trinity

Hi Slummymum, I don't have any solutions but I thought I would let you know about my experience with my little boy. He also was dry but not clean for quite a long time and I did find it very stressful. He in turn was very stressed by my reaction and started to hide when he had accidents. With hindsight I wish I had just ignored the problem as I think he just wasn't developmentally ready and that he wasn't getting the physical clues that he needed a poo so couldn't tell me until it was too late. It did happen eventually ( a little after 3.5 I think) but there was nothing that I could have done to speed it up and infact I think I made the process more drawnout by focussing too much on it. I realise that you have a deadline of trying to get into preschool but my only advice is don't stress.

Hi Ymenik21, If I were in your position I would speak to social services in Southwark immediately. At best this lady needs help and support with her parenting and at worst the child needs direct intervention to remove her from the situation. A few months ago I called social services as I had concerns about 2 young children being left on their own for long periods of time. A social worker and police constable visited within a day to check the situation and, as far as I can tell, it hasn't happened since. The social worker I spoke to was very grateful for my call and reassured me that I had done the right think by calling in my concerns. This little child may have no-one else to speak for her so please voice your concerns. They will be taken seriously and they will be investigated. Social services will also treat the information in confidence. Hi Pickle, I would have thought that leaving children of the age you mentioned for 5 or 10 mins was within the realms of reasonableness if the older children were quite responsible. Leaving the little one in the bath age 2 whilst you leave the house doesn't seem reasonable but does it come down to neglect or just stupid parenting. I think thats a tough call.

Yes she will. She would go when she was just 3, do 1 year and move up to reception (in a different school) when she had only just turned 4. I also think in that case your son would be the year above her so he would go for 1 year, then as he goes into DCPS reception year your daughter would go into year 1 of the nursery. Is your son's assessment this coming January?

Mothercourage June birthdays (like my youngest daughter) are there for a year so they go when they have just turned 3and leave after they have just turned 4. Mellors If your children are a school year apart they may be in the same year at DCPS nursery (again depends on birthdays) and so you could have them in the same class (not sure if you would think this is a good idea or not). The nursery facilities are superb - the new building, playground, field and woods are lovely and well used in the teaching there. The only problem is, of course, that girls move at 4. At Herne Hill they have to move at 7 (which is a much more stressful move then at 4 because of the exams) but at Oakfield they can continue until 11 I think. If you are considering DCPS for your little boy Mellors, definitely look at it for your little girl. It is a wonderful environment for both boys and girls.

Both my girls have been through DCPS nursery and both have enjoyed it hugely. There are enough girls for them not to be dominated by the boys but also few enough of them to feel special. They have great fun, are taught well with huge imagination and tenderness from excellent teachers. I didn't see any disadvantage to the girls. Depending on the girl's birthday she will have either 1 or two years there before moving on. My elder daughter had 2 years and loved every minute of it. My younger only had 1 year (I wish she could have had 2).

When does it start and how long does it usually take?

What time does it start and how long does it usually take?

Oh dear - that's what the vicar told us. I hope he knows what he's talking about :))

sb Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Is CoE the same? In terms of needing to prove > 6months church attendance? One of us is Catholic > (Irish) and one is CoE and neither of us cares > much which church gives its blessing, though it > would be nice to be made feel welcome. You are entitled to have your child christened in the C of E parish you live in regardless of attendance. If you wish to have them christened in a church outside of your parish you may be required to attend for a certain length of time. In our case we were asked to attend St John's for 6 months which we were very happy to do. It is about introducing your child to a community which will make a commitment to your family and so they ask your family to make a commitment to the church.

We have always gone straight to single beds at age 2 1/2. A couple of pillows on the floor for the first few nights to ease any concerns but the kids have always been fine.

You have my sympathy Snowboarder - this is clearly stressing you, not surprisingly. Some more suggestions from me Try not to compare your baby and his habits to other babies. It can be really stressful to see other people and their lo 'getting it right'. Am i right in thinking that the stress around going out in the day is around you trying to feed him and him making a fuss and refusing? If this is the case just go out but don't feed him. Don't worry about feeding him, don't think about feeding him and don't worry about other babies feeding habits. Let him 'tell' you when he is hungry. Maybe try it for a few days if this concerns you. You could try letting him sip expressed milk from an open cup. That way you know he is getting some milk but he can still look around him. From your description of last night's sleeping there were actually 3 feeds including a dream feed. I would say this is normal for your age of baby. The extra waking for stimulation is I think due to poor sleeping during the day not hunger. I don't have much advice on that point as I just accepted it and waited til they grew out of it (which happened when they started to be more mobile and having 2/3 significant naps a day.) It is a very tiring situation to be in - do you have any help so you can get a decent rest every so often?

sb Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > How should they get back down exactly? Tummy slides were the favoured method in our house. (Sometimes more of a wriggle than a full-on slide.)

