Sally81

Hi all, I'm just looking for a bit of reassurance/opinion/experience/honesty about putting my son into nursery full time. I'm totally stressed and anxious about it and feel like I'm going to give myself a stomach ulcer. It's really keeping me awake at night. Here's what the plan is: He's going to go to nursery for two days a week from the end of Nov when he'll be ten months old. Then from the end of Jan he's going full time, every single week day when he'll be One. I don't feel too bad about the two days a week but at the moment I feel so worried and upset about him going full time, even though I need to go back to work full time for financial and career reasons - both of which will benefit us as a family in the long run. I have lots of lovely friends who of course tell me it'll be fine, he'll be fine etc - a few of them will no doubt read this! But most people i know are not going back full time and I'm just wondering if anyone can tell me their experience of working full time and using full time childcare in the hoping of getting some peace of mind - however please feel free to be honest if it just didn't work for you and your child....???

Yep we also went to baby premier in Harley Street. Not as expensive as you might think - not sure on prices now but it's worth it. It was a lovely place and a lovely experience. I still look at the amazing pics I got and they look just like my boy! (obvs, I suppose, but you know what I mean!) Enjoy and good luck.

KEEP things factual. Twitter is unreliable as is any hearsay. For the sake of our community can we please only post about what we have seen with our own eyes....don't spread unnecessary fear.

Sounds good Melbourne groover- is that using the power plate too?

"Get this boob in your mouth please,now."

yes, i think my missing post was also stuff that looked like it could have contained money. Two birthday cards and something similar. Can we put in some sort of combined/area complaint?

Yes me too! quite a few items of post not turned up recently and I'm so annoyed as it feels like there's nothing that can be done! What is going on?

For what it is worth Fuscia I really think you did the right thing and I can't believe that anyone would disagree! The idea of a four year old playing out alone feels very odd, regardless of whether or not he is known by locals etc. It's just ridiculous and has also preyed on my mind since reading this. I have a four year old nephew who lives on a culdesac (not in London) and having asked my sister, his mum, if she'd be happy to allow him to play with older kids, yet essentially on his own, outside, the answer was a definite no. As she pointed out, it is easy for your own kid to slip away from you unnoticed if you are distracted for a moment, so even if this boy did know those around him, anything could still happen to him. They are not responsible for him and he is certainly not old enough to be aware of how to be safe when alone. We are all so terrified to get involved sometimes - far too busy with our own lives and I think it is no bad thing to take notice and do what you did. If there is no problem and the boy simply gets taken home, it may just make his parents question how sensible they are being. If there is a problem, then just maybe you have highlighted it.

Yeah i'm another one in the surprised camp...Go there very regularly and the staff often make a fuss of my baby, are friendly and the place is rammed with kids, pushchairs and babies with no problems. There was one member of staff who was slightly 'off' last week and made an unkind remark to me about her colleague which was a bit unprofessional. I do also think the food and cakes are a tad over priced for what you get. But I must say, on the whole, the place works very well whenever I'm there and I think they are more than happy to be a baby hub. As Jennyh says, the owner is often around with his own child and would probably be upset to hear some customers aren't satisfied.

Thanks Sophie...I just watched the little vid from the link that Ruth posted too. All really helpful. I'm quite excited about trying now...it does seem to make a lot of sense and seems much more fun than spooning in mashed stuff that all seems the same! I'll see how we go over the next few days and if it's okay will possibly pm you if I come up against anything I'm not sure about or just for general tips. Thanks very much everyone for taking the time to advise! Happy eating.....hopefully.

Thanks Fuscia. Can they try toast fingers and rice cakes before 6 months? What shouldn't I give him, do you think?

Thank you Ruth, Sophie and Mima. You are all saying what I'm thinking really. He does sound like a good candidate for BLW. The thing is I'm usually a pretty laid back mum....he's a very chilled baby so I've no need to worry about much but this has got me a bit stressed and that's the last thing I want because I know it's not good for him. Right, I'm taking a deep breath and relaxing about it all! But, the two things that concern me most about baby-led weaning are; choking - what do you give as first steps when all they've ever had before, really, is milk? What things can't they have? Also, do they get much nutrition from eating blw style? If they need to weaned because they are no longer getting it from milk, how do we relax about what they are/aren't getting from food? I'm sure I will PM for tips Sophie, thanks for that and I'm going to look for a copy of the Rapely book in the library or online. I'll give you a shout if I struggle, Mima.

