March 2008 births

[MarchNowFebMum]

Welcome March Mums (and late Feb/early April Mums!) from the March 2008 threads.

fitnforty, none of my boys have had any vaccinations at all

ds4 is doing one poo a day on the hipp as well and like your ds its in the morning after his first feed interestingly it doesnt stink and is still bright yellow just more of a spreadable consistency rather than really runny like his bmilk poo was, anyywayyyyyyyyyyyy, i cant believe i am discussing the consistency of poo..

today rudi has managed to suck his thumb each time he wants to go to sleep, he is in bed now, wrapped up and sucking his thumb [seriously] he has become a dream baby since going onto formula and learning to suck his thumb, fingers crossed it lasts

i didnt realise aptimil wasnt veggie, infact i had kind of assumed all formula WAS suitable for veggies, i am quite shocked by that,hmmmmmm more food for thought.

oh and given that i am slightly paranoid that Rudi may get constipated on formula i offered him some cooled water today and he took an ounce no problems so i shall maybe just offer him water a few times a day, the HV recomended i did that, esp once it gets to summer and we have some hot weather, if we have some hot weather, knowing our british summer

right i am off to spend some time with dp, i cant believe all four boys are asleep in bed

I will be having DD immunised with single MMR jabs but for the 8/12/16 weeks I now have no concern. Was a little concerned here but researched it and on balance in my opinion the side effects, even at there worst were a million times better than the illnesses they protect against. Vaccinations by Paul Offit was a good read and another one I can't quite remember.

FWIW I think you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. If you have them and baby reacts badly/has gastro probs you'll feel awful and if you're baby gets a preventable form of meningitis for example you will equally feel awful.

Have your GP and HV been supportive fn41? I found them rather unhelpful when I was trying to find stuff out to make a decision.

3MB Aptimil has fish oil added, haven't looked at SMA so don't know if that's fishy or not
Interesting that none of your boys have had jabs -how did you fend off the pressure?

MMH, Health Visitor didn't bat an eyelid at my decision, but I had already decided nothing was going to happen yet. She left me a book about the different vaccinations but said she assumed I'd be researching online when she saw the laptop open! The GP was a bit more iffy at the 6wk check, asking if she was going to do any jabs that day (despite the fact the guidelines here said 8 wks for the 1st ones). Then asked if i'd been vaccinated as a child...which kind of made me more stubborn as that's just a feeble justification. She might as well have asked if I smoked as a toddler- would that have been ok too? A couple of years ago I wouldn't have questioned it at all, but very sceptical now about the role of drug cos in their "persuasion" of the medical profession.

DS will be happy when he wakes for his feed to hear that Man Utd won tonight

On vaccinations, I should declare an interest as I work for a pharma company that makes them . Because of that I am quite close to a lot of the stuff that goes on in the area and so spent a lot of time thinking and talking through the issues, and DH and I have decided to get our baby vaccinated. My reasoning is as follows:

It is important that a high proportion of babies are vaccinated so that diseases do not have an opportunity to spread easily, and if a high proportion is vaccinated then an individual baby that is not vaccinated benefits from the vaccination of other babies without the risk of the side effects of the vaccination themselves. So it is probably not rational to vaccinate a baby at an individual level because they benefit from herd immunity created by large scale vaccination of others anyway, but it is entirely rational to want a large percentage of babies overall to be vaccinated. However if everybody chose to rely on other people vaccinating their babies then the numbers of babies being vaccinated would fall below the critical level and these diseases would start to take hold again, as is now being seen in some areas with measles. So anyway, my reasoning ended up being that if my baby benefits from the vaccination of other babies then I think it only fair that I choose to vaccinate him as well to confer that benefit to other babies IYSWIM. So DS will be receiving all his jabs. I think it comes down to a choice at an individual level versus a societal level and I don't think either approach is worse for your own baby. I guess my core personal morals / political views / whatever you want to call it, is that we are part of a community not just individuals and we should look out for other people and treat others as we wish to be treated etc., and so I've decided that I should do my bit for my community by vaccinating my baby.

