Parenting Translator

Over the past 12 years, Dr. Jacqueline Nesi has been researching the effects of smartphones and social media on kids. As a result, she'd assumed that when she had kids of her own, she'd be well prepared to navigate the challenges that come along with managing screen time. She assumed wrong. With Dr. Goodwin on maternity leave, Dr. Jacqueline Nesi is guest hosting today's episode. She is a clinical...

Parenthood often comes with a barrage of myths and misconceptions about the elusive "mommy brain" or, if you want to include dads too, "baby brain". In this episode, Dr. Cara Goodwin and guest Chelsea Conaboy explore the science behind the brain changes that occur during the transformative phase of motherhood - and they're not all negative transformations! Discover how hormones and experiences sha...

As I embark on maternity leave for my fourth child, today I'm sharing 5 research-backed reasons why everyone deserves paid time off for the births of their children. ------ Sign up for the Parenting Translator Substack , and follow along on Instagram . Parenting Translator is hosted by Dr. Cara Goodwin and is produced by Earfluence . Dr. Cara Goodwin, Ph. D., is a child psychologist and mother to...

Today we're talking about some new research on breastfeeding, specifically three new research studies that have come out in the past few months that might change how you think about breastfeeding. For more research on breastfeeding, including the "Breast is Best" vs "Fed is Best" debate, check out our free pdf at https://parentingtranslator.org/resources. ------ Sign up for the Parenting Translato...

On today's episode, we're going to do a deep dive into the different sleep training methods, considering that recent high-quality studies have shown that sleep training is not just the strict "cry it out" method that some people might assume. Instead, researchers and experts now recommend a more gentle and gradual approach. Below are some of the sleep training methods we'll be discussing: Differen...

Today we're joined by Dr. Rebecca Dekker, the founder of Evidence Based Birth® , a platform that compiles research on childbirth to empower parents and provide them with evidence-based information. We'll go over various topics related to childbirth, including: Research on induction.  The shift in attitudes towards elective inductions and insights from the ARRIVE study, which examined the effects o...

Parents often hear about the dangers of screen time for children, but rarely does there seem to be a distinction among different types of screen time.  Every day research finds that infants and toddlers on average spend 10 to 45 minutes per day on touchscreen devices. Many apps on these devices claim to be educational, and some apps are even used as part of the curriculum in elementary schools and...

I recently returned from a two week vacation in France with my family and my children are 7, 5, and almost e years old - and I was 31 weeks pregnant at the time of this trip. We visited Paris and the south of France, which I realize sounds very dreamy and magical and it definitely was, but it was also exhausting and full of many of the same sibling fights. So today I'm going to be talking about tr...

As I enter the final stretch of my pregnancy, I'm asked again and again what I'm planning to name my baby and what I really wanna say to all those people who ask this incredibly sensitive question is that no matter what answer you provide, you're opening yourself up to unsolicited comments and criticism. The name that you choose for your child will go with them throughout life. And of course, this...

In this podcast and on my social media pages, I often discuss very controversial and sensitive subjects such as birth trauma and maternal morbidity. I've never used a trigger warning or a content warning on any of this material, and you might be wondering why. So my reasoning is not due to a lack of sensitivity, but rather is based in research. And I really wanted to explain this research to you s...

Today we discuss the research on supplements, vitamins, and probiotics. What should parents think about in general when we're thinking about supplements and vitamins (non-medical treatments), the stuff you can buy off the shelf of a drugstore. There's a lot of misleading information led by huge marketing machines, so we asked Dr. Krupa Playforth (aka "The Pediatrician Mom") to give us answers on w...

When I had my first child, I remember being thrilled to start solid food. I had planned to start with vegetable purees and then move to fruit and I stocked up on everything Gerber had to offer and I got my iPhone ready to record this big moment. However, much to my dismay, my baby seemed to hate it and acted like I was torturing her as I directed a spoon toward her mouth. I did my research and I q...

Women are still stigmatized for expressing anything but bliss in the transition to motherhood. So the goal of this episode is to spread awareness of the common mental health struggles during the postpartum period, and we'll specifically cover postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, postpartum psychosis, and other common postpartum symptoms such as intrusive thoughts and postpartum rage. Let's d...

