September 14 babies - bring on the weaning!

[KitKat1985]

New thread for the Sept 14 babies. :)

She is on neocate hypoallergenic formula due to her tummy problems, so unfortunately we can't change her formula. She had dropped to the 2nd percentile, and is now up to the 20th so it seems to be doing good things for her!

Ooh loads to catch up on !

ella Loved the rant ! And I am definitely finding the 12 year olds harder than a newborn. 12 year old boy is not much of a problem - he's socially popular, very likeable, is bright and worked really hard to get to Grammar school - but he is addicted to his playstation and I have caught him sneaking on it at 3am in the morning . He has a headset and talks to his real life mates online - it's their main form of communication. He does have Instagram - so do his mates, but mainly they post funny memes, gaming stuff, football scores, pics of their trainers etc. He has realised that pics of baby J get a lot of likes so he tends to post pics of J looking solemn accompanied by captions like "'ard nut baby".

Also "ella* You hit the nail on the head with your round up of how girls use social media. This is exactly what happened with my daughter. They tend to use instagram and instant messenger to piss eachother off. Theres also all these "tag in your 20 most beautiful friends" type posts, which usually attract a lot of venom and anger and they use to purposely exclude someone.
The girls seem so shallow - one minute they are all "Baes, BBF's" and posing with infinity rings - then the next week, they have a new "Bae" that they are doing the very public best friend with.
It is so hard not to get involved - and can be so stressful, especially when some girl's actions are so deliberately nasty.
We are only in year 7... don't know how I am going to stand another 5 years of this !

team, our sleep is v similar. bed at 7, wakes 10/11 then again around 2/3, getting more unsettled as the night goes on. he gets up around 6/630. he's been waking 3 times between bedtime and 5am, which is an improvement

Team - I do a nap around 6/6:30 and we currently work towards a 9pm bedtime, so perhaps a later nap would be helpful. If she naturally wants to sleep around 6, I would perhaps let her nap for 45 mins/an hour then wake her up (I don't know how grumpy this would make her?!) and aim for a bedtime about 1.5/2 hours later. I find with Molly that the last nap is generally the shortest of the day and she is certainly ready for bed about 2 hours later. It gives her enough energy to get through us having dinner and doing the bedtime routine but doesn't keep her up too late. I hope you manage to find a solution soon!

Ella and Jay - Sorry to hear of your older children's struggles. You couldn't pay me enough to go back to being a teenager, and I already worry about it for my DD!

P.S I hate the term 'Bae'. Don't you?!

Molly's pooing still not back to normal. Think i'll have to give in and try the Lactulose. I know younger babies have been prescribed it before but sometimes I find GP's too prescription happy for my liking! I will try tomorrow morning I think. I've heard it can give babies very uncomfortable wind and I always worry when giving her something new for the first time in case of a reaction, so want to do it when DP is here (he's out all day again...). I'll be a basket case when weaning starts in a few weeks.

lilone Yes...i hate "Bae", it makes me cringe !

Team I found this useful www.babysleepsite.com/Guides/BabySleepSite_5WaysToSTTN.pdf
I think it is very well written and helpful.

ds started self settling during the day(with the help of white noise) . I did nothing differently. I think it is an age thing. Just left him in his cot a couple of times and he went to sleep by himself. Sometimes he needs dummy sometimes he does not.

Would somebody please help me with formula making? I just bought powder and am trying to make up 30ml (1oz) at a time to get ds used to the idea. So far (3 tries) it is all wasted :(

Now the description says leave one time boiled water for 30 min and then use it ; our kettle always have warmish boiled water but boiled many times! I want to boil some water once and keep it for ds for the day, does that work? How long can I keep the boiled water for? Inside or out of the fridge?

Also when giving him expressed milk I used to sterilise. But thinking of giving up on that gradually now he is on solids and put everything in his mouths. Any thoughts?

Ella - I tried orange juice in water earlier in the week, she was even less keen on it than plain water. I don't think she took more than 10ml and then was sick but she did have a slightly more normal poo later that day, don't know if it was coincidence or not, but such a struggle to get her to take it. I would have tried it again had DP not drank the rest of the juice. I might get some more and try it again though.

Nazly - I always only boil water once if it's for Molly, so I empty the kettle and refill. I think overboiling water concentrates the chlorine content or something. I wouldn't keep the same boiled water for making the formula because it needs to be hot enough to kill any bacteria in the powder, that's why you need to use it no more than 30mins once the kettle has boiled. I think it's easier to use fresh boiling water then cool the bottle in cold water. Plenty of people make up all their bottles in advance with fresh boiling water then put them in the fridge. It's not recommended though but I would imagine that would be preferable to using old boiled water. If I were you I would use ready made while you are giving him such small amounts to get used to.

Not sure I can help on the boiled water nazly but I believe the advice is to continue to sterilise bottles always because milk is such a good breeding ground for bacteria? I'm less obsessive about dummies now because everything is crammed into DS's mouth but bottles with milk I'm still careful with. It could be pfb syndrome though, perhaps mummies with older children will have different opinions on the matter.

nazly for formula you are only allowed to bouk the kettle once, and then use that water. If you reboil it the minerals build up and it is bad for the baby. Now the guidelines say you need to leave 1 litre to stand for 30 mins then use it to make formula this is so you don't destroy some of the vitamins in the milk but the water is still hot enough to kill the germs.

