Baby Education for South Texas - BEST

10/15/2026

💙Wave of Light 💙

10/09/2026

10/07/2026

Safe sleep guidelines help prevent sleep-related suffocation.

For every nap and every night, place your baby on their back in their own crib, bassinet, or play yard. Use a firm, flat mattress with only a fitted sheet. Keep pillows, blankets, bumpers, and toys out of the sleep space.

Keep baby’s sleep space in your room, separate from your bed. Share these guidelines with everyone who cares for your baby.

Learn more at www.safesleepacademy.org.

10/07/2026

October is SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) Awareness Month! We'll be highlighting the issue of sleep-related death and working to educate parents and caregivers about safe sleep environments. Unintentional suffocation is the leading cause of injury-related death among children under 1 year old. Our Safe Sleep Checklist makes it easy for families to prioritize the top 5 infant sleep safety tips. Help us spread the word by sharing this potentially life-saving information!

09/30/2026

A clear crib can help prevent sleep-related suffocation.

For every nap and every night, place your baby on their back in a crib, bassinet, or play yard with a firm, flat mattress and a fitted sheet. Keep pillows, blankets, bumpers, and stuffed toys out of the sleep space.

Share this reminder with anyone who cares for your baby.

09/29/2026

09/25/2026

This is what safe sleep looks like.

Baby on their back, dressed in a wearable blanket, in a clear sleep space made just for them. No pillows, blankets, toys, or extra items needed.

Simple. Comfortable. Safer.

Learn more at www.safesleepacademy.org.

09/25/2026

Let's talk about amber teething necklaces

Teething sucks!

Your baby is miserable, you're exhausted, and the internet is full of people swearing amber necklaces are magic. So let's be real about them for a sec. 👇

They don't work. Like, not at all!

The pitch is that your baby's body heat melts a little succinic acid out of the amber beads, it soaks through the skin, and… poof… the pain is gone.

Cute story. Here's where it falls apart:

🔥 The beads don't actually release succinic acid at body temperature. You'd basically have to cook them. Your baby would need to be ≥392° F for this substance to POSSIBLY be released, and if that happens you have bigger problems than teething!

🚫 Even if they did release succinic acid, it doesn't absorb through skin.

💤 And even if it *somehow* got in, it wouldn't do anything for pain anyway.

So yeah… three strikes.

"But it worked for us!"

I totally get why it may seem that way. Teething pain comes and goes on its own all day long. If your baby happened to feel better while wearing the necklace, that's just teething being teething, not the beads.

And here's the part that actually matters most ⚠️

Not only does it not work, but more importantly, these things ARE NOT SAFE.

🎗️ STRANGULATION!!!
Anything around a baby's neck can tighten or snag. That's the whole reason pediatric experts say don't. And yes, it can even happen while they’re being “supervised” (and to be real, NO ONE has their eyeballs on their kid 100% of the time)

🫢 CHOKING!!!
String breaks, tiny beads go everywhere, baby puts one in their mouth. You can see where this goes.

Bottom line: nothing goes around a baby's neck. Not necklaces, not bracelets, not "just for a minute," not during naps. Not ever.

What actually helps teething 😌

❄️ A **chilled** (not frozen) teething ring or a clean, damp washcloth
👐 Rub their gums with a clean finger. Sounds too simple, works surprisingly well
💊 If they're really hurting, ask about acetaminophen dosed for their weight
🙅 Skip the benzocaine numbing gels! They can cause a genuinely dangerous blood problem in babies

One last thing 💬

Amber necklaces don't fix teething, and they can actually hurt your kid. They can even kill them!

If you know a parent who's about to buy one, send them this. 💛

And when in doubt, your pediatrician wants what’s best for your baby, just like you, so ask them.

07/13/2026

A mother walked into a small pediatric ER with her newborn. Blood was oozing from the umbilical cord stump.

The doctor on call, Dr. Jessica Kirk, had 20 years of experience. She usually knows what she's looking at within moments. This time she didn't.

Her medical director had one question. Had the parents declined the vitamin K shot?

They had. Within a very short period of time the baby was cold, his heart racing, his blood pressure dropping. He was bleeding internally. His abdomen went firm from the blood pooling inside it. He started to fade.

This is not a rare story anymore.

The New York Times just published an investigation built on interviews with more than a dozen doctors across the country. Emergency physicians. Neonatologists. Pediatricians. Every one of them described treating brain or belly bleeds in babies who never got their vitamin K shot. At least 12 of those babies died. At least 14 more have permanent brain damage. 📊

I've watched the myths spread online for years. So let's kill them, one at a time.

❌ MYTH: "VKDB is so rare, my baby probably doesn't need it."
✅ TRUTH: It's rare because almost every baby gets the shot. When hospitals in England stopped giving it, bleeding cases came right back.

❌ MYTH: "The risk is only in the first few days."
✅ TRUTH: The danger stays elevated for up to 6 months. Late bleeds hit healthy, thriving babies weeks after birth with zero warning.

❌ MYTH: "The shot causes cancer."
✅ TRUTH: One small study from 1992 in England raised the question. Every larger study done since has found no link.

❌ MYTH: "The preservative in the shot is dangerous."
✅ TRUTH: The amount of benzyl alcohol in that shot is not enough to hurt your baby. Preservative-free versions exist too. Ask for one if it eases your mind.

❌ MYTH: "Breast milk gives my baby enough vitamin K."
✅ TRUTH: Vitamin K barely crosses the placenta and breast milk has very little of it. No amount of leafy greens or supplements for mom changes that math.

❌ MYTH: "It's basically a vaccine, I'll treat it the same way."
✅ TRUTH: It is not a vaccine. It is a clotting nutrient every single baby is born without enough of.

❌ MYTH: "The shot has a black box warning, so it must be dangerous for my baby."
✅ TRUTH: That warning is about rare allergic reactions seen mostly when vitamin K is given intravenously to adults at much higher doses. The newborn shot is a tiny intramuscular dose. Severe reactions in newborns from the IM shot are extraordinarily rare. The AAP still recommends it for every single baby because the risk of bleeding without it is far greater.

❌ MYTH: "It's a one in a million risk."
✅ TRUTH: Federal estimates put it as high as 1 in 60 untreated babies bleeding in the first week alone, that's the upper end of the range. For late bleeds, which strike weeks to months later, one in five of those babies dies. 💔

One shot. Given once. Within hours of birth. That's what stands between your baby and all of this.

Please talk to your pediatrician before you deliver. Ask every question you have.

Then get the shot. ✅

📌 Resources:
CDC on vitamin K deficiency bleeding: https://www.cdc.gov/vitamin-k-deficiency/faq/index.html

AAP policy statement, vitamin K and the newborn: https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/149/3/e2021056036/184832

NYT investigation, July 8, 2026: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/08/well/live/vitamin-k-shot-bleeding-newborn.html

06/18/2026

The FDA cited Happiest Baby, Inc. for distributing unevaluated X-Small and X-Large sleep sacks, marketing its bassinet for hospital use without authorization, and multiple quality system violations including reports of mold and unsanitary refurbished units.