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?

I've given up on the high chair at this stage. My plate of food seems much more appetising than M's so I just pretend her food belongs to me and she's beside quick as a flash and eats the lot while standing at the sofa. Having 2 older children also means she often finds crumbs etc on the floor no matter how often I clean up. It's like she is a magnet for every piece of crap I miss!

Glad you're enjoying work KitKat. I recall 'lunch hours' taking a whole new significance to me when I became a parent. Having a whole hour to myself, bliss.

DD is eating quite big portions. But she is steadily dropping down centiles, having been a big baby. So I guess she needs the food. I am finding now that if she doesn't eat a big dinner, I tend to have a night wake up and need to give her milk. I have to remember to give her supper on days she doesn't eat her dinner well.

We don't have any food in the house that is just for the baby (aside from formula milk). She just eats everything we do.

MissMoo - We have taken to describing DD as "the replacement dog service". We had to have our dog put to sleep several months ago and was missing the dog clearing up crumbs off the floor. Baby is totally taking over this role!

I hoover 3 times a day, after each meal (unavoidable with the mess all my children DD creates when eating). Yet she will still find a rouge cheerio or grape off the floor that I missed.

Hi all :) I find it hard to keep up when I'm at work mon-wed. The time flies which is great but it flies because I'm so busy! Hats off to anyone doing full time.

I'm really struggling to clean ds's bottom teeth. He's ok with the top ones, not great but I can get a few scrubs of the toothbrush in but I just can't do the bottom ones. He puts his tongue in the way or clamps his mouth shut. Any tips?

FATE thanks about the milk. I think weaning her off the warm stuff might be the easiest option! Also in awe of your 3x daily hoovering. Good work!

Lilly have you tried giving your DS the brush? DD seems to do a good job of brushing hers herself. I do mine at the same time so she can copy.

Yes, unfortunately he seems to like to put the handle in his mouth rather than the brush end. I've done a bit of 'mummy brush, now DS brush'. But haven't given him the brush and done mine at the same time so will try that. Thanks for the idea :) I'm terrified he will have rotten teeth!

Aw he won't, try the copying thing. DD even attempts to copy the proper brushing movement but just jiggles her body and looks ridiculously pleased with herself. Silly baby

Hello all, I think I now caught up with everything ... It seems we are posting a lot less than before...but I read quite a few post in a row.. Happy birthday to all babies that had birthday these few days and good luck to all who are starting to work...

I am so, so unhappy with mumsnet technical side, it is honestly really poor; since the password fiasco the app doesn't work properly and I haven't been flexible enough to keep using the web outlet, so am drifting away, which I really dislike as I keep wondering how you are all doing and I have so many questions I could have asked here...

I guess most babies that will go to nursery have started their nursery already... The key to ds settling in was firstly age and secondly being there full time. I don't really know if there is any other way of knowing these things apart from experiencing things for yourself... I just feel having my son was a massive challenging experience and reading about it and listening to other mums have just not helped much at all.... Perhaps because everybaby is different. There are so many things I wouldn't do the same... So many things...

Team was that you struggling to find the right shoes ? I have the same problem, He has very fat feet which are not as long... I ended up ordering some of the largest soft shoes from Clarks and then trying them all on him, as even the big shops near us didn't have his size; even then the shoes that fit his wide fat feet are too long for him, so it is not really perfect and I think it totally affects his walking and his confidence to walk. He has just started walking independently a few steps every time... I keep him bare food as long as I can and have asked nursery to keep him bare foot unless he is going to the garden or out... But this show thing turned out to be quite challenging... I was also warned about big potential health problems in future for babies who were hard unsuitable shoes, apparently it is best to be as close to barefoot as possible for as long as possible..

Ds is becoming picky in eating, he was such a great eater, anybody else is experiencing this ? He is also becoming thinner quickly, he was quite a chubby baby not any more ...

Kitkat was that you talking about reviewing photos and thinking your baby wasn't as cute as you thought months ago? I had the same feeling, but you know I came to the conclusion you just can not be objective about how your baby looks , it seems instinctively all mums think they have the most gorgeous baby , which is such a good thing and the nature way of making sure babies are cared for as best as possible... I think my son is a lot cuter now, but then I now know I will think the same constantly, at least for as long as he is little and relying on us...

I had hundreds of questions which I will hopefully ask gradually as I remember them

Nice to hear from you Nazly.

DD much prefers barefoot and I've always preferred her barefoot. I waited a good month of her walking until we got shoes for her for exactly the reason you mention. She only wears her shoes when we are going out and needs them on, rather than just for the sake of it.

