The scourge of the centiles

Before I get into this post, I have to warn you that this is a personal rant: I’m not a medical professional!

When my son was born in 2002, he was on the 50th centile, but during the first few weeks, he ate … and ate, and ate … and ended up on the 91st centile by the time he was 8 weeks old.

He fed well, and was a happy baby, but started to move around early and was walking by the time he was 10 months old. His endless movement and eagerness to explore and experience the world meant that he started to drop down through the centiles. A certain health visitor (not our current health visitor, I must stress) got very concerned at the fact that he had started to drop through the centiles, and I was pressured to top-up with formula, and eventually to start early weaning. He had his first solid foods at 16 weeks old (well, I say solids, it was baby rice and milk, followed by pureed pear etc), but continued to drop down through the centiles, until he reached the 25th. This same health visitor started to get incredibly agitated and insisted on referring me to the GP, who, being a sensible woman, realised that she was worrying over nothing, and, in fact, suggested I stop getting him weighed as it was obviously causing severe and unnecessary stress and anxiety in me.

I was a first-time, permanently worried parent: my son was the first baby I had ever held, my mum lived 2 hours drive away, none of my friends had had children, and I thought that the health visitor must know what she was talking about, as she was the health care professional after all!

Hindsight is a wonderful thing: my son is now 9, and still on the 25th centile in terms of weight and height … but then I’m only 5’2″, and my husband’s only 5’10″ – we’re hardly going to have giant babies!

My experience is not a rare one: this article in the Guardian tells much the same story, but, unlike me, the writer had support from an outside organisation.

So why am I writing (ranting) about this today? Well, so-called poor growth is one of the things that we see most often in the group. Today we had a mum come in who saw a health visitor who is not her normal one, and who told her to wake her baby up at night (he’s 10 weeks old) to feed him as he had dropped from the 98th centile at birth to just below the 91st centile at 10 weeks. She was obviously concerned, and so you would be, as a new parent, so I reassured her, and suggested that she look at it over a longer period than the knee-jerk response suggested by the health visitor she saw. I’ve since come across this chart to show how much weight a baby should be gaining, and he is gaining enough, so she doesn’t need to worry! Here’s a link to the pdf of the “Is my baby getting enough milk?” guide that covers birth to 1 year.

What I would like is for (some, not all!) health visitors to employ a different response to the knee-jerk response, and to consider the following about the dratted centile charts:

• The centile charts are a set of statistical data: thankfully, in the UK, they’re fairly up-to-date, and give growth patterns of breast-fed babies, but they’re a guideline, not a test: not every baby follows exactly the same growth path!
• All scales are calibrated slightly differently: if a baby is weighed on 2 different sets of scales, then an average over the 2 weigh-ins should be taken. One weigh-in on a different scale to the one they are weighed on normally shouldn’t really be the basis for scaring a parent half to death!

Then, and only then, if there is a perceived problem with the baby’s growth, before the knee-jerk response: “Top up with formula”, at least look at the baby and ask the following questions:

• How big are the parents? Did they display the same patterns as babies? What about the baby’s siblings (if there are any)?
• Is the baby gaining, even if they’re not exactly following the curve?
• Is the baby hitting the developmental targets?
• Is the baby happy, alert, active?

This page on kellymom debunks some commonly held misconceptions about milk supply, and makes reassuring reading.

Even then, the ideal should not be to automatically assume that the mother should top-up with formula. The advice from kellymom on this page is common sense, and doesn’t involved the slightest bit of formula! One of the dangers of automatically topping up with formula is that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: by topping up with formula, the mum’s milk supply drops, which leads to continuing poor weight gain, which leads to further top-ups with formula, which leads to a further drop in milk supply …

Rant over! I apologise for the fact that the illustrations do not match the ranty nature of the blog post today: I considered putting centile chart pictures in, but decided that they made me too cross to look at!

 

Baby Signing

It was lovely to meet Alicia today. She came to talk to us about the classes that she runs teaching baby signing, and we had a taster session too! She runs TinyTalk baby signing classes in Penarth, in Sully, and will soon be starting up classes in Rhoose.

The idea behind teaching babies to sign is not new, and makes great sense: by teaching babies to sign, it allows them to tell you what they want at a much earlier age. Starting with signs like “milk”, “more” and “tired” helps to take the guess work out of communicating with your baby.

