“There are a lot of behaviors that are innate and behaviors that are learned, and oral sampling is definitely an innate behavior,” explains otolaryngologist Dr. Micah Berman. If it wasn’t an innate behavior, only children in certain societies would do this, but it is a universal trait. “As soon as they have the motor control and head control to bring things into their mouths, they will.” Babies are programmed to be orally fixated from birth because they learn from nursing that putting something in their mouths brings comfort....

Frogs, ferrets, turtles, gerbils, lizards, birds — all of these are merely shades of owning a dog. (Except birds. Those are just horrible pets, full stop.) You’ll never fool yourself into believing that staring at Goldy the goldfish is anywhere near as enjoyable as watching a silly doggy chase its tail. You will not pet Sally the snake because you can’t pet a snake. You will not marvel at Harvey the Hamster’s running wheel endurance, remarkable such as it is for a creature with such stupid, tiny legs....

“It’s not necessarily sustainable.” After the birth of a child, 67 percent of couples become less satisfied in their relationships. But even childless couples experience more or less the same natural declines a few years after marriage. Serin suspects that’s because new love and long-term love show up very differently in the brain, regardless of whether kids come along. Falling in love first floods the pleasure centers of the brain with dopamine, adrenaline, and norepinephrine....

“Men may start peeing sitting if their prostates are large and they need to help relax the pelvic muscles in an effort to help push the urine out,” says Jamin Brahmbhatt, M.D., a urologist and professor at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine. Scientists aren’t exactly sure what causes an enlarged prostate gland, or benign prostate hypertrophy. But the likelihood of having one increases with age. Hormones have something to do with it, as men who had their testicles removed at a young age due to cancer do not have these problems, research shows....

“A woman might want to have an exciting reveal and hold off sharing the information with her partner,” Angie Lee, Chief Product Officer at Celmatix, told Fatherly. “Then their period may come and they don’t want to disappoint their partners. Or, their coping mechanism is to go inward.” As traumatic as miscarriage can be for the pregnant person, it can be uniquely painful for men when they are kept in the dark and robbed of the chance to support their partner....

Levine and Prinsloo are apparently patching things up. The entire ordeal, however, sparked a torrent of (honestly, pretty funny) memes inspired by Levine’s ultra-cringe-y DMs, as well as important conversations about what counts as cheating and power dynamics between famous men and younger women. The whole ordeal, oddly enough, also began a spirited discourse about baby naming practices, because, as Stroh revealed in a DM Levine allegedly sent her long after they’d stopped talking, he asked if he could name his soon-to-be-born child after her....

It’s telling that both kids and earthquakes have a destructive potential that would require the same protection. But as a parent you know, deep down, that this is true. Particularly considering how many times you’ve been tempted to call FEMA after a play date. So if you haven’t done it yet, you need to make anchoring furniture part of your childproofing plan. Anchor Arguments Okay, sure, your kid has never shown an interest in climbing your furniture....

During a panel at the New York Comic-Con this week, the man best known for playing USS Enterprise Captain James Tiberius Kirk opened up about his nervousness about heading to space this week. “I’m Captain Kirk and I’m scared,” Shatner told the crowd (his answer starts at about the 31-minute mark in the video). The nervousness Shatner feels is completely understandable, as it’s not exactly a secret that there are incredible risks that come with space travel, including death....

RELATED: Smart Gadgets Designed to Help You Get Better Sleep The latest entry into the connected camera/home smart hub market, WooHoo is an AI-based virtual butler with a 360-degree camera (13 MP) that not only recognizes your voice, but also your face. Yep, it uses facial recognition software to notice when you enter the room and then voice commands to help you do everything from dim the lights to turn up the heat — literally, by adjusting the thermostat, and figuratively by playing Marvin Gaye over its “spatial surround” speakers....

