supergolden88

Just had a thought - baby woke up from nap with fire engine red cheeks. Could teething be making the eczema worse? And the ear pulling may also be teething related?

Just to confirm you have been using Ecover washing liquid and no fabric conditioner? What type of test did the doctor do? many thanks

yes I did mean to say my son only finally took the bottle sitting in his bouncy chair. I think being away from my boobs helped!

After thinking my son had really very mild eczema and only behind his knees I have noticed him seeming more uncomfortable the past couple of days and trying to scratch at his knees and also behind the ears (although I see no eczema or redness there). His cheeks are also very red which could be teething or eczema. Would like to hear from other parents who have been dealing with eczema especially as my son is now 6 months and transitioning to formula from breastmilk and obviously also trying solids. I am not sure what caused him to be more uncomfortable - could be anything from the formula, to the foods he has been eating to cat hair etc. I would like to prevent it getting worse. Already the skin behind one of his knees seems rather inflamed (very small area). Trying to see the GP tomorrow. So far we have been using Oilatum bath and Diprobase cream but nothing else. Is it worth trying to have an alergy test? He has had no dairy or gluten yet but he has been having formula for a few months now (it contains cows milk) although he only started taking a significant quantity for about a month. He has also had the usual 1 stage of weaning variety of fruit and veg as of 5 months (carrots, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, bananas etc). I gave him a little chicken yesterday for the first time. Can you tell I am freaking out a little bit?

If you want to try the Playtex drop in system I have a bottle, 3 teats (1 silicone, 2 latex) and an unopened box of the liners. I intended to put the lot for sale in classified so let me know if you are interested. It cost something like ?16 for the lot including postage I will probably be selling for half that. I also have a number or other bottles (Tommy Tippee, Nuk, Avent) you can have for free if you want to try them. In the end it's a combination of persistance, baby being ready and offering bottle same time daily so baby gets used to it.

Emza - it seems to me like she needs to sleep longer in the morning - the first nap sounds like it should be part of her nightime sleep. The Ferber book I mentioned in the thread (see posts further up) talks about this. You could try pushing her bedtime to 7pm (progressively say 10/15m at a time) so that she sleeps 7pm -7am. A dream feed could be useful at around 10.30 or 11 pm to push her to sleep slightly longer in the morning but if you haven't been doing it I am not sure it is wise to introduce it now. You could try it once and see if it makes a difference? You pick up the (sleeping) baby and give her a bottle or breastfeed and put them back down. If she wakes around 7am try to put her down around 8.30 or 9am for first nap hopefully she will sleep a little less (around 45m to an hour is good) and then do a longer nap at around noon and probably another shorter one around 4. Since she sleeps through the night which great at 5 months she probably needs a more structured routine in the day - going for naps at the same time so her body clock is not so confused.

Starting on May 11th every Wednesday 1.30-3pm They are quite keen to spread the word to new mums. They will bring out age appropriate toys etc. I went to their toddler group last week and it was great but will be much better to go to one specifically for babies and younger ones. Timing not great though - right in the middle of naps/food...

well done! My boy went to sleep with no crying at all today. Woke after 35mins cried a little then stopped. When he started up again went to give him a kiss and was preparing for an afternoon of CC but he did another hour and a half! Two hour nap. I am sure it is the exception and not the rule but still!

My son has a bit of eczema mostly behind his knees and generally quite sensitive dry skin. This came on when he was a few weeks old and exclusively breastfed. It only got pretty bad (flare up over chest and back) once when I stopped applying cream on him mistaking the eczema for an infection. That's when I the GP diagnosed it. The doctor gave us Oilatum for the bath and Oilatum Jr or Diprobase cream. They seem to work and the only area that is visibly affected is behind the knees. It can get quite red and is a bit itchy I think. The night nanny who came a couple of weeks ago to help with sleep training sugested I use Salcura products. I had never hear of them - anyone use them and are they worth trying? I started weaning at 5 months (he is 6 in two days) but noticed no major change to the eczema. He is now having mostly formula, solids and breastfeeding at 7pm. Perhaps I should have waited with the weaning but he was so enthusiastic about food and not visibly affected that I gave him a range of fruit and veg. Will be starting on protein soon (and keeping an eye for any changes). He has had no dairy products yet (but formula contains cow's milk) gluten or eggs. Most eczema websites seem to link it to dairy and wheat. Any advice? Are there foods he should be having more of? Any to avoid completely?

Thanks just googled the Fitting Studio. Looks very promising.

