Janet R

About 5 months ago we moved country and the change in diet caused my son to be constipated and since it was sore to poo, ever since then he keeps holding it in. We talked to the doctor who suggested more liquid, less milk, more fibre etc and we have done that and it has made his poo much less dry so he is no longer constipated as such. However, he seems to have such an averson to pooing that every time he feels a poo coming, he tries to stop it which means we are getting a lot of soiling as some poo leaks out (sorry, TMI!). Our pharmacist gave us a mild stimulant laxative to use when the soiling starts (a couple of days after the last poo) and this worked to start with as it is given overnight and in the morning he is generally too tired to fight it, but now that is not really working either and it is now almost 5 days since he did a poo even though we have given him the medicine for the last 2 nights.

We have a special reward chart for if he poos in the toilet, and even if he poos in his pull-ups he still gets a sticker for his normal reward chart for letting the poo out. Every time he has some soiling (ie he as stopped the poo from coming out) he gets 10 minutes on the toilet to see if the rest of it comes out, and he doesn't get trips to the park, library, zoo etc while he is regularly soiling either so we are trying everything we can think of to get him to poo and have tried to explain why its so important.

Please does anyone have any suggestions as we are getting really quite worried and would like him to learn how to do a poo without medical assistance?

Can anyone help me out? I am sure I saw a film where this guy was teaching his son/grandson how to skim stones when a car that is being chased jumps off the pier, bounces off the water and out of the water on the other side, just like skimming a stone. My husband thinks I am mad, so can anyone tell me what film I am thinking of so I can prove I am not losing the plot? Thanks.

My husband has just got a job at Boston University (which as far as I know is quite central and on the south side of the river from Cambridge). We have a 2.5 year old son and will be looking to rent a property somewhere. We will only have one salary so I don't expect we will be able to afford to stay in Boston itself, and will only have one car, so we would be looking for somewhere that is is easy to commute by train into Boston, is a good area to live with a small child and not too expensive (I don't really know what rental prices are like but our absolute maximum rent would be $1,500 a month).

Can anyone recommend some areas we could look at?

I have a solid beech dining table. It isn't polished, we just use teak oil on it (not as often as we should) and a friend spilt a glass of red wine on it a couple of days ago. We tried to mop it up, but its left a stain where some of it soaked into the wood.

Any suggestions for how we can get rid of the stain?

We already have a little boy called Iain Andrew (Andrew is my Dad's name).

We are expecting number two, and if its a girl we will use Eleanor May (May being my husband's granny).

If its a boy though we don't have a name yet. We could only agree on one boys name last time round, and since we used that, we are stuck!

As a first name, we want something that goes with Iain (probably something Scottish) and for a middle name it would be nice to use something from my husband's family. The names that run in his family are Charles, David and Grant.

Any suggestions?

When we had our son, we didn't know if it would be a boy or girl, so we had both names picked out. If we have another child and its a girl, would it be weird to use the girl's name we chose first time round? We did tell some people what names we had chosen, so they might notice, but I just can't decide whether its okay to reuse the name or try to find a new one?

My son just had his 2nd birthday and we have been TTC #2 for 11 months now. I went through a phase of being really broody and was probably too stressed to conceive, but more recently I have been trying not to get to worked up about it and remind myself of all the benefits of only having one child (not having to pay 2 lots of nursery fees, not having to go through pregnancy and labour and sleepless nights again and so on).

Some months that seems to work and I can honestly say I am not gutted when I get my period, but other months I just can't help bursting into tears. Its been worse recently as everyone seems to be pregnant or having babies except me. My husband gets upset too, and I wonder if maybe we should give up and stop putting ourselves through this heartbreak each month.

Is anyone else thinking about giving up or if not, how do you keep trying while not letting it totally preoccupy you?

My son is about to turn 2. He's not showing signs of being ready to potty train yet, but I am trying to work out how to do it.

Do we teach our son to pee sitting down or standing up? I don't even know if boys can pee sitting down?

Also, does a potty or a trainer toliet seat tend to work better - I don't want to have to cart a potty round with us like one of my friends did, but my son has really short legs so even with a step, I don't think he is tall enough to stand and use a toliet?

Any advice or tips would be great!

My 22m old son has a number of stuffed toys and we have been trying not to let him get attached to one in particular, but he has always had a favourite. Until about a week ago, he would pick Doggy up if he saw him, but then when he was doing things he would put Doggy down and forget about him.

However, now he carries Doggy all around the house with him and doesn't want to let go of him, even during meal times. If he does put Doggy down to do something, as soon as he notices he doesn't have Doggy he goes to find him and starts crying if he can't find him.

This morning while he had breakfast I tried to give him a different teddy so I could give Doggy a wash (since he gets really dirty from being cuddled aat meal times) - he ended up trying to hold two teddies and use his spoon at the same time! In the end, I just grabeed Doggy to put in the wash, and my son started howling and wouldn't finish his breakfast.

Whe he left with my husband to go to nursery we tried to get him to leave the replacement teddy in the house, but he just started crying again and clinging onto the teddy for dear life, so we let him take it with him.

I don't really want him taking any teddies out of the house in case he loses them, particularly Doggy since that toy is no longer in production. Any advice on how I can get him to go out without his teddies short of physically pulling them out of his hand as I feel so mean when I do this? He just looked so upset this morning when I took Doggy away that I feel like the worst mum in the world.

Up until 10 days ago my 21m old son used to get himself to sleep. He had a good routine and we put him in his cot, put his nightlight and music on and left him to it. Some nights he fell straight asleep and other nights chattered to himself for about an hour and then dropped off. About 10 days ago he suddenly started crying whenever we leave the room and wont go to sleep without us in the room. Normally when he goes through this sort of phase we do controlled crying and go in after 5, then 7, then 9 minutes etc and this normally works really well. Now though, he will stand in his cot crying for at least 3 hours until we give in and stay with him until he sleeps, but this can be at least 2 hours.

