At my wits end with 11 month dd - please help with any one of my moans!

[CantSleepWithSanta]

DD is a week off being 11 months, and I'm starting to feel quite low about how difficult she is. Here are some of my complaints - please help with suggestions for addressing any of them if you can.

1. She is still breastfed, and resolutely refuses to drink milk from a cup ever. After months of trying every bottle and cup on the market, I have found one cup that she will drink water from, but she still won't accept a milk feed from it. Changing formula isn't an option, and nor is giving cows milk, as she is milk intolerant.

1. She won't eat solids. Occasionally she'll have a good meal, or even a couple of days worth of good meals, but mostly she just throws her food on the floor piece by piece (or the whole lot at once if she has access to the plate/bowl). We are doing blw as she won't let me get near her with a spoon, ever. She's perfectly capable of feeding herself, but just won't.

1. She wants to suck on my breasts the whole time. I've tried offering a dummy, but she won't take it (she'll pick one up occasionally and have a suck/munch on it, but not for long, and not if I offer it as an alternative to breast). Some of it I think is down to teething (only has 2 teeth so far), but she won't take a teether either, except for her 'bonjela finger' (blue plastic finger shaped thing with bumps and bristles on) which might keep her happy for 10 mins if I'm lucky. She also won't let me give her medicine, so it becomes a fight every time, where I end up having to pin her down and hope that she doesn't spit out the whole dose (we use a 'babydose' syringe thing to give it).

1. She won't sit in her pushchair. This makes going out very difficult, as she wants to be held the whole time. I have a hip hammock, which has been a godsend, but it still isn't that comfortable, so not practical for a whole day out (eg to the zoo, that we have an annual pass for).

1. She won't entertain herself for even 5 minutes when I'm around, although seems generally much happier to do so when with dh. When we're out at baby/toddler groups, or with friends with children, she is very sociable, and deserts me to go and play with them quite happily!

1. She won't sleep anywhere except in her own cot or in the car, so we can't go out for a whole day unless I'm prepared to drive around for an hour at the point that she needs one.

1. Every time I take a shower (every morning - night showers just don't do it for me, and tend to wake dd anyway) dd stands up to the edge of the bath and screams and/or cries for the entire duration. Or her latest is to shout what I think is meant to be 'no, no, no, no, no' at me (her second word after daddy!)

There are others, but these seem to be my main bugbears at the moment. Any one of them individually I'm sure I could cope with, but all together it's just getting to be too much.

DH works/lives abroad during the week, so I get no let up from it at all.

Please help a desperate woman!

Oh God you poor thing! I have to tend to my dd and ds now but will get back to you when I have time. I just wanted to post something so that I can find this thread again!

Thanks cruisemum

Csws I think you're probably worrying too much about things. Firstly, why are you so adamant she should take a cup of milk? Despite what the books say, I think very few mums actually have babies that will take a cup of milk at 12 months. My ds kept his morning and evening bottle right up into this summer. It was a comfort thing for him and I figured if it kept him drinking milk then I was happy. We forced the issue at the end of this summer, and now he refuses to take milk in a cup. Try tasting milk yourself, through a teat, through a beaker and then from a cup. You can really taste a difference and probably goes some way to explaining why they refuse to drink milk out of a cup!!!

Soldis - Again, it's perfectly normal for babies to refuse meals. Sometimes ds2 eats and other times refuses point blank to take anything. This battle of wills will continue for years to come. The best thing to do, is relax and not get stressed (says she!). They really won't starve themselves and the sooner they understand they cannot control mealtimes the easier it is for both of you. Honest, look how many threads there are about kids not eating. It's the first control issue that babies and toddlers usually find they can do!!

1. Can't help on the breast thing, you've just got to be strong and resist the temptation. WIth regards to medicine, have you tried one of those dummy ones. I could never get ds to take medicine and I tried the dummy contraption nad it worked - to a point!

1. have you tried one of the rucksacks? Both of mine love it and it's very comfortable because of all the supports.

ds2 only sleeps in his cot too. it's a pain but ds2 never slept during the day unless I lay with him. It meant that after 3pm I couldn't go anywhere in the car in case he dropped off and then he wouldn't go down at night. Out of the 2, I prefer ds2 sleeping. He's happier!

Have you tried a travel cot to put her in whilst taking a shower. Alternatively just put her in her cot and let her scream. You won't hear her above the shower noise. Or, let her take a shower with you?