My DD is also steadily dropping centiles. Not quickly though. She was just above 91st from birth to about 6 months. Now she is just below the 75th and dropping. She eats loads though, huge variety and isn't fussy. So I figure she is just finding her natural weight now she is moving and exercising more.

Your DS was a big baby wasn't he Nazly? Maybe him thinning down is to do with finding his natural weight. Assuming he doesn't show signs of hunger, I wouldn't worry.

Cruising here, birthday on Tuesday and I can't wait

He has been on cows milk for 3 weeks and will take it cold from the fridge quite happily , I just give a bottle first and last thing

We have words though

We have no, yes, muma, dada, ball, dog & car.

He started nursery in August and in the space of a week literally he came on leaps and bounds and started speaking and clapping hands - which we had bee trying to get him to do for ages but he wouldn't he would only wave

Also he will do the twinkle twinkle hand signs when you sing the song

I'm not sure if it was going to nursery or a coincidence to the sudden burst of learning new things.

Just looking forward to his first steps now, he will walk one handed but just doesn't seem confident to let go.

Hello all :)

I am trying to get E to eat normal food E.g not jar it is proving to be annoying lol! But I will preserve!

Salene, I have noticed M just had a huge leap with everything recently too. She's not at nursery but has lots of family around who are constantly tryin to get her to do things. She is cruising, clapping, putting her hand over her mouth when we say 'oh my god' and actually making the sound of those words too but not quite got it yet. She says da, jamie, ball, dog, no, chips, muma, bobo, toast and yay. Crawling at top speed and can stand alone for a little bit til she panics.

No proper shoes here either as she's not walking. We have lots of soft shoes but she won't keep them on her so I don't bother at all anymore. However, no matter how many times I clean my floors her socks/leggings always end up dirty!

Re the food issue, as I mentioned up thread, I have given up trying to feed M in her highchair as she messes about and won't eat much. We still put her in it for fingerfood, snacks etc but for meals I will just bring a bowl of food in and sit down and she will crawl over and stand at the sofa with her mouth hanging open asking for my food. This way she has tried so many new foods and I'm amazed at how much better she eats now. Yesterday she was having salad because that's what I was having for lunch so she had to have some too! So many things I have tried to get her to eat (cereals, eggs etc) in her chair and she'd spit them out but when they belong to mummy they are much more interesting.

Oh thats interesting missmoo, not sure how it works for us though as he eats what we are having; but sometimes unfortunately at different times...

Thanks Fate x

Ok I remembered 3 important questions of mine

1. Is there anybody here whose baby has sensitive skin? Rercently ds's skin in some areas like legs and arms are full of spots ; it started being tiny spots but it is now bigger and a lot more... Not been to doctor yet, but would like to change normal routines to see if that helps- can anybody introduce a good washing clothes liquid/powder for sensitive skins please ? Anything else I should be careful about apart from washing

1. Please please can somebody tell me how to stop a baby throwing food on floor? Is it even doable ? I tried everything I could witn absoloutley no results

1. And this is much more involved and intense ; apologies for long post - in the past few weeks I have stoppedd co sleeping and put ds down in his cot gradually ; then i have tried to cut down on night waking by not breastfeeding in the middle of night ; this has been partially successful but it was such a bloody hard work - we had some really bad screamings and nagging, and some bad cryings - it was inevitable.. I had such difficult nights ladies, imagine working till 1am (yes, bloody deadlines) then waking at 2am by baby's crying and then baby wont go back to sleep because you are not breast feeding so he stays up for a whole 2-3 hours... And this has been going on a long time (minus the working till 1am) ... It has improved overall slowly but very slowly as Although I don't breasfeed until it is "morning", since I don't want him stressed out, I stay with him, and do everything I can to comfort him (even picking up) .

So last night he slept from 9:30 ish until 4:30 , but then he woke and would not go to sleep despite being really really sleepy and this went on until 6:30 - when it was morning then and I was obviously overtired so I said good morning to him and picked him up and breastfed him...

I am sure I am missing a trick here, but not sure what- can somebody help?
Are most babies sleeping through by now?

Thanks so much and sorry for two long posts ladies...

Is he throwing the food, or dropping the food on the floor accidentally?

I think food ending up on the floor is inevitable for any child learning to feed himself. DD will often put a fistful of something to her mouth and about half goes in and the rest goes down her, falls into the highchair or drops on the floor. Likewise when she is sweeping her hands across the tray to grab hold of the food, some gets accidentally pushed onto the floor.

