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Toddlers may be notorious for temper tantrums and meal-time power struggles, but sleep concerns are a very frequent and common issue as well. Sleep is vitally important for physical, mental, and emotional well-being. You know it’s necessary, but getting your toddler to sleep isn’t always easy. Up to half of kids will experience a sleep problem at some point during childhood. Some toddlers have sleeping troubles related to separation anxiety. Others may be missing or outgrowing their afternoon naps and are overtired, which can cause them to fight sleep....

The five love languages describe five ways that people receive and express love in a relationship. These are words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch, acts of service, and receiving gifts. Knowing your partner’s love language and letting them know yours is a way to help you both feel loved and appreciated. Author and pastor Gary Chapman describes how to use these love languages to show your partner you care for them in a way that speaks to their heart....

From being unemotional and power-hungry to narcissistic and violent, men are often defined by these outdated and unfounded stereotypes, which create an unhealthy and unrealistic understanding of what it means to be a man in today’s society. Toxic masculinity is a concept used to define unhealthy and often traditional characteristics or attributes associated with men. Assuming men should be protectors, breadwinners, or leaders, or associating men with anger, selfishness, and aggression can be problematic and damaging....

Caffeine is a stimulant that some teenagers rely on to help them navigate the demands of modern-day adolescence. Whether it is a late-night study or a pre-sport pick-me-up, caffeine can help boost falling energy levels and improve alertness. However, experts have warned that too much caffeine could be having a detrimental effect on teenagers’ health. Anxiety disrupted sleep, caffeine withdrawal and even overdose are all associated with caffeine consumption in teenagers....

The milk ducts, also called lactiferous ducts, are the tubes that carry your breast milk from where it is made in the glandular tissue of your breast out to your nipple. There are approximately 15 to 20 milk ducts located in your breast. Where the duct ends at your nipple there are small openings that allow the breast milk to flow out of your body and to your baby. When your baby is latched on properly and breastfeeding, the motions of your baby’s jaw, gums, and tongue help to pull the milk through the ducts and out of your nipple into your baby’s mouth....

If you find yourself crying out, “Don’t touch that!” multiple times per day, you’re likely the parent to a toddler. It may seem like every time you sit down, these curious little beings are picking up something they shouldn’t. And if your redirections are met by resistance and lots of tears, your toddler sounds pretty typical! Toddlers often misbehave in their quest to find out what the rules are. After all, they are still pretty new to the world and there’s a lot they don’t know....

Autism Exists on a Spectrum The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5), states that autism is a spectrum. This means that individuals have different support needs and strengths. Language note: Although individual preferences exist, surveys of the autistic community consistently show that autistic people prefer identity-first language rather than person-first language (i.e., “autistic person” rather than “person with autism”). This article reflects that community language preference....

A superager, also known as a super-ager, is a person who is at least eighty years of age and retains the memory skills and capacity of someone at least thirty years younger. This population falls well outside the “normal” memory skill range for people their age. Studies about the brain differences of superagers are still being conducted, and while there is likely a biological element to why a person does or does not become a superager, lifestyle habits can improve a person’s chances of becoming one....

What Is the American Psychological Association? The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest professional and scientific organization of psychologists in the United States. APA is based in Washington, DC, and had more than 117,000 members in 2017. Membership in APA is not limited to scientists or clinicians; it also includes educators and psychology students. Functions of APA What role does the American Psychological Association serve? How does APA contribute to the field of psychology?...

It isn’t necessarily fair, but there is a substantial body of research demonstrating that being perceived as beautiful or handsome offers some advantages. Physical attractiveness has important social consequences. It may not be surprising that attractive individuals fair better in the world of dating. What you may not know is that beauty is also associated with more plentiful and stronger-bonded platonic relationships. Beauty also correlates with upward economic mobility, especially for women....

