September 2014 - Babies turn 1!

[lilone1234]

First birthdays are starting to arrive and our babies are becoming toddlers! What will the next year have in store?

Thanks Fate, yes you are right and I know the theory too, but I still don't believe in that 5 days duration for a little kid; their health may deteriorate quicker than adults - I have decided to make that 48 hours and call my surgery for telephone consultation if temp remains as high

Kitkat it is 39.5 and it just goes down with calpol but comes back right up again; he vomited and has very,very loose poo; he coughs really badly too- but I haven't been worried much till now cause in the middle of fevers when calpol is working, he is strong enough to play as normal... I'll see how it goes tomorrow

Congratulations Harimad

Nazly Hope your lo is better soon. It's awful when they are ill, and even worse when they don't even want to play.

We had progress on the shoe front, he wore them yesterday to go and see Santa, without tears. He did try and take them off a few times, and wouldn't walk on his own (would whilst me or DH held his hands) in them but he didn't fuss too much. He did however, cry at Santa

Yeyyy, he is a lot better already - after nearly 48 hours of not having much apart from water he was in nursery today and apparently ate all his meals and all courses of each meal eagerly. No temperature anymore either.
Thanks ladies.

Glad DS is on the mend Nazly!

We had our first trip to A&E on Sunday. DD fell and hit her head on a doorframe resulting in an absolutely massive lump on her forehead. It looked like serious damage, was very worrying to begin with! Swelling quickly went down though and we stayed in 4 hours for observations but luckily she is fine.

That sounds nasty lilone, glad she was ok in the end tho. Its great how resilient children are. Touch wood I've had neither a doctors or hospital visit with dd yet. I am sure that will be the trigger for something happening now I've said it!

I've had two carol concerts today - separate (but identical format) visits to church to listen to the children singing carols. Was lovely. I have to keep myself in check so I don't cry, which I am prone to when children sing traditional carols.

Yesterday was my 6 year olds nativity, which was equally lovely. "Christmas around the world", so as well as a traditional nativity story we also got traditions from around the world and Christmas songs sang in different languages.

Last night the local free masons drove their Santa Sleigh float around the area. A local tradition, all the children stand outside in the PJs to wave as Santa goes by.

I love this time of year!

That sounds lovely Fate. I know I will also be a cryer when it comes to those sorts of things!

Ouch Lil glad she was ok. I dread anything like this happening!

Aw Fate I can't wait for A to be doing carol concerts/nativity activities. I know I will cry though haha.

Hi all! Been on holiday for a week. Been wonderful and lovely to get some sun, but DD has gotten an awful rash, so just waiting at the docs, yet again!!!

Lil, sounds scary, but glad they are ok.

Nazly, glad your little one has recovered too. I find high temps terrifying! I also totally get the theory, but find it difficult when their temp is do high. I try to not worry unless calpol isn't helping to reduce the temp.

Is everyone ready for Christmas?

Holiday sounds great at this time of year team!

I'm hoping someone can help, DS is SO hungry. All the time. I can't keep up with him. It started about a week or so ago. Screaming before meal times. Inhaling food like he needs to get it in his stomach as quickly as possible. I can't eat anything without him going nuts for it. He is so whingey until I give him food. I don't want to keep upping his portion sizes because I think he is eating good portions already. DH has massive problems with portion control and is overweight as a result, I don't want DS to inherit this. Can anyone help? I know I should be grateful that he eats, but it just seems excessive at the moment.

I'm jealous of your winter sun team. I hope the rash is OK.

Could you try a drink instead of food sometimes Lilly? I use this with my older children between meals when they start telling me they are hungry. I make them a big beaker of squash instead.

My children drink about 3 litres of water a day as a result of me pushing drinking rather than eating between meals. Youngest is following suit. She drinks between 1-2 litres of water a day, plus milk.

Having said that, I have terrible portion control anyway

That's a good idea Fate. That's far more than ds is drinking. I think he has 2-3 of his sippy cups a day. Maybe 4. I read they should have 6-8 cups a day. Maybe he is thirsty. I will try. He has dropped all milk in the last 6-8 weeks or so but I haven't noticed an up in water intake. But then this starving hungry thing hasn't been going on that long.

Wow that's a lot to drink! It's good though, so many of us under drink. (Water that is!) DD only has 1-2 cups water, 2 cups milk and 1 bottle. She's getting better at drinking between meals now so hopefully that will pick up. She's toddling about now (finally!) and likes to carry her cup with her. I think she feels like holding it helps her balance?!

I suppose it would be normal for him to eat a bit more Lilly if he's not having any milk. Does he have snacks between meals? Possibly a growth spurt?

Team - glad you had a nice holiday. Hope DD's rash is nothing to worry about and gets better soon!

Hi all,
Sorry for the long absence, work took over in a major way, still not sure how to sort the work/life balance again!!! Hope you are all ok. B has been walking since 3 days after he was 1, he is a climber and always on the go. He has a lovely nature 95% of the time and is the spawn of satan the other 5%!
Have thought about you all lots, will try to catch up!!

