Post-grad Brookers, over here! We will Brook No Argument that all Mini-Brookers sleep 12 hours a night and behave angelically during the day

[TooImmatureTurtleDoves]

Over here!

Wants that sounds awful. Poor little D. I'm the same as you Biscuits, overly terrified about the choking with BLW. I had a moment to myself in the clinic today when I overheard a HV giving advice to a new mum who was concerned that her 29 week old DD would only eat purees and keeps choking on even the slightest lump. Along the lines of "your DD is very clever and lazy and knows that if she chokes you won't make her have the lumps any more and she can keep having the easy to swallow pureed food. Next time it happens don't give her anything else instead and make her wait until the next meal. She'll soon stop choking" Yes, I'm sure a 29 week old baby is clever and lazy

When DS was 1 and he was still choking every time I tried to give him lumpier food the HV told me not to worry and to give him purees and just keep trying to introduce lumpier food and as long as he was eating something not to worry about it. How times have changed! They really seem to be pushing BLW these days which was considered a new faddy thing when DS was being weaned. I guess knowledge and research gets better all the time but I was a bit annoyed she didn't offer the poor woman any other suggestions.

I will persevere with finger food more this time and get a grip on the choking anxiety but I won't get in a state if DD ends up having pureed food. It's not done DS any harm.

Wants poor you and DS! I hope he's over it today, poor little man, how scary!

Scarlet I don't have any experience with weaning but that sounds like incredibly dangerous advice the HV gave that woman! The whole reason BLW is supposed to be safe is because the baby controls what goes into their mouths, and they have to learn to move food around their mouth before they can even get it to the back to swallow it. All this extra control means they're less likely to choke. The problem with purees (according to the blw enthusiasts) is that the parent determines how much food goes into the baby's mouth, and babies suck the food off the spoon rather than "biting" off a chunk. When they suck the puree it slides straight to the back of their mouth and if there are any lumps and the baby isn't ready for them, they'll choke. Am I making any sense? What I'm trying to say is I think there's a much higher risk of choking with lumpy purees than there is with blw. I haven't started yet though, so it's all just theoretical for me at the moment!

Also, I've heard some people call blw a fad before, but it seems to me like it's just a very old idea repackaged? BLWers are trying to make it new and exciting but reading the guidance I think it's a bit like someone trademarking an existing product! Finger foods have always been given to babies, the only difference with blw is their fanatical obsession with not spoon-feeding the baby AT ALL In the past people would give young (3 months ish) babies porridges and other more liquidy foods, and by the time they were 6 months old they'd be getting regular finger foods. I suspect that our no-nonsense older generations (who didn't have blenders) would have wanted to move away from feeding babies their own special meals as quickly as possible, so babies would have been given bits of the rest of the family's dinner from quite early on. All just conjecture though, and I'm definitely NOT trying to push blw on anyone! Personally I'm planning to pick the bits I like from spoon feeding, and the bits I like from blw, and just muddle on through!

RubberBullets, thanks for thinking of me! Yes, that idea does really appeal to me. I've just got my public liability insurance, and will start advertising as a private teacher this week I hope. I'm not sure I could necessarily run a group like that with Isabelle though - what if a child required medical attention? Or if she was playing up? Difficult! It's definitely something I'd like to do in the long term though. There is a local baby song class, that I'll go along to in a couple of weeks. However, I'm wondering if I could set up small private classes - 30 mins or so at my house, like a music lesson but for a small group (and therefore a lot cheaper than a music lesson) for certain ages, where Isabelle would fit in? Hmm! Worth thinking about :) Would need to ensure my living room (or the musicy bit) was covered in lots of soft floor bits and bobs, and was truly baby proofed!

Sorry to hear about all the non sleeping baby brookers :( Dream, hope the CO has some words of advice? Iz is getting a bit better. Woke up three times in the night, but only needed settling (feeding!) twice. Sadly I hardly slept all night - bleh.

