June 10 babies are growing apace, teething and crawling all over the place.

[CantSleepWontSleep]

Here we are ladies. Let's see if we can manage to chat a bit more on this one :).

the good news meggy is that about 80% of children outgrow it by school age. Dd was ok from around 20 months (gradual introduction from then onwards). Ds1 has been able to tolerate some dairy from a similar age, but still doesn't drink cows milk (he's 2.8). And J still can't tolerate it at all, which is a shame as I'd really like some cooked cheese (am still breastfeeding so have to avoid it myself).

Hello and Happy Birthday to all those little ones how have turned or are about to turn 1. It certainly feels like time has flown here, although I find that I live my life in weekly increments at the moment and just hope that I achieve something by week end.

Zoe turned 1 on 5 June and we had a lovely day. I introduced her to cows milk and that has all gone well, but she settles much better with breastfeeding in the evenings while I read the boys stories. I've also found it really practical to be able to feed her when out and about on a whim so to speak. I had planned to stop at 12 months, but given it has been such a success this time and works for us, I thought I would keep going until it felt it was natural to end. Unfortunately - I have a recurring eye condition that flared up again after 4 years last weekend and was given some steroids and antibiotics last night to treat it. This means that BF had to come to an abrupt end and it was heartbreaking to have her look for the breast last night. She has been OK about it today, but I am dreading bedtime when I have to turn her away again. Also - doing it cold turkey like this is a bit uncomfortable, not unbearable, but I've heard it might get painful. I'm going to butch it out as it really is for the best, but I'm emotional about it all and just keen to put it behind me and enjoy the next year. 1 - 2 has been a very exciting year with both my boys, and so I know there is a lot to look forward to.

CSWS if you have any advice about stopping BF cold turkey like this, please share!

Meggy so lovely to have you back and to hear you've changed jobs and enjoying motherhood. This forthcoming year will be even better...

Hi dinosaurinmybelly, lovely to see you too. Your bf experience made me well up then , I so miss that closeness with Jimmy even 6 months on. I was lucky that I knew our time was up so I was able to give up gradually. It was more gut-wrenching for me than Jimmy though who frankly didn't seem that bothered which actually rather pissed me off .

As a result of the milk introduction, Jimmy's belly is still a bit off and his nappy rash reached a new level of sore yesterday which was upsetting all round. I've been recommended Metanium which I'd never heard of before, put some on him before work this morning and in the 20 mins it took me to drop him off at my mum's it had significantly improved. Miraculous! Hopefully it's not just superficial and it'll clear soon because it's breaking my heart to hear him in such distress. :(

Last but one day at work today... can you tell I'm busy?!

Dimb - what are the specific drugs? You may well be able to continue bf - people are so often told that they can't when they can! If you name them I can get one of contacts to check today for you.

Hi Meggymegs, great to see you back
DIMB I feel for you having to give up like that. I also thought I would have given up by this point in time but now have no idea how I would as Fergus is still very keen. Would be so difficult to just say no. Also I can never get him to drink much water or milk during the day so worry he woulld get dehydrated? Anyway hope it all works our okay for you.

Thanks CSWS I really appreciate you checking for me as I think exactly the same thing. DH is so cautious about everything and when I checked on google I couldn't find anything to persuade him. I'm on 60mg daily of prednisone and 250mg daily of Azithromycin. It has now been 48 hours and boobs are bad in terms of discomfort, but don't feel like they are getting worse now...

Dimb, I'm on my phone atm, but once I've finished feeding I'll find the site I used to use to check drugs I was taking. I was on loads of meds when pg with alice and kept feeding dd1 right through

here is the link to lactmed - A peer-reviewed and fully referenced database of drugs to which breastfeeding mothers may be exposed. Among the data included are maternal and infant levels of drugs, possible effects on breastfed infants and on lactation, and alternate drugs to consider.

I checked your drugs I personally would be happy to continue feeding given the information on there but you check yourself and see what you think.

DIMB - i would agree with greensnail. I also contacted the breastfeeding network & their pharmacist okayed drugs for me totake that every gp i'd seen had said was a no no when bf. such a shame for bf to come to an end before you are wanting to.
everyone else hi - I have been very absent on here but have been reading up just no time to post. After being really poorly with a very bad chest infection for 5 weeks luckily i was just about recovered enough to enjoy Lauren's bday on sunday. Had a lovely bday weekend &she loved it, has got very sociable & engaging lately so loved all the attention.
sleep is a nightmare at the mo, when i was ill I bfed her to sleep all the time as she wouldn't settle for dh, now predicatably she will only go to sleep if i bf her to sleep & is in our bed again. am dreading sorting this out as still not feeling great & so need what little sleep i can get. anyway she's crying so better gop

The Breastfeeding Network Drugs helpline is 0844 412 4665.

You can read about it (or show to DH) here

Just popping in....

from longstanding lll leader...
per hale 2006 it is L2, usually compatible with b/f, short term use safe. Azithromycin 'has an extremely long half life, particulaly in tieeues' but is still L2, however the predicted dose via milk [0.4g kg/day]would be much less than pediatric dose 1- mg/kg STAT followed by 5 mg/kg per da for up to 5 days.