Today we're discussing the research behind redshirting - delaying kindergarten or school entry for a year. This seems to be an increasingly popular trend for giving your child a competitive advantage. The growing popularity of redshirting may have been started by Malcolm Gladwell's bestselling book, Outliers, which claims that a child being relatively older than their peers provides an advantage....

Kate Baer has always been a writer, and as soon as she became a mother, her blog and essays became about motherhood. Even with success, she felt boxed in, that people weren't respecting her work as literary. So she took a break for four years and started working on a novel - but then she started to cheat on that novel with poetry. That poetry has become a gift for mothers, art that makes us feel l...

As I prepare for my fourth child, I am reflecting on my previous birthing experience, which was traumatic to say the least (tune in to hear what I mean). So it got me wondering, what does the research say about birth trauma and how it affects both parents and children? ------ Sign up for the Parenting Translator Substack , and follow along on Instagram . Parenting Translator is hosted by Dr. Cara...

As parents, our short term goal is to get our children to listen to us and follow the rules and limits we set for our family. But our long-term goal is really to raise children who truly understand why we have created these rules and limits, and develop an internal motivation to be kind and to do the right thing. We want them to follow rules because they care about being a kind moral person, not j...

April is World Autism Month, a month designated to enhance understanding of autism and increase acceptance of autistic individuals.  Today’s episode will help to provide answers for the following questions:  What is autism?  Why are rates of autism increasing?  What causes autism? How do you know if your child is autistic?  What to do as a parent? ------ Sign up for the Parenting Translator Substa...

We hear so much about the negatives of being a working parent. The reality is that there are so many hours in a day, so it's difficult if not impossible to excel at work AND parenting. Some of us will view this dichotomy and tension as Work Family Conflict. But Dr. Yael Schonbrun is putting a positive spin on it, preferring to use the term Work Family Enrichment. But what does that mean? And how c...

Today we discuss what the ideal number of kids is according to research. We review studies on how the number of children you have impacts parental happiness, parenting quality, and outcomes for your children. ------ Sign up for the Parenting Translator Substack , and follow along on Instagram . Parenting Translator is hosted by Dr. Cara Goodwin and is produced by Earfluence . Dr. Cara Goodwin, PhD...

We recently discussed if time-outs are harmful or effective , and today we dig into the best ways to use them, if time-outs are what your family has decided to do. ------ Sign up for the Parenting Translator Substack , and follow along on Instagram . Parenting Translator is hosted by Dr. Cara Goodwin and is produced by Earfluence . Dr. Cara Goodwin, PhD, is a child psychologist and mother to three...

Ms. Rachel has become a household name for nearly every parent with a baby or toddler. Her YouTube channel, Songs for Littles- Toddler Learning Videos, has over 2.6 million subscribers and her videos have hundreds of millions of views. The woman behind the Ms. Rachel is Rachel Griffin Accurso, a preschool teacher and mother living in New York City. Her husband is a Broadway composer who helps to p...

Is time-out an effective discipline strategy, or could it be potentially harmful to children? Today we dive deep into the research behind whether time-out works and how it impacts emotional development and attachment. Let's discuss. ------ Sign up for the Parenting Translator Substack , and follow along on Instagram . Parenting Translator is hosted by Dr. Cara Goodwin and is produced by Earfluence...

The COVID 19 pandemic caused widespread disruptions across the world that led to financial strains, social isolation, and decreased support for many. These disruptions in turn led to increased stress in parents and caregivers and a mental health crisis among adults and children. Since the beginning of the pandemic, many parents and experts have raised concerns that the pandemic and all of its terr...

There are several studies that explore white noise (and pink noise, brown noise, and lullabies) and their effectiveness on both falling asleep and getting a good night's sleep overall. What did those studies find? And does white noise contribute to hearing loss? ------ Sign up for the Parenting Translator Substack , and follow along on Instagram . Parenting Translator is hosted by Dr. Cara Goodwin...