April 2008 - the one where we have to babyproof everything!

[EllieG]

Am I first? Couldn't think of what to call it....

VS - I think she is hungrier, yes, I tried giving more milk, which helped, but then yesterday she spurned more milk for more food (I guess she can't take both) and she did sleep better last night. Woke once at 5.30 for drink water and then 6.30 properly. She is never hungry for her breakfast til about 8 though - does anyone else have this? Should I stop giving a ten o clock feed?

Ds1 is 12 and has ADD, ds2 is 10 and has dyspraxia.

Have they been having their OT long or is it a recent thing? Sorry if this is info you've probably told me before. I've always had a memory like a sieve & now after 2 pregnancies there's no help for me

Useless info for you - DS1's teacher is pregnant and (hopefully) she's finding out what she's having tomorrow. I so hope it's a boy as I have so much stuff to get rid of. Not that I want to though

They have both being doing OT in a sort of haphazard on-and-off way since they were 7. OT is very hard to come by in the public sector here and even when they are entitled to it, the OTs are pushed to the limit and can't spare much time.
Even private OTs are few and far between with long waiting lists and very expensive so we have lately been in the position of paying for it for ds1 but not for ds2 which I hate but we have to prioritise ds1 as he will be attending secondary school soon and will find it hard to cope as things are.

Morning all How are we all feeling? You'll be pleased to know that the weather's crappy again today. The nice thing about it is that it's so green at the mo, which is really nice for us to see.

RPCTM - I had heard that it was a lot more difficult to come by this sort of help in England. I have to keep reminding myself how wonderful it is that Sam is getting all of this as early as he is and we didn't have to ask for it, it was all organised for us. However, I think it is a lot more difficult here to get help when they are older but that's something we shall keep an eye on.

Meep! -munches more bacon sarnies-

PFJ - I want one, I want one, please

Hello! I'll have a sarnie, although it seems I'm not breastfeeding anymore. She's been on official strike now since Sunday night. I was only doing morning and night anyway because of coming back to work and I'd kind of been thinking about stopping, but I feel like I ought to try and get her to get back on it. I think it's her teeth. She will refuse the breast for 10+ minutes (did this am in spite of not having had any milk since 5 yesterday afternoon - she's had a 10.30 feed every night until Sunday when she had a 1am feed) and then guzzle a bottle of formula. I can't even get her to latch on, she just cries and bends away (even when asleep) as if my boob smells of poo or something (it doesn't). Have also tried both boobs. Any ideas?

The irony is, of course, that I didn't need to cut down the feeds as (drumroll) I'm now the happiest unemployed person in the UK .

Sorry Oma, don't know about the boob thing. Very sorry but i actually laughed at smells of poo . Don't feel too sad if this is the end - you have done amazingly

YAY about you loosing your job

OMa - try not to be too sad. Like Scorpio says you've done amazingly. This is just the first of many milestones we all have to go through. It's like weaning for mummies Congratulations on losing your job btw

DS3 has seen an OT twice at home and twice ins chool, ds1 never even though BIBIC dx'd hypotonia for us.

but UK crap on that front, nice to think other palces might be less so!.

Oma lucky you LOL- dh has been raying for redundancy for ages (lazy git wants to be self employed)

Have a look here OMa for loads of suggestions on breast refusal.

It may be the end, it may not, remember Panda went on a 2 day strike when I scared him I found the best thing was to wake him up and feed him when he was sleepy, then slowly wake him during the feed.

Also, Peachy my friend's baby has just been diagnosed with milk intolerance, any tips? advice?

VS is it casein or lactose? best treatments vary I think.

lactose you can get fab lactofree milks but BF may not be the best idea if baby reacts; casein otoh you can bf if you avoid lactose yourself (basically casein in BM is different to cows milk but lactose is not) but if ff you need to use soy orr hypo allergenic formula

sainboros fab fab fab for DF foods, alpro is amazing- their yoghurts and cistard taste the same or nicer than normal brands

H&B do a tofutti philadelphia like cheese spread Bas likes

carton soy and rice not fatty enough for under 3's but rice better over 3 if acto free- if casein trial goats milk, some can some cannot

anything else?

