Bluedark

I don't know where you are located but Blossoms Montessori on St Dunstan's Road (close to Peckham Rye park) might have spaces (it is a term time nursery with a big intake in September but could have ad hoc spaces through the year). My two daughters went there and I can't recommend them highly enough. Happy to provide more information, if you are interested, please pm me.

I have signed up to Bikes4Work scheme and my employer has an agreement with Halfords. Do you have any recommendations as to which Halfords to go to for a good selection of bikes and helpful advice? Thanks in advance.

Hello ED families. I am looking to buy Bobbin Brambles mainly to ferry my 3 year old to and from nursery. I like the ride of the bike myself but I don't have a chance to ride it with a 13kg child at the back. Does anyone have any first hand experience they can share. Thanks in advance.

Hi there. I had my lessons with Leon from Walkers4u. He was the best instructor I had by far! Very confident, reliable, knows the area well. I am over 35, failed my practical test twice (over 5 years ago) and only after having lessons with Leon that I have finally had confidence in myself. He is brilliant. Although it is a personal fit thing but I think he is very good at his job. I didn't have intensive lessons but if you speak to walkers4u they may be able to help. I found them very helpful whenever I spoke to them. Good luck. It is horrible when driving schools just let people down.

Just to say a massive thanks to everyone for the suggestions. The day has been saved by C&M and the poundland (opposite boots on rye lane). The children enjoyed using an abundance of glitter foam shapes and gems on their Christmas decorations...thanks again...

I went to cowling and Wilcox (which was great, thanks everyone!) but still looking for stick on gems! Which poundland (or old whsmiths) please? In Sydenham? If I can get there this morning that would be fab. Thanks for all your help everyone!

Thank you all, much appreciated. I couldn't find anything at Toysrus today. Will start with hobbycraft and see how it goes. Great suggestions, thanks for taking the time.

Hi - I am having a little hiccup with my baker Ross order of self adhesive gems, foam shapes etc. I urgently need to get craft supplies for a Christmas fair that is running on Wednesday. Is there a shop in the area that I can get these from? I can drive. Your help is much appreciated. Thanks all!

I am all for supporting local businesses, so long as I get a good service. It appears that I am not alone thinking that the service could be a little temperamental. A lot of people rate Little Clippers very highly, so I thought it must be me, but maybe not! And last time I went there, for a back to school haircut, I did feel like a 5 minute job of cutting 1cm max of my daughter's hair (she has short hair) really should not cost ?15! She did not even finish one episode of the Peppa that was on TV..I am watching this thread with interest for alternatives, I am sorry Little Clippers. Oh also, you might want to have a chat with your employees about the loyalty card stamps; I forgot to get a stamp after the cut and went back for one 5 minutes later. The lady wasn't impressed! I don't know why I bother really...

Hi there hello sailor. Our daughter did this when she was just over 3.5 years old. Until we realised the extent of it (mainly at night time, just before falling asleep) she did end up with a bald-ish spot. I wasn't overly keen about talking to her or pointing to her but my husband was adamant that she should really not do it...we never got to the bottom of what caused it but I believe it is nervousness around leaving nursery and all the talk about starting reception. Our daughter ducked all direct and subtle questions about why she is pulling her hair. I believe she really didn't realise what she was doing. We have talked to her gently, and asked her to put a sock on her hand (she always used her left hand). She agreed with that, and wore her sock every day. And she stopped pulling her hair (couldn't with the sock!) and after roughly 2 months on we don't put the sock on anymore. She has a comforter that she cuddles with at bed time too. So I am afraid I can't shed much light to the causes but we chose a practical route (as it 90% of the time happened before or during sleep) and it worked for us. Good luck...

We are very happy with Blossoms Montessori, not hugely convenient for you but it is just opposite the Peckham rye park on dunstans grove. It is a term time only nursery, between 9aam-4pm so would suit a non-working parent (without worrying about wrap around care for full days, holidays). I can't rate them highly enough, it is a proper Montessori nursery, calm and content, with excellent staff. My daughter is flourishing there...You can get in touch with Julie, its owner to ask for spaces as depending on which days you want there might be availability. Can't promise though.

Great suggestions - thanks all. I have put the saline spray in of pocket for night time emergencies...will definitely look into vaporiser too. Much appreciated...

Dear parents With an older sister in nursery, my 10mo old seem to have colds very regularly. We obviously seek medical advice if needed (fever, coughs etc by following her closely); however my question is how I can help her when she has a very stuffed nose. When she is like that she drinks so little from her bottle as she tries to drink and breathe through her mouth at the same time. She also has very disturbed nights when she is so blocked up. I tried saline drops and spray but she screams the house down. I tried to use that sucky thing to get mucus out from her nose, she wriggles herself away from me pretty vigorously that I achieved nothing. At the moment I rub vapour rub on her chest when she goes to bed, but it doesnt do anything. Any tips?

