Parenting Unpacked

Welcome back to journal club! This week we're talking all about the new article on the effects of long daycare hours on children. Watch along to hear about the findings and what we think!   

Find the article here: https://tinyurl.com/h4c4psku

In this episode of Parenting Unpacked we talk with baby & toddler holistic sleep coach, and fellow scientist, Dr. Laura Gainche @scienceforallwomen. 

We talk about the variation in infant sleep, why wake windows, pitch-black rooms, and white noise might not work for your child, and how tiny changes can have a huge impact.

We also dive into a little bit of the science behind Santa with much more to come in the next (or a future) episode,  

And you'll get to hear a little about journal club which is heading to this podcast feed very soon!

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As promised in the episode, here is the link to the dinosaur construction toy: https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B0995KVK9G/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=A1JCZI0SMBWQA5&psc=1 and to the little positive self-talking snowboarder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N38rK8fj58g&ab_channel=BYUUniverse or https://www.tiktok.com/@chasing.sage/video/7146268559554071854?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=7146268559554071854&lang=en

Helloooooo parenting unpacked crew! We're dropping something a little bit different into the feed this week, it's called journal club. I know I know, you're probably asking "WTF is journal club!?" Journal club is something we do in universities where we all read the same academic paper and then we meet to talk about it. It gives us a chance to stretch our critical insight muscles, helps the junior academics learn from the senior academics and honestly let's us all learn from each other. Each person in journal club has a different set of knowledge and expertise that they bring to the table and we all get to learn from each other. Usually these meetings happen behind closed doors high up in the ivory tower, but I managed to find myself a wonderful crew of scientists who wanted to tear down the ivory tower with me and bring journal club directly to your ears. So please join us as we walk you through an article, discuss it's findings, it's methodology and statistics, and expand upon it using our own knowledge in the area. I hope it is interesting for those of you who tune in. Please jump onto @drkristynsommer and put your own thoughts or questions on the journal club video there if you have any! We would love love loveeeee to hear from you!!!! 

I'll post the upcoming journal club paper every week @drkristynsommer and @parentingunpackedpodcast if you'd like to have a go at reading ahead. We're going to try to read only open access papers that you can get outside of institutions but it might not always be possible (because sometimes there's a really important article to read that is paywalled - like next weeks article!) 

This week we are reading "Parents’ Use of Social Media as a Health Information Source for Their Children: A Scoping Review" which you can access here: https://tinyurl.com/2s4x9k4b 

Joining journal club this week was Emma Shipton (@mama_together_), Jess Guy (@infantsleepscientist), Lisa Dillon (@drlisa.researcher) and Kristyn Sommer (@drkristynsommer).

A quick heads up: you will hear tiny human noises in the background. We are not just scientists and science communicators, but we are also mothers, some of us are still on maternity leave. So if you hear a tiny human in the background, be in awe of the fact that the tiny human's mother was able to focus and translate the science while juggling a tiny human without so much as missing a step (hint: it was Lisa, she's a rockstar!!)

In this episode, we are joined by Dr Lisa (@drlisa.researcher) to talk about science communication in the parent and child space.  We also chat about her own personal journey with having a second baby after postpartum depression and '2 under 2'.  Partway through the episode, Kristyn starts to have a panic attack during what seems to be a beautiful and healing conversation for Lisa and Siobhan - illustrating that everyone can perceive and experience something different when hearing someone’s story.

Tune in to find out about Dr. Lisa’s experience and hear how Siobhan, Lisa and Kristyn navigated the 'almost panic attack' and how they shifted perspectives to alleviate the guilt and fear.

Trigger warning: we talk about postpartum anxiety and depression, suicidal ideation, and thoughts of harm to self and baby in this episode. If you aren’t ready to hear this one yet, that is okay! If this episode brings up challenging feelings for you please seek out some support - the PANDA helpline (1300 726 306) is one option for support in Australia.

We have exciting news, Siobhan is having a baby!! If you haven't been with us from the start, go back and listen to episode 4 “Siobhan’s story”. It describes the challenges Siobhan faced in early motherhood and gives some context as to why having a second baby was such a huge decision. Kristyn isn’t there yet, so asks Siobhan a billion questions about how she and her partner decided to have another baby and what postpartum plans she has in place to protect her mental and physical health this time around.

In this episode of Parenting Unpacked we chat with Jess Guy @infantsleepscientist about, well, infant sleep! We talk with Jess about the differences between sleep trainers and 'not' sleep trainers and the red flags on social media that may help you spot sleep trainers in disguise.  In this episode, we also discuss the trouble with not being able to rate businesses on Instagram and how kids learn from technology better the more familiar with it they are.

In other news, we need a nickname for our listeners so please send in your suggestions to @drkristynsommer, @science_minded or @parentingunpackedpodcast!

Welcome back to Parenting Unpacked! In this week's episode, we take a trip back in time. We discuss the historical context behind some of the weird and (not so) wonderful parenting practices still common today. We start by chatting about how parenting changed (in Western culture) during the Industrial Revolution; when we started to lose the 'village' and the community support that went with it.

In this episode, we ask Dr. Jess Paynter the hard questions about Autism. Jess is an expert in Autism as both a clinician and a researcher in the area from Griffith University. We discuss with her the prevalence of Autism, parenting children with autism versus neurotypicals, her research around reading and Autism, and touch on the controversy around ABA (Applied Behavioural Analysis) Therapy. Before we dive into the interview, we also talk about the Autism diagnostic criteria and how Kristyn's symptomology maps onto these. Siobhan shocks Kristyn by sharing that she noticed many of Kristyn's symptoms well before her diagnosis!

Disclaimer: Siobhan's audio cuts in and out a bit for around the 8-minute mark - but what she has to say (if you can make it out!) is so good we've decided to leave it in. But feel free to jump ahead to about 9 minutes if it annoys you!

In today's episode, we're talking sleep and 'regressions'. We discuss the research on infant sleep supports (extinction vs gentle sleep approaches) and how it can be distorted. And on the topic of distorted research, we also talk about the WonderWeeks and 'regressions' - what they are and what the evidence really says about them. 

In this episode, we talk about time out and time in - what they are, whether they work, and when they might be useful.