aren't rocket science.

True. However the parts about when to transition from three to two naps, how to rig a ladder schedule of wakefulness, getting circadian rhythm to work with sleep pressure, etc. has allowed us to help two average/sensitive sleepers get to 12 hours of unbroken sleep early on. That's priceless time spent, IMHO.

Nobody in my family gets 12 hours of unbroken sleep and never had. I was never counting on that.

Child development. By far. knowing stages and phases, what to expect, what’s outside the realm of expected behavior is the most helpful information I’ve had. My kids are teens now and I still read about what typically happens with each new age.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None. I go by what I learned growing up

How did you learn how to breastfeed or sleep train an infant? How could you remember that.

No sleep trading, don't like it. I mostly googled info about products. I didn't have questions about breastfeeding.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None. I go by what I learned growing up

How did you learn how to breastfeed or sleep train an infant? How could you remember that.

A lot of cultures breastfeed. There's not a huge debate of what a mother will do.

Sleep training is also a very modern/western custom. A lot of things like not letting an infant cry or reading the signs of tiredness aren't rocket science.

True. However the parts about when to transition from three to two naps, how to rig a ladder schedule of wakefulness, getting circadian rhythm to work with sleep pressure, etc. has allowed us to help two average/sensitive sleepers get to 12 hours of unbroken sleep early on. That's priceless time spent, IMHO.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None. I go by what I learned growing up

How did you learn how to breastfeed or sleep train an infant? How could you remember that.

A lot of cultures breastfeed. There's not a huge debate of what a mother will do.

Sleep training is also a very modern/western custom. A lot of things like not letting an infant cry or reading the signs of tiredness aren't rocket science.

So tired of that response, though I admittedly used it myself before my daughter ended up hospitalized due to my unwillingness to do anything but bf despite not making nearly enough milk.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/01/09/breastfeeding_has_always_been_hard_women_in_ancient_times_used_terracotta.html

Anonymous wrote:Happiest Baby on the Block. I was really glad I learned about the "fourth trimester", and I got reassurance that I could not spoil the baby during this time, so I enjoyed my baby snuggles.

This makes me happy!

Anonymous wrote:Potty training, Oh Crap was spot on.

Agree!

I'm glad I research preschools for my kids and looked into different methods. They had a nanny before that, so this was their first experience in a group setting. We looked at a couple of different places with very different philosophies, and the first place we chose with our eldest was not a good fit. I did a lot of looking after the first year and found a place that was spot-on for his next two years and for my younger kid, and I'm really glad I did that. It wasn't particularly close to our house, and when my second was ready for preschool, I thought maybe we should look into other, more convenient options, so I did. But I still didn't find anything that compared. It was well worth the drive, money, and research.

Sleep training.

Ellyn Satter for feeding/eating.

Sibling relationships (I'm an only child, so this was totally new to me).

I can't say that I did a ton of "research" into any of these things, but I did some basic looking around and read 1-3 books.

Visiting all of those daycares and getting on waiting lists early was totally worth the effort.

education theory (informed our choice of elementary school)

language acquisition



By choice, I didn't reach much of anything on pregnancy and infant care. Just sorta winged it. We did a lot of things "wrong." A LOT. This kid had crap nutrition, never had a minute of tummy time, slept in a carseat for 7 months … I never ate a single prenatal vitamin … I gave up trying to get her to latch on and used a nipple shield for a year ….didn't run and call Early Intervention when she didn't crawl or walk on time ….

Anyway, it turns out that none of this ^ mattered. At all. Kid is a teenager now, healthy as a horse, slender, eats an enviable healthy diet by choice. Does fine athletically despite that lack of tummy time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None. I go by what I learned growing up

How did you learn how to breastfeed or sleep train an infant? How could you remember that.

A lot of cultures breastfeed. There's not a huge debate of what a mother will do.

Sleep training is also a very modern/western custom. A lot of things like not letting an infant cry or reading the signs of tiredness aren't rocket science.