Alicia’s classes are on a Monday, in the same room at Albert Road Methodist Church as we meet on a Wednesday from 10.30 to 11.30. During the classes, which run on a 12-week rotation, you (and your baby) will learn 150 core signs, through songs, games and books. We had a lovely time learning the signs for milk, singing lots of nursery rhymes (often adapted to allow use of the common signs) and playing with the maracas!

 

Oversupply and / forceful let-down reflex

One of our new mums came in yesterday with the problem that her baby kept coming off the breast and that her milk was squirting out across the room. We could reassure her that it was a completely normal part of breastfeeding, and here are some links (and a story) to help.

The story first: when I was breastfeeding my son, the let-down reflex from my right breast was insanely fast: he would pull off, and milk would go shooting out all over the place: I got advice from a lactation consultant (the redoubtable Joan Buckley no less), who reassured me that all was fine and that it would eventually pass when my son got bigger / and or my milk supply evened out some. We used to call my right breast “superboob”!

In the meantime, I used the football hold, and lay back almost supine when feeding from for my right breast when I was in the house, and tried to sit him more upright when I was out, so he didn’t get the feeling of being quite so overwhelmed.

One day, when we were out, my son needed feeding, so I sat down in St. David’s centre (you know, on the benches by Debenhams), and started to feed the boy – I didn’t know about feeding rooms, or even think of going into a café to feed, but hey-ho! – my forceful let-down reflex took over – superboob at work, and Rhydian pulled off the breast. Superboob squirted across the concourse, and went all over a man’s coat … I kept quiet – and found a quieter place to feed him the next time!

Anyway, what about some more help: well, kellymom (twee name, great site) has some superb advice on how to deal with a forceful let-down reflex - well worth a look. La leche league has some reassuring advice about the same subject: overactive let down - also well worth a look. They also have an interesting article on finishing the first breast first before offering the second – this may also help with an overactive let-down reflex.

 

More about baby-wearing

I had to leave early last week, so didn’t realise that Julia, who spoke to us last week had left her contact details for us. Her website is Carry Me Close, and from there, you can contact her, and learn about the consultation and teaching sessions she does to help you to learn to tie a wrap sling or other baby carrier. She also does small group workshops for us to 4 people, so this may be an option for some.

Sian and Annest brought a couple of their slings in today as well, for people to try: Sian brought in a Mei Tai carrier, and quite a few people had a go at putting their babies on their fronts – and their backs: Sian showed what we described as the “Conservative” way of getting a baby on your back – here follows a video of how to do this (she makes it look so easy!)

I can’t do the “conservative” way of getting a baby on my back – hence my new nickname of the “baby flinger” – thanks all! Here’s a video of how to fling you baby on your back: (they call it a santa toss, which I think is much nicer!):

Here’s a video showing both those methods, and a third – the “superman toss!” – the sound’s not great on this, but it’s a good video all the same.

Annest brought in a pouch / ring sling, and Sian also had her ring sling: both these types of slings can be used from birth, but you have to be very careful with positioning with small babies, as if they are not correctly positioned, there can be a small risk of suffocation.

Ring slings can be really useful to allow you to breastfeed while your baby is on the sling: here’s a video showing a basic tummy to tummy carrying position and the transition to breastfeeding.

That’s it from me on slings … will be back later to blog on actual breastfeeding issues from today (gasp!)

This is your local baby flinger, signing off!

 

All about baby-wearing

Better late than never! Thank you to Julia who came to talk to us in the group last Wednesday about slings and baby-wearing in general: I learned a lot myself, and have done a bit more research about sling wearing as a result.

Julia told us about the course she attended in Germany, where baby-wearing is a lot more mainstream than is currently the case in the UK: Julia’s training included training on the best position for a baby’s legs during the early days to ensure optimum development of the hips: the thing that most surprised me is how unsuitable the Baby Bjorn is for many babies, but having thought about it more, it makes sense. The Baby Bjorn (and other similar types), Julia told us, are not really very suitable for young babies as it doesn’t spread the baby’s hips wide enough, and the baby is sitting in the sling in such a way to put a lot of pressure on a boy’s testicles or a girl’s symphysis pubis region (and having suffered with symphysis pubis pain during pregnancy, I can vouch for the fact that it’s very uncomfortable). The position that many people like to adopt when the baby is slightly older with the Baby Bjorn and others of this type is also not great for either mother or baby: mother because the shift in weight distribution can be difficult on the mother’s back, and the baby as they are putting yet more pressure on the pubic area.

