August 2021 - They've been here for half a year

[BertieBotts]

Can you believe it! Our lovely little ones are (roughly) halfway to their first birthdays.

Welcome friends old and new for discussion of sleep, teeth, weaning, milestones, navigating post-baby relationships and the whole existential dread of parenthood... I mean those amazing moments when they make your heart melt. Or produce a poo that makes the wallpaper melt. Oh, all of them. Nothing is off limits because it's just good to know that somebody else has been there.

@PurplePansy05 thanks lovely 🥰 I was feeling a bit better by the end of yesterday which was nice!

We had a horrific night, he was up so often and just would not settle - ended up giving calpol as he sounded like he was in pain poor thing, which helped a bit, but he was still very wakeful. I wondered if it might be his tummy as he had solids for the first time yesterday but really hardly anything went in (just saw 1 little tiny banana worm in his poo 😂). Think he must be knackered as he's now having his first nap only about 1.5hrs after waking!

The doctor said yesterday to forget the weaning while he’s unwell so that’s us back another step with it 🙈 still the most he’s managed is a tiny bit off a spoon and he spat most of it out!

Tried for an hour and a half to get a urine sample there. Tried a cold wet flannel on his stomach too but he just wasn’t for peeing 🤦🏼‍♀️ He needed a sleep so I’ve put him down with kitchen roll inside his nappy in the hope I can ring it out.. desperate times 😂 Phoned the doctors again this morning because he brought up his full bottle all over the high chair, half milk half water. The dogs were delighted with this 🙄 waiting on a call back, feel like he surely can’t survive on just water or like 6 scoops or formula per day if they say ‘just keep an eye on him’.. can he? 🤔

We didn't do any solids when he had covid. Just seemed too much hassle.

Look up the signs of dehydration in children on the NHS website. Don't panic, if needs must they will put him on a drip for fluids, but it is very rare it gets that far.

I think I would do nappy free time on a baking tray if you have one?

Oh also - this sounds nuts but I did it with DS1. If you hold him in this position over a bowl and make a "psssss" sound he will probably wee within a few minutes. It's how you do elimination communication with babies.

Thanks for the new thread!

I know everyone talked about high chairs ages ago but we're only just getting one now as we're about to start weaning. I'm looking at getting a used stokke tripp trapp with baby set and harness for later on but am wondering about whether to buy the tray too? I know you can pull them up to the table with this chair but might be nice to have the option of own tray? Also, if anyone has it do you think the baby cushion is any good? Thanks.

We are about 6 days away from 6 months old but DH wants to do a first aid course before we start food. Bit annoyed he only mentioned it now. I'm eager to start with food and take a little pressure off me w breastfeeding.

Constipation - avocado has helped. DS was constipated all last week, then this week we tried avocado and things have been quite smooth. Nice smooth fatty option. Also water with all meals.

Feta cheese is very high in sodium @PurplePansy05. Solid Starts recommends it as a 12 month+ food for that reason.

Glad everyone is enjoying the weetabix!

@WolfMother326 I did a baby academy first aid course when DS was 3 or 4 months. I haven’t used anything I’ve learned but knowing I COULD has given me a lot of confidence when DS splutters or chokes a little bit on food. I’d recommend baby academy. Plus, it’s online at the moment so you only pay one entry fee for the both of you, rather than paying for two people to attend physically!

Thanks for the new thread!
Transitioned into his cot in the last few days, much nicer not to hear him scratching the mesh sides 😂.
We are using a mattress on the floor though, I'm to lazy to want to walk across the landing several times a night currently!

@WolfMother326 We did a baby first aid course too when Leo was 3/4 months old. I don't think it should stop you from starting weaning, just look up basic techniques online for now (eg on Red Cross) and book a course for near future.

Re Tripp Trapp, don't bother with the cushion. It only gets dirty. Ours is off all the time. I didn't bother with the harness either personally.

We have the tray and I'd say it's helpful now because DS isn't tall enough to pick stuff off the table or dip his little spoon in yet (because of the height of the table), whereas he's able to do both using the tray. He also plays with his toys on the tray and I like the fact it's the tray that takes the bashing and not my wooden table. I think you can probably live without it, it's not necessary, but it's useful IMO.

Also the back tray is super useful for storing weaning accessories, I'm very pleased with it. xx

@WolfMother326 cushion I'm using but yes it gets a mess really quick but dd is small and needs the padding atm. Never used the harness with ds and bought it for dd there but again he was bulkier and steadier at sitting when we got it dd much less so so I got the straps to help with that tbh.
Tray we ended up buying with ds and loved when he was small after the year/ 18months mark he mostly just went back to being at our table but we still would have put the tray on if we had guests and needed more space or had lots of dishes on the table and wanted to keep him back a bit

How are you giving water to your babies? I just bought a no spill cup but it requires sooking and she'snot got the hang of it. We do have the cup that has holes in the spout but she just gets it all over her.

Do you think giving cows milk every day is bad? I mean with weetabix or something, not as a drink.

Thanks for the feta replies, btw, ladies!

Any thoughts on using low salt stock cubes? I'm guessing they should be fine for them now? We are planning to use them for cooking, replacing our usual Knorr ones.

I'll be interested to know your thoughts on baby toothbrushes and toothpastes too! No immediate rush, teeth still not through here 🤷🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️ xx

@ready2020 same, we tried the different types of cup but he couldn't grasp it. So we use the tommee tippe sippy cup but without the lid. He holds the handles but I hold the cup and help control the amount he has. He is definitely getting the hang of it more after a few days.

