Still brooking no argument for sleep, glorious sleep!

[Stacks]

This will be the thread where all brooking babies learn to self settle and sleep through the night (the real version, not that 5hr at a time thing).

[GreenOlives]

Ouchy to sore nipples! Hope the brooking babies are less voracious with their feeding tonight! T has been fully on formula for the last few days so my boobs are a little sore but not too bad as we reduced the breast feeding really slowly. He seems very happy with his bottles which has helped ease my guilt somewhat! He has only been feeding once a night for the last few weeks but DS1 is still having really disturbed sleep and nightmares so we are up several times a night with him!
Have a fab holiday little! Hopefully J will be perking up nicely by now on the antibiotics.

[Stacks]

Just a quick post from me while DH has T in the bath. Does anyone else here have experience of allergies when weaning? T has come up in a rash after eating bread and unknown 'butter' and now a reaction to tuna mayo (the egg maybe?). It's "just" a red lumpy rash round his mouth/face (and wherever he smears it to, so his eye too today) the rash goes down after about 30m or so. What should I do? Take him to the doctor?

[Munxx]

Dd has a milk allergy which did manifest in lumpy acne type rashes as well as reflux/bowel problems/screaming. So yes possible. The gp will ask for a food diary so you could start one now to take? Maybe phone Hv tomorrow.

[EverythingIsTicketyBoo]

Sorry, no experience of allergies, just wanted to say brooking you get to the bottom of it and I would call the gp too. The food diary is a brilliant idea.

[DreamingOfAFullNightsSleep]

Yes, Dt2 gets worse exzema with dairy, uncomfortable, windy, whiney and frequently wakes at night. Sounds very much like food allergy/ intolerance, especially as
he has reflux doesn't he?


Dietician told me 1/3 of cows milk protein intolerant babies are soya intolerant and 1/2 (I think it was half...can check) are egg intolerant. Hence who my S is still dairy, soya and egg free
Luckily b ok with soya, not so sure about egg though has been ok with dairy free cake which contains some.

Sorry for my absence Brookers. I'm shattered. Not finding time to post. Had a horrendous day at work, felt truly intimidated and bullied by my new manager & spent the rest of the day/evening in tears

[Munxx]

Oh Dream that's rough. Sorry you've had a crappy day.

I forgot you had CMPI issues too. DD is OK with soya now but even the tiniest bit of dairy sends her doolally.

[ScrambledSmegs]

Yes, I'd go to the doctor. Egg allergies are surprisingly common in young children - a friend's DD had one but she grew out of it by the age of 5.

By the way, it really is worth baking your own bread for the little ones. One of the things that shocked me about bread was the list of ingredients in the shop bought stuff, and how much salt there is in it. if i make my own I can reduce the salt content to levels I feel happy with. It doesn't cost much either - I can buy 1.5kg of strong white flour from Sainsburys for 80p (the bread is fine from this), or decent organic stuff from amazon in bulk. I use a Paul Hollywood recipe (the old goat) and reduce the salt by half. Makes a great loaf.

So, turns out that I really need to give water with food for E2 or she gets constipated. Not pleasant. Even when she gets loads of fluids she seems to struggle a bit, the high chair is her favourite place to 'go' which always makes mealtimes very looooong. My god, the effort that she has to put into having a poo these days is hilarious, I've been considering taking her to Wimbledon to see if she's louder than Sharapova!

We're off to the British Museum tomorrow, E1 looks like she's over the pox but is still a little under par, so we're taking it easy. I'd hated every minute of this, i've not been able to really look after her as I'd like thanks to E2 demanding so much of me. My poor PFB :(

[DreamingOfAFullNightsSleep]

Well, 4 days ago Dt1 had one teaspoon of dairy and part of a malted milk biscuit. Today he had a malted milk biscuit (as per dairy challenge) . Diarrhoea and vomiting. Again. Really?! Assuming its the dairy, but will i really continue to find out? Ate pizza myself too as, ahem, part of the challenge and Dt2 accidentlly had a minestrone soup which contained cheese, and was v miserable so assuming his intolerance continues. Rargh!!!

[ScrambledSmegs]

X-post Dream. That sounds awful :(. Have a big (((((hug))))) from me, oh and some and [choc].

[EverythingIsTicketyBoo]

Oh Dream how awful for you, is there a top manager/hr department you can refer to? So sorry to hear about that.

Had a massive face/palm moment earlier. Popped off to Sainsburys to see if they had any shells (waste of time) but spotted the infacol while I was there. I realised K has Colic. She has had some infacol before her last couple of feeds and has been a bit calmer already :) off to get some colief tomorrow, I remember that working wonders with toddly boo.

Brooking for lots of sleep for all.

[DreamingOfAFullNightsSleep]

Oh smegs, that's hard. Know what you mean about not looking after how you'd choose :( . Incidentally, straining is Dt2's dairy intolerance. Dietician said he'd count straining and struggling to pass motions as a dairy challenge fail (along with his other symptoms too of course)

[DreamingOfAFullNightsSleep]

boo if colief helps, that's because it breaks down lactose . After speaking to specialist SLT and dietician, I'm not sure i believe in 'colic' any more, as in unexplained crying. I think there'll be a reason tries to break the broken record food intolerance drivel I'm spouting tonight

[EverythingIsTicketyBoo]

Ooh X posted with you all.



Sorry to hear the allergy issues are affecting move of you :(

I also know what you mean about the guilt Smegs I remember before K, if toddly was poorly it was wall to wall hugs and mummy time, all different for him now :(

[EverythingIsTicketyBoo]

Really Dream? Hadn't realised that's what it does. I will keep a close watch on how this goes for her! Thank you and I don't think your obsessive at all :)

[Munxx]

Boo if you we having a nightmare getting shells I am more than happy to send mine? They are the Phillips Avent ones (have two different types in the pack, one for collecting milk and one for protecting your nipples).

dream it's a nightmare with allergies. DD has had a reaction this week I am wracking my brains as to what she has had. The nappies are something else.

smegs I am in total awe of your home made bread. I am lucky if I remember to buy bread and milk!!!