Having said that, I completely respect everyone's right to choose what is right for their baby just like I respect everyone's right to choose ff or bf, disposable or cloth, Bugaboos or Quinnys etc . So on that note - FN41 - I hope your HV and doctor don't push you too hard on this and that they respect your decision. 3MB - well done you for managing to get what you want for your boys regardless of HV nagging etc. which I'm sure you had! I'd quite like tips for dealing with HV next time they moan about DS's weight gain...

Hi all, dd2 is getting jabbed with the MMR on 2/6. DD1 had it and with no adverse effects so I'm not to worried this time. The link to Autism was suggested but not proven.
The diseases if they get them are far worse IMO.
My little fatty is 13lb 13oz. Really chuffed I found all dd1s old 3-6mth clothes, saved me a fortune!

Might I suggest we don't ge into a whether or not to immunise convo on this lovely thread? I know that there are some strongly opinionated people on here and it would be a shame to spoil it..
My LO having first round a 9 am today. Hope no side effects as DH away for 5 days!

i agree with spare the thread an imms division(sits on hands hard, having strong views) laugh

cannot resist however to point out i am an infectious disease epidemiologist who helped design and validate the mmr catch up campaign for london a few years ago and if anyone wants any data on the subject ask off list (CAT me or ask for email) and i can dig it out.

not that keen workwise on kiddie diseases though. am very good on sars, vCJD, legionella and tuberculosis. i do love a nice rare-ish nasty. weirdest thing i ever had to do was design a way to collect tonsils removed out of older kids for a vCJD disease. lots of little chill boxes of tonsils scurring around the country, anyone?

...for a vcjd surveilance project, that should read.

MB-OOOOOH how fascinating!! I'd love to hear all about it. Honest. I'm a bit odd. I had Necrotizing Fasciitis (or something like it) when I was 6 right after I'd been in hospital for meningitis(they even had MRSA back then I guess) and have been fascinated by diseases ever since. Listen to me, I post on here about poo, diseases and jabs. Eek.

I was coming on this morning to say the exact same thing about how me starting a debate was perhaps not the wisest thing on our lovely supportive forum! I was talking about it with my NCT group yesterday and it was on my mind - I realised in retrospect that my post might have come across pretty strongly, especially as FN41 had already made her decision and was asking for advice on how to get HVs/doctors to respect her wishes, rather than asking what we thought of her decision.

So sorry if I caused anyone to start spluttering into their cornflakes! At least you now all know my views on it I suppose so you won't be surprised if I pop up on any AIBU threads in future...

MB - would love to hear about your job sometime. It sounds like my sort of thing. I'm not clever enough to be a scientist but work with the ones who are discovering drugs and designing trials all the time (I work on the commercial/finance side) and they're amazing. I love it!

Poor monkey...he did not like that one bit. Neither did I. Still, good excuse for extra cuddles today.

turtle I cried when DD had hers hope the little fella is feeling ok now.

MB - your job sounds uber cool. My FIL works(worked, is semi retired now) in biotech and had his own company working in respitory stuff, I find science fascinating!!

Just out of interest who is planning on going back to work around Sept time?

Hi HQ - not a prob, and was not intending to start any heated debates which is why i raised it here on the friendly side...fully aware of why we should and it's very valid, just want to wait for LO to have his if at all, since I have a lot of food type intolerances and don't want to trigger any "potentials" in DS just yet. Thanks for the replies though!
And MB, blimey that sounds a very technical job, makes me being an accountant seem as boring as it really is

Going back to work beginning Oct due to Sept being far too busy work wise to throw myself back into things then. Absolutely dreading it as I could quite happily stay home if only we could afford it.

mb - i'd be very interested to see the data on mmr jabs. agree with not discussing pros/cons here though.