There's little you can do about this. Hence me hovering after every mealtime. I am also not precious about gathering dropped food and returning it to the tray to be eaten. Deliberately throwing food, that's behavioural and a different thing. I would actively discourage throwing food.

Your sleep issue is a tough one. In your position I would probably just bring baby in to my bed at the 4.30 wake up and hope that over time the wake up gets later. As a working parent you need your sleep so that path that allows you and DH the most sleep is probably your best.

I don't suppose he'd accept a bottle and/or dummy in the night as an alternate to breastfeeding?

MissMoo22 - Could you try a booster seat at the dining table if M isn't liking the highchair? Or you can get some highchairs (like the super cheap IKEA one) that butt up to a dining table for baby to eat from, rather than off the tray. It's nice when eating all together.

Not sure I can help on the food or the sleep issue but I can have a go with the skin. DS has eczema but we've been able to manage it quite well, the doctor is always impressed by his skin which makes me smile! she probably says that to everyone though We use Fairy washing stuff for the whole family, the detergent and the fabric conditioner. Just use plain water in the bath, you don't really need soap to get them clean. Or if you do need something you can use aqueous cream as a cleanser. I also buy wipes for sensitive skin, and at meal times I use washable wipes to reduce how often I'm wiping his skin. His face was getting quite sore when we started weaning so I bought cheeky wipes, a bit more work for me but no problems with his face now.

I guess all of that stuff is for eczema prone skin, but if your DS has spots rather than dry skin it might be worth getting them checked by the GP anyway?

Nazly would it be keratosis pilaris? Tiny white/red bumps on the arms, face and legs? M has this, as do I, and it is a pain in the arse!! I can use lactic acid cream for mine but not on m's skin so I just treat hers with aveeno cream and it has its stages of looking really red then being barely noticeable. Could also be eczema as Lilly mentioned and I would second everything she said however DS2 has severe eczema and the dermatologist advises never bathing without an emolient so we use Aveeno bath oil along with non bio washing gels (powders are supposedly a little bit of an irritant but to be honest we would use powder if we've run out and just do another rinse cycle) no soap whatsoever and nothing perfumed or scented.

Lilly....when your LO is having a really red, hot, itchy skin phase I'd really recommend an oat bath to soothe, it's so good! DS would wake screaming in the night with blistering hot skin and no way of settling so we'd do a cool bath with a thin sock filled with oats and tied at the top, leave in the bath while running it then use as a washcloth. The relief for him was so noticeable.

Fate, we've just lifted the kitchen floor and dumped the table and chairs so for now we're winging it until we have our kitchen redone but she does love to be at the table when out for meals but still doesn't eat much.

Good to hear from you Nazly!

My DD has also become a fussy eater. She was an excellent eater from the beginning of weaning but since she's started to refuse any sort of puree/mashed food in favour of whole finger foods it has been very difficult to get enough variety in her, particularly with veg as bar a few she won't eat them as finger foods. She does deliberately throw her food on the floor when she doesn't like it or has had enough. I do discourage it but it's how she communicates her feelings on the food! I think fussy eating is quite normal as they get older, everything i've read about weaning says that babies are most receptive to new foods between 6 and 9 months especially, and that phases of fussy eating are very common afterwards. It is a pain though...she's back to drinking pretty much all of her milk during the day whereas she was leaving quite a lot before in favour of food, so she obviously isn't having enough, but I can only give her so many omelettes!

Just looked google images for keratosis pilaris....wow! M and I don't have it to that extent, just bumpy skin with the odd bit of redness and nowhere near as bad as most of those images. I suppose with everything there is a varying scale of it.

Thanks ladies; Fate, I am not talking about accidently dropping food; throwing it, exactly as Lilone just described ; i have tried showing I am unhappy, saying no, dismissing it, even taking the food away and nothing worked, he just doesn't understand why it is a bad thing and continues communicating with me in that way when he is almost full, doesn't like something or when too much of something is in front of him...

Sleep thing is tough; he was a good sleeper some months ago and became really bad gradually- i worry if I bring him in at 4:30 he will start getting worse again and expecting me to bring him in at any time he wakes and then we start regressing... I have worked really hard and it was emotionally really difficult to get to where we are so am worried of gojng back, otherwise I would have loved just to take it easy for the couple of hours in the morning..

Missmoo thats interesting, i think he may have That, did you take M to doctor for diagnosise ? Should I ?