Hmm tricky one My thoughts are that the waking at night is related to the poor sleeping during the day rather than feeding. The night feeding sounds like it could be comfort feeding. The night waking is exhausting but not uncommon. 2 of mine would be waking that often at 5 months and the way that I coped was to feed them in my bed. Not for everyone I know but it helped me. My suggestion would be to space out his meals during the day by feeding him when he is obviously hungry and try to get as much milk into him just before bedtime when you are at home in a quiet dark environment, throw in a dream feed just before you go to bed and see what happens. Also maybe try to improve his daytime sleeping by working out where he sleeps best (cot, pram, car etc) and try to make sure he naps there. As he is reacting strongly to distractions perhaps napping in a quiet darkened room again. Very tricky I know when you are trying to live a normal life! Sorry I am not more help but from what you have said I don't think a bottle is going to help except that it might enable someone to take over the night feeds.

In that case more questions - how well does he sleep during the day? You said he was waking up 3 times a night - is he feeding deeply and for a long time then?

It sounds like a combination of developing to a stage where he doesn't need to be fed so often and distraction by the much more interesting world around. I think he is telling you to leave him alone - he's got more interesting things to do! If he is not distressed with hunger I would just leave him for longer between feeds. Obviously you would need to keep an eye on whether he is getting dehydrated and that he continues to gain weight but let him feed every 6 hours or just when he starts pawing at your chest!

How does he tell you he is hungry? Does he show you these signs and then refuse to feed? Is he taking any solids during the day? More and more questions but no answers yet!

Hi What age is baby snowboarder? What does he do - is he just more interested in whats going on around? Is he distressed at being hungry and unable to feed or just not interested? Sorry for all questions!

Maybe the pure oil does the trick but I didn't find the shampoo/conditioner effective at all!

Forget the tea tree conditioner. We have used Full Marks solution - its not an insecticide. It kills the lice by dehydrating them instead. Easy to use - apply it once for a short time and then comb to remove lice and eggs. The combing is easy on short hair but time consuming on long hair. Treat everyone in the family. Repeat a week later to ensure they are all gone. (I have never had to use it a second time.) Inform the school so that they can get other parents to check and clear their childrens hair. Don't stress as it will happen regularly throughout your childs school career.

Royal mail delivered 2 parcels to me on Sunday!! so I think they are trying to deal with the backlog.

I taught my 3 youngest using phonics and they were all reading by the age of 3 and were good readers by the age of 4. My method was to get all alphabet letter sounds firmly known (we used letterland). This was done with lots of games eg hiding the letters around the room and getting her to try to find the right one. The common 2 letter blends can be introduced at the end eg ch, th, ph. Then put together letters into simple phonic words eg cat. Again only done via games and only a couple of minutes at a time. Then come simple sentences and frequent non-phonic words eg the. I just said these were tricker words which they seemed to accept quite readily. When they came along I would read the words for them until they were familiar with the whole word. Also lots of encouragement in our daily lives about the sounds of words. I think sillywoman is spot on with her suggestion about circus. I had to make up cards for words as I couldn't find exactly what I wanted commercially. I don't feel I was pushing my little ones but it was more of a reaction to my eldest son being let down really badly by the lousy teaching of reading at his school and I wanted to make sure that my younger ones didn't have such a haphazard start to reading.

Japs children contribute every year to the 'Love in a box' scheme run by the mustard seed relief mission. It's a brilliant idea and all the donating children get so much out of choosing items to go in their box. Their website has details of how to donate/become a co-ordinator. Perhaps the EDF mothers can organise the 50 boxes required before they can be picked up. The website is http://www.msrm.org.uk/

Agreed - truely dreadful incident and extremely rare

I fed my lo perfectly well for 6 months using just a morning and an evening feed. Your supply can adjust to this and it doesn't mean it will dwindle away to nothing. It should also come back relatively quickly if you want to go down the expressing route. If you want to continue it is perfectly possible.

Zebedee Tring asked us to remember how many were killed so I provided the information I could find . Obviously tragic for the family involved put puts the hysteria in perspective. My 9 year old daughter was almost hit by an adult cyclist whilst on the pavement three days ago. It makes him a reckless idiot. But we were also passed by 10's of cyclists who were respectful and careful. Lots of people and kids who would otherwise be in cars making the environment less safe for my daughter. I am happy to take my chance with the cyclists.