My daughter (3yo) is at Blossoms and she is very happy there. It is a proper Montessori nursery, calm and a huge variety of activities with really enthusiastic staff. You will need to consider your 'bridging' childcare options as it is 9-4 and also closed for school holidays (so it is term time only). When both parents are working it could be a challenge to cover after 4pm (if needed) and holiday childcare. Happy to talk privately about blossoms if you want to - just pm me.

I don't believe anyone has a problem for them to hang around at a playground if that is what they want to - so long as they respect other adults and children using that public space. I have come across them and the language they use is absolutely not appropriate for children (and for adults for that matter!). I did consider having a word with them as I heard lots of f words and like near my toddler but I was sure that I will be called all sorts of names as another poster experienced. Shame really that you can't have a reasonable conversation with them....and shame really that these kids (soon to be teenagers and adults) just cruise through the life without necessarily giving a damn about people around them...

I had a period of very bad constipation for baby #2 when I was weaning her 2 months ago. We were prescribed lactulose but she is already on reflux medication so I didn't want to give something else. I spoke to health matters store and got a jar of probiotics for infants from there. Not cheap but we have used it regularly for 2-3 weeks and she seems to be back to normal now. I don't know whether it was a period for her and it was meant to get better regardless of the probiotics I wouldn't know, but I think worth a try. Probiotics protects the gut and I felt like with weaning and everything she might appreciate that little bit of help:)

Hi there. We had a Summer video monitor for no 1 and bought an additional camera when the 2nd one arrived. So we use one parent monitor for 2 cameras in two different rooms, you can add 4 cameras to it. We are very happy with Summer. As you say we use the camera during daytime to check on the eldest. We can also talk to her through the monitor. In terms of which camera you choose to monitor - it has a scan function. So it scans each camera every 10-20 seconds, so you can actually keep an eye on both rooms. If you want to just watch one room, you choose to view that room. We recommend it, although we did not do a huge amount of comparison when we first bought it three years ago.

Hi - I am afraid I can't say much about hotels but I am from turkey and lived in Istanbul for over 10 years until 2004. Happy to have a chat at some point to give you other tips if you are interested. Please pm me.

Hi We have one and you are more than welcome to try. Please pm me if you are still looking for this and we can organise. Thanks

Hi I can recommend my doula, Ali (Alison) Edwards. You can have a look at her profile through doula org. She has been fantastic and I really couldn't do without her. She lives in Colchester (so just over an hour away) but she travels fast (we called her at 1am and she was there just after 2am). As soon as she entered the room I relaxed and thought it is all going to be ok. I don't know if you are at kings but she has experience working with kings. I can go on and on;) Very happy to pm or have a chat if you are interested. Good luck

Dear all - thanks a lot for the responses and sharing experiences/knowledge...I think it is the desperate me hoping that there is a magical solution for identifying the cause her discomforts; as they continue despite reflux medication and a recent tongue tie snip. I think she definitely has CMA or CMPI but I believe she is also intolerant to soya and eggs (purely based on a flare of her back arching and refusing to feed after I eat these, maybe it is not the case at all but I don't know). Anyway. Alieh - I have sent you a private message.

Dear all - I don't want to steer the conversation from Wanhope's question on reflux medication, however as it is relevant to this thread I wanted to ask another question. Regarding allergies, as an underlying cause of reflux, how are they spotted? I read above that a stool test for CMPI for example. I have gone non-dairy for few weeks and then challenged it and my daughter's reflux (we are on omeprazole) and refusal of breast was worse. So our GP has asked for blood tests for allergens for dairy, eggs and peanuts. Does that sound familiar? I understand if the tests are positive then she will have a clear allergy for these. If they are negative then she said we will continue to challenge my and her diet every 6 months or so. I am a bit confused as to how the allergy is identified? What if she is allergic to other things than these three things? What about the skin prick tests? We have given tubes of blood before for prolonged jaundice and it was not a pleasant experience - I am worried about another blood test, to be honest. Appreciate your thoughts. Thanks all

Midivydale - THANK YOU! I have sent you a PM

Hi all I have a referral from a lactation consultant to the paediatric surgeon for diagnosis and correction of my daughter's tongue tie. We would like to get it done privately as she is already 10 weeks old, we have breastfeeding difficulties and terrible reflux and want to get it sorted quickly. We have BUPA family cover. Has anyone had the Frenulotomy done privately by Mr Patel and recovered the costs through BUPA? Is the referral letter I have enough or do I need a referral from the GP? If so are GPs generally ok to provide the referral as I understand it is not seen as a necessary medical condition (unless baby is not thriving)? Any insights would be much appreciated. Thanks a lot

Dear all I am having a challenging time to breastfeed my 8 week old daughter who has reflux. Although she is on drugs to manage the reflux there is still a lot of crying when I attempt to breastfeed during daytime. She feeds ok at night time. I would like to speak to a bf counsellor who has experience with mums of reflux babies on showing me the positions to feed, managing my milk supply (as I am very worried that it is diminishing) and generally to support both me and my baby during this time. Does anyone have any name that you can suggest? Thanks all