OcUK Dadsnet thread

[uncle_rufus]

It's funny though, for all this talk of sleeping it's just so random what your kid will and won't get on with okay... we've been really lucky (touch wood) and gotten an incredibly good sleeper with our first (through the night from ~3 or 4 months old - she just occasionally goes through little periods of being a bit more likely to fuss when going down or shortly after but nothing like keeping us up all night)...

But on the flipside she is absolutely terrible with eating - my wife has done such an incredible job preparing all sorts to give her lots of variety and options and much of it ends up in the bin, can see it's really disheartening. There's a handful of things she will pretty consistently eat but even then she goes through periods of just refusing to eat anything at all. By far the most difficult part for us, so it seems to me there's always going to be some things they do well and others not so well - easy to take the former for granted or put so much focus on the latter it drives you mad

(should have mentioned she's just over 1 year old)

 

[Vidar]

Well, we've gone and done it again. Expecting little Reggie V2. We must've forgotten the brutal first few months of the first one.

If all goes well, we'll welcome him/her early next year. I really don't know what the hell I'm thinking doing this at age 41 but it is what it is. I still have a lot of energy to dash after our little one so perhaps another one will sort me out.

With the sleep business discussed above. We've been and are incredibly fortunate. Our little one goes down at 7.30pm and sleeps through to 7am(ish) every morning. Occasionally she'll wake earlier but tends to happily lie in her cot chatting away to herself. The key for us is to time her afternoon naps so she's tired when it's bed time but not over tired and then proceed to fight sleep with every fiber in her being.

Congratulations mate, your balls worked again!

It's funny though, for all this talk of sleeping it's just so random what your kid will and won't get on with okay... we've been really lucky (touch wood) and gotten an incredibly good sleeper with our first (through the night from ~3 or 4 months old - she just occasionally goes through little periods of being a bit more likely to fuss when going down or shortly after but nothing like keeping us up all night)...

But on the flipside she is absolutely terrible with eating - my wife has done such an incredible job preparing all sorts to give her lots of variety and options and much of it ends up in the bin, can see it's really disheartening. There's a handful of things she will pretty consistently eat but even then she goes through periods of just refusing to eat anything at all. By far the most difficult part for us, so it seems to me there's always going to be some things they do well and others not so well - easy to take the former for granted or put so much focus on the latter it drives you mad

(should have mentioned she's just over 1 year old)

My youngest, nearly 4, is a grazer who prefers finger foods to a hot meal. A lot of the time we just put food out for her and she'll pick at it throughout the day. Only meal we really have a time limit on is her evening one. All that said she's a good healthy weight for her age and full of boundless energy.

 

[theone8181]

My 7 year old is still a fussy easter, will eat chicken but dislikes anything that's got herbs in, hopefully she'll grow out of it and not turn vegan or something.

 

[MoNkeE]

All this bickering about sleeping methods, c’mon guys… it’s times like this that we’re supposed to band together in the grim realisation that it’s us versus the kids

Truth be told, unless someone is actively asking you for advice, keep it to yourself. For no other reason than sometimes your advice is relevant to either your kid or your circumstances.

For the record, my youngest slept through for the first 6 months, he was a wonder child. Then he transformed in to the spawn of Satan and woke up as many as fifteen times a night! At the end of our wits, I said we had to shove him in the bedroom with his brother and tough it out. “It could be a really awful few weeks”, says I to the wife, “but we can’t go on like this any more”.

Preparing for the first nights onslaught and at least presumably a fortnite of pain, we threw him in his cot like a short fused grenade, ran out the room and ducked for cover. He feebly wept for a minute, up’d the ante for five more and then POW.

Asleep.

Every day since then, he just… went to sleep. Turns out he hated sharing a room with us more than we hated sharing it wit h him

 

[uncle_rufus]

My youngest, nearly 4, is a grazer who prefers finger foods to a hot meal. A lot of the time we just put food out for her and she'll pick at it throughout the day. Only meal we really have a time limit on is her evening one. All that said she's a good healthy weight for her age and full of boundless energy.

We've been trying both, so she typically has finger foods at all 3 (5 incl snacks) meals but then also some sort of pouch/readymeal thing at dinner and something like porridge or cereal at breakfast... Very hit and miss though, sometimes she outright refuses to let us feed her anything especially off a spoon, other times she just refuses absolutely everything and throws it all over the floor. We started to cut back on her bottles at around the 1 year mark and she's down to just one first thing and one last thing, and those are now 25-75 cows milk/formula (going to continue upping the ratio of cows milk until it's just that) - but we'd hoped that having less bottles would make her hungrier and eat a bit more at meals; so far it seems like it isn't working and her weight is stalling (or even maybe dropping a bit)... Hoping it's just teething or the stress of starting nursery or something like that and it'll pass

 

[dlockers]

