Sept 08: We'll soon be weaning, and of a full nights sleep we're dreaming ......

[ILikeToMoveItMoveIt]

Hello ladies.

Pull up a chair, grab a biscuit and lets start talking about puree vs blw and sleep deprivation

carrie, happy birthday for yesterday! And for sunflower for tomorrow!

The ideal cup

The more practical cup

Rubber tip spoons are more gentle than metal on the baby's soft gums.

Badger your HV. Many run secret choking/resus courses. Most run weaning talks too.

For those with a valve cup. Have YOU tried getting the liquid out? It is extremely hard work and the baby learns to suck hard rather than sip, and sipping is an important skill required for speech.

Ponymum we were told to get doidy cups (from the bickiepegs website or John Lewis) were preferable as dentists and speech therapists approve of them apparently). I have not tried them, but willing to give them a go! I think it's to do with the sucking effort required for the non-spill cups that make them bad.

Carrie happy belated birthday and Sunflower happy birthday for tomorrow!

D'oh it took me so long to type one-handed that I cross-posted !

You're not scruffy at all Jenbot. Bohemian-glam perhaps (as opposed to bling-glam lol).

Ponymum You'll figure it out. The whole weaning thing appears scary but it really is not. We've all figured out the 'how many layers in different climates' thing, and 'how long you can get away without changing a nappy before it is a poo-up-the-back one' and 'how to wash the baby without drowning them' thing. Weaning is just one more step, and then it is probably childcare for some of us, and then shoes, and then stairgates and reigns or not, and then MMR and then...........

Oh forgot to say wrt cups, 'sucking hard' is a skill that can increase chances of choking.

Oops, sorry Kagey!

Hee hee no worries Snowlight, I'll probably try the doidy first then get so fed up with changing Erin every time she tips water over herself, I will then go for tommee tippee!

The doidy cup might be ideal, but imo it is only for summer weaning!

Presumably if you use the doidy cup, you start off putting a fairly small amount in it? I am anticipating full cups of water over the head...

BLWers - If I stick T in his high chair, with food in front of him, am I allowed to assume that if he gets the food to his mouth and swallows, he is ready for food? Spoke to doc again today about the bottom situation, and he recommended starting weaning (although emphasised he is not a paed doc and this was just his opinion), and I was thinking I could kind of compromise by putting some fruit in front of T and if the odd bit goes down (plus some extra water), then that might help the gut, without stuffing him full of purees...
I am already steeling myself for tonight's suppository - it's surprisingly hard to fit something so small (probably 2-3mm in diameter and 6mm long) up a baby's bottom!

Yes Hopefully, but no 'gentle helping'!

He has to absolutely be sitting straight though!

Hopefully, M has already had her first tastes, and now every time she sees us with food in our mouth she tries to grab it and if she does, it's straight in her mouth! she kept on snatching my corn cake yesterday, it was hilarious!

HV advised on doidy cup here too, or the tommee tippee one (which after trying every cup around for DS, is the one we always went back too as spill is minimal, and hated the valve ones) so got DD one the other day so she has her own "first" cup (I know, I'm sad, I kept DS's first dummies and cup too )

What's a corn cake?

I wondered that too

Isn't it like a rice cake, but with corn?

Cool - I have ordered the high chair, will see what T makes of some food when the chair arrives. I don't particularly plan to be a religious BLWer, but I figure it's (a) a good way of finding out if he's ready for food and (b) makes me feel less guilty about offering food before 26 weeks!

my ds1 still uses his orange (tried to change for a different colour once but he was having none of it) tommee tippee first cup for his milk at breakfast and bedtime even though he uses normal cups the rest of the time.

DS2 has not stopped talking all day today, he's said dadadadadadadadadadada for pretty much every minute he's been awake.

A dentist came to our post-natal group and said that valved cups are bad because children have to suck so hard to get the drink out that it damages their teeth. She recommended the tommee tippee free-flow ones.
From when dd became a toddler though, I've prefered these beakers by because although they're non-spill, you have to lightly bite on them to make them free flowing, rather than suck hard, so they're ideal for taking out and about, especially to the houses of people who don't have children as a toddler with a free flowing beaker leaves a trail of water behind them. We always have open beakers at meal times though, where they're drunk in a controlled environment. Dd and her friends are huge fans of the nuby silicone spout beakers, which are similar to bottle feeding.

Happy birthday sunflower!

By sheer luck or coincidence I bought the Tommi Tippee cup ages ago after trying to drink out of one of those non-spill valve cups and I couldn't, so C has no bloody hope. So am glad we have the right one! have given her water in it but she just bangs it and throws it to the ground . Not got a doidy yet.

