My Third Kid Hates Kindergarten Too!

Remember this guy? This sweet, cuddly, awesome 4-year-old? Well, now he’s a big 5-year-old, and he’s been in kindergarten for about 7 weeks. He started out with an enthusiastic bang, but now we’re dealing with tears and major foot-dragging when it comes to going to school.   I know, I know — I shouldn’t be more »

Sudden Fears in 12 to 15-Month-Old Babies

Let me tell you about a cool conversation I had the other day with my Infant Research/Rock Star Guru, Professor Joseph Campos (at UC Berkeley).  He helped me understand more about a funky phenomenon I’ve written about here before: The Weird, Wacky, Sudden Fears of the 12 — 15-month old. You know: Crazy fears of more »

Parenting Strategies When Bad Things Happen — Talking To Preschoolers About Tragedies

The news was on, and our preschooler came into the room. Before we could turn off the TV, he saw a good stretch of footage he shouldn’t have: Shootings. A deranged killer. Sobbing parents. A child murdered. “Why is that lady crying, mommy?” Every ounce of our parenting instinct wants to wish this moment away more »

Kindergarten Haters And Dumb Potty Training Rules in Preschool

We bloggers check our blog traffic to see how many “hits” we’re getting. My software also tells me how you got to me — what you entered into the search or URL line to get to BabyShrink — and this is where it gets interesting. This time of year, I get a lot of searches more »

The Quotable Parent: The Fabulous Fraiberg #2 — Fear and the Young Child

I’m plowing through essential classic parenting titles as I write my own book. Fraiberg is such a gem, and even 50 years after publication, this book is a giant among parenting titles. In this next section, she elaborates on the theme of the child’s own innate ability to deal with fears. She give us a more »

Body Awareness in Preschoolers — One Mom’s Fears

Dear Dr. Heather, I am worried about my 3-year-old daughter, who has made 2 comments about her “bottom” in the last 2 weeks. She didn’t want me to look at her bottom when I was putting a pull-up on her. When I asked her why, she said “I don’t know.” And visiting her grandparents’ house, more »

A Toddler’s Strange New Fear, and What To Do About It

I’ve gotten a lot of traffic lately on Strange and Sudden Toddler Fears. I’ve written on this before (and included a link at the end of this post), but this is such a common question that I’ve decided to answer it’s latest incarnation, hopefully with some additional insights. Here goes: Dear Dr. Heather, Just in more »

How to Talk to Kids: A Great Book

Our 6-year-old is in the throes of a really anxious phase. He often needs to be reassured about where we are, even if we’re all just in the house. He’s afraid to go to sleep at night. And he’s terrified of “ET”, a classic we allowed the babysitter to show the kids one night. You’d more »

Tips for a Toddler Tinkling (and Screaming) in the Bath

Hi Dr. Heather, My husband and I are hoping you can shed some light on a concern we have for our son who is 27 months old. Over the last month during bath time, my son has peed in the bath 3 separate times, and without fail he would then ‘hold himself’ while crying/screaming hysterically! more »

My Kindergartener Hates School. What Should We Do?

This year, one of our sons is starting kindergarten. Being a second-born, he was “raring to go” to school; he talked about it incessantly over the last few months. When asked if he likes school, he replies, “I don’t LIKE school. I LOVE it!” But the J-Man already knew his teacher before school started; she more »

Help — My Toddler Suddenly Hates the Bath!

Today, my sister in North Carolina called. I could barely hear her, with her 12-month-old screaming in the background. “We’re trying to give her a bath, like usual. But all of a sudden, she HATES it. What happened?” She remembered me telling her about one of our kids at that age. “It’s as if there’s more »

Haircutting Fears

Hi Dr. Heather, My three-year old absolutely hates haircuts. Between the ages of 1 and 2, my barber cut his hair for free. He was fine at first, but then I think the clippers pulled him once, and he has not forgotten. We tried a children’s barber a couple of times, but, whether she used more »