He has to go to Birmingham next week for an operation. We visited the hospital a month ago, and he was told that he will need to return. I've been told that he is on the provisional list for w/c 27.8.06. What I'm in a dilemma about is,
1. Do I tell him now to prepare him (but risk the appointment being cancelled, only to have to stress him out all over again).

2. Leave it till we get confirmation, but still give him time to prepare/stress about it.

3. Leave it till the night before and spring it on him.

He had to have a canula fitted when he was having tests, and although he was really really brave, he has said he isn't having any more needles - and still gets upset about the thought of having to stay in hospital.

That's a tough one but you know your son best. Is he likely to get stressed and wound up? Will he take your word for it if you tell him there's nothing to worry about? Can you butter him up about being so brave about canulas? And, although not always recommended, can you distract him by bribery? Perhaps you could offer him a much wanted toy if he is brave about it?
I couldn't possibly give any advice as I don't know your son but perhaps put yourself in his shoes and imagine how each scenario would feel.
I hope it all goes well.

Be honest and truthful with him.
Ask the person who puts the canular in not to tell him to expect a "Sharp scratch".

Let him/her give you the nod so you can distract him and it will be all done before he can feel it.

Good luck in such a worrying time.

Well, I decided to leave it for a little while. Thank goodness I did.His op has been deferred for another week, so I'm glad I didn't say anything. It is now going to be the week he goes back to school so he's going to miss a week or 2 but I'm just thankful that they don't think it's urgent enough to do immediately. We had a very worrying time when he was having an ultrasound and MRI, but they are fairly sure it's benign. I think I will wait until we get final confirmation before we broach the subject. I think he may be cheered up by getting an extra long school holiday!:D

The decision was taken out of my hands today when my cousin wished him good luck for Sunday/Monday. When we got in the car, he said, "what am I doing on Sunday, I must have forgotten"! Of course I explained what was going to happen, and can you believe the only thing worrying him is the fact that he will have to miss breakfast that day!!! I'm stressing about 101 other things relating to the whole thing and he just (typically) thinks of his stomach!:rolleyes:

Glad to hear that things are working themselves out alirosdan- there obviously was a right time for him to hear about it, and you've found it.

Another thing that may be of use at the time is that for children hospitals often put local anaesthetic cream on the backs of their hands so that the canulae are less of a scary prospect and you can tell them that the magic cream means they won't feel it.

Hopefully the rest of all of this will be as stress free as possible.

Thanks medusa. When he was having tests in July, he needed a canula and the magic cream was a god-send. He was just so brave. His bottom lip quivered a little when the needle went in and I have to admit that mine quivered a lot! I think he is the one who will get us through this and we will just follow his lead. He seems to be looking forward to playing some different play station games whilst he's in there. Will post how we went on when we get back on Mon or Tues.

That magic cream is brilliant don't worry. He will be fine positive thinking.

He had his op as planned, first thing Monday morning. By 12 o clock, he was eating soup, bread, chips and cheesecake!! He was absolutely wonderful.

We were told he had been administered an anaesthetic in his sciatic nerve, and his leg would be numb for up to 18 hours, saving him quite a lot of pain. He wasn't happy, saying he would have rather had pain than this numbness! He also told the doctor that he would have rather stayed awake to see what they were doing rather than be put to sleep!!

From lunchtime onwards he moaned (and moaned and moaned....) that he wanted to go home. Eventually they gave in and discharged him at 7pm. It wasn't easy driving him home from Birmingham especially as my sat nav wouldn't work (ended up on the m6 well on our way to Manchester, but that's another story).

It just goes to show that you have to take your lead from the kids. I had worried about everything, and he just sailed through it (well kind of - they prescribed 40mg of dihydrocodeine 4 x daily which is 10mg over the adult dose and he has reacted quite badly to it). It's lovely to have it over and done with - I think I've aged 10 years over the last 2 months!!

I'm really glad that all went well and that he sailed through like a trooper.

So glad to hear it went better than you expected. Hope everything is ok.

I'm pleased it's gone all right for you and little one. xx

Has anyone has any experience of this. My son is crying excessively and will not settle after feeds, he goes really stiff when crying and the milk often comes down his nose as well as out of his mouth. I can nurse him for up to 2 hours after a feed to get him to sleep and last night he broke his own record and after a 12.30 feed did not go back to sleep until 6.30am. My midwife says it's just wind/colic and some babies need more winding than others but after googling today for info came across cranial osteopathy and wondered if anyone had any experince of this and if so could recommend a therapist. Thansk

I took my baby to an excellent one when he was young because he cried so much and wouldn't sleep. She's called Lisa Halse and works at both Greenways in Totley and Stillpoint, Nether Edge (2586133). I don't know what she did exactly but he always calmed down and fell asleep during the sessions, and stayed calm for a few hours afterwards. I don't know if it really did anything but I was desperate! I'd be interested to know how you get on.

Thanks, I'll give her a call tomorrow and hopefully get an appointment this week.

Hi Armadillo :wave:, Sorry I don't know anything about cranial osteopathy, but I just wanted to let you know that you have my symapathies. I remember the terrible nights of no sleep when my son was a baby. I think it was the hardest time of my life.

Good luck with finding out if the osteopathy will help him, but if you have no joy, remember, there is light at the end of the tunnel and before you know it, you'll have got it licked!

I'd completely agree with you Scoop - it was the hardest time in my life. I thought it would never end and vowed I would never put myself through that again. But it did get easier over time and by the time he was 4 months things did get better and after doing controlled crying at 7 months we've never looked back. I now have a wonderful, happy toddler who sleeps all night and rarely cries.

Honey, that sounds horrible and you have all my sympathy. cranial osteopathy was suggested for my daughter - either she was attached to my boob, or she was crying; there was very little else to her life for the first month. her record - 5.5 hours for one feed (ok, so she slept on the boob and then had a bit more feed and then slept etc, but taking her off would wake her after about 2 minutes and then she'd be hungry again). at the end of that month she was admitted to the children's hospital for several days to try to get her to gain some weight (still hadn't regained birth weight due to her feeding and my contant mastitis and exhaustion). within 2 or 3 days of giving her a few formula feeds of decent size per day she was sleeping better and feeding less frequently, and the crying just tailed off. we never tried the cranial osteopathy (although it was suggested by my midwife to help with the crying and sleeping) because i was so close to breaking i just couldn't cope with seeing anyone or leaving the house. in retrospect the baby was just hungry (although she didn't seem to be to us). it took a while for her to be able to take a feed of a decent size as she only had a tiny stomach because of the way she fed at first. she used to feed, then vomit some up, so we thought she had finished, but i think now that she was just not used to having enough in her stomach, so brought some back up, and then was hungry again within minutes, but i was so exhausted i just couldn't feed her enough, so she would just cry until she fell asleep. i saw a picture of her when she was 3 weeks old recently and it made me cry - i didn't see at the time how thin she was, and the midwives and gp didn't seem to think there was anything wrong as she was so good at crying - it took the paediatrician at the children's hospital to spot what the problem was and how simple a solution there was.

is there any chance you baby is the same? do you breast or bottle feed? a baby that doesn't sleep for that long and cries instead could well NOT be colic, despite what your midwife says, so i think you should go to the gp and ask to be refered to a paediatrician. obvioulsy it's hard to see how much your baby is getting from a breastfeed, but is there any chance your baby is just not getting enough?

remember to take care of yourself, too - exhaustion doens't do anyone any favours, there's no shame in a few formula feeds if it gives you a break to stop you going insane.

bc

Hi, thanks for taking the time to give such a long reply. I do breast feed but I am sure he is getting enough as his weight gain is quite good. Just as i was ready to scream and really at the end of my tether he had a much better night, last night. I gave him a sponge bath about 9pm then gave him a really long massage, I then fed him about 10 put him down at 12 and he slept until nearly 4am, hurray. After I had fed him at 10 I held him for about 45 minutes and during that time he was burping and f**ting a lot but quite gently whereas he usually burps really hard and sicks up some milk. I am not sure if the massage was purely coincidental but I am going to try the same again tonight. When he work at 4, I got him back down for 5.15 he cried for a bit but was asleep for 5.40 ish which is so much better than usual. While I am on, what's good for dry skin. I've tried baby oil, sunflower oil and vaseline but not much improvment, in fact it's getter worse on his face. Thanks

Hi, thanks for taking the time to give such a long reply. I do breast feed but I am sure he is getting enough as his weight gain is quite good. Just as i was ready to scream and really at the end of my tether he had a much better night, last night. I gave him a sponge bath about 9pm then gave him a really long massage, I then fed him about 10 put him down at 12 and he slept until nearly 4am, hurray. After I had fed him at 10 I held him for about 45 minutes and during that time he was burping and f**ting a lot but quite gently whereas he usually burps really hard and sicks up some milk. I am not sure if the massage was purely coincidental but I am going to try the same again tonight. When he work at 4, I got him back down for 5.15 he cried for a bit but was asleep for 5.40 ish which is so much better than usual. While I am on, what's good for dry skin. I've tried baby oil, sunflower oil and vaseline but not much improvment, in fact it's getter worse on his face. Thanks

i'm really glad for you that you got some extra sleep! i wish people had warned me that the first month of my daughter's life was likely to be the worst of mine, but i don't suppose it is for everyone - i really wasn't expecting it to be that hard. i'm very glad your son is gaining weight fine, though, although if he had been hungry all the time there would have been a quick and easy (although not ideal) fix.

i did some baby massage stuff (a course run by one of my midwives) and foudn my daughter rather enjoyed it, although by that point she didn't have any problems with crying or colic or sleeping. some of the other ladies did, though, and thought it probably helped a little - particularly the stomach massages. how old is your son? you shouldn't need to use anything other than sunflower oil to massage with until he's about 3 months old; olive oil is supposedly good for dry skin, but you shouldn't use vaseline or baby oil - just pure olive oil or sunflower oil, and hope it gets better by itself.

Sorry this is Longshanks (posted as Draggletail by accident)

While I am on, what's good for dry skin. I've tried baby oil, sunflower oil and vaseline but not much improvment, in fact it's getter worse on his face. Thanks

I would agree that olive oil is the best thing to use for baby's dry skin.

Glad to hear the little one slept a bit better last night.

Thanks, I will send out other half to Asda as I don't have any olive oil in.

Hi All,
Yesterday I was having a ditzy day. Needed to go to work and get cosycub his pneumococcal vaccination. Because he goes to his grandparents on Tuesdays, they very kindly agreed to come get him and take him to the doctors and then go back to theirs. I duly gave them the red book and the vaccination reminder (and some chocolate buttons) and went on my way. Simple, you might think, but it led to a couple of interesting little items...

Unfortunately my phone wasn't working, so I was unaware of the seven phone calls from my in-laws... the Nurse refused to give cosycub his vaccination until they had consent from his parents. Item1) apparently this is due to a court case at the moment against grandparents who took their grandchildren to be innoculated against the parent's wishes. An interesting little topic for me, because while I can see how it wasn't for the grandparents to make that decision, I can see why they did it because I personally think it is negligent of parents not to get their children innoculated. But of course the parents had made a decision and the grandparents had no right to go against it. But the grandparents did what they felt was best for the child...See? Defintely one for discussion, some quite heated, I'd guess.