A quote from a physio says of the Baby Bjorn:

Coming from a physical therapists point of view, I shudder every time I see one. They put so much load on a developing spine and pelvis because there is about 2 inches of support from the fabric between the legs.

Wearing your baby in a sling though is really good for their development: they are held close to you, which all small babies love and want, and it means that you can be more aware of their cues and needs. You can get away without using a buggy or pram, and, because you baby is facing you, or close to you, you are more likely to talk to them and interact with them in other ways.

The type of slings that Julia showed us were mostly of the wrap type. These are basically a long strip of cloth which can be tied in many different ways and are suitable from birth until toddler-hood. Julia caused gasps of admiration (and fear!) when she happily showed us twice how the put your baby on your back! One thing that she did say is that it’s important when tying slings and putting very young babies on your back, to be taught propoerly: this she is also happy to do if people want her to.

She also talked about ring lings: these again are suitable from birth, but you do have to be careful, as there have been cases where babies have been suffocated when using this type of sling. Again, the advice is that you are taught to use your sling by somebody who has been trained.

As for my own experience, I tried (and failed miserably) to use a ring sling with my eldest: with my youngest, I successfully used both a wrap sling and a mei tai carrier: I successfully avoided having to take a buggy on holiday because I had my mei tai sling with me! The photo here is of me, my son and my daughter in Dan-yr-Ogof caves: no buggy meant that we could all easily enjoy the visit! I’m a real sling convert: the buggy was useful for carrying the shopping when I was out, but for general day-to-day going around, my sling was much more useful! On a practical level, it also meant that I didn’t need to buy my daughter a coat: she didn’t need one as she was close to me (and sometimes even under my coat!), and my body warmth helped to keep her warm when we were out and about.

The best site by far that I found on my travels around the web was the Baby wearer. This not only has great articles giving you lots of information on how to use your sling safely, but also gives access to forums and  other resources.

One of my favourite pages on this site, as well as all the articles on why to wear your baby, a whole page on the scientific research that has been carried out into baby wearing,  correct positioning, and choosing the ideal sling, was the page giving links to sites showing you how to make your own carrier. As Julia said herself: these slings can be expensive, and there’s nothing like trying one one to see if you get on with it.

A really informative meeting, thank you so much to Julia for giving up her time to come and talk to us!

 

Today’s discussion: baby-led weaning

A great meeting today, and a lively discussion on baby-led weaning - a really cheesy way of saying that you cut food up into manageable-sized chunks and then let your child experience it for themselves. It’s also not new – whilst doing the research for today’s blog post, I came across this article - on something a bit like BLW (but ethically a bit sus) from 1939!

The name “Baby-led weaning” came about from a paper by Gill Rapley. She did some research on feeding methods after finding that, with the arrival of her third child, she had neither the time nor the inclination to do the usual purée / mush stage of weaning. She did some research on the subject and wrote her Master’s dissertation on whether babies would “move onto solid foods spontaneously if given the choice” (quote from Gill Ripley’s website). they did, and soon after, the WHO changed the recommended weaning age to 6 months – meaning that the time for baby-led weaning had arrived.

Baby-led weaning means giving your baby the chance to explore solid food once they are developmentally ready. This means that they can sit up, and hold their heads up securely, and that they can chew and swallow. Many babies are also developing their pincer grip when they are ready to start eating. Here are Gill Ripley’s original guidelines on the why and how of introducing solid foods to your baby. You give the child the food – ideally in strips to start with so that the child can pick it up, then you let them get on with it! Here’s the the how-to leaflet from Gill’s website.

A short excerpt from the DVD: I love the baby putting pasta on his fork handle!

Those of us in the group who have done baby-led weaning also gave our own experiences: I puréed everything in sight for my son, and even sterilised the saucepans! All it got me was a child who ate nothing but yoghurt and peas for a long time, and only started eating a wider-range of foods when I chilled out and let him get on with it. One thing I found really helpful though was that I made sure that my son always sat with us and we all ate together. With my daughter, the baby-led weaning happened because I was a lot more laid-back and chilled out about the whole eating thing: the guidelines for introducing solids had been changed to 6 months and my daughter had been exclusively breast-fed. My daughter’s first solid food was a strip of red pepper that she stole off my plate one day when I was eating a salad. She grabbed it, gave it a good suck, and my decision was made from there. As she was six months old already, there was really no need to give the purées – she was already past that stage! I did help her out with yoghurt and porridge though – she got really frustrated if she couldn’t get the spoon to her mouth!

