marscapone

Isn't it funny that it's always taxi drivers / relatives / random people on the street etc who have no hesitation saying how huge you are, yet no-one on the train seems to notice!

TopShop Oxford Circus had big changing rooms with seats and a water dispenser when I last went - was a real pleasure buying trousers there

I asked the same thing a few months ago - you might be able to find the thread. But the gist was that there's not a lot in terms of organised groups for that age. The things I have found good are Whippersnappers music, Little Kickers (both surestart) and some of the library sessions. Please feel free to PM me if you want to meet up with me and my 4 year old boy (and 10 month old) - we're near Sainsbury's

My little one lost his hat today. It's green and white stripes with a tie under the neck from H&M. Probably near Melbourne Grove, St Francis Road or Grove Vale Library. Please pm me if you find it - thanks

My two have always been really random with nap times and have napped when they wanted. But when my son went from one nap to no nap I found that he needed a nap every second day until he got used to it. Don't know if this would work for you?

We moved our first into his own room at 7 months. Like OP, he had a dummy that he kept losing and we were replacing it up to 10 times a night. Like MrsMc, I was going to him at the first stirring as I was very aware of husband needing sleep. But after he went into his own room, we only had to go in about half the amount of times and that gradually decreased. Second son still in with us at 10 months and will be for some time yet I think. We only have 2 bedrooms and can't put him in with his brother until he can sleep through (most nights he wakes once for milk, sometimes twice)

It is much easier to do it in summer when they have less/no clothes on as they often can't give you much if any warning. We basically stayed in for 1-2 weeks over the summer when my boy was 2 and a half. We had one potty upstairs and one downstairs so he could get to it quickly - and we took it outside when playing out there. I found that he got the hang of wees more quickly

I have a 4 year old and a 10 month old. A couple of things that worked well for us in the daytimes: oldest child watched telly in early days of feeding baby especially when feeding took forever (soon became 'please feed baby again' instead of oh not not feeding again'); baby in sling leaving me more easily able to play with older child; baby slept in pram probably every day and never in basket/cot for first 6 months - every time he needed to sleep I put h)im in pram and went to playground or something that older child wanted to do; groups/playdates great as older child has a great time playing with others allowing you time to spend with baby. We made a big deal about no. 1 being a big boy, got him a 'big brother' t-shirt, let him choose baby's clothes, got him a bike, new toys etc and really involved him and there has been no real jealousy Evenings a bit harder but agree with other posters - bathe together from quite early on (although many nights I just bathed one or the other), then older son gets special time to play while I feed and put baby to bed, then rush to put older boy to bed. Second one definitely better at self settling charlottep - our baby had his first sleep of the evening downstairs in the lounge until about 2 or 3 months when he started sleeping a bit longer before first night-time feed and then we started putting him in the cot at bedtime

Made the trek to Burgess Park today and fountains not on

I have sympathy too Jean. But I wouldn't like to see the posts removed from the road up to the football fields. I live on Burrow Road and our house is right behind that road, and when it was open we suffered terribly with people driving up there, revving their engines loudly, playing loud music while parked etc - really not ideal when trying to get small children to sleep. I hope a solution can be found, but I ask you to please not to suggest removing the posts on the road Thanks

My son was a pretty bad sleeper too (finally slept through at about 18 months). But now (aged 4) he is a great sleeper. He often sleeps til about 7 or 8 allowing us a bit of a lie-in compared to other parents. But the main thing is that he's not scared about going to sleep and actually enjoys sleep and I put that down to us reassuring him and probably pandering a bit to him when he was younger. At least I like to take some credit for all teh hard times we went through... Now with number two (now 9 months and waking twice on a good night - and fed each time even though I know we shouldn't), the main difference is that I try not to worry about such things. Of course I always do worry, but I have to remind myself that all the things I worried about the first time round (will he ever drink water, when will he ever get to sleep without a dummy etc) resolved themselves when he was good and ready, nothing to do with my timetable. So please be reassured it will end, you will sleep again and it probably won't be too far away (and I hope the same goes for me too...)

I think it's legal to go in a minicab without a carseat - not that it would be my choice to travel without a carseat, but useful to know in case you need to for any reason. Or perhaps take baby in a sling? We requested a carseat for a trip to the airport and car arrived without one, despite my double-checking the day before and being assured we would get one. Too late then to call a new cab, so we used our own and insisted the driver return it to our house which he did.

If you (or anyone else) wants them, I have the following left over from when my baby was born Kamillosan cream (has been opened but about 90% left) pack of disposable knickers half a pack of maternity towels I won't be needing them but I hate to throw things away Collection from East Dulwich, near Sainsbury's

In addition to snacks you might want for labour, don't forget to pack food for directly afterwards as well as for any time spent in hospital - they forgot to feed me so I had to have old sandwiches and was glad of food I'd bought. Fruit, juice and things that help 'keep you regular' suited me the best Other thing that I found really useful was socks. I got alternately hot and cold during the labour so put socks (and other clothes) on and off as needed. Ended up wearing partners socks after my waters broke on mine!

