Saffron

Hmm, small business opportunity: Providing "green" toys for the magazine industry? But probably costs a fortune... plastics just so damn cheap. But if it's a choice between platic kids' mags or chocs/chips, which do you go for??? I always try to steer Little Saff towards bright shiny fruit, though sometimes I'm defeated! *hangs head in shame*

Oh, yes, we love Duplo here too! Definitely encountered wooden toy snobs (which is different than just being annoyed by certain plastics)...not nice... however... I do love that most traditional toys can be easily repaired or recycled. What do I do with broken plastic/electronic toys? Does the WEEE directive come into this? AND how can we gently persuade people to give traditional toys, instead of buying our daughter plastic rubbish? (Although I'm guilty of this too... just bought her a plastic shark from London Aquarium. Didn't see any traditional toys suitable to her age in the gift shop, and Sharky was only ?1... *embarrassed face*). Must say also that party bags, whilst lovely, have been some of the worst offenders for plastic rubbish, even from our "green" friends!

Oxford Paeds Ctr- Ask your pharmacist for EMLA. They may not stock it, but they can order it. You can also order it from online pharmacies. It takes about 45 min to mumb the area and lasts <1 hr once the skin is numbed IME. So you need to time it right. I've used this with my daughter for jabs, and it wasn't 100% but was better than nothing (works better on some people than others). I presume you can buy cold spray from a pharmacy as well, not sure. Worth asking. Just to clarify, is it really the case that your daughter is not having urinary pain at any time? Just that she is witholding urine, and also prone to infections? (I'm not doubting you, I'm just making sure I've understood your post correctly.) xx

Plastics: Love 'em or hate 'em? AND What do you do with the plastic ones when they break (not widely able to recycle?)... especially the ones with lots of electrical bits inside them?!! Husband hates plastic toys that sing and dance. We've tried to keep them to a minimum (and have mainly pre-loved plastics where we can), but more and more the plastics are creeping into our house. As Little Saff grows into the preschool years, I'm finding (1) the selection of wooden/traditional toys available is becoming smaller compared to baby toys, and (2) wooden/traditional toys are fecking expensive compared to plastic. Plastic toys, or traditional wooden/metal? What do you have? What do your children like?

Oh, could we have Soupdragon there, please!? Gutted that their lease on LL wasn't renewed!

What age were your children, and what type of advice did she give?

http://www.childcare.co.uk/profile/beeches/

Yes, and don't forget my favourite (NOT!) phrase "accidental parenting". GrrrRRRRRRRRrrr.

Ofsted is now responsible to registering night nurseries. Search their webpage?

No experience with CP Road. Multiple bad experiences with Forest Hill Road Surgery HVs and GPs (although Oakwook Midwives were fantastic). Happy to PM more info if you're interested.

Beany Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > As another mum of a currently non sleeping toddler > can I ask wise mum's "Arghhhh, WHEN will this > pass?" All of a sudden, I break my little girl's > heart every time I leave her for the night. In > her case it's separation anxiety, and i feel for > her, but I also feel for me lying on her bedroom > floor each night! > I think we're dealing with separation anxiety in my toddler too, which is interesting b/c during the day she's very extroverted and not at all anxious. I also think this is why conventional sleep advice is a non-starter for us. In fact some conventional sleep advice like CC/CIO is contra-indicated for babies and children with separation anxiety. Well-meaning friends who have meddled in our family relationship by pushing such advice on us have really done us a disservice and caused a lot of disharmony between me and Husband. It's one thing to offer open advice on a public forum, but people should think twice about interfering with unwanted advice to their friends. It's better to offer sympathy than to push an opinion others. xxx

No idea, but we thought we'd look for it too. We're going to the CP 1 oclock club morning session first... me: grey shorts, stripy vest, tan jumper... daughter (loud and friendly 2.5 yo brunette): purple hoody, purple spotty tunic top. Give us a shout if you see us! :)

How many days in a row has she been vomitting? Are you breastfeeding, or giving any other liquids? After which feed does she vomit? If you're exclusively breastfeeding, does she vomit after your biggest milk letdown? The biggest milk letdown for many women is early in the morning, but it can vary greatly from person to person. What else is in the vomit? Is it just milk and stomach fluid, or is there a lot of mucus or blood (can look like coffee grounds in the vomit)? Is her body temperature normal? Phone NHS direct 0845 4647 https://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/About/ContactUs.aspx . When they are very busy, they will have someone call you back. We've never had to wait more than 10-20 minutes to get a call back. They are very knowledgeable and re-assuring.

