Parenting

Tomorrow is another gift-giving-holiday.

That means you might be thinking about offering a video game, a console or some sort of connected device.

Please consider turning the device on beforehand and getting it updated so whoever receives the gift can enjoy it promptly.

I'm only saying this because even the Nintendo Switch with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe required 2 hours in order for system and game updates to install.

Gopuff and candy company, Mars, have partnered to deliver free candy to homes on Oct. 31. The main link covers it somewhat like a 'news' story, but hey! Free candy! Direct link to corporate promo: https://mmshalloweenrescuesquad.com/

List of states/communities with gopuff service: https://www.gopuff.com/delivery/us

I'd like to introduce my app which I have been working on for about half a year, it's called Baby Journal and it's an end-to-end encrypted app for tracking your baby activities, like feeding, diaper changes and so on.

On iOS you can install it to your homescreen as a webapp, on Android you can either install it as a webapp or directly from Google Play. On both you can just run it from your browser. Neither has any advantage over the other, the content will be the same.

Links:

• baby-journal.app - the (optionally installable) webapp
• Google Play Store
• Backend source code
• App source code

Now onto the app itself!

The biggest feature is that it's entirely end to end encrypted and I as the server operator have no access to your unencrypted data. I'm of the opinion that the privacy of your kids should not be compromised for some company to make a quick buck.

What activities can the app track?

• feeding tracking - nursing (left and right breast separately), bottle, solid foods
• diaper changes - wet, poopy or both, you can also select the color and amount
• breast pumping - left and right breast separately
• sleeping
• temperature taking
• weight
• length
• milestones - with cute descriptions!
  • with ability to add custom milestones

And some cool features!

• tracker - just hit start on your activity and let the app count how long it takes
• multiple babies - if you have more than one bundle of joy, you can switch between them easily
• sharing with multiple other accounts - you can easily share your data with as many people as you want without compromising privacy
• shared tracking - if you use the app with multiple people, you can enable shared tracking - start tracking on one device, finish tracking on another
• data at a quick glance - on the main screen you can see when was your baby fed for the last time, when they had a diaper changed and so on
• various fine-tune settings - do you want to calculate the time since last feeding since the beginning of the feeding or since the end? Do you want to ignore small gaps between multiple feedings (for example 10 minutes while you switch from nursing to bottle) as one feeding session? Does water count as feeding? All configurable!
• daily summary - you can get a nice summary where you can see all the important data in a concise format

Currently the data can only be tracked in metric units, but imperial support is coming.

Note that the encrypted nature has one downside - if you don't export your account code and lose access to the app (for example your device breaks), there's no way to recover your account. I advise you to securely store your account code as soon as possible.

For advanced users there's also a self-hosting option! You can run your own backend and app. Or you can just run your own backend and point the official app to it. Currently there's not much documentation on how to do that, but if you need that, I can write something up.

Do let me know if you have any questions!

A spokesperson for the company responded to CBS News, however, saying that Infinant Health is planning to continue distributing its "Evivo powder product" for consumers to buy and intends "to work with the FDA toward approval of the use of our MCT oil product in hospital settings."

As of today, I have a 1 month old. She is amazing and I love her so much, but she's boring! Don't get me wrong, she's difficult and my wife and I haven't slept a good night in a month, but all she does is eat, sleep, and poop. There's basically no interaction.

I'm so looking forward to being able to laugh with her, play with her, and generally start teaching her the world.

How do you feel? What's your favorite stage of child development?

There's a big protest being organized across Canada to protest SOGI being taught in schools, and I'm fed up with it. There are so many vulnerable students who need to know that what they're experiencing is normal, and right-wing extremists are politicizing human rights and spreading manufactured controversy about children being shown pornography in schools.

The linked article is just one of many anti-SOGI protests happening across Canada on Wednesday.

Anyway, the reason I bring it up here is that some of these right-wing anti-SOGI [redacted; unkind] are parents of kids in our kids' classes, and a couple of them are close friends with my kids.

How do you handle that? Kids shouldn't be held accountable for their parents' beliefs. But what about playdates and birthday parties and such? Should we discuss the friendship? It feels wrong to ostracize the child. They deserve to feel safe and have friends.