We've been trying both, so she typically has finger foods at all 3 (5 incl snacks) meals but then also some sort of pouch/readymeal thing at dinner and something like porridge or cereal at breakfast... Very hit and miss though, sometimes she outright refuses to let us feed her anything especially off a spoon, other times she just refuses absolutely everything and throws it all over the floor. We started to cut back on her bottles at around the 1 year mark and she's down to just one first thing and one last thing, and those are now 25-75 cows milk/formula (going to continue upping the ratio of cows milk until it's just that) - but we'd hoped that having less bottles would make her hungrier and eat a bit more at meals; so far it seems like it isn't working and her weight is stalling (or even maybe dropping a bit)... Hoping it's just teething or the stress of starting nursery or something like that and it'll pass

Have you tried these?
https://shop.doddl.com/collections/...lAy9RjNF8GLE7nE62jSuB0KmsUXOGlTUaAudZEALw_wcB

They were game changers in making food fun again. My (13 month old at the time) 14 month old rediscovered her love for Weetabix because she could feed herself.

She also switched to 100% cows milk (whole fat) at 12 months without a blip.

Doesn't change the fact she still refuses after a few bites a lot of things

You can get pretty great ready meals now from Sainsbury's that contain 0 crap, for about a quid a pop. Doesn't make you feel too bad in that they're good, but cheap enough to throw if they aren't interested.

 

[uncle_rufus]

Ooo those look neat, thanks!

We've tried various ready meals and she sometimes eats them, sometimes refuses. My wife has made all sorts as well - these nice "muffins" that have brocolli/carrot in them (but you can't really tell), various types of meatballs, our own pasta sauce to go with that star-shaped pasta, some homemade chicken + veg purees etc. etc. and then usually those sorts of things accompanied by cut up strawberries, grapes, blueberries, pear, tomatoes, cucumber, some baby crisps/rice cakes/rusk biscuit type things, toast with all sorts of different stuff on it, yoghurt... We also got these great baby ice lolly molds with big easy to hold handles and she makes lollys out of those using baby fruit pouches...

Can tell she is getting a bit disheartened though when often the baby basically doesn't even touch a single thing to her mouth and throws it everywhere. I'm kind of hoping that now that she's starting nursery she might kind of get peer-pressured into eating a bit better by seeing the other kids eating well!

 

[dlockers]

Ooo those look neat, thanks!

We've tried various ready meals and she sometimes eats them, sometimes refuses. My wife has made all sorts as well - these nice "muffins" that have brocolli/carrot in them (but you can't really tell), various types of meatballs, our own pasta sauce to go with that star-shaped pasta, some homemade chicken + veg purees etc. etc. and then usually those sorts of things accompanied by cut up strawberries, grapes, blueberries, pear, tomatoes, cucumber, some baby crisps/rice cakes/rusk biscuit type things, toast with all sorts of different stuff on it, yoghurt... We also got these great baby ice lolly molds with big easy to hold handles and she makes lollys out of those using baby fruit pouches...

Can tell she is getting a bit disheartened though when often the baby basically doesn't even touch a single thing to her mouth and throws it everywhere. I'm kind of hoping that now that she's starting nursery she might kind of get peer-pressured into eating a bit better by seeing the other kids eating well!

My wife is the same. I do tell her to give it a rest as it just exhausts her on top of being disheartening when it isn't wanted. The thing is their tastes change so often at this age - mine went totally off anything with texture for ages - so pasta was out, but the bolognaise sauce was in. I convinced her the ready meals weren't the 'e' number filled things they used to be and she loved them and only them for about 2 weeks then went back to wanting pasta and sweetcorn, home-made stuff etc.

I find after a lolly she is a completely different beast so I am avoiding them entirely.

 

[theone8181]

My son decided he wasn't a baby anymore so refused to wear a nappy last night. Tried lifting him when I went to bed but he refused to go to the loo, he's had 2 sheet changes last night. Think we're going to stick with it and see. He is 5 next week so it needs doing sooner rather than later.

 

[Diagro]

My son has started to warn me before he hits me.

"Humph.. I'm going to hit you now!"
Wallop
"Ouch that hurt dude"
"Oh sorry daddy, I won't do it again"
Wallop
"OI!"
KID runs away.

Bloody 3 year old.

Better than being bitten I suppose... that was when he was 2 haha

 

[dl8860]

My son has started to warn me before he hits me.

"Humph.. I'm going to hit you now!"
Wallop
"Ouch that hurt dude"
"Oh sorry daddy, I won't do it again"
Wallop
"OI!"
KID runs away.

Bloody 3 year old.

Better than being bitten I suppose... that was when he was 2 haha

My 3 year old son told me he was going to kill me yesterday, in full view of wife and in-laws. Everyone sort of looked to me to see how I'd react so I asked how he was going to manage it and he didn't really have an answer. Chalked it up as a win.

 

[Lakeland]

My 3 year old son told me he was going to kill me yesterday, in full view of wife and in-laws. Everyone sort of looked to me to see how I'd react so I asked how he was going to manage it and he didn't really have an answer. Chalked it up as a win.

Great response. It’s always best to diffuse. Often boys with strong feelings and an inability to communicate them feelings is where this sort of thing comes from.