Weirdly, I've had sunlight worsen stains on some white/light clothing. Does anyone know why that happened? I thought maybe the sunlight oxidised something in the stain, effectively causing the stain to set. It hasn't happened enough times to draw any conclusion about what might have been the cause.

Dye them indigo?

If you're not able to significantly improve the apnea, and/or decide to wait and see if your child will outgrow it, think about asking for a referral for some kind of age-appropriate behavioural therapy to manage the daytime sypmtoms of sleepless nights. If your child is not sleeping well b/c of apnea, and this is resulting in daytime behavioural disturbances, these need to be handled with care and sensitivity under the guidance of a behavioural expert. School/childminders/etc need to be aware of the situation and informed how to appropriately handle it. For example, your LO may need more one-on-one adult attention, or additional quiet time during the day compare to peer group.

esme Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > If anyone has any hints or tips they might share - > we have tried nose drops (saline and now have some > with steroids that I really want to avoid using > for obvious reasons and plus they're short term > solution), air purifier, vicks and olbas oil / > sweet thyme drops in his room in bowl of hot water > to add moisture, windows open / closed... At wits > end, none of us getting proper sleep and I want to > avoid him having an operation(s) at this young > age, especially as your adenoids apparently > disappear when you are 7-8 years old. > Hi- Sorry I don't have any personal experience of sleep apnea in children. I have read that children often outgrow apnea, possibly due to physical changes as they develop. I agree surgery should probably be the very last resort unless there is confirmed to be a profound physical abnormality of the upper airways. Why do you say that you don't want to use steroids "for obvious reasons"? Were you prescribed steroids? If so, do you think you were mis-prescribed? That is, do you think there is not an inflammatory condition present, or do you think you've been given the wrong dose/type of steroid? Steroids are a much misunderstood and much maligned group of drugs. Generally, steroids (corticosteroids) are given to reduce excessive inflammation or to suppress inappropriate immune responses. In many cases, steroids will not treat the root cause of an illness, but are appropriate and necessary in order to sufficiently control symptoms so that the body may heal itself. Perhaps you need to push for a more certain, or more detailed, diagnosis of what may be causing the apnea. It's not just adenoids that can cause apnea. Nasal polyps or deviated septum could be possible causes, though likely rare in toddlers. Have you tried to raise the head of your child's bed a little? Sometimes the obstruction that results in apnea is worsened when the child is sleeping flat. I've also read that Breathe Right makes a child-sized nasal strip, but maybe your LO is a bit young for this (strip will be too big)?

Yes, I agree. It's very common. I'm slightly surprised that it's not mentioned more often. One of the problems is that after a couple of days of witholding poo, the constipation can become self-perpetuating b/c the faeces become so firm that the bowel has difficult moving them. At this point, most dietary measure have little effect. They simply don't reach the point of the problem which is large intestine/bowel. My daughter is 2.5 yrs, we've been dealing with this issue for several months. For us it started after a gastro-bug, which was follwed by thrush. She became very sensitive with her bladder and bowel. One of the most annoying things has been people suggesting that she's constipated b/c of poor diet. This is definitely not the case. Although a high-fibre diet is helpful, ultimately it's not the cause of the constipation. Poor little pet does it to herself by witholding the poo. Recently we've found that if she's witholding poo, then lots of nappy free time encourages her to use her potty. She doesn't want to poo in her nappy. So it looks like we have somewhat the opposite issue to your LO. Our potty training is very relaxed and we are making slow but good progress, though our toddler is a bit older than yours. I think you're doing the right thing by going back to nappies for a while. I think a lot of people go through stop-start phases with potty training (we've certainly had our share). When you bring her little potty out again, maybe just leave it in the loo or nursery, but don't focus on it? She'll get used to seeing it and will be interested in it again soon enough. We've also found that reading stories about potties has helped. There are lots of different gentle strategies. Our toddler is now doing a poo about every 3 to 4 days. The HV said that's really common during potty training. But she also said that when it's been more than 5 days, then it's time to see the GP for some Movicol etc.