After 14 months of breastfeeding nearly five years ago and a further 6 (and counting) this time around I am left with breasts of unequal size. The babies (and me) probably favoured the right one too much and I think it may be a full cup size larger than the left. Before the (2nd) pregnancy I was a 32D now I have no idea. Can anyone recommend a really good fitting service that may be able to deal with this? I imagine I would have to go for the larger bra and perhaps use padding on the left? I have been to John Lewis and Selfridges in the past but had mixed results. I won't be going until I completely stop breastfeeding but when I do I need to buy all new bras. None of my old ones will fit.

I do think light sleep phases apply to newborns as well but at this age they haven't really developed real patterns to their sleeping they just sleep when they need to over 24h. You can try to follow a nap/feed routine some babies really respond to that but others don't - better observe your baby and try to figure out what personality they have. My son slept great as a newborn and exclusively breastfed he only started having issues later after a couple of bouts of colds/nappy rash/feeding problems. This book is really interesting - gentle approach No Cry Sleep Solution as well as this one - applies to babies and older children and wide range of issues Solve your child's sleep problem

I think I meant don't do it for longer than 45 minutes after the first wake up 35mins into the nap. If at around 45 minutes you think she is about to fall asleep then dont pick her up. You probably need to stick to your guns until they fall asleep. Take heart things will get better. I know how incredibly difficult it is to hear them cry and doing CC in the daytime is ten times as hard as during the night. But it tends to be effective quickly if done right. Stick to the times you choose *this is very important* and make sure that feeds are not too near nap time. If she cries a long time and misses her nap pick her up give praise but dont put her down again until it is time for her next nap. This of course is very difficult but my son managed to only nap 45 minutes the entire first day we did CC. The sleep expert was with us otherwise I would have caved I think. But I was dealing with two separate issues 1. have baby go to bed awake and fall asleep on his own 2. have him sleep longer than 35 minutes. Nap times for us are 9am/noon/4pm with a 15 minute window either side of those times. I have to say that he now sleeps longer for the first nap but his other two are still hit and miss. I need to go back to the nap training. At least he usually falls asleep without crying sometimes he chats for a while and others he whinges a bit before falling asleep. But we are still both learning about how to deal with naps and sleeping in general. Some times it's easy others not so much. Understanding his little habits and reasons behind waking helps the process. I also found a sleep toy (something safe - I have a Cuski) seems to help him.

Sorry to hear about the pox - never fun but best get it out of the way. I found that my daughter did not get many spots and they did not seem to bother her much but after I thought she was all better she got really high fever for four days. She did watch an awful lot of Disney and got rather spoiled while she was stuck indoors. Sticker books and other small treats helped. Hope that you get a mild version. If not be on the lookout for spots inside the mouth and offer bland food (soups perhaps) so as not to make things worse. It is possible that the baby will be spared as you are breastfeeding.

Hi Kate I recently had a night nanny come to help us with my 6 month old son. He tended to sometimes do well/sometimes wake up a lot in the night but in the daytime he always napped for exactly 35 minutes in his cot. He tended to do 3 naps a day (on a good day!) but that was not enough sleep for him and he was cranky a lot of the time. If he was in the pushchair and moving he would nap longer - sometimes 1-2 hours. As your daughter sleeps well at night then you only need to tackle the daytime naps. Create a log of her nap times if you can - observe when she falls asleep/gets tired then you can build a routine around it. Babies around 6 months need between 2-4 hours of nap time obviously this depends a lot on the baby as well. Once you know the timing take your daughter to her room about 5/10minutes before nap time. Sing songs or read books or do something quiet together and talk about how it is time for her to nap. Put her down awake if possible. If she chats or whinges leave her to it. If she cries and the crying gets progressively louder go in after 5 minutes to shh her for 1 minute then leave. Do not try to get her to fall asleep just reassure her. Go in again after 10 minutes and again after 15 only if she is upset of course. If these times seem too long to you start going in after 3 minutes then 6, 9 etc (Don't do this for longer than 45 mins). If she wakes after 35m start this whole process again. I find there's no point doing this in the morning just for the longer nap at lunchtime. Give lots of cuddles and praise when she is up even if she woke up early and you had to do CC. Your daughter sounds like she should be napping around 2 hours at lunchtime but wakes up when she enters the light sleep phase after 35 minutes. As she is a good sleeper at night I think you will be able to tackle this quickly and without too much upset. The key is to be consistent. Another method from the No Cry Sleep Solution book is to go up to the room a few minutes BEFORE the baby starts waking up. The minute you hear them making wakeful sounds go in and pat or shh (or even pick them up and rock them or whatever else works) till they go back to sleep. The theory is that after 10 days or so of doing this the baby will learn to not wake up during the light sleep phase. You have been doing this anyway with some success. I found this method did not work for me - only managed to get my son to fall back asleep and stay asleep for remainder of the nap once. good luck hope this is helpful!

