chantelle

sorry to hear about your bag. It can't hurt to get a personal alarm, though I don't know how effective it would be - it would depend on the situation and proximity of others. I am also a jogger around Peckham Rye and always carry an alarm after dark. I also carry it when going in for work before sunrise in winter. I've actually got two - one that you hold in your hand and push in the top of it, the other you pull out a cord. I usually carry the push-down one as it's easy to hold in my hand or slip in my pocket. i think i got both of them off ebay. Have had them a while so hopefully they still work if put to the test. hope you don't have need for one though!

Yes I would go with your gut. I live in HOP too and we have Stillness and Dalmain as our top choices. (our closest schools). I have heard some negatives on kilmorie though it's all hearsay so who knows. Rathfern and Brockley are getting good results but their histories and profile of students kept them off our list. I haven't visited them. Good luck. The area is changing fast so all the schools should benefit.

pm-ing you!

is there such a thing in this country as kindergarten? from my understanding, kindergarten here is reception. Nursery school is pre-school, also known as nursery education or early years education.

wow, just want to add my sympathies, i have a 4.5 week old and now I feel spoiled to complain about not getting more than two hours sleep at a time. your daughter sound like my first born, who I and no one else can remember doing anything other than crying and feeding for several months. he literally never napped, just zonked out from time to time when out in the buggy! He did have bad reflux and the gaviscon and then ranitidine that he took did help somewhat. My new little one (a girl) sleeps well, day and night, so I feel really lucky now. Unfortunately she wasn't getting enough milk off me despite constant feeding in the first couple of weeks so I am mix feeding now after she had to be admitted to hospital. For what it's worth, she does have some crazy long awake spells - like today from 3pm until 9:30pm - it was definitely her tummy giving her trouble. best wishes and it really can only improve!

my four-week old is on hipp organic. she burps easily but wind/gas on the other end is pretty severe! i haven't tried infacol or gripe water yet. neither worked with my son, who was breastfed only but had terrible reflux.

Thanks. I seem to recall that bellenden has a disproportionate number of students leaving before year 6. Teacher friends have also said it's possible to teach the test basically and put all resources into a good outcome. This would have been our local school and we moved to be near better ones so I found the 100% result interesting.

Thanks, those are good points. I haven't seen such dramatic changes elsewhere, and there usually is some consistency or trend even when new heads come in. Very few schools score 100 percent and they are mainly longtime high achievers.

should these be trusted at all? I'm just looking at the results for Southwark that came out in December - Bellenden School goes from 29% two years ago to 73% in 2010 to 100% in 2011 - how is that in any way credible?

Hi Helen, we live between Stillness and Dalmain and are putting those as top one and two choices after liking both schools at visits and hearing positive things from parents in real life and on this and the se23 forum. So i have no firsthand insight really but feel pretty comfortable with both schools at this early stage!

i think it's a lovely street, having lived off one of its offshoot streets for two years until recently.

download or send away for the Southwark and Lewisham (Fairlawn) admissions guides, which will tell you exactly what the last distance to school offered was (pre-shakedown - i.e., in first round offers). Siblings typically take up half the spots in a given intake. Fairlawn this year was 405m. Everyone seems to love it but we are slightly further into Lewisham and better positioned for Dalmain and Stillness, which also have excellent reputations.

plenty of people have three young children and manage. including twins plus newborn, etc. We are contemplating something similar, though there will only be a few months that I'm back at work and need care for infant daughter before my son and his current nanny share buddy start school. That child will likely have to drop out for geographic reasons but I imagine we'll try to find another baby my daughter's age or another school starter whose parents want after-school care. we're keeping our(3-day/week) share going during my mat leave ... think i'd have to send the baby back otherwise

I only took 11 months off and never looked back. I was and am extremely happy to be back at work, doing a job I enjoy and having the social aspects of being in an office. I'm going off again in a few weeks to have number 2 and am frankly sad to leave work! I doubt I'll take as much time off this time, in part because like you we have brilliant child care alredy sorted so I'll just be slotting my daughter into our nanny's schedule when I do go back. As far as I can tell, it's that comfort with your childcare that makes all the difference. The mums I know who are unhappy to leave their children generally aren't that happy with the childcare situation. Whereas I and others who love our nannies/nurseries don't even think about being gone when we're at work. I don't feel guilty at all, I know my son is having a wonderful time every day. And I think I'm less tired than I'd be if I were at home day in day out (though I do get up at 5:30 for work most days - which is no fun at all!) I also work four days and find that is a really good balance. good luck with it.

your geography will dictate it, really.