Item2) Now, I was unavailable to give my consent because my phone was playing stupid. So my Father-in-law, on his mobile, phoned both me and my husband until he finally got my husband. Then he handed the phone to the Nurse, and my husband literally said 'I'm the Dad, you have my consent', and the nurse said okay and gave cosycub the jab. She asked no questions to ascertain to whom she was speaking. If my in-laws were that desperate to have cosycub innoculated against my wishes, presumably they would have had someone lined up to say exactly that, and maybe answer a few questions about cosycub. So while I'm relieved the cosycub got his jabs, but also get why the surgery needed consent, I'm a bit perplexed by their version of 'parental consent'. If they were serious about it, they should have sent him away without the jab, surely?

Item3) Anyway, in case I am not the only person that has to rely on others on occassion to deal with these little parental duties, the surgery has suggested a letter of consent to be written and signed by me and Mark, stapled in cosycub's red book, stating that we consent to certain named people acting on our behalf. Not that i don't trust my in-laws and my mother to act in Ellis's best interest, but doesn't that bring us right back to Item 1...what if their idea of his best interest, and my idea of it, is different?

Anyway, think, discuss, etc. I thought it was an interesting little issue, anyway

We had the same jabs yesterday and the only thing which brings a little relief from this situation is that cosycub should, in theory, now not need to go back until his preschool jabs. No more phone calls, letters, red tape etc.
I can see why they did what they did but to accept, without question, your husbands voice on the phone was pretty silly. WHy make all the fuss if they don't follow it up properly. Duh!
The act of best interests and loco parentis is a tricky one. I deal with it at work and may have to make decisions for treatment or to allow the docs to make it if a child in my care needs it. It's horrible really but the parent signs to give their consent so there's no legal issues form that point in theory. It's an agreement ot let someone else make the parental decisions at that time and I guess the signature means that you are willing to accept the result.

Yes, the no jabs for a while bit is good...though this one is a new one, of course. I'm so glad he's still young enough to get it. I know it doesn't cover the bacterial form of meningitis, but it does cover one form. And if it means less ear infections, etc...hoorah!

How did the girls take to it, Zebra? Cosycub was fine, no ill effects. Another friend's child got a huge bump and bruise, but no other problems. That's always my concern...if it will affect them badly.

I have to say, it never occurred to me that I would need to officially designate the in-laws as having in loco parentis when they have him. Now I'm concerned that if he has an emergency they might waste valuable time trying to get hold of me. I always carry my phone now, and keep it on, and only very rarely turn it to silent, explaining that I need to be contactable, but it doesn't always behave (like yesterday, when I could as easily have gone to the surgery myself when I knew about the problem) and sometimes I'm just no catchable. Hmmm. Just one more thing to worry about on the long Mummy Worry List, lol.

Both girls are pretty grotty unfortunately, both had runny noses anyway but not illness so they were deemed well enough to have the jab but last night was really rough. Up and down stairs like a yoyo.
Today, twingle two has been really ratty and awkward and twingle one has been her normal daft self but with extra tears. I think they feel a bit fragile.
The nurse warned me that the MMR part (did you have two jabs in one go?) means they could have a temperature for a while starting in 5 - 12 days, I nearly didn't bother since that includes Christmas but since it's the last for along time I decided to go ahead rather than revisit in Jan.
My Dad has the pneumonia jabs too, being at high risk, and he suffers a fair bit in the first couple of days so I assume that's why the girls are off colour and hopefully they'll be back to being the trampoline twins by Xmas Day. He said it makes the limb you have the jab in ache a lot and then you start to ache all over.
It's possible that you can add your parents or others onto the hospital/docs/NHS records as being emergency contacts for alternatives if needed but I think if there was an issue of that magnitude the docs would either accept your parents/carers choice (if you or Daddycub are unavailable) or make their own based on their professional experience, so it probably isn't much of an issue.

I have just got the reminder for our little girl. I dont anticipate any problems as I have taken her before, and I have parental responsibility, but I am her grandmother. She doesnt live with her parents its a bit ridiculous to suggest they should take her ... they wouldnt be allowed to without me anyway. So I will let you know how this goes! If there is a problem I will be making a bit of a fuss because the health visitor and the doctor know our situation and only have to refer to the notes.

Cosycub, it does seem a little strange that the nurse accepted consent over the phone. Did the nurse try to confirm your husbands id by asking for cosycubs date of birth or anything?

I work at the childrens hospital so consent issues come up quite frequently in my line of work. The thing is, where do you draw the line with these issues. I suppose you could say that no health professional has any way of knowing that the adult and child that have just walked through the door belong together, and you have to rely on the say so of the adult standing in front of you.

Perhaps all mums, dads and their offspring should have barcodes on their bums, then we'd all know who belongs to who :hihi:

I have to say, it never occurred to me that I would need to officially designate the in-laws as having in loco parentis when they have him. Now I'm concerned that if he has an emergency they might waste valuable time trying to get hold of me.
Just to add, no health professional would ever delay emergency treatment to wait for consent, they go ahead and worry about it later.

There have been a number of instances when I have had to take decisions on healthcare for either my stepchildren or niecelet, without either parent being present or in a position to be consulted.

Thankfully my authority to deal with these things has never been questioned by the medical professionals, and thankfully the parents have backed me up, but then when I started caring for the little ones we did discuss the family policy on lots of issues.

Our little girl, age 13 months has suffered from catarrh on and off for several months. This latest "batch" has gone on for about 3 weeks. During previous attacks she had had antibiotics (twice) as she seemed to be getting earache. Im not really keen on lots and lots of doses of antibiotics though.

Its a rotten problem, Ive suffered with it myself, also my eldest daughter was prone to it as a child and ended up with persistent glue ear.

Has anyone tried any homeopathic remedies for this, or even herbal remedies, which may be suitable for children? Did they work?

Ive googled it and found that Pulsatilla or Hepar Sulph are suitable for catarrh. Has anyone tried them?

A couple of months ago my daughter had a blood test. Shes had a few problems in her three years of life, one of them being muscle weakness and fatigue for no real reason. I was worried because from the age of two, my son had the same symptoms, and tests discovered that he had Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, which he died of in 2001.
Girls cant "Suffer" from Duchenne, but it was never 100% proved in my son, he had an extra chromosome instead of one missing for instance, but thats another story.

So, a letter arrived today telling us that the results of my daughters test show that shes extremely low in iron and because of this, she has to take three table spoons full of iron (Sytron) each day for at least the next three months.
I went to the docs for the prescription, got the medicine and she just took her first gob full.

Has any one else experienced this in a toddler? Im rather worried about constipation- iron supplements are supposed to cause this arent they? I also heared that the supplement can cause massive weight gains, so thats another worry.

http://www.spatone.com/en.php?section=home&id=2

try the above, it's the only thing that has ever worked for me and isn't synthetic...so won't cause constipation. Don't forget Vit.C too!

another generally good tonic (that I use with my kids when ill) is this:
http://www.goodnessdirect.co.uk/cgi-local/frameset/detail/933164.html

Rapid growth- she DOES have really noticable growth spurts, which is odd because both the other half and I are shorties so that could well be a reason for the iron deficiency.

Thanks for that, Ill let the Jabberwock-ess read it once I had a look through it.

In your daughter's case I'd worry more about the side effects of being so low in iron, rather than the side effects of the iron supplement.

If your GP isn't investigating the cause of this further, then I think I'd push them to look a little deeper, as this is not normal, and if she's eating a balanced diet then it needs an explanation to rule out anything sinister as a cause.

Her diet is excellent, we make sure she doesnt get to scoff sweets or sugary things, and she gets lots of good nutrition, the only thing she really doesnt get is red meat, but instead of that she gets lots of fish and chicken which I recently learned is also pretty high in iron.
In spite of her low sugar diet she does seem to have problems with her teeth, and the dentist insists we`re feeding her too many sweets, Im getting sick of trying to convince him that she doesnt even like sweet things. Im wondering now if the state of her teeth is also because of the iron problem.

They are looking deeper into her problems, she has an EEG planned for the new year because she goes into... vacant times, times where she just sort of switches off. This is something that I also do and have done since I was a kid and it drives my other half nuts when both my daughter and I fade away and stare at a wall for 30 seconds. Once I learn whats causing that in my daughter, Ill know what causes it in me.
Shes got a lot of checks to go through next year because she seems to have quite a few problems. All relatively minor, but they all build up. Im hoping the Iron is one cure to at least a couple of her problems.

My eldest had constant ear infections and a snotty nose between October and May every year until he had his grommets fitted when he was 6. They stayed in for a year, but he hasn't had an ear infection or the constantly runny nose he had since the day they were inserted.

Similarly both of my twin stepchildren were born with cleft palates, and suffered very badly with catarrh and glue ear very badly when they were little (as apparently most children with cleft palates do- it's to do with the shape of the Eustachian tubes ).

As a result, my son was officially suffering 85% hearing loss, until they both had grommets fitted when they were 3 and a half. My son went from single words and even those pretty rare, to full sentences within a matter of weeks, and neither of them suffered with catarrh to the same extent afterwards.

girl i work with was notified of the consent before her son went for his jabs, she has to gove written confirmation signed and sealed with a contact number and she had to take this in personally before the jab! i can see why they are asking for this but i think the nurse may have breached rules by taking authority over the phone, but then she may never have dealt with this before and not know full procedures.
I have had all Mini savs vaccinations carried out as its better to be safe that sorry!

I took my little boy to the Stillpoint centre to see the cranial osteopath there. We were having a nightmare with him crying constantly until he was so exhausted that he would fall asleep for about an hour, and then it would all start again. He fed really well but it made no difference to his crying/sleeping problems. Our midwife suggested a cranial osteopath so we took him when he was about 6 weeks old. We noticed he was calmer straight away and after about 3 sessions he was much better. We took him back for a couple more sessions when he was about 4 months because he has some more sleeping problems and it seemed to help a bit. Sessions cost £40 at the time and lasted 40 minutes so it isn't cheap but if it works its worth it!!

My heart goes out to you. I can honestly say that I hated the first 6 weeks. It was so hard and I would never put myself through that again. I know loads of people will have said this but it really does get better!!!

I can personally endorse Lisa Halse- she's been my osteopath for the last 15 years, and during that time she's done lots of work with babies through the Children's Hospital, both cranial and spinal. It was more than likely her that you saw at the Stillpoint Practice BabyBoo.

She's no longer at Greenways BTW- she's opened her own practice in Walkley, at The Lodge House, Howard Road (phone 234 5459). She's still doing one day a week at the Stillpoint Practice (Thursdays), but the rest of the time will be in Walkley.

Hello,

My baby niece, 18 months, has come over with a blistered type rash on her back. She has already had chicken pox and she doesnt seem to be feeling unwell.

Whats up with her do you think?

OllieK

Could it be rubella? If she's been exposed then that's got to be a leading candidate.

I'm sorry to hear she's not well.

EDIT: to add a link (http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles/article.aspx?articleId=327&sectionId=2006)

if she doesn't appear to be unwell, then it could simply be an allergic reaction to something that she's either eaten or that has come into contact with her skin... hope it gets better! :)

There is another childhood infectious disease called hand foot and mouth where you get blisters, but they are usually on hands feet and in the mouth!

Check it out with NHS direct or your doctor as there are lots of less well heard of childhood infectious diseases, as well as the possibility of an allergy or skin condition.

Ive been through the grommet thing with my daughter (now 20). She had her first lot fitted when she was quite small, and another lot fitted at about 5. She had hearing loss. This doesnt appear to be a problem with Freya, its just lots and lots of snot. It obviously runs (!) in the family!

It is Chickenpox :( :(

It is Chickenpox :( :(

Bless. I had it twice, too (not at all bad the second time, either.) Thought I was the only one ever to get it twice.

