Saffron

Just rereading your post (got interrupted by Little Saff doing a faceplant onto the floorboards after tripping on her own feet!)... it looks like your LO might be getting more than you think. Indeed if she's very slight of frame, she doesn't need a lot of calories to run her body. But could you maximise the calories she does get by offering foods with a higher calorie content, and also possibly more foods with a higher protein content? What are your and Hubby's fav comfort foods when you're ill? Maybe your LO has inherited your taste buds. Try making and offering all of your favourite things, even if they seem a little unusual for a baby. And if the highchair is causing stress, just put it away for a while. This is def a power struggle and not nec related to illness. Let your LO eat on a regular chair with a cushion. Or put her plate on a chair and let her come and go to it while everyone else eats. Anything she doesn't eat, set aside. Offer it again in perhaps 45min, in a different room, in a different context (eg on a different plate, or with some yogurt for dipping) Finally, see a dietitian if you're really worried. A dietition might have some clever ideas about what and how to change your LO's diet (or maybe make no suggestion at all, b/c actually everything is going to be just fine!). xx

Ok, probably going to be crucified for this suggestion, but here goes... when my little girl is unwell, she eats more if we let her eat on her own terms. For Little Saff this means she eats more while watching her favourite video (currently Finding Nemo) or CBeeebies, while sitting on the floor with her own little plate. It takes the focus off the food. It won't work for everyone, but it's worth a try. xx

And do get back to us all and let us know what you chose and how it worked for you! :) Little Saff will be 2 in a couple of months, and we'll be looking for venues then too. xx

Wow, scary. Kids have such fancy phones these days, it's only a matter of time before some super savvy child snaps their license plate and face. If you've resisted getting a mobile phone for your older children, might this actually be a reason to do so?

Agreed, I wouldn't try to introduce new routines when your LO is very uwell. But there's no reason not to try new foods. (If there is a family history of allergy to certain foods, you'd probably be steering clear of these already, no?) Interesting and easily digestible foods might be just the thing to perk her appetite. You can also try offering familiar foods in new combinations. For example, my daughter liked almond butter and honey on toast for ages, then went off it when she had a tummy bug. I recently tried offering her almond butter and honey on apples, and she loved it. Your child will get what she needs caloriewise, it's the micronurients like vitamins and minerals that might be of concern. Although if she generally eats a variety of food when she's well, then going off her meals for a few weeks while she's ill won't be an issue. Some the toddler formula type milk drinks have added micronutrients. You could try coaxing her to have a few sips of these. She probably doesn't need it, but it might put your mind at rest. xx

Interestingly, I think we've had the opposite problem. My daughter is top 1-3% for height and weight, and I think she might be getting underdosed. We usually start with a small dose, then add another if we think she needs it. It's so hard to know if you're getting it right sometimes. But as one of the linked articles above has reported, it's minimal chronic over-dosing with paracetamol, rather than acute high-dosing, that appears to produce the greater toxicity (research was in adults). So whether you use the low- or high-dose, it may be more important that you don't give it too often over a long period of time.

If he has a 'voice', it seems unlikely that he's tone deaf. I know that pitch can be improved with practice. The diaphragm and larynx are the 'instruments' of the voice. You need to practice them like you practice any musical instrument. And, you need to exercise them like you do any muscle. He's still very young, and I think it's possible to improve his pitch with time. Also, as suggested above, his pitch might actually be fine, but it's being undermined by nerves. His singing master sounds like a right miserable old bat, btw. What a mean and unhelpful thing to tell an 8 yo that his pitch is completely off. There are much better ways of delivering constructive criticism on singing. I think someone should tell his singing master that his manners are completely off!

If you are the parent(s) of a singlton* child of any age, please come along to our next playdate on Saturday 3rd December at Forumite msjennym's house, from 2-5pm. Please message me or msjennym for directions or more information. :) *The Only Child Playgroup is mainly a playgroup for singleton children, but we would make some exceptions, for example in the case of step families where there are no biological siblings, or if there is a very large age gap between siblings.