You're definitely not alone in your problems, it's just too much to take sometimes but they soon grow out of it - then find something else equally annoying.

gosh. well here's some of what's worked for us, you may or may not have tried these but worth a go i suppose..

1- dd wouldn't take a bottle. started off with her screaming blue murder if she even saw one so i started giving her an empty one to play with. she was quite happy with a doidy cup for water at meal times so i added handles to the avent bottles so she understood it was like the same as the doidy cup. then she gradually would put the spout in her mouth if she held it herself. then we bit the bullet. i went out all day long, 9 til 5, and left dh with her and the bottle. she took it eventually. we gave up on all fancy teats and went with avent magic spouts and that was that.

2- we're doing blw too. some days she just isn't interested and just wants milk. i go with it. are you eating at the same time as her? does she see you enjoying your food?

3- tricky one. i have moved on from this since dd will now take a bottle. she only has bf first thing in the morning now. what happens when you aren't there? have you ever left her with someone else? have you tried a doidy cup, ie one without a spout? dd would never have a dummy, well, other than to chew on.

4- is she comfy? angled ok? straps ok? facing you? away from you? does she have toys to play with? dd loves her steering wheel thing from ELC.

5- best things i've found for bad days are baby einstein dvds (20 minutes of peace) and a treasure basket (basket of little things like spoons, string, ribbon, bells, not toys, dd likes to have a good rummage in that. keeps her quiet for a good hour). otherwise, what about getting some of her baby group friends over one afternoon? with the other mums there to watch dd, you maybe could grab a shower too? depending how friendly you are with them?!

6- if we're at someone's house over nap time i try to replicate her cot in one of their bedrooms. so i take her sleeping bag, and her nap toy. we have a routine of walking in slowly, drawing the curtains, zipping her into her bag, putting her toy next to her, go sssh sssh, she puts her thimb in her mouth and off she goes. other than that i do mostly try to keep naps at home..far easier.

7- hmm...i do showers in the evening when dh has got home. not a good suggestion sorry.

phew! i dunno if any of that helps but hope some of it does.

Both mine were exactly the same esp DS. It was a real struggle to get him off breast feeding and onto bottles. I just persevered. Give her a bottle, if she doesn't want it, distract her with another activity. Get her used to bottles during the day first then bedtime/night time. Agree don't worry about cups yet and she is too youne to be feeding herself regularly (DD now 21mnths and stll behaves like your girl at meal times, in fact DS is 3.5yrs and also crap at meals). Your girl is at peak clingy stage its draining but quite normal. Do what you need to do and ignore the crying and expect to have to include her in everything unless you have help. My kids rarely sleep alone eps in strange beds, have to rock them to sleep/ lie down with them to get them to sleep. DS also hated pushchair, kept walks short and distracted with box of raisins etc or carried him some of the way. It gets better all the time esp when they can walk and talk and amuse themselves more easily. Good luck, get some help, take regular breaks. J

Thanks macca. Think you've slightly misunderstood me on point 1 though - she won't take milk from anything except my breast. I would be happy if she would take from bottle/cup/beaker whatever, as long as it meant that just occasionally someone else could feed her.

On point 2, it's not just a case of refusing the occasional meal. She throws every morsel of food on the floor at nearly every mealtime, even if she does want to eat it. She can go for days with just eating a couple of mouthfuls of bread, or a carrot or a handful of peas. I keep repeating the blw'ers mantra of 'food is for fun until they're one', but she is nearly one, and it's hard to see things changing. This obviously doesn't help with point 3 either, as the less solid food she eats, the more I feel I genuinely have to feed her when she claws at my top.

Not sure what you mean by a dummy one - the teat of our medicine dispenser is like the teat of a dummy, but with a syringe part behind it which we plunger whilst the teat is in her mouth. Is this the type you mean?

We have a back carrier, but I don't find it that comfortable (dh does). I tried on one of the ergo carriers that everyone raves about at the babyshow, and it was the most uncomfortable thing ever!! Maybe my body shape doesn't work with them (significantly overweight, huge hips, huge boobs, small (comparatively) waist)?

I do occasionally put dd in her cot whilst I shower, but I was trying to find a way that made her happier about it as well as me! Don't think she'd like going in the shower - she's cried every time she's been sprayed with one whilst in her own bath (which she loves). She'd prob want to be held the whole time whilst in it, which would make it rather tricky for me to wash.