Awww- my niecelet was so miserable when she had chickenpox. I hope she's feeling better soon- some Piriton syrup and not keeping her too warm at night will help her along too.

My daughter has been to stay with my sister and my parents for a couple of days when I have had to go away for work, and I always write a letter and put it in her red book, stating that I consent to them having power to make medical decisions in my absence. If she were rushed to hospital for anything I would hate for there to be any delay in treatment just because I wasn't there - I think its a sensible thing to try and remember to do if someone else has care of your child. I know its not practical all of the time, but its worth thinking about!

As for the consent issues - its good that the nurses didn't just give your child the jab anyway but you are right - taking consent from the father over the phone like that certainly wouldn't stand up in court if you challenged them! That IS very dodgy!!!

B x

Does anyone have a child who suffers from an anxiety disorder or anything similar such as OCD?

My lad is 9 and is in a terrible way at the moment. He is in a permanent state of fear and is scared of everything. If he eats something he has to check the date to make sure it's not gone off so he won't die and if someone else offers him something such as sweets he is convinced they have put poison in it. We went to the panto today and now he won't sleep as he is sure the baddie is coming to get him. He already thinks there is a man with a knife somewhere in the house and is constantly looking over his shoulder and checking the doors. Even when sat right next to me he jumps at every tiny noise, convinced that there is someone in the house trying to kill him. He cries all the time saying he hates his life and is really unhappy because of his anxiety. he is on medication (Sertraline) for his OCD but he is geting worse. I am going to call his doc tomorrow and see what they suggest. He had a major explosion on his second day back at school and is in serious trouble now. I am sure it's all connected as he really isn't well.

We've been through the whole range of services from CAHMS to Shirle Hill Hospital but I feel like I am fighting this alone with him and don't know where to turn. Where do you go to get specialist mental health support for young children? Does anyone know or have experience of this? Any and all advice most gratefully received.

Thanks

I know absolutely nothing about this sort of thing in children, but could it be a reaction to Christmas? Change in routine and such like?

I wish it was JoeP but he's been like this for what seems like forever. It takes absolutely nothing (and everything) to make him scared. I know that mental health services for adults are pretty lacking but for children it's even worse. It's knowing who to turn to when you feel you are getting nowhere. I haven't got a clue.

dear god that doesn't sound good. you must be insane with worry. i can't help you much except to say pm me if you need a shoulder and i hope it sorts itself

What dosage of Sertraline is he on?

The couple of studies with the use of Sertraline for children between 7 and 17 seemed to suggest 50mg / day. If he's on less than this it might be worth consulting with his GP.

HOWEVER....the higher doses often get prescribed in the UK by psychiatrists, rather than GPs, so you might want to see if you can get a referral.

How did CAMHS try to help you?

You have my sympathies. It sounds more than just the normal childhood fears and I think you need support to sort it. Have you been back to the psychologist and asked for more help?

I have a very anxious child, as you know, but he is only 4 so we dont know what is at the bottom of it all really, but have ideas.

My daughter, who is mum to the above, was very anxious at times too and when she was 8, 9 .. onwards regularly kept herself awake. We had a slight improvement for a while by using Bach flower remedies, as recommended by a medical herbalist. They are non sedating. We had Mimulus I think, which was for fear of known things. When she took it we explained all about it. I think she was about 9, and she seemed to put a lot of faith into it, which helped the cure. But she persisted being a poor sleeper into adulthood and I guess she passed it on to her children.

Sorry I cant suggest anything else as it must be very worrying. But do try the psychologist again.

I wish I could help. I have no idea where you can get the help you need, but keep fighting, keep yelling, sometimes it's the loudest voices who are dealt with first.

Best of luck, hun. XX

What dosage of Sertraline is he on?

The couple of studies with the use of Sertraline for children between 7 and 17 seemed to suggest 50mg / day. If he's on less than this it might be worth consulting with his GP.

HOWEVER....the higher doses often get prescribed in the UK by psychiatrists, rather than GPs, so you might want to see if you can get a referral.

He was on 25mg for 2 weeks and is on his 6th week at 50mg. I can't see any changes or improvements at all. He's had CBT but with almost no effect so that has now stopped but should be re-starting again soon with someone else. He's seen a psychotherapist (not sure what's happening there any more) and lots of other people but I am at a total loss as how to help him.

If he was an adult he would be sectioned. If he was an older child in his teens he would probably end up in a unit such as Oakwood at the Northern General. As he is only 9, tough! There is nothing for young kids with bad mental health problems. The whole system sucks. Kids with mental health issues turn into adults with even worse problems.

I meant to say that the Sertraline is prescribed by his doc at Shirle Hill who if I remember rightly is a psychiatrist.

Things are complicated also by the fact that he has Aspergers and other stuff too (Tourettes and ADHD)

How did CAMHS try to help you?


To be honest, I am not exactly sure! They assessed him as everyone does and passed him on elsewhere as everyone does. It's an ever repeating pattern of getting nowhere.

He was on 25mg for 2 weeks and is on his 6th week at 50mg. I can't see any changes or improvements at all. He's had CBT but with almost no effect so that has now stopped but should be re-starting again soon with someone else. He's seen a psychotherapist (not sure what's happening there any more) and lots of other people but I am at a total loss as how to help him.

If he was an adult he would be sectioned. If he was an older child in his teens he would probably end up in a unit such as Oakwood at the Northern General. As he is only 9, tough! There is nothing for young kids with bad mental health problems. The whole system sucks. Kids with mental health issues turn into adults with even worse problems.

What a pity the CBT didnt work. From what I know about it I thought it was quite effective, but it will of course vary between therapists and between patients. I really do hope you get things sorted ... youre like me, youve permanently got your hands full :| I didnt realise he was so bad he would have been sectioned or admitted. Is he able to attend school?

He goes to mainstream school and has a statement for the grand total of 9 hours a week! His behaviour is declining rapidly at school and is running a real risk of exclusion. He told me tonight that 'they' (His manifesation of OCD) follow him to school and force him to do stuff like kick the table or shout out stuff to other kids. If he doesn't do what 'they' say they will get him at night when he is in bed. He is terrified and barely sleeps. He won't sleep unless someone is upstairs anyway. Any slight noise and he is wide awake and hysterical.

I send him to school to try and keep things as normal as possible. He needs routine because of his apsergers.

CAMHS is specialist mental health provision for children, and Shirle Hill is the most specialised provision for your child's age group. Is your community CAMHS clinician aware that you don't feel things have improved?

Things are now moving thank goodness. His doc came to see me today and is seeing my lad on thursday. It seems they are as worried as I am now and are not going to leave it until they get to the bottom if it and give him the appropriate treatment.

It just seems so wrong that he has to get so ill before things are done.

If you can get access to a psychologist through CAMHS I would suggest this. Make sure they are aware he is doing things 'they' tell him. Am glad the services now appear to be taking this seriously. In the meantime do whatever you can to make him feel safe and know that you are there for him unconditionally. This must be so hard for you. Good luck

Its unfortunate that when you come up against these things you just have to keep pushing and pushing professionals to do something. As if you havent enough on your plate without chasing them up all the time. I hope something happens to help him soon.

Well his doc has doubled his meds so we'll see if that works. Fingers crossed.

As for psychologists, he's seen several, plus psychiatrists and a psychotherapist. No-one seems to be able to get a handle on him as he is so complex poor lad.

Well his doc has doubled his meds so we'll see if that works. Fingers crossed.

As for psychologists, he's seen several, plus psychiatrists and a psychotherapist. No-one seems to be able to get a handle on him as he is so complex poor lad.

Fingers crossed.

Keep us posted, and I hope all goes well.

Well the increase in meds has made no difference at all. He is still terrified and paranoid and up most of the night. And to top it all off he is now excluded from school. It just gets better! :loopy:

Well the increase in meds has made no difference at all. He is still terrified and paranoid and up most of the night. And to top it all off he is now excluded from school. It just gets better! :loopy:

I wouldn't expect there to be a change in 3 days, though.

Give it a week or so.

I'm with Joe, Fairynormal. I think you're going to have to give it a little more time.

I wish things were going easier for you.

As a last resort to get him to sleep and for me to have some sleep he was prescribed a few days of diazepam yesterday. Gave him the tab and he was fast asleep by 8:30pm Yippeee!!!

Shame he was awake again by 9:45pm. he never slept for more than half an hour before he was either awake and out of bed again or shouting that he had seen or heard something.

Back to square one!

Does anyone know if Diazepam is supposed to be an 'instant' thing ie: you take it and you sleep well that night or does it have to build up over a couple of nights? It's only a small dose of 1mg per night.

Also, does anyone have any info, preferably first hand experience of taking risperidone? That looks a likely next step.

I think diazepam is fairly instantaneous, its a relaxant. I didnt think it was that widely prescribed these days (you know its valium dont you?) But it might become more effective after he has had a couple of nights worth as there may be a bit of a build up in his bloodstream. On the other hand he might just get used to it! Its not like an antidepressant which would take a couple of weeks at least to see a difference. I dont know risperidone, so cant help.

I've no experience with diazepam in children, but my mum was given some (can't remember if it was 2mg or 5mg) whilst in hospital recently, and they made her really quite ill. She was sick and very disorientated, which made her feel frightened. Yellowrose is right in saying the effects are almost immediate.

I have just taken my granddaughter for her MMR and pneumacoccal (whatever!) and I was pleased to say my authority wasnt questioned. I was a bit nervous when I read this thread as I didnt want to go through the lengthy explanation or make two visits. (See my earlier post for details).

Hi all, my 9 month old son has got a nasty chesty cough with his cold, I have had him to the doctors and all they say is give him calpol and that nurofen stuff and they just don't seem bothered :loopy: Is there anything else I can give him to soothe his cough as it is waking him up at night. Thanks in advance.

Chocolate can help apparently, it coats the throat so helps to soothe it a bit.
If it snot and mucus related you could elevate the head end of his mattress to stop it just trickling down the the back of his throat.
Otherwise - make sure it doesn't go on too long, someone else recently had a situ where her son had a cough for ages and it tooks the docs a silly amount of time to work out that he had a chest infection. Keep taking him back if you are worried, mothers instincts tend to be right.

Another genuine thing that can help little ones shift the mucus is to humidify the room- either a bowl of hot water put in their room as they sleep, or if there isn't anywhere safe to do that, a wet towel put on the radiator in their room, and drip either with Olbas Oil. Runny mucus is much easier to cough up and then get to sleep around.

You can also get room humidifiers from Argos, which is a little more effective than towels for dampening the room.

And do just put a sheet or something under the mattress at the head of the cot to raise the head...

I would agree, listen to your instincts, and if you're concerned, take the little 'un back to the doctors - maybe ask to see a different one if you think that one won't listen. But also bear in mind how bad it can sound to us when our little ones are coughing...worse than it is, sometimes.

Good luck, hope the little one feels better soon.

Glad to hear it went all right, yellowrose.

Sounds like they haven't quite got their policies together, yet.

Thanks for your advice, I've raised his mattress up a bit and also put a damp towel on the radiator! I just don't trust our doctors anymore since they mis-diagnosed my daughter when she was 9 months old (they said she had a virus when it turned out she had meningitis), so I tend to over react that bit more nowadays. Hopefully his cough will get better, it's just horrible to hear him coughing so much! :sad:

Hi all, my 9 month old son has got a nasty chesty cough with his cold, I have had him to the doctors and all they say is give him calpol and that nurofen stuff and they just don't seem bothered :loopy: Is there anything else I can give him to soothe his cough as it is waking him up at night. Thanks in advance.