you know those times when you think 'i wish i'd said xxxxx'. well, i had the opposite yesterday. i was in a newly opened garden center yesterday, there wasn't anyone at the till so another woman and i were chatting and waiting for someone. eventually she appeared and growled 'didn't know anyone was here'. the other lady asked if they had any garden claws and the stooooopid till woman pretended she didn't understand and kept saying 'CLAW, CLAW?' presumably because the other woman was asian, despite having no accent at all. she explained what she meant and the till woman was still going'C;AW, CLAW?'. Anyway the customer woman gAve up and left, as she went out Mrs Dumbass said 'at least learn the language' in a really horrrible way. i was and . i put my stuff down and said 'if you are going to speak like that to your customers, i am going too' and on the way out i said 'they're very rude here, by the way' to people going in. a long story, sorry, but i had to share because i'm still angry! glad i said something though - i never would have in the past, may be it's being a mummy now!

c4it - my dd sleeps 11.30 to 6 or 7 (touch wood) and is exclusively bf. doesn't really sleep in the day though and screams all evening!

had iz weighed today and shes 11 lb 5 makes me cross my legs thinking that some ladies give birth to them that big had her weighed at a lovely baby group, totally different from clinic. get a brew and sit around chatting to other mums with babies. (i was the youngest there though and there were few comments about the fact i already had 3 children!!)
my 2 dds have had all there jabs and izzy will be having hers, there sometimes a bit 'off' after thenyve had them but fine after a few hours. the only thing im not going to do is let her have the extra meningitis one at 4 mths. thats been brought in since i had dd2 and i think that 3 injections at the same time is too much so im going to see about her having it a month after the first two. i was a bit worried about my first having them but its one of those things where you weigh up the risks, im glad i did though one of the children in her class recently had mumps. but like someone else said its personal choice

aptamil is not veggie as it has fish oil in it, i use it and dds poo is runny and yellow [gross]

pmsl here

I think it is only Aptamil for Hungry Babies with the fishy ingredient. I may well be wrong though....

HQ Victory!!!!!!

Nope...regular Aptamil too I'm afraid

Glam - Twas brilliant, wasn't it? My brother was in Moscow for it, lucky boy. Our hometown team Rochdale also won a penalty shoot out last Saturday (although for the more lowly prize of a place in League 2 play off final on Monday) so luck is on our side this week!

DH out tonight so I have to do bath and bed routine on my own for the first time. This is DS's witching hour so it's always exhausting. I will need a couple of glasses of vino afterwards - thank heavens for a late night bottle feed!

Wish me luck...

i am steering clear of the Aptamil hungry baby. I gave it to Matthew in the hope that if he had a full stomach he would sleep better at night. He slept for an extra 30 minutes BUT the day after he was crankly, bringing up more milk than usual, and had loads of trapped wind.
So it's back to ordinary Aptamil for us.

just a flying visit, will reply to work msgs over the weekend i expect. weds was hellish day of timings wrong for baby, we both got cranky and toddler picked it up. was ready to commit murder, porr dp when he got home got him back on track yesterday, then he had his first imms at last (2 weeks late due to reflux and a cold).

he cried on injections and then slept through a toddler group, startled at lunchtime feed by ds1, screamed, screamed blue murder for 20 minutes, sounds i've never heard from him. gave him calpol at 3pm and he basically slept with feeds until 3am when he got hot and i gave more calpol. still asleep, lovely little man. i went to be at 7pm last night, before ds1! feel reborn today, tis lovely.

very pleased with immune response gg has mounted, strong but not overwhelming and amenable to treatment. i really like imms for giving a chance to see how they manage in a very controlled way. better get onw ith rest of morning now, see you soon.

got baby back on track. and dp. freudian slip with grammar there

finally got round to posting a few photos on my profile (unlike the 100+ on facebook!)

Would anybody like me to start a Facebook group for March babies as then we could add eachother as friends and see all the pictures we have of babies? Or are we wanting to keep anonymous?

I am on over 1000 too fn41 - your pics are gorgeous!

Stupid question but would that mean any old perv could sign up to the group on FB or would there be any vetting? Happy to add named individuals as friends but don't want just anyone to be able to access details