Knomester

Saffron how kind of you to think of me. As it happens I've been meaning to post to thank everyone for the incredibly supportive PMs - I am trying to respond to you all individually, but time as always is fairly elusive! Thanks to formula and feeding to a loose routine rather than on demand, I managed to carry on breastfeeding exclusively until he was 8 weeks and am still partially feeding now. I've switched two feeds on the worst side to formula and will switch the last of those this week so that I'll be feeding solely from the left and formula. My pain has lessened dramatically so that I am no longer in constant agony (although not pain free yet!). There has been no healing yet although signs of it between feeds so there is hope for when I stop completely, which I will over the course of the next few weeks. I'm lucky that baby took to the bottle and formula (MAM anti colic bottles with Hipp formula) like a dream and switches between breast and bottle (although latch not as good as it was - he has become a bit lazy...). I'm now looking forward to a week's holiday in Camber with my family and some much needed relaxation in a couple of weeks' time!

We haven't yet really tried to put baby 2 (now 9.5 weeks) down for naps yet. Way too stressful with a noisy, exuberant 3.5 year old bounding around the house! I tend to pop baby in the sling or push him out for a morning nap, push him out in the pram at lunchtime (he seems to be one if those babies who wakes up after 20 mins if stationary..!) and then sling again in the afternoon. It's fair to say I'm doing lots of walking... When I have my eldest with me too I try to plan outings around a trip to the cafe for a pain au chocolate, a walk to the park or even a quick scoot around the block. Thank goodness it's the summer..! At some point I'd love him to nap at home sometimes so I could get on with some chores (or even get a nap in myself!) but haven't the same energy (or willpower) as I had with my first... When I have I'll take on board some of these tips!

I've not seen them locally but you can get them from Amazon if Monday isn't too late. Otherwise perhaps try Seldoc for a prescription for Novogel 7.5cm discs and try Cristals pharmacy in Nunhead who usually have a couple of spare boxes in stock (everywhere else I've tried takes 48 hours or so to order in).

We have the Pourty too. In fact we have 3 of them (only one toilet which means no downstairs loo and none on the same floor as my son's bedroom). They're sturdy and we opted for having all the same so as to avoid one style being preferred over the others. East to empty and relatively high at the front so as to avoid splashes/spray. As for timing, we started relatively late and just waited until we were sure he was ready. It wasn't foolproof and when he started nursery a shirt time later he had a regression, as he has done at other times (like on return to nursery after long Christmas break).

Thanks Saffron I will take a look at this.

Thank you. Yes a post on a bigger site like Mumsnet might be useful - I'll try to register and post tomorrow. I'll take a look at the silver cups too.

devsdev & simonethebeaver thank you both. I love that quote simonethebeaver - I can just picture my 3 year old rummaging under the table for blueberries he dropped the day before (covered in crumbs and cat hair...)!

Thank you Belle, midivydale and jennyh. Wise and comforting words... It never ceases to amaze me how wonderfully supportive and caring people I don't know in real life can be.

Thank you all. ClareC - Expressing isn't really going to be an option long term for me with an almost 4 year old to look after too as the dermatologists have advised that it will take a minimum of 2-3 weeks total break from BFing to start healing and then it will still be an ongoing problem if we start again. Saffron - The sores (especially on one side) are ulcerated and open. I've been advised they won't heal whilst I continue to BF. There has been no change at all in 3 weeks of festidiously applying steroid and barrier then washing before and after each feed. I think I'm clutching at straws!!

I just wanted to thank you all again for your kind words and advice. We have managed to make it to 7 weeks with the bottles and formula still waiting to be opened which is as big a surprise to me as anyone! We will be making the move over to formula soon though as the diagnosis of irritant dermatitis / eczema 3 weeks ago, which seemed at the time to be the best news (at last a reason why things weren't improving at all...) has turned out to be the opposite as the topical steroid creams have had no impact other than to temporarily slow the deterioration of my wounds. I do think that taking the step to be prepared and mentally ready to switch to formula helped me persevere longer so thank you all for your support.

So, after 7 weeks of breastfeeding woes, I have been told by the dermatologists who have been treating me for irritant dermatitis that we have reached the end of the line as far as treatment goes. I have to stop using the potent steroid creams tomorrow (having used them daily for 3 weeks), leaving me with only paraffin and novogel pads. The likelihood is that the dermatitis / eczema(which has been maintained, but not improved in the slightest by the steroid cream) will get worse quickly if the irritant (my baby's saliva) is not removed. In other words, if I don't stop breastfeeding. Having explored all other options, seen 2 lactation consultants, the Breast Care clinical lead at King's and 3 separate dermatologists (amongst others), we are reaching the end of the road as far as breastfeeding goes this time around. I'm sure this forum knows as much about our sorry saga as my doctors do from my various pleas for help and advice (!), so I just thought I'd try one more time and ask if anyone has had severe irritant dermatitis / eczema caused by breastfeeding and, if so, if you have any advice (other than expressing which is not really an option)? Please do PM me. Thank you.

I find the vivobarefoot wellies, although quite pricey, are much more flexible and therefore easier for littles ones to walk in. Not sure what sizes they start at though.

