Oct 08 - On our way to the terrible twos! Noooooo we're not ready!

[50ftQueenie]

Here we go ladies.....At the speed we've been moving it might be the terrible twos thread! It's the final count down.......

We used a potette when out and about hmm. Highly recommend getting one. We still keep it in the car even now just in case (though prob in the wrong car now ).
Dd has never wet the bed (was dry at night by no more than a month after daytimes), so not something I've ever really thought about. One mattress on top of another sounds like it would just ruin 2 mattresses instead of 1 though!!

cf - meant to say that we frequent wimpole, so do let me know if you ever want to meet up there.

Oh definitely CSWS - it took us less than an hour to get there and I loved it there.

Hello again HMM. I'm afraid I've got nothing constructive to add to the potty training discussion - we're nowhere near that stage yet. Good luck though!

I was close to tears of frustration last night trying to get the cover off our ridiculously complicated car seat. I was trying for about 45 mins and have had to admit defeat and now I can't get the bloody straps back on properly. Grr! Why do these things have to be so complicated (bugaboo also springs to mind here...).

Pistachio - I meant to say sympathies for your awful trip to Stirling Castle. Sounds like an ordeal.

And Star - are you back at work now? We never did sort out our meet up did we...

Oh yes indeed Myjob. M's poos are still horrible. I am still convinced that she has an issue with dairy, but only very mildly and the only person it effects is me! In fact I just changed a hideous one. 'Toddler diarrhea' is usually due to undiagnosed dairy intolerance so it makes sense. DS is over the 'why?' stage but I could still do without M starting it now! She's not too bad with it at the moment, but she must have asked me why about 4 times while I was cleaning her nappy.

50ft - I found that when S was drinking cows milk his poos were horrendous. I've switched to giving him goats milk, and it seems to be better. We couldn't get it while we were on holiday and he was on regular milk and they went back to hideous again, so I do think it is something to do with the milk. He still eats cheese and yoghurt made from cows milk but somehow seems to be able to digest them better than straight milk. Have you tried goats milk. I did hope with would help his excema as well but I don't think it does.

How are all your dcs getting on with food at the moment? S is suddenly much fussier and refuses all kind of things that he used to eat. I assumed it was just a phase and wasn't too worried until I saw a friend's older children recently (6 and 5) and they're still really, really fussy. I don't want a child who will only eat peas and sweetcorn!

M is fussier, but not fussy. DS will eat almost anything! It probably is a phase. I'm pretty sure DS went through it too. I thin the outcome depends on whether you pander to their fussiness or not.

M has 5 teeth coming through, all 4 canines and 1 back molar. She's not made a peep about it. Lucky us!

I think you're right 50ft that it probably depends on whether you pander to it. I'm not sure how far to go though. For example at lunchtime I'd made a lentil and roasted red pepper soup. I thought S would probably be a bit fussy about it so I served his with cheese on toast instead of bread. He had a about 2 mouthfuls of soup then wouldn't have any more, but did eat all his toast.

For dinner we had curry (very mild, with peas in which he loves). I gave him what we were having but also gave him some corn on the cob as well. He ate the rice, chapatti, corn and a few peas but wouldn't really eat the curry. He had fruit and yoghurt for pudding.

Do you think it's ok to just keep giving him what we're having with an additional something that I know he likes (cheese, sweetcorn etc)? Or do you think that's pandering? I'm curious to know from those of you who've gone past this stage how you handled it. He'd eat jacket potato with cheese and beans or fishfingers or pasta all the time and of course I do give them too. I just don't want him to only eat those things.

That is helpful for me, as well. (thanks pistachio) We have the same dilemma, cf.

I give "sides" with his dinner and if he chooses not to eat his dinner then he will eat the sides... but I had wondered if that was pandering to his fussiness? I guess it's not, then?

