September 2014 - Into the new year!

[RedToothBrush]

Shiny New Thread for a Shiny New Year.

kitkat you must be getting frustrated, I get pissed off at dh when he has a cold he is just so annoying!

KitKat not surprised you're frustrated, hugs

Random question but do any of your babies have crusty bits behind their ears? Dd has just developed them and no idea what to do!?

Inbl00m - Yeah, we get crusty in all the folds (behind ears, neck, arm pits, behind knees, thigh creases - DD is very chunky!). It's usual, all mine have had it at some point as babies. Worth checking other places because if she's getting it one place it may well be elsewhere - bend her neck right back and check the neck crease under her chin.

It's from dampness gathering. Around the head it's likely to be milk that's posseted, elsewhere it will just be sweat.

Once you notice it try and keep it clean. Dry it well and use barrier cream. We do a creases clean at every nappy change. When she's on the change mat I wipe in all her creases with a baby wipe, dry it and put on sudocream. You'll son get the crust under control and then it just needs a regular check rather than cleaning all the time.

It needs a doctor if it becomes infected. If it doesn't start improving after a few days of diligently keeping it clean and dry. if it feels hot to touch or if it smells funny.

Yeah we get a bit red and nasty - I slather on diprobase. He has one perfect circle in one of his creases that is not responding so will ask HV next week.

cradle cap is our issue. B's head looks grim - he has masses of hair so it's like terrible, terrible dandruff and it smells hideous!!!!!

I've used a johnsons naturals moisturiser on cradle cap because it was all I had, it cleared up a treat! Not much hair though so was easy to apply.

Yes yes to cleaning creases diligently, it cleared up some redness DS had when he started to get erm...chunky?

DS has eczema on his arms that has appeared over the past week, I've been using emollient cream on that. But now he has a rash on his chin and cheeks which doesn't look like eczema to me. Any ideas? The pic isn't great, he's so wriggly!

I've no idea on that one Honey. Rashes can be a bit worrying, I'd see a doctor.

honey I can't see photo cos on phone but b gets red face after swimming, when warm, when teething. it doesnt look like excema but responds well to diprobase or bepanthan

Thanks ladies you are fab xx
Red you are right, it seems that when I start feeling sorry for myself I never think about how the alternative situations would work; if we haven't moved; if they were close, all of those would have their own problems
Fate I do have quite a few mum friends already from various classes but over xmas which is a family time Obviously no one was around

Holls it is brilliant you are going to ur mum for a month; dh just disagrees with me going to parents for a long time flat out saying I can't possibly take ds away from him for long; but then he arrives late every night & he hardly sees ds

Kitkat, you have my sympathy, what about very gradually asking him to do little things around the house; so small he can't say no to...

Hmm we did swim yesterday so maybe that's it. We've got hv clinic on Monday so will wait until then and make gp appointment if necessary. I was hoping one of you might go 'ohhhh yeah my little one had that and...' You never know!

nazly my dh was fine about it till someone told him ds would forget him. he won't. dh is coming for a week and maybe a weekend.

honey it was swimming that sent b's face glowing!!!!

Holls we had a little cc, not very big or smelly; I used baby pressed vegetable oil( but any baby oil works) on his head; just massaged it very carefully, then left it for a while, say an hour or less, I then used the back of his brush which has a slightly bumpy surface( but you could use any soft brush) on his head to remove some of it ; be very gentle if you decide to do this - I did all this before bath and washed his head with his normal shampoo - repeated twice in two consequent week and it is all gone...

Mine gets a rash on his chin and a bit on his cheeks from the ridiculous amount of drool, especially if his bibs a bit damp. I've been putting Vaseline on as a barrier which helps. Can't see from the pic if it's the same rash though.

Sleep is sure hard to come by here! Fell asleep at 7 then woke for a feed at 9, 12, 1, 3, 5 then woke for good at 6 with a dirty nappy. Given up on the cot for now, he's sleeps on me or cuddled next to me. The main problem is that either his reflux or wind is bothering him so he spends hours literally tossing and turning. Last night be slept peacefully - now if only I could find out what I did differently yesterday!

Struggling with feeds during the day, everything else is far more interesting. Unfortunately think that's why he feeds so much at night when he's sleepy!

