Sonners

I went to DLP a few weeks ago with my four year old and my top tips are:- 1. Take an empty water bottle to fill up as there are lots of drinking fountains around the park. 2. Plan your days in advance, or have a loose idea of what you want to do/see and then think each night about how your list has changed. My friend and I had a hit list of things we wanted to do and got through it all despite only being there 2 nights, although queues weren't too bad as it was May. 3. There is an app which tells you the approx. queue times which is worth downloading. 4. Take loads of snacks to distract the kids in the queues (and helps to not have to have lunch!) Our mini-Samsung was useful at points for a bit of cartoon watching in the longer queues. 5. As you're staying in a Disney Hotel you get the "magic hours" between 8am and 10am where hotel guests get access to certain rides earlier than the general public so make use of that in your planning. 6. My friend and I each bought a Photo Pass in advance which was a bit of a waste of money in the end for me as most of the rides with photos are the ones my 4 year old was too short for and she didn't want to queue up to meet any of the characters (as she preferred the rides!). Some of the queues were an hour long for the character meets (especially the princesses). My friend used hers more and it turns out we could have shared one as you get three fobs with it. 7. We ate at the steak restaurant and the international buffet as part of our half board plan plus (I think it was called!). Both were really nice. There is a Subway type sandwich shop in Disney Village too. 8. My friend kept her son up for the light/fireworks show the first night which meant he was super-grumpy the next day as we had to get up early for the character breakfast we'd booked so he had the equivalent of 10.30pm bedtime and a 6.30am start. I took my daughter to bed the first night around 10pm French time and she was much better the following morning! We then had a 2 hour nap at lunchtime and kept them both up that night for the light show which worked really well. 9. The rides are way quieter from 8pm to 10pm so I'd do the most popular rides after dinner. We had dinner at 7pm each night. Our favourite was Thunder Mountain which my daughter just squeaked the height requirement on and we went on it 3 times. My friend's son hated it and went a bit green (it is really fast!). He loved Ratatouille which my daughter didn't like. SO it really depends on the kids... We all loved the Small World (which I remembered from being a child) and did that twice and my daughter's still talking about it. Sorry for the essay! We had a great time and I'm sure you will too. Any questions please feel free to PM me... I benefitted massively from the research my friend did pre-trip (and which we passed on to some people we met on the Euro Star on the way over!) If I'd had 4 nights I probably would have done one of the offsite trips like the aquarium.

We did our baby's via Paspic when she was 3 months. You take a photo of them on a white sheet/background and then upload to the website. They check the photo will qualify and then print and post them to you. It was very quick and easy!

One of my friends has just moved from London to Hove. I think that Hove is more family friendly than Brighton (and that was certainly the case 30 years ago when I lived down that way as a child!). West Sussex is a great place to grow up as you are close to London once you hit your late teens and Brighton is a fun place to go prior to that. I personally wouldn't want to live in Brighton as it is packed out in the summer with tourists and it is a huuuuge hill from the seaside to the station.

The waiting list can be two years but it also depends on what days you need and if you can be flexible, and when you want to start. If you want Mondays and Fridays starting between July and September you'd be luckier than if you wanted full time starting in October for example due to popularity of days and school movements... It also depends on siblings. Most of the current baby room are younger siblings from late Nov 15 - Feb 16 births and you'd have struggled to get a space this Jan in the baby room, although a few did. My daughter has been there for 2.5 years. It's a great nursery with an amazing outside space. I have met loads of really nice parents through the nursery too.

I would use whoever you bank with if it has a local branch as it's easiest - I opened accounts for both of my daughters at Lloyds by the Plough.

I would wait until the baby is here before buying a double as it depends on the temperament of the baby too! My second was born the day before my eldest's third birthday and I ummed and ahhed about a double buggy for ages whilst pregnant. I decided to wait in the end which was good as my baby screamed her head off every time I tried the buggy until she was 5 months... (I think because of reflux). I therefore used to sling her everywhere (which she loved) and kept the 3 year old in the buggy for 6 months. Second hand doubles come up pretty frequently on here and the SE23 mums Facebook group so I think you can get one pretty quickly as and when the need arises!

Lizzie Lomax at Dulwich Therapy Rooms is great.

Does anyone travel from ED to Sydenham High School? If so, how do you find the journey there and back? We have been offered a place at the Junior School and the commute in the morning seems to be about 30 mins door to door by bus or under 15 mins in the car around 8am but I haven't tried the reverse journey at the end of the day. I will also have a 20 month old in a buggy by next September... We loved the school but I am a bit worried about the practicalities of the journey. Especially as we live 100m from our favourite state school option!

I'd lend you mine but it is several sizes too big sadly! They come up in the St Christopher's charity shop on LL so worth looking there if you don't have any luck on here. Good luck! Enjoy your day.