Dunno.
The baby is 6-7 months. He is on prescription formula because he also has severe reflux.
Not sure what she has been told as she just told me then had to dash off. Apparently it was discovered because he reacted to milk in a pudding she made.
Oh, also, he has slow weight gain, possible the two are linked?

soph just wanted to say I totally sympathise. We are also a barrel of appts here and with an older child plus work its bloody hard work . Ds2 has appts in local hosp (who are RUBBISH but that's another story!) once a month to check his hearing aids, fortnightly visits from SENCO, monthly regular SALT and monthly SALT from the local Cochlear Implant Centre, hearing tests ongoing at Addenbrookes for his implant assessment plus we are also looking into auditory verbal therapy which will be fortnightly. Like you, I am incredibly grateful for all the help and I know it will serve him so well in the future but it makes life bloody hard when you are also trying to be a normal family. If you ever need to offload I'm always here to listen and empathise!

OMa about the nursing strike. about redundancy - great news! So what will you do? SAHM forever or just for a while?

One of my friends just survived a nursing strike, it coincided with the return of her periods - baby returned to being perfectly happy to nurse after about 4-5 days like nothing had happened, but poor friend went through hell at the prospect of BF ending before she'd anticipated. Try not to take it as a personal rejection, she's just trying to make herself comfortable and for some reason feeding from you isn't comfortable for her at the moment. I'm sure she'd give you a reassuring pat and a thank you hug if she could

I'm off work again today - had a temp of 40c last night and hugely aching joints, now I think it's a sinus infection, temp is back down with help of panadol but throat/nose is incredibly painful.
Have kept DS home too as he was hot and flushed waking up this morning and seriously clingy, crying. His temps been a little high but not too bad - I just think he's sore as well - ears and nose are getting a lot of tugging/wiping etc. Poor bean.

-passes out sausage sarnies with ketchup for lunch-

There you go Soph!

xxx

-is also exstatic about being unemployed-

-sneaks off-

PFJ - yummy, ta muchly Stop gloating though

paranoid - thanks for that, it's an awful lot of appointments isn't it? Sometimes I really do want to scream "stop everything, I want to get off, I didn't agree to this" Fortunately I only have to look at Sam to cheer me up I do feel sorry for DS1 as well though because, even though he comes across as being completely oblivious (especially now he's got his Nintendo DS ), I'm sure he must wonder what on earth is going on sometimes. A couple of months back he said to me "I'm not special any more am I mummy?" It nearly broke my heart. He's very much involved though so I've told him he's twice as special now and I sometimes think he would rather he wasn´t

Ladybee - sorry to hear you're poorly & hope you and DS feel better soon.

oh soph that is possibly the most adorable thing I have ever heard. Bless him! That made me well up. It is so tough when your eldest is "normal" and suddenly a new little being thrusts loads of new challenges at you! Like you, ds1 seems very oblivious to ds2's issues but often asks if the dr has 'fixed' him yet and made him hear! I have to keep explaining he will never hear just like us but that with the right equipment it will be the next best thing. Not that easy to explain to a 5 yr old, especially when his teacher tells the class during a topic on senses that 'this is the part of the ear that helps us to transmit the sound, ds1's baby brother doesn't have this so will never be able to hear ds1 speak to him'. Broke his heart! He did actually say to me 'you love ds2 more than me now don't you mummy' which made me feel awful and smother him so hard I thought I may have suffocated him!!! Tbh i think some of it is just pushing his luck though!

Yep VS the chances are the two are linked. It's hardish to tell lactose and casein intol apart at this age (older I just say given them a glass of lactofree milk; if they haev diarrhoea then its casein!).

My slightly left wing suggestion would be to caut all dairy completely; in some kids there is (not proven by research but by a lot of SN exprience) a link between casein in intol kids and ASD.

DS2 fdoes the trying his luck thing and the you love ds1 / ds3 more than me don't you?' thing; breaks my heart. I have all manner of kids books on asd and the like for him but I can't whitewash it; even if ds4 is clear (fingers crossed) ds2 will at best be an advocate for his brothers, at orst a carer. That's his reality and it does separate him in many ways. he is eligible for young carers but getting them to actually reply to an email is impossible!

Paranoid - now you've got me welled up DS1 hasn't tried pushing his luck yet although I'm sure he will.

Peachy - I'm already beginning to fret about DS1 having to look after Sam when he's older & we're not around anymore. What's young carers?

Diversifying slightly I've just had a scrummy Belgian chocolate hot chocolate - yum

young carers is a supoort group provided by SS

We try and use thie thing old Jimjams thing about wanting ds2 to care ABOUT not FOR his brothers but who knows what the furture will bring?

Exactly peachy. It would be great if DS1 didn't have to care for his brother. However, at least that's a long way off.

Anyway, DS1 is back from swimming and is taking over my computer. Have good evenings everyone