July 2007 part 2- 4 months in, doesn't time fly?

[Princesspowersparkle]

Hello July ladies, we are here now!!!!

I'm not sure if I'm going yet! I've only left dd 2 nights, and that was only in sept. ds will only be 13 months.

Meep, do your dd's little red patches light up like a christmas tree when you bath her? This totally freaks my Mum out ("OMG his skin shouldn't be like that, he's only a wee baby, he's supposed to have flawless skin yadda yadda yadda") so she is now banned from bathtime altogether. Though i rarely bath him now. Poor wee mite

Was just about to say have a stinky (joking) baby ppc. I've said it before, but if you need to bathe them, have you tried sticking a couple of tablespoons of oats under the hot running water in a tied popsock or stocking makes a very soothing (and only porrigey if the oats escape) bath similar to adding Aveeno.

Yes jennster, have done the oats thing too! Then given oilatum by the hv. Which used to be good, not so much now. I think it's more an effect of the warm water now tbh. Have not tried Aveeno - is it any good?

(Re NY - go go go!)

YES! lota of red patches all over her legs in the bath! I try to Epaderm her legs twice a day - have resorted to Surcare washing powder and use Oilatum plus in the bath! Funnily tho when we were away for Hogmanay I forgot the Oilatum and she was no better or worse!
I use Aveeno myself - and it is soothing and doesn't make anything flare up - but to be honest, steroids are the only thing that will stop a bad itch scratch cycle.
I still bath dd every night - should I stop? (she loves it so much)
"I wanna be a part of it, New York New York" tra la la - go go go!!!

oats botanical name is avena sativa. Unless you get aveeno on Rx, then very expensive. Oats are very cheap but very messy

Glad to hear I'm not alone but sorry to hear your LO's are also eczema sufferers . Little O started with a couple of patches on her chest but it's now spread pretty much everywhere, with the worst being on the tops of her arms. Her back and thighs are pretty bad at the moment and I can hear her in her cot thumping around trying to scratch her back. I went up and she's fast asleep but it's still bothering her. I've now seen three GP's about the flare ups (each one has prescribed steroids) and was surprised at how seriously the one this morning took the situation. I was expecting to be fobbed off with more creams to try, but he said he would refer us to a dermatologist next week if no significant improvement. I've never heard of Surcare detergent - will keep an eye out for it, we're using Ecover but it seems to have made no difference.

Jennster - I found it hard enough to leave LO for a few hours on New Year's Eve so a week in New York sounds tricky!!! I think it's one of those things that would be very healthy to do though. I am going to try to leave DD with DH a bit more regularly now, just to make me "release" her a bit more.

Off now to play with the new highchair that arrived this afternoon !

Encouraging to hear that GP's are being receptive to this. My hv says its very much a 21st century baby thing, she is surprised when she comes across a baby that doesn't have eczema!! Very. I'm sure it's got something to do with the fact that there are just so many more contaminants around the environment generally, aside from washing powder + all the usual suspects.
The aveeno sounds nice jennster! Am liking the Latin
Catstar - my IL's bought us a highchair for Xmas and I've not had a chance yet to fiddle with it! Maybe tomorrow...
Night night

I would ask in the eco section about Surcare. I have a feeling it's got formaldehyde in it....because it softens stuff. I don't think it's as nice as it makes out.

Shocked to hear so many LO's have excema.
B has it too, we had just 1 little patch on her leg a fortnight ago but now she has several patches. They don't seem to be bothering her yet and I'm smothering her in olive oil every night. I haven't taken her to the doctors yet so it's interesting to hear what other people are doing about it.

DP and I both have excema so we were expecting problems. I'm almost certain ours is caused by our water, it smells very chlorine-y. DP had never had it till we moved here and mine got loads worse. On the bad days I seriously consider moving... but I love it here.