Our little one has been troubled with this its a sort of catarral cough. We have found Tixylix chesty cough night time helps her get a better nights sleep but it doesnt cure it!

We also put Vicks vapour rub on her chest.

Sometimes we also use Ashtons and Parsons Teething powders as she gets this catarrh/cough when she is teething. These powders are camomile and very soothing.

Ive just started to give Freya honey too, but she is 13 months. Your little one cant have it yet as they have to be 12 months old.

Glad to hear it went all right, yellowrose.

Sounds like they haven't quite got their policies together, yet.

Either that, or as usual, because I dont look particularly old they just assume Im her mum and I dont correct them unless they mention it specifically.

Or it could even be that the computer has all the info on. Unusual I admit.

We recently bought a plug in thing which releases menthol vapours, which might help your son. I think it was called Kalvor or similar and was next to all the baby stuff in my local Tesco's. I haven't used it yet, as my Daughter's cough cleared up before I found it, but I have it in ready for next time.

I was once told to run a red hot bath, close the door to keep in the steam and sit in the bathroom for a while.

Apparently my lad also has this! Yeah, yet another one to add to the list of 'issues'.

Does anyone elses kids, or them themselves have this and if so what measures do you take to help them/yourself?

Thanks :thumbsup:

I was once told to run a red hot bath, close the door to keep in the steam and sit in the bathroom for a while.

That's the same principle as humidifying the room- and the really hot bath, steamy bathroom scenario is more usually recommended for croup, which is more of a breathing difficulty than a cough.

Hi there, just wondering if any of you have any experience of baby eczema? My 6 month boy has had a little on his face since he was a couple of months old, but it is now spreading to chest / arms / legs. He is being weaned, but the types of food he eats do not seem to affect the eczema - it just gets better or worse quite randomly. I have been using E45 cream and emollient and initially that seemed to help, but not so much any more. Baby jellyfish couldn't get to sleep tonight and was scratching his forehead a lot. Also when we went to bath him we discovered that some eczema around his nipple had weeped a little and stained his vest. I'm going to take him to the health visitor this week - but would like to avoid steroid creams.

I have heard that babies tend to grow out of this and it's quite common, but obviously I would like to do something to ease it for him...:confused:

Anyone had similar...??

I had it when I was a baby. My mother used to bathe me in milk and aparrantly it cleared it up.

go and see your gp,they will prescribe,some cream for him and a bath oil,both are really good,most babies grow out of this mine did,good luck:thumbsup:

When my son was small I found putting a little Oilatum in the bath was a big help.

Hiya Jelly, you might remember our girls had a touch of it, round the same sort of age and it was made worse by central heating, then cleared up totally in summer.
We never totally got rid of it until Spring but the methods we used were: keep a wet towel on the radiator at all times to keep moisture in the air, apply evening primrose oil 2 - 3 times a day to the affected areas, wet the area then coat with vaseline to prevent it cracking if it gets to that stage but it shouldn't. We have Oilatum and E45 at the doctors suggestion but neither work for us. I think oily fish is meant to help too, depends on what he'll eat I suppose.
Evening primrose is the bees knees and dirt cheap, even Poundland do it.

If you are wanting a natural product, Tea tree oil cream is good for excema but I would check out that it is ok to use on babies first as I'm not sure.

Thanks for the suggestions. I thought about trying tea tree cream but haven't checked out if it's ok for babes yet.

Zebra, I'll definitely get some primrose oil and give that a go - and the central heating point is a good one too. Thanks!

Hiya, I'm not a parent but I had eczema as a baby and still have it now, and my mum found that creams from the docs made mine worse, so be careful with them. Mine is also flared up by cow dairy and a lack of sun.. Sorry I can't be much help.

We use Tixylix, Medised (whoever invented that is a genuis, don't even bother with calpol or nurofen now!) snuffle babe (gentler version of vix) olbas oil (or Karvol) and the damp towel over a radiator, although when DS is poorly now he just has to sleep in with mummy, that makes him feel better in an instance :hihi:

Hi Jellyfish

I suffered as a baby and upwards with eczema and I had all kinds of lotions and potions over the years.

I found out that I was alergic to Lanolin which is found in E45, so I have since stayed away from that ingredient and my skin is much better.

My son Ethan who is now one year old has always had a patch of eczema on his elbow and the doctor has perscribed him oilatum for the bath and then cream afterwards. They both seem to work really well together and his patch has cleared up..

did you see the program the other night where they did a test on children? They did two parties-one with lots of sugar treats and one without. The parents werent told which party was the sugar one. At the sugar party, they played quiet games and were pleasant kids when parents picked them up. On no sugar party, they played silly hectic fun games and were little buggers when parents picked them up-obviously proving sugar DOESNT make ur children hypo .....just rots their teeth!

dont use tea tree on babies! we got some ferroooo something cream from docs-worked a treat-eventually!
good luck!
E45 in bubble bath also nice!

Hypo is a lack of, hyper is too much!

Colourings make children hyper in my opinion. Most childrens sweets contain E numbers that cause hyperactivity especially red and yellow colourings.
some additives are known to cause hyperactivity and are thought to affect 100,000 people in the UK.
E110, E124, E122 and E211 are proven to cause temper tantrums and disruptive behaviour in up to a quarter of children....think skittles, smarites and ki-ora! I wish they'd ban them! As i work with children with ADHD i see the effect of colourings first hand

Good links: :thumbsup: (feeling helpful tonight! :) )

E number in childrens food: www.netmums.com/lc/food/Additive.pdf
food reactions-what do e-numbers do: www.foodreactions.org/allergy/additives/100.html

My work in the past with children leaves absolutely no doubt in my mind that certain foods have a bad effect on children...at lunch the fun, sweet kids we had would consume the blue or red pop, insane amounts of sweets and god alone knows what else their parents had provided for their lunch...and return to play as slathering, evil little hellhounds.

Saying that, I allow cosycub most things in moderation. I don't feel any need to be utterly prescriptive about his diet because I've also seen how kids go nuts for what they can't have as soon as mummy's and daddy's backs are turned when parents are too prescriptive.
I want to make sure he has a healthy view of food as something you eat and enjoy when you're hungry, not as a series of 'good but boring', 'yummy but totally banned' and 'something to stuff in your mouth to make you feel better' commodities.

Those Haribo sweets (chewy gunk in various forms, goldbears, etc) are very popular where I live and are doled out at all children's parties and even sometimes as rewards in school. But I just get the "there goes that mad Englishwoman again" looks if I try to point out the consequences! My compromise is to let my kids have them if they're given them, wait five minutes after consumption (you can almost time it by the clock), then send the kids outside to run round and round until the effects have worn off! Can take up to half an hour.:P

Hypo is a lack of, hyper is too much!

Colourings make children hyper in my opinion.
[/B]

sorry bad use of slang on my part!
yes i think colours (the E numbers) are def more to do with it! No fizzy juice then!

hi!!!

my eldest boy had baby eczema, it started when he was 3 wks old and he still gets flare ups!!

they first gave me e45 which burnt him, i tried oilatum, hydrocotazone u name it and none of it worked!! his always got worse during the summer, when he was about 7 months old he was admitted to the childrens beause his skin was coming off his arms (the inside of his elbows) and the backs of his knees, he was on IV antibiotics because it was an open wound, and the whole reason was a misdiagnosis from the docs, they gave wrong cream when i went back complaining that he was reacting badly to a prior cream.

i remember one woman who was a friend of my ex's cousin commenting that we didnt look after him properly because anyone in their right mind wud have had him in the hospital, thinking back it was really bad he used to cry in agony when he was in his pram cos it rubbed the backs of his legs most people were nice and said oh does he have eczema but the minor made skitty comments on how he must have been in a fire which normally came from very old ladies thinking they were talking quietly on the bus.

we had him tested for food allergies but they all came back negative, but his dads mom and all my dads brothers had really bad eczema so we think it might have been one of those unlucky gene things! none of our other children have it!

My 7 month old son has this on his face (around his mouth and under his chin) and on the backs of his legs (creases of knees). I was given Oilatum to use in his bath and Diprobase to put on afterwards, and so far it's looking pretty good. I was also told never to use anything on him that has soap in or sodium laureth sulphate - I think this is the foaming agent found in bath foams - but whatever it is apparently it's very drying to the skin.


HTH

my daughter is 2 and has had eczema since she was a baby, we've got steroid cream to use if it ever gets really bad but the rest of the time, i just put the moisturiser doc gave us, after a bath but when she is still wet! she seems to get it worse when temperature changes dramatically, like when weather has gone quite cold recently. but she seems to be growing out of it too!

Hi,

If you are looking for a more natural option, bathing in oatmeal is great in helping clear up eczema i.e. fill a popsock with porrige oats knot the end then run the hot water over it when running the bath, leave it to soak in there, and squeeze and moosh it to get the slimey opaque oatmeal stuff out - you can also use it as a wash'cloth'. Keep detergents out of the bath water - i.e. no bubble bath, use a non-sodium lauryl sulphate based soap such as this --> http://www.goodnessdirect.co.uk/cgi-local/frameset/detail/894400.html and sparingly i.e. on nappy area only... baby and toddler skin doesn't get as greasy dirty as adult skin and doesn't need harsh cleaning agents... a splosh of olive oil added to the bathwater is great (beware of very slippy bath surface though) and massaging the likes of olive oil and shea butter on the skin after bathing will bring great relief. :)

.

p.s if you want to read further on the issues surrounding sodium lauryl sulphate and sodium laureth sulphate then Google is your friend! :)

.

aqueous cream is great for babys and kids with eczema and pretty cheap too u can get it from boots.charlie

Hi,

If you are looking for a more natural option, bathing in oatmeal is great in helping clear up eczema i.e. fill a popsock with porrige oats knot the end then run the hot water over it when running the bath, leave it to soak in there, and squeeze and moosh it to get the slimey opaque oatmeal stuff out - you can also use it as a wash'cloth'. Keep detergents out of the bath water - i.e. no bubble bath, use a non-sodium lauryl sulphate based soap such as this --> http://www.goodnessdirect.co.uk/cgi-local/frameset/detail/894400.html and sparingly i.e. on nappy area only... baby and toddler skin doesn't get as greasy dirty as adult skin and doesn't need harsh cleaning agents... a splosh of olive oil added to the bathwater is great (beware of very slippy bath surface though) and massaging the likes of olive oil and shea butter on the skin after bathing will bring great relief. :)

.

I would go 100% with this Henriettaah- and did you know that there's now a complete range of oatmeal-based creams, bath solutions and the like that can be prescribed.

They're called Aveeno, they're fragrance free and if your skin (or your baby's) benefits from the oatmeal in the bath thing, you can ask your GP to prescribe them as an alternative to the petrochemicals and steroids.

I'm not advocating that they will work for everyone- but then the steroids and the like don't work for everyone either.

I hope your little one's eczema improves soon Jellyfish.

Thanks again everyone for your replies.The health visitor prescribed baby jelly some Epaderm which seems to be like vaseline - it's not really making that much difference. When the HV saw his weeping nipple though she said it would definitely need antibiotic cream and got me to make an appt with the doctor. With the greatest respect, I think that I'd rather avoid antibiotics if at all possible though! So we have basically put savlon on it and a plaster - and it seems to be getting better...hurray!! (BTW - I will obviously be keeping an eye on it and get to the Drs if I have to)

I'm going to try the oatmeal tip next...

