Facebook Live Baby & Toddler Q&A # 16 - Sleep, behaviour, diet & more

By sempak motor Senin, 17 April 2017

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hello, welcome everybody to another facebook live from karen. so, i hope you’ve all had a fabulous weekand i’ve got some really great questions again today. so loads have come in. if you’ve got any that you want to ask, so ask straight away, put it down on this facebook live post. and i’d like you to share this with yourmother’s group, with your friends, sisters, relations, sister in laws, whoever, somebody down the street, next-door neighbour. i think it’s a really great opportunityto get any questions asked and answered live. and now i’ve got people coming from allaround the world to ask questions as well as from australia, so it’s really exciting.

i’ve had another little busy week, crazyweek actually. i had trisca my office angel away, so i’vebeen rather frantic all week. i’ve been trying to do phone calls, emailsand everything. trisca is back today, so i am so happy! unfortunately i didn’t manage to talk toher today and do a handover because i was just getting on top of my workload. so this morning, this morning ... hi melinda! i’m going to answer your question today,hope you’re well! so this morning i went into a daycareto look at a little boy called william’s sleep.

now william is 9 months old and i’ve beento help him at home with his mummy probably about maybe a month and a half, 2 months ago. and william is of the very determined persuasion,like most of my babies so. so, little william this morning ... hi kobi ... right i’ll answer that question for you kobi, no problem. so, little william, like i say very determined,his mum has very red hair, she’s scottish, and william has a little tinge of red hair. he was the baby, when i went to an overnightstay, they had these frogs in the tank next to my couch, and i was so exhausted, i couldn’t even manage to tap on the tank to shut the frogs up.

all i managed to say was “shut up frogs,shut up”. that was william. so this morning i went into his daycare, abeautiful daycare in alexandria called kiddie academy. beautiful daycare workers and really lovelyenvironment and really happy children as well. so i felt very honoured to be invited there,to them, today and to be able to help them as well. and i think that’s a really, a sign of areally good daycare, that they don’t mind somebody from outside coming in to help them. and it’s mum’s first day back at worktoday, so i’m sure she was a lot more relieved that we managed to get william sorted.

so, we got him down in the cot. he did shout his little head off for 20 minutes,and he did pull grazi’s hair. she was the lady who does ... is one of the daycareworkers. so luckily i didn’t get my hair pulled,i don’t know how i didn’t but i didn’t, usually i do. but poor grazi got her hair pulled instead. so, william is a very very determined boy. so i’m wishing them good luck and grazisome good luck this afternoon for william’s sleep and i hope he’s kind to them, becausehe is a very strong personality. so that’s just what i got up to this morning.

and then i came back and did lots of phonecalls and emails and everything and getting ready for today. so, let me just get to my little questions. so i’ve just been doing some some bloggingand some writing. so, oh! most importantly of all, last week we dida competition to win 10 lots of the shapeeze sets. and as you remember from last week, the shapeezesets are for the fine motor skills. they are a complete set that you can takeaway on holiday, in the plane, in the car. they are great because they’re just self-containedand they’re not fiddly, and there’s glue there

and there’s crayons, and everything is there. and there’s a little envelope to put stuffin and it teaches kids those really important fine motor skills. it works on numbers, on colours, all thosesorts of things, imaginative play and creative play. and i think shapeeze is fabulous and they’rein nurture parenting’s online shop and i'm very pleased to be associated with them andhelping them. and i know they’re going to do amazinglywell because i’ve had lots of enquiries from occupational therapists about these,who are jumping up and down with joy about them. so the winners are, and i’ve contacted mostof the people today but there are some that

i didn’t manage to get round to. so those that hear your name, if i haven’t managed to contact you, then if you can just email into us at nurture parenting, karen@nurtureparenting.com.au... ooh poor riley, okay, right jess. right, i’ll talk to you sometime jess aboutriley. so, what was i up to? yes, so those of you that haven’t, i haven’tmanaged to notify, if you can please send me an email to karen@nurtureparenting.com.auand just give me your address and your email, and these sets will be winging their way toyou. so, it’s a really fabulous prize and i’mso excited for you all.

so, winner number one is emma boyd, yay foremma! winner number 2 is michelle campbell, yayfor michelle! i’m sure sophie will love these! number 3 is nicola pittner and i know thatfelix is going to love these as well. number 4 is maria masanã©s. number 5 is carol mare or m-a-r-e i think it’s mare, number 5 is karen thornton with her little boy thomas.i think it’s thomas. i’m sure it’s the same karen that i know. and 7 is zina edwards, so yay to zina. 8 is peta crawford, yay to peta.

and number 9 is for amy moffat and her littleman. and number is 10 is for amanda chan, and amandajust lives in the next block to me so hi amanda! and i know your little boy’s got a littlewhile to go before he going to use this but you can put it away, and i think it’s goingto be a fabulous little asset for his fine motor skills. so there you go, all 10 winners, which isso exciting! so i will notify shapeeze of your addressand your email etc, and they will be posted out to you directly. so how exciting, 10 prizes!

so, if you want to send shapeeze some lovehearts, shapeeze and karen will