November 2014 - the one where they answer back.

[MrsAukerman]

New thread.
Hop aboard.

No milk here. We switched to water for mornings and bedtimes and whilst we offer cows milk at lunch he has no interest. Drinks only water. Lots and lots of water!

We are also a very big yoghurt and cheese family!

Occasionally he messes with it and bangs the spout on the table and wets it....But no spitting or dribbling.

He doesnt get ipad or phone but does like Ben and Holly a bit too much,and can watch it in total silence for an hour. But that's only cos he's not yet in nursery so I put it on so I can have my breakfast in peace!

He's great at imaginative play and makes noises and sings away to himself and will be lost in a world of his own. But it's funny cos the little 3 yr old boy next door just cannot do that at all and needs a lot of parent interaction even though he has a little sister now, whereas his 16 month old sister is like DS and potters about oblivious to all ...so it really does seem to be a random personality thing which fascinates me. I wonder what my next one will be like??

We were all awake from 4am to 6am last night. He woke again at 8 am. We are shattered. But at least there's no mystery - he was soaking wet right through his sleepsuit. Thank god for pull ups at that hour of the morning! So lots of Ben and Holly on this morning!

Lol at DH called 'doggy.' I read that and told my DH he had got off lightly. He also used to be called Dada, but is now called Mummy just the same as me. It gets very wearing, as she is constantly saying 'Mummeeee' so I respond but she doesn't mean me.
After I said yesterday that she isn't interested in the TV, today she waved bye bye at the end of Go-Jetters and was very interested in the Octonauts, sat there saying 'fish, fish' for most of it.
It threw it down at school time this morning. I thought DD2 was very lucky to be under the pushchair raincover while DD1 and I were getting soaked to the skin and splashed by traffic, but she kept sticking her arms and feet out the sides on purpose, foolish child!!

posmork I have a lot of vegetarian recipes. Any ideas what kind of things you want to make?

Thought of 'doggy' this morning when I realised dd sometimes changes her mind who she wants halfway through and I get called 'dummy' as a consequence.

posmork I made a veggie version of this www.annabelkarmel.com/recipes/chicken-curry

also loads of ideas here uk.pinterest.com/search/boards/?q=vegetarian+children

Mummy! I think dh would prefer that. It's his own fault, she was confident with dada but he kept saying "daddy" really pointedly and now is greeted with "hello doggy!" Whenever she sees him he pointed at her toy dog yeaterday and said "doggy" and she just looked at him like he was an idiot. He is doggy. I've made veggie fritters before which are usually a hit- just a load of grated veg, a beaten egg, a bit of flour and some cheese on top. One way to sneak veg into her. Although she did polish off an Ella's broccoli pouch recently when he brother refused. Maybe that's the secret, let her think that she's stolen someone else's dinner.

No spitting here either. DD still drinks about 0,7 litres of milk, mainly before bedtime and about 3-4am when she usually wakes for a quick drink. Not much interest about milk during the day unless we are traveling, then she suddenly wants a drink of milk. Must be a comfort thing. We have decided to try Anna approach of watering down the milk. I was hoping that one day she would simply refuse milk and sleep through, but that day doesn't seem to come fast enough.
DD eats a lot of stringy cheese sticks and recently has been obsessed with raisins. In terms of cooked food DD is fairly strange, she is eating up everything in the nursery and sometimes asking for seconds while at home she wouldn't touch most of the stuff.

She at the moment is very interested in drawing, crayons, acqua-doodle, pens, yoghurt, milk, anything that leaves a trace of something.

The things that DD is into at the mo are "painting" on the patio (paint brushes + ice-cream tub of WATER! - much easier less messy than paint); a bouncy cow thing; throwing / rolling balls around on the lawn; an electronic keyboard thing; DH's iPhone....and books. Oh, and generally playing around in the garden as long as it involves water / pulling the heads off my flowers.... Not into motion toys at all really, like cars etc. And she doesn't watch TV at all. Maybe I'm missing a trick? But she is totally dis-interested in it when DH may have it on over the weekend (may cos it's the F1 he's watching....)

What's everyone using as snacks during the day? DD tends to have a snack around 9.30 and then something around 3 / 3.30 (between lunch and dinner). I'm giving fruit / oat bars / bread sticks (not a favourite) / yoghurt / cheese biscuits....but it does seem to be the same things every couple of days....

I know what you mean about snacks, dd eats a lot of snacks and smaller meals so we have to have loads. Banana bread (sugar free), olives, edamame beans, baby corn, popcorn, along with everything you've listed haven't

Prawn crackers are a fav snack here he asks for one more!

We try not to give much in the way of snacks mainly cos my 3 yr old goddaughter has developed a habit of only wanting snacks now and her mother is in despair! She refuses main meals now saying she's either not hungry or she eats a teeny tiny bit and says she's finished but then an hour later is looking for a snack. It's constant whining for snacks!

So I think that has frightened me a bit.

That said sometimes it's unavoidable so we have corn cakes in the house and we'll give him one of those if he hasn't had much lunch. But we're a bit stingy with them!

We're going to have to figure out a way of leaving the room after he goes to bed. Not sure how as he'll freak. But last night I was sat there in the dark for an hour like a total lemon as he just messed around in the cot. He wasn't even paying me any attention! Utterly pointless and just stressing me out.