I think the SMA bottles are the best bet, I'll be getting some too for my pending birth at St Thomas in a few weeks. Despite all the supposed BFing help in the lead-up to my son's birth three years ago, my son basically had nothing to eat for several days while my milk took its time coming in. All i was told was to absolutely not give him any formula or water but frankly i think we were lucky he didn't have to be readmitted for dehydration (he had all the signs.) This time I will be using my own judgement!

fine but the original question is about pain relief. false claims are one thing, happy patients another. most users of chiro could care less about some failed libel suit if they are happy with their practitioner.

Taper - I don't understand how you can say osteopathy is legit but chiropractic is not, when both rely on spinal manipulation. I'm no expert, the research seems mixed to say the least but I have had relief from both therapies. I was just at my osteopath today, and she did several adjustments to my spine and hips that have made the difference between me walking comfortably and me hobbling in pain. Previously I went from someone debilitated from sciatica, unable to sit comfortably or exercise for any length of time, to completely pain free and training for a marathon. This was while seeing a chiropractor regularly - the adjustments were minor but seemed to be just enough to keep me in alignment. i too don't really care if its quackery as long as it works!

taper - a lot of chiropractic methods work, and are virtually the same as osteopathic methods. to dismiss an entire discipline as quackery is ridiculous. spinal manipulation has been proven to work - the debate on chiropractic vs. osteopathy is around things like philosophy and training that are largely irrelevant to patients and pain outcomes. same goes for cranial osteopathy.

Our nanny share from 11 months has been wonderful. The two boys, now 3-plus, are the best of friends and they have a wide social circle from our nanny's extensive network of other nannies and their charges. They go to loads of playgroups too. To me it's a million time better than nursery, particularly when they are still babies.

I am 33 weeks and the pain has really stepped up this week. I've been really happy with my osteo in the City. I've also seen a physio at kings twice but it wasn't as helpful. I haven't ever seen a chiropractor in pregnancy but previously had great results with one on my sciatica. So I think you just try one or the other and see how it goes. Hope you get some relief, I am practically immobilised and can't see my osteo until next week.

I am due to give birth for the second time at St Thomas soon - it seems they all have pluses and minuses and I wanted to just go with what I knew. I needed intervention and the doctors were amazing. Can't say the same for most of the midwives but never mind, I think I was unlucky with the night shift. The day ones seemed much better. That was three years ago though anyway. Home from home at St Thomas' looks fantastic and many people have had a great experience. I was admitted to the main natal ward though and talk of me heading over there never came to fruition before I became more of an emergency situation anyway. Do you know what midwife unit you would see? I was assigned to the Walworth unit based around Old Kent Road and the Aylesbury Estate. It is bleak going there to say the least. To complicate things, I've since moved from Southwark to Lewisham but haven't told any of my carers yet. So i have no idea who will handle after-care.

my son is over 3 now but since he was 2 any bad behaviour is addressed by getting down to his level, holding his arms firmly and looking into his eyes, saying in a sharp voice that x is not acceptable and he must sit on the step (or initially we would put him out of the room and shut the door) until he is ready to say sorry (with timing set at around 2-3 minutes). He is also given warning in advance that this is what will happen if he continues said behaviour. Any physical violence is treated as a more serious situation - that is not tolerated in our house. it has worked quite well - the only other tip I've picked up is to then leave them to think, because if they are still ranting and acting out they will continue to do so for longer if they have an audience. I am also a shameless briber on lesser offences - e.g., "i don't like it" and playing with food at mealtime becomes "if you finish it all you can have" a treat or whatever. Dreading what might happen when baby sister arrives in just a few weeks time though!

yeah, probably just a phase. My 3 year old has started sucking the corner of his shirts/fleeces, and sometimes puts his fingers in his mouth too to suck. A totally new and random thing for him.

I've heard talk of a 2 year check but it certainly wasn't mentioned by my GP or anyone else and my son is now 3.5. I saw the HV only once after my son was 1+, and that's just because she saw us in the surgery and we were new to the area, so she came round to the house once to have a look. I was recently getting my own flu jab and the nurse was kind enough to look up his records and saw he's due a booster and the second round of MMR. I imagine lots of early hearing and sight problems are missed out by the system here but I suppose it's a balance against costs.