Sorry to sound so negative .

what do you do when she's throwing food over board? are you eating too? do you tell her off, ignore her, what ? is she picking up on the fact you are finding meals a chore with her?

Ah, more responses whilst I was typing to macca! Will see how much I can respond to before dd wakes....

dizzy - yes we've tried doidy cups. In fact we retried again this weekend. She threw it across the room. She does seem to like her cup, and is def used to it (it's this one ) from the water, but won't take milk from it.

Interested in your response to point 1 though. I was worried that if I went cold turkey on her to force her to take a cup, that I'd end up not being able to bf her anymore, as then she would refuse the cup again afterwards, and I don't really want to give up bf altogether yet. It sounds like you didn't find that to be the case though. Was your dd quite happy to drink from the bottle or breast after just this one day?

To point 2, yes, I eat with her and the same as her (I agree that this does seem to make a diff), and I def enjoy my food!!!

To point 4 - yes she's comfy/angled etc ok. She faces away from me (buggy doesn't go the other way, and not changing buggy on off chance as we live in extreme countryside, and mountain buggy is the only one that can cope well with terrain).

On point 5, we have a treasure basket (I started the thread about them on here a while ago), but it doesn't keep her entertained for any length of time. She just pulls things out of it then comes over to me and has a moan! We also have BE dvds, but again will only transfix her for a couple of minutes.

Ooh - think I hear her stirring, back later.

Thanks for all of your suggestions so far ladies.

Is she interested in food or does she not even give it the time of day and throw it immediately. ds2 constantly throws his food but it's more to do with throwing then looking to see where it goes. I still battle with ds1 at mealtimes, he's gone back to needing to be fed since ds1 came along. The times I chill out and not let it bother me are the times he behaves and eats.

Yeah that's the sort of medicine dispenser I meant. Have you tried the normal syringe, which you dispense inside the cheek towards the back of the throat? Have to say, ds2 hates both of these and spits them out. Will take the spoon willingly (not much use for yours though if she won't ake a spoon either).

I used to have to take an evening bath with ds1 for the very same reason!

we did the cold turkey thing once she was ok playing with the cup but just wouldn't drink more than maybe a sip without looking at me with those big longing eyes..am sure you know what i mean. and previous to this if i only left her with someone for say a couple of hours she'd sip a bit but wait for me to come home for a big bf. soooo, decided let's see what happens if she's left for a whole day. she takes plenty solids and as i say, has water from the doidy, so i knew she wouldn't starve or be overly thirsty. plus, i don't think one day with no milk would be so bad in the grand scheme of things. we had to try it.

csws - alot of this sounds like stress related worries as you are coping on your own alot of the time.

1. I used the avent spouts for the dds, and left them with their father. It may not be a fun day for your dp if you can do it, but she will not go thirsty if you aren't there and there is no other option.

(I haven't tried anything with ds, except for one attempt at cows milk when I went out. It kept him entertained but he didn't really take much)

1. I'm certain you are already doing everything right. Again she may eat more if you leave her, but I would just paste on that relaxed face, and try not to give her any sign that you are bothered. She will eat.

1. does she want feeding as much when you are out/with friends/toddler groups? If not, I'd go out more just to get her used to the longer breaks (I visited the library daily with dd2 when I was desperate)

1. Don't give the option. I'm very hard with this one as I rarely have the car, and need to get out. Strap her in by whatever means necessary and let her protest.

1. Don't know....

1. Really can't help here. DS sleeps in the buggy during the day, and as you know we have our own problems at night.

1. Bath instead, with her?

Shower before she wakes, so if you disturb her she is safe in cot?

Sorry. Probably no help at all, but lots of sympathy and a hug.

Not a lot of help, but babywhisperer and sensitive baby is surfacing in my memory - have you got the book?

If its any consolation I found dd a total nightmare between the ages of around 10m to 15m for much the same reasons as you (except for getting her off the breast which was fortunately not a problem!)

She still won't sit in a buggy and at 27 weeks pg it is harder to carry her (plus she is 19m now and heavy!) but fortunately she walks very nicely and doesn't run off for at least short spells. I just started only doing short trips with her unless dh is about to carry her, which is still all we can do!
Dd also ate very very little until recently, with only the odd good day, but she stayed healthy and gained weight so obviously it was enough for her.
She will also only sleep in her cot, so again I just never did any big days out but tried to organise little trips or classes around nap times. Dd will also not really entertain herself for long so we try to do lots of playdates/classes for my sanity more than her benefit.
I used to give dd a collection of coloured hair bands, hairbrush, etc to play with on the bathroon floor while I was in the shower. Toys would be instantly rejected but if it seemed like a forbidden object left around for her to "find" that usually kept her busy for a little bit. That and pushing bottles of shampoo over the side of the bath at me...