I didn't know that about Surcare - yikes! To be honest I don't think it has made much difference - I've been told that Fairy non-bio is just as good!
Mini-meep is full of the cold - AGAIN - I am hoping it dies down as I hate trying to give her Medised at night when she is really stuffed up
The snow is still quite thick up my way - so I haven't yet managed to get to Ikea to buty the highchair - I also need to get some pears and start puree-ing!!! Catstar and PPC - what type of highchair have you got?

hello all! And welcome to the newbies.

I am very happy as dp did the night shift for the first time last night (lucky man) and ds woke at 2, had some water then went back to sleep. So I slept 9-6.45 - heaven! He's doing the next two nights, I can't wait.

Weaning - we've been on solids for nearly a month - LOL. Just veggies and fruits, going to add eggs and meat this weekend. Ds loves it and it keeps him happy. I haven't done BLW, but don't puree anymore, just mash the food with a fork. Also ds is drinking from a beaker, without a sippee lid so I don't have to carry a sippee lid around every where. He choked a bit at first but now has the habit. He does spit a bit out but that has the added advantage of cleaning him up.

excema - I am using plain soapflakes for ds clothes and this has stopped his dry skin getting worse. It doesn't have the sucurifiants (?!) that even Ecocover does. And how dirty really do baby clothes get?

Hope everyone is well. Good news about your Dad Bilibo. DoD I hope you are all feeling better now.

morning all, thank god someone mentioned hair loss! i thought it was just me...cried my eyes out to the hairdresser (who i don't know that well!) beacause my hair is coming out so much...lo grabs at it and ends up with handfuls! i have found it so depressing!

lo surprised us with a sleepless night last night so feel like a zombie today!

we have tried baby rice and apple so far...lo seems to like the apple a lot more than the baby rice thats for sure...am going to try avocado next i think.

big hugs to all and welcome to the newbies

Doris - sorry to hear about your stay in hospital - hope lo is doing much better now.

Bilbio glad your dad was home for Christmas and is doing well.

at number of babies with excema. DD looked like she had a few patches on her back when she was about 10 wks. HV suggested oilatum junior which seems to have done the trick. I just try to remember to apply everyday or twice a day if she gets any sore looking patches. Hers is obviously no where near as bad as some. (thankfully)

HV just been and impressed with how well dd is sitting. Apparently most babies don't sit that well until they are about 8 months! [v proud emoticon] She's not 6 mths until Tuesday!!! All set for starting her on solids tomorrow. Not sure what to try her with first. Have courgette, carrot, sweet potato & butternut squash in freezer, and avocado & apples in the fridge. Any suggestions? Apparently I don't need to start with baby rice as she should be ok to digest veggies.

Hello theprecious, bilblio, myfairone!
My gp tested me for thyroid problems as so much of my hair fell out! But of course it all came back normal, it was just the hormones. Take heart, it does settle around 6 months
I have heard from lots of people that avocado tends to be quite a big hit in the weaning game, so hopefully you'll be on to a winner with that as well.

meep - we got this one

Re hair loss - Remember when you were pregnant and your hair got lovely and thick and glossy? That's because it stopped falling out at its normal rate. Now you're not pregnant, its going back to how it was before you were pregnant, and so it looks like you're loosing loads. I bet you've got long hair too? Mine is short so not noticed it. When it was long I was forever removing hair from my clothes.

I am so glad I discovered this thread!
PPC that highchair looks v comfy! At the moment dd is on the table in her bumbo - and she ate all her baby rice this morning and smiled - hooray!
MelissaM {hi!}, I am devoting this evening to a mad steaming and pureeing session - v impressed that you have yours all frozen already! My brother recommended avocado and cream cheese for when they are a wee bit older!
Myfairone {hi!}, my hair is now staying put and I have a wierd fluffy regrowth! Happily it is still much thicker than it was pre-dd - hooray!
Well it is dd's 6 month brithday today - felt quite emotional about it - can't believe my wee meep is growing up so fast! And I can't belive that in 2 weeks time I will be going back to work. I may be on here for virtual support quite a lot in the next 2 weeks - haven't cried about it today...........so far
I have been so anxious about her going to nursery and couldn't bear the thought of her being looked after by strangers (she will be looked after by my Mum and Dad one day - and I will have her one day - but that's still 3 days at nursery )
But we were away with friends for Hogmanay and she just loved being around other babies - she just wanted to get onto the floor and play with things and watch the older ones crawling around. She seemed so happy and actually got a bit bored spending the whole day with me yesterday - !

