March 2008 babies: Why aren't humans born with teeth and other important topics!

[MarchNowFebMum]

new thread - old one getting too big for some...

I'm tired. Hoping all is well.

Oh yes - big congratulations to Auntie Cricketsmum, delighted to hear your news

Hola!

Just found out the G was exposed to chicken pox yesterday. Wha hey. I'm freaking out in case he gets it and we aren't allowed to travel at Christmas. I'm really hoping he escapes it, or at least it doesn't appear before we leave for the States. I'm not so worry about not being able to fly back!

when are you leaving? it took a week (to the day) between dd developing spots and ds developing spots but incubation can be up to 20 days

they are to young for piriton but might be worth getting some calamine lotion for the cupboard

We leave on the 20th, so I've got 11 days for him to get it and be over it or hope it incubates for longer. OR, maybe he won't get it at all. Oh please, oh please!

Poor chap. He's teething badly again, and has just picked up a nasty cold with a chesty cough coming on. Just what we need!

We have chicken pox at nursery, really don't want DD to get it yet!

She has yet ANOTHER poxy cold. I am so exhausted! She has totally lost her voice, sounds really husky and when she cries it comes out as a teeny squeak. Won't eat or take much milk. It's so worrying and horrid when they are sick, I wanna be at home with her but I have to go to work .

Just done my Christmas tree, it was great fun! I love Christmas, am so excited about starting to wrap presents. Just ordered DD's main present (a rocking horse!) so that should be delivered soon and then I can start doing all my sorting out I'm a total geek!

It is a blooming chicken pox epidemic isnt it! Put ds to bed with just one tiny pox on his finger to pop and scab and thought we may get to leave house finally but its still there this am

a rocking horse sounds really exciting? what are the baby buys for xmas???

i'm terrified of chicken pox and having to deal with an itchy baby. jfly - have my fingers crossed for you! ld - i'm willing that final scab to burst so you can get some fresh air!!!

As his proper present, we're buying DS a leather passport cover from Smythson with his initials on it. should last him a lifetime of holidays Then, on the basis that DS couldn't really care less about Christmas, DH has suggested that we each have a small budget (say £30) to buy things for DS that are a surprise for each other so that we get the excitement from opening DS's presents while DS contentedly eats the wrapping paper and strangles himself with the ribbon...

Can I just ask how often you clean your baby's toys and whether you use antibacterial wipes? My NCT group are in some involved email discussion about such things and I feel at a loss (and slightly ) as I think I've only washed his toys twice, and even then only the really grubby ones I'm now wondering if I'm really really slovenly.

Never wash toys unless they are dirty, a bit of dirt is good for the immune system and as she shares toys at nursery I don't see the point. My front room is generally clean so toys can't get too dirty.

My family have gone a bit nuts about Xmas pressies for DD, she is getting a swing for my Mums house, trolley full of bricks, rocking chair, wooden noahs ark shape sorter and then little bits and that is just my side of the family! I tried to stop them but they are so excited and it doesn't really matter.

Babies under 12 months are unlikely to get cp from passing contact I was told, not sure how true it is!

The babies under twelve months with cp sparks some very varied opinions, people say if you bf they wont get it, that it will be milder than it makes as they are young, it makes not a jot of differnce if they are 8 or 18 months.........

i dont know which is true but i think ds caought from dd and obv they have close contact, unfortunately it seems to be wait and see as who catches it seems very random round here atm

TOYS i put teether type things in the top rack of the dishwasher after they have been dropped oin pavement mostly but periodically, i wash his comfort thing if he has been ill in case its snotty or if he spits milk on it, duplo and stuff like that can go in washing machine, though i admit so far only been done since it came out the loft from when i played with it

agree to much sterilisation is bad more immune system and i rely on hot water over chemicals

I cleaned all the toys when I got them out of the garage as they were really filthy but since then.... if she's vommed on them or they look particularly sticky they either go in the washing machine or the dishwasher (when the bloody thing is working). Big ones I try to remember to dust occasionally but it's very hit and miss. If she slept for more than 30 mins at a time I may have more luck!!
We bit the bullet and bought DD that big pink pram cum walker that fisher price do. we figured we were going to have to get used to treacly pink sooner or later. I have to confess tho' that I brought it down this morning to give to her as she is driving me round the bend with wanting to stand up all the time. She can bear her own weight really well but has no ability to balance so I spend all my time holding her up. We are going up to my parents on christmas day so space is going to be at a premium in the car so she probably won't take it with her anyway.
Had a nice weekend- went up to DH's mum, had lunch in a pub and then checked out a good second-hand bookshop, then pub with friends in evening and the next lunchtime champagne at a big family gathering and I got out of the traditional walk round the grounds as DD needed a bottle. I regretted the third glass at about 4.30 tho'. I can't really do lunchtime drinking anymore.
Commiserations to those with chicken pox ridden children- I drove my mum round the bend when I had it with the scratching.

