jennyh

No I haven't actually. He is formula fed on Aptamil and has been having colief for a few weeks after lots of crying, wind problems etc. who should I speak with? I tried changing formulas to Hipp a few weeks ago but it made things worse and then the GP and cranial osteopath said its best not to chop and change as its very upsetting for the gut.

Love this thread. I always knew I wanted children relatively young (I'm 31) so put my career on the backburner as something to come back to. After my first child I was made redundant from a fairly successful PR role, started something new in copywriting as it was flexible and part time. However now I'm on mat leave with my second I have started thinking about what to do and am also considering starting afresh providing I can make enough money. Have no idea what to do as I have completely lost my identity and can't remember what I was interested in before I had children. I know I want to do something that makes some sort of an impact and where my role matters (writing copy for expensive designer furniture isn't rocking the world). I'm thinking anything from teaching to social work, healthcare, events, restaurants...who knows!!' I have no idea where I am going! Don't want to work by myself or for myself particularly which I believe a lot of mums do, hence coining the word mumpreneur! Will be reading with lots of interest. Seems like there are lots of us in the same boat.

Thanks both! I can't imagine how to even start to eradicate the spread of cattiness around our house. As you say it's only a vague idea at the moment and wouldn't want to act hastily but at the same time it's been 7 weeks of only sleeping for 2-3 hours a night and I'm starting to lose the will a bit, not to mention it being really upsetting seeing him struggle so much even though it seems to be all he knows and so isn't hugely fussed. I just want him to be better!!! And to get a bit more sleep! I will maybe call the GP although I think they are tired of me going back about this particular thing!

Hi My 8 week old started to develop cold symptoms around 1-2 weeks old and it got so bad that he could barely breath at night. After many appointments to the doctors we are now waiting for an ENat referral as its been 6 weeks and it is clearly no longer a cold and so we hope to get a little closer to discovering the problem. It just occurred to me that we have two cats and I wondered if maybe he could be allergic, how might I go about investigating further? Would a kinesiologist be able to help? Does anyone have experience here? Symptoms are much worse at night, he is permanently congested and snorts all the time, he struggles to get air in, he's just getting over conjunctivitis but has still got gooey eyes so not sure if connected, he coughs and sneezes regularly (currently has another cold but even before that when he sneezed there would be absolutely no mucus). Any ideas?

As above really, kitchen stuff (pots, pans etc), baking equipment (play or real so you can do it together), ironing board (no stereotypes here but she loved it!) kettle, tea set, blackboard and chalks, sticker books, playmobil figures and accessories, pop up books, play food, large piece jigsaws, puppets/puppet theatre, dressing up clothes? I have the same issue for my now 3 yr old, she had a load of stuff for Xmas and we were a bit stumped especially as she is still playing with the same kinda of toys she did over the last year but she gets bored of them easily, erm...a new iron!? We've gone for a vtech digital camera and a CD player, very grown up.

We did a combination of oatmeal baths, coconut oil (from health matters) and calendula cream. The coconut oil was very soothing I think. Didn't use a huge amount of calamine cream but def lots of piriton. My daughter had tonnes on her scalp and so we went out in the wind and she got blown around a bit and the wind was really soothing and cooling I think.

Hey Looking at a nursery that received a 'good' rating in 2019, any idea when it would be inspected again?

Thank you! That's really helpful and all opinions are useful. I think my desire to try and crack things is that it feels like its making life much harder having to dither so much and having her so whingy because she's hungry etc. I take on board he point about picking battles and I do tend to, I think I do need to work out the priorities and will give it a lot more thought to work out the best approach. The hitting etc is prob the most urgent as that stresses me the most and stops me wanting to go out when I really need to get out for my sanity!! She recently slept really well one night and I gave her a little treat and she kept going on and on about it and was really proud of herself so I think I am going to ride on the back of that and try to judge which things warrant a fuss and which to let go.