Hi Meep - we went for the Mamas & Papas Primo Pappa Evo (think that's right - bit of a mouthful!!!). I'm not clever enough to do a link to it . It looks like it's going to do the job and has some good reviews - I suppose time will tell when we start using it properly! I did my usual thing of looking at it at John Lewis then buying it from ebay!!! We are still using the Bumbo seat for now though although a word of warning - if you think your LO is about to fill their nappy try to whip them out quick or it shoots straight up the back. O nearly reached her shoulders this morning !!

Little O had apple for breakfast, sweet potato and courgette for lunch and will have some pear & rice for tea. I'm going to try her on avocado tomorrow.

BTW - a combination of Diprobase and Eumovate as prescribed yesterday seems to be helping the eczema. Let's hope this keeps going. O much happier today .

Meep - you will get lots of support on here about going back to work - we sympathise with you big styleee!

Off to Friday Fun now so catch up later.

DoD- Glad to hear DD2 is out of hospital.

Bilblio- you must be so relieved about your dad's speedy recovery.

I haven't noticed my hair coming out in clumps, but DH is getting fed up of finding stray hairs everywhere, particularly in his food! oops

DS has been on solids 3 weeks now (since 25 weeks). He can't get enough but i am trying to keep the quantities small. Butternut squash was a big hit today.

DS is also sitting unaided Melissa, but no signs of rolling yet, but then we hardly ever put him on his back or front! DD was sitting at 5.5mo but didn't roll til she started crawling at 8mo.

Has anyone made broccoli puree? I've just tried it and no amount of whizzing it in the food precessor would make it an actual puree - it is quite grainy - I mixed in some of the cooking water and that made it slightly better - looks really unappetising though!

Go on, give lo a floret and see what they do!

I actually gave her a (very tiny) bit of apple to suck while I was pureeing! She looked very happy with it too! I was standing there trying to push sweet potato through a sieve - and thought - bugger this - it is soft and mushy enough just mashed! I think I will do a bit of a mixture of puree and finger food and just see how we go! Strangely she is not a baby who sticks everything in her mouth - toys get played with - fingers go in the mouth!

Meep- I was having the exact same problem with brocolli this afternoon! I'll just have to see how DS copes with it tomorrow- might mix it with some potato. I think it shouldn't matter too much if its not a soft puree- with my DD I didn't have a food processor at the time, so everything she had was just mashed with a fork, and she ate it.

I was waiting to do finger food at 7 months, but guess I could start a bit sooner a la BLW.

Is anyone else who is weaning having fun with dirty nappies? At first DSs nappies were still liquid, but then became more like korma sauce/porridge, but are now proper formed little poos. However he has gone from on average once a day to 3 or 4 little ones, including one in the bath last night (never been done before!).

Just added some up-to-date photos of DS and DD to my profile page if anyone is interested.

Yes pulapula!!! We had our first cable lay in the bath last night - I couldn't believe the size of it . Luckily it happened on DH's watch. We've also been getting about 4 a day rather than the huge one every other day before weaning. What are most of you doing re. timing of food i.e. before, during or after milk feeds? I'm still giving LO milk first then food as I understand that milk's still the most important thing until she reaches 6 months, but just wondered about after that?

I'm visiting a friend with a 2 week old baby tomorrow - it seems really weird that she's been asking me for advice when it only seems like yesterday that I was phoning my friends asking questions! How times have changed.

Happy pureeing!!