KatDew

I always did a dream feed. Number 1 child slept through from dreamfeed till morning from around 6/8 weeks till 8 months till he became an appalling sleeper for a few months between 8-12 months Number 2 and 3 children were twins. Did the dreamfeed. They weren't as good sleepers as our eldest but they were small premmies. One slept through intermittently again same appalling phase between 8-12 months, one never slept through until a year old. So same routine, same milk supply, mixed results! As others have said there was always the thought that it couldn't do any harm and had the potential to maximise the shared sleep and it was always a nice sleepy feed. All my kids have slept amazingly from a year old before that it was a bit hit and miss.

Two out of three of my kids want to do football classes. One is 2.5 the other is 5. Any suggestions? I was looking at the baby booters on saturday mornings at Jags but that seems to be till age 5?

My son uses it after school. They're good

A child is contagious from the coughing stage till the spots have scabbed over, usually 5 days after they appear. Chicken pox has a maximum incubation of 3 weeks.

One of my twins could properly scoot before her second birthday (she kept stealing her big brothers)... her big brother didn't manage it till past 3

We had our sons 5th birthday there today. Can't recommend it enough. Simon who owns the place was great with the kids. The painting was enough excitement to keep their attention and lots of space if they need to run off a bit of energy. Probably don't wear precious clothing but the paint is washable.

At risk of sounding awful.... Bribe him with a chocolate button for after? (seriously the medicine is likely to have sugar in it anyway). Mix it in with some yogurt?

Sent you a PM. One final thought though.... however temptingly close, don't sign up with Melbourne grove GP

We upgraded to a Maxi at christmas when my son was rising 5. I think he was safely within the weight range but it was getting unstable do to his height (I think). It kept toppling forward really easily. Anyway the problem stopped as soon as he was on the maxi.

Now if you've got any tips to get my 5 year old to eat potatoes..... he'll eat most things (some under duress) he's a reasonably good eater if a bit slow but I've never persuaded him to eat potatoes (yes even chips) Thankfully small persons number 2 and 3 are much better eaters. In fact small person number 2 regularly seems to eat her body weight in food and yet is always a skinny titchy thing

Good to hear as my sons part is booked there for sunday

oh dear God.... seriously? I hate this kind of attitude. Firstly what if the girls don't want to marry and have kids/ be 'kept' by a man? Secondly it's certainly not true of our house, we would never of got our first mortgage if it hadn't been for my job. Yes I choose to work part time but I am actually still the bigger earner (no dis-respect to by husband) I just happen to work in a profession that is paid well. I have no issues with women who want to be at home and raise children but lets not make those decisions for our girls from childhood. Let them make those choices later and in the mean time give them every oppurtunity in life that we would allow our sons.

I've now moved practice, yet to find out if the new one is any different but I'm hopeful so far. I still haven't decided if it's actually worth the bother of making a complaint. They just never seem to change so I'm a tad cynical as to whether it would achieve anything. It is a shame as location wise they were convenient and I've been at the practice for 7 years, my families recent saga (and it went on from my original post) was the final straw unfortunately.

Balance bikes are brilliant. My only word of warning is they are heavy to carry if your twins refuse to go the whole way on their bikes. My eldest went everywhere on his balance bike from 3 till about 4.5. It was amazing as he could suddenly go everywhere at adult pace. I can't decide whether to get them for my twins though as they can be bulky

You may well be limited on choices as it depends on your postcode where will accept you. Avoid Melbourne grove.

El Pibe previously I would have agreed with you, one of the good things about Melbourne Grove in the past, is that they would see kids on the day when they were sick. However I can assure you having tried on both Wednesday and Thursday last week (and yes at 8am) that wasn't the case. Also having been at the Lister for three hours on thursday they weren't running a 'kids first rule' either, although I really would not expect that at a walk in service. I've worked for the NHS for the last 15 years so I would really hope that I wasn't perceived as 'snotty' but I'll make sure I try to avoid phoning for any reason if I ever have any form of cold/flu just to avoid confusion.

Thank you Southwark CCG for your reply. Unfortunately I don't really want a bland letter from the practice vaguely apologising and stating that in future they hope to perform better. I just want them to be able to provide a basic level of service and to be reasonably polite. I don't have huge expectations, however on the very rare occasion that I use the service I don't think it's unreasonable to ask that someone who has some degree of medical training could see a two year old child within a reasonable time frame. I can also understand that working on reception in a medical practice can sometimes be a frustrating experience, however if at 8am in the morning the receptionist is feeling the need to resort to aggressive behaviour and swearing in the background then possibly they are in the wrong profession.

oh and yes the rude receptionist was a bloke. I found it particularly 'charming' the language that was used as he was on route to hanging up the phone. I'm sure you could argue that he didn't actually swear *at* me, however he must have thought I was deaf if he didn't want me to hear it.

Thank you for the NHS choices suggestion, although already done it actually due to my irritation. Unfortunately we don't seem to have a huge choice of practices to move to as we're out of the catchment area of the recommended ones. Does anyone know much about the Hambledown clinic up at the top end of greendales?

Unfortunately I'm out of their catchment area. Terse I can live with. Down right rude is probably pushing it a bit far

This practice seems to have reached new lows. After trying to get an appointment for a few days for my toddler, not only did I get abuse from an extremely rude receptionist. I also had the pleasure of walking for nearly an hour to get to the walk in centre in Peckham, I had a 3 hour wait to get my daughter seen and treatment started. Then a one hour walk back. So a 5 hour round trip. Over 7 mile walk and a lengthy wait with two toddlers to entertain. Just as well I'm not sick then really. Anyone able to recommend a GP practice? I would probably have moved years ago but we so rarely actually use the practice I hadn't got round to it.

Toddler taming is actually a much nicer book than it might initially sound. The title makes it sound like it is pitting your will againest theirs. An awful lot of the book is about reasurance and setting the field. Using statistics/surveys to give us realistic expectations of a toddlers behaviour rather than hear say. It then has some practical solutions. I quite liked it as a book

I have this worry as I have a pair of August born premmie twins. However, seeing my son in reception, I think they would be at a greater disadvantage missing reception than they would by being the youngest in their year.

My husband and I adopted an adult dog a few years back. Like you he had grown up with Dogs whereas I hadn't. Ours turned out to be a lovely dog and I really enjoyed the experience of having a dog. Our dog has now sadly died as he was an old dog. I haven't had a staffie but generally all the staffies I met whilst out dog walking were lovely dogs. I know this isn't always the case but we always had good experiences and didn't seem to come across the less lovely ones!

We have a mid sleeper from ASPACE which is lovely. We got it in one of their sales. It went together very easily and is a lovely bit of furniture. Also you get playing space underneath the bed!