Parents
Preparing for a second baby
The logistics are different, the older child needs preparing, and the second time is genuinely easier in some respects and harder in others.
Callum Reid
33 articles by Reid
Parents
Getting through the first year: what nobody tells you
A collection of things that are true, are widely experienced, and are almost never said aloud.
Parents
Single parenting in the first year
The practical problem is that everything falls to one person, and the solutions are structural rather than motivational.
Development
Behaviour in the second year
Tantrums and defiance are neurological rather than moral, and the responses that work follow from understanding why.
Sleep
Dropping to one nap and giving up naps
The nap transitions are the bumpiest periods in toddler sleep, and rushing or resisting them both cause problems.
Parents
Looking after yourself in the first year
Parental wellbeing affects infant outcomes directly, which makes it a clinical consideration rather than an indulgence.
Parents
Money, benefits and the cost of a baby
A large share of the spending is avoidable, and a substantial share of the available support goes unclaimed.
Parents
Grandparents, advice and family pressure
Guidance has changed substantially in a generation, which is why the advice conflicts, and the conversation is mostly about authority.
Parents
Relationships after a baby
Relationship satisfaction declines for most couples after a first child, which is predictable and partly preventable.
Parents
Going back to work
The logistics, the feeding, the guilt and the negotiation are all separate problems, and most people prepare for only one.
Development
Temperament, and why babies differ
Some of the variation between babies is constitutional, and recognising it changes how parents interpret their own competence.
Sleep
What sleep training is and is not
The methods differ substantially, the evidence is better than critics claim and narrower than advocates suggest.
Sleep
Early bedtimes, late bedtimes and getting the timing right
Both overtiredness and undertiredness produce the same result, and telling them apart is the whole skill.
Newborn Care
Carrying, slings and prams
Babywearing has genuine benefits and specific safety rules, and the rules exist because of real deaths.
Newborn Care
Dressing a baby and the temperature question
Overheating is a genuine risk and hands are a poor guide, and the practical rules are simpler than the shops suggest.
Parents
Sleep deprivation and how to survive it
Chronic fragmented sleep has measurable effects on judgement, mood and safety, and there are things that genuinely help.
Development
Nursery, childminders and choosing childcare
Quality is measurable and is mostly about staff, and the research on outcomes is more reassuring than the guilt suggests.
Sleep
Travelling and holidays with a baby
Sleep, feeding and safety all need adjusting, and the preparation determines whether it is a holiday or a relocation of the difficulty.
Sleep
Dummies, thumbs and comfort objects
Non-nutritive sucking is normal and useful, and each option has a different set of trade-offs.
Newborn Care
Twins and multiples in the first year
The practical arithmetic is different in ways that generic baby advice does not address at all.
Parents
Dividing the work of a new baby
Household labour redistributes sharply after a first child, generally in one direction, and the arrangement made in the first months tends to persist.
Development
Separation anxiety, and what it means
It appears at a predictable age, is a sign of healthy cognitive development, and makes life considerably harder for a while.
Sleep
Room sharing, cots and moving to their own room
The six-month recommendation has a specific evidence base, and the practicalities afterwards are a family decision.
Sleep
Sleep regressions, and whether they are real
The ages are not fixed and the underlying phenomenon is genuine: development disrupts sleep, repeatedly.
Newborn Care
Bonding, and when it does not happen straight away
Instant overwhelming love is one experience among several, and the alternative is common enough to be worth saying out loud.
Parents
Postnatal mental health
Postnatal depression is common, treatable and frequently missed, and several other conditions are missed more often still.
Health & Safety
Home safety at each stage
Injury risks change as mobility changes, and the most serious hazards are not the ones that get the most attention.
Development
Play, and what babies actually need
The developmental value is in the interaction and the exploration rather than in the toy, which is fortunate.
Sleep
Night waking after six months
Waking is normal at every age; what changes is whether the baby can return to sleep without help, and why.
Sleep
Naps, and the schedules people obsess over
Wake windows and nap schedules are useful frameworks and are frequently applied with a rigidity nobody needs.
Health & Safety
Car seats, and the mistakes almost everyone makes
Observational studies find most seats are fitted or used incorrectly, and the errors are the same ones repeatedly.
Sleep
Newborn sleep, and why nothing works yet
Babies in the first months have no body clock, short sleep cycles and no capacity for routine, which explains most of it.
Sleep
Safe sleep, and what the guidance actually says
The recommendations are specific, evidence-based, and frequently relayed in a vague form that helps nobody.