My experience of baby-led weaning was quite a common one: one of the other peer supporters had done the same sort of thing, and had helped her child with the spoon – it also seems to be quite common to give the child a spoon to hold whilst keeping one for yourself.

What if they choke?

The question of choking came up – as it will. Children will choke occasionally, but they’re far more likely to be gagging – which is a reflex action. Gagging is a natural reflex that happens when the food moves too far back into the mouth. The gag reflex is actually your child dealing with the problem by using their tongue to move it to the front of the mouth. There is some research to suggest that  choking actuallyhappens more often with spoon-fed babies than babies who feed themselves, as the ability to push food to the back of your mouth and swallow it comes after the ability to chew and the ability to chew comes after the ability to pick food up and put it in your mouth. (ed to add that I’ve amended this following the comment from the BLW guru herself, and that there is more information on this point in the comments below)

I freely admit that you have to be on your guard to cope if your child chokes – and an infant resuscitation course may be an idea for all new parents (St. John ambulance and Red Cross both organise them), but this article puts it quite neatly when it reminds you that you have to make sure that you cut stuff up – like grapes, blueberries, and other foods that are wind-pipe sized.

What about the mess?

Your child’s first experiences with food are going to be messy – whether you use baby-led weaning methods or traditional methods. BLW is messy to start with – with food smeared over the table, and much of it on the floor, but reassure yourself with the fact that you are much more likely this way to be getting the messy bit over early!

Some ideas that you may find useful for dealing with the mess brought up by the group were:

• Don’t give your child too much food to start with. Look at the excerpt from the DVD higher up – the baby eating pasta hasn’t been given much of it – and has obviously been going with BLW for quite a while.
• don’t give your child a plate: it makes a great frisbee.
• a suckered placemat – like the tiny diner can be useful – it has a little pouch section to catch some dropped food – my daughter used to take great delight in seeing what she could find in there!
• Cover the floor around your child’s chair: you can buy special floor coverings, but PVC coated tablecloths are just as useful – as are shower curtains!

What about the nay-sayers?

When our mothers (and our mothers-in-law!) had us and our partners, the advice was to start to give solids very early. Since then, medical advice has moved on because research has shown that a child’s digestive system is not ready to digest solid foods (or anything other than their breastmilk) until the child is about six months old. Our mothers (and mothers-in-law) had to give puréed food as we as babies weren’t old enough to be able to feed ourselves.

By waiting until our babies are six months old, and by allowing them to start by self-feeding, we are doing the sensible thing, as we can miss out the purée stage altogether.

The leaflet from the baby-led weaning website is a good place to start. we also have 2 copies of the book, and the DVD package available in the group for your to borrow. Have a look yourself, and lend it to your mother-in-law!

What about allergies?

There are currently 2 schools of thought on introducing allergens into a child’s diet: unfortunately, they are also completely contradictory. The first school of thought says that you should avoid introducing any form of allergen into your child’s diet for as long as possible, especially if you have a family history of allergies. The second, and the side of it that seems to be gaining ground, especially with the EAT study going on in London, is looking at whether introducing small amounts of allergens into a child’s diet early may in fact lead children to have less allergies.

Time alone will tell …

Remember, baby-led weaning fits in beautifully with breastfeeding because breast-fed babies already feed themselves – from the breast: they are already deciding how much milk they have!

 

Communicating with your baby

Wow! What a meeting! Sacha, a speech and language therapist, came in to talk to us all about communicating with babies and children. I did make notes, so will try to summarise here – and I’ll add the links as well!

Apologies if this seems at all stilted: this is the second time I’ve written the rest of today’s blog entry, as my computer melted down and I discovered that autosave hadn’t been working (AAAAGGGGHHHH is a minute approximation of what I said – I’d more or less finished, and today’s blog is a mammouth post!)

Baby Communication & Language Development

The first five years of a child’s life are the most important in terms of their language development. Cases of feral children such as Oxana Malaya who were raised by dogs and learned dog forms of communication rather than human show that if we don’t talk to and interact with our babies, then they don’t learn to speak. A documentary called “Wild Child: Feral Children” from a few years ago makes fascinating watching.

The following video is thefirst part of this programme:

Babies are born with an innate ability to communicate, and learn very quickly that their actions bring food, comfort and the voices that they have heard inside the womb. There has been a lot of research showing that even the tiniest babies are already commuicating: reacting positively to smiling faces and negatively to frowning faces. Our babies’ communication then develops apace: a baby will try out a variety of different sounds and babbling, and from 12 weeks, you will see a start of turn-taking behaviour. This leads, eventually to first words at any point between 10 & 14 months of age.

