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Because vitamin D is the one nutrient humans are not designed to get from food, and infants in the UK cannot make enough of it from sunlight for much of the year. Why it is unusual. Most vitamins
Three different roles with different training and different jobs — and knowing which one to approach saves a great deal of time, particularly in the first few years. Health visitor. A registered
Because observational learning is one of the primary mechanisms by which humans acquire behaviour, and children are unusually strongly disposed toward it — to a degree that is genuinely distinctive
Because from the baby's perspective, being held is the normal and expected condition — and the preference has a coherent biological explanation rather than being a habit you accidentally created. Why
Because avoiding all risk removes the mechanism by which children learn to assess risk — and the evidence increasingly suggests that heavily risk-averse environments produce worse outcomes rather
They occur in different sleep stages, look completely different, and require opposite responses — which is why distinguishing them matters. Nightmares are frightening dreams. When: during REM sleep,
The range of normal is wide, which is why general reassurance and genuine concern are both frequently misplaced. Specific milestones are more useful than averages. Rough expectations: Around 12
Because biting is an available and effective action for a child whose needs exceed their ability to express them — and it is common enough to be considered a normal developmental behaviour rather
Both describe periods when a previously settled baby becomes unsettled, and parents frequently use the terms interchangeably. They describe different things, and one of them has considerably better
Because boredom appears to be the state from which self-directed activity emerges, and filling every gap removes the conditions in which children learn to occupy themselves. What boredom actually is.
Tummy time is supervised time a baby spends on their front while awake. It matters because babies now spend far more time on their backs than they used to, and that change had an unintended
Because parental preference is a normal developmental phase, it is extremely common, and it is usually about the child's needs rather than about either parent's worth — though it is genuinely painful
Understanding develops considerably later than the ability to lie, and the gap explains a great deal of parental confusion. When lying starts. Research by Kang Lee and colleagues, using
That is the palmar grasp reflex, one of several primitive reflexes newborns are born with — automatic, involuntary responses that emerge and then disappear on a fairly predictable schedule. The
Because food neophobia — wariness of unfamiliar foods — is a normal developmental stage, and beige foods happen to be the ones that most reliably pass a cautious child's checks. The developmental
Because predictability substitutes for control, and a toddler has almost none of the latter. The core reason. A small child cannot decide where they go, what they eat, when they sleep, or what
Object permanence is understanding that things continue to exist when you cannot see them. It sounds trivial and is a genuine cognitive achievement — a young infant appears to treat a hidden object
It is expected and normal. Almost all newborns lose weight in the first days, and understanding why prevents a great deal of unnecessary anxiety. The usual figures: a loss of up to about 7–10% of
Serve and return describes the back-and-forth interaction between a baby and a caregiver, and it is the mechanism through which early brain development is thought to be shaped by experience. How it
Because their immune systems are inexperienced, and because they are placed in exactly the circumstances that spread respiratory viruses most efficiently. The numbers. Young children average six to
Usually starting around age six, and finishing somewhere between 11 and 13, though the normal range is wide and early or late is rarely a problem in itself. The usual sequence tends to mirror the
The soft spots are fontanelles — gaps where the skull bones have not yet fused, covered by tough membrane. They exist for two reasons, both essential. Birth. A baby's head is the widest part to pass
The concern is real, though it is more specific than the popular version suggests. The issue is not praise itself — it is what the praise attributes success to. Research on this, most associated with
Because the thing is not small to them, and because the equipment for managing the feeling is not built yet. The developmental part. Emotional regulation depends heavily on the prefrontal cortex,