scoop

I appreciate your intentions are good, and I think that yes, you have very definitely you have misread my post. Having said that, cycle helmet promotion is a very emotive topic and one that I feel very passionately about. It's a subject that many people know very little about, but feel that they have the right to harangue those of us that have made an educated decision about. It just seems to me that actually, very, very few traumatic brain injuries are sustained in the way that you suggest and that if you genuinely wanted to have some impact on reducing traumatic brain injury in children, your efforts would be better directed at reducing pedestrian/motor collisions, which are the biggest risk to our children.

Hello SamMT. Given that you work with brain injured children I'm sure you'll be well aware of the wealth of peer reviewed research available that basically says that the protection offered by cycle helmets is very limited, and that in some cases they actually increase the risk of certain types of injury? Of the children that you work with who've suffered traumatic brain injury, I suspect that most of them will have sustained their injuries either as passengers in a car or having been struck by a car as a pedestrian (I also have very many years experience in working with brain injured children and know this to be the case), which really makes me wonder if you'd be better off trying to encourage helmet use for pedestrians and car passengers? There's also lots of research that indicates that increase in cycle helmets among a population leads to an overall adverse health outcome as there is an accompanying decrease in activity levels which leads to an increase in obesity and obesity related illnesses, which in turn has an economic impact on the NHS and wider community at large. There's lots of links to information and research here: http://cyclehelmets.org/ Maybe you'd like to take a look at it. Those of us who already have and taken the informed choice that helmets are at best unnecessary and at worst put us at more risk do indeed as you stated, not like being told what to do, especially by someone who appears to have not done their research.

Woodseats would be good. There used to be a LBS oppisite The Big Tree who did a roaring trade but I believe it closed down due to personal reasons

battons if served as an accompnyament, diced in casseroles etc.

The benefits would stop if there were children involved or not. Its about household income, rather than a new partner being responsible for someone elses children. I'm in a similar position to you, but if my OH and i were to split he'd have no financial responsibility for my child.

In a rounabout way you're right - but it's more about your income being too high to caim tax credits, In law, your partner has no responsibility for your children financial or otherwise.

Your partner has no legal financial responsibility for your children - not saying that he doesn't take responsibility, but he isn't obliged to.

Thanks, I guess I'm a bit gutted really - I'm really busy at the minute and the thought of having to declutter the whole house so I can be in a position to blitz the whole place once a week is really depressing me. the bedroom is not so much of a problem, but downstairs is open plan - I can't really segregate the cat to one room. Nightmare.

Oh blummin heck. How can I put this? Whilst I'm not a trollop, housework is not my favorite pastime - so long as things are moderately clean and tidy, I'm happy. I can see my life altering into one of complete and utter domestic drudgery. Gutted.

Thanks Smudge, the problems started earlier this year after he got scratched by her. It's got progressively worse since then and he was very poorly last time he came. We were relying on the piriton, but it now seems that's not enough.

I didn't realise you could buy Piriton in bulk - even at the hospital where I work they're supplied to the ward in generic blister packs of around 16 tablets! No wonder the NHS is in the state its in! Unfortunately I don't think I can run to a new vacuum, I have a Dyson Animal already which I plan to change the filters on. If these measures don't work I'll have to look into something different.

Thanks for all the advice. From that and from advice elsewhere on the net I plan to: Thoroughly vacuum and steam clean the house. Furminate and petalcleanse the cat. Restrict the cats access to certain places. Take child to GP. He's already on salbutemol inhalers and over the counter piriton, will see if the GP has any other ideas.

One of my OH's kids has developed an allergy to our cat He comes out in a rash and becomes very wheezy. Its been getting worse over the year, and has now got to the point where he can't come in the house. Waiting for him to see the GP, but do any of you have any advice about what treatment has worked well for you?

You deserve a medal, I know i wouldn't do that. How come you do all the driving? Surely your ex should be responsible for his own contact arrangements?

Unless he adopts the children he will not become their "new father". They remain the financial responsibility of their parents.

No, you're wrong. In rhe event of a breakdown of a marriagewithout children both parties are legally entitled to 50% of the assets. If the couple have school age children a the assets will usually be devided 60/40 in favour of the party with whom the children reside. In addition, the non resident parent will pay child maintenance 15% of their net salary for the first child, plus 5% for additional children. If you know somone who had a different experience and their ex wife was favoured, tell them to sack their solicitor. The resident parent is entitled to remain in the family home until the children leave full time education, or until they marry or cohabit with someone else.

Good for you - I suspect that you'll know many more women and children who have had lives ruined by selfish men if you set your mind to it. They just dont moan about it constantly in the same way men do.

I agree, and this is more or less the arrangement me and my ex have come to. He comes first thing in the morning to watch scoop jr open his presents, then disappears until around tea time, when he picks him up to have him til boxing day.

Sounds daft, but are you quite sure he hadn't got into the car before it was removed?

I think you mean Fraser Road?

Gosh, I wish I'd seen that website when my son was a baby. I was exclusively breast feeding my son when he was 4 months old (eight years ago, weaning was recomended at 4 months). I was put under alot of pressure by my HV to commence weaning. I was still feeding at night and was already completely exhausted, I remember being up at midnight most nights pureeing organic vegetables and freezing them in ice cube trays! If I'd seen that website I'd have waited a few weeks and then chucked him a pork chop!

So have I. On many occasions. I can reliably inform you that most of what is spouted on threads such as these is tripe.

The idea that individual Social Workers can hand pick children from ordinary, loving families, snatch them and put them up for adoption in order to meet targets is ludicrous. In order to get to adoption many social care and legal professionals will have had to agree that this is in the best interests of the child. Have a look at Sheffields Safeguarding Children Procedures if you don't believe me: http://sheffieldscb.proceduresonline.com/index.htm

Ha ha ha! I'm going tomorrow to see if they invite me to be frisked! Cheeky beggars.

I witnessed the exact thing a few years ago - A small child aged about two was obviously lost and panicing, running aound in a frenzy screaming for his Mum. As I approached I watched dozens of people step aside and stare at him - he ran out into the car park, then luckily turned back to run inside - this is where I stopped him in his tracks, scooped him up and carried him off to customer services where his very grateful Mum collected him a few minutes later. I was gobsmacked how many people just stood back and let a very small distraught child run into a car park.