Thanks lily I'll try all of those you mentioned from now on. He has no issues in face or hand, etc; just legs and arms... I have always used sensitive wipe, but recently switched from fairy to persil (non bio) i should go back then...

lilone the number of things he eats well is now limited, i feel I may fall in the trap of just giving him those and then he becomes a very fussy toddler going forwards... You know the ones who only have burger, chips , etc!!!!

Welcome back Nazly!

I can't help with sensitive skin or sleep but we try and limit the food throwing here by:

• making sure dd never gets too hungry (snack/food of some sort every 2-3 hours) as that guarantees a food-throwing rage frenzy
• offering 1 piece of food at a time
• clearing food away when it's obvious she's getting full
• not reacting at all or looking at her when she's throwing it

For the most part these things work. Good luck!

Nazly, I didn't take M because I had just seen the dermatologist about mine (the appointment was for something else but I cheekily asked her to have a quick look at my arm because I have got in the habit of picking at the little bumps) and she told me what it was and gave cream. I told her M had the same and she said the creams available are not suitable for babies so I am not sure your GP would even be able to do anything. Maybe google some home remedies? I'll also have a look online and if I find anything useful I will let you know.

Nazly - that is exactly what I'm concerned about with the fussy eating but it gets so frustrating when you spend time preparing food for it to all end up on the floor! I'm going to look for some new recipes this week though to try, must persist!

As apples said I also only give a few pieces of food at a time and clear the tray when she starts telling me she's full by throwing food. Also, she really loves fruit so if she can see fruit is on offer everything else will go on the floor, so I can't bring that out until she's finished the main bit of meal!

Nazly with regards to the sensitive skin, A doesn't seem to have it (touch wood) but I do. I find Ariel and Persil (non bio for both) to be the worst laundry detergent for me. Fairy and Aldi own brand seem to be the best. I can get away with the odd washing of clothes with other brands (PIL use Ariel) but any more than one wash and it starts bringing out my eczema. Maybe this is why I haven't noticed A suffering, I do use Aldi own brand, sensitive wipes etc.
A also throws food when he is full/doesn't want what is offered He is drinking more milk than a few weeks ago, but I am currently working on still offering foods and hoping for the best. I am using cows milk with the added vitamins, so am happy he is getting all the nutrients he needs, and he does seem to be putting on weight, although is still on the 9th centile!
We go on holiday to a Haven holiday park tomorrow, I can't wait

Nazly no sorry it wasn't me that thought DD was less cute in photos than I thought a few months ago. I can't remember who it was who posted that. I'm afraid I still think she looks cute in all her baby photos.

Nazly have you tried water wipes for your DS's skin rather than perfumed baby wipes? If his skin is really sore I'd see your GP.

I can't help on the throwing food on the floor thing. Jessica does it too. Although I've been told that the best thing to do is just ignore it and take the food away as it makes the 'game' boring.

As for sleep, well I have no advice. In fact I was going to ask if anyone else had hit a 1 year sleep regression? I really thought a month ago that we were getting there with sleep - she was sleeping through more and more often to about 50% of the time and on the occasions she was waking a bit of diluted milk would get her back off again. So I thought now was a good time to cut out milk completely and just offer water at night. 3 weeks later I am regretting that decision. She's been waking about 2am every morning and taking about 2 hours of wailing before going back off again, and that's only with lots of cuddles and rocking. So 2 nights ago I gave up and started offering watered down milk again but she now seems set on her 2am two hour long wake ups again, when we were doing so well. Oh and then gets up at 6.30am. It's all a bit tied in with teething and clinginess as well I think from starting nursery. But it's bad timing as I'm back at work now and struggling with the lack of sleep again. I find as well that after being up for 2 hours intense baby calming I struggle to get back to sleep as I'm a bit 'wired' after listening to 2 hours of baby wailing. So I'm probably only getting about 5 hours sleep a night (and that's because I go to bed early so not getting much of an evening). I've survived on less in the newborn days but it's not great. I'm gradually building back up to full-time hours again but in 3 weeks time I'm back to 14 hour shifts on a busy and stressful ward. I'm going to be a wreck at this rate. I naively thought when I originally decided to work compressed hours that by the time Jessica was a year old she would be sleeping much better. I honestly don't know how Jessica finds the energy too. Yesterday she had 2 30 minute-odd naps in the daytime and that was it. Anyone else in this boat?

On an unrelated note I have Jessica's 1 year check in a couple of hours. I'm a bit anxious that on the questionnaire she doesn't seem to have scored very well on the communication section. Oh well, I'll see what they say. I'll ask the HV about sleep as well.