Oh great, something else to worry about! How have I not heard about that before. My boy loves his dad carrying him while facing forward...that's an end to that then.

is that true about forward facing carrying?? Not something I have heard before and a bit worrying! Will have to check out some research I guess.

Hi all, Can I hijack this thread please for some weaning advice? My son is 5 months and one week. He's big, probably around 20lbs now. He can sit up and seems very interested in whatever I put near my mouth and is always grabbing for things. I tried him on some baby rice/porridge when he was about 4 months and he seemed to quite like it but then one day he really didn't and I suddenly thought 'what on earth am I doing? It's way too early' and I stopped. A couple of weeks ago he was grabbing at a slice of pineapple I was eating from a fork. I let him suck and nibble at it (he also has bottom teeth). He loved it, same with bits of banana off my finger and with any other fruit, if I offer it to him to suck whilst I'm holding it. But he refuses any of the same stuff pureed/mashed from a spoon. This week I've tried again with the puree and he won't have any of it. He keeps his mouth shut and just turns his head at the spoon. He definitely wasn't doing this before. Does it sound like he's just not ready? If he was hungrier and really very ready, would he lap it up? I should also add he's still pretty much exclusively bf (he has the odd bottle of formula) on demand. He's always been a two hourly feeder and I'm not sure when to try the food for that reason. Does anyone have any advice? Should I persevere or just wait a bit longer. Also, I sort of wonder if he might do better with blw but it scares me a bit. I'm not sure how to start and can't imagine how it'll work at first.....help!

Hmm..it's so hard to tell if they work or not isn't it. You only have them cos you're overdue anyway, so who knows if bubs would have decided to get the heck outta there on that day or not anyway! I had two. The first one did nothing. The second one I had on a Sat afternoon and had strong back ache and period like pains pretty much immediately but still didn't start proper labour til the Monday night. The second sweep might have got things moving, but as others have said 'who knows.'. Also, the actual sweep itself wasn't too bad for me but, again, as others have said, they do leave you feeling very uncomfortable so I think you might as well wait as long as poss for things to kick off, cos let's face it, you're going to be uncomfortable enough when they do without adding to the pain! (Sorry and wishing you lots of luck.)

I see foxes in the day frequently...so do many people I know. I thought it was a very common these days.

I saw him a few days ago on the Rye with it on a lead!! It was tied to a bench while the pair of them had a rest and then they wandered off, the parrot on his shoulder. Made me smile!

Hi..sorry, bit of a boring one, but does anyone have experience of the pool temperature for this? I want to take my five month old for the first time but have heard the pool might be a bit chilly...What does everyone think? Surely it can't be that cold if this is a designated slot for the little 'uns? Thanks everyone.

Just given mine a cool bath (mainly cos he did a rather messy nappy) but now he's lying on a towel in his nappy with the fan blowing on him and he's much happier than he was.

I have loads too....it would be brilliant if there was somewhere. There must be places that would be able to use them....I just can't think where would take them. V non helpful post...sorry!

I think that piece was probably a very long and winding story and sadly it's been heavily edited to fit. It's tragic and my heart goes out to them.

Thanks Mel! I think I'll pop along...little man isn't crawling yet and I am really struggling to get him to enjoy moving about on his back or front for very long. He's really strong on his legs and just wants to be upright. But, perhaps a change of scene and a new place for him to get rolling will be good!

Hi, I've been looking for a new group to take my five month old to, can anyone tell me about this one? Is it a drop in one and is five months too young? Thank you for any info...

I hardly used anything i took with me. Even our baby clothes as we had a whopper and nothing fitted him! The things i did use though, which i was so glad of ... A very light dressing gown because, yes, it's SO hot on there but it's good to have one when you need to shuffle to the loo etc Ear plugs. They are the only thing i would make sure i had next time. Those places are noisy as i'm sure you know and ear plugs really helped me to get a little rest. Hair brush and anything that makes having a shower better because that was the best damn wash of my life! Oh and remember to take the iphone charger home! I left mine behind and though I phoned and spoke to a very nice lady who tried to help me, i never did get it back. Good luck!