Still surrounded by teething sadness here. Sometimes she'll be absolutely fine, but 5 minutes later trying to shove everything in her mouth and is inconsolable. We're supposed to go to London 3 times over the next fortnight, which could be interesting...

Really interested by all the weaning chat - I can't wait to get started with it! Iz nearly got a taste of a lump of vegetable lasagne off of a friend's plate at yesterday. She watches me eat, and what I eat... so I think by the time she's ready (she's 3 1/2 months) she'll be desperate to join in!

I seem to have someone else's baby today! He has gone 4 hours between feeds and hardly any sick!:)

of hardly any sick. I gave M some cooled boiled water in her new sippy cup thing and it proved too difficult for her to get any out, so I let her drink from my glass of unboiled tap water and she's just thrown up masses of watery sick. Still, she loved drinking from the glass, even if it did mean changing her clothes after she spilt water all down her front.

Musical, how many teeth has Iz got now? Hope she stops teething soon and gets a break.

Ok spoke to soon, D has just fired milk out of his nose( proud mummy emoticon!)

Scream I know what you mean about it being repackaged, I have some of my old baby photos where I'm covered in food and holding fistfuls of it. I'm hoping to be more successful with DD this time as I understand the logic behind it, it makes perfect sense. I did borrow the book when DS was a baby and tried several times before giving up with it. I have friends who raved about it for their DC and it is so much easier. I was PBF enough to be up til midnight pureeing every fruit and vegetable that was available in the shop. I just had the baby who wouldn't just choke on lumpy food, but would also choke on toast, biscotti, even those Organix baby crisp things. We had a lovely HV with him who came to our house at mealtimes a few times to observe him eat. She suggested that he had enlarged tonsills as the gagging was so bad which actually made sense as he did have tonsillitis 4 times within his first 2 years. The GP thinks he might have grown into them now as he's not had it for over a year (touches wood) and has no problems swallowing anything now.

The reason I was soooo annoyed this morning though was because this HV suggested nothing alternative, just more or less said that any other way of feeding the baby was bad and to only offer food in this way. Without even seeming to consider that it was only the 3rd week of weaning, any possible health reasons or offering to observe. She even said to not offer her as much milk so that she would be hungrier for the food and less likely to play up. Her words "you have to be tough with them" I'm pleased that the mother seemed to have switched off from the conversation once it became obvious she wasn't saying anything helpful. I kept schtum as I realise my experience and opinion is from having only 1 DC and although we found a way which worked for us, it wasn't necessarily the right way.

Re weaning, we just gave DS some pureed banana and he seemed to really like it. It's messy though - he kept grabbing the spoon and chewing on it, then dropping it. Tried handing him one spoon to hold while we fed him with another but he kept getting hold of whichever spoon we were using. He's only 22 weeks so I'm looking forward to when he's old enough to have bits from our plates as well!

I think DS may be teething, too. He's uncharacteristically whingy, anyway! Wish I knew what to do. I offered him a cold teether but he lost interest after a bit and just kept whimpering. He's also refused to nap in his cot this afternoon - he's using my boob as a dummy now though and I don't want to lay him down in the cot in case he wakes up and starts whinging again. :(

Dream did you manage to speak to the CO?

Hope everyone has a good night tonight.

We had a much better night - one feed at 2.30 and up at 6.15. As of yesterday for both naps and bedtime no more feed to sleep. I feed her, wake her up, do more calm books/playing then bedtime with two comfortors, a ewan the sheep and a dummy. It goes much better at nap time. Bedtime a bigger battle.

However. It is happening!

A has been on the 7 month stage 2 pouches or slightly lumpier homemade purees for a 3-4 weeks now. Fingers crossed all going ok. She can also manage finger food but she forgets about it being food and just bashes it a lot...

I do hope that woman ignored that hv scarlet!

