new mother

I agree - A and E

Oh God, I'm sorry, Fuschia. It will pass and sort itself out but it is the type of thing where it's easy to see this from the outside and much harder to believe it when you are the person. Poor you. You have a lot on your plate. I wonder if we could organise some sort of help for you or your husband? Not with the ch as you won't want strangers obviously but maybe with shopping etc?

BB, Did you read my post? Perhaps I wasn't clear and my mind assumed things. I am talking about older women or anyone with poorer egg quality than average. This type of woman needs to play the odds. That means putting back more embryos. [As a digression, why do you think there is an increased maximum for the over 40s at all? Why do you think the USA rates for older women are so much better than here? (Answer: higher nos of embryos inserted)] With younger women or anyone with a high likelihood of success at IVF, clearly there are more issues associated with carrying multiples to term than singletons. (BB, this is what your studies are on. SET - single embryo transfer.) As regards FET (frozen), the reasoning behind this being "safer" - which is a misleading term - is that the embryo is put back during a normal cycle ie not one where high levels of oestrogen have been generated by the IVF stimulatory drugs. There is thinking that using a more "normal" uterine environment is better. I don't buy that in the main as I think it mostly boils down to egg quality. Older women will be unusual to be doing many FETs as they don't generate many successful embryos at blastocyst - day 5 - stage. In summary, those with low ovarian reserve will be happy to get one embryo implanting and the challenge is to "find" that one and put it back.

Ok. As Anna says, "live birth rate" is the generally accepted standard and for ARGC not to quote it is strange, particularly as I understand that they DO have quite good LBR. If anyone's interested, the London clinics - Lister, UCH, ARGC, are generally good but very dear. ARGC is in a slightly different bucket in that it's extraordinarily expensive and, by Taranissi's admission, deals in controversial therapies. Their main claim to fame is with the very sad issue of recurrent mcs, especially the utter tragedy of late mcs, and the idea is that they have special immune treatments that will overcome some women's "rejection" of the implanting or growing embryo. Now, this is certainly an issue for a few women, but only a few. Spend ?20 first on Dr Beer's book "Is your body baby friendly?" and see if it resonates. I cannot emphasise enough that you need a clinic that is specialist in YOUR issue and YOUR age-group. If that is eg male factor, ARGC isn't immediately indicated. If you've had recurrent mcs, tried aspirin, tried a steroid such as high dosage prednisolone to dampen the purported anti embryo reaction, all with no success, it might be worth trying ARGC and its (controversial and in some cases unlicensed) therapies. As a general point, a sizeable number of couples nowadays present with so called "unexplained infertility" ie no male issues, no blocked tubes, the women ovulates per a progesterone test at 7 post ovulation of >30 pmol (watch units used), a decent number of embryos are fertilised and the max implanted but...no fertilisation follows. If you have unexplained, you will TEND to be older and might have a low day 3 antral follicle count (AFC). THis leads us to think that ageing eggs and lower supply, ie deteriorating chromosome counts, result in the body naturally rejecting a flawed the embryos. Now, if this is the case, what can you do to icnrease the odds? Well, it is my strong belief that success needs numbers. THat is, you need to have as many embryos trying to implant each cycle as possible as a surprisingly high % will be flawed. eg many women will find in an IVF cycle that they produce eg 10 eggs, none of which is good. (As a separate issue, query whether AMH blood tests measure quality of eggs accurately or not. Polycystic women will have very high AMH but often poor egg quality.) So, for older women where egg quality is likely to be an issue, at the very least, I'd be looking for a clinic that will automatically put back the max number of embryos ie 2 up to 40 and 3 over 40. Ask about criteria for treatment, as Anna says. Eg I've heard that UCH gets good results but certainly used to require a certain AFC of maturing eggs before the IVF cycle would continue. In this way, the denominator of their stats is contained and their stats improve. Lister doesn't have these criteria as far as I know but has other drawbacks. I'd look to use any free NHS goes that you have where-ever you can and then, if you're paying, maybe try UCH or the Lister. You may as well get the best but take them as much detail - and I mean very intricate stuff if you can get hold of it - and all your results from the prev treatment so they can learn from it. Try the HFEA website for complete sets of clincs results. Hope this is helpful and very best of luck to anyone embarking on a treatment.