DH is bringing the christmas tree home at lunch so I've got to try and find the decorations for it and try and control DS while we decorate it. Last year I was pregnant and DH had a broken leg so DS got to do it pretty much how he liked which resulted in, as DH said, a tree that looked like 'the silver bogie monster had sneezed all over it'. . Not helped by the fact that it was a very small tree as I had to bring it home in the basket of the pram.
God, I've written an essay!

seeing as DS's breakfast this morning started with a bit of old pasta from the floor (and there was i being proud of how well i cleaned up after his dinner last night ), i'm definitely in the 'a bit of dirt is good for them' camp. i really just want to check that i am at the relaxed end of the spectrum rather than being so far off it that I actually need to change my habits. the email was about whether you need to use another wipe to get rid of the antibacterial chemicals after you have used an antibacterial wipe to clean them... the conclusion was that a wipe with a clean muslin was probably necessary. it was a discussion well beyond the limits of my housekeeping expertise

HQ your poor nct group will be in a shock when it gets tomother and toddler group stage at mine the much coveted toy is a trumpet, by the end of two hours it has been in at least the mouths of twenty children (yuck!) but as dd hasnt seemed to interested in it yet i just dont think about it

DS's toys never get washed unless they get vommed on. Possible exception is the measuring spoons (don't ask me, I don't know why) as we sometimes have to actually USE them.

same here. I even inherited some from my sil and I can't remember if they got washed!

I am rubbish at the whole toy-washing thing. Stuff that has been vommed on gets washed, as does anything that the dogs have eaten, but apart from that I am shockingly slatternly.

We've both been stuffed full of cold for a week. Little Ff seems to be coming out of the end of it now, but I am still all scabby of eye and swollen of tonsil. Am finding out that the rubbish part of going freelance so that I can stay home with the baby is that however crappy I feel I still have to get my work done, else it will be a lean lean Christmas in the FfreckleFface household.

Are you ok, Turtle? Sounds like it's been a tough decision.

i put toys in machinery for washes once in a blue moon....after several months the boys stop playing with stuff, all jumbled up and dull. so me and dh go mad and do a big toy filing and washing session. reuniting sets of stuff, pruning and putting them in/out of circulation reignites their love affairs with particular ones.

was at zoo with boys today. staff party was night before my GOD there were some baboon rough faces stumbl;ing around in the cold there...and of course i dont mean the baboons. twas eerie...all the permanent staff could hardly speak. got ds1 in free and his replacement members card free...they just cou;dnt be arsed to do it the right way. YAY

How much food are your DCs eating? P starves himself when teething(most of the time!) but when he's himself he usually eats a bowl of baby cereal/porridge for breakfast (bowl holds about 200ml, and is full) with half a piece of toast and bit of banana, lunch is usually something like chicken+veg casserole with mash (same bowl) and about 150ml of fruit/pudding with fruit and veg to hold and eat, dinner same kind of quantity as lunch. (please note I have just gone and measured it to post, don't keep track of it!) On top of that he sometimes has a snack at 11. Milk he is having 7,3,7,and usually twice at night(proper feeds.) With this amount he is just about maintaining his weight. I know he is active, but..He also will eat a fair few mouthfuls of my dinner if I let him stay up. I know that when he is having milk he is really eating as last night's came back up with his recently returned cough...he managed to vom into a box and (TMI alert) I measured it just to see what it was and it was 7 oz. ????

thanks for all the toy info - i feel so much better

turtle - loving the video of P on facebook clever boy!

my DS made his first proper move from sitting yesterday. unfortunately careless mummy had sat him on the bed and he went careering off the side chasing after a toy. he now has a nice purpling bruise on his forehead and a freaked out, suddenly uber-safety conscious mum who spent a panicked 10 mins on the phone to NHS Direct who were very lovely!

turtle - on food, my DS seems to eat loads when he's well. Bfeeds at 7-3-7 plus 6oz bottle at night (had dropped it but added it back when he was ill and off solids, and no sign of him dropping it again). He is BLW but there is often not a huge amount of mess left - anyway today he has had 2 slices of toast (no leftover) plus baked fruit (probably equivalent to one whole apple or pear). At lunch he ate a whole portion of cod (one of those frozen adult ones) plus a good dollop of mash and about 7 or 8 roasted parsnip and carrot sticks. minimal waste again. then a few chunks of mango although they got smeared everywhere. for tea i expect him to demolish most of a bowl of pasta with sauce and then have some blueberries or raisins or pear. He will also usually have one or two rice cakes after his morning nap. TBH he seems to get through what my 3 year old niece gets through!

He only just puts on weight - 200g a month at the moment - and he isn't yet moving, although he is always clambering and bouncing and wriggling, so very active even given his inability to move! I expect we'll also have weight maintenance issues once he is moving.

