mima08

Hiya I am looking for some advice: my 2.5year old frequently suffers from bad constipation (I say frequent - every few weeks, but sometimes not for many weeks in between). When he does not go for a day or two, it becomes very painful for him, he complains about stomach ache and has even vomited from the effort of straining (this happened the twice this year). The minute he "goes", he is fine again - lively, happy, very active etc. I have given him Calfig when he doesn't go to avoid it getting too bad, but don't want his digestion getting used to that. He has never suffered from other symptoms (I read on other threads about kids having a temperature etc) and is generally very healthy. His diet is good - lots of fruit and veg, lots of water, sometimes juice, next to no sweets...So I am really at a loss what can cause this? I am taking him to the doctor this week but just wanted to get some further advice / ideas please... thanks! mx

Hiya, we had nothing as horrid as you describe it but my 2.5 old was vomiting out of the blue today (though it has stopped) and his childminder said one of the other families have a bug, too. Hope it gets better for you, soon!

Hi - my 2.5yr old has just started going to the ruggerbeez classes in Belair park http://www.ruggerbeez.com/content/dulwich, very entertaining for both of us :) Can be drop in or sign up.

I have come across the effect that reward has on effort elsewhere - in designing employment reward packages, in fact. There is a school of thought that says (in very simplified terms): rewards in form of bonuses etc undermine the intrinsic desire of wanting to do a good job and leads to behaviours that focus on short term results. It also suggests that people who have an intrinsic enjoyment of whatever their job is, are happier and do a better job (the answer is to provide a good work environment, appropriate remuneration and support to let people do a good job). Applying all of this to children, I read the article to mean that (too) frequent reward for outcomes/ achievement could have an effect of undermining a child's desire to do something for the sake of doing. I have read similar theories as BB that state it is better to praise children for effort as effort is something that is within their control (i.e. they can always try). Whereas praising for something like being "smart" or an end result, could undermine confidence because those things are not necessarily within the child's control. An example would be to praise a child for reading a book by saying "well done, you finished the whole book, wasn't that fun?" would focus on the enjoyment of doing the activity as opposed to saying "if you read the book/ you get an A/ etc. you can have xyz". I have personal experience of a teenager who was always praised for being so smart: "he doesn't even need to try, still gets great school results". That didn't work when it came to A-levels and he is still (3years later!) very reluctant to try something that appears hard, for fear of failing. Of course, this is just one case, and I am sure there are many more reasons for this behaviour, but I do try to emphasis effort over outcomes with my little son. Would love to hear more researched (and experienced) opinions...

Hiya, I saw Daniel Harvey, the chiropractor on Crystal Palace road when I had very bad SPD - could hardly walk. 3 sessions and I could move around again without pain. http://www.dulwichchiropractic.co.uk/ good luck, mx

There still seem to be dirty glasses on the counter? Yet most of other furniture gone - strange... dbboy - do you know those rent & rate figures for fact or is it an educated guess? I am just very curious what kind of costs are involved in a place like that...

It's been a while (mine is 2.5yrs) but we used to go swimming and to sing and sign: both I believe run at various locations on the days you are after. Alternatively, check out the ED Tots website www.edtots.co.uk

and another thank you! Having only one and still feeling regularly overwhelmed, this is a lovely message. And well done you for doing a great job.

All of the above! Plus, I saw on your facebook page that you are hoping to be fully registered in Jan (not quite sure what this means) and that you are planning on a pilot project starting Sept? Although my son won't be going to school 'till Sept 2015, but am interested in the idea...

A long build up works well for us: so we start talking about 1/2 hr before bathtime that it's soon time for bath, then stories etc. effectively spelling out the routine and repeating this every 5-10 min. My 2.5 yr old is much more amendable to go along with things when I use this approach. It's very repetitive but works more often than not... good luck! mx

Thanks for posting this - will finally get to check it out!

Great stuff - have shared on fb! mx

Snappy snaps on Rye Lane are really good with babies - although I did end up with a mega grumpy one at the time... oh well, just another 2.5years to go with that pic ;)

I think the next one is either next week or the week after -we're at Dulwich but I believe they are in synch. As for time on the day, it seems to vary: one time turned up at 10am and got in no problem, next time huge queue at 8am (I changed locations thus couldn't renew early). Best be early, I guess. Mx

I did powerpramming for a while, it was good fun, it's on thurs in Dulwich Park (http://www.powerpramming.co.uk/class-directory.html). Plus the leisure centre has a creche that will take kids from 6months on if you wanted to use the gym or classes/swimming. good luck mx

Agree with the points about quick fix, but no good for longer/ heavy use. If it's for longer, no matter what you chose, invest in good underlay - otherwise even expensive laminate will wear badly. We actually have bamboo flooring in our house - looks lovely like wood and extremely hard wearing. Cost around ?15/m2, but no good for a bathroom. There are many different types - pm me, if you want to know more, happy to share findings of my research (and no, am not on commission ;) ) mx

Cold water tablets are great - as I said, you can get them in/ with special plastic bags you can easily use anywhere - and we reused the bags on multiple occasions (with new tablets, of course). All the things Ortuke said, plus, get a UV suit for the baby - makes life a lot easier in the sun! My vote for a long-haul would be Caribbean, 8-10 hrs, but of course that depends on the time of the year you are going...

Hiya we also used the disposable sterile bottles and took sterilisation bags for when we got there- you just add water and can leave things to sterilise in them for several hours. I seem to remember getting everything from Amazon. mx

Ha - snap! My 2.5yr old ate everything when little - we did baby led weaning and I remember feeling smug, but that's come back to haunt me! My childminder says he eats quite a variety of foods, but I have not seen it for months. The one thing I can 100% rely on are quiches - any flavour and content, he will eat all any veg as long as it's in a quiche... And rice with prawns (plus other things smuggled in)...

Hiya - my sympathy, you must be knackered! (and congratulations on imminent arrival!). One thing that works sometimes with us (i.e. more often than not but not 100%) is to build up to whatever I want LO to do over the course of time. E.g. Bedtime I will start mentioning that it is time for a bath & bed about 1hr before I actually want him to go, and repeat it in various scenarios every 5min. Yes, it is repetitive. I'll say things like "in x time it's time for a bath, then stories & bed", "we have y time left before bath, then bedtime". The key seems to be to repeat, repeat, repeat... hope some of this is useful

Ah, brilliant - yes, that was one of them! Silly me - I kept searching "public transport" with lots of variations on "days out" but not train, dhu!

Thanks for the tips, SF - and agree, people probably thought someone else will pitch in :) There are some really great threads on here - I had some time ago copied links into an off-line document for inspiration, but with a recent software change I managed to lose a number of documents, including that one (annoying!). Most trips out of London appear to be by car - which I guess is partly why it takes so long to get anywhere: just getting out of SE is a nightmare. As my son is not a good traveller, I prefer going by pt, though. As for staying overnight ... costs mean more planning is needed - I guess an indication of lack of organisation on my part. Will look up Bournemouth as well - for the staycation holiday days!

Thanks for the tip about Eynesford! I did think there were threads on this subject and had done a good bit of search before posting. There are some great threads on days out - I've taken notes for future inspiration - just could not find ones on PT only, hence my question.

Hi - nope, no replies: seems not many ideas about days out by PT (does that say something about public transport?). In any case, we ended up going to Brighton by train: Overground from Peckham Rye to Clapham Junction, then train. If you can get to PR without having to go up the stairs & change platforms, it's step free... A lot of fun was had!

Ohhhh, and over my head, completely *goes and hangs head in shame, promising to park high-horse at the back in the future*.