Jarrod Partridge

Sudden acting out is almost always a signal, not defiance for its own sake. Your child is communicating an unmet need, a big emotion, or a change they cannot yet put into words. The most common triggers are physical (hunger, poor sleep, illness), emotional (anxiety, overwhelm, a recent change), and developmental growth spurts that temporarily […]

Consequences for teens work best when they are connected to the behavior, time limited, and enforced calmly and consistently. Removing a specific privilege your teen actually cares about, like phone access, gaming, or car keys, changes behavior faster than long open ended grounding. Harsh or unpredictable punishment tends to backfire, so the goal is to

As pools and lakes fill up for the summer, federal safety regulators have issued a stark warning to parents of babies and toddlers: if you own a Relaxing Baby swim float, stop using it, puncture it, and throw it away. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission took the unusual step of telling families to physically

It is the dinner-table scene a lot of families would recognize but few would admit to. Everyone is finally sitting down together, and within a minute one parent is checking a work message, the other is half-watching something, and the kids have a tablet propped against the napkin holder. A new study published this week

Build lunches from a short list of foods your child already trusts, then add one small new or less-favorite item beside it without any pressure to eat it. You decide what, when, and where lunch happens. Your child decides how much and whether to eat. That split, backed by the AAP, is what ends most

Most colicky babies are not autistic, and most autistic children were not colicky. Standard colic on its own is not a reliable sign of autism. The pattern researchers find more interesting is persistent, hard-to-soothe crying that starts late and lasts well past the typical colic window, not classic colic that fades by 3 to 4

Here is a fact that surprises most parents standing in the drop off line with a knot in their stomach: a child is less likely to be injured at a residential summer camp than playing many common youth sports. The image of camp as a risky place, all open water and tall trees and kids

Table of Contents Toggle What the New Poll Found Why So Many Families Do It What Experts Say About the Risks What This Means for Parents How Young Adults See It A Simple Conversation to Have Tracking Is Not a Substitute for Connection The Bigger Picture Your child is 21, lives in a dorm three

Most resistance at age three comes from one of three things: a control battle, fear of pooping on the toilet, or hidden constipation. Spot the real cause before you change your approach. Drop the pressure. Stop asking, stop reminding constantly, and never shame an accident. Calm and boring beats anxious and intense every time. Give

Most babies wear a helmet to treat plagiocephaly, a flat or uneven spot on the skull that forms from steady pressure on one area. It does not mean anything is wrong with the brain. Helmet therapy only works while the skull is still growing quickly, which is why pediatricians act early and usually try repositioning

For decades, American parents could count on one shared childhood vaccine schedule. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published it, pediatricians followed it, and the yellow shot record looked the same whether your family lived in Ohio or Oregon. That shared map has split. For 2026, the CDC pared its routine childhood immunization schedule

Most parents who crack down hard on lying believe they are teaching honesty. New research suggests the opposite can happen. A pair of studies from the National University of Singapore, published in the journal Child Development, found that children raised with strict, controlling discipline were more likely to lie and cheat as they grew, not

Teenagers are most motivated when a goal feels like their own, so the fastest way to kill drive is to take it over with nagging, bribes, or threats. Lasting motivation grows from three things: a sense of choice, a feeling of being capable, and a warm relationship with you. A sudden drop in motivation can

The “terrible twos” describes a normal stage when toddlers start asserting independence but do not yet have the language or self-control to manage big feelings. Meltdowns tend to peak between roughly 18 months and 3 years because the emotional part of a toddler’s brain develops faster than the part that handles impulse control. You can

For most of the past decade, gentle parenting was the default aspiration for a certain kind of modern parent: get down to your child’s eye level, talk through every feeling, swap time-outs for time-ins, and never be the kind of grown-up who barks “because I said so.” Now the mood has shifted. Gentle parenting has

Here is a finding worth holding onto the next time you are deciding whether it is worth the effort to get everyone out the door to the park: the days your preschooler spends playing outside may be quietly protecting their mental health years later. A new study tracking more than 4,000 children found that the

A wiggly baby tooth that loosens on its own and falls out can be within the normal range at 4, especially if your child got their baby teeth early. Most kids lose their first tooth around 6, but anywhere from 4 to 7 can be typical. The bigger question is not the age, it is

A speech delay and behavior problems in 4-year-olds are usually linked. When a child cannot find the words fast enough, the frustration tends to come out as hitting, biting, screaming, or meltdowns. The quickest way to calm the behavior is often to build the communication. An evaluation with a speech-language pathologist is the place to

Here is a finding that should make the nightly book at bedtime feel a little more worthwhile. A 2026 study published in the journal PLOS One found that just two weeks of daily bedtime reading measurably improved both empathy and creativity in young children. Even more surprising, it did not seem to matter whether parents

A large new study has reached a conclusion that reframes how scientists think about what shapes a child’s developing brain. After analyzing brain scans from nearly 12,000 children, researchers found that the single biggest environmental factor linked to brain structure and function was not a child’s IQ, parenting style, or health history. It was the