I have a bouncy chair that we no longer need that you are welcome to have. I don't have a car so if someone could collect that would be great. We are near Sainsbury's Dog Kennel Hill. Please PM me to arrange collection if you are interested

We are veggie plus some fish. Husband eats meat but he usually has that at lunch at work. Some of our favourite family meals: pizza - we use pita bread bases to make individual pizzas with our fave toppings pita bread, carrot sticks etc with hommous, raita etc wraps with tofu and salad, or spicey beans and salad pancakes rolled up with a cottage cheese and spinach filling and tomato sauce on top mild curries - as long as we don't call them 'curry' thick lentil and vege soups - not the favourite meal but good with with big dollps of honey and lots of bread vege shephards pie noodles (great idea to cook two at once!) potato/pasta salads nachos We all eat together at 6.30 on the days one of us is home. If we're both at work then we will eat later. Although it's great eating together, I do find I get hungry later in the evening and start eating chocolate...

My son was the same when he started at 12 months. He took a good few weeks to settle in and start enjoying it during the day. But it was much longer before he was happy to be dropped off there (and even now aged 4 has some days with tears when I leave). But the nursery staff said he always stopped crying the minute I left - I know this is true as I sometimes had to pop back if I'd forgotten something and I saw him happy. And I know he loves it - it's just that he wants the best of everything ie. me and nursery. It helped when I was able to leave him doing something he enoyed - eating breakfast, cuddles with one of the nursery staff or similar

The dream tubes look great. My son rolled over in bed so vigorously the other night that he hit his nose on the wooden bed guard and there was blood everywhere! As for single v cot bed, I think it's partly down to whether you ever need to sleep with the child. We don't very often, but when he is sick or has a nightmare we sometimes lie down with him until he is asleep - and a cot bed is not that comfortable to curl up in for too long...

I wish I had applied for a nursery school place but I think I'm too late now. My son will start school in September and I believe they need to be going to nursery school for at least 2 terms to be considered for a place - but correct me if I'm wrong. He is at a private nursery and used to go more often but now down to one day a week for the latter part of my maternity leave. He has lots of friends at nursery and we do see them sometimes - but we're still left with a few days a week with no plans. Of course we go to parks and playgrounds a lot now that the weather is better, but just don't know of many organised groups of an appropriate age for variety of activities, social interaction etc.

Can anyone recommend any play groups for a 4 year old? As I am on maternity leave with second baby, my son is now only at nursery one day per week. I've tried a few groups, 1 o'clock clubs etc but most of them seem more focussed on younger children

Can those that saw a dermatologist and recommend it, please let me know what they do and how they are better than the GP. My GP is prescribing us creams - Oilatum and Aqueous Cream for the bath, and Doublebase for after bath, mornings etc. That hasn't been that successful and now have Dermol prescribed which we've yet to try. Plus cortisone cream for problem patches (face, behind knees...) but it seems that those places flare up if we stop using the steroid cream for a few days. And I really don't want to be putting steroid cream on every day for years! Plus teh itching means constant scratching of face and head - for which the GP suggested antihistines - more drugs! But how does a dermatologist differ from the GP? Is it the Dermatologist who offers the skin prick test or someone else? What else do they do? Thamks

Thanks all for your comments. I now have a couple of recommendations for dermatologists and most people I've talked to think it is a good idea. We also have family history of asthma and hayfever on both sides so not too surprised about the eczema. I really hope it helps - it's not much fun putting baby to bed with socks on his hands every night (with hole cut in so he can suck his thumb), and pretty difficult to encourage him to get to sleep by himself when he lies there scratching

My 8 month old has eczema which he developed at about 4 months. He has patches over his body in all the usual places. Have been recommended a variey of emollient creams etc. Although the eczema is not bad, it has never disappeared either and we do frequently use steroid cream on him to control flare-ups. What do others think about seeing a dermatologist for a skin prick test or something? The doctor has said the eczema is not too bad and they can't refer all babies with eczema, and so won't refer us. But I feel that we are always treating the symptons and not the cause. I understand that the cause may not be food (could be dust, mould etc). But I'm aware that things like milk, eggs, wheat, fish, soya are common irritants. I would be happy to cut these out of my own diet if I knew that would help, but cutting them all out speculatively would be quite difficult. At the moment I'm holding off giving these foods to the baby, but don't want to cause malnutrition or anything by not introducing things for too long Has anyone been in a similar situation? Would you recommend a dermatologist (if so, please can you provide details, cost etc) Has anyone restricted their own diet - to any avail? how long do you have to cut things out for? Is it dangerous to restrict baby's diet by not giving these foods for a while longer? Thanks for any help

I am in the process of filling in primary school application for my son. My question is whether or not filling in the 'reason for choosing this school' box makes any difference. Should I be writing an essay on why chosen school suits us best and we are desperate to go there (which in my case is simply the location), or does it not make any difference at all? Will filling it in help if we wish to appeal? Thanks

Do they do children's haircuts? Our son desperately needs a haircut but won't go to the hairdresser