Acorn, how do you feel about dummies? Five feeds in the night is a lot and I wonder if you could find a way to settle LO without feeding, it might help. If my DD wakes in the night, I just lean an arm across into the co and reinsert her dummy without even opening my eyes or moving.

Tried a dummy but he wont take it, just retches and spits it out which is a shame cos I think it would help. If I was less lazy I could probably get up and walk him back to sleep but when I'm half asleep I just give him a boob and he falls back asleep.

Oh I don't blame you for being 'lazy' at night. It is not lazy at all, just protecting your own exhaustion which is important. I am all for the easiest option at night.

If you are breastfeeding, I'd definitely go with the co-sleeping option. Have you side-car'ed your big cot? We have taken one side off our cot and butted it up to the bed (and shoved a rolled up spare duvet down the gap just to be sure). So the cot is like an extension to our bed.

When I was breastfeeding my DC2, it was 6 months before he dropped night feeds. I used to feed lying down and not really wake up to feed him. Them might doze off as he's feeding and at some point later wake up. Then you can slide baby back into cot, rather than lifting. Or just leave him cuddling next to you.

Once I'd got this co-sleeping, lying down feeding sorted I actually stopped even noticing how many feeds I did at night, let alone what time. I would wake in the morning not really knowing if I breastfed him twice or 10 times, because I'd just doze through it all.

(mind you, I had his sister 14 months older who also wasn't sleeping through at that time - so life was one massive haze of tiredness!)

Hi everyone.
Just got back to this thread (and the weight loss one)after being away for almost two months.
well, last month I felt crap when I got DD weighed @ 12 weeks and she weighed no more than she did @ 8 weeks! :( i was EBF until then but as she started sleeping through the night @ 6 weeks , awesome for my sleep , not so awesome for milk production, she wasn't getting anywhere near enough milk from me. I rather stupidly put her crying in the day and frustration when I went to put her on the boob to colic. I could see that she was getting slimmer (could almost see ribs on her chest :() , so started combination formula & breast feeding few days before weight check.
HV looked horrified and demanded that I come back in a week, I couldnt as we were visiting MIL in NI for Xmas.
Luckily she's taken to the bottles with almost no problems and in three weeks had gained 2lb and 4oz.
I just feel bad that I didnt realise sooner how hungry she was (and a let down to her that I wasn't providing her with enough milk - BAD MUM!). I also really miss the closeness of BFing, a few tears were shed, but it's not about how I feel. Thankfully she's now a v happy baby, just need to try and figure out how to get her to nap in the day now.

Absolutely not bad mum, don't say that.

"put her crying in the day and frustration when I went to put her on the boob to colic".

You are not the first and will not be the last. I would guess at a very large proportion or colic or reflux cases are in fact down to hunger. You just have to go through it and come out the other side to realise this.

I know the emotions you have been through. My DC3 was losing weight and I had to move to formula for him and was utterly bereft. I soon realised the huge benefits of formula and so when I had DC4 felt much less precious about breastmilk.

Regarding the closeness - why not keep the breastfeeding up just for pleasure, rather than nourishment? I put DD to the breast often after bottle feeds. Or when she has a full tummy and is tired. Or when she is upset and needs comfort. Or sometimes just for the hell of it while we are having a cuddle.

None of this breastfeeding is about feeding her. It's about keeping the habit and having a 'special cuddle'. I expect to be able to continue breastfeeding her into her second year this way. But with the removed pressure of nourishment from milk.

"Thankfully she's now a v happy baby"

That is fantastic. All the more reason to know that formula feeding is the right answer.

"just need to try and figure out how to get her to nap in the day now."

Have you tried a bouncy chair? What about dummy? If she's not getting to suck on your boobs, she may miss having something to suck for comfort?

Thank you Fate, didn't think of just popping her on for cuddles, will start that. Hopefully she's missed it too.
Well I got a stupid rocker chair which only really rocks with parental intervention :/. Wish I'd just got a nice and simple bouncer now. She does take a dummy but as she's started teething and is constantly jamming her whole hand almost into her mouth it's often spat out. And then the grumbles start. So I pop on a bit of music (or white noise) which usually sets her off but she rarely sleepy for much longer than 30-45 mins at a time unless we are out and she's in the car or buggy.

She looks so grown up in that outfit! Very cute.