He is not ill or teething, just very clingy and we need to get him back into routine as we are exhausted and I can feel my temper starting to go. We really cannot go on spending our entire evenings sitting in his room. What can we do? Any advice?

I know its a long question, but please read!

I desparately need some advice. My son is 20 months, and for about the last week he has turned into a total nightmare first thing in the morning and at bedtime.

In the morning, he doesn't get a bottle, we just change his nappy and then take him downstairs and give him a cup of milk and bowl of cereal.

This morning, I was getting his cereal when my husband brought him downstairs. He is impatient so I often give him a spoonful of cereal to be getting on with while we put him in his highchair as it stops tantrums, this time though he took the spoon, reached for the bowl which I let him hold, but my husband reached out a hand to steady the bowl and this started him howling, and he just would not stop screaming for the next half hour. We tried everything to get him to calm down and eat or even drink and he was obviously hungry because his eyes lit up when he first saw the bowl, but he didn't stop screaming, and I am surprised he wasn't sick. He kept screaming through us getting him dressed, singing to him, making noise on his toys, ignoring him and so on, and didn't stop until he had been in the car for 5 minutes on the way to nursery.

At night, he gets a good sized snack before he goes to bed and then a cup of milk just before we put him down for the night. Last night, he finished his snack and was obviously hungry so I got his something else to eat. He took one bite of it (apple and date fruit bar, one of his favourites) and then started howling. We tried offering him sonething else but he kept batting it away and again screamed solidly as we got him ready for bed, wouldn't touch his milk as he was too busy tantruming and we couldn't calm him at all. He didn't go to sleep well and then at about 11 he woke up and was really glazed but hungry, and once we gave him a cup of milk he drank it and then dropped straight off.

He's not teething, he's not ill, he just seems to be over-tired of late but its getting worse each day and I am at my wits end. I know it is a phase, it will pass but if anyone has any advice or suggestions in the meantime, I would really appreciate it both my husband and I are ready to lose the plot and throw him out of the nearest window (we wouldn't do it, but that doesn't stop us being tempted!)

My husband and I are TTC #2 - we have been trying for 6 months and have had no luck - since we already have a child we are (or were!) both fertile. This month I used ovulation tests and got a hormone surge on day 17 of what should be 31 day cycle.

Am I right in thinking that I probably ovulated on day 18?

Also, AF arrived today being day 30 (1 day earler than expected), so thats only 12 DPO. That sounds quite short to me as I thought it was meant to be 14 days between ovulation and period, so is that too short a time to get pregnant in? After all there must be a minimum lenght of time the body needs to realise you're pregnant and stop your period happening?

Has anyone else managed to get pregnant when ovulating later on in their cycle?

What do you think of Iain for a Scottish boy's name? Any other suggestions?

I am totally confused - I came off the pill 3 months ago and am TTC. My first cycle was 26 days, then 25 days and now its been 32 days and still no period. We had sex on day 12 of my cycle which would have been about right if my cycle was 25/26 days (we were planning on being more active that month but didn't get the chance!). When I was TTC the first time and came off the pill, my periods were a totally regular 28 days and gradually increased to 30 days by the time I got pregnant with my son, so I thought when I didn't get my period at 25/26 days that maybe my cycle had gone back to its previous 28-30 day length. I tested on day 30 and got a negative, and 2 days later still don't have my period. Has anyone else had this kind of experience and if so, what happened?

My son is 16 months and his cradle cap never really cleared up despite me trying dentinox shampoo and things like vaseline. He has a really full head of hair so even though I use a soft baby brush on his head, it doesn't really get to his scalp and I don't want to pick at it or use a adult comb if thats going to irritate his skin. Any suggestions for getting rid of really stubborn cradle cap when the kid has lots of hair?

My son is 14 months and we have been using pampers babydry at night - until now, no problems, but these have started leaking as he has started sleeping on his front and pulling his knees up so his bum is in the air and I guess since he pees quite a lot at night its leaking out at the top. We tried a larger size which should be more absorbent but no luck. I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem and can offer a solution? I was also wondering if reusable nappies might somehow be better, and if so which ones? These are not an option for us to use 24/7 as we don't have a tumbledrier or access to outside washing line, but we could probably manage with ones at nighttime only.

My son uses a pacifier at night and at nap time and won't sleep without one - we don't mind this, but he still uses the 0-6 month dummies he did when he was a newborn. We tried getting 6-18 month ones which are, I think, a bit bigger, but he won't use them - he just screams and screams and so we give him the small ones back. He is very small (about the size of average 8-9 month old). Is it safe for him to continue using small dummies or are we going to have to sweat it out until he gets used to the bigger ones?

My 1 yr old just got his first shoes. I am pretty sure the guy in the shoe shop measured his right foot to get his shoe size. I can get the right shoe on with no problems, but I really struggle with the left shoe, no matter which way I am holding son/which way he is facing. I am guessing his left foot is bigger.

I am left handed and have a larger left foot, while hubby has larger right foot and is right handed. Son seems to be left handed from watching him play and eat, so should I get shoe shop to measure his left foot instead next time particularly as this seems bigger?

My son is 10 1/2 months and can sit unaided (including getting into sitting position) and pull himself up and walk as long as he has someones hand/furniture. However he is only ~17 1/2 lbs. He absolutely hates being in rear facing car seat and either arches his back to stop you putting him in it or sits himself up so you can't do harness up. I would love to move him to a forward facing car seat but these say from 20lbs. Is this purely to do with weight, as I am sure his neck and torso are strong enough since he is quite physically advanced, just slghtliy built, or does the weight make a big difference?