All fair points, and part of the difficulty in correctly dosing any medicine in children. Perhaps it should be made NHS policy to always weigh children when prescribing paracetamol, and thereby take such factors into consideration?

enjoy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > latest update: > Child paracetamol dosages revised: > http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15821256 > I think many people will (still) find this advise confusing, and I don't understand why dosages aren't given by weight as in other European countries. I think the best dosage advise would include both age and weight as factors on a simple colour-coded diagram.

newcomer Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > ...paracetomol is a > life-saver in many situations, as high fevers can > cause a lot of damage to a small child. However, > over-use when it's not really needed means that > the child's immune system doesn't get the chance > to kick in and so, like any other medicine, it > should be used with caution. Technically, paracetamol is not an immunosuppressant. Paracetamol acts on the central nervous system, particularly the brain centres which control temperature regulation (and other areas related to pain). So when given to reduce fever, the immune system is still active, but the body no longer has the benefit of the bacteria-killing activity of a raised temperature. There is also a question of the benefit of rest. When children are ill, if a low fever (eg 99/100 F) is preventing them from sleeping well, then the immune system also potentially loses some benefit by the body not being properly rested. A good compromise is give paracetamol (or ibuprofen) only at night, and always at the correct dose (goes w/out saying really). (Incidentally, this works well for adults too.) xx

Thanks so much to everyone who came to the Halloween party and made it a great success! If you painted a pottery piece, it's now ready to collect from All Fired Up pottery cafe in East Dulwich. Also there is another playdate coming up soon, so stay tuned to the Forum for details. :)

The Herne Tavern maybe?

I second looking into the gradual withdrawal or fade type methods. Be forewarned they probably take about a month to fully initiate. I'm still co-sleeping most nights with our nearly 2-yo, so I feel your pain! We used a fade method to wean her from the night time b/f to sleep. We'll be looking to do something similar in the near future I think to get her sleeping more independently through the night. Have you also thought about getting your partner or someone else to settle your LO and go in during the night if needed? I know some people have had luck with this. xx

If you do experience problems with early breastfeeding, they're more like to be with Baby's latch than with Mother's milk supply. A properly latched baby should be getting enough. Sometimes a latch that looks ok to Mother and Midwife really isn't. You should go straight to a certified lactation consultant. A sympathetic lactation consultant might also be able to offer you better advice in the case that top-ups are truly needed, and whether you'd be better off giving formulated milk or glucose water. It's not a subject to be taken lightly. And although it's fair to say 'Use your own judgement', it's also really important to take some professional advice. By all means put the spare bottles in your bag if it eases your mind. Then put the phone number of a lactation consultant next to the bottles too. Good luck and happy birthing. xx

The Nappy Lady Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I do feel for cafe owners who need the tables to > turnover enough to ensure a steady income on food > etc & certainly not just coffee (even if over > priced)! > > I don't see how the cafe problem can be fixed to > be honest. > > Creative ways to let us know (politely) that we > are not welcome on the premises ladies?! Does the community cafe opposite the top of Telegraph Hill Park still do a "Quiet Friday"? I haven't been there in a while, so I don't know if this is still their strategy. The idea of a Quiet Friday was essentially a "no children" day, although I think they would have been fine with babies in slings or quiet older children. I think they wanted to give older patrons the chance once a week to have a bit of peace, b/c normally this cafe is very boisterous and child-friendly.

Pickle Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I've just braved a look at that thread - the > poster suggesting parents shouldn't drink doesn't > have children and doesn't drink - priceless :)) Woohoo! Who was it? I'll have him/her round to look after Little Saff while Husband and I go down to the pub and get legless!!!! ;-)

Well said, Pickle, on every point! xx

No. Dr Pollard's comment was related to either type of osteopathy. The two cited studies on osteopathy (Hartman 2002; and Hayden 2006) both looked at cranial osteopathy. And the Evans paper was simply looking at actin-myosin activity in nerve cells, thus disputing Goldacre's claim that there is no significant role for actin-myosin in nerve cells. I only offered this as evidence that Goldacre sometimes doesn't get it quite right. I would agree that the jury is still very much out on cranial osteopathy, but I wouldn't dismiss it outright because it does appear to have an effect even if we don't understand the reasons why. Hayden and Mullinger thought this effect was interesting and significant enough to warrent further investigation, but I can imagine it's quite difficult to get (a) funding for this type of work and (b) a good patient population free of confounds. MGolden your comments are brilliant and hillarious, btw!

