Sudden, Unexplained Aversion to Iron

This is the council’s number one indicator, and frankly the one with the strongest folkloric grounding. If your child has begun refusing to touch door handles, radiators, or the family’s cast-iron skillet without a stated reason, the bulletin asks that you note this down with a timestamp. The council does not specify what you do with the timestamp afterward. I assume they’re collecting data.

Speaks in Full, Considered Sentences Where Previously They Did Not

The bulletin is careful to note this applies to a sudden shift, not developmental progress. If a seven-year-old who communicated primarily through shoulder shrugs is now delivering structured opinions about household policy, the council would like to know. So, honestly, would I.

Dramatically Increased Appetite With No Corresponding Growth

This is item three, and the first entry flagged in the coffee caveat. The council acknowledges that caffeine-adjacent hunger spikes can produce similar results. If your child is eating like they are storing something for winter but the pediatrician’s chart shows nothing, this goes in the log.

Uncharacteristic Irritability and Low Tolerance for Light

Item four, also on the coffee list. I want to be fair to the council here — they are genuinely trying to help people make distinctions. But I will note that ‘uncharacteristic irritability and low tolerance for light’ described my entire newsroom at the WTC team meeting last Wednesday and nobody has suggested a supernatural explanation yet. To my knowledge.

Rapid, Unexplained Shift in Musical Preferences Toward Something ‘Ancient-Sounding’

Item five, and my personal favourite. The bulletin specifies ‘ancient-sounding’ in quotation marks, which suggests the council had some internal debate about phrasing. It notes this is distinct from a child simply entering a folk music phase, though it does not explain how to tell the difference. The coffee caveat applies here as well, presumably because a newly caffeinated child will also listen to whatever they want now.

Refers to Other Family Members by Description Rather Than Name

This is item six, the last entry on the coffee list, and the one that would actually alarm me if I saw it. ‘The tall one’ and ‘the one who makes the food’ are the bulletin’s examples. The council notes this may indicate a Changeling still learning the household’s conventions, or it may indicate a child who has simply become observational and slightly detached. Coffee remains a listed alternative cause.

Found Outdoors at Irregular Hours With No Clear Explanation for Their Presence

Item seven, and this one exits the coffee caveat zone entirely. The bulletin is specific: not a sleepwalking child, not a child who got up for water. A child, outside, apparently purposeful, with no recalled awareness of leaving. The council recommends documentation. I recommend also checking whether the hedgehog footnote is relevant here, because based on my four reads of it, it might be.

Expresses Knowledge of Events They Should Not Know

Item eight, and the council closes the list here with appropriate weight. This is not a child who overheard something at dinner. This is specific, detailed, accurate knowledge of things that occurred before the child’s birth, in locations they have never visited, involving people they have not met. The bulletin notes that eleven community members have submitted accounts matching this description in the past thirty days. WTC has confirmed this figure independently. Eleven witnesses.