GinaG3

Well done you, thats a good read. I'm a breastfeeding counselor volunteering in Peckham and Dulwich BF'ing cafes. At Peckham we see untold amounts of tongue tie and it can be so frustrating to see babies try to latch. i always find myself wondering what more I can do to help. There needs to be change somewhere, whether it be babies being checked at birth, more midwives, HV's and GP's being trained in tongue tie and the division too. Just today we diagnosed a 10 week old baby with posterior tongue tie, that had barely been noticed. It should not take this long! A lot of women give up feeding around 6 weeks, one of the biggest reasons being undiagnosed tongue tie causing problems. Then mothers suffer the guilt etc etc when the problem could of been rectified and they could of continued to feed for months or even years if they desired. I find the whole issue really interesting and am waiting to see if I can do more work with women and babies in this position. I now wonder if a very small posterior tongue tie was the issue with my daughter not being able to latch for 2-3 months. Regardless though, I am still breastfeeding at knocking on 2.

We put our tree on a coffee table last year when daughter was about 10 months old and crawling. Now she is 22 months I'm just going to put it up and hope for the best. At least she knows NO! now..

sillywoman, thats sad you had to keep it secret from your own mum. Breastfeeding is one of the most natural things in the world and its soo good for baby. I don't understand some peoples views but realise everyone is entitled to an opinion..

Naughty baby. Wishing you all the best and hope it all goes as you hope! As you know it will all be worth it in the end anyway.. :-)

Congratulations Moos. Lucky you that baby took to breastfeeding well regardless of the tongue tie. Hopefully it will be sorted soon. Some tongue ties cause such problems with feeding, at Peckham BF cafe we see a lot of tongue tie and it can be so frustrating (and upsetting) to see mother and baby really struggling with feeding. Glad your not having any problems. Wont be long till you get seen at kings the turnover is pretty quick. Its a shame tongue tie cannot be cut as soon as baby is born, but things like this are not checked at birth. Feel free to pop down to Peckham BF cafe (Peckham Library, 5th floor) Thursday 10-12 even if you would just like to chat with ladies who have been through or are going through the process. sophie - tongue tie is indeed more common in boys than in girls. But a lot still go undetected so we cannot know the exact figures.

Yeah the guys on Lordship Lane/Court Lane spent their days doing stuff like this too. Took what 3-4 months to complete works.. Anyway, a gas leak? For 3 months? Not fixed? By lazy men? Taxpayers pay for this, right?

Last I heard the dog warden was out looking but haven't heard anything since. That was about an hour and half ago but I haven't seen the dog since. Hopefully the man found him.. I have a reference number from the council if I call later and quote it do you think they would tell me the outcome?

I'm lucky in that I've had no-one pressuring me to stop. My parents and in laws are all for extended feeding and did it themselves so no worries there. Sympathize with those who have pressure put on them, its the mothers choice and no-one should question it (unless in extreme circumstances of course). The only pressure I've had is from health professionals, but this doesn't bother me whatsoever they shouldn't be giving their opinions when not needed anyway. Out of interest did anybody PM the production company regarding the thread left on here a few days ago about a breastfeeding programme? Anyone who isn't shy really should get in contact with her. Breastfeeding programmes are so few and far between. Thank you all for your comments. Im just going to persist with telling no when being naughty and putting her down. We did this yesterday and had head banging, feet kicking tantrums which I find horrible and quite upsetting but what more can I do if she doesn't want to listen. She is old enough to realise, and does most of the time that if she is good everythings nice and fun.

I haven't seen the dog for 40 minutes now. The dog warden is out looking. It kept coming back to the same place, but now the estate leaf blowers and grass cutters are out I don't think it will return. Last seen at firemans alley. I hope they find it, its a lovely dog and I'm sure someone is missing it. The problem is I'm on a balcony so can only really observe what its doing. Im worried now I haven't seen it for a while. With a toddler I cannot really go downstairs and try and make friends with it.. Hope to see it again soon so I know its okay.

Its back - phew. How long do dog wardens take? They will probably miss him..

Have spoke to Southwark dog wardens who will come out and have a look. No answer at Dulwich park office. The dog has now gone out of my view and there is so much traffic.. Poor thing.

There is currently a dog running up and down Dulwich common with a lot of traffic. Who can I call? I don't want it to get hit by a car on this very busy road. Its been about 15 minutes now..

I have experienced similar with the Pampers simply clean and also Sainsburys baby dry. I have gone back to Pampers baby dry and have no problems of yet. We have been using Pampers baby dry again now for 4 months, we used them for the first 15 months or so before switching to the cheaper brand and had no problems at all. My daughter has eczema thats runs in the family, does your child have it? Is there family history of allergy? I wonder if that could be it.. See if other people reply in regards to similar experiences. You'll see a doctor soon, try not to worry.