Hi All

Just popping on to wish you all a Merry Christmas. Hope you all have a wonderful day tomorrow

Just popping in to say happy Xmas to everybody too and to all the babies x I hope you are all enjoying and hope you have a wonderful day tomorrow xx its been brilliant till now for us

Just saw your post lil

Have you thought about swapping his cup with a proper free flow or just normal cup? It is so difficult to drink properly from a sippy cup, I have tried !!! Ds has plenty of water but he uses normal cups now
Also, I would be careful about portion control at this age as they are very active and also growing fast; my ds goes through periods of eating lots and then little, each time he has been ill , very little eating during sickness follows by lots of eating to catch up after ; i also think he still has growth spurts . Also, are you following 5532 ? If so I would not worry too much about portions to be honest ; if no, I would offer plenty of veg sticks and fruits in between meals as snack....

How was everyone's Christmas?

Hectic here, busy and lots of people. Great family time.

Hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas!

DD drinks far more since she learned to drink through a straw. Might be worth trying?

DS isnt a huge drinker, there is a straw cup of water on the side table at all times but he is so busy I think he just forgets. Poor little boy has found Christmas completely overwhelming!

Hi Ladies - hope Christmas was good for you all. We had a lovely day, and another one to come next week when we visit my parents

Question regarding drinking. A drinks quite a lot of milk through out the day, but only in (baby) bottles. I am trying to move away from the bottle, and bought a straw cup and a sippy cup. But both today and yesterday, he held of drinking milk and got so distraught, as soon as we poured the milk into a bottle he finished it in no time. Any advise?

He does use a free flow sippy cup for water at nursery (won't touch water at home, am fine with this at the moment as he drinks so much milk) but I don't think he swallows it properly. Again, I have tried milk in one of these. he takes one or two mouthfuls (which mostly dribbles out of his mouth) then gives up again!

We only have the bottle for milk and that's only given first thing in the morning and just before bed.

Squash through the day is in various beakers. DDs has a nuby no spill beaker and a straw beaker. But in fact mostly if she finds one of her siblings sports beakers she will drink that. They have massive 1litre sports bottles. I've always got three if these big sports beakers dotted around the house for the bigger three then DDs own beaker - all full of dilute squash. Aside from the weight (1000ml of water us quite heavy for a young toddler), if DD can get the beaker and tip it up, she will drink from anything.

I guess it's just experience. Whatever beaker you use, just have it filled all the time and hand it to DC every now and again. Keep it full up with something he/she will drink all of the time.

Personally the huge difference in the fluid intake when using squash as opposed to plain water means that drinking 4 or 5 time more squash works better for us than drinking the bare minimum volume of plain water to stave off extreme thirst. I find the benefits of being well hydrated outweighs the negligible sweetness in sugar-free squash.

So glad to read that post fate. Ive been considering switching to dilute squash for that reason but MN is so anti anything that isn't water.

This Xmas ds has tried so many things for the first time ; including having fruit juice with his meal instead of water, which he previously resented if offered... But he now likes apple juice. His main drink remains water though and lots and lots of it. He is still breastfed once in the morning and once before bed. No other milk gets into him apart from when mixed with food

Cumbrian I have no answer to your question but one of my friends has just stopped bottle feeding altogether for the same reason ... I would try to get him to drink water though or some diluted fruit juice as Fate says first to make sure he stays hydrated and would slowly reduce the number of bottles ? Also ds would not drink from those sippy cups that allow one or two sips each time, he uses sport bottles and he is now keen on trying an actual adult mug !

Ds had too many sweet deserts these days but he is really no fan of cookie or ice cream or cream or chocolate, or jelly or .... None interests him too much... i thought as soon as offered he falls in love with sweet things, but no, he just nibbles with not much interest. (In contrary to his mum!!) His absolute favourite desert is a fruit salad though , he loves it and does not stop between mouthfuls , quite funny

I really want this coming week not to end ...

Ladies one subject which helped me a lot previously was which books you've got for babies
I would be grateful for another update ... What do your babies like now ?

We recently bought a little book which was a massive hit , called "Dear Zoo"

Its great that he's still feeding from you Nazly, I recall a time post-weaning when your DS was going through a milk-refusing stage. It must have just needed some perseverance through the stage.

I've just re-bought The Bear Snores On for DD (third time I have bought the same book, its my personal favourite childrens book of all time). Her favourite at the moment is page turning the newspaper or magazine and going "Ohhh" at pictures, to which I tell her what it is: That is a cat, that is the cast of The Voice, a fish, a man, a space rocket...

You could try the Hairy McLeary books, most things by Julia Donaldson, Each Peach Pear Plum is good at this age. Dear Zoo we have. Spot the Dog books. Maisy Mouse books. The Very Hungry Caterpillar is good for pointing and naming things and counting. There are some Dr Suisse baby books - one fish two fish is our favourite.

I don't get all the way through many books with DD. But she very much likes page turning and pointing to stuff on the page.

A favourite books at the moment are from the ' That's not my..' Range of books. There is a large range of them and they have different textures on each page. But like Fate lo he loves turning the pages and ooohing at the pictures. Dear zoo is also a favourite.