We got the babydan highchair from Boots. Cheaper than stokke (can't spell it) and I like the fact that there's no tray, so she can just push up to table with us. We also bought one of these which seem like a great idea for stopping plates going flying! It really works, even on ceramic plates (we are using plastic though). We also bought the fisher price travel highchair with tray which she sits in really well. For feeding at MIL's we're buying the really cheap IKEA higchair (about £12 ish) to leave down there, as she sat in one at my sister's and it was great and really supported her and she stayed in it happily for ages. Who would have thought eh?

the other good thing about those tommee tippee ones is that they are the cheapest ones you can buy. I refuse to pay £4 for a cup which a lot of them are.

did anyone answer me the other day when I asked about giving formula from a cup? I can can't I? Although I'm not sure if he'd take it.

Also anyone know about follow on or night time milks? Now that he's 6 months should ds2 be having one of those instead of hungry baby milk at bedtime? If they're as good then they'd be better as they're sometimes cheaper as they are allowed to be on special offer and I think you get clubcard points too (if bought in tesco)

Debi Yes you can give ff in a cup. No, you don't need to give follow on or night time milks, but you CAN if they are cheaper. I think there is iron added to follow on, and I think the night time milk has more cereal. Neither encourage your baby to sleep better despite the clever marketing.

Becaroo off to shops tomorrow to buy tommee tippee sippy cups!!!! Thanks for all the info on cups ladies.

debi yes you can give ff from a cup, but I read in a book that you shouldnt as it deprives baby of the pleasure of sucking from a breast or bottle (?)....although I know some people who have.

plusone Thanks so much for your posts and info. Havent told dh abuot the IEP yet as he is just back from a business trip and I dont think he will be very pleased that we werent told about it. Toms teacher gave me some print outs this morning re: memory problems. He took my printed off dyslexia checklist to the acting head and she said she didnt think that that is Toms problem and its more visual/auditory memory associated. This woman doesnt even know Tom Parents evening in a couple of weeks so might know more then. Am going to have to take the TA aside each month and ask her for an update I think (she seems nice).

His IEP as far as I could see was along the lines of
"Get Tom to write a sentance"
"use of CVCC words" {sp? - sorry dont know what these are?)

Someone told me that you are supposed to to sign off" on IEP's....how can I when I didnt even know about it????? Very confused.

WRT toe by toe - I showed him the book and he had a quick flick through...I told him that I was planning to use it at home if he had no objection. Its phonics based so cant see how it can interfere with what hes doing now. His attitude seemed to be "well, it cant hurt" which is fair enough.

We did our first exercise tonight and he got 54 out of 60 sounds correct! He also did the correct sound for "th" for the FIRST time! Its early days but I am very excited about this - I feel I am doing something to help him....god, I must be every teachers worst nightmare!!!!!

Thanks again all for your posts and support x

carrie Happy birthday x Nuby is the one toby has and he hates it. Just chews on it then throws it at me.

debi My ds1 still has warm milk in his tommee tippee sippy cup morning and night!!!

(Doidy cups frighten me!!)

corncakes are like ricecakes, but made with corn

debi yes, some babies never take bottles!

don't know about hungry baby/night milk, sorry

Imoscar - DD loved the ikea chair when we went there las week, and that's the one we would have got if our friends hadn't got us the big one. they also do a new foldable one, which DD tried too.

CVCC - is it like 'bath', 'much' 'lost' and help? i.e. with the second letter being a vowel?

Good for you!! I know our SENCO at school (who is really good) likes the toe by toe programme, and that is fantastic progress for one session!!! Have to say the IEP targets arent fantastic but they aren't too bad either (the sentence one is a bit vague) CVCC words are consonant vowel consonant consonant so for example words like went (but not like bush as the sh is a digraph- making one sound) That is pretty promising as CVC words are the starting point so CVCC are much harder- he must be doing OK honest! Thinking about the IEp... I wonder if he did one a bit hastily when you asked for the appointement, maybe had been meaning to do one but not got round to it or something (I'm being nice) and then thought he better had!! Oh, and I'm sure you know, but boys find it much harder to write generally. I would go with his interests, walking in the woods making up stories about knights / dragons/ whatever and telling them as you go for example. This will help him to get used to thinking about the 'what' part of writing IYKWIM and so leave him to concentrate on the how (the sentence and sounding out words)
And no, you are not a teachers worst nightmare, they are the ones who never read with their children/come to parents evening/ remember to send them in own clothes on charity days/ give tomato ketchup sandwiches every day for lunch. So long as you smile and are open and friendly they will love you, and I'm sure you do that anyway!!