The links here and here are a guide to your baby’s language development milestones and this link is a useful guide to start you off talking to your baby.

Dummies and Thumbs – Friend or foe?

Dummies have had a very bad press over the years, and as far as breastfeeding is concerned, the recommendations are that babies do not use dummies until breastfeeding is well established: from 4 weeks at the earliest. This is such an important recommendation that UNICEF have issued guidelines on it! This link is an article on the risks that using a dummy can reduce the duration of your breast-feeding relationship.

As far as language development goes, night-time dummy use is fine within reason: over use of a dummy can lead to a deformed hard palate and misshapen teeth. However, the child would need to be using the dummy throughout the day and night over a prolonged period of time for this happen. An startling fact that I learned today is that children who use a dummy during the day are 1/3 more likely to suffer with ear infections.

The National literacy trust has some useful information on sensible dummy use. There’s also evidence that the best type of dummy to use, if you choose to use them, is the orthodontic type, and it’s flat, so doesn’t have the same influence on the palate.

As far as thumb-sucking, which begins before a baby is even born, is concerned, it tends to be a better option as far as the palate is concerned, as it doesn’t stay in the mouth all day. Prolonged thumb sucking can, however, have an effect on the child’s teeth, if they are still sucking their thumb for long periods once they get their second teeth.

Weaning

Until your baby is 6 months old, their gut is still too immature to digest solid food properly, and their motor skills aren’t properly developed to allow them to chew without choking. This is why guidelines state that weaning should be put off until your baby is at least 6 months old.

As far as weaning and speech are concerned, it’s important to remember that the muscles and skills that your baby uses to eat are the same that are used for speech. It’s therefore important to make sure that you introduce a variety of textures and foods as soon as you can to make sure that they are developing skills. Many children who have speech and language difficulties do not eat lumpy or other textured food, and so haven’t developed the awareness of how to use the chewing muscles.

Most of the peer-supporters (including me!) are real fans of the baby-led weaning approach, where babies who are over six months old skip the purée food stage of weaning completely and self feed from the beginning. Here’s a picture of Mairwen (the one with bunches at the group this morning!) enjoying her food when we were enjoying first experiences with food:

Another thing to be aware of is the minefield that is choosing a cup for your baby: the non-spill cups are great because they don’t spill: but you just try sucking some liquid out of them yourself, and they’re almost impossible to drink from! Doidy cups are good as far as the child’s language development is concerned – they make the child aware of the drinking action that is needed, and help to tone the muscles that are needed for speech.

Television

Current recommendations are that babies should not have any TV viewing time until they are 2 years old. There is lot of research that suggests that babies learn more from adult caregivers than they could ever learn from the TV - so no need for the Baby Einstein DVDs after all, and that if a TV is on in the background that it can have an adverse effect on the speech and language development of a child.

The national literacy trust have a useful and sensible guide to the role of television in family life.

Books and reading with your child.

Babies can enjoy books from birth – as well as being a chance for them to have your undivided attention and be close to you, it’s a chance for you to share experiences and language, and for baby to hear the voices they love best (after their own of course!).

Babies of up to 8 weeks old prefer black and white images, after this age, babies prefer to see bright colours.

There has been much research suggesting that children who are the best readers when they get to school are those who have experience of reading behaviour in the pre-school years. This means that they see their parents reading, that they have experienced books, and that they have been read to regularly.

Words for life have lots of information on sharing books such as a guide on how reading with your child can be good for their social interaction on communication, a guide on how to share books with very young children and babies (I must admit to feeling a bit daft when I first read to my first baby – it’s nice to have somebody say that what you’re doing is good for them!), ideas on reading activities you can do with babies and pre-schoolers. The national Literacy trust also has a guide that you can print out giving much of the same information as the previous 3 links.

Reading books with your baby doesn’t have to cost a lot of money: Penarth Library has an excellent children’s library, with lots of books suitable for babies and toddlers. They also run story sessions on a Tuesday (although you have to book: phone the library on a Tuesday morning on 2070 8438), also run Rhyme Time sessions – see the library for details.