Todd Carmichael, the foul-mouthed big-hearted founder of La Colombe as I did on a recent afternoon in New York, and you’ll never be confused again. Carmichael, 54, is an adventurer, an entrepreneur, and a bald-headed Philly guy with strong opinions. He became the first American to trek solo across Antarctica in 2008 and the first guy to can draft lattes in 2016,, which is at least part of the reason La Colombe was recently evaluated at a billion dollars....

There are physicians, researchers, and child advocates who believe that discipline is completely unnecessary for parenting a child. In fact, they claim, discipline is only good for inculcating a kid with blind obedience to authority. These non-disciplinarians have created a variety of parenting methods that lean into respect for a child while turning away from punishment. These are the methods for parents ready to give up the power struggle....

AwesomeBabyName.com is a search engine that pairs your last name with popular first names, crosschecks the results with a domain registry and then serves up options that are available as a website. So, for example, Mr. and Mrs. Smith might choose to name their boy Braxton, Ezekiel, Bentley or Rhys Smith, while the Johnson’s little girl could be Emilia, Scarlet or Madilyn Johnson. They’re all fine names that sound even better with a “....

The pair released a statement on Friday via Bachelor Nation regarding their marriage: “It hurts to announce that at this moment, we have mutually decided to separate. Never did we imagine this scenario, but we’ve come to a point where we both need to work on ourselves. We are best friends that love and care for each other so deeply. We’ve appreciated everyone’s love and support so far throughout our journey and we just ask that you please respect our privacy as we navigate through this....

“Some kids have a fear of flushing the toilet and hearing the loud flow of water gushing into the toilet,” explains physician Dianah T. Lake. Psychotherapist Fran Walfish agrees, adding some colorful specifics. “Some boys fear dropping feces into the toilet because of an unconscious worry of losing their penis at the same time,” Walfish says. “The flushing raises anxiety for fear of permanent loss. It is an unconscious castration anxiety....

Welcome to the topsy-turvey bizzaro universe of Lego Masters, a game show that seems to be taking place inside of an episode of Arrested Development, with just enough self-aware irony to get away with it. After about two decades, there’s really no sense pretending that reality TV gameshows are any kind of reflection of reality, and the nice thing about Lego Masters is that it doesn’t even try. In this world, Lego designers are household names, and Will Arnett actually behaves exactly like Gob Bluth, minus the terrible magic tricks....

Over 22 years and six films, including the soon-to-be-released Mission Impossible: Fallout, Cruise has rocked suits, tactical gear, tuxedos, and plenty of leather jackets while playing Hunt. As one of the best-dressed characters in one of the most successful franchises in movie history, Hunt’s style should inspire all guys who want to look their best. The fact that Cruise is 56 with three kids means that dads in particular should take notice....

The fact is that middle-aged men like Stoner are struggling. That struggle has become more acute every year and the data is heartbreaking. Older men are experiencing a drastic increase in reported depression and suicide according to the National Institute of Mental Health. In 2017 men died from suicide at a rate nearly four times higher than women in the United States. Moreover, the suicide rate in men has been on the rise over the last decade....

One of the best things about Galaxy of Adventures is that it uses the actual audio from tracks from the live-action Star Wars movies, but buts a different spin on the context. Yes, back when this was launched, myself and several dads were worried that this would change Star Wars, but the results are totally delightful. Star Wars: Galaxy of Adventures has just released a ton of new episodes on their YouTube channel....

On a scale of 1 to unnecessary, the trailer for Young Rock looks totally inoffensive and actually does something smart by using the actual Rock sparingly, and instead, relies on younger actors serving as Rock ciphers. If we smell what the Rock is cooking correctly with this series, it seems like one of the ingredients is restraint. An entire series about the Rock, featuring the Rock in every scene might be just too much Rock to handle....

Clean, Funny, Appropriate Jokes To Tell At Work What do you call a joke that isn’t funny? A sentence. What did the full glass say to the empty glass? “You look drunk.” What band was better than The Cure? Prevention! My teachers told me I’d never amount to much because I procrastinate so much. I told them, “Just you wait!” Why does Snoop Dogg use an umbrella? Fo drizzle. How does NASA organize a party?...