We weren't at Paeds A&E (which was excellent when my daughter had a door closed on her thumb at nursery) we were at the Kings A&E on a Sunday night (lots of alchohol poisoning and violent incidents). Clearly my baby was not ill enough though completely delirious with fever. But anyway I hope we don't have to take a trip there this time (or, in fact, ever again). Fingers crossed his fever does not spike again tonight.

He is 6 months in a few days. Has been a bit cheerier this morning after a long nap so hoping he will be okish until bedtime. Still not very interessted in milk but I guess he wouldn't with a fever

Baby boy 6m is super miserable with fever (but no other symptoms apart from teething) spiking at 39.4. We have been giving paracetamol (not very effective) and ibuprofen (works better) according to guidelines. So Calpol alternating with Calprofen. The fever tends to return when medicine wears off - that is before the next dose of medicine is given. He was up at 2am for a few hours and went to sleep eventually in our bed on the boob but woke up at 6am. Now very tired but unable to sleep and fever is back. I have been using a damp cool cloth on his head only. Not sure whether there is anything else I could be doing? He is off his milk and as I am transitioning from breast to bottle currently there is virtually no breastmilk although he will comfort himself at the breast. He will only take very small amounts (20 -60ml) from a bottle. I am a bit concerned about fluid intake. He is not floppy but is overtired and irritable. Should I be overlapping the medication? The guidelines say no more than 3 doses of Calprofen daily so roughly every 8 hours...

Inkmaiden - FIVE new teeth! Wowsa. Poor baby Fuschia - I am going straight to A&E if this keeps up. It was up to 39.4 overnight and up again minute the medicine wears off. But last time I did this with daughter 4 years ago they kept us waiting in A&E from 1am till 4am. In the end we left without being seen by a DR. All they said is give ibuprofen at the same time as paracetamol (calpol was not working) ARRRRRGHHH I hate when babies have fever

Fever went up to 39 and he took an hour an a half to settle after fever was down (usually not an issue). So I think he has a cold or some sort of virus. He has had very little food today. If this is due to teething it is very severe. Perhaps his immune system is low from dealing with the teething and he has caught a bug. He is getting a lot of kisses from school-age sister so not a huge surprise I guess. Sigh.

"I don't even know how you'd sleep train a baby in a 2bdr flat, when they're sharing with their older sibling?!" Last night the fire alarm went off (hubby was making dinner) and kept going for what seemed like hours - around 5-10 minutes. Incredibly loud. Both daughter (nearly 5) and, more amazingly, baby slept through us doing a comedy routine of opening doors, waving cloths around and finally having to get a ladder and unscrew the alarm off the ceiling. Babies/children can sleep through a lot provided they are already asleep. And I have also called in the experts - a night nanny - after seeing her recommended on the forum. She did not tell me me anything I did not already know but it was good to have someone put a plan down for us to follow and actually stay the night to help with the training (and observe baby's sleep habits). Actually she stayed 24h in total. Expensive but worth it in the long run. Naturally my son is now ill with some kind of bug so all progress will probably be undone overnight.

my daughter had the royal wedding fever as well. It's the whole princess thing. Her school (Ivydale) had a big party which was fun. She waved flags and run around like a lunatic for hours.

From what I can gather by chatting with many mum friends and on various forums etc. the majority of babies do not sleep through the night of their own accord at least not till they are weaned on solids and sometimes not even then. That tends to be the norm. When people say "sleeps through the night" of course what they mean is without waking the parents. Everyone wakes in the night more than once but usually we fall back asleep pretty quickly without having to completely wake up. What sleep training does is not train the baby to sleep through but to be able to fall back asleep after waking up without any assistance or parental intervention (provided baby is healthy and well fed etc.) I say whatever works for you - if you are happy to breastfeed, bottlefeed, rock, pat, use a dummy, comforter, co-sleep then do it. If you want to use sleep training then do that. In the end we all have to do what works for us. I too find it infuriating when people ask me if baby is sleeping well/eating solids/has potty trained etc. I would never try to impose what works for me on someone else. But as Helena said I don't know of anyone who was pressured into sleep training - none of us would choose to hear our baby cry for any length of time. It's the last resort.

Yeah I thought so. It is odd as he has no other symptoms apart from being a bit hot. Around 37.5-37.7 May spike tonight I suppose.

My son is teething like a maniac - red cheeks, lots of drool, chewing everything, unpredictable appetite. This morning he woke with a low grade fever which returned after calpol wore off. He is super fussy. Do you think it's teething related? He is also a bit snotty (but that tends to be the norm)