Also, I'm thinking of taking time off work to counter protest, and making a sign like this one:

Not really related to parenting, but I think it's important kids feel supported and bigots are told their archaic world views are unwelcome. It'll be super awkward if a parent I know is standing on the other side of the protest.

Gift Link that allows people to view the full article without a subscription/login

As my oldest goes into pre-k, in a formal school, it's a big transition to how we approach our family's relationship to the teachers, administrators, and the school as an institution. It's clear that the other parents are also in the same boat, with some unspoken undercurrent of competitiveness that I don't personally want to participate in.

Parents of older kids, what do you think other parents should know as their kids transition into elementary school?

My kid (8) isnt enrolled in any summer camps, and we've been doing our best to keep him active and entertained both at home/outdoors. But we're always looking for ideas for new fun stuff to do.

How do you and your kids do for fun summer break activities?

Our 2yo has sensitive skin, so we've always been really particular about drying his butt during a diaper change before putting the new diaper on, and we haven't had much problem with diaper rash since he was only a few months old.

But sometimes when he comes back from an afternoon with grandma and auntie, he'll have a good bit of diaper rash - well when we watch the change him, I noticed they don't bother to use the drying rag we include in the diaper change kit, just wipe clean and then strap up.

We also got some friends with a similar age kid, and they also don't dry, but they are big fans of baby powder, and out some of that on with every change. Their kid is a little bit younger but it sounds like they deal with rash fairly often (despite less sensitive skin generally).

So that brings me to the title - are people just really out here not drying butts? Is it weird that we always do? Is this not a normal part of the diaper change process?

What do yall think?

I'm not sure if this is the best place for this cross-post, nor do I know how many users here occupy the parent+tech-savvy/sysop intersectional space. But for anyone with a child and privacy focused, this webapp made by Rikudou_Sage might be of interest?

Keep in mind, it doesn't come with any instructions on self-hosting. It seems to leverage the serverless framework, though.

If this post is a bad fit, feel free to remove!

The github repos and the link to the Play Store app (it's a wrapper) can be found under the original post spoiler section below.

Our little one (18 months) started swim lessons about a month ago, so we're learning all about swim diapers and trying to avoid an accident until we get to the pool. We've changed in the locker rooms and got in the habit of just putting the swim diaper on in the trunk upon arrival. With a wiggly kid, that's just a pain but we dealt with it.

Last week, my wife was in the water and I stayed in the chairs where I overheard two of the other moms talking and one had an awesome suggestion we hadn't thought of. Put on the swim diaper at home, then put a regular diaper on over the swim diaper and take off the regular diaper upon arrival. Keeps everything contained, makes changing a lot easier, and we're in the pool a lot faster.

Curious to see what the community has and see if we can get some knowledge sharing in! What else have you got?

My partner and I are expecting our first in December and very excited but not quite sure of what to expect or… how to do any of it, really. What resources helped you when you were first diving into parenthood?

Let's hear those classic one liners that only a toddler could come up with

I am a parent (stay-at-home dad) of two boys (10 and 14 years old). Best advice that I can give is 'attachment parenting' and teaching/encouraging 'emotional intelligence'. Those two were the most recommended by the top child psychologists on Earth.

Both boys have been in gifted and talented programs (without any parental pressure) for many years and are on track to receive full scholarships.

In short, we have talked to them about everything...talk talk and more talk...encourage them to talk about their feelings/emotions...if they feel ashamed about talking to their parents about something, then find someone (friend, family member, school counselor, etc) to talk about it.

From infancy until around the age of four, we would read to them. We'd sit in a chair, place them on our lap, hold the book open right in front of them and read. As they grew older we explained that there is a direct relationship between reading comprehension skills (critical thinking) and the amount of money one could earn in a career. Basically, we asked them: Do you want this type of mid-sized house/property, two cars, time off of work, pets, etc? -> Read and understand what you are reading.

I'll start!

My son is 14 months. He learned to walk on his own 2 weeks ago and now I just chase him non stop. It doesn't help that it's 90+f outside. 💦