Gubodge

DJ, your issue seems to be with the proximity of the parent and child spaces to the store, not their actual existence, in which case your harking on about pedestrians and bus users making it safely to Sainsburys is not just irrelevant, but actually negates your argument. The bus stop and pedestrian entrance to the car park are placed so it is possible to get from them to the store safe from cars by using the zebra crossings, raised pavement and bollarded off walkway. No such protection is given for people who have driven to the store who have, in effect, to walk in the road to get to the entrance. Not something that most people would usually encourage their small children to do (even those toughies without cars), and particularly when so many of the cars are reversing and anything under 3 foot tall is invisible to them.

I have children in year 1 and reception and we are very happy with the school. The kids love both the school and their teachers and are doing brilliantly. I was initially worried about the size, particularly as my eldest has never been confident in social situations and my own primary school had only about 15 pupils in each year, but I have no issues with it at all now. I don't really think that having 90 pupils to a year could be more daunting to a four year old than 60 and the size means that the school is able to offer a great range of after school clubs and that there are a large number of very involved, committed parents.

Divine usually do dark chocolate mini eggs around this time of year. The Oxfam shop in Herne Hill sometimes sell them. I'd always rather my children had chocolate rather than sweets (Not that they don't get sweets as well.) and from a very early age my dairy allergic one has known the difference between dark and milk chocolate and which she is allowed. She loves chocolate but happily goes through any party bags she's given to take out the smarties or chocolate buttons to give to her sister. When we played the chocolate game at her sister's 6th birthday party and supplied a bar of dark for when it was A's turn, 50% of the guests announced they prefered dark chocolate too. Only in East Dulwich!

Wow, I've just been entertaining myself reading SLDS's rules. Half a term's notice required if you don't wish to continue the following term or you forfeit a full term's fees! I'm very happy we found Fiona.

Can you tell where the blockage is, Sophie? If so, try and feed with your daughter's chin pointing towards that sector of breast. It can lead to some interesting contortions, but that is where her suck is most powerful. You can also try massaging the blockage towards the nipple. Firmly stroking the breast with a comb can help, preferably under a hot shower or in the bath. But sympathies, mastitis is horrible.

Something was stuck through my door, LadyR. 11 o'clock at Kennington Park. Link here

I was wondering if there was anybody else with young kids who was planning on protesting on Saturday. If so what's your plan? I'm fairly certain my younger one will last a maximum of about an hour so think we're likely to be better off either just joining the feeder march from Kennington Park until it meets the main protest and then doing fun four year old stuff, or else doing fun four year old stuff and then attaching ourselves to the march for the last leg and the rally. I have told the girls that the cuts mean they are shutting libraries and they are horrified. And worried that their school library is going to close. Oops.

Mark, EBAC is the English baccalaureate

Goodliz, have a look at page 7 of this month's Southwark Life

Oh yes, top and tail bowl, never had one, never missed it. In fact, don't tell anyone, but I only ever used one bowl and made sure I did the top first, then the tail. Bad me!

My rarely/never used items were: Changing bag Breast pads Baby wipes Baby bath Bumbo Bath stuff - shampoo/lotions/soaps Room/bath thermometer Baby bjorn carrier My must haves: Wrap style sling Ergo baby carrier Cheap bouncy chair Winkel toy Cheap flannels for bum wiping Olive oil - for cradle cap, ear ache, massage Calpol and syringe.

Wot Jamma said. If you are the main breadwinner, then could your partner not cut back on his hours? Particulalry if it's only until April. We only keep our sanity because my husband does the school drop off. It means he doesn't get in to work until 9.45, but he can then stay as late as he needs to as I've been able to get in early and leave early. We share the cooking, share the preparation of pack lunches and share the housework. If I was left to do it all on my own, let alone when I was pregnant, then I'd probably have had a breakdown.