Bodsier, I was pretty shocked too! I was refused the referral first of all when I asked about it when the baby was 8 weeks. The GP said that sibling link was not a strong enough basis for referral. Her advice was "just to avoid nuts". At the time I didn't have it in me to challenge her as we'd just got to the end of a double appointment for the baby and my 8 weeks checked, had waited ages, baby was screaming and we still had her first set of jabs to get through! It was only afterwards that I realised how stupid the advice was. Still, I was fortunate enough that I knew I could take her privately so left it. After the positive reaction on the testing I went back to the GP and asked for a referral as I wanted Kings to give her a full set of tests as the private doctor only tested her for three nuts my eldest is allergic to. We have also always had some concerns over cows milk intolerance/allergies which the GP knows. The GP agreed at that point to refer us once she'd received the private doctor's letter to attach to the referral. GP then called me after receiving the letter to say we didn't need a referral as the private doctor had suggested we retested in 6 months. So she was telling me to go privately. At which point I got a bit cross and reminded her the only reason we'd gone private in the first place was due to her initial refusal to refer despite my eldest nearly dying at 15 months from an anaphylactic reaction! We have the referral now thankfully and will see the allergy clinic in February.

At 4.5 they should hopefully be able to do the blood test for you which is good as it's a more conclusive test than the scratch test and can easily cover lots of potential allergens. The doctor is v good and clearly very interested in allergies even if I suspect he makes most of his money out of Men B and chicken pox jabs! My best advice is carry an antihistamine everywhere if there are unknown allergies - we happened to have some in the house when my eldest had her severe reaction to cashew nut butter at 15 months as it was left over from when she'd had terrible eczema as a baby and the piriton bought me some time from something much worse whilst waiting for the ambulance. To help the battle against dust mites keep the bed clear of soft toys and cover with a sheet in the day so dust collects on top of that rather than the bed. I've got a dust mites allergy info sheet from our last allergy clinic appointment (as she tested positive to that as well) which I can e-mail you if helpful? Very happy to chat about allergies/process/doctors in general if that helps as well - I had to have a massive row with my GP last week about getting a referral for my youngest to Kings even though she has tested positive to certain nuts (which I did privately after I was refused a referral by GP in the first instance!)

Despite having to walk slightly to the side I prefer our Bugaboo board SO MUCH to the Kascal Maxi I had first. The Lascal made the buggy feel so clunky and heavy to push.

We used the Health Hub in Herne Hill to scratch test baby number 2 aged 7 months for the nuts which my eldest is severely allergic to. The doctor is an allergy specialist. Do you know what you want testing? How old is the child? HH do full blood allergy testing too but apparently it's hard to get enough blood from very young ones which is why we were advised to go the scratch test route. They can usually do appointments pretty quickly as long as the doctor isn't on holiday.

We love ours. Don't have a cover but find that a sheet over it works pretty well!

Is St Anthony's much of an option if you're not of a faith? It's our next closest school after Goodrich but I'd ruled us in out of it being a possibility...

Heber and Harris first ones are both are on 28 Sept. Goodrich is alternate Thursdays but I'm not sure when they are starting as I went pre-summer hols.

It depends on age of child and number of days... I can tell you what 3 days for a three year old in the pre-school room costs per month after the 15 free hours are deducted but don't know about other ages/days. That said, I remember from when I first looked round that overall it is relatively cheap compared to lots of the other nurseries in the area! I don't think that this link is the current fee list as it's pre the recent merger with LEYF but it will give you a rough idea. http://designedbyellen.co.uk/gumboots/?page_id=60 Fees have not been increased by much over the last few years.

I wondered if anyone could tell me if St Dunstans has a sibling policy for admissions? I can see from the website it is selective but couldn't quite ascertain if that meant siblings only got in on their own merits or whether they would get in subject to meeting a minimum requirement/level on testing. Also very interested to hear generally from parents about what they love/don't like about the school... Open day is not until September and I'm keen to gather as much info as possible. PMs welcome! Thanks for any replies.

Tiny Gym at Camberwell Leisure Centre was great for my three year old's party. I think they cater up to about age 10 and set up the equipment accordingly.

Are you looking at primary? I don't have any experience with autism and schools, and I'm sure someone more knowledgable than me will be along to help, but I noticed on the recent breakdown of reception places offered schedule for Southwark that a few schools are marked as "a designated ASD base with places reserved for children with autism who have an Education, Health and Care Plan" so I assume they have good experts in the schools. The schools are Brunswick Park, Rye Oak and Snowsfields. The Harris primary is open, it's just currently operating from a temporary site at the other side of Peckham Rye (on the girls secondary school grounds). They have open days so worth a visit to discuss with them if you've heard good things. They are due to move to the Lordship Lane site this September.

The carrycot didn't exist with my first either and I found the cocoon fine. If my baby was asleep when we got home I just parked her up in the kitchen. I ummed and ahhed about buying the carrycot this time around as I thought it might be better but the price tag put me off and I never got around to it. Good thing too as it turns out my second baby MUCH prefers the sling to the buggy (and it's also helped to carry her upright due to reflux)and at 4.5 months she's only been in the buggy about half a dozen times. I would personally say buy a cocoon and a good sling. I used the cocoon until my first was about a year before switching to the footmuff and on reflection a carrycot is only good to about 4/5 months I think before the baby will want to look around and at that age they'd be swamped by the footmuff!

We had our pine floorboards stripped back and then varnished rather than dying darker again and it's lightened the whole downstairs. We also had all the gaps filled but some of the resin has fallen out in places. I think that's fairly inevitable for houses built on clay due to seasonal movements but I could be wrong. That said, we were hoping it would last longer than 6 months!