I'm not entirely sure what all of that means, but I think it means that it's prob ok, esp with an older child rather than a newborn. How long do you have to take the drugs for?
If you do decide not to feed any more anyway, then you will need to express a bit of milk off for a while, gradually reducing the amount, or you will almost certainly end up with mastitis. Hand expressing may be enough, but if you have a pump then you may want to use it a little for a few days.

Thank you so much for the information everyone. Am off armed for discussion with DH..

Hello - DH argued that we had perhaps broken the back of the weaning by going 48 hours and I had to agree. The pain was tolerable and Zoe was settling into her bottles of cows milk. I have really gone through the mill though as there have been times when I absolutely long to feed here myself in the last few days. It has now been 5 days and pain is subsiding in the breast plus I still get to cuddle her tightly without her turning towards me for a feed. Eye doctor has actually switched medication which is also not working,so I am off to the consultant tomorrow to discuss radical néw treatment of injecting directly into the eye. Ugh!
Thank you so much for advice. I wish I had come straight t you on Tuesday and not been miss led by the doctor. I had a lovely experience with feeding this time and I totally put that down to the guidance I had on here...

hi all....are you still speaking to me? I keep promising to try harder with this thread, then fail to get online again for weeks....and my phone lets me onto facebook but not mumsnet...bah!

anyway, i cried this morning...Mia turned 1 today! Eek! How did a whole year go by so fast???

actually, we haven't told her its her birthday as we're delaying it until various family members are back in the country and we can have a little tea party (with her first slice of chocolate cake :) ) on sunday 3rd july...

ps we switched to cows milk a couple of weeks ago, and it went fine, but i did it 50/50 with formula for the first week or so. i think i did the same (50/50) with bm and formula when i stopped bfing a few months ago but its all a bit hazy....

pps mia started at nursery for 3 days a week last week as I was supposed to go back to work last week. she loves it, which is wonderful but also quite shocking given how massively over-attached she it (ok, she does scream when I leave, but i know it stops quite fast)...

ppps 'supposed to go back to work' because i have agreed an extention of unpaid leave to get me through the summer holidays...totally can't afford it (especially as the lovely nursery refused to delay mia's start date!) but the childcare was getting stupidly expensive and complicated and commonsense finally kicked in. on the downside, we're rather skint as i've never had nearly a year of unpaid leave before, but on the plus side i get summer with the DCs...hurrah! :)

Filly- I was wondering how things were going since your nanny problems. Ruth is the same when DH drops her at nursery- she screams as she's put in the highchair for breakfast, and as soon as she gets her toast she's happy for the whole day. She's on her second full day today, before I start back at work on Tuesday.

Far from relaxing, I am madly baking ready for her party on Saturday. Why did I think a hungry caterpillar cake was a good idea? I've already made 2 carrot cakes, a fruit cake, the two chocolate cakes are in the oven, and I need to buy more eggs before I can make a second fruit cake. Since both my brothers and both DH's brothers and their partners have all cried off, I'm not sure who will be eating all this cake! A barbecue should be simple, surely...

I'm avoiding discussing BF with DH. I think he's worried that still doing it now means that I'll still be doing it when she starts school! He asks every so often when I'm planning to stop, but I don't want to put a deadline on it. Although I might just tell him I'll stop when he agrees to try for another baby...

I hope it went well Barbeasty (the barbecue, not the emotional blackmail of DH!). No point stopping until at least one of you is ready if you don't have to

Enjoy the summer Filly! Personally after today I'm starting to dread it. Most things are fine, but if I ever try and give DD some undivided attention, Daniel just screams and roars. I just don't know how to handle it, especially as his nap finishes around quarter to twelve now. Between 12 and six thirty is a long time not to give a three year old any 'me' time. Today, I actually took her upstairs into my bedroom to read her one single story, with Daniel wailing at the downstairs stairgate it was so bad. If I try to sit next to her, or near her, or heaven forbid with her on my knee he just climbs on me, roaring and pushing her off. He's so easy otherwise, but this is really difficult.

Sigh. I can't build Daniel's birthday present. I'm usually pretty good at assembling things, but this has funny plastic bits on one end of each nut which seems to stop me being able to actually tighten the screw. Am I being super dumb? Is it obvious what I should do? I've just never seen them before an the instructions are in German. DH is away until late Thursday night so no help there (the big day is Friday).

So, what were the big hit presents, big or small? I may have to hastily rething his!

The barbecue went really well, thanks. And actually DH seems to be coming round to the idea without blackmail- although apparently I would have to make sure it was a boy

The wheely bug thing went down really well, although at the moment it's mostly used as a very maneouverable walker. The other hits were a paddling pool and plastic balls to turn it into a ball pit when the weather isn't like today, and a musical bath toy.

Just debating what to do with my last day off tomorrow before going back to work on Tuesday. And the big question of what to do with the left over cake. Even Ruth can't eat all that- it was over a metre long (DH says I went too far). We have a fruit cake, chocolate cake and carrot cake left. I think we'll be seeing how well it all freezes!

