craigy

I think you should look at yourself and think whether the method suits you and your personality.... Personally I have no patience with the shush, pat, baby whisperer style of settling a baby and am much more of a leave them to it but again I think that the success of that depends upon the baby... My 1st resisted ddaytime sleep and I pushed him to sleep in his pram or the car or let him sleep on me until about 5 months when a few days of leaving him to cry it out resulted in good napping from then onwards.... My 2nd when she gets tired will just fall asleep no fuss at all (she's now 5 months) and does not respond well to be left to cry it out and will get herself into an awful state... My top sleep tip is a book called 'healthy sleep habits, happy child' by dr Marc weissblauth..

Or Alison Owen, also at Dulwich Therapy Rooms.... She has treated both my children and me and my husband....

I found The Bridge very organised, went in in week and paid for lessons and had first one this afternoon. Was great, easy to get to and huge amount of parking there..

thanks for the offer as also not keen on the price of the things but am really going to steer him away from it....

Thanks Pickle- very good point, I too am thinking it will be a pain esp as 4 yr old has attention span of a goldfish and we will end up dealing with it so think I may try and sway him towards his new spiderman rucksack.... this is where the attention span of a goldfish comes in helpful as he will forget about the trunki as quick as he remembers it

Can anyone answer this question? We are travelling to the US in a few weeks and my 4 yr old really wants a Gruffalo Trunki. However, do not want to buy one unless it can be hand baggage as will also be travelling with a 6 month old and all if the equipment that that involves... Anyone travelled with one and took into onto the plane, Thanks, Craigy

I have the timetable for THe Bridges in Sydenham and they have classes for 3 year old beginners on Wed at 11 and Thur at 5.30, not sure whether they have place. If you are interested give them a ring on 02086597711. I rang last week to book my nearly 4 year old in for lessons on a friday afternoon and they had a few places left and he starts this week. Went to pay today and it is a little hidden but not that difficult to get to in a car...

i have always preferred hand pumps as you can control them better than an electric one, have just the standard avent one... and i too would say put it in a syringe in the cheek.. there is no foolproof method..

you are eligible for some childcare funding from the government the term after they turn 3 until they start reception.. it is 15 hours a week but the actual cash value of it is difficult to determine as it is different with each nursery... am sure someone else can give you more info on that..

Just make sure you take Tupperware.....

Have to admit that that is what I did too at the breakfast buffet as my 3 yr old can be a bit funny about junk food and wasn't wasting a fortune on it to be told that it is 'disgusting'.

we went last year and stayed just outside of the resort in a hotel that had a shuttle service to the resort... have to say that i did not find anywhere cheap to eat as i saw very little other options that what was available there but then also we never looked... IMO the food there is awful and very expensive..

The new one on uplands road where bojangles used to be, 'my favourite nursery' is not up to the full amount of children as far as I know...

We have a tendency to make the thought of a home birth far more complicated than it needs to be.. Presumably even if you decide upon a hospital birth you will want to stay at home at the beginning so just have a bag packed and see what happens and how you feel in the actual event.. I kept an open mind with number 2 as the childcare options for number 1 seemed better if I stayed at home but on the actually evening of the birth number 1 was at my mum's and the thought of staying at home did nothing for me ( mainly dur to having major building works done on the ground floor) so we went in and the labour didn't actually really kick in till I got there... These decisions do not have to be made before the actual event as the midwife will have everything she needs with her as to be honest if a baby is going to come really fast it will pretty much deliver itself.... Ultimately, it's your birth and do what you feel comfortable with as if you don't feel comfortable it will not be a positive experience.....

baby number 2 arrived in august and i was so worried about what to do with number 1 as family live 100+ miles away.. had loads of offers from friends so plenty of options but never really felt comfortable with this... packed him a bag, bought him a blow up bed for if i needed to dump him anywhere in the middle of the night and generally just hoped everything would work itself out.. it did. at 39 weeks my sister decided to come and see me for the day and to drive 100+ miles to do so. she phoned me at 8.30 in the morning to check all was ok and i wasn't in labour to which i assured her absolutely nothing was happening and it was fine so she set off.. 45 minutes later i stod up and my waters broke (!!) and then i realised my childcare issues were solved as she could take him back with her and my mum and sis could look after him... she arrived, stayed till 4 and then took him home with her at 4... whilst he was around nothing happened other than water leaking, when she left i started to get mild contractions but still had builders in the house, they left at 7 and it all started at 8 and number 2 arrived at 1am with me feeling relaxed as i knew he was fine.... i swear that it is mind over matter....