Most of all just remember it will pass. I spent a miserable summer as dd just seemed so difficult but most of that has changed now and she is a delight (mostly). Oh and dh is also useless and never home so I understand that too!

Hi ladies. Finally got time to sit down and catch up.

As if to show how contrary she is, she woke from her nap in a good mood and ate a hearty lunch!!! We then went off to Tesco, and she ate some of those organix sweetcorn crisp things going round too. On top of this she managed a little of a hummous sandwich and a strip of melon for tea.

Dizzy - I try not to react when she throws food. Sometimes I say lightheartedly 'oh dear, did you not want that bit then?'. I also ask her nicely if mummy can eat her food if she doesn't want it, and pick bits off her plate for myself, usually taking a small bite and then offering her the remainder, which sometimes she takes and sometimes she doesn't.

DH doesn't do so well on staying calm though, and his frustration is often evident. I don't think he managed to have enough patience to sit with us through an entire meal over the last 2.5weeks whilst he was home (except for when we had visitors over Christmas itself). Not sure if him bobbing up and down from the table would have helped (as then she couldn't see his frustration) or hindered. Have spoken to dh tonight (he's read this thread) and he has agreed to do the cold turkey thing for a day when I feel the time is right (as long as I don't go too far, in case he bottles it!!).

Jelley - thanks for the sympathy and hug! On point 3 - she usually goes longer between feeds when we are out. I might be coming to visit you as somewhere else to go then .
Had to lol at your response to point 7 - shower before she wakes - you know how little sleep I manage at night - do you really think I want less, and to second guess what time she might want to get up each day .

Flame - have bw - will dig it out and check out sensitive babies.

bobblehead - am sticking my fingers in my ears and going lah lah lah at the possibility that this could continue for another 4 months or so. We are also ttc again, so I could end up in much the same position as you are now! The one diff is that dd hasn't gained any weight for around 4 months.

Anyway - off to watch This Life now before I get too far behind (the joys of Sky+).

Thanks all, and do keep the suggestions coming if anyone has any miracle answers!

You're welcome here any time csws

Oh the showers - I'd be a mean mummy and put her safely in her cot and let her cry

Hi csws, on the eating thing - ds is 2 and has been fussy for about a year. It started at about 11 mths with refusing everything and throwing food.

we tried to separate the actual 'food throwing' bit from the 'trying to get some food inside him' thing, and when he went to throw food I'd persistently and patiently catch his hand and redirect it over my own saying "if you don't want it, give it to mummy". Took about a fortnight and when he realised we ignored food going anywhere else except in my hand (lots of praise) he stopped throwing.

As for getting food inside him...hmm well! He still has his moments but the things that worked best for us were:

1. ditch the high chair and anything else that makes it look as though you are going to try and make her eat
2. don't necessarily stick to mealtimes, try snacking, grazing, offering little things at odd moments
3. we put a tray of nibbles in the room where he was playing and let him get used to seeing it there. We'd take bits occasionally to show him what it was for. After a few days he caught on and would cruise by and take a piece every so often.
4. if there's a favourite thing she'll usually take, start with a piece of that before offering something else, to get her into "eating" mode
5. we would sit with him while he played, eating. He would drift over eventually to see what was so interesting, after all someone else's lunch always tastes better than your own!

6.ds also hated spoons but loved having a go himself. You might have already tried it, but clear the floor, sit her down and give her a pot of yogurt and a spoon (choose a very thick non runny one of course!). If you're lucky you can ride shotgun with a second pot and get the odd spoonful in yourself as well. ds loved the thing of doing it himself and was much happier when he felt he was controlling what he was eating.

I know loads of people say you should persevere with "proper" mealtimes, and that all these things are creating bad habits but to be honest, when you can't explain to a toddler who isn't properly communicating yet and you're desperate for them to just EAT something, then to us it felt better to be getting food in there somehow than not at all. Now that he is 2 and communicating better we are reintroducing sitting properly at the table etc and he's not having a problem with it.

One last thing - I used to give him vitamin drops on the days he hadn't eaten much to reassure myself that he was getting all the nutrients he needed at least somehow. I guess this might not apply as you are still bf'ing, but it made me feel better!