RJ: I'm not offended by your comment so no worries. I absolutely love breastfeeding, I would do it for many years and not even give a thought to stopping. Its a hard one to explain, I have a million and one reasons to continue. I enjoy it (most of the time), she enjoys it (all the time), our bond is so strong, my milk still has nutritional values, it cheers her up in the worst situations, it comforts her when she is in pain or hurt, it makes her so independent (she is ready for anything after a bit of mummy juice), its makes her less shy (when we are around people), the list does go on and on. Its also such a natural thing to do, it creates a awareness of breastfeeding when I'm seen feeding in public (very important reason, what can I say I'm a pioneer). The world average for weaning off the breast is actually 6 years of age. I wouldn't quite go that far but I would still feed up until about 3-4y happily.. Fuschia: I agree with your comments 110% and I'm exactly the same as you, it would seem! Well done you, another baby soon.. Good luck with all that. Are you going to feed all 3 if possible? Amazing! gwod: Thanks for your comment, I would find it very hard emotionally. I'm the kind of parent albeit young that would go to the end of the earth for my child, she controls my life totally. I want to do the best in my power for her whatever that may be. I just feel I cannot do the hysterics that will come with stopping feeding her. It would hurt me so much to see her go through that. We'd probably both be nervous wrecks in the corner for weeks on end, no lie! I wish the day would come naturally where she just says 'mummy I'm a big girl now, I'm not going to have booboo anymore' or just forgets about it. Thanks for the wishes of good luck. Well we will see what happens today. Its shopping day so we've been away from each other since 8.30 this morning, while Nana babysits and I do shopping in peace. Some weeks she doesn't even blink and she wants me to feed her, I don't even have time to get my coat off. Sometimes she doesn't even notice I'm there or booboo is there. My fingers are hurting now, more manic typing later...

Thanks for all replies. I'm a bit happier now. Feel I have exhausted all ideas. I have tried necklaces, something in the other hand, saying no and taking her off etc. I offer tiny snacks before breast if its not before meal time and I can get away with it but she still wants it. My daughter understands everything, she is intelligent for her age but still cannot take no for an answer. Its so horrible because I don't want to stop, its something we both still enjoy when she can behave herself. But I feel I will have no choice if it continues as it is. At least we don't night feed anymore (typically 10pm then 8am), that would make it double hard, this is where the more violent (kicking, punching, hair pulling, biting) phase happened.. I just do not get it!!! crystal, thanks for that. Health professionals of all kinds seem to express their own opinions on this subject. Recently I visited the doctors and mentioned a still breastfed with which came the question how old and how many times she was on in 24 hours, the doctor nearly fell of her chair when I told her upwards of 20 times a day before telling me I need to stop breastfeeding so she can go to nursery and be social blah, blah. I've had astonishing advice even with a newborn, it never stops amazing me some of it. For this reason I decided to train as a peer counselor, women need that reassurance and up to date advice, they don't need knocked down and made to feel they are doing something wrong.. Ridiculous!

I'm just generally looking for experience in breastfeeding toddlers really. I'm feeling so frustrated of late. DD is 22 months old now and we are still breastfeeding (not that I mind, I still love it). We've been through a variety of problems since around 14 months including violent episodes, constant waking in the night etc. We go through phase after phase of different things, not all problems as such! Breastfeeding a toddler is a totally different experience to feeding a baby, in my case anyway. We had problems in the beginning with latch and struggled to get this right for 2 months after that everything was brilliant between then and 14 months. Everything is still good on and off but I'm finding myself so wound up with it. For the past 2-3 weeks its been pretty full on exclusive breastfeeding, she was a good eater but now refuses to eat absolutely all meals and just snacks on a couple of bits throughout the day. I'm finding it pretty grueling to be honest. She is constantly picking at me when she is feeding, I have a rather deep cut on one breast where she picks and picks, and a mole on my chest the other side which is now half missing and very itching and stinging because of more picking. I try and hold her hands, cover the cuts, distract her literally anything but it doesn't work, she tantrums and tantrums until I give in and let her pick away at me. I have a feeling this is another form of comfort, she used to pick my cuticles while feeding and did exactly the same things but outgrew the habit in no time at all. I'm a breastfeeding counselor so I know my stuff regarding breastfeeding, but this is the behavior more than anything. I'm out of my depth here, having never breastfed before and with it seems less and less people around that can give experiences of feeding toddlers. My mum breastfed all 5 of us kids through toddlerhood and expects she is trying to give up feeding and wean herself but doesn't quite know if she is ready to do it so is maybe looking for an excuse to make me do it for her! Anyone had experiences like this? Lord knows how I will ever wean her, my plan isn't in place from over a year still.. I'm proud of myself coming this far, no-one ever believed I'd do it as a 'late' teen mother let alone this long but I just feel like its taking all my energy and I'm feeling increasing frustrated, moody and not to mention still hormonal yet I just cannot bring myself to give it up just try and try to work through the problems. Sorry for the long ranty thread, well done if you got through it. Advice please? P.S Mummies with smaller babies don't be put off feeding a toddler its still brilliant, kids just come with a lot of 'yet to learn' packages don't they?! Time to teach..

I don't think I could do that either and my daughter is nearly 2! No advice from me though as I'm a stay at home mum just think you need to do what you feel is appropriate as the mother. Hope it all works out how you want it to..