Much of the food at Toasted is GF, although if celiac I imagine your want to check if there's a risk of cross contamination as they do also make their own (non-GF) cake and bread. The Dish & The Spoon on Cheltenham Road often has a good range of homebaked GF cakes. There is a thread in GF offerings somewhere on the forum which I seem to recall posting on which may be useful. Perhaps take a look at Kim Mcgowan's blog www.naturallyglutenfree.wordpress.com - she is SE London based sometimes reviews local places.

GinaG3 - I asked for delayed clamping at recent elcs and no one said it was incompatible with stem cell donation (although neither did anyone specifically confirm the two could go hand in hand). However, as it happened baby had a true knot in his cord so delayed clamping wasn't possible anyway (although donation was).

JS33 - In my experience, King's are being very proactive in bringing this to peoples' attention at the moment.

Thanks so much for the offer Bluedark, but we're sorted now thank you.

I don't have personal experience of this, but I'm one of 4 children and my mum had my youngest sister and brother both after she was 40 (at 40 and just shy of 45). She hadn't had any major complications with either of her first two babies though and although labour and childbirth were no breeze (v lengthy and I was back to back so painful) she didn't find pregnancy itself hard work. Baby 3 wasn't for coming and she ended up with a fairly touch and go emergency c section, but Baby 4 was a hassle free vbac with no monitoring or pain relief (bar a bit if gas and air!). That was 20 years ago and Baby 4 (having been the smallest of us all at birth) is a strapping 6'3" and just finishing his first year at uni. Best of luck to you whatever you decide.

Hello I am unsuccessfully trying to get my hands on a secondhand Bugaboo buggy board for our Bee Plus. I don't want to waste ?60 on buying a new one if it's not going to be a practical option for our 3 year old so I just wondered if anyone has one and would have half an hour to spare it for us to test drive it in the park this weekend sometime? Our 3 year old normally walks or scoots, but he has been having dreadful growing pains which have meant my husband has had to carry him fairly long distances recently which just isn't practical given how big he is! Thanks

Thank you for your lovely long post and kind words Saffron. I am using the novogel pads (similar result to what you describe I think, with the moist open wound healing). Sadly nipple shields and expressing are even more painful and destructive for me than feeding (you could have heard me howl here from Katie Fisher's house in Croydon when we tried the nipple shields!). Thankfully, baby's tongue is fine now and latch pretty much textbook so at least no new damage is being caused. I'm also blessed with a good sleeper (for now!) which means I can rest my worst side for quite a few hours over night - although it doesn't help with the healing it gives me a break. I doubled up feeds on the (marginally) better side yesterday but worry about making that side worse and leaving myself with no room for manoeuvre if I do that too much! I took a loading dose of flucanazole yesterday for the thrush and pain from that has lessened already so I'm glad I had that in the house ready. The main thing is baby is fine and gaining weight and other than these issues we're both healthy for which I feel very lucky. And we've made it through another 24 hours to tell the tale.

Thank you all. We have taken your advice and bought another Tommee Tippee bottle with the slow flow teat and a few little bottles of ready mixed aptamil to tide us over if needs be. I'm hoping the specialist has some miracle cure for us on Monday, but I'm not holding out much hope given that we have taken things as far as we can with the lactation consultant, but I can dream! Convex - I am intrigued about self sterilising bottles!

I have a 4 week old baby who has so far been exclusively breastfed. I also breastfed my first child, so I am clueless when it comes to feeding with bottles and formula. I am hoping to continue breastfeeding, but after 4 weeks of hell (tongue tie, ductal thrush, bacterial infections and severe nipple trauma) and today being hit with full on recurrence of thrush, I need a back up in case I can't make it through the weekend to Monday when I have an appointment with a breast specialist. I just wondered if anyone could advise on what I need to buy and where I can buy it from this afternoon. I have a tomme tippee (sp?) microwave steriliser and bottle which I'd bought in case I needed it with my first son. Will this be sufficient for now just for the weekend? What sort of teat is best for a breastfed baby (preferably one which will fit the bottle I already have)? Which formula should I buy? I am utterly clueless so would be extremely grateful for any help! Thanks

Thank you all - I'll take a look at your recommendations this weekend. Bluesuperted - I have no objection to over the top, especially with dresses like you say, just need to wait until these poor boobs of mine have healed as anything like that is still too incredibly painful at the moment!

With my first son I always opted for the vest under a normal top option for feeding when out and about (so as not to expose too much post-pregnancy belly!). This time the weather is a bit warmer and the tops I have that fit aren't really long enough to cover the top of the maternity jeans I'm still wearing post-c section. I saw a woman wearing a lovely simple breastfeeding top at a breastfeeding a cafe this week but didn't have chance to ask where she bought it from, so I just wondered if anyone has any recommendations for where I should look for reasonably priced breastfeeding tops? Either locally or preferably online. Thank you.

I have always thought that I'm fairly organised, but I am completely in awe of you all! I love the idea of photographing everything. I can see that our current stick it on the fridge with a magnet method won't hack it for much longer...

Thank you Pippa. That's very kind of you. I've now got some sort of agonising bacterial infection added into the mix, so strong antibiotics which will do wonders for the thrush! I may be taking fluclanazole forever...