I bathed my boy in oiletam, and used to put bowls of water on the radiator (which helped in the winter) I did use a steriod cream it helped and you just want to help sometimes. But after going to see Drs and natural therapists ect ect ect, he grew out of it at about 2 1/2 and haven't seen a bit or scratch since. Good luck.

I've recently become an independant distributor for a company who specialise in natural products. If you let me have your details i can send you a sample of Bee Propolis which is like a natural antibiotic. Alternatively you can email me at flpsheffield@hotmail.co.uk and i will let you have some more information about the products.

OK - I'm confused..! I have googled sodium lauryl sulphate and it doesn't sound good. But, the epaderm prescribed by my HV for baby's eczema has got it in it...?! Huh??

What is Epaderm? Is it a washing thing i.e. used with water to makes suds and 'clean'..?

Just because the establishment prescribe it doesn't always mean its the best thing to use :)

.

Got to agree, there's lots of things with alcohol in too but alcohol is terrible for dry skin conditions. Go with nature!

Epaderm to all intents and purposes looks and feels like vaseline, but you can mix it with water and use in the bath or just put it straight on. We were advised to apply it 4 times daily but I'm not going near the stuff now.

Baby's weeping nipple has returned - I have a doctors appt booked for monday so we'll see what they say.

Unfortunately, evening primrose oil hasn't helped thus far and eczema has flared up again even worse! ( Possibly due to Epaderm...argh!) Poor baby jelly looks like he has been in a fight! Gonna try oatmeal next. I have discovered however after your oily fish tip Zebra, that baby jelly loves sardines! :)

my 10yr old son as been feeling unwell since friday,he was sick in the night and complaining of a dry throat all the time,he now has one cheek permenently red,is this the slapped cheek syndrome that i have heard about,if so do i need to get him to the doctors

Its not an urgent trip to the doctors from what I remember, but its as well to get a diagnosis. My daughter had it years ago and was only briefly off school. No treatment, just calpol. I did think it was usually younger children who had it though.

It is doing the rounds though, as it was in our nursery before Christmas.

I would be tempted to phone NHS direct as its free and their advice is usually good. Its 0845 4647.

thanaks yellowrose i will do

My little lad had this.. It did just look like he's been slapped on the cheek..Bright red it was.. Nothing to worry about though..
It did the rounds at my sons old nursery 2 years ago.. They all got it.. Bless them..
Just like Yellowrose said, just give him some calpol if he needs it and he should be up and about in no time..

Had the worst experience ever on tuesday. Little one shot off into kitchen/diner area and stood on bottom step and fell. i heard the bang went running in and scooped him up shouting at him for climbing when i saw the egg literally growing on his head. A million thoughts went thru my head-hes going to die, go blind, collapse...... i called hubby(miles away) screaming what do i do? and cut him off as he didnt know(prob scared him being all hysterical!). i ran upstairs and put cold flannel on head-this made him cry, so i put witch hazel on-this made him cry...by this time i was in bits and ended up sitting and rocking him while he pooed! nice!
He calmed down and we played a silly game of hidy boo with a cold flannel-sneaky mummy! and called nhs direct for advice
she was nice althou the nurse took nearly an hr to call back. but she was also nice and said he didnt need hosp and just to check on him every 2hrs.
all the while my little one was happily colouring my tv in with blue crayon
ive never been so scared and looking back i really overreacted but nothing prepares u for that!

Kids are very resilient Nats... trust me my kids were always throwing themselves around.. and suffering for it. DS#2 against all warning jumped down the stairs only last week and went head first into the brick wall.

He lived... :D

Ohhh Natalie... not a nice experience!!!!! :(

If its any consolation my little Bro spent most of his childhood climbing the babygate and launching himself off it - head first - onto the paving slabs outside the back door!!!

My poor mum, forever having a child with lumpy head and black eyes!!!

he's 26 now and only slightly daft!!! :suspect:

hehe! its so embarrassing thou-everyone keeps asking about his bruise-i dont beat him up!! i may over tickle him slightly haha!

Our health visitor was telling me and Zebra about "Daddy related injuries" wich is where over zealous fathers cause injuries to their and/or other children by being a little over enthusiastic. I am guilty of this with Twingle 1 especially, she likes a bit of rough and tumble where as Twingle 2 is as gentle as a summer breeze.

babybabychickens' father managed to fall down teh stairs at the weekend, complete with babybabychickens tucked under one arm. after i'd finished panicking over the baby and shouting obscene words at her father, all she had to show for the event was a tiny tiny graze on her forehead. i've never seen a grown man look so petrified! probably won't stop him running down the stairs with the baby, mind, as he has an awful memory.

Let's see...trips to the hospital with a bump to the head before 10 months old...3. Out of 3 bumps to the head (dived off our bed, fell and hit stone divider in yard, and 1 other I can't even remember.)

Trips to the hospital with a bump to the head from 11 months to 22 months...0. Out of approximately 5,999,998 (approx.) bumps to the head.

Lol, you get used to it, and you'll learn to know when it's serious. The amazing thing is that their heads are made of reinforced, extra-hard rubber. I am absolutely certain that this is a scientific fact, lol. And it certainly explains how they can headbutt you into a coma and never know about it.

P.s. I am knocking on wood as I type!

My other half told me that when he was very young he stood on the bottom step of the stairs and leant forward to see what would happen....obviously what happened was he fell flat on his face! He was fine....that's one way to learn I guess!

thanks xx feel tonnes better. may just wrap him up in cotton wool just to be safe though!

They all do it at some time, doesnt stop you feeling bad though.

The worst thing is that ripe-melon-hitting-the-floor sound it makes when they go for it outside...goes straight through every nerve in your body. That is one of the worst sounds ever.

i didn't think babybabychickens' father would forget not to drop her that quickly - as i walked through the door this evening i was greeted by a very frightened daddy and a rather teary baby, who had just fallen off our bed whilst playing with daddy. she now has a swollen ear, and will probably look like we've been beating her by the time i take her to nursery tomorrow.

still, she seems to have forgotten about her molar pain (for now). silver lining and all that.

The worst thing is that ripe-melon-hitting-the-floor sound it makes when they go for it outside...goes straight through every nerve in your body. That is one of the worst sounds ever.

*shudders whilst appreciating the accuracy of cosywolf's description*

i didn't think babybabychickens' father would forget not to drop her that quickly - as i walked through the door this evening i was greeted by a very frightened daddy and a rather teary baby, who had just fallen off our bed whilst playing with daddy. she now has a swollen ear, and will probably look like we've been beating her by the time i take her to nursery tomorrow.

still, she seems to have forgotten about her molar pain (for now). silver lining and all that.

Ah, bless.

Childrens bones are very elastic, they're designed to take a few knocks.

im sure there'll be more to come. The more people that notice his bump-the more horror stories i hear about their children-falling off roundabouts, swings, off walls, down outside stairs and the children been fine but the parents passing out or being sick!!(once at hosp and they know kid is fine!)

i have had it several times with my young 'uns,,,

the worse was in the summer nearly 2 years ago,, my eldest slammed the back door on my little ones fingers,, my not the latch side the jarm side,, i had to open the door which broke his fingers,, i heard the snap,, not nice!!!

but i had no choice,, he was trying to pull them out with the door still shut and was doing more damage, went to the childrens crying to the nurse i had broke his fingers,, they must have thought i was barmy!!!!

he ok now tho, a few week with his arm in a sling and his fingers taped together!

i have had it several times with my young 'uns,,,

the worse was in the summer nearly 2 years ago,, my eldest slammed the back door on my little ones fingers,, my not the latch side the jarm side,, i had to open the door which broke his fingers,, i heard the snap,, not nice!!!

but i had no choice,, he was trying to pull them out with the door still shut and was doing more damage, went to the childrens crying to the nurse i had broke his fingers,, they must have thought i was barmy!!!!

he ok now tho, a few week with his arm in a sling and his fingers taped together!

I would like to point out that I have an incredibly good imagination, and I don't think I will ever, ever get that out of my head!! I'm traumatised! You poor thing! And poor little one...

My 10 month old son had a bump to his head this afternoon :( My father in law (to be!) had popped down and as he had to stand in the doorway to keep an eye on my autistic brother in law (to be!) who was sat in the car, the door was open.
Anyway, my little man decided to crawl up to the door and headbutt it!!! Worst thing was, he had a bruise come out within 10 seconds of headbutting the door. Poor ickle man! :(
He's ok though, I've kept my eye on him all day and he's asleep on the settee where I'm going to keep my eye on him!!!

I think it's a case of finding what suits your baby and sticking with it. My daughter's eczema was pretty bad and we tried allsorts (different prescribed creams and natural remedies) before settling with epaderm. I don't like using it because its quite greasy and if you get it on your clothes it leaves marks (which DO wash out though) but it does the trick for her and now we're on top of the eczema and continuing to use epaderm she hardly ever has a breakout.

Just persevere and you'll find the right stuff for your baby.

Chamomile is quite good aswell, just add a drop to bathwater.

Once when my mum took my son to nursery many moons ago there was a sign saying there had been an incidince of slapped cheek in school. She avidly told me about it and thought the teacher responsible for hitting a child so be sacked. I took great delight in letting her rant on for a while before I told her what it meant.

Hi all!

Well my mother has only gone and pointed out that mini sav seems to have a squint/lazy eye! It only happens when she is not really looking at anything in particular and is not all the time. What happens is her left eye stays normal and her right eye starts to turn towards her nose.

Is there anyone on here who children who have had this? I cant get to the docs till next week and its driving me crazy!

I am not too worried about it yet but would like a little peace of mind.


Thanking you all in advance!:D

I have a lazy eye.

I had it from an early age - I THINK I acquired it when I got the measles, and I received treatment for it that consisted of various excercises to make me use the lazy eye in preference to my 'good' eye.

I had one set of treatment from about 6 years old to about 12 or 13, then another year or so when I was a student as part o a research project. I DID get an improvement, but I still have the 'squint', but it's only prominent when I get tired.

And mine was a doozy of a lazy eye - very poor.

Don't panic - there's quite a bit that can be done.

Good Luck.

I have a lazy eye.

I had it from an early age - I THINK I acquired it when I got the measles, and I received treatment for it that consisted of various excercises to make me use the lazy eye in preference to my 'good' eye.

I had one set of treatment from about 6 years old to about 12 or 13, then another year or so when I was a student as part o a research project. I DID get an improvement, but I still have the 'squint', but it's only prominent when I get tired.

And mine was a doozy of a lazy eye - very poor.

Don't panic - there's quite a bit that can be done.

Good Luck.


its only started since her convulsions 2 weeks ago and is more prominent when she is tired! I know there are lots of things can be done but its just the thought of her having to go through it!

A girl i went to school with had a lazy eye and they put a patch on her good eye everyday to make the other work harder. She told us she had got a needle in her eye and thats what caused it, we all believed her:hihi: :hihi:

I had this when I was a child. It first showed up on a photo.

In the olden days, they used to make kids wear a patch over the good eye (or even over the lens on their specs!). :( I've no idea what they do now, sorry.

After the patch didn't make much difference, I had an op on the muscle of the 'lazy eye' when I was four and never noticed it again till I was 17 and in Chemistry class when peering at the readings on a burette meant that my left eye started to drift off in the opposite direction and drew mocking comments from the boys!

It's never made the slightest difference since. :)

I'm certain treatments/procedures have moved on a long way since and equally certain that your doc can refer you for suitable treatment.