You might have a secondary infection or simply need a different anti-fungal treatment. See your GP again asap. xx

taper Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > No, cranial osteopathy is quackery. It sounds as > if it's based on science, but read a little around > the subject and it's clearly not. > > There's a good discussion below this Ben Goldacre > article, with arguments from all sides. > > http://www.badscience.net/2004/09/cranial-osteopat > hy/ I generally like Ben Goldacre, but he's gotten his facts somewhat wrong when he says that the actin-myosin complexes in brain cells do not generate significant movement. In their 1998 paper for the Journal of Cell Science, Evans et al demonstrated that vesicle-associated brain myosin-V played a significant role in catalyzing actin-based transport. Vesicular transport is crucial to cellular function. Although I agreee with Goldacre that Dr Toby Murcott is an idiot, nevertheless Goldacre's own article is improperly referenced and badly written. I had rather better advice from Dr Louise Pollard, consultant rheumatologist at University Hospital Lewisham. Instead of commenting on methodology, she said simply that 'Some people do find osteopathy helpful [for pain relief]'.

Hartman et al (2002) appeared to demonstrate that inter-examiner reliability is low in assessments of the efficacy of cranial osteopathy, and they therefore concluded that this invalidated all such investigations. However, in their meta-analysis, they used the terms cranial osteopathy and cranial-sacral therapy interchangeably. There is a confound herein b/c not all practitioners would consider that cranial osteopathy is the same practice as cranial-sacral therapy. In contrast, a recent controlled study by Hayden and Mullinger (2006), concluded that cranial osteopathy had a beneficial effect on the treatment of colic in infants. (Indeed they felt their results were important enough to justify further investigation.) Here is a summary of their conclusions from the 2006 paper: "A progressive, highly significant reduction between weeks 1 and 4 in crying (hours/24 h) was detected (P<0.001) in treated infants; similarly, there was a significant improvement in time spent sleeping (P<0.002). By contrast, no significant differences were detected in these variables for the control group. Overall decline in crying was 63% and 23%, respectively, for treated and controls; improvement in sleeping was 11% and 2%. Treated infants also required less parental attention than the untreated group." To call it "medicine" may be incorrect, but likewise to call it "quackery" is equally incorrect. There is actually very little research on osteopathy (cranial or otherwise). The jury is still out on this one scientifically.

sophiesofa Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > But saffron another definition says this: > > "2. Psychology A person of mild mental retardation > having a mental age of from 7 to 12 years and > generally having communication and social skills > enabling some degree of academic or vocational > education. The term belongs to a classification > system no longer in use and is now considered > offensive." > The term is considered offensive when used to describe people who are actually mentally retarded. It doesn't sound like the people in the OP's statement are truly mentally retarded. However, it DOES sound like they are seriously lacking in good judgement. Indeed their behaviour could probably be considered criminal. I'm not usually one for name calling, but it this case "moron" (definition 1. stupid or lacking judgement) does appear to fit and would be considered descriptive rather than insulting. xx

moron: (noun) 1. Informal. a person who is notably stupid or lacking in good judgment. If the shoe fits, etc. ;-)

taper Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Not a chiropractor; that's Quakery. Osteopathy is > legit, but has limited application(although Nb > cranial osteopathy is quackery). Physios are > legit. Best place to start is with your GP > probably. Cranial osteopathy can treat symptoms which have their root cause in trapped/squeezed nerves in the cervial vertabrae (the backbones in the neck area). For example, poor alignment of these bones can put pressure on the vagus nerve bundle. Because the vagus is one of the main nerves providing input to the stomach, pressure on the vagus can lead to overstimulation of the nerve. This in turn has been linked to reflux. Osteopathy would seek to treat this by manipulating the alignment of the head and neck. It's not quackery, but the application is somewhat limited. Over the past 2 years, I've had a lot of back pain. I've seen a GP several times. I had to really push to get a referral for physiotherapy on the NHS. It's good, but limited. I've also had sports massage to help straighten a rotated pelvis, osteopathy to reduce muscle tension and improve alignment, and acupunture for pain relief. All of these have helped some. I've also seen a rheumatologist to confirm that there is no inflammatory condition in the vertabrae. She suggested, but I haven't tried yet, to use a TENS machine. (...which by the way, mothercourage, is a good idea to start using now if you want to get good results with it during your labour...) I now know that my condition is not rheumatological, so I've been given the all-clear to start pilates/yoga again (if I can ever find the time!). My point is that if the back pain is not caused by anything sinister, then your best bet is just to give everything a try. Probably a combination of therapies will work well. You just have to find what that combination is for you. xx