The pump and dump method was developed in recognition of the great physical and psychological benefits of breastfeeding to both parents and babies, along with the knowledge that sometimes, breastfeeding parents consume substances which can be harmful or even lethal to the baby. Because the body will only continue to produce breast milk if the breasts are stimulated, people needed some way of continuing to keep up production milk for future breastfeeding, even while they were temporarily unable to breastfeed for medical reasons....

As due dates approach or pass, many pregnant people wonder if they can use sex to induce labor. Anecdotally, people have been told that sex at the end of pregnancy will help bring on the contractions that signal labor. It’s long been used as a natural method to try to induce labor. That said there is limited scientific research on the subject. However, the current evidence does not find that sex brings on labor....

Ann-Louise T. Lockhart, PsyD, ABPP, is a lot of things. She’s a doctor, board-certified in clinical child and adolescent psychology. She’s a highly sought-after speaker and writer on parenting, children’s mental health, and racism. She’s a parent coach and is a parent herself. With almost 60,000 Instagram followers, she’s even something of a parenting influencer. Given how the world has turned since early 2020 in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic, mass demonstrations in support of racial equality, and extreme political divisiveness, we’re living in one of the most turbulent times that many of us have ever experienced....

What Are Anxiety Shivers? Anxiety shivers are a common symptom of anxiety. Although not a formal clinical term, anxiety shivers refers to the experience of anxiety that might cause someone to shiver, shake, tremble, feel like they have the chills, or feel it is hard to regulate their body temperature. Anxiety shivers can be alarming, but are not dangerous, and go away on their own as your anxiety dissipates. Characteristics of Anxiety Shivers Anxiety shivers are most likely to happen when you are experiencing a heightened period of anxiety, such as during a panic attack or anxiety attack....

If you’re the mother of twins, you know this scenario: You’re out at the grocery store, mall, or post office. Navigating the aisles with your twins in their humungous double stroller, you’re desperately trying to accomplish some important errands in the narrow “golden hour” time period between nap time, feedings and meltdowns (theirs, and yours). And you’re approached by a well-meaning—but nevertheless annoying—a person who wants to interrogate you. “Are they twins?...

Becoming a new mom is a huge transition. You wait, wait, and wait some more as your belly grows. Then, suddenly, you’ve got a baby in your arms. This adjustment, which happens during a period that is often called the fourth trimester, often requires a whole different outlook on life with a whole new set of skills. The blessing is that there are millions of moms out there who have experienced what you’re going through or are now in the same boat....

The general warning is that you should not feed honey to infants under 12 months of age. For a child under 12 months of age, there is a risk of botulism from eating honey and it should be avoided. The spores of the Clostridium botulinum bacteria can be found in honey. When ingested by an infant, the spores grow and the Clostridium botulinum bacteria can release the toxin that causes botulism....

The causes of depression are as confounding to researchers as the doctors and mental health professionals who treat it, and perhaps most of all, the 300 million people in the world who have it. Genetics may indicate a risk for depression, but do not always determine whether a person will develop this all-too-common mental health disorder. There is no “number one cause” of depression, and even more complex is the relationship between genetics, depression, and other known contributing factors....

I was getting close. I was approaching 36 weeks pregnant with my second child, and every passing day I grew more and more nervous. My first baby sent contractions through my body just after 34 weeks. Baby Liv spent almost a week in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit afterward, gaining weight and strengthening her lungs. I spent five days in the hospital recovering from HELLP Syndrome, a condition involving hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, plus a low count of platelets....

July was Disability Pride Month, but there’s a difference between shouting from the rooftops and speaking in hushed tones. For many in the disability community, the idea of disability pride itself is a complicated topic. Key Takeaways Disability pride doesn’t always meaning being out and loud about your disability.Disability pride is a serious stumbling block for mental health practitioners and patients. Whether it’s because of societal expectations, privacy concerns, or a lifelong curiosity about what being disabled even means, four people at various stages of identifying with disability pride were willing to speak about their experiences....