Gosh shaunag that sounds terrible, poor you. I generally seem to find that a lot of things are put down to 'newborn baby' - ie immature digestive system , when actually like you say there is more to it. My son has terrible congestion which he has had since the day he was born, it has been worsened by getting colds but essentially he is a very snuffly? Snorty baby who struggles to breath on a regular basis. I went to the gp to be told he is just small and has small airways so it will get better as he gets bigger...prob lots of truth in that but I do refuse to think you should give up trying to help them as its too horrible to leave a small baby suffering. It sounds like you are managing your situation but I hope it improves for you and your baby becomes less sensitive. We're getting on ok, he seems to be finding it easier to bring up wind and is constantly farting without as much of the squirming and writhing around crying. I don't know if its the colief or the change in formula but just watching for changes. Main issue now is this snuffling so will no doubt be on here talking about that again!

So the time has come to try and instil a little consequence into my 3yr old and I am keen to try a reward chart but have no idea on how to make them effective. She is not strictly 3 (birthday on the 21st) but she had been going through the 'terrible twos' for what feels like forever. She is actually easy to reason with some of the time and have got through so far with a mix of bribes, threats and compromises. The issue we have now is I have realised that she has no consequences as I rarely see anything through and she finds it funny when I try to discipline her and its getting to the point with a new baby too that arguing about putting clothes on for 3 hours is not ok and that taking hours to nibble at her food only to proclaim she is 'really hungry' later is also not cool. So I'm looking for ways to encourage her in general day to day tasks like teeth brushing, getting dressed, eating lunch nicely, listening well and then also looking for ways to make her realise it is not ok to hit, push, snatch etc which she does with gusto when she sees her friends. I know this is all general parenting stuff and on the whole I try to approach it calmly but with a newborn as well I am struggling to keep my cool and often feel it escalates easily and she learns nothing and I say mean things! I was thinking maybe getting a chart that gives smiley stickers for everything done well and sad stickers when not so good, at the end of the day there is a small treat or a happy sticker and at the end of the week there is a little present or something? But then do you take things away if there is hitting etc and I don't want her to develop the idea that you get given things all the time...she already thinks she can have whatever she wants as the combination of Xmas and new baby has resulted in a tonne of new stuff. I'm asking for advice from wise parents with experience of getting through these difficult stages mainly because I know I have a tendency to give her mixed messages and don't want to start something and not see it through properly. Not fair on her to confuse her and I need a consistent approach to try and improve things and have her realise that she must listen to us and to grown ups. (Incidentally she goes to nursery and has a huge amount of respect as you can imagine! ;)

We have borrowed one and our 5 week old seems comfy in it but obviously at this age won't be parted from our arms for more than 3 minutes. I can see the potential though, it does look very comfortable and supportive. X

He is 5 weeks. poor chap. Have had disastrous feeding experiences with both children so I'm gutted he is struggling so much. I took him for cranial osteopathy which was very interesting and I learnt a lot about why he has these issues (in addition to the congestion issues he has). I've seen some improvement with the colief although the osteopath said he doubts that there is a lactose intolerance, prob more that he has a distinct 'banana' shape to his body which is putting some pressure on one side of his digestive tract. I'm hoping a couple more sessions may help and we will see some success! For everyone who used these colic remedies...when did you stop using them and how did you wean off? I gather it should be gradual? Thank you!

Me too please!! Will read with interest.

We've been using infacol for a week or do but it's not done a huge amount to help. Last night just tipped me over the edge as he screamed from 6-9.30 and even then just wouldn't settle to a deep sleep. He was burping well but kept going rigid and purple and screaming periodically and was really sobbing so I def think he was in pain. We recently tried to move him from aptamil to hipp as Bess had issues with aptamil but it may be that the hipp doesn't agree with G as he primarily had hipp feeds yesterday and then had this screamy evening. During the night he was squirming and tensing after his feeds but we used colief and it seemed to be less extreme than it was in the evening. I thought the comfort milk was good for relieving colic and constipation? I know they do a hungry milk which isn't great for the latter, maybe I am confused! Also using dr browns bottles. He does burp well but still in pain I think....his belly gurgles so much, cn practically hear the bubbles forming.

