babyblog

Hylands Teething Tablets

Increasingly popular here in the US are a product called Hylands Teething Tablets. A homeopathic remedy for teething pain in infants, they're available over the counter at all major supermarkets, drugstores, Target, etc.

A friend of mine was giving these to her baby a month or so ago. She gave less than the recommended dose on the label. Her son ended up with acute anticholinergic syndrome - in otherwords a similar effect to a bad acid trip. He had dilated pupiles, didn't make a sound for more than a day, didn't pass urine, was having trouble focussing, jerking and a bunch of other scary symptoms. The reason for this is that Hylands Teething Tablets contain Belladona - a neurotoxin.

Apparently this kind of product, while FDA regulated, is not regulated in the same way that actual medicine is and each tablet could contain vastly different ingredients, particularly bad if there is an emphasis on the Belladonna element!

I sincerely hope that she's going to take them to the cleaners, and that this product gets pulled from the shelves ASAP. I would also seriously caution anyone else against using this product. If your baby is teething you're way better off using well known proven painrelief for the pain than a scary homeopathic remedy which could seriously damage your child.

UK Bound

We're off to the UK for a couple of weeks for some post-Christmas cheer and to introduce Mrs to her family for the first time!

Happily exhausted from yesterday - the kids had a great day and Santa spoiled them :-) We played hard all day, ate a scrummy Christmas dinner, and generally enjoyed a lovely day together.

Will post more from the other side of the pond.

Wrapping

I hate wrapping. I've wrapped more than 50 presents in the last 24 hours. My shoulders hurt. My back hurts. I hate it.

They have done well though. My parents and sister and aunt and grandparents have all sent gifts and we've obviously bought them plenty. It's important to us that they feel loved because we're so far from home.......and I always think that because we're away they won't get anything from the family or feel part of the bigger family.....so I buy enough to compensate, but then my family always send them (of course) so they end up with more than plenty!

They're going to be so excited.

Growing Up

Dylan is really growing up far too quickly.

Two friends in his class at school are now 'boyfriend and girlfriend'. 'They like each other', he told me. What next - he comes home with a girlfriend of his own? Scary.

He's slowly discovering music which is fabulous to observe, it's like watching a flower opening .... a boy on the verge of becoming a teenager and discovering amazing things which will stay with him into adulthood. Music will be a huge part of his life for the next 10 years or more, huge.

His newest obsession is 'High School Musical'. He has the soundtrack on his iPod and listens to it over & over again. I think he fancies Ashley Tisdale. He knows every word to every song. The other day we bought him the Nintendo Wii 'Sing A Long High School Musical' game which provides a microphone and a karaoke style game where you can sing the songs. He asked me to duet with him (LOL) and I was literally doubled over with tears rolling down my face watching him perform as if he were a popster in the making... I couldn't tell him why I was laughing of course, but it was so funny.

It won't be long before he's too old to give me a hug :-(

If my flight is going to be cancelled due to Strike action.

The new David Baldacci - whatever happened to him? His first couple of books were awesome. Now not so much.

having so much to do and no time to do it.

Baby girl clothes!

Weekend Stuff

Weekends used to be so relaxing. With 3 kids, weekends are no longer relaxing!

I went out on Friday night for a 'girls night out' which was a very drunken affair culminating in cruising Safeway carpark blaring Spice Girls out of the windows and dancing to impress the teenage gangs.... oh dear!

Got home around 1.30am and then had to feed Tabby for an hour, who then also got up every 2 hours after that, so basically had NO sleep all night.

Yesterday (Saturday) we went to see a Panto. Oh no you didn't. Oh yes we did! (etc, exit pantomime horse stage left). It was a very amateur production in Seattle by what appeared to be mostly Brits, it was meant to be 'Puss in Boots' I think. It wasn't brilliant, it lacked the humour that panto's should have, although the lead female (male) 'Aunt Fanny' character was fantastic and very very funny. He could have been in a professional production.

Today Dylan had a birthday party at the skating rink (roller skating) so we all went along and I skated.... not done that in a while! Harry was very excited to try it but could not keep his legs upright and soon gave up, poor man. Dylan is rubbish but with some help from me cruised around and had a good time.

Going to see 'Atonement' tonight...... James McAvoy, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Reclaiming my space

After eleventy years of not being able to use the root of Katie.com for myself, I have decided to reclaim my space for myself. Hopefully the wretched book thing is old news now and has earned it's position in obscurity and/or legal history as the most stupid thing ever done by a publisher :)

Hurrah for having my own domain name back!

PS If this post pre-empts the site going live at the root of katie.com that's because I'm ahead of myself a bit :)

Duh

We've had a few better days / nights with Tabby. Not least because the other night, when settling down to the usual feed / scream/ twist / sleep / scream etc routine before bed, I had the oh so clever idea of BURPING her. What can I say. I only have 3 children. DUH.

I have stopped doing the Nutrisystem diet because of having a tummy bug last week and because of all the Christmas temptations that are everywhere. I have noticed a huge difference in what is coming out of her. Maybe the soy content in the NS diet wasn't agreeable for her.

I have stopped the Zantac since starting the cereal. No worse reflux. I want to give her tummy a break from meds too. Ive started probiotics regularly again.

A new method of getting her back to sleep at 4am is working well for her and for Gareth but not so much for me. If I lie her down in bed next to me, she goes back to sleep. I then perch on the edge of the bed with no covers on (incase I smother her) and with no pillows (incase it goes over her head) and lie in a semi-doze until morning. This morning I managed to turn onto my right side away from her and was woken by her biting my back..... she had obviously woken and decided it was time to eat and assumed that boobs were available as I was beside her and had a good go at getting them!

