The Parenting Journal

Every 15 seconds, someone in the U.S. calls a poison center about an exposure. America’s Poison Centers logged nearly 2.1 million human poison exposures in 2024, the equivalent of one case every 15 seconds. A significant share of those calls...

About 93,000 children under 5 are treated in U.S. emergency rooms each year for stair-related injuries. That’s one child every six minutes, according to a Nationwide Children’s Hospital analysis of CPSC data. And stairs are just one hazard in a...

Your toddler just opened the cabinet you locked three weeks ago. They’re holding a bottle of dish soap and looking extremely pleased with themselves. This is not a parenting failure. It is, frustratingly, developmentally right on schedule.Toddlers between 18 months...

Every parent has a version of this story. Mine happened on a Tuesday afternoon when my younger daughter, not yet 18 months old, emptied the entire under-sink cabinet in the time it took me to answer the front door. Sponges,...

The first outdoor trip with a newborn feels like a military operation. Sunscreen? Too young. Bug spray? Which kind? Hat, yes, but how much shade is enough shade? You’re standing in the driveway with a stroller and a diaper bag...

About 3,500 infants die each year from sleep-related causes in the United States, according to CDC SUID data. That number stopped me cold when I first read it during my older daughter’s newborn weeks, sitting in the dark at 3...

Every parent building a registry faces the same quiet panic: the lists are infinite, the opinions are loud, and nobody tells you which items matter for your baby’s safety versus which ones are just clever marketing. This guide focuses on...

Approximately 2,400 children are treated in U.S. emergency rooms each year for electrical outlet injuries (CPSC). That number is small enough that many parents assume the risk doesn’t apply to their family, and large enough that it absolutely might. The...

Every summer, I watch parents at the neighborhood park do the same thing: they settle onto a bench, pull out their phones, and assume the equipment is safe because it’s there. It isn’t always. For toddlers specifically, the gap between...