My daughter is the same age and has always hated having water near her face. We just got on with it and tried not to get it in her face, she now knows to tip her head back when water is coming. She also watches us bath and wash our hair all the time and even tries to do it for me now. I think if they see you doing it regularly it does help. We have select toys in the bath and they normally distract well. She just doesn't seem to like standing up for a bum wash now. Grr it really is one or the other.

I have done it in the past once or twice. I spent literally 3 days ironing, folding, labeling and bagging to get there and see everything slung everywhere (I stuck to the about 8 page rule book). If I remember rightly you get 80% of your money if you sell but don't volunteer at the event and 90% if you do volunteer. Will find you details of who to contact and get back to you!

I started with Vitamin E cream twice a day for about 3 weeks then gave up through laziness. I drank gallon upon gallon on water and don't have a single stretch mark on me. Water is apparently good preventive measure for stretch marks and good for the skin and hydration too.

Orange poo can be quite common in exclusively breastfed babies. Variants from green, brown, yellow and green are all very normal. I believe the iron your taking would make babies poo more green in appearance so I doubt too much is passing through your breastmilk. Talk to your HV if your still worried about it, they should reassure you.

Toddlers should come with a warning about meals.. They seem rather typical in habits. Don't worry about what your child eats (of course try to avoid excessive amounts of sugar and salt) they are programmed to survive. At 21 months we have the tantrums and tears at the dinner table. I'm the sort of person that hoped my daughter would appreciate all my home cooked meals and the time I take to prepare my food too. I spent hours preparing home made vegetable and fruit purees when we were weaning and she always loved them. Butternut squash, broccoli, peas, turnip, quite literally any vegetable in the world! When we were past the squishing stage and onto proper solids, everything fell from under my feet. I never wanted a child that lived on fish fingers, waffles and baked beans but would you guess thats what I got. EVERY toddler does this. Every toddler feels the need to throw tantrums when food is placed in front of them. Every toddler does it every now and again, some do it everyday. We've been through phase after phase already of refusing to eat, asking us to take the plate as soon as its put down, wanting tomato ketchup on everything! We have weeks she is brilliant, tries new thing, doesn't mess around, finishes the plate instead of playing with it. But in the end I think they all get bored of the varied meals on rotation. We are in waffle and fish finger stage right now, without the fish finger. Typical! So thats a waffle and waffle dinner then?! But she also loves, homemade tomato pasta, pasta bake, roasted veg with pasta, curry, stew and rice. Lots of things when she isn't in a phase. New food phases seem to be okay, we have a little tantrum at the beginning of the meal, presumably she automatically thinks she wont like it but when she finally tastes she does and normally cleans the plate no fuss, its brilliant! But we now have the issue with her not wanting to eat anything much just pick and throw tantrums to get down. She snacks on fruit quite a lot during the day and still breastfeeds at least 6-10 times a day. So I guess she does this because she isn't hungry. I pushed dinner from 5pm to 6-6.30pm to help her sleep and she wasn't sleeping through and waking very hungry and this worked a treat for the sleep but no change in how much she wants to eat. I really wouldn't worry, if your child is growing and happy they are obviously getting enough!

Total SNAP! Ruth. We're in exactly the same boat.. My parents are on the south coast and my partners parents are literally 10 minute walk away. We see them 4 or so times a week, and my parents twice a year. He was born in Dulwich Hospital and here he remains. We have often spoke about moving away from London before our daughter enters secondary school (9 years to go...). I just cannot see it ever being different, he has never lived outside London and I really don't think it will work for him, but he begs to differ. I grew up around Reading and Oxford all my life until my parents moved to Dorset 6 years ago. Would most likely move back to Oxford (its not too far from city life really, being a city en all) and it is literally 40 minutes from Paddington. Suppose we will see what happens..

Oh how very American. If I remember rightly my aunt used to do this with my cousin.. I'd look uber cool if I dressed like my little girl I must say. You could find maybe a trainee seamstress or someone in college studying that would do 2 dresses for under ?100.. Surely?

Also if you try to wake a little earlier than you normally would with him, you should be able to get a bit of a routine in place. At about 13 months my daughter fell into a horrible routine, of late nights, late mornings and late naps. The key to good naps is early waking and reasonable bed time I believe. We looked like this at the bad stage.. 10-11pm bedtime, 10am wake time, maybe 2pm and 5pm nap time. Through a bit of sleep training and waking at 6am we went to this within days.. 8-9pm bedtime, 6.30am wake time, 11am and 2-3pm nap time. So much better and a lot easier to get her down.. I may add up until this point she refused to be put down for naps and preferred to fall asleep on me and stay there, which obviously wasn't very good for me with housework etc. I don't know your routines but if they seems a little late to you and he isn't getting tired when you feel he should, try shifting the wake times etc. I would imagine this would help your nanny get him down as he should get very tired midday and possibly wont care who puts him to sleep so long as someone does. IYKWIM?! Hope this helps a little more..