I had teh eye patch treatment as a kid, and a combination of the patch and a coloured lens when I was at uni.

The coloured lens thing was quite interesting; I had a red filter over my good eye, and was equipped wth a red felt pen and a newspaper. My task was to 'ink in' the holes in letters - like the centre of an 'o, or the eye of an 'e' - and because my good eye was filtered I had to use my lazy eye.

I think that treatments haven't changed much - apart from my eye going it's own way when I'm tired (or drunk!! :) ) I occisonally suffer from a tiny bit of double vision when I REALLY tired. Also, I have very little stereoscopic vision - but after all that it really isn't a major roblem. :)

Two girls at my school had this problem, but opposite ways about and one less noticeable than the other

they both had the same problem - long sight in one eye and short in the other, so they tended to flick from one to the other as you approached - confusing if you're not familiar with it :?

shall i tell you about occular dominance columns (ODCs)? the way your brain processes the very similar images that are sent to it separately by both eyes is by cutting the images into strips, and alternating them between each eye (ie strips of left-right-left-right-left, which are fitted together to make a fimished image). a person with normal vision will have a near 50:50 split between the amount of left and right in the 'finished image'. a person with lazy eye doesn't have a 50:50 split, for example (i have no idea what split a person with lazy eye actually has) 70:30. because most of the input is coming from one eye, that eye becomes the dominant eye, and because the input from the lazy eye isn't needed as much, it becomes free to roam or even (hopefully not) get worse as it is needed less and less.

i don't know much about the causes of lazy eye, but lots of babies are born with a lazy eye that corrects within a few weeks. there might be some neurological reason behind it (ie the eyes are fine, but the brain isn't quite right when it puts the images together, or maybe the brain doen'st control the eye properly), or there may be some problem with the eye (either in the images is captures, or in the muscles that control the eye). as others have said, sometimes surgery is used, but this is certainly not the first option. i believe the eye patch is still used as a starting point. the eye patch works by preventing the good eye from having an input into the image, because then the brain notices that the lazy eye isn't looking where it should, and will try to correct it. it certainly isn't an instant fix, it takes time for your brain to learn to use the lazy eye properly, and most people who have had a lazy eye find that when they're tired the lazy eye returns.

so there.

My task was to 'ink in' the holes in letters - like the centre of an 'o, or the eye of an 'e' - and because my good eye was filtered I had to use my lazy eye.

Completely OT - so which football team wouldn't you have been able to do?

Also, I have very little stereoscopic vision - but after all that it really isn't a major problem. :)

So, you can't see those 'magic pictures' things, either? I was kind of disappointed when I was told I couldn't be a crane driver - till I realised that I didn't want to be one!

Strix, I'm short sighted, but in one eye more than the other - you'd have to be rubbing noses with me to see the switch :suspect: (all corrected now by fabby contact lenses :) )

babychickens - fascinating explanation. Thanks!

Maggi,

I studied more newspapers than I ever wanted to do... :)

As for football clubs - I have no idea!

And no, I can't do the magic picture thingies, and have problems judging distance in games like badminton. Odldy enough I'm OK driving

As for football clubs - I have no idea!

Maybe you'll find out here (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=195950).

savbaby, I'm sure lots of other parents have had your worries and hopefully mini sav's problems are only temporary. Even if she has a 'lazy eye', it may well be sortable-out without surgery.

If she has to wear a patch and doesn't like it, tell her she's a 'pirate queen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_O%27Malley)' (no idea if she ever wore an eyepatch, but kids won't know the difference between one pirate and another!)

Good luck :)

Strix, I'm short sighted, but in one eye more than the other - you'd have to be rubbing noses with me to see the switch :suspect: (all corrected now by fabby contact lenses :) )

I didn't say the distance thing caused the bozz eyedness, but it was a contributing factor in eyestrain which tired them both more quickly when reading I think

Both of them had a more pronounced problem when tired

yea tell it to get of its lazy arse and get a real job . if not throw it out on the streets

My nearly 7 month old is going to her first swimming class tomorrow, but she has started with a small cold. At the moment, she is just sneezing the odd time and sometimes has a snotty nose. She hasn't a temperature and seems fine in herself. Would you still take her for the swimming session? It lasts 30mins and is a warm pool.

no i wouldn't take a baby swimming if got cold i got 2 kids an i wouldn't take them

a baby with a temperature shouldn't be immersed in a cool pool (ok, warmer than normal pools, but not great for your sick child), so if she gets a temperature definitely don't take her. otherwise yes - children are disgusting bags of lurgi anyway, if babybaby is anything to go by. her nose has been running constantly for 3 months, and if we waited for it to stop she'd never get to go swimming or to nursery or anything. unless doodlette is particularly pestilent i don't imagine the other parents will mind.

my answer - yes, take her.

Actually, as long as she doesn't have a fever it can be fairly beneficial for them, all that warm damp air can make them feel a bit better for a while. I used to take cosycub to the pool on doctor's suggestion when he had a cough.

No. Besides any effects on her, she is spreading the infection she has.

They are all snotty and filled with lurg at this time of year, so I agree with babychickens...you will never get anything done if you sit waiting for her to NOT be snotty, lol.
And as a parent, I expect my child to be surrounded by other snotty children, so I don't mind unless they are carrying something nasty and feverish. If everyone avoided going out to see other babies because of minor colds and snot, no babies would ever meet!

Thanks all for your thoughts. I'm going to see how she is in the morning and if is still the same, we are off swimming. I've just noticed she is teething, so I'm wondering if some of it is down to that.

if its down to teething then take her but be very careful as my little girl who is 8 mths old was rushed in to hospital with bronchiltis so don't let her get worse by goin swimming if she got cold an no my little girl dint go swimming

She's unlikely to get bronchiolitis by going swimming...or rather, no more likely to get it there than anywhere else.
I'm afraid cosycub got it when he was three months old, and is still suffering the coughing...and it was actually for the coughing from that that we were told by the doctor swimming pools were great...all that damp humid air helps calm it down.

Chryll, I hope your little one feels better soon. Cosycub didn't have a severe enough case to go to hospital, but has been coughing for the last 15 months because of it, which is gutting. Good(ish) news is it should wear off by 3 years of age at the latest...

hi cosywolf my little girl fine now just was relly bad for two weeks with it

We went swimming in the end, as she just had a snotty nose - I think it's the teething that's causing it. Typically, with my luck, the instructor was off ill, so we ended up just having a play session. Doodlette typically decided to empty her bladder just as I picked her up to go to the swimming pool, so I had wee all down my front :gag: :D

We have always found that being in the pool helps clear niecelet's snot production when she has a cold, so unless she's actually running a fever or is really unwell, she goes with a cold or anything else (and she enjoys it even when she's snotty too).

well we have finally got to the docs today and guess what, her eyes were perfectly straight!

He has however referred her to the specialists at the childrens hospital as i had taken notes on when it was happening and they can never be too carefu!

So he said it will be around 4 weeks and the specialist will most probably start with the patch treatment and if no success alternatives.

Thanks for you replies everyone will update one we been to the hospital.x.x.x

Hi all for about 3 days now my son has had a what i think is a cole.A bit stuffy and wingy and a temp.He now has a red rash on his arm that is itchy.I can see little spots her and there aint sure if it is heat rash.There is chicken pox going round school at moment.Am gonna bath him see if it brings them out a bit.what do you think ????????

i dont think it is chicken pox my little girl woke up this morning with the same symptons, i took het to docs and its a virus the little spots is heat rash caused buy her temp, i was just tols to give capol and a childrens
Antihistamine to stop the ictching

Well iv put him in bath and more spots have appeared.Looks like time off school for my little one.charlie x x x

the nursery that babybaby goes to has chickenpox, so i suspect we'll be a pox-ridden house within the week.

i guess the thing is that heat rash is also itchy, so whether it's heat rash or chicken pox, you really don't want the kids scratching it, and you'll give them calpol anyway, whichever disease it is. different illnesses - same treatment.

Our nursery keeps having chicken pox outbreaks, but so far cosycub keeps avoiding it. Probably saving it for when we're going on holiday, ill ourselves, or something else chaotic is going on, lol.

Cosycub has had a nasty virus in the past that covered him head to foot in a rash for days...called by the docs a 'non-specific viral rash'...i.e. 'we haven't got a clue, but it doesn't look dangerous.' Still, once he was feeling better, it was quite handy. People parted like the Red Sea when they saw him, and we tended to get to the front of queues, lol.

Hope your little one is feeling better soon!

Savbaby, my DS has what everyone calls a squint, even the HV said it was a squint, twice he's been referred to a specialist about it and twice i have being told it isn't a squint, its the way his eyes are with the skin and he has a big bridge. His eyes work perfectly well together, they run through a series of fun tests for them and its all fun to them. Try not to worry about it.

If you want PM me and i'll show you my DS's squint. If you haven't noticed minisav's before, chances are it'll be like my sons and nothing. Squints can correct themselves anyway.

My eldest spend most of his childhood attending Eye clinic at the childrens. And they refered the youngest as a precaution, there's nothing wrong with his eye's but they wanted to check on his progression. Eye clinic at the children's is fab, but the one at Hallamshire is really slow and not very well organised. We made them discharge the youngest when they were sure there was nothing wrong. It became a reet pain to sit waiting for threequarts of an hour just for a five min eyetest. The apt time's allways clashed with the other school run or my working pattern.

My daughter had this and it was due to her being extremely longsighted, more so in one eye than the other causing the wandering eye :) She now wears glasses all the time and absoultly loves them. She goes to the hallamshire hospital, although I haven't had the time or waiting problems that the other poster has thankfully. We had a nice argument yesterday about whether she should have blue frames or not :rolleyes:

I think It was a run of bad luck for us with the hallamshire clinic, If anything could go wrong with the apt's it would. I am sure it's not like that for everyone.

when my youngest was born and the cord came off, her belly button wouldnt heal properly as she had this small peice of flesh that protruded through it, when the dr saw he said it was a polip:huh: (i thought only old people got these) and put liquid nitrogen on it, it scabed over and healed but recently we have noticed that a small growth seems to be appering in the same place, is there anyone out there whose babys have had simular?
p.s we are taking her to see dr again but dont trust him.

My eldest lad, (he`s 9 now) had this problem as a baby but it just sorted itself out. However lately he`s been having it again and says the kids at school have even been taking the micky out of him calling him dodgy eyes (the horrible little gits).
Got an appointment at the opticians tomorrow, so hopefully get him sorted out!

Don't know about the polyps, snooze, but if you don't trust your doctor, get a different one. You don't have to stick with one you don't like, and it's worth the world to have one you trust.

One of our twins had a mysterious growth in her bellybutton which was just an extra piece of skin which looked all raw and sore, our HV said it was a granuloma and it would go of it's own accord, if not she would use silver nitrate on it.
Well the day before she brought the silver nitrate it fell off. (It wasn't sore at all, had one on my toe after surgey and it has no nerves in it at all.)
I thought polyps were generally yellow... my Dad had them in his nose a long tiem ago.
Why not talk to your HV or got to babyclinic?
Cosy's idea of seeing another doc is good too.

zebra this sounds like what she had but my concern is that it seems to be growing back, am taking her to hv tomorrow as we have another issue which she asked us to get gp to refer her to hosp for but he refused.
i want to change gps but my eldest is on med that are controled and she has to have a reveiw before nxt script so once we have that we are all going to change to another one.
and yes my understanding is that polyps grow internally not externally:huh:

if it's what i'm thinking of, most doctors would call it a granuloma. they normally correct themselves by 12 weeks, but can be chemically or surgically removed if they become a problem. they're nothing to worry about - it's just an over enthusiastic healing process. if it happens over and over again then your gp should be able to refer you to a specialist, but i'm not quite sure what kind of specialist that would be - might be a dermatologist, possibly an oncologist (don't panic at that, it's just that oncologists deal with benign overgrowths). as they lack innervation they don't hurt the child at all, so the only thing you need to worry about is not letting them get infected if the baby keep scratching it by accident - although they can't feel it, it can still get infected.