DD is also ramming fists into her mouth constantly too.

Defo the basic bouncy chairs are best. I swear by the Fisher Price Kick and Play bouncer, I've bought the same one three times. I think it isn't being made anymore though. It still requires parental involvement to bounce (with foot, whilst on sofa) but is much easier than the rocking ones.

I was given a rocking chair at one point, also one of those electronic swings things. Neither were a patch on how useful the basic bouncy chair (minus play arch) is so I passed them on to someone else.

Elijah loves to be rocked to sleep, unfortunately for him I refuse to but he does get it from dh and my mum.

I would love to know how to get Elijah to sleep through the night he has done it quite a few times but not for a while. Last time was nye. He use to go down at 7, wake at 9.30 either sleep through to 7 or wake at 3-4 then sleep till 7. Now he is taking a bottle at 8.30-9.00 and sleeping till 1 then 1-5. Any ideas ladies?

Cookie - do you put down awake at night?

Being able to self-settle is key to nighttime sleeping I think and different babies are ready to self settle at different ages. My DC1 was much, much older until she could self settle to sleep - over a year old, but DC4 has been completely self settling at night for a week or two now.

By self-settle I mean to go from fully awake to asleep without parental intervention. In an ideal world this would be without any external intervention at all - just baby in cot and left to it. In the real world children often need a comforter to get to sleep - dummy, blankie, teddy etc. I use dummy because I find it most effective.

It is easy to assume baby wakes for hunger at night. This may be true. But babies also wake because of their normal sleep cycles and so cry because they just need to go back to sleep but need help to get to sleep. Baby can also wake because of being uncomfortable (hot, cold, nappy, sore bum, pain, bunched up clothes or blanket).

Once you have a baby who can go from awake to asleep then you can start to distinguish between just waking and needing to go back to sleep. Or waking for a reason - hunger, uncomfortable.

So with DD now, mostly the dummy will get her back to sleep in the night. If it doesn't then I know there is something else the matter. Recently she's been waking at 4am and I have discovered that she is waking because she's cold. Coming into bed with me sorted it. So I have added two extra blankets (on top of sleeping bag) and now she's sleeping fine again.

With my DC1 though I couldn't do this. Because she wasn't self settling it was hard for me to know if she was just tired because it was so hard to get her back to sleep at night. So I fed her to sleep because that is the most efficient way to get her back to sleep.

Absolutely nothing wrong with feeding back to sleep, if it is what works for you. As I mentioned earlier, whatever works for you is the right answer for you. You both need sleep.

DS will only nap during the day on me or DH. He goes off reasonably easily in his cot at night thankfully though. He used to sleep in his bouncer but has stopped doing that.

He's being majorly clingy today. He seemed ok yesterday after he was sick until the evening, when he started getting clingy.

I am having problems with dizziness. Yesterday, I accidentally headbutted the sofa arm getting something and nearly knocked myself out (I thought I was going to get two black eyes today, which I have escaped but I have got a big bruise on the bridge of my nose). I thought I was just being dim and completely misjudged it but have subsequently had several dizzy spells.

I think lack of iron or water are the two possible suspects. I'm eating well and not loosing weigh so I've more or less ruled that out. Is there anything else I should keep an eye on?

I'm taking it very easy today as I don't want to keel over with DS for any reason. I feel completely fine otherwise.

I get sometimes get dizzy and see floaters in my eyes, within a few hours I'll get a stabbing pain behind one eye. Those are my migraine symptoms. I know migraines are very individual.

My migraine trigger is always the same - tiredness. It's the only thing that causes them and the only way to resolve them is sleep.

I had never had migraines before I had children, I suppose because I never knew extended sleep deprivation until I had children.

May be worth considering for your dizziness Red? I'd certainly see your doctor if it continues.

fate his cot is attached to my bed, I don't think he gets much comfort from being close though! If you just let them feed whenever they want overnight do they just feed from the same side all night? Because of his reflux he has to be propped up to feed and sleep so it's difficult to cosleep but we kind of manage by having pillows under my arm and his head on my arm. Doesn't feel terribly safe though.

Mine can't self settle at all, like never! He'll grumble and grumble and after literally a couple of minutes in the sling will be fast asleep. Again, because of his reflux i can't put him down on his back so its going to be a long while before we can work on it.