sillywoman

OH FGS Magpie - have you any experience at all of dealing with the demands of a small baby? because you don't sound like you do. Babies don't "ask first", they need feeding NOW! Sadly they don't operate on the same rules and manners system as 'civilised' society. There's no need for any justification for feeding a baby anywhere at all, for however long it takes. The problem doesn't lie with this Mum, nor where she was when the baby needed feeding, the problem lies with outdated and unjustifiable attitudes like yours. I'm with Molly on this - does the sight of a woman's breast or maybe a glimpse of (whisper it) nipple offend you? If so - why? Is it because you associate these body parts with sex & therefore consider that that they shouldn't be exposed in a public place? YOu shouldn't have to run the risk of seeing such a shocking sight? Do you think it more appropriate for her to feed her baby in public with a bottle despite the fact that the health benefits to her baby could be less or compromised? Really - who does have the problem here, and what kind of a civilisation are we where these attitudes are allowed to be considered reasonable?

Your tolerance is just one of the many quantities that we love about you Keef ;-)

I put on well over 4 stone with each of my (3) boys. It took about a year to lose it all each time. I don't recall doing/ eating anything different to what I did/ate with my daughter, but I only put on 1 1/2 stone with her. Bummer.

Yes, yes, yes - a local theatre would be perfect. Think the small, but perfectly formed one in Greenwich. I don't get out much (am actually a 'theatre widow) so don't have anywhere to recommend, but I support your vision wholeheartedly. And should it come about & you find you need any advice on the lighting rig then Mr SW is your man! How exciting :))

A very dear friend had a similar experience with a paediatrician, can't recall if it was Kings or not, but they're not given any training in long term benefits of breastfeeding at all. It does seem as though some (by no means all though) of them allow their ill founded & uninformed personal prejudices to seep into their professional life, and then present them as a 'professional' opinion. Very undermining & dodgy.

Which pediatrician bee74? I really hope you made a formal complaint? Unless these outdated unsupported & indefensible beliefs are tackled head on they will continue to be allowed to cause distress to women and make some doubt themselves and their entirely correct instincts. There is no evidence whatsoever to support any suggestion that a 14 month old should be weaned. Grrrrr, that does make me cross (6)

No, I agree espelli, & I never really thought is was the SENCO's reluctance, rather - as you describe - the appalling, finance led, system which means that many kids are unable to get accurate assessment of their SEN needs despite the repeated requests of those who know them best. Consequently their parents, carers & educators aren't able to ensure they target the help they give so the child can gain maximum benefit from it. Hence, our experience with our son, who was widely acknowledged by both us and his educators as having dyspraxia & possible dyslexia from reception, only being accurately diagnosed as dyslexic in year 5, & by a privately paid for assessment. Really I just wanted to make the point that it's rarely just a case of if a child has dyslexia the SENCO will arrange an assessment so don't worry about it. The system really doesn't work that way. I was tempted to leave the last two words off the end of that last sentence. I think in essence we're agreeing espelli.

I agree catma, of course. I don't even need your helpful clue, to get your point & agree with you. But I do think SENCO's should be a bit more willing to refer kids on for proper assessment. In my experience the battle lies in getting schools/ SENCO's to do this. That's why so many parents end up either having to pay for a private assessment, or giving up - in which case the kids don't get the help that they need.

Yes, trinity - I did it too. It's what generations of women have done before us and no doubt will do after we're long gone.

Actually I'm still in favour of direct, non aggressive action. Look what happened to facebook when they tried to pull a similar 'breasts-are-only-sexual-objects' stunt. I really can't see that a bunch of browsing breastfeeding Mums could possibly be construed as 'ganging up in an offensive fashion', but I'll go with the majority decision. And of course I'll be emailing MIND to complain as well.

Getting a dyslexia assessment via a state school is a notoriously difficult process, there's some great advice already been given on here & I don't really have anything concrete to add. I just wanted to point out to those who seem to be suggesting that it's a commonly done by the school SENCO, or that it would be effectively tackled by whoever spotted the problem that in most instances I'm aware of this really isn't the case. Our son was finally assessed for it at age 11, 8 years after we first raised concerns. He was registered as SN for the whole of his school career, but the current system seems to be so averse to 'labeling' the child that despite years of increasingly desperate requests from us it wasn't done via the school or SENCO system. They were experts at prevarication, bringing in Ed Psyc's and all sorts of other experts, but never actually assessing him specifically for dyslexia. In the end we went to the Bloomfield on the recommendation of some other parents & got a private assessment done which we then took back to the school for the SENCO to work from. A complete farce and utter let down from the school system. Sadly, from talking to other parents of SN children, our story seems to be the norm rather than the exception. Never assume that the SEN system will work for the good of your child. Certainly in our case the opposite proved true & we had to fight very hard indeed to get him what he needed for the whole 7 years of his primary education.

Tell me if you're going ladies & I'll come down with me placard! Was thinking that probably a week from today would stand a better chance of the same person being on shift?

I'll be writing to them FJ, you can be sure of that.

Totally agree with Mellors, I did BLW with number 4 & wished I'd caught on to it with the other 3. Away with puree-ing all that 'stuff' (something I took a lot of pride in with my PFB incidentally!), baby ate what we ate - in appropriate form, at the same times we did (roughly) and of all them he is now, at age 6. The best, least fussy eater. If he wanted something mushy, I just mushed it with a fork. It never occured to me to relate it to how many teeth he had, and whilst randomv's analogy made me laugh I can't realate it to my experience of BLW in any way at all. Number 4, ate what he wanted from what we were having, when he wanted it, no probs with motor skills at all - what could be more baby led than that? He probably didn't eat 3 meals a day or whatever for a while, but he was still breastfed so it didn't matter. But like belle & Mellors, I've become increasingly a 'lazy' Mum & this definitely made our lives so much easier. Go for it I say, & enjoy the shared family mealtimes.