Good luck, it WILL get better but I know how hard it is at the moment.

Sounds to me like she is way too in charge and you need to get a bit tough with her - but depends how you feel about this.

1. My dd self weaned at 13 1/2 months so wasn't a problem (although I was also getting a bit fed up by then tbh). I started her on a beaker with EVERY meal from about 5 months and she didn't crack it until about 10 months so it takes a long time. Now she has all her drinks from that (and I don't warm her milk up either) - she doesn't have much milk but she is 91st centile for height and 75th for weight so they can actually survive without much - will refer back to that point. Ds refused all milk from 18 months and now only drinks yoghurt drinks or water. He is also surviving at nearly 3.........
2. Move her highchair into a different room, have music on, try to stay relaxed (easier said than done I know). Invite friends over with children the same age for meals (does wonders - sometimes). And, if she's having too much b/f she probably won't be very hungry - you might have to enforce her cutting down (see above). My friend had the same problem and had to drastically reduce her dd's milk intake to get her to eat. Give her very small amounts of food and give her more if she eats it. My dd freaks if there is too much and chucks it about - and she has a big appetite normally.
3. Can't help too much as I just stuck to a rough routine and didn't feed on demand past 3 months.
4. Put her in the pushchair and let her get used to it! I wouldn't put up with that myself. But if she is yelling all the time when she's in there I can understand.
5. If she doesn't like staying in, go out as much as you can. Let her watch baby einstein for 20 minutes to give yourself a break (if you don't do that already). I am much more relaxed about tv with dd as have had to be with ds around.

6.If you need to go for a day, go out. She will get used to it. Some days it will be awful and other days she will fall asleep when she eventually needs to. If you can't stand to do that, then leave going out for the whole day for now unless you really have to.

1. Put her in a playpen, with lots of toys, music etc and let her get on with it. She has to get used to you having a shower!

If you don't sort some of this out you are going to go mad! Good luck........

..thought of something else...

at around 1yr ds's sleep went totally wayward and on looking at his whole day we realised that what he needed was more physical activity. As soon as he started having at least 2 lots of running around a day (inc time at nursery, playing in garden, going to park, walking anywhere, climbing over piles of cushions at home if raining, etc) then he immediately started sleeping better, being generally more content, and also having a bigger appetite. Could this be part of it, maybe she's not doing enough physical stuff? How is she with walking and standing, is she doing/trying either? Approaching physical milestones often means they get more unsettled as they get used to mastering a new physical skill.

Thought it might be worth considering.

Evening ladies. Thanks for the new replies .
Will reply in random fashion....

kitbit - dd is very active. She's been cruising for 3-4 months, and took her first unsupported steps last week. She doesn't keep still at all (makes nappy changes and getting dressed more daily obstacles!!) and is sleeping much better at night recently (she was a dreadful sleeper previously) Her daytime napping is still erratic. Some days, like yesterday, she sleeps soundly for a long time (1 nap of just over 2 hours and a 30min nap in the car yesterday), and other days she is rubbish at it, and wakes obviously still tired, but refusing to resettle (10 mins in car this morning plus 1 hour this afternoon). Some of the result of this was for her to smear some of her dinner over her face tonight.

Someone was asking about how she throws her food. It's a number of different ways. Sometimes she'll be being really precise and going to pick up a piece of food, then suddenly she'll fling her arm and throw it behind her, or bang her arm up and down on the table whacking bits of food as she goes. Other times she'll wipe her arms like windscreen wipers over the table, sweeping off any food in her wake. She'll also often pick up a piece of food, take one bite out, then throw the rest on the floor, before reaching for another piece of the same (ie it's not thrown because she doesn't like it). If she has several pieces of the same food in front of her, then another favourite is to throw all bar one of them straight to the floor, and then pick up the last one to eat. Because of this one we now tend to just give her one piece of food at a time from her plate, which we leave out of her reach.

It isn't just food that she likes to throw. I took her to join the library today after Jelley's comment, and spent the time there picking up all the books that she was throwing off the shelves (and apologising to the mother of the girl who got hit by one of the books and started crying ). She then threw half of her toys out of the bath tonight. I'd assumed that this sort of thing was normal baby behaviour, but actually I never seem to see other babies doing it. Is it?

