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?

Words...daddy, mummy, car, banana 'Nana', washing machine 'shuwa shuwine', bird, poo, nappy, book and uh oh. So a fair few, but still not walking!! So completely agree with everyone saying it all happens at different rates.

Thank you for everyone's well wishes, the spots have finally stopped appearing and are drying up so I'm hoping we are over the worst of it. It hasn't been very nice :( and it's not even chicken pox for me to say it's out the way now!

Think LOs understand words before they say them ( or so I learned from watching a documentary a few years ago "the secret life of babies" I think it was called on BBC?)
DD says cow, horse, cat (we have 3) , mummy, daddy, ca-di-da for cardigan, coat, hat, a few body parts etc. She refuses to say dog, duck is ca-ca, sheep is baa-baa etc. But if I ask her to let me wipe her nose, or sit down or stand up etc she seems to understand. When in the car she shouts car every time she sees one. Think boys develop language slightly later but then again all babies do things at differing times so I wouldn't worry too much.
I'm amazed at the LOs that have dropped bottles completely. DD still have a bedtime bottle and a morning one! I've tried switching her to a beaker/cup but it gets thrown down or refused! Help!!!

Oh and "poo poo" with a swift point to her nappy( but for no reason). I got all excited thinking she might be ready for potty training so we got one but she uses it as a seat to watch TV and put a few little toys in!!

kitkat I would actually class uh oh as two words lol. So yes I would class it as a word! Ok I am gonna try and think of all the words he can say! Daddy, Mama, Mummy, yeah and yes, that, there (followed by pointing) uh oh, oh dear, more, brrrrrrm (all noises for machine or vehicles), raaah (all noises for animals) pops, nana, granma, no, ta, teddy and occasionally thank you. He can say cat, and dog but can't identify them and he will often mimic words but then never say them again. He has become very chatty, dh is trying to get him to say dinosaur after george says it on peppa pig all the time!

I am sorry to say he does sleep through almost every night, unless he is poorly or teething badly. I have no issue giving drugs to my baby so he gets nurofen on a night I think he may be in pain.

He does still have bottles, 3 a day if he is with me! He drinks a great amount from them and I am in no rush to get rid. He is so active I enjoy the snuggles! He is just getting into children's tv he loves peppa pig

He is quite cute at the moment, I am looking forward to the next baby (when we ttc) which is a long way in the future!

Very few words here, just hiya, no, ow, uh oh and oh dear. He can communicate what he wants (like up, though there etc) by pointing and he babbles all the time but just not words. I don't think he does understand if I say where's your ball or shoes. He does dance to music though!

Being able to talk is really subjective. Not only because of when does a sound become a word? But also because for that word to have any meaning it needs to be useable in different contexts and be understood to anyone listening.

What I know is that DD is very, very good at making herself understood. Mostly that is not using words, more sounds and gestures.

I agree fate

There are lots of things that E's friends can do that he can't but I am not worried he'll do it when he is ready! I know some of you on here have said your children can identfiy what noise an animal makes, E can't do that!

A also has very few words, but can make himself understood and I think he understands basic instructions - doesn't always choose to follow them though! Especially if he thinks it is nappy change time

Still on bottles here too, its the only way to get him to drink enough through the day. He will drink water out of a sippy cup, but only at meal times!

Childrens TV is Thomas here (and I am sure he said Thomas the other day - but only once haha). I don't mind that, I used to watch it as a kid too!

We have given up on bottles now, DS only drinks about an ounce of milk in the evening (too stuffed with food maybe?) and was getting inpatient with his morning bottle. I give him a straw cup of milk when he gets up and he drinks more from that now. He drinks loads of very dilute squash during the day, more than when it was plain water and if he can get my mug of tea he is very adept at drinking from a mug!

We have had a grim weekend of teething though, I'm shattered!

I forgot to say, Miffy is the favourite in our house!

Good luck harimad !

Words wise, J seems pretty much like the others on the thread - most frequent "mumma", "dad", "look", "duck", "cat", "dog", "car", "bicbic", "oh no", "bye" etc. He makes car noises when playing with cars which is so cute ! And when he gives a cuddle he says "ahhhhhh".

Sometimes he will fluke a phrase like "here you go", "what's that" - I can't explain what I mean - but he almost says the words but gets the right tone in how I would say it.

He has picked up "Go away!" from my older kids . He doesn't say it in the right context, but it's clear as anything and sounds horrible coming from him . I guess he could have picked up worse - and it's a starting point for the two older ones being mindful about what they say.

He understands loads now - he will follow simple instructions. He also has developed a habit of clapping himself and looking really proud if I ask him to do something and he gets it right.

I really love this age - he is absolute cuteness personified !