I got The Octonauts & the frown fish, only lonely monster & sea of shade from Amazon a few weeks ago for about ?4 each and they were sent out within a week so they were available.. not that this is much help to you but the book are fantastic and the illustration amazing.. We are very into them in our house and have to admit I do enjoy them too esp as new episodes again this week on c beebies.

i was of the understanding that St Anthony's was catholic only whereas the CofE have non faith places.. Plus I think the rumour is that St As is expecting a huge sibling intake this year with only about 18 places left after that..

does anyone have a link to work out your nearest schools?

I had a similar experience with my boy at around the same age and it lasted about 3 months to be honest.. he would allow me to spoon feed him weetabix in the morning and then pretty much refused everything else i would try throughout the day.. in the end he was pretty much living on weetabix and cheese on toast as finger food and i would try and hide things under the cheese and up his milk intake... i think in the end he got bored and then developed a huge passion for meatballs.. at the time he did lose a bit of weight i think but i was never that concerned as he was on the 100th centile anyway so plenty of reserves!! it is stressful but i think you just have to keep going and offer things, i think it was about the time i bought a book about finger foods for toddlers and made all sorts of odd things with vegetables.. now he is a huge three and a half year old who has a love of carbs, fruit and veg with little interest in meat...

James- when you say GG is being given money to support a bulge class, does this mean for the sept 2011 intake (ie this years applications) or for coming years as would it not be a little early for them to bulge if just out of special measures putting additional pressure on an improving school?

We had a lot of building work done over the summer and had about 7 skips in total and was amazed/ horrified by the amount of people that took things/ rummaged through it or just came for a 'driveby' of it.. We presumed that as you have to get a permit from the council to have a skip that these people must get a list of this from the council to tell where to look as we live in an odd little road where you would not really drive down unless you were visiting someone down there... We got woken at 7 one morning to look out of the window and see someone actually in the skip trying to get something out of it whilst someone else had the engine running... When the builders put the old cooker out it was gone in 15 minutes (it was cheap and filthy) and the bathroom managed to stay out there for about 30 minutes (although some guy on a bike did actually knock on the door and ask if he could have the taps...) Now when we want to get rid of something we just stick it outside and then take bets on how long before someone comes scavenging.. if it lasts till the following weekend it goes to the dump.. However, on friday I was putting my children in the car and was a little disturbed by a red van with 2 guys on it who were driving slowly down the road with one of them peering out of the window looking for things left outside (i presumed). It would appear that I was blocking their view putting my kids in the car outside of my house....

my 3 and a half year old does full days in nursery on a tue and thurs and 3 hours in a pre school on mon/ wed/ fri.. it is a perfect arrangement for me which gives me plenty of time with my 3 month old.. he loves it and it stops me feeling guilty if i have nothing planned on the afternoons we are all together as he has had some interaction....

we flew to dubai overnight this time last year with a 2 and a half yr old and although he had his own seat the flight was pretty empty so we had lots of extra seats.. however, the little man did not sleep a wink all night even with drugs(!), just too much going on around him, on several occasions we thought he was going to drop off but he never did! he was very sweet and just sat on our knees watching tv or chatting to the cabin crew... he fell asleep within 5 mins of getting in the car at the other end...

i'm with you on dr prabhakaran, she always has the time and is very thorough but to be fair i never seen a male there and every female i have dealt with has been great..

have also battled the teeth cleaning too and at its peak used to swaddle him in a towel and then straddle him cleaning them whilst he howled and tried to get away... thankfully have not scared him too much and he now attempts it himself and then I finish off... it will get better