Do the plastic bits come off? No idea otherwise, but good luck! Have you googled to see if anyone has had the same problem and found a solution?

No idea about the plastic bits - sounds too complicated for me :) Alice's best birthday present was her activity table but maybe a bit better for the less mobile babies (she'd definitely lose the stair race!). Other bits that are still going strong from DD1's first birthday are the big bucket of wooden bricks, a ride on/ push along thing and this which I thought was a bit babyish when DD1 got it for her first birthday but both girls still love it now.

Barbeasty, your cake sounds amazing. Glad the barbecue went well.

Am feeling thoroughly exhausted at the moment and have the inlaws tomorrow to stay for a week. Have been cleaning most of the day but am sure the place will look like a pigsty again by the time they arrive and MIL will worry her baby boy isn't being well looked after

Lauren's favourite present was a Wow friction powered car that dd1 bought herIt has been a big hit & they have both spent ages playing together with it. She did have a few smaller presents of us but had a lot of " recycled " prese.nts that were dd1's. They had been stored round at in laws so she hasdn't seen them before & I know she didn't mind but I still felt a bit mean!
Oh crikey havocs breaking out this end with them , better go!

Well the bouncy castle wasn't the hit we hoped for, J screams every time we put him in. He's gradually getting better at it. The toddle truck is a big hit though - J is walking particularly well with it, but has trouble manouvering around corners!
My latest dilemma is working myself up to the next challenge of stopping daytime breastfeeds. I want to continue with morning and evenings, but plan over the summer holidays to phase out the daytime feeds. Anyone got any advice? The plan is to replace with cows milk (which it seems he's not intolerant to!)

Wow, barbeasty - that is some serious cake-making! I am impressed :) All cake freezes, dontcha know? Slice it up and separate the slices or sections with cling film, then you can just grab a couple of slices when you're off out on a picnic at the weekend....

We delayed Mia's birthday (she doesn't know she's 1 yet!) and are doing it with her party this Sunday. So far I don't have a card for her and am still thinking about presents...she's getting quite a few recycled things with new batteries but I did find this which I'm very excited to give her!

Any ideas for birthday cakes? I was supposed to be baking today but threw my back out last night so am stuck on the sofa....I was thinking either a chocolate caterpillar (but am worried it will look like a brown earthworm!) or just a pink number 1 with zillions of sprinkles that I can let DS and DD1 apply. I've got to make a big pirate ship for DS' birthday the following weekend so I can't spend too long on Mias....

Wow - am reallly impressed with all this cake making. Could you please direct me to a website or send me some tips for DS2's upcoming 3rd birthday. I normally make just a circular chocolate or vanilla sponge and drip some icing (badly) onto it, then a candle, but a pirate ship cake sounds amazing! And yes - I have frozen cake before and it does seem even more delicious when you grab it from the freezer as a treat for going out somewhere.

Well for anyone else who does have to stop BF cold-turkey, I can tell you that it took about 2 weeks for my boobs to even start to soften. Much longer than I thought, although thankfully the time passed quite quickly as I'm busy with so many other things at the moment. DS2 is in the midst of potty-training and I am stringing together the final details of our UK holiday (YAY!) in a few weeks time. We're off to the Lake District for a week and then to Dorset. I can't wait for my fix of all things British. Zoe was much neglected on the birthday present front. I'd kept all the favourite, durable stuff over from DS1 and DS2 and so she has pretty much everything. One thing we have started doing though which we are all enjoying as a family (and maybe LaTrucha your DD would enjoy with her baby brother) is to put on a playlist on my IPOD and bang some drums / shake some shakers. We do it after bath-time every night and it is a riot. Last night Zoe threw an egg shaker at her brothers and they rolled them / threw them back to her. She was a pretty good shot! It was brilliant fun, and I've been looking for music that I can enjoy too - Bob Marley and Ziggy Marley have been a big hit.

I'm very jealous Barbeasty that you have the go-ahead from DH to try again. Mine is resisting, and if I am sensible I too have to agree that we need at least a break right now to get a handle on the 3 we've got.

I don't suppose any of you remember but when I went into labour it started with hours of V+D from 1am on the 30th of June. 1am this morning D woke up with V+D. Spooky.

Might mean a pirate ship cake is beyond me today, but normally, I'd whizz one up in a jiffy

(how the hell do you do that?)

Pirate ships are amazingly easy....you need 2 A4ish size tray bakes: cut out two 'milk carton' shapes to make the main body of the ship, and layer with icing, then use the offcuts to build up the back end of the ship. Use rollos, chocolate fingers, maltesers to make cannons, cannonballs etc, and gold coins for booty. Sails are easy: print out some small skulls/pics etc and string them onto some bbq skewers. Lots of chocolate icing for the ship to make it wooden. Make some blue icing (or shake some blue dye into coconut) to make water around the ship....add some jelly fish. Oh, and pirate figures (playmobil/lego whatever) make a good touch. See here for loads of good ideas, pirate and otherwise. Enjoy :)
ps when I say 'easy' I still spend about 5 hours doing the icing and detail....