Otherwise she's being utterly delightful - very smiley and giggly all day..... napping reasonably well..... and being very cute and gorgeous indeed!

Food Issues

So as most of you reading this blog will know, Tabby has suffered reflux since she was tiny. This has basically made her very unhappy with painful acid in her esophagus all of the time. She's thrown up alot, and it's also caused alot of excess gas and painful rumblings in her tummy.

As she's grown, the crying has lessened and she's become a lovely sweet little baby, ready with her smiles, but she has still been suffering with tummy ache and throwing up.

The most apparent suffering happens during the night. She wakes up clearly in pain and struggles to go back to sleep again. She has real gas issues then too. I think that sleeping is generally difficult for her (not just for naps, but in the daytime too) because it's not something she can do easily, always being uncomfortable. It takes alot of rocking and patting and shushhhhing to get her to sleep every time and she's not learning how to be a good sleeper.

There is no putting her down 'drowsy but awake' (the ideal that the books will hold you to). She has to be zonked , completely zonked, before her bottom can hit a foreign object. If she's not zonked, she instantly wakes up! In the daytime even if she is zonked, that nap cannot be in her bed either. It must be in her swing or in our arms. She knows, somehow, even in a very drowsy state!

We still give her the Zantac twice per day but it's effect has lessened as she has grown and I'm really loathe to start her on another stronger medicine as she is approaching the age where reflux generally lessens anyway (we hope!). But recently I've really been wondering if alot of this isn't being caused by dairy in my diet.

Clearly the painful face as you see her bring up acid is what it is, as is the constant spitting up...... but If I take any large amount of dairy in my diet, it shows in her - being more uncomfortable than usual and having green poo. If I have a latte or similar, it really shows. I am so loathe to give up dairy entirely . We will have to see how things go over the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, she's been waking up every hour or two during the night and it's been killing us. I've fed her, but it's not always a need for feed, it's discomfort as much as comfort. Finally in desperation we decided to try her with some rice cereal. I had wanted to hold out starting solids until she reached 6 months which is the current guideline..... I suppose 5 months + 1 week isn't TOO far off...... but argh.

Anyway, rice cereal mixed with a little breast milk is known to help reflux babies hold down their food in their stomachs. Alot of American DR's here 'prescribe' it for bottle fed babies, they mix it in with their bottles. Not so easy for breastfed babies of course. Anyway we decided to give it a go.

What can I say, she LOVED it. She could NOT get enough. She was trying to put the entire bowl in her mouth. She was grabbing the spoon from me and shoving it in. She devoured every single mouthful and cried when it was over.

And when she went to bed she slept until 4am without waking.

She's had it the last two nights too, with similar results. She's really loving it.

I guess it was the right thing to do! I think it's obviously helping her reflux alot, and also filling her up a bit more :)

Argh...... these stages go so fast!

I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want

I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want!

I am BACK from the Spice Girls !!!!!!!!!

We had a very eventful trip, lol. Firstly, SNOW. SNOW SNOW SNOW.

When I picked up Jodie she loaded the car up with survival gear which cracked me up - sleeping bags, wind up radios, candles, jumper leads, you name it.

As we got within an hour of the border there was SNOW everywhere and the freeway became HAZARDOUS

We had to drive at 40 freaking miles per hour (good job we left with 7 hours to spare LOL)........ got to the border and the snow was getting really bad

Cars were being pulled and pushed out of the way as they couldn't even make it up to the checkpoint. I managed by determination and will power and zig zagging and sliding to get us there (that and thanks to 4 yrs of pratice in Ontario!) and we got allowed into Canada (yay ,lol) thanks to the hot border guy who thought it was funny that we were going to see the Spice Girls.

The road the other side of the border was TREACHEROUS. The other direction got closed off completely. They told us they were expecting 50cm of snow and we should turn back. LIKE HELL.

Finally got there..... parked up and had to use breast pump in carpark. ATTRACTIVE. Then a mysterious "your car is going to explode" warning light came on the dash of my car. Great. Decided to ignore it and it might go away.

Got into the stadium...... v exciting...... loads of 30 somethings dressed up as spice girls.

SG's came on. FABULOUS.

We had a great time, laughing loads, dancing, singing, generally being SAD 30 SOMETHINGS AT A SPICE GIRLS GIG. They sang all the good songs, looked amazing, great costumes too (and 3000 costume changes during the show). Posh even sang at a couple of points. Geri looked phenomenally fit. Scary was really bouncing all over. Sporty got into it. Baby looked cute.

Hideous pic of me and Jodie

Left at the end and made our way back to border in treacherous now torrential rain flooding the road and making us aquaplane our way down the freeway.

Got to the Canadian border.... v nervous as we're both in the middle of applying for Green Cards for the US and neither of us were sure if we were actually allowed to leave the country, if we had the right paperwork, etc. Husbands had instructed us to hand over loads of documents from lawyers. When we got to the checkpoint the only living pleasant US border guard in existence was on duty and waived us through without querying our status. I quickly drove into the country cos at 1am I wasn't about to argue that maybe he shouldn't let us in!!. We phoned home to say we were here and both got huge bollockings for not showing papers and apparently have now potentially ruined green card application. OOPS.

Took another 3 hrs to get home in major flooding.

FABULOUS.