 

[theone8181]

Great response. It’s always best to diffuse. Often boys with strong feelings and an inability to communicate them feelings is where this sort of thing comes from.

Worrying if he came out with a plan.

 

[robj20]

Currently got a Silver Cross Zest but it's on its last legs, any good options for something with slightly bigger wheels.
If all else fails I'll just get another.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Currently got a Silver Cross Zest but it's on its last legs, any good options for something with slightly bigger wheels.
If all else fails I'll just get another.

Buy second hand. I don't understand why people spend £100 on cheap crap option when the £1000 option can be found second hand in as new condition for £150. Which you can subsequently sell on for £100.

There are expensive second hand shops like selling them for half price but I know 2 in Glasgow that sell stuff for peanuts. Picked up a Ralph Lauren shirt the other day for £3.50. It's not as if anyone can tell it's second hand and likely will have been worn a handful of times. Yet I see kids at their 1st Birthday parties wearing Burberry shirts (£150 I had to google the price when I saw it) and then a Gucci shirt the following week.

The only things you really should get new are car seats unless you can trust the sellers word in exchange for your kids life, mattresses and stuff that is going to be storing or used for milk/food.

The pram we got was over £1K and has a whole host of accessories like snow wheels, some crazy covers, attachments and even a storage case that looks like something you would put a snowboard in. All pretty expensive high end stuff. We paid £150 for it from a local charity shop that specialises in baby and toddler stuff only. It had been used for 6 months only as previous owner was leaving the country and couldn't take it with them. Wheels alone for this thing are £75. Only issue we had was a puncture which a £5 repair kit fixed. We did have the option of going tubeless but wife decided against it, wish she had now as I believe it's better. A local pram repair specialist offers it for buttons.

 

[robj20]

Buy second hand. I don't understand why people spend £100 on cheap crap option when the £1000 option can be found second hand in as new condition for £150. Which you can subsequently sell on for £100.

There are expensive second hand shops like selling them for half price but I know 2 in Glasgow that sell stuff for peanuts. Picked up a Ralph Lauren shirt the other day for £3.50. It's not as if anyone can tell it's second hand and likely will have been worn a handful of times. Yet I see kids at their 1st Birthday parties wearing Burberry shirts (£150 I had to google the price when I saw it) and then a Gucci shirt the following week.

The only things you really should get new are car seats unless you can trust the sellers word in exchange for your kids life, mattresses and stuff that is going to be storing or used for milk/food.

The pram we got was over £1K and has a whole host of accessories like snow wheels, some crazy covers, attachments and even a storage case that looks like something you would put a snowboard in. All pretty expensive high end stuff. We paid £150 for it from a local charity shop that specialises in baby and toddler stuff only. It had been used for 6 months only as previous owner was leaving the country and couldn't take it with them. Wheels alone for this thing are £75. Only issue we had was a puncture which a £5 repair kit fixed. We did have the option of going tubeless but wife decided against it, wish she had now as I believe it's better. A local pram repair specialist offers it for buttons.

I'm really confused, was that really a reply to my question. Lol

 

[Psycho Sonny]

I'm really confused, was that really a reply to my question. Lol

Yeah you are looking at buying a new pram that is £130. It will likely just fall apart again like your current one. Buy a decent one second hand which will lose zero money when you sell it back on.

 

[Tefal]

My 3 year old son told me he was going to kill me yesterday, in full view of wife and in-laws. Everyone sort of looked to me to see how I'd react so I asked how he was going to manage it and he didn't really have an answer. Chalked it up as a win.

Wait till you wake up with him standing over you watching you sleep

 

[Tefal]

Buy second hand. I don't understand why people spend £100 on cheap crap option when the £1000 option can be found second hand in as new condition for £150. Which you can subsequently sell on for £100.

There are expensive second hand shops like selling them for half price but I know 2 in Glasgow that sell stuff for peanuts. Picked up a Ralph Lauren shirt the other day for £3.50. It's not as if anyone can tell it's second hand and likely will have been worn a handful of times. Yet I see kids at their 1st Birthday parties wearing Burberry shirts (£150 I had to google the price when I saw it) and then a Gucci shirt the following week.

The only things you really should get new are car seats unless you can trust the sellers word in exchange for your kids life, mattresses and stuff that is going to be storing or used for milk/food.

The pram we got was over £1K and has a whole host of accessories like snow wheels, some crazy covers, attachments and even a storage case that looks like something you would put a snowboard in. All pretty expensive high end stuff. We paid £150 for it from a local charity shop that specialises in baby and toddler stuff only. It had been used for 6 months only as previous owner was leaving the country and couldn't take it with them. Wheels alone for this thing are £75. Only issue we had was a puncture which a £5 repair kit fixed. We did have the option of going tubeless but wife decided against it, wish she had now as I believe it's better. A local pram repair specialist offers it for buttons.

Wait tubeless like solid rubber or tubeless like. A beaded pneumatic tyre!?

 

[alchal]

Can't beat second hand baby stuff, we saved a fortune on clothes, people pay how much for designer clothes and you can often find stuff with the tags still on for a few quid.