Pebbles the refund came via the phone on 0800 328 3281. I had to give barcodes but if you have binned yours, that is quite reasonable. I have also put it in writing via their website feedback etc form. Apparently there is a class action suit in the US about it... edited as I put an extra 0 in the tel number!

THanks Molly. I can't "comment" either apparently. However, news - despite denying it all, blah blah blah, they just refunded me for every nappy I had in the house. Huge quantity as I had just done a big shop. Pebbles if you threw out yours, they should defintiely refund you!

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-14/procter-gamble-in-bind-over-moms-web-attack-on-pampers-brand.html

does anyone know how to post about this on pampers wall on facebook? I don't seem to be able to - maybe I need to be a "friend" or something, which I currently don't wnat to be!

Im shocked by Pampers call centre reaction - ie we have no problem. They CLEARLY do!

Thanks Pebbles. I'm off to cull the orange patterned ones right now....

Do we know which batches are affected or which supermarkets? If your baby is affected, where did you get your nappies? THis is awful!!

It's unbelievable these haven't been recalled. I've just bought a huge supply of size 4 and Pampers Active ones....

It is infuriating. That first semi-literate response from Kathryn someone was appalling. The tone and number of basic mistakes in it are a disgrace. The later letters were coherent at least. I am trying to summon up the courage to beam at the next offender in the car park and then look terribly worried and say "Oh my God, where IS your child? Are you ok? CAn I help"

That is awful! Sorry to hear. and clearly the nappies were at fault..gosh. I'll be very interested to hear what they say about it....

"but i'm in the US (east) and he's in india... this is easily 10+hrs away min " I'd cancel as you're doing....

Poor you. hmmm...I sympathise. And poor him. A few thoughts: At your son's age is the main focus maths or arithmetic? Has your son been tested for dyscalculia? How is the school handling it in terms of boosting him otherwise? What are they getting him involvled in that he is good at and enjoys? He needs some fun and to feel successful at something, doesn't matter what - acting/doing hair/makeup whatever in the end of term play, waterskiing on holiday,cooking at home at night, whatever...

Hurrah and many congrats! Lovely to read the news. I'm sure you don't care what he weighed but 4kgs is 8lb 13oz, the imperial equivalent. As Fuschia says, a kilo is 2.2 lbs so 4kgs is 8.8lbs and 0.8 lbs * 16 oz is 13 oz. (NB 0.8lb is not equal to 8 oz!) Anyway, lovely news and so glad it seemed to be quick and easy, thank goodness.

Childcare vouchers for you and she will be more marketable for her.

SG, GOOD LUCK! How incredibly exciting. All the best.

Idea - if you have a side return on to your neighbour's sr, why not do the two together in a symmetricla design, save money and keep a good look?

Friend's son helpfully and stratospherically loudly informed the lady ahead of him in the supermarket queue: "You're a lady. That means you don't have a w****"

Just to say thank you so much for producing this, "APenn" - it is extremely usful and must have taken a great deal of your time.

It's alot of money post tax isn't it? 60/65k? But then I suppose it saves moving which costs a lot of energy and stress plus stamp duty at 4 or even 5pc these days. :-((( Say house worth 600k? - 24k on stamp duty plus estate agents around 10k? God, what a nightmare. I'm almost convincing myself 60k for a side return is worth it.

Not sure if helpful but there's an article in Times today on this, investigating which improvement gives you the best return on your money, in addition to the pleasure of the extra space/nicer bathroom/whatever. I must say though that I was quoted 100k for a conservatory and the Times was talking about 20k max so on reflection I'm not so sure they understood London pricing.

I know some mothers whose offices were delighted to make the cost savings so you would be well advised to investigate. You have nothing to lose save the realisation by your employer that you want to spend more time with your ch, which will be apparent anyway in reality and is totally acceptable to most employers nowadays in any event.