Too - they can have normal tap water from six months I hope. We're off to Italy soon for a week and I need to make sure I boil it for her there! With dd1 I took bottles of heinz baby juice thing in my suitcase as I was all pfb but I just dont think i'll have the suitcase space this time although will probably buy masses of the stuff at boots airside.

Oh good, thanks Pomme. I was a bit worried because M kept on throwing up watery sick. Plus she hasn't pooped today for the first time in her life, and squalled loudly for a large portion of the evening. Think the squalling was because I ballsed up her nap - she had her morning nap, woke up at about 12.30, and we went out with the dog at around 1.45. She fell asleep on the way home for maybe 20/25 mins, so refused to fall asleep at 3ish. Then at quarter to 5 she totally lost the rag and howled and howled until I put her to bed. When she woke up at quarter to 6 I didn't try to put her down again, as I normally would with naps to get as much peace as possible, just got her up. So she was grumpy and tired, and started to cry again at 6.30. I tried to put her to bed as usual and she went ballistic and screamed and screamed. She's definitely got DH's Welsh choir lung capacity. DH and I spent the best part of an hour soothing her and generally getting her to stay calm until she was hungry enough to feed to sleep properly. So no more weaning attempts this evening - will try again tomorrow, having found some frozen broccoli in the back of the freezer.

Am scared of the very idea of teaching M to sleep without being fed to sleep first! Go Pomme, go Pomme!

Scarlet, at the HV saying 'you have to be tough with them'. At 6 months or less? Get a grip. Babies are not intrinsically evil! And they do have to learn to eat from and with a spoon too. You can't exactly do BLW with yoghurt/porridge/soup or anything runny. Stupid bint.

Oh yoghurts are a big no no Too according to this HV. They encourage lazy eating as there is nothing to chew . You know what, the more I think about this woman I'm wondering whether to make a complaint even though it's none of my business. She's annoyed me that much.

Great news re the better night Pomme. Brooking for another. Same for you Too and of course Dream.

We have teething signs here also, but no actual teeth coming through yet.

How's the weaning going Biscuits?

Gosh, imagine having food that does anything other than make your child chew . I mean never mind nutrition or filling them up, eating is all about chewing of course

That HV sounds like a liability. Soup is henceforth banned in this house as it doesn't create enough challenges for us. Unless I give ds1 chopsticks to eat it with.

Just did a bit more baby rice today Scarlet - going for sweet potato tomorrow as am cooking some for a fish pie. Might try spooning a bit or letting him stick his hands in it? Don't know. Maybe I should give him a lump to look at before I mash it for the pie?

I have a genuine question about BLW. They say that it's about a baby learning to manage their own appetite / feeling of being full etc. isn't it possible that in fact they stop eating because they're tired / fed up of doing something that's hard rather than actually full?

Not that it matters really as they mainly
Get their calories from milk but isn't that a possibility?

Just wondered......

Isn't it crazy how hvs can vary so much, even in the same clinic! I usually have a lovely one who doesn't preach but makes suggestions. I overheard her yesterday talking to a lady who wanted to wean at 4 months. She gave some really good advice for her to think about but didn't say "no you can't".
I am sitting here on my own! Everyone else is still asleep! I have got loads of jobs done. I have to pick up a few things at the supermarket this morning and then I am meeting up with some local mums for a coffee:)
biscuits I agree with your BLW comments. I think getting the balance between letting them explore food and giving them calories is quite tricky! I will still be spoon feeding some foods(things that would normally be on a spoon IYSWIM) and then offering things off my plate as well.

Ps, don't tell anyone but I had a yogurt last night

Here's a question for you. My lip feels a bit funny. For the last day or two I've had a little bit on my lip that feels a bit numb / pins and needles-y. It kind of feels as though it's got some anaesthetic on it or something, or as if the feeling is just coming back after anaesthetic.

What do you think? Should I be worried?

After 4 weeks of sleeping through the night most nights, dd decided to not bother sleeping at all last night. DH usually sleeps with her but he wanted a night off so I did it. All bloody night she was kicking her legs so just bang, bang, bang constantly. I have decided never to sleep with her again.