I'm beginning to think that some children with sleep issues simply do not benefit from conventional advice... otherwise they wouldn't have sleep issues! If you see what I mean? We've tried early bedtime + cutting out naps. It results in TOTAL DISASTER every single time, makes her night sleep worse. We also tried cutting out naps + normal or late bedtime. Same result. "Rapid return" (where you just put them back in bed) was also a fail. It think she's just too young to understand it. I would never lock my daughter in her room. I've already suspected for a while that she has some night time separation anxiety. Locking her alone in her room would send her into emotional meltdown. I would like to get her falling alseep on her own. I can do this once in a while, but it requires literally checking back on her every minute for half an hour or more. It's completely physically exhausting on me, with little change in her sleep. So it hasn't been value for effort so far. I keep trying b/c I'm hoping as she gets older that it will be more effective. I'd like to try more wake-to-sleep for early morning wakings, but I do all the night time stuff myself with no daytime help. So it's hard for me to see how I would make wake-to-sleep work logistically, with no guarantee of results. I guess I'm just really sceptical of sleep advice b/c so much of it has not been effective for us. Some children are just difficult sleepers no matter what you do. I'd still be interested in a sleep seminar, but I'd be quite shocked if it's only CIO! It' seems any expert worth their money really ought to have more to say about sleep than rehashing Dr Green's method, which is widely available for free.

Phone NHS direct for more advice: 0845 46 47.

See your GP asap, this afternoon or tomorrow morning. Most over-the-counter laxatives are not suitable for 2 yos. In the meantime, you could try glycerin suppositories (cut the adult size in half), but in my exprience, if the constipation has gone past 3 days then the suppository just gets pushed out without a poo. A big dinner and a warm bath also helps, though sometimes results in poo in the bath!

Ju*Ni, child-led approaches like Montessori generally hold that the individual must be allowed to developfully before advanced interpersonal development proceeds. (I'm not a Montessori teacher obviously, so please pardon me if that's been stated rather crudely.) When the individual is allowed to develop naturally and fully, interpersonal skills for activities like team work, sharing, and compromise grow naturally from this platform.

I have a fellowship, which is basicly like contract work. I don't clock in/out. As long as I don't nod off at the controls of some expensive kit, then I can get away with it. There are already a few eccentrics in our department. I'll probably fit right in. Generally when Little Saff wakes, I stuff a boob in her face and go back to sleep, b/c trial and error has deemed this the most rapid way for us both to go back to sleep. Also despite eating well during the day, she still asks for milk at night/early morning-- sometimes 2x a night! Several times I've done milk to water fades with some success. (I think around 8 months I did a fade to get her from 5x wakings to 1-2 wakings, which is where we've seemed to "stick"). I just find it really difficult to keep doing it over and over. She was always a night nurser. I know there's a big anthropological change in sleep between 2-4 yrs, I just don't see it coming any time soon for us.

I'm in. 2.5 yo still waking 1-2 x nightly. I'm returning to work in Sept. I'm planning to nap under my desk. *sob*

Are they accredited Montessori schools that you've seen, or just Montessori style schools? There can be a lot of differences among non-accredited schools, I'm recently learning! Check this thread for more info: http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?29,924530,924530#msg-924530 . I've just seen a lovely Montessori style school near my work, which is offering hot lunches every day. Is the lack of hot lunches reflected in the cost of pre-school care at the schools you've seen? Just because a school doesn't have the fascilities to prepare food itself, there is no reason hot food couldn't be catered every day. There are small catering companies that specialise in this market. Personally, I'd have to think twice about paying big fees to a pre-school that wasn't offering hot lunches, Montessori or otherwise. However, for people who are trying desperately to save money every month, maybe there are savings to be had by sending their LOs with packed lunches?