I know i'm not exactly a baby...

but i had a granuloma in my belly button a couple of years ago after some surgery... it grew as an extra kinda pinky lump in the scar. It didn't stop growing when i was told it should so my consultant did a small op (under local) and in 5 mins it was gone, no stitches.
a couple of weeks later it grew again.. but this time stopped itself and disappeared again a bit later :)

hope that helps a bit

Em

Out of curiosity - i just wanted to know how many parents on this forum have attempted to give their child seperate mmr jabs?

I know it is a whole can of worms, but would appreciate comments and advice on who to go to - I have long been considering this option but there is such a wall up against it.

For the majority who have had their little ones mmr'd - please don't be offended - i just have this nagging doubt and would rather address it than regret it...

As long as you get your child immunised against measles mumps and rubella I don't think it matters whether you get it in one jab or three.

The supposed links between the mmr jab and autism in children have been disproved by science several times, but because it is a sensitive issue it is constantly brought up by the media as a proven connection. Bear in mind too that (certainly where I come from) kids will get re-immunised for MMR at school at about age 14 and you don't get a choice then - and no links have been proposed about the injection then, when its the same preparation.

I am a firm firm believer in immunisation, and if you are really concerned, just make sure you do it SOMEHOW - don't rely on herd immunisation or bizarre natural remedies.

But ultimately its what you are comfortable with.

Out of curiosity - i just wanted to know how many parents on this forum have attempted to give their child seperate mmr jabs?

I know it is a whole can of worms, but would appreciate comments and advice on who to go to - I have long been considering this option but there is such a wall up against it.

For the majority who have had their little ones mmr'd - please don't be offended - i just have this nagging doubt and would rather address it than regret it...

I agree, probably makes little difference. But for your information, the guy's research on the link between MMR and autism was rubbish.

In my opinion, I'd go for triple. The dangers of each of those illnesses reappearing (as they are already) are too high, and would far outweigh a rogues research.

we're trying to find a local GP who is prepared to do 3 jabs, for which we're quite happy to pay. babybabychickens is now 10.5 months, so we'd better find one soon. one of our worries whilst i was pregnant was that we'd have an autistic child anyway (background reasons for thinking this might happen, not just by chance), so we're not going to push our luck for the sake of a few injections/couple of hundred quid.

the individual jabs aren't licensed in this country, by the way, so you makes your choices and you takes your chances.

anyone know where i can find such a doctor?

a similar thread was done in general discussions a year or so ago, i shall try to ffind it later.

Good luck finding someone who can give you what you want at an appropriate time. The main thing is, get your kid immunised properly, either with the combined jab or individuals.

As a scientist, I've got no issues with MMR personally... but being pregnant has totally changed my perspective on the amount of worrying that parents/parents-to-be naturally do. If it makes you too uncomfortable/worried/stressed, then go for the individuals. If the current huge pile of evidence in mmr's favour isn't enough to give you peace of mind, then it's doubtful that anything other than single jabs would do. Your health is important too, and if a few hundred quid can spare you all that worry, it's probably worth it.

i've heard that the chances of a baby getting a lazy eye may be affected by how they are fed. if a child is breast fed or bottle fed being held on alternate sides then their eyes get a chance to develop better. one sided bottle feeding can mean the eye thats close to the body doesn't get to look around or see stuff as its right up next to your body, this can mean its muscles may not grow as strong. I am typing this tentatively and using the work "may" as there are plenty of opportunites for maternal guilt in our lives already, but it seems it could be a factor in some cases and could be borne in mind in terms of prevention if bottle feeding the method of choice.
From my perspective, as a child and teenager growing up with a lazy eye that was caused by a bicycle accident (am blind in it, make sure your kids wear helmets!) i found it hard and had the cosmetic squint op on it. the squint op can be good if the level of sight is good.
good luck with it all
xxx

I asked about local GPs that would do the three seperate vaccines a good old while ago, and there were other threads, both before and after mine, it all got very heated, they all eventually got 'merged' see here:
http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=124108&highlight=mmr+vaccinations

There was a great deal of debate and contention - it was in 'general chat' before the parenting group was 'born'

Anyway, to cut a long story short, we researched this long and hard, (with the help of a few PMing forumers) and to date, as far as we know, the nearest clinics to Sheffield who will do seperate vaccinations are one in Manchester and one in Leicester.

We went to Leicester.

I can find the links to the clinics (hopefully) if anyone wants them.

Personally, I think the choice should be available to all on the NHS - there is certainly enough public concern about the issue..

- It pee's me off that it isn't it should be a choice, not a privilege :rant:

Thanks to all for your input - it is all very annoying/confusing. Thanks also Draggletail - I have also been Googling for clinics and found the Manchester one and poss a Leeds one (I think they only do 'visits' though). I totally agree - there should be a choice, but I guess it all boils down to money again. Anyway, I will check out the older threads - thanks again for your help..

both of my girls have had the jab and they both are fine

well we are at the hospital Thursday morning for her eyes, its actually both her eyes that are bad so we feel it may be operating time! will have to wait for he consultant though. The letter says to allow for up to 3 hours for appointment as she needs various assesments..

Wish us luck:help:

update!!

WE went today and she has no lazy eye. Her eyes are squinting due the fact she is long sighted!!!! this has come from her fathers side:rant:
So she has to wear glasses permenantly now and they are going to be really thick lenses! I can pay to have them thinned but this is not recommended until her presciption is stable:mad:

So 2 weeks and she will have her specs, .

Thanks for all advice everyone.

Yay! No op required :)

This must be a great relief to you - it's smashing news.

I think you should let her colour in the letters in the paper with red felt pen (just like JoeP) anyway - maybe even wait until Daddy has read it ;)

And, as with kittenta, you can look forward to what colour frames to get.

Yay! No op required :)

This must be a great relief to you - it's smashing news.

I think you should let her colour in the letters in the paper with red felt pen (just like JoeP) anyway - maybe even wait until Daddy has read it ;)

And, as with kittenta, you can look forward to what colour frames to get.

we chose the frames today, she could have nice purple barbie ones or a plain gunmetal and she chose the plain. she is only 2 and a half and went for the sensible options..

oh p.s.. daddy left when i was 4 months pregnant;) :D

I had come across this in magazines I read, retinoblastoma, a tumour or growth in the back of the eye which is identified most often by family snap shots.
A photo of one of my daughters, taken today, has shown up a white glare in one of her eyes, an often seen sign for Coats disease or retinoblastoma.
Pictures taken over the last 2 weeks have shown red eye in both eyes which for us is good news, a photo with one red and one white is bad - like the one we found today.
Tomorrow we'll contact a doctor and aim to be seen by an opthalmologist, with any luck it will be just a trick of the light.
I'm sharing this link so other parents can watch for the signs, better to know and have time to do something about it IMO.
http://www.kathieleegifford.com/lamb04/charity/lj.php

Thank you for sharing the information. It's not something I was aware of.

I will be thinking of you and your daughter and hope it is just a trick of the light.

I'll keep my fingers crossed that it was just a trick of the light...I'm sure it was.
Meanwhile, thanks for the info. I hadn't heard about this before....or at least, only in relation to a very rare disease my sister has, a very long time ago.

good luck for tomorrow...i know it's completely unhelpful to say that you shouldn't worry yet, but i don't know much about retinoblastoma, so i don't know what other explanations there are for teh eye thing. i'll do a bit of reading this week though.

*hugs*

Update, I took twingle 1 to the doctors and the doctor said 'Oh it's cataracts you're worried about?'
She had a look and said 'Well I can't see anything to worry about... but I've got a cataract so......'
Filled with confidence I left I went straight to Martin Bird Opticians in the city centre. They booked us in for a proper eye exam and after fighting with Twingle 1 to get her attention he pronounced that she was clear and that the picture was likely just camera glare.
He also said we could go back anytime, take more pictures to see if it happens again, see a lady optician if the girls would be more likely to respond well and so on. They were great!
So, good news for us and a worthy note for all parents with concern :)

Hello, both my kids sufered from eczema & after the dr prescribed diprobase & a bubble bath will lots of scary ingredients & steriods that never actually cleared it up I decided I wanted to look for something I could put on my small babies that weren't quite so scary, luckily my mum had a friend who gave me a hugh tub of calendula cream which is a homeopathic cream made from marigold flowers. Now I'm not into homeopathy really but this stuff actually cleared up my kids eczema, it even stopped my friends little boys face from bleeding as it was so bad & now she has her own hugh tub& both our boys have lovely soft baby skin & they only get a flare up when they aren't feeling very well. You can look it up on Google & they used to sell little tubes of it in Waitrose baby department. Hope it helps.

I'm glad it's good news.

I'm not surprised really with the response you got from your Doctor. If it is a condition that isn't really out in the public domain, the gp's don't seem to know much about it either, unless you get a really good doctor. Well done to Martin Bird, they sound like a good company.

actually, i'm quite surprised at the gp not knowing what you were getting at - i can only assume that she thought of cataracts because she has them herself. i might be wrong, but i thought the medical profession was reasonably alert to retinoblastoma these days, it's just that the general populace aren't.

good news, Z, you must be very releaved.:)

I was amazed at the gps response, it could be that she was relating her own experience or that she was hoping I wasn't the internet researching sort who might know about the big nasties.
Apparently there can be a lot of causes such as Coats Disease, cataracts (but they have a more milky appearance rather than torchlight), imperfect eye muscles so they aren't both pointing the same direction and of course retinoblastoma.
I first read about it in my Nannan's Take-A-Break magazine, then it's hit the newspapers more recently, internet research was only once I'd seen the photo.
Anyway, all's well that ends well.

As a paediatric nurse I'velooked after a handful of children with retinoblastomas, one of whom had her problem discovered after an assisitant in a photo devoloping shop tipped the parents off about what white eye could mean.

Hi there SamnKids
My 10 month old grand daughter suffers from mild eczema on her face. Is she too young to try this calendula cream. The doctor has prescribed oilatum fo the bath and E45 but it still persists.
May sound a stupid question but is eczema heradatory as her mum had it?
But not until she was a teenager

That's a good one, I had wondered if people with access to photos like that might notice and have the knowledge to pass on.