Do you have any link to contacts at MIND Father Jack? I rather feel this needs to go a little further, & perhaps those who want to could contact whoever it is at MIND HO & let them know a) How outdated, unhelpful, indefensible & offensive those views are; and b) That they won't be visiting any of their shops or supporting them in any way until they receive evidence that MIND volunteers/ employees are given clear guidance as to the unacceptability of this kind of attitude. Don't they know what happened to facebook when it tried to ban pictures of women breastfeeding? I know who I think stinks - and it certainly isn't that poor Mum!

Yes, we had similar warning signs, but I just thought he had a bug - it never occurred to me it might be CP as he's already had it. Can you get it twice if you had a bad case first time round? he still only has 3 spots so it seems to be extremely mild if it is CP.

Re getting it twice; My youngest had it when was a baby (under 18mths, but can't recall exact age due to crap-mumitis), He's been off colour since Monday evening, threw up all this morning & suddenly mid morning developed 3 distinctly chicken-poxy spots on his tummy. No further developments (other than miraculous recovery from tummy bug coinciding with the discovery of said spots). Could he have caught it again? If so could he get away with only 3 spots. He says they're not itchy, but having been through it 4 times now, all quite badly, I like to think I can recognise a chicken pox if I see one & these definitely look poxy to me. I'm confused - Help!

Carrie Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The best bit of advice I ever got was don't feed > them to sleep - otherwise they don't learn to go > to sleep without feeding and so whenever they wake > in the night they will want to feed to get back to > sleep again - unfortunately I got the advice too > late when I was being woken up every 45 minutes by > one twin or the other and had to go to sleep > training sessions in an effort to preserve my > sanity. . . .but I would add the rider that you should ignore this advice for the first 6 weeks & then gradually introduce the concept. E.g. post 6 weeks (or whenever you feel ready) make it a personal rule not to feed them to sleep between the hours of 11pm and 5am (or whatever works for you), then gradually extend that to encompass daytime feeds too. Or do it the other way around - daytime, then nightime. In my opinion one of the great pleasures in life is having your full-up baby fall asleep safe & content in your arms - whether it's a breastfed or bottle fed baby - makes no difference. Don't miss out on this. Mine mostly slept well, but the one who slept best was the last one. He co-slept until he was about 9 months. Like Fuschia on a previous thread I barely even noticed him waking & feeding whilst he was in with us. After that he would go to sleep in his own bed & come into ours about 2am when he woke for his feed. I really loved that time with him cuddled up between us. Sometime between 18 months & 2 he dropped this night feed, & stopped coming into bed. from then on he would, & still does, sleep for 12 hours a night. I also followed the "the more they sleep, the more they'll sleep" school of thought & all mine had 3 naps a day as babies, gradually reducing to one by the time they were 30 months.

Yup, & you could be run over by a bus as you cross the road tomorrow. Living is risky, the level if risks each person chooses as acceptable to them & their children is a purely personal decision. "one bead could choke" - that way madness lies for me!

. . . Or check out ebay - there's often dolly bargains to be had if you don't mind that it doesn't come with a box.

Yes, Bumpy - completely normal. Don't worry. Expressing can be quite disheartening initially, but persevere and you'll reap the rewards (though a couple of bottles worth a day might be setting your sights quite high). I found that expressing just after the morning feed (sometime between 7 & 9am) was my best time for getting the best quantities - also I think I've read that breastmilk is often richer in the mornings because Mums milk producing hormones are raised during the night(?). If you do it every day then you soon learn what's the best method for you, and gradually you're able to increase the amount you express and the ease with which you can do it. If you don't get anything, then try again later in the morning, or tomorrow. Also, just as an aside, I found nipple shells very useful for collecting milk. I wore the shell on one side as I was feeding from the other, so it caught any milk that was leaking. I did this all through the day (only when I was at home though- they do look odd) I could then transfer that into a sterilised bottle which I kept in the fridge. At the end of the day I put the transferred the milk into the freezer for future use. This is probably against all sorts of 'rules' now, so it might be worth checking what current recommendations for storage are, but it did help me a lot.

So how do they work? I'd imagined that baby would be gnawing on the beads to soothe the ache of teething - if not, then what? Honestly curious - and very jealous that I didn't know about these when mine were babies. They look so lovely.

Yes, it must be said that I have a 9kg machine too, but am also very fussy about cotton whites, synthetic whites, & coloureds,(which get washed in dark blacks, greys & navy's, reds, bold greens & blues, & pale blue's/ greys. Can't bear it if something the wrong colour/ fabric goes in the wrong wash - I just don't iron them afterwards (well maybe the odd pillowcase, or shirt, but very odd), but, a bit like Vickster I'm of the 'tumble-dry, shake & fold neatly' school of laundering. Did someone mention carbon footprints? Ooops must go, something very important to do (that isn't laundry!)

My 14 year old daughter & her friends charge ?4.50 an hour. But we're talking evenings here, she does just 'sit'.

Wow - you lot are so clean! I'm very impressed (but not at all envious). I reckon on an average of load a day for the 6 of us - including P.E. kits (Yuck), but I don't iron more than once a month (that's what my tumble dryer's for). Life's too short for me to be doing that much laundry. Lazy is my middle name!