Spout cup here or baby bottle, medium flow teat. Some spout cups are better than others, it's worth trying different ones. I will probably try the 360 cup but they are all filthy and needed a wash so just waiting for them to come back through.

I actually found Knorr were the lowest salt of the normal stock cubes so I just used those when DS1 was tiny. The actual amount of salt in the stock once you calculate it across the whole dish, especially with baby portion sizes, is tiny.

Best approach for baby teeth I've found is wipe them with a flannel in the bath to clean them, even if you don't bath every day this should be fine, then at bedtime just add a step of chewing on a baby toothbrush/training toothbrush, just to establish it as a low pressure enjoyable routine and not worry at this stage if the teeth are getting brushed during this step. You can find a few different ones. I like the Nuk set but I was looking at a yellow one with baby grips in the shop today which looked good. Over time as they get used to this you can add baby toothpastes/graduate to an actual brush and let them do some themselves, or add in some brushing with a finger brush.

So no toothpaste yet, Bertie? When would you introduce it? xx

Well only for a week or few? I don't know, see how you go I suppose. If they hate the whole concept of a toothbrush then it can be counter productive to keep adding more stuff to it to potentially put them off even more.

You don't need toothpaste to clean their teeth when they have just come through as long as you have some abrasion (wiping). It's not like they are eating much sugar anyway. But once they are more used to the idea of having them brushed and it's been a fun/unthreatening experience then they tend to be cooperative with different things like a more bristly brush, toothpaste, etc. If you go in straight away with a brush and this weird tasting gel (especially if you get a minty one) it can really throw some babies off and then you are fighting them every day to clean their teeth which is stressful.

So I'd probably start out with a training brush giving them full control and work up to a properly bristly brush with toothpaste and you having control of it if that makes sense. There are quite a lot of steps in between those things.

Once they have a full mouth of teeth you do need a brush to get around them properly but it's much easier if they are cooperative and enjoy the tooth brushing experience by then, which is why you can use the time between the first tooth and a mouth full to work up to that.

Thanks for the suggestions @BertieBotts , we ended up getting a phone call back from the doctors 4 hours later to say just to head straight in to hospital 🤦🏼‍♀️ I did think they might say this since it was the second day and they’d already seen him at the GPs the day before. The receptionist said they’d call before 11, when I hadn’t heard by 11 I called them to check they had the right number. They didn’t phone back til nearer 1pm. I get that they’re really busy and the doctor who phoned was lovely but you’d think a potentially dehydrated baby might feature higher on their priority list 🙈

We only stayed in hospital a few hours and he’s stopped being sick now, just very lethargic still and only getting half his normal oz of milk. Feel like we’ve gone 3 steps back with the weaning, tummy time, sitting and everything because I’ve just been holding him or letting him sleep a lot of the time but hopefully we’ll catch back up this week 😊

Hides thread. My August 2021 baby died in the first trimester. I wish these bloody threads didn’t show up on active!

@Phrenologistsfinger I'm very sorry to read this. I and a lot of people on this thread have been where you are now (I've hidden many threads like this myself). Sending you a big hug

Hi everyone, sorry haven't been on here much but been very busy with baby groups etc and trying to get round seeing friends and family between the school run.

We started weaning a couple of weeks ago and she really enjoyed stewed apples and pears I prepared for her myself but then she started preferring them over milk and wouldn't drink for over 5/6 hours so we've stopped solids for now and will try again in a few weeks

Hope everyone is okay! Can't believe I only have 4 months leave left 🥺

Ah don't worry sarah he has plenty of time for all those things. Just focus on lots of cuddles to get him better :) Being held against your chest uses the same muscles as tummy time too so it all counts.

I've sent Phrenologist a message with sympathy explaining how to hide the whole section, does everyone know about this? You can go into Customise on the desktop site and choose topics that you would rather not see. I've hidden this section for example, because I don't want to see every other month's chat threads and hidden some sections I don't care about like Style & Beauty. And (controversially!) AIBU - the site is much calmer and less rage inducing without it although I still occasionally get sucked in on trending. You can also hide sections like miscarriage or pregnancy choices or covid-19 which might be triggering. And opt in to the special needs sections.

Baby loss is so difficult without those reminders :(

@lucyrp we had that yesterday so we didn't give him anything in the evening. He did need to have a reduction tbf but he barely took anything! Of course he still woke as usual through the night.

@BertieBotts I did not know this! I just hid individual threads 🙈 the thing that used to piss me off the most was all the ads and suggested posts you'd see because of all the bloody cookies picking up that you were pregnant. Thankfully my DH managed to stop them all somehow. Good idea to send her a PM. She probably won't see my comment anyway if she's hidden the thread, but I couldn't just read it and ignore.

@sarah13xx what a worry for you!!!! I hope he's better soon ❤️

@Phrenologistsfinger Three of mine died too in the 1st/2nd trimester. You're not alone. Equally, we have the right to discuss our living children and MN has the right to show active threads. And you have the right to hide them. Not sure about what the point of your post was, if you're trying to make us feel worse then you've succeeded right now in my case. I'm still struggling with MH after the losses despite having a living baby and didn't need to read this.

I hope you get he help you need and wishing you best of luck on your journey.

Love to all who have lost babies 🌈

Welcome back @lucyrp

@Daffodil21 thanks, seems to be much better now. Can’t find Hipp organic anywhere and he would be due to move on to number 2 milk anyway but even it has been difficult to come by this week, tried every supermarket and online 🤦🏼‍♀️ Managed to track some down today finally so he’ll have the adjustment to that thrown into the mix 😂