Music and babies

Babies love music, and the wonderful thing is that it also is a wonderful thing for a baby’s brain development in terms of their speech and language. Words for life have a useful guide to sharing music with your baby. Sacha also suggested that puppets from the puppet company are good to use – or you can often pick up suitable soft toys in the charity shops to help “act out” favourite nursery rhymes and songs.

Bilingualism

(This is a personal favourite of mine, so forgive me for banging on about it!)

There are many mums in Penarth who have the opportunity to bring up their babies bilingually – and this is never a bad thing: the UK is unusual in that it’s seen as strange to grow up with more than one language! Parents who are bringing up their children bilingual often worry that their child’s speech and language development will be delayed. This is not the case: in fact, by bringing up your child bilingual, you are stimulating extra neural connections, and therefore extra brain power! Words for life has an excellent FAQ section on bilingualism, and here the same information is available in PDF form so it can be printed off and shown to nay-sayers!

As a bilingual parent myself, I found the following books really useful:

• A parents’ and teachers’ guide to bilingualism – Colin Baker
• Growing up with two languages – Una Cunningham-Andersson
• The one-parent, one-language approach – really good and informative, but not brilliantly edited!

General Guidelines on talking to your baby

Congratulations for getting this far: this is where I’d got to when I lost the first attempt at this blog, so this bit is all new!

• Talk to your baby – but not constantly: leave them space to respond to you. If you don’t, they may well tune out!
• Quiet time: try to spend some quiet time with each of your children each day. This is real quiet time – TV and radio off. this is useful because children have problems distinguishing speech from other sounds.
• Use your child’s cues to how you allow others to approach and speak to them: some babies relish everybody talking to them and interacting, while others may cry at strangers who talk to them, or be otherwise wary. (On a personal note, this struck a real chord with me: my first child was the first type, while my second was the second type – people used to feel affronted because M would cry at people she didn’t know!)
• Use the acronym O.W.L (Observe, Wait, Listen then respond) to help you communicate with your baby.

 

Back to School …

… this week, so normal service will be resumed!

Not only were the children back to school, the peer supporters had some more training this week before the meeting: Anne, our wonderful trainer, and superb lactation consultant, did some ante-natal training with us.

I then had to put my training into practice with a very patient Sezen – thank you for letting me use you for practice! I also learnt a lot from Sezen about diabetes in pregnancy – with that in mind, I’ll be updating the links page with antenatal information and information about diabetes this week.

We are very excited about next week’s meeting: Sacha, a speech therapist, will be coming to talk to us about talking to your baby.

See you there!

 

With apologies for the hiatus …

… I’m now back from holidays, and back in the swing of things again!

I’ve missed a busy few weeks: specifically a talk from Rachel about Baby Yoga. She runs sessions on aMonday from 10.30 – 11.45 at the Kymin. I can vouch for the sheer brilliance of these sessions: they were invaluable when I was trying to cope with a relux-y baby! Rachel can be contacted on 07773 278918.

Today we had a talk from Sue Orpin of Gro-Brain. It was really interesting and showed us some of the ways that attachment parenting can support a baby’s brain development and mental health. There is a wealth of information on the site about the scientific theory behind the practice, and there are opportunities to take part in courses to help you to support your baby’s development.

 

Issues that came up in today’s meeting were returning to work and the baby with slow weight gain: I’ll be updating the links page with lots of info and links for you to look at about the 2 issues, as well as some ideas for books to read and sites to look at for attachment parenting theory following on from the gro-brain talk.

Claire’s 5th baby is expected any day now, here’s hoping for a happy and healthy arrival!

 

And now for the main attraction …

So lovely to see so many of you back again this week – and how lovely to have so many cuddles and coo (not to mention one baby sucking my toes … But I have to say that the main attraction for me this week was seeing so many gorgeous babies and mums getting stuck in with the baby massage session.

Huge thanks to Katryn Max of Baby Massage Wales for coming and giving us a hands on session: she taught us the basic strokes to use on the arms, legs and tummy – the tummy massage was accompanied by some beautifully rewarding trumpeting bottoms (from the babies, I hasten to add!), as we all massage out that stubborn wind.

We also had news of our first baby born to a member since the start of our group: congratulations to Ethel on the birth of baby Sofia (hoping I spelt it right) – we look forward to seeing you once you’re ready to come to us!

Issues that came up this week were use of nipple shields, feeding lying down, breast refusal oversupply and under supply. Check this page of the blog for more information on these subjects.

Looking forward to seeing you all next week … Debbie’s on the ball with the cakes – I personally would like to put an order in for more of those chocolate button shortbread!