Stock cubes for babies

I am about to start weaning my almost 6 month old. I also have a 2.5 year old who eats what we eat. I put stock cubes in most meals but we don’t like the low salt ones. I don’t add any additional salt and definitely won’t for my baby but are stock cubes ok? I used to cook my toddlers separately until he was 1 but I don’t have the head space or time for that now. I very much just want to make one meal. Does anyone else do this?

in our community

Am I being too sensitive?

I asked my husband to come to Target with me. He said he didn’t want to go and then proceeded to tell me that I cant do things by myself and I’m codependent. I just want to do things with him, I can obviously go by myself but I enjoy being with him. I told him thats insulting and he doesn’t understand why because he thinks he is just telling me the truth. This spiraled into a huge argument and we are now in separate rooms. Am I looking into this? Am I being too sensitive because of my hormones?

Am I TA?

So my parents care for my niece 1 day a week, things are awkward for many reasons including the fact that my son has been told to be quiet while playing outside at a normal volume, because niece is sleeping.

Today, I was asked to pass on a messafe to my Mum and as soon as I opened my mouth I was told to be quiet as she was trying to sleep.

I have very little interest in being around now.

Would I be the AH if I avoided being around while my niece is visiting.

We live on my parents property and despite desperately wanting to move, can't right now.

Holiday Abroad with 3 month old… yay or nay?

Apologies, I’m sure this question gets asked a lot…

We are contemplating going abroad on holiday in September, our little boy will turn three months at the end of next week.

Things that might be helpful to know:
- I express and he’s bottle fed
- We would go somewhere like Spain
- We would fly

Our worries are that he could cry the entire flight, and he could be difficult to settle at times whilst we’re away and we don’t have the usual aids (rocker etc).

However we’ve been told this is the golden age to take a baby as they aren’t yet moving around and still nap quite a bit. So would we be silly not to take the opportunity?

Or do we just holiday in the UK? It can be as expensive or more expensive than going abroad but we don’t have to worry about the plane and could take things like the rocker with us.

I know no one can really answer this for us but would be interested in your thoughts and experiences! TIA x

TLDR: do we take our 3 month abroad, worried he’ll cry on plane and be hard to settle during holiday.

Solid foods

Doctor approved us to start introducing more solid foods at 5 months because of her head control. I told our daycare, and they asked what my plan was—baby-led weaning, purées, pouches, etc. And honestly… I had no idea what to tell them 😂

What is everyone else’s plan for introducing solids? Are you doing baby-led weaning, purées, a mix of both, or something else?

Toddler meltdowns.

Hi. I hope all is well.

I honestly need to vent. And also some advice. Or I need to know if anyone can relate because I feel so alone in this. Recently my 2 year old has been throwing the WORST tantrums. I don’t even know what to call them. Tantrums or meltdowns. It first happened at the park that’s 5 min away from where we live (we walked). And she was crying as if I was doing something bad to her. Everyone was staring. I felt so horrible. I cried silently all the way home while she screamed and cried in her stroller. Now it’s happening everyday, at least once a day. She screams so loud and cries so much. It’s if she doesn’t get her way. I feel horrible and we live in an apartment complex so I get scared if neighbors are gonna call the cops. She doesn’t want my comfort she wants to be by herself. I let her know I’m here if she needs me to hug her. She tells me no. And wants to be alone. I let her be but I can hear her from the other room just screaming and crying. I always end up crying, I get so overwhelmed. I try not to let her see me crying. But once she’s done she comes back and lets me comfort her by hugging her. Is any of this normal?

Would you fly abroad if you were in my shoes?

I have two children, aged 5 and 3, and I’m considering going abroad with my husband. The main thing making me hesitate is that my husband has ongoing mental health and musculoskeletal issues, and when we travel, he generally doesn’t take responsibility for the practical side of things. I would already expect to be responsible for the children, suitcases and most of the organisation, but I’m also worried that I may need to manage his anxiety or mental health while we’re away.

The last time we travelled, around 1.5 years ago, was quite traumatic for me. On the flight there, my husband experienced severe palpitations and became convinced he was going to die. I had to alert the cabin crew, and when we landed, paramedics assessed him. As he doesn’t speak the language of the country we were visiting, I had to translate for him while also trying to keep an eye on our two young children, who were running around, and deal with all the luggage.

Then, when we arrived at the Airbnb, he became very anxious because he didn’t know what he was going to eat. He has quite significant food anxiety. He walked out of the accommodation, and I had to follow him with both children because I was worried about him. Thankfully, he eventually settled and the rest of the trip was better.

Interestingly, his sibling came to stay with us afterwards, and on the journey home his sibling travelled back with us. My husband was completely fine on the return flight, so I know he can manage travelling, but I think the experience has left me quite traumatised and worried about it happening again.

Now he really wants to go abroad again. He is better than he was previously, and these days he does manage a lot of his anxiety himself. However, he is still not 100% — he still has anxiety and food-related anxiety, and his mood can be very low. When he is struggling, he can become withdrawn, sit quietly and move his body back and forth without really engaging with us. He also tends to isolate himself and doesn’t always tell me how he is feeling, because he prefers to deal with things himself.

I don’t want to stop him from doing something he really wants to do, and I don’t want to disappoint him. At the same time, I’m worried that if things go wrong, I’ll be the one carrying the responsibility for the children, luggage, translating, organising everything AND potentially dealing with another mental health crisis.

So, if you were in my position, would you go abroad? Would you feel comfortable taking the risk, knowing what happened last time and knowing that your husband is better but still not completely well? Or would you wait until things are more stable?

I’m really struggling to work out whether I’m being unnecessarily anxious because of what happened last time, or whether my concerns are reasonable.