MOMS ON CALL

This week on Moms on Call, Jennifer and Laura chat with speech-language pathologists Kathy Brunner and Sharilyn Gugliotta, longtime clinicians and co-founders of the Bughugables book series. They talk about early speech and language development and practical ways parents can support it in everyday life.

Find the Bughugables books and check out Kathy and Sharilyn’s free resources at bughugables.com

This episode of the Moms on Call podcast explores practical ways to raise confident, well-adjusted toddlers by treating them as strong, adaptable, and resilient, rather than shielding them from every challenge or moment of upset. Jennifer and Laura discuss using a consistent nighttime routine as a daily touchpoint where parents are fully present, set aside phones and distractions, review simple household rules, and end the day by affirming that their children are loved, believed in, and will be seen “when the sun comes up,” reinforcing trust and security.

This week, the Moms on Call podcast continues the Toddler Essentials series focusing on helping parents create positive, low-stress mealtime experiences for toddlers by clarifying roles, adjusting expectations, and tailoring strategies to different child temperaments. Laura and Jennifer will explain why parents are responsible for providing a variety of tasty, age-appropriate foods, while toddlers decide whether and how much to eat. They highlight the importance of atmosphere—parents eating alongside their children, keeping conversation light and fun, avoiding excessive focus on the child, and maintaining predictable mealtimes to support toddlers’ internal rhythms.

The Toddler Essentials continues and this week Laura and Jennifer are tackling sleep. They’ll explain how parents can help toddlers sleep through the night and safely transition from a crib to a toddler bed, emphasizing confidence, consistency, and safety-focused routines. Plus, the common sleep disruptions around 18–24 months during the “language explosion,” and why it's important to return to the foundational routines tailored to each child’s design.

It’s May and the beginning of the Toddler Essentials Series! This week Jennifer and Laura are focusing on navigating all the toddler emotions. They’ll talk about why “big feelings” are normal, manageable emotions driven by curiosity and development rather than malice or manipulation, emphasizing that toddlers learn cause and effect and social behavior through experimentation, including hitting or biting. This a great time for parents to remember that toddlers are strong, adaptable, and resilient, and that repeated, confident messages of belief in their capabilities—especially after tantrums, before bed, and in front of trusted adults—lay the foundation for self-regulation, kindness, and future empathy.