Hi Maidofhonour, I started using it on my little girl when she was 6months old after trying everything the Dr prescribed & finding they didn't really do anything & my little boy was about 2 weeks old, he had baby acne that developed into eczema. My mums friend is qualified & as it is only made from natural products & also compared to the ingredients on the prescribed creams I was much happier to use it. Also as far as I know eczema is heradatory, my husbands dad & 1 sister of his both suffered from it so even though I never did or any of my family it seems to have been passed on from his side. A few of my friends with children with eczmema use this cream now & my friends husband who has suffered for years with it has his own tub after trying some I gave to his baby nephew. Hope this helps.

silk /cotton clothing try www.hejhog.co.uk items by engel, my 7 year old was the same as a baby, we got a longsleeved vest, he wore it for 1 week (no cream/oils) changed clothes on top but he basically lived in this top for a week, it was gone by the end he was really bad, coudnt sleep for itching his arms and chest.

just a wee update,

Mini sav is doing great with the glasses and her eyes are not squinting as much:D

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r90/savbaby/ali.jpg

Cracking!, Top specs and a lovely smile, good for her! :)

My youngest started with a very mild lazy eye and it was sorted through patches and then glasses. He wore glasses all the time till he was about 7 and then we went back to the optician who said that he only had to wear them for reading and tv types of things.
He's now 16, has the most gorgeous pair of eyes that the girls swoon over and doesn't wear his glasses unless he feels he needs to (especially on the PS)

This is a bit of a long shot but here goes........

my nephew is 11 months old, reaching all his milestones in terms of sitting up, crawling etc. He got a temperature a couple of weeks ago then two days later started having spasms in his legs which resulted in him dislocating his own hip joints and knees. My sister rushed him to the hospital and the doctors witnessed another attack of the spasms. They did tests and xrays and found absolutely nothing wrong with him other than the temperature and discharged him.

Now, although not as frequently, he's still having these attacks and is still suffering with a fever. The hospital and my sisters GP's response is when the spasms aren't happening he's fine so they're not worried but understandibly my sister is going spare with worry. She is now in the process of paying a private hospital to run tests and find out what is wrong with him and what is making him spasm like this.

Have any other parents/carers had anything like this happen to their babies?

Sorry, beckb, it sounds awful, and I don't have a clue. I've bumped it up in the hopes someone sees it who knows what's happening.

Niecelet dislocated her own elbows when she was 2 and a half, but we think that was due to her being very loosely ligamented because of how tall she's going to be (we're all above 6' in my family). She's not had any lasting problems from it and it's not been recurring recently, so I'm sorry but I don't know of anything that could help either- sorry beckb. You must be very worried.

eek, don't know what that could be, but i'm not a doctor. the seizures could be something as mild as a food allergy, although that's unlikely. epilepsy? i hope not.

i wouldn't think the dislocating body parts are too worrying medically, as children are so immensly bendy anyway. i imagine it's the seizures and fever that the doctors will try to identify. the fever may not even be linked to the siezures, you never know.

fingers crossed that it's nothing serious...let us know what happens
*hugs for you and you nephew and his mum*

She is right to pursue it and not let it go. Its a shame she has to pay to do this. Its always worth pushing even though you feel a bit of a nuiscance. I wonder if a scan or an amubulatory EEG would be helpful (depending on the regularity of the spasms)? Though the NHS may be relucatant to do this at this stage with no other symptoms as febrile seizures are not unusual (i.e. some children have fits when their temp is up). She should get to the bottom of it eventually. Good luck :)

Cosycub has been known to get febrile seizures, which is terrifying for me, but clearly a big yawn for the doctors. I've been 'lucky' I guess in that he rolls his eyes back and goes completely limp, whereas it is apparently quite normal for children to have them as a full fit, which is scary for any parent, particularly when they hurt themselves.
If it is febrile fits, the good news is that they grow out of it, and they don't appear to be dangerous.
I think it's shocking that you aren't getting the attention you feel you need. Definitely push it if that's what you feel you need to do. Many things are picked up by a parent's intuition that there's a problem that doctors might otherwise shrug off.
As I said before, good luck. xx

thanks guys - hopefully they'll get to the bottom of it soon.

The speech and communication therapists think that my son may have SLI (language impairment). He is nearly 3, and I just wondered if anyone else has a child with it, and what affect it has had on them at nursery/ school... Thanks, Caroline

Have you been told what the early signs of this impairment is?

Yes - His non-verbal IQ/ abilities are normal, but he can't put words together. OK with single words (mostly), and has a couple of 2/3 word "phrases" but no little sentences. Doesn't seem to understand anything more than very basic requests/ conversation. Autistic spectrum disorder ruled out...

Well it looks like they've got the answer - hypermobility!

Not an ideal outcome but at least its not life threatening and can be easily managed and my sister's no longer at her wits end with worry!

Yes - His non-verbal IQ/ abilities are normal, but he can't put words together. OK with single words (mostly), and has a couple of 2/3 word "phrases" but no little sentences. Doesn't seem to understand anything more than very basic requests/ conversation.

sounds like my youngest son, hes just finishing speech therapy and awaiting appointment to see a developmentel pediatrician, still having difficulty with more than 2 words together, but has some behaviour probs too

I'm just wondering how children with such language problems get on at nursery and school? Snooze, don't know whether your son goes to nursery or not...My son starts in September. I do know that SLI is quite common - about 6% of little ones have it, and that only about a quarter or those have it severely. Sort of hoping that nursery will "bring him on" a bit. Have also heard of a specialist language nursery, think it's up City Rd or something, but don't know much more about it.

being at a nursery may help his speech, but dont feel that his sli will stop him making freinds, young kids are much more tolerant of these things. an example i took 1 of mine abroad for hols she didnt know the language but hooked up with a local girl around same age and had loadsof fun dispite not knowing each others language, thay managed to understand what the other wanted.
but my son had speech therapy to help his social skills, and temper, in the hope that if his speeach improved than the other behaviours would too, but he unlike my others isnt sociable

i've not heard off that specialist nusrery but at a guess i'd think they will poss use makaton and/or pictures/symbols like they do at speech therapy.:thumbsup:

are they any good?

We relied upon them. We had two, one which was long and thin and completely useless and one with quite a bulbous tip from Safety first or similar - James Baby Centre had this particular one anyway.
The bulbous tip one worked because it created a seal which help remove the gunk, the long thin one did nothing but worry me that it was going too far up the nose.
Our girls had vast amounts of mucous due to being delivered by c-section and not having all the gunk squeezed out by normal delivery so it was a regular occurance that our girls would get completely congested, stop breathing and panic, then we'd panic, grab the suction thingy, do the job and we'd all calm down again.
Since then it's been useful for colds and helping keep the new variation of congestion down.
If you buy the fatter one - well worth it, the think one was a waste of money for us.

I never found I needed one. But here is a new style one I read about recently...

http://www.parenthacks.com/2007/02/nosefrida_nasal.html

Sorry for sounding thick, but what are they? I've never heard of them, but am due to be a dad this time next week, and am wondering if i should get one..... whatever it is!

In brutal terms it's a snot sucker and when the baby is full of gunk you can use it to suction it out.
I know someone who did it by mouth once :gag: his daughter was struggling with a cold and having toruble breathing. I bought one based on that info!
You might find it useful but they aren't essential, still cheap enough to buy one anyway.
Just don't go do it by mouth :gag:
There's one here http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=blended&field-keywords=nasal%20aspirator&results-process=default&dispatch=search/ref=pd_sl_aw_tops-2_blended_200648256_2&results-process=default
You'd press the blue rubber bulb to expel the air, stick the pointy end in the baby's nose and then release the blue bulb, the air vacuum then draws the gunk out of the nose and the baby can breathe again.
This http://www.thebabycatalogue.com/prodinfo.asp?number=H1078 is the style we didn't like as the long bit just fits too well up the nose adn can go too far IMO.

didnt have one with first as they looked scary but think ill try one with this baby

Partly so you can pat me on the head and say 'there, there', lol; and partly so you're aware this is out there...

Cosycub is on day 4 of a virus that causes very high fevers, generally skating around the 40c mark, which is scary enough for me, thanks. 4 days of high fevers seems a lot to me, and I wasn't best impressed to hear that 5 days of high fevers is not unusual, and there is a good chance that it will take two weeks (!!) to clear completely, and that my poor baby could be down like this for a few days to come.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that being a tough little dude, he will kick this off way faster than they are saying. But saying that, he has never, ever been this ill before. It's horrible when their little bodies are shaking uncontrollably and they are too sick to scream but just whimper and wail pathetically.

We have been to hospital, we have been in contact with the medical profession every day with one freak-out moment or another. They have been pretty good, except for the endlessly conflicting advice on really rather important things like medication. Would make life easier on the panicking parent if you didn't get told off by each new doctor for something the last one told you to do/not to do. Grrr! I'm afraid I lost my rag with the last one, bless her, but hopefully she will forgive the rantings of a mummy on the edge.

Keep an eye out - I know there's nothing you can do once they have it, being a virus and all, but it may help if you know what to expect. And you know when NHS Direct says they are busy and it's emergencies only? If you are concerned enough about your child to ring them, they mean you. Don't be put off by the wording. Fevers that hit 40 and over or last more than 24 hours are a very good reason to have your child checked over by a doctor.

Ahh, poor little cosycub. I hope he is feeling better soon! Thanks for the warning cosywolf. Is it mainly a temperature thing then or are they're more nasties with it?

Hugs to cosycub and hope he's soon up and about again! X

Thanks, Footiefreak. It's mainly been temperature, but the risk of secondary infection is high...as we know as the poor mooch now has tonsillitis as well.

News today from a colleague that at least one nursery he is aware of is full of it.

Hope no-one else comes down with it, this is a BAD time to be ill. Just glad cosycub's timing was spot on, was at Hospital Saturday, watching closely on Sunday - would have been a nightmare if he'd chosen yesterday to need more medical attention than our local GP.

Temp still high this morning but have had to take him to his Grandparents so I can go to work - feel like Evil Mummy for abandoning him.

My daughter is due to have her jabs on Wednesday and can't decide on having the MMR or having the seperate jabs (anyone know the how and where i could get this done)

Any thoughts or experiences on this are welcomed, its very worrying

Samantha Andrews
x

Just go with the MMR. All mine had it and they were fine.

I have had MMR twice and I am fine.
I think the correlation some doctors have claimed exists is just coincidence, because children have the jab at around the same time as autism is usually detected in young children.
Many thousands of children have had it with no problems.

From what I’ve read on the subject Scandinavia has an exceptionally high uptake of the MMR vaccine and there is no statistical evidence of increased autism despite what Dr Andrew Wakefield may claim, sadly we had the usual media frenzy over here and the truth got lost somewhere.

You have a right to be concerned, - I’d have a word with your GP or do some independent research and come to your own conclusions.

My son's autistic, and not because of MMR, he was born his special way.

The symptoms for most children appear at around the same time as they have the vaccination, its been a good focus of blame for parents and professionals that have no answer to the resounding WHY!! I personally think Dr Wakefield has a lot to answer for!

But if you have any doubts speak to your GP or health visitor, they'll certainly know what's available, but don't risk your child not getting the protection they need.

I have just read about a study in Japan which proves the connection wrong. Yokohama stopped giving the triple vaccine in something like 1992, yet rates of autism continued to rise slowly.

I think some parents look for someone to blame when they find out their child is not "perfect" instead of accepting them for who they are.

It's great to see consensus on an issue that divided so many people such a short time ago. Not only did our child get the MMR jab, but she also got the then experimental Meningitis C vaccine. She's having the genital wart (cervical cancer) vaccine too, as soon as that's out. I'll have no under-stimulated immune systems in my house!

I had an OT friend who researched this for her degree recently and the literature seems to suggest that there could be a link, not to autism, but a form of disorder on the autistic spectrum (can't remember the name of it now) or at least, a link couldn't be ruled out.

In this case, I won't risk my son's health, however small the risk. I'll be having the jabs done separately when the time comes in a few months.

Little Purple got MMR'd too - no problems apart from the doctor's burst eardrums :rolleyes:

Go with it, both ours have had MMR, no probs, no risk to them or the herd.

I see "Dr." Wakefield is in front of the GMC in a bit of an ethics tangle. Hope he gets whats due...