We do have friends over for meals sometimes. They are still horrified by how much dd throws, and she is much neater when they are here! We visited hub2dee recently, who also did blw, and Dee made lunch for dd. They did one of her favourites (omelette) and dd ate well and was less messy than normal. They said that their dd had never been as messy as that . Unfortunately a lot of our friends have gone back to work now, so we can't have them over very often (plus living in the middle of nowhere, they don't always want to travel to us).

kitbit - we can't really do the yoghurt thing as dd is milk intolerant, and soya yoghurts don't have the same nutritional benefit (everything soya has lots of sugar it seems). DD does feed herself with a spoon as long as I load it up for her, but as you say, it does need to be something that won't fall straight off, as the spoon tends to be inverted before getting to her mouth. We did porridge this way this morning. She tends to be enthusiastic for the first few spoonfuls (or mouthfuls if finger food), and then lose interest very very quickly.

I do prefer to do 'proper' mealtimes (as much because I have to eat too and she won't let me otherwise!), but I am trying to find more foods that I can safely give her to munch on whilst she's wondering around playing in the living room. She seems to have taken a liking to some of my home made bread recently (breadmaker for Christmas!), and I often leave the bits she drops in case she wants to come back and have another go at them later!

I'm going to take her to baby clinic next Tues (it's only on twice a month here) and get her weighed again, to see if she's managed to gain anything yet, and if not I will also talk to my hv to see if she has any suggestions to add.

will do better reply when more time, but just wanted to say although everything seems erratic and not structured at the moment don't worry, keep doing whatever works and bring some sort of order to it later! your dd sounds like a grazer, just like my ds, a bit here and there, a taste of about 6 different things each mealtime. If your main worry is getting the food in whatever way then don't stress about the "bitting and bobbing", just go with it and straighten it out later. we worked on getting quantity up and then when appetite had increased through grazing, putting grazing times closer together until we now pretty much have mealtimes! phew. It's tough but don't lose heart

Hi have skimmed through the posts so may be repeating some bits, but just wanted to say that your dd sounds exactly like my ds at that age (now nearly 3). He is also allergic to milk (and eggs and peanuts etc!) and would not drink at all apart from b/feeding. I also was at my wits end. At around 11 months I tried him on Goats milk, and that was the breakthrough. He loved it and from then on drinking out of a spouted cup or Doidy Cup sporadically was not a problem. (He never ever took to bottles). I really know how you feel, it feels like these particular problems will never end doesn't it! As for the, what seems like, constant obsession with boobs, again ds was the same. I started cutting out feeds gradually by using distraction as much as possible, but did not beat myself up if I gave in. About 19months and I had managed to cut out all feeds (comfort or otherwise)although he still has a manic obsession with them and is constantly plunging his hand down my top . That may just be a boy/comfort thing that boys NEVER grow out of!

Again sleeping was hideous and if he were to ever nap during the day it had to be in the car and then transferred to cot and then that was only from about 18 months. Before that I fed him to sleep (okay a no no in some trains of thought - but I was desperate!)

Showers - god, he still comes in the bathroom now. About once a fortnight I get someone to look after him whilst I have a bath on my own for an hour! Massive treat as a single mum!

With hindsight, I remember trying to do/expecting what the books/mags/HV all said but ended up with a ds with different expectations and me tying myself up in knots. Once I went with the flow abit, broke the rules (i.e. feeding to sleep etc) life was somewhat easier.

Not sure if any of this helps, just wanted you to know I have been there, I know what it is like and you are doing great.

Thanks BB. Is your ds ok with sheeps milk too? I tried some sheep's cheese on dd recently in case she was ok with that, but she still reacted I think (unless the sudden brief nappy rash was coincidence ). I guess the only way I'll know is to try out the goats milk too, so will pick some up next time I go shopping. Do you know if goats milk is nutritionally equivalent to cows milk?

Thankfully I've got out of the feeding to sleep routine now, and she's recently started sleeping through, so that is a big relief (used a bit of cc to help her along).

Much respect to you for coping with it all as a single mum. At least I get a little help at the weekends.

Boy often yells and hollers at me if i have to put him in cot or play pen for a bit while I take a shower, but gennerally stops after 5 mins, quicker if he finds his dummy in teh cot- hes not allowed it out of teh cot so its a treat in his eyes.
I have got good at fast showers and ignoring his shouting.
Can't comment on food, boy is a bit of a wolf. but with new stuff (satsuma this week)he is more interested if its something I'm eating.

hi there, do you have a CAT thing? or can you email me at the blog and i'll send you that answer-thing i was telling you about before...