Snacks for DD are often a banana, raisin box (not often as I have a bit of a hatred of them), toddler biscuits, tuc biscuit, babybel or other cheese, dry cheerios, or muffins from the BLW cookbook that I always have in the freezer. She loves the goodies oat bars but they are sooo sweet I try to restrict them a bit. Plus of course ANYTHING that she sees me put in my mouth. It's certainly reducing my biscuit intake :-(
TBH most of the day is a snack fest as she's usually asleep by 11:30 so tends to have a big snack / small lunch both before and after her nap. I also use snacks as bribe to get in the pushchair etc... Anna it's a bit like that here but I don't know what else to do - she can't go all afternoon without food... We know when she's hungry as she gets her bib off the radiator in the kitchen and brings it to us!

Well what realistically happens if he hasn't had a snack is that he wants his dinner at 4.30. So we tend to give it to him not long after that. Usually about 4.45/5.

If it's very early (and he doesn't happen to like it much) we'll offer him a bit of toast at 6.30 for supper. But usually he eats a lot for dinner so he doesn't tend to want anything else.

But he eats a HUGE breakfast when he gets up!

That said, he's just come back from a big walk and demanded something so I'm after giving him a banana. But his lunch isn't till 1.30 so he should still be hungry for it.

What I just don't want to happen is for him to come to expect it at a certain time of the day so I keep it very ad hoc.

Ah I guess DD is used to a fairly set routine for food when she's at nursery so I kind of stick to that.

She's such a fussy eater her main meals are often virtually snacks anyway... typically at the moment if it's not chicken fingers or fishfingers, then she will reject whatever I've made and so she'll be offered toast or cereal instead. So one dinner a week at least I just give her cheese, crackers, fruit and yoghurt. Honestly I despair.

I understand what you mean Anna and I'm not one for giving her stuff to eat whenever she wants it. I guess (bit like Moggle) we're fairly very structured around mealtimes and stick to the nursery pattern so that it doesn't confuse her. That means she has (a large breakfast) around 6.45 / 7; a snack around 9.30; lunch about 11.30/11.45; another snack around fish and then (a HUGE) dinner around 5.30. Then that's it until the next day.

At the moment we're lucky - she'll eat absolutely anything (although not overally keen on baked beans or weetabix) - bit like a human dustbin - I'm waiting for the fussy phase to kick in...

OK, a (probably) very dense question: pull-up nappies. When do you start using them and why? I mean, when will I know it's the right time to use them? Any ideas? Or is everyone already using them and I'm the only one who hasn't jumped on the band wagon yet???

"fish"???? - meant 3 ish....!!!!

Been using them since the minute he pulled himself up on the side of the sofa. So about 10/11 months I guess? Around that time he started screaming at being laid down for nappy changes and I folded like a deck of cards for a quiet life.

Literally every nappy change since has been standing up.

We're still using regular nappies as DD will still lie down for changes. She does wriggle and make a fuss sometimes about being laid down, but because her poos are usually pretty sloppy (sorry!) I can't clean her bits up properly after a poo if she's standing up, so we have insisted on her lying down for that phase of the change. It sometimes results in me keeping her down by putting a leg over her chest (sorry DD!) but it's over quickly! I'll often put the nappy together and put it on her standing up so I've swapped our next amazon order to the baby dry pants to try them out. But she'll still have to lie down for changing.

I don't think you need to change to them until you're starting potty training, really, if they will still lie down for changing. We've just bought a potty just to have it around but I don't think I could get her on it fast enough yet even with pull ups! She says "poo poo" but she's usually already halfway through it :-D

Wow Anna! 10-11 months?! Right, I'm off to Aldi tomorrow and will get some pull-ups (alongside the regular 4+ ones!). The thing that I couldn't figure out was how I'm supposed to clean her up after particularly "voluminous" poos...aka "sloppy" ...but maybe the answer is to just lay her down for those ones.... She's been screaming blue murder for weeks now when we lay her down for a nappy change, in fact it begins as soon as she claps eyes on the changing mat ...

yeah I presume the idea is you lie them down for those ones... otherwise it would be like a jackson pollock painting surely!

You never ever have to use pull ups we never did in day for ds1 and onky used at night once potty trained at 2.5yrs as refused a nappy and he was practically dry at night so was only a short time, they cost more per unit than nappies and contain less fluid/poo and actually do not aid potty training thery are a total gimmick.

I have to say we've never had a carpet splatter yet. But I am very expert at the "wipe with the clean bit of the nappy" technique so most gets shovelled in before I take it away. The secret is to just not remove the nappy till there's very little left on the bum!

But I do have some serious adult nappy skills from nursing, lol. So this is a piece of cake!

Yeah that's what I can't picture Anna - how you wipe down with the front bit of the nappy while changing them standing up without the back part just flopping down... guess it's all practice...

Actually the pull-ups I've just added to our subscribe and save on Amazon are barely more expensive than the regular ones, 10p instead of 9p each I think. What swung it for me when I saw they do baby dry pull ups now as they seem to have much better reviews than the previous pampers pants i'd seen.

Nooooo the back part must never flop down! You gingerly tear each side making sure to hold back part in position up against cheeks wit other hand. Then you grasp the undercarriage with your hand, thumb upwards to support back load and fingers to the front. And wipe upwards with the front bit whilst folding the back part in on itself with your thumb, scraping nappy against crack as you do. So a scooping & tucking motion.

.....I can't believe I just wrote that paragraph.....

Anna that's made me laugh and want to puke at same time - I have just remembered why I wouldn't make a good adult nurse my adult placement was not pleasant eurgh

Yeah I tested the baby dry pull ups I think in sz3 for pampers via mumsnet and they are OK but didn't hold a full night wee had lots leakage compared to same in nappy.

Haha Anna can we have a youtube tutorial please!!
If you need two hands for the operation which hand is available to stop child running away during the change!! Think that is where we'll struggle!!

east that's useful to know - she's in 4+ for nights and the pull ups don't come in the + option so we'll definitely be keeping the normal ones for bedtimes then.