That's interesting... It says it needs 30 mins to break down the lactose. So you found it helpful even without waiting? Did anyone try the aptamil comfort formula?

Reading instructions on Colief - says to add drops to warm, not hot formula 30 minutes before feed, thus leaving the feed stone cold. Can anyone shed any light on making the stuff work when formula feeding?

Yep, I drive from forest hill to dulwich and back in the morning and evening and it's been at least 30 mins each way. So 4 separate journeys of half an hour. I wasn't exaggerating although granted it sounds ridiculous.

david_carnell Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > jennyh Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > It's hellish, now spending 2 hours a day > > travelling to and from nursery in Dulwich. Have > > tried so many routes but all lead into the same > > few roads which are rammed!! Anyone got a > secret > > way? Have even tried going via nunhead but > takes > > ages too. > > Bicycle? My husband actually does ride with her sometimes which is great but we have a newborn as well so sadly I can't take them both on a bike. Journey this morning was brilliant, however I went back around 10.30 and noticed the road was closed again but I didn't see a sign, anyone know if its closed still or the reason why?

It's hellish, now spending 2 hours a day travelling to and from nursery in Dulwich. Have tried so many routes but all lead into the same few roads which are rammed!! Anyone got a secret way? Have even tried going via nunhead but takes ages too.

Now we have moved we are struggling to make the ridiculously gridlocked journey back to Dulwich for my daughter to attended nursery. As sad as I am to uproot her, the 2 hours sitting in traffic each day is a killer. So whilst I know it's the east Dulwich forum, I also know there are many families living in other areas so I'm hoping for some opinions and advice on forest hill nurseries, or potentially honor oak at a push! Fingers crossed you lovely forumites can help! Thanks

Do you mean in labour or just generally needing support!? I had my second 4 weeks ago and was really stressed about childcare as he was due over Christmas and everyone had plans etc. have no local family so built a list of friends who were willing to help if needs be, I went over by a week and each day I checked in with friends to see who was about that night/day. I'm fortunate to have a strong group of friends who know my daughter quite well so if she had needed looking after by one of them it wouldn't have been too odd. As it happened we had my mother in law here for 3 days waiting for baby to come, I suggested she went home after my third sweep as not much was happening and they were talking about induction dates etc. off she toddles back to Norfolk at lunchtime only to have labour kick off that night. A very kind friend came at 1.30am (I stayed at home as long as I could) and baby was born in kings at 3.30, husband got home for 6.30 before our daughter woke so she was none the wiser. Mother in law drove down that day. Soo...we made it work but yes is it stressful. I would say though that the anxiety surrounding childcare can be a real hindrance to labour...nothing scientific to back this theory up but my body was physically ready for it all to happen having started to dilate and having so called 'perfect' conditions, a week later I was increasingly anxious and nothing was happening but constant fake labour pains. I decided to have a massage and reiki and felt so calm after that, I genuinely think my brain sent the right signals as I went into labour not long after. Try not to worry as you will find a way, if you don't have local friends who could help then I will! ;)

Just to confirm it is still closed and traffic around the area is still bad.

Afraid we didn't rate it when we went :-( it's the age old issue of whether kids are welcome and in Dulwich it's a bit dangerous not to cater for them when the midday rush is usually only families with rugrats. We went at midday a few weeks ago and every table was filled with families yet there was nothing on the menu that remotely suited a toddler, she ended up picking at al dente vegetables and a very rich gravy which was to our taste but not good for her. Don't expect places to have kids menus or to openly embrace them with stickers and colouring in (I always take lots of entertainment for my kids when I eat out) but it was a bit off putting having nothing for her to eat...red cabbage and hard sprouts aren't really the types of veg she would eat. The staff were pretty brusque and when I asked about hiring the room upstairs they dismissed me saying it wasn't the right time to ask. I found it all a bit uncomfortable to be honest. The food was nice enough and may give it one more shot but will def be leaving the kids at home!

I've not seen but a friend told me that there were loads there when she went, when the water was at its highest. Not nice.

Have sent you a pm