It is completely up to you whether you follow the guidelines but there are a couple different ways you could try to make up the formula instead.

1. once you have boiled the kettle, pour the required amount of oz/ml into the bottle then leave on the side. Add milk when required later on. This will make the milk room temp but the milk won't be sterile.

2. boil the kettle, leave for 30 minutes, fill bottles to required amount, mix formula in, cool rapidly, place in the back of the fridge and warm as and when needed.

3. use premade formula

I would warm the formula to body temp as he is use to that with breast milk. When testing it on your wrist you should only feel wetness no temp.

Nazly - I'd use pre-made formula cartons for such small amounts. 69p for one 200ml carton - use within 24 hours (I think?) of being opened.

Honey - It's not about what you sterilise and what you don't. Not sterilising a dummy no different to not sterilising bottles. Babies will lick the carpet, suck on fingers, put toys in mouth, dummies will fall on floor, sit on sofa etc etc.

By six months the gut flora in your childs tummy is better able to be exposed to general bacteria and grime that is part of everyday life. In fact being exposed to the bacteria of every day life (rather than living in a sterilised bubble) is healthy. So gradually you can start to sterilising things less and less.

I was the same with my PFB though and sterilised bottles (and dummies) until something like 12 months. I don't suddenly stop sterilising though, it's a gradual thing.

If you have a dishwasher, even less reason to sterilise after 6 months since a hot wash in the dishwasher if very effective to clean thoroughly.

loads to catch up on

Nazly - I use the perfect prep machine when at home but if going out, I fill bottles with freshly boiled water - say 5oz - and put in fridge. then when out I take a thermos of boiling water which I add to the cold water, then add milk. works fine.

re girls and social media. it is horrid and girls can be so nasty to each other. what's bae? instagram and snap chat have caused issues for girls I know. sad. also while there are age limits it's too easy for them to lie about their age - no idea how you get round that one.

Nazly, for such small amounts I would just use pre made formula. It will be fine in the fridge for a day.

Well, update on our non-sleeping beauty!!! Tried to give her a late nap at about 5, she woke in a hideous, grumpy mood and I couldn't get her off, so we decided to change strategy and put her down earlier and put her to bed at 6.45. Not sure what happened through most of the night as DH was up late working, so he was dealing with DD, but he was going to give a dream feed a try at 10.30. He came to bed at 3.00, she woke at 4.30 for a feed, back to sleep but needed to be settled again at 5.00. I went back to bed and woke up to her chatting to herself at... 6.45!!! Yup, 1.5 hours after her usual wake up time!!!

I need to wait and see how she was through the rest of the night, but I will be aiming for a 6.45 bedtime again tonight. Let's just hope it wasn't a one off fluke.

Fingers crossed for you Team!

Thank you every one; I just didn't know the reason behind boiling/ waiting, etc and your posts have been very helpful. I have been using pre-made but it seemed such a waste as he is not having any and if we go like this the cost adds up.

Lilone I decided your option 2 works best for me now I paid for the powder.

I am not sure what to do next , he just purses his lips as soon as he sees bottle. I tried beaker as he loves his water , but he learnt to smell it first and as soon as he realises it is formula he turns his head and closes his little mouth.

I am thinking maybe giving it a rest for a couple of days and then start again? Can't find any useful source online to help with this

Nazly, my stepmum who was a babies nurse said that if they don't like something sometimes ot helps to have a few days off and then revisit as they sometimes forget they didn't like it, if that makes sense.

we have still got the 3am wake up call here.

Nazly, will he take expressed milk from a bottle? If so, maybe put a little formula with breast milk, then increase the amount of formula.

Ugh. Jessica woke up at about 1.45am. Fed then had poonami that covered everything resulting in needing full clothing / bedding change and she never really settled again properly afterwards after that much disruption (I got a couple of half hours in but that was about it). Doesn't help that she's got a slight cold and is so being a bit of a grumpy moo. Calpol seems to be helping though. Yawn.

On positive side today I'm using my spa voucher my Mum got me for Christmas towards a nice massage, so that'll be good hoping I don't fall asleep on the table.

Ooh a spa day! Very jealous!

E still is waking up once in the night and then is unsettled for the rest of the night

He is however going down at a better time and eating 3 meals a day :)

nazly I know you wanted recipes this isn't much but I made E chicken with red pepper and onion which he quite enjoyed.

Diced chicken fried off with onion and then covered with water add red pepper and leave it to simmer! Check chicken is fully cooked remove from hob and blend.

Ds is still waking twice a night (at least) for feeding, though I think this is because I bf at night and ff during the day.

He keeps going for my coffee cup at the moment, I'm terrified of spilling it on him. I'm going to see if I can find something with a lid...

Grrrr sleeping bags

0 - 6 months maximum child length 68cm
6 - 18 month minimum child weight 8.1kg

DS is longer than 68cm and still miles off 8.1kg

What utter bollocks. He has already joined his mother and father into clothing sizes that don't seem to exist.