Remind me why the small age gap thing is good again.....;)

[Munxx]

And I totally get what you mean smegs sometimes I am irrationally angry with DS because I feel DD doesn't get my best due to him being so very demanding.

[EverythingIsTicketyBoo]

Oh it's ok Munxx, it is small town living that's the issue, I'm off to a bigger town so I'm sure I will be able to get some. I might let you know if I'm struggling though.

[ScrambledSmegs]

Yeah, it sounds like I'm a domestic goddess, right? . Whereas what I actually do is make up some dough at night and bung it in the fridge, covered, till the morning. Quick knock back, shape and prove for an hour or until I remember and we're good to bake. Really, takes me about 5 minutes. There's very little work involved.

I didn't know that about dairy intolerance making them strain. The thing is, we've not had any signs of intolerances so far, she's never been colicky, so I do wonder if it's just that she ate so much in solids, so quickly. She's loving all the new foods. And I probably haven't been drinking much water recently, I've been neglecting myself a little. I have a stye that won't go, I'm so run down :( so depressing.

Dream you have got me thinking, I will keep a close eye on her diet and see if dairy is causing her issues. I know bananas certainly bung her up something chronic! You've got a very good point about 'colic' - it probably is a whole raft of different issues blanketed under that catch-all term.

boo I hope the soreness abates soon. It's so horrible when their latch is bad. E2 has taken to chewing me recently, that's been fun

Munxx - er, because we get the toddler years over quicker? I'll probably turn to by the time I'm 40 though, and I'm saying that as practically a tee-totaller. I love them to bits, wouldn't be without them, am thankful for them every daybut it's so damn hard.

[DreamingOfAFullNightsSleep]

The paeds dietician and my paediatrician friend both told me intolerance usually produces diarrhoea, but can also cause constipation. The term "colic" kept both my babies screaming for hours a day undiagnosed for months. B's only symptoms of dairy intolerance are irritability, reflux, poor sleep, wind, straining to pass motions. He never went days without pooing, but might have gone bright red and been straining 3-4 times before managing to pass a small, hard motion. Mild exzema. He never had weight gain issues either. S is different, he is getting repeated episodes of d&v, reflux which is now quite heavily medicated (b has no medication, is fine with dairy free diet alone) ?? poor weight gain. Only tracking it every 3 months as that's what the dietician recommended but certainly v slow compared to b. B put on 250g in 6 weeks, s put on 80g in the same time. no skin issues. So it presents so differently. I don't think every baby out there will have food intolerances, clearly, but it wasn't on my radar at all. And even though b was refluxy, and we knew that, it still took us til 11 months to have s diagnosed!!! He has his paeds appt Monday, thank goodness :)

Could well be sheer volume and guts getting used to IT smegs, let's hope so as exclusion diets are a PITA And still sounding like a domestic goddess to me for getting round to it at all! Was fishfingers and chips all round at ours last night...

[Stacks]

T is asleep.

In his cot.

In the daytime.

[EverythingIsTicketyBoo]

Stacks that's brilliant!!

[DreamingOfAFullNightsSleep]

Quick, stacks, come round here and sort S out!! Well done you

[Stacks]

We only got 40 mins out of him in his cot as the builders started up next door. Still, I now know its possible. I also got 2 hours tonight of T in our bed while I was downstairs knitting. It's the first real evening I've had in months :)

It's not as easy to put T down for a nap as it is to hold him, but I think 10-20 mins isn't as bad as some. We're getting less crying now each time, though I'm still pretty much sneaking away once he falls asleep rather than a real "self settle".

Just need to work on the overnight feeds. We were 2 hourly last night. Hoping for a 4hr stretch again sometime [dreams happily]. Right, T is asleep in bed with me so I should take this chance to sleep too. Catch up more tomorrow.

[ScrambledSmegs]

What is this 'self-settle' of which you speak? The boob-monster here laughs in the face of self-settling. Or rather, she screams till she's puce...

[Stacks]

I've paid for my good evenings with awful nights. I'm going to try go dairy and egg free in my diet, as well as T's, and see if that helps.

Last night we had full on intense screaming from T just a minute or two after waking. Usually he'll wake and wriggle around to wake me before making a small noise and escalating till I feed (if he's hungry) or he falls back asleep. He wasn't hungry as I'd only fed him and hour or so before hand. He settled back to sleep on the breast but is like to know what woke him like that. The whole night then was bad sleep, 2 hours was the longest stretch, mostly it was less, and I fell asleep feeding most times because he wouldn't break the latch and sleep. Awful night :(

I just want to know what's up with my baby. Sometimes I'm certain he's in pain from reflux, other times I just wonder if its bad behaviour and we need to sleep train. My certainty either way is short lived and I just live in a cloud of doubt :(

So, this is it. Dairy and egg free for at least the next couple of weeks after brownies and ice cream for lunch. If things improve I'll try a day of exposure and see if it effects him and gives me a definitive answer. Also off to dr about his reactions to food so far and see if we can get allergy testing done.

Dream what were you advised about allergies? Ie nuts - should I try him on them, or avoid other allergens till he's tested?

Smegs self settling is a myth. T seems to give in mostly from exhaustion. I have to keep my hand over his face till he falls asleep, usually a hand behind his back too to keep him on his side and make him feel close and cuddled.

Sorry to not catch up more. I'll try and get on the laptop for a while today. DH has organised for a friend to come over and play games, least I can get is a bit of time guilt free on the laptop right?