DS is a little chatterbox, no idea where he gets that from! He can say a range of the words already mentioned along with a couple of more unusual ones, gone for when he's finished his drink/ food etc usually accompanied by a shrug & hands out, stuck as he gets himself things stuck a lot and giraffe, he can't say the gi its just raffe. He loves making animal, train & car noises. He greeted me with a roar this morning, it's his new favourite noise & very apt given he's called Rory! He has intonation in the way he babbles to suggests he's asking for something, mostly no idea what so we go through the options until we find the right thing. He's very good at making himself understood & gets very cross if he can't.

He's learnt how to open the fridge & has already developed the habit of getting home & going straight to the fridge to see what he can have. He's started helping himself too, fortunately just to raspberries & grapes at the moment.

I really need to get him to drink more, I might give the watered down squash a try & see if that works for us too.

Postman pat, chuggington & Timmy are the favourites here. He does a little dance to the postman pat theme tune and he loves waving goodbye to the tv when the program ends.

Ladies, I'm in need of some help and advice!

DD really hates having her hair washed, and it is now becoming a really serious issue. We've tried loads of gadgets, but she instantly puts her head forward, water goes in her face and she freaks out.

We washed her hair Saturday night, and it was the worst yet. She really panicked. Sunday night we didn't bath her. Last night I got her ready for her bath, all fine until I went to put her in. She wouldn't sit down and really panicked. She was crying and screaming, retching, her heart rate was through the roof. She was on the verge of a panic attack, and she's only 17 months old

We managed to calm her down enough that she would stand in the bath so we could wash her down, but it was awful. All three of us were traumatised.

So, what can we do? We need to slowly build up her trust so she will get in the bath again, and we can do that I'm sure. But what about the hair washing? We've tried everything and we are out of ideas. I'm considering trying dry shampoo!

Other than that she's a really happy, calm and confident little thing. Still quite dinky - some of her clothes are still 9-12 months.

DD is very verbal, currently loves playing with her cars and garage, and is starting to learn her colours, which I can't quite believe!!!

Is your bathroom big enough to put a small paddling pool (an inflatable baby one) on the floor for a bit? To transition her back to water being fun? Is there any way you/she can hold a flannel over her eyes in she puts her head forward? Im a bit unsure really but I think there was a thread about this recently.

None of my children have liked bath water in their eyes. My 10 year old and 6 year old will only rinse their hair while holding a sponge over their eyes. And these are children who swim competitively for a swimming club. They'll swim a width underwater in a pool, but (still) wont rinse their hair in the bath. Go figure

I work on the 'quickly and confidently' basis. I hold a sponge over eyes and angle head backwards (I always say "look to the ceiling"). The pour from a cup so that as much as possible the water goes to the back of the head not onto the face. No messing or stalling - I do it as quickly as possible to get it over with and wipe water off face with a sponge when finished.

Team, could you go in the bath with her? Mine love it if I share a bath with them.

Poor DD Team. You could try the soapy foam I've mentioned before. It's like mousse and good fun to play, so perhaps a good distraction. I've heard of using a song so that she knows when it will be done. I've found the same as Fate though when I was caring for older children to just get it over and done with as quickly as possible and try not to fuss!

Oh, we had some of that foam for Christmas. She loved it! Tried that as distraction for hair washing already, and failed. She won't have anything put over her face at all, which makes it really difficult.

At least last night she enjoyed her bath. The first ten minutes she stood, but eventually sat and played with her toys.

I hadn't thought about sharing a bath. I'll give that a try. Thanks!

I don't wash hair that often now, only if he's got a lot of food through it (he still doesn't have much hair though!). He just gets panicky if water goes over his face. I wash his face with a sponge which he tolerates but leave the hair dry. I'm hoping he'll grow out of it! He loves the bath though, as long as his hair is kept dry. I did plan to try using a flannel to wash and rinse his hair but haven't got around to it yet.

DS went through a phase of hating the bath a few months back, he refused to sit & spent the entire time screaming. After one particularly messy dinner DP decided to give him a shower instead & he was like a different child, he loved it. We have a power shower & he always wants it on full power, he loves standing under it, loves the water running over his hair & face, likes holding the shower head - daddy soon decided that wasn't a good idea! Not sure if it will work with your DD team but thought it was worth a mention. It's also a lot quicker, in & out in 5 minutes.

I've started drying his hair with the hairdryer while it's cold, he loves it. You'd think he was JLo the way he stands there with it fanning his hair

Have any of you had the meningitis b vaccine done privately ?

I'm looking into it now for DD. seems there is a shortage of the vaccine now though due to demand so I'm on a waiting list, lots of places aren't doing any new ones til around June it seems.

It's so scary

I'm also looking into this now after the news. The little girl was from the town where I live :(

A friend of mine had it for her dd, it cost £280, £140 per vaccine.

Will definitely be seeing where offers it and speaking to DH about if we can afford it/how we can afford it.

We are getting it done, along with chicken pox vaccine.

Definitely gonna try and get it for E!