newtoedf

My little boy was on nutramigen until just after his 2nd birthday by which time he'd grown out of his allergy. Ask the HV for a referral as you need to discuss calcium supplementation. Mini-newto was starting to refuse his bottle at the end so I had a long and helpful discussion with the dietician about alternatives (the suggestion was a syrup that you give once a day). V unhelpful GP!

Sorry, I mean that when you hire a car normally you pay by the day so if you want to leave on Saturday morning and return on Sunday night you might end up paying for Friday and Monday too to allow for pick up and drop off. With zip car you'd just book it for the specific hours you needed, eg. 9am Saturday to 10pm Sunday, it can make quite a difference.

We have 2 kids, 5 and 2 and are very happily car-free. We gave up our car when we moved to London when our eldest was tiny as we were spending more time worrying about tax, insurance, parking etc than actually driving. We use the bus a lot, walk, cycle, train and take taxis but figure we are still much better off than paying for a car. I like the fact that travelling by public transport I can spend some time focussing on the kids while we get places, the journeys are generally fun rather than stressful. For Oimisuss's Canada water trip we'd have gone by train, walked over to tesco and got a taxi home with the bulky stuff. Shopping generally is mostly Internet-based. For a journey to my folks in Scotland, it is taxi to Euston and train every time. We use a firm that provides car seats which helps. We love our camping trips and will hire a car for a week long trip with the big tent but use zip car for weekend trips. Because you only pay for the time you use the car and the price includes fuel, zip car is still cheaper for a weekend away. Basically, not having a car suits us just fine, to a certain extent we restrict what we do, ie. the kids don't do activities that we can't easily get to on public transport but I'm not that keen to start running a chauffeur service either...

It might be worth thinking about after-school club for your daughter in any event. When my daughter started school in September I was sure that the childminder she had been with for a year was the right answer for after school care and it is where her brother would be. I have found though that she has outgrown it very quickly and wants to be with her friends not with the babies... My son still loves the childminder and has a lovely time with his two little friends.

My eldest was dreadful at letting us brush her teeth. I really wanted the answer to be just leave her, she'll come round but all the advice I found was unanimously of the view that you must keep brushing so I ended up pinning her down twice a day for more than a year. From the age of 3 though it has been plain sailing and she is mostly very co-operative now. I found sitting on the floor with her lying between my legs to be much safer than attempting some sort of arm lock while she tried to leap off my knee and meant the brushing was quick and calm and much less confrontational if a bit undignified for all concerned

Poundland had a really nice packet of 5 pirate candles a week or so ago.

Really good advice about visiting etc but although I don't want to be the voice of doom here, you should be careful to keep an open mind even after visiting etc. Hollydale and Bellenden are only 1FE (30 places in each year although Bellenden took a bulge class this September). The demand for primary places keeps rising and you need to be careful that you don't set your heart on a school only to find that you are simply too far away to get in. There have been years at Bellenden where not all siblings got a place for example. Also quite a lot can change in a couple of years at a school and see also all the posts about potential new schools opening.

We took our two earlier this year for the first time. 4yo loved ski school (she was the only non french speaker but teachers all spoke English and she made friends nonetheless.). 15mo loved sledging, snowballs, and slept for a couple of prime skiing hours in the middle of the day anyway. He also enjoyed the swimming pool so there was loads for him to do. We took my sister and shared childcare for the wee one between the three adults which worked well. I think he'd have been equally happy in the nursery though. Most french resorts will have one but you do have to book well in advance and as with all these things how well it works will depend on the personality of the child as much as anything.

Da mario's on Gloucester road is a good bet. They have booths downstairs which are good for containing the chaos too!

I've just bought a zigo. Love the concept but getting used to a trike and the load at the front is harder than I'd expected. I haven't seen any zigos around but I have seen a couple of cargobikes (maybe cristiania?) and maybe if one of you sees this you might pass on some tips?! Www.myzigo.com if you are interested.

A lot of that time passed in a haze but what I do remember is it was often easier to get out of the house and stay out! My toddler could entertain herself much more easily at the park or soft play and I felt more relaxed as all I had to worry about was looking after the kids. At times trying to stem the tide of destruction at home was soul-destroying. It took a long for me to get organised enough to get to groups etc - a 1hr session was likely to be over by the time we all got there so great as that can be later on, don't beat yourself up if you can't manage it at first!

I have been travelling with a family railcard since my daughter was 3 months old! No-one has ever questioned it and that's 4 years of trips to and from Glasgow now. Probably because they can hardly complain about you buying a ticket when you didn't need to. Incidentally, it works out cheaper usually than just an adult ticket as you get a third of the adult ticket as well as the reduced price child ticket.