I'd back up Wave's experience. I only have daughters, but my dad has red/green colour blindness, as does my husband, so it would be possible for my girls to have it too (Both dad and MrG see red and green as a murky brown). When my eldest was around two I was convinced that she had inherited it as she seemed to have a particular problem with those colours but she now has absolutely no problems at all. I wonder if there is something about the red/green wavelengths that the eye takes longer to adapt to, and that in some cases it never quite gets there. But even if your son does turn out to be colour blind, it shouldn't cause him any problems. The only real down side is that it means he'll never be able to have a career as a pilot. Or an interior designer.

I also have two children at Goodrich, one in KS1 and one in the foundation stage. They love the school and their teachers and they are making great progress with their learning. Of course the school is not perfect, and I understand that some parents have legitimate complaints, but we as a family are very happy with it. And although I would not consider myself to be out of the playground loop, and my partner attended the recent parents' forum, I have to say that I have no idea what the threats are that Emily refers to.

Mine slept in the bunk bed, but we probably took a portable bed guard. You might be hard pushed to fit a travel cot in the gap between the bunks, there's not much room at all.

We took my daughters to Brittany on the overnight ferry when they were four and two. By far the best way to travel in my opinion! Plenty of room to run around and let off steam before bedtime (there was even a soft play area), then the excitement of bunkbeds in the cabin meant that they actually went to bed enthusiastically, if a bit later than usual. Neither suffered sea sickness and they had a wonderful time watching us come into harbour in the morning. THe only downside I can see is the drive to Swansea.

My daughter had numerous ear infections at around that age, but they cleared up when we started giving her goats milk to drink rather than cows. (We didn't need to cut out dairy completely, only as her main drink.)

Sorry, Snowboarder. No offence meant, just my personal experience based on a highly unscientific small sample.

Mine are good with pretty much anything these days, but like every other child had a period when anything green was viewed with great suspicion. I carried on putting the disliked items on their plates though and would insist on at least a morsel being consumed, but would let them get away with the tiniest amount. After a while they would just absent-mindedly eat the lot. The children I know who still do not touch veg are the ones whose parents stopped even offering it and only ever put things they knew to be liked on their plates.

It was absolutely no problem at all for either of my children. With both we took just one side of the cot off first, just in case it all went horribly wrong, but they both loved their beds straight away and neither ever got up in the night other than to go to the loo. In fact it took the younger one months to realise she could even get out by herself, and she would lie in bed shouting for us to get her up in the morning. Which was a pain.

I've not got quite so worked up about this as Jack Bauer, but then I had assumed they were paid for by Alleyns. If they are funded by the local authority then it does seem a bit of a misuse of resources, particularly when parents and small children heading to and from Goodrich have no help at all at the Underhill/Dunstans junction. Any chance they could be spread out a bit better?

The prolactin produced during a breastfeed supresses ovulation, but the hormone only stays in the system for about 3 hours. So as long as you are feeding three-hourly, day and night, you will not be able to conceive. But even one 5 longer gap between feeds is enough for ovulation to occur.

Locanda Locatelli is lovely and very child friendly.

Is there any evidence to support the theory that a decent supermarket on LL would bring more people to the local independents? I know that although I have been to Waitrose often, I have never even set foot on Beckenham high street and I wouldn't have thought I was unusual in that.

My first was induced at Kings, farily full of intervention, but a pretty good experience. But I loathed the post natal ward so went for a homebirth the second time around, although due to a history of very overdue births in my family never expected to actually go into labour without intervention. Shows how much I know. The home birth (in a pool with an intact amniotic sac, so there was no mess at all apart from the bloody swamp in the pool itself) was no better or worse as an overall experience for me, but the thing both my husband and I loved was the fact that he was so much more involved and able to give support. It felt like it was all down to the two of us with the midwives merely unobtrusively present, where as at the hospital it had felt like they did most of the work. And nothing beats curling up in bed with your newborn withing half an hour of deivering the placenta, except perhaps the cup of tea, made in your mug, with your tea bags, to your liking, drunk in the pool between contractions.