Last night I gave him simple pasta with tomato soup (with veg mixed in) - which he LOVES. On the plate on the side he also had cheese and bread. He ate NONE of the pasta... wouldn't even touch it. He had a slice of cheese (very small one) and a bite of bread and a few sips of milk. I had to bin his dinner, which made me really :(

I then still gave him his yogurt and fruit for dessert.

Some people say to not give the dessert if they haven't eaten their dinner... but I think I read on here somewhere that this is not what you should do because no food should be seen as a reward for eating other food...
On the flip side, I feel like if I keep giving fruit and yogurt after dinner, he might just always wait for that and not eat his dinner...

Thanks Pistachio - That's really helpful. It takes a massive amount of energy to organise menus to suit everyone (and at the same time avoiding topping up at the shops each day) doesn't it! Do you menu plan for the week? I did for a while and found it really helped, but I've somehow fallen out of the habit and am now ending up constanly popping to the new (and really expensive) Sainsbury's Local down the road.

I'm not worried about S being under-nourished or anything, as he eats plenty from each of the food groups (yesterday wasn't a great example), but there's just not a massive amount of variety in it.

My niece never ate fruit (among other things) as a child and it always became a bit of a thing - Oh, xx doesn't eat fruit, so no-one ever offered her any and now at the age of 15 she eats a very limited diet and is scared of trying new things. I just don't want S to be like that.

I let Q have choc, sweets and cake WAY more than I ever thought I would... remember? but, he eats plenty of healthy food each day and organised over a week, he gets plenty from every food group. I will ignore and avoid the choc thread... (but nosey curious now).

CF I don't think that S will end up like that! Just keep having him try new things and he won't be afraid of food. I would never delete something from Q's diet simply because he went through a phase of not eating it. Especially not fruit/veg.

A friend of mine knows a little girl who only eats white things. The nutritionist they saw evaluated her racist selection of foods and decided that, actually, she was getting everything she needed from her "selection". Amazing.

I wouldn't call hummous white. But lychees are, and they are about the only fruit that dd will eat! She will sometimes eat green grapes or a banana, but not reliably. She will eat other fruits if they are dried and turned into a humzinger first though . I have no idea why she is so fussy. Ds on the other hand will eat just about any fruit.

cf - your 'sides' sound ok to me, as he is mostly having what you do, and the sides are generally just a slight tweak to something you are having. What you don't want to do is to get into the habit of always having to cook something extra.
Despite dd being a pretty fussy eater I still only cook one meal for everyone, with the slight exception of me sometimes offering her a sausage when we are having other 'proper' meat. She is starting to try some meat now though - has had some slow cooked lamb and some fillet steak recently.

at racist food.

I once shared a house with a girl who only ate yellow food. She looked really unhealthy, but that could have been down to all the fags and booze, I suppose.

S does an odd thing. He'll often ask for a food, e.g. carrots, but when I give them to him he'll spend ages putting it in his mouth and touching it with his tongue before concluding that he doesn't like it. But he keeps doing it with the same food. I'mhoping that his will mean that he'll come round to them eventually if I keep trying.

I'm ashamed to say that I haven't started Shredding. I'm going to visit my parents this weekend so I'm going to take it with me and get my Mum and Dad to look after S while I do it.

I haven't been doing it reliably as I'm back at work now, so life is much more difficult. I also (like you I'm guessing cf) don't have a lot of space in a 1 bed flat to be by myself and do it. I'm almost never alone. I'd be fine doing it with just Q there, but I don't want to be doing it with DH there.

my dh exercises outside - running, basketball...etc. and if I was shredding, he'd be either sitting on the floor playing with Q or similar. I don't mind running outside or exercising in a gym with lots of others doing the same, but I don't like it when someone is just there watching and not moving.

SO there was a pigeon (a stuffed, science pigeon) on the table of birds today in the science lab - kids were looking at all animals and drawing conclusions about different groups...etc in a guided inquiry process - well, this kid (only been in UK for a few weeks, from the US near NY) sees the pigeon and shouts, "that's a... that's a new York bird!" LOL.