My little boy also has a dairy allergy and a big sister who doesn't! I try to ensure that all of our meals are dairy free so he can eat the same as the rest of us, it's not too tricky when you get used to it. I don't think you necessarily need specific dairy-free recipes as you can just susbstitute (I use oat milk and dairy free vitalite instead of milk and butter.) We probably eat more Asian food than we used to as those recipes don't need dairy anyway. I have recently started buying cheezly mozzarella substitute so he can have pizza "cheese" but he was quite happy with just tomato sauce and toppings. This site has some interesting recipes: http://www.godairyfree.org/ A lot of processed meat products contain milk derivatives so sometimes I've found it easiest to look for kosher products eg. Hotdogs The biggest issues I have found have been with trying to ensure the boy doesn't eat the half chewed biscuit his sister left on the floor... I think it gets harder as they get more mobile but at 20 mths he's starting to understand when we explain that he can't have something because it is bad for his tummy. It's probably a good idea to start training your daughter now so she doesn't generously offer her baby brother a spoonful of yoghurt... If he is on a prescription formula like nutramigen then he'll be getting all his calcium needs from that so you don't need to panic about every meal being nutritionally balanced. Anyway, there are quite a few threads on here about dairy-free small people so it's worth having a bit of a search if you haven't already. Feel free to pm me if I can help

I had to move my escapologist into a bed at 18months when he started escaping the cot. I was amazed at the difference it made to his sleep which had previously not been good. He loves his bed and has never slept better, we've not had any problems with him getting up in the night at all, he just seems to know that he is supposed to stay put. It seems as though because he knows he can get out if he wants to he doesn't bother whereas in the cot, he'd howl if he woke. He is number two though, so the joy of being in a big bed like his sister is probably a big part of it. We have a guard rail on the bed on one side and it is pushed against the wall on the other so he can't roll out. Could you try just putting his mattress on the floor to see how he gets on without the rails before deciding?

The wheelchair spaces are usually in coaches b and d so it is a good idea to book in person at a station and try to get a seat in one of those coaches - any triton not just picadilly. I travel to and from Glasgow with virgin fairly often and generally have been fine. Once when the train was really busy the pram was taken away and put in the guard's van so I don't think you'd have a problem with that. I did the journey on my own with a toddler and 8week old baby and went to euston to book the tickets and was able to book the disabled space although I'm not sure that's strictly allowed...

I'm with susyp on the Marge issue: The cakes still taste great and you really don't need a specific dairy free recipe

I agree, i usually just substitute for butter in normal recipes. Just be careful that the marge doesn't contain milk powder I think most do. I usually use flora cuisine and just substitute it by weight for butter. It's no good for icing though. For that you do need a solid marge, waitrose do a kosher marge, tomor, which doesn't really taste of anything (a good thing for icing!). There's a vegan marge called pure which is widely available but tastes terrible in icing. I don't worry too much about sugar for special occassions but there is a good dairy-free banana and sultana cake in the river cottage baby and toddler cookbook which is very low in sugar but very tasty. Let me know if you'd like to borrow it. Can you guess I did a lot of dairy-free baking while breastfeeding my dairy-free boy!

My daughter is in nursery at Ivydale and loves it but I had a real wobble at christmas when it came to doing the primary school applications. The main thing is the latest published results were for 2010 which means too soon really for the new head to have had much impact, the 2011 results haven't been formally published yet (or at least hadn't in January) and were a lot better. Renata Hamvas kindly provided them in response to a very similar thread I started on a different forum: Maths 81% English 80% That was the reassurance that I needed and I'm delighted that my daughter has got a place in reception. I can't comment on what the school was like before but i've found it has a great atmosphere, the focus on music is amazing, my daughter's nursery class is a very diverse, friendly class and knowing that the academic side is not an after-thought is important too

Lovely idea, just the day for a walk too

We're all full of the cold and tomorrow night is looking like a write off, hence a last minute plan for a ne'er day brunch instead when we will hopefully be germ-free. Any family-friendly suggestions? Thanks!

I wouldn't even consider chancing it with ryanair. They treat excess baggage fees as a revenue stream and staff are expected to maximise them. Easy jet are a little better. The little life ultralite convertible is hand luggage size or use a soft carrier like an ergo you can roll up and put in your hand luggage. Sorry to be so bleak but I have had my fingers burned so many times and it is an expensive business...

Have just remembered the health visitor who saw us for M's 8 month check suggested a drop-in sleep clinic at the walworth clinic. I haven't been as we had bigger issues than sleep to worry about for a while and sleep is much better now but I do have the details: "walworth clinic Larcom street SE17 1RY Every Thursday 2.00 - 3.30pm A drop-in service for children birth to 4 years from the health visiting team For more information call Lesley on 02030498615 or just turn up on Thursday" The Wednesday baby group at Ivydale children's centre also had a visit from a sleep specialist recently, not sure if another session is planned. Much sympathy for everyone who's struggling, long term sleep deprivation is just awful.

One thing that has helped a lot with my 10mo is making sure he gets plenty of milk during the day. He was taking very little during the day and making up for it at night. Life and his big sister were much too interesting to stop for milk... I have been scheduling feeds and taking him upstairs to feed leaving his sister safely engaged in c ee ids for 10mins if needs be. We are down to one feed a night now which is brilliant for us. As you say though there is just so much brain development going on too...

Thank you for the suggestions. I knew when I was lacking in inspiration there would be lots of wisdom and experience out there! Chick peas have been a hit and as soon as I remember to buy some polenta we'll have a go with that too. Gubodge - where can you get the cream cheese substitute? I'm not sure I am brave enough to try goats cheese. When he accidentally ate a milk based pancake recently we had 4 days of exploding nappies... Love alieh's spoon too. I've got an appointment with a dietician at Kings soon so hopefully some helpful suggestions there too.

Hi, does anyone have any suggestions for high protein snacks for a 9 month old with a dairy allergy? I have drawn a blank trying to think of something relatively mess-free and easy to eat on the go (soya yoghurt does not meet these criteria!) Thanks