She has also learned to grab things and keeps pulling her dummy out and then crying cos she doesn't have it

That sounds weird, Biscuits. Cold sore? I've never had one so I'm not sure what they feel like. Maybe it's just one of those weird things bodies like to do to freak us out. I was slightly deaf in one ear all week and couldn't work out why - it wasn't sore, it just felt blocked - and then yesterday it suddenly went back to normal without fanfare. Brooking that your tingle will vanish without trace! That sounds wrong, but you know what I mean!

How dreadfully lazy of you to eat a yoghurt! How dare you eat food that you don't have to chew? Words fail me. I'm disappointed in you. I had Greek yoghurt for breakfast

HV = waste of space.

Due to M's meltdown yesterday we didn't do any more weaning, but I plan to be more organised today and give her some broccoli from the back of the freezer. [PSB emoticon]

Just once, just once, I would like to have a shower without M dissolving into tears as I put conditioner on my hair and proceeding to wail the whole time I'm rinsing it.

Oh god! I can't remember if I rinsed the conditioner out of my hair....

Just came across this and wondered if it might be of any interest to anyone who liked the Tripp trapp highchair but thought it was a bit ££££. No idea how good the chair or website are so would need a bit of research but thought the price looked good (although on the front page of the website it says RRP is £70, on the item page it says RRP is £50 )

Does this look like a genuine one?

biscuits - I never understood the whole thing about bottle feeding and spoon feeding meaning they ate more than they wanted. both mine have been quite adept at telling me when they've had enough!!

Rubber that doesn't look like my Tripp Trapp, I'm a bit as to whether or not it's genuine. The shape of the legs, and the bar holding them together looks right, but the backrest is very different and the front bar is also an odd shape. There shouldn't be a fabric strap in the middle at the front, the genuine babyset is wholly plastic. I'm not sure if it's just an earlier model though? Maybe the main part of the chair is real and they've bought a different baby adaptor?

at Too and Biscuits with their lazy yoghurt habits! Personally I like to put lumps of concrete in my yoghurt, just for the challenge

Now at the risk of jinxing myself, can I just whisper that since I've started putting DD in her big cot every night she's slept for at least 5 hours straight each night. Most nights it's more like 7 or 8 hrs, and even 9 hrs fairly often. Sadly my body hasn't caught up with this yet, so I can't get to sleep for hours after she's down, and when I finally do sleep I wake up a couple of hours later needing to pump Still, it's very exciting! I'm hoping the regular ff will decrease my milk supply just enough to let me get through the night without pumping soon. Not-so-D H is still sleeping in the nursery, so she's not alone. When we move to my Mum's after our hol can't wait can't wait can't wait the flat we'll be in has only one bedroom but it's huge so I'll be able to keep DD in the same room as me but still in her big cot - yay! Soooo looking forward to having my Mum and sister in the same house, and carpets in the front room for DD to learn to sit and crawl! I'm even going to a trial session of a baby music class near my Mum's house on Thursday, so I can sign DD up for some local activities.

Re the Tripp trapp rubber I think it might just be a really old one? Ie seen them like that at the back hit its an old design I think. Our babyset does have a leather strap between the legs I think (although we haven't got it back put of the loft yet so can't be 100%). The bendy seat level looks weird though? Not seen that I don't think? Maybe it just looks weird in the photo?

Gah! I don't know what is wrong with ds1 at the moment. He's been so whingy and moany the last few days and I've just had to drag him out of next to give him a time out in the middle of trying to pay for my shopping because he was just constantly being so annoying (pulling my handbag down, picking things up etc) I couldn't actually pay for the flipping shopping because I kept having to tell him to stop whatever he was doing and he just wouldn't stand still and let me get on with it. I think pre-school will do him the world of good when it starts again tomorrow. Or it will do me the world of good