DD is struggling with her weight due to loads of illness - for the last two days she has only managed to eat rich tea biscuits x 2, a roast potato and some custard! Normally she eats the following:

Milk 7, 11, 3, 7

Breakfast: Weetabix

Lunch: Soup & roll, sandwich with cucumber sticks to dip in hoummus or pitta and dips/pizza pittas followed by yoghurt or fruit.

Dinner: Pasta, Risotto, Chilli with rice, cottage pie, lasagne and always with a side of veg - broccoli or cauli cheese is fav

Pudding normally fruit or yoghurt, sometimes cake if she has done baking at nursery.

I think this is a good amount of food - she poohs 3 or 4 times a day normally! Yet she moves so much I think she burns it off. She is hovering around 17lb at the mo but having been off food due to cold I am not weighing her until new year. We have been referred to paediatric registrar to discuss but tbh, you only need to look at her to see she is chubby and perfectly proportioned. She must have light bones!

turtle - how are you celebrating your birthday?

Birthday? I imagine I will get up at 545 to a teething baby and wait for DH to remember that he is doing the morning.
We're spending the whole day shopping for me in Kingston and having lunch out then going out in the evening for an early dinner.

Ewe 17lbs sounds fairly hefty to me. When Ff was last weighed (at her 8 month MOT) she was just creeping past 14lbs. We've been down the paediatrician/nutritionist route, and I am refusing to worry about her weight anymore...she is just little. Definitely trust your instincts - if she looks happy and full, she more than likely is. They have a knack of letting you know if they are hungry! I am going to get her weighed in the next week or so though, just so I have an answer for all the relatives we see at Christmas who will want to put her on the kitchen scales if I don't have a recent weight for them.

Food in a day:

Milk 7.30ish, 4, 6.30

Breakfast: 1.5 weetabix or oatibix, or a pile of baby porridge.

Mid morning: Some toast, or a bagel with cream cheese, or a banana sandwich.

Lunch: Sometimes pasta, or a casserole of some sort, or another sauce with rice or cous cous or a baked potato. Quite a wide variety I suppose. Today she had spinach in cheese sauce with pasta, along with some little chunks of cheddar to feed herself, then a satsuma.

Tea: Similar to lunch usually. Today she had chicken casserole with some mashed potato, and two chunks of corn on the cob, then the other half of the banana that was in her sandwich this morning.

I have recently stopped giving her as much, as I realised that rather than stop eating, or refuse food when she was full, she would continue eating until she burst, if I let her, so I have been serving up smaller (but still fairly big, when you consider her size) portions, and am amazed at how much less she vomits.

Just had a proper I-Love-You moment with her. She was a bit restless when I was breastfeeding her before bed (this was my fault. Should have turned off In The Night Garden when I get my boob out, but I wanted to make sure that Makka-Pakka got his cleany-upy-trolley thing back)but as I carried her upstairs she went all cuddly on my shoulder, and when I put her in her cot she put her little hand on mine when I was doing up the sleeping bag, in what I like to think was a 'Thank you, Mammy.' gesture. She makes me want to burst when she is all sleepy and pink like that, with hr hair all spiky and fluffy. (Starting to worry about the hair now actually...in Bloke's family, hair grows straight out from their heads, rather than down. Ff's is three inches long in some places, and still stands straight up. She's going to get teased enough for the gingerness - I don't want her to have extra hair weirdness to cope with!)

Turtle, tomorrow sounds fab. Maybe DH will remember it is his turn, intercept the crying baby, and you'll get a bit of a lie-in?
Will get to the oven to bake some virtual birthday cake for you now.

Turtle, P is a champ! Love the video. I think I'm going to call him Super Baby from now on.

G doesn't each much, IMO, and I worry a bit about his weight/height. He's dropped off the 50% since 6 months and at his 8 month was 19lbs and 69.5cm which was 30-40% for both, I think. DH is tall so I was a bit surprised to see him under 50%. I know he's got plenty of time to grow, but I want to make sure it's not nutritional.

I don't tend to offer him much meat, so his protein is mostly dairy. And he's not getting loads of veg if I'm honest, b/c he doesn't seem to like to eat them on their own. I do whiz up veg in pasta sauce, but I feel bad for giving them to him that way. I want him to like his veg!

Anyway, I won't get stressed out about it. But combined with him not crawling or showing many signs of being a mover, I just hope it's not b/c he doesn't have enough energy or something.

Ah Ff...DH has actually just informed me that instead of my morning off that he has to go into the office just for an hour or two....

Jfly..G is so a mover!! I've seen him dancin' and he's FAB! P can't dance.
Thanks for all the nice comments on P's video.

17bs is 9th centile which is low enough for my GP to be bothered about it. I trust my instincts and know she is fine but they are only doing what they are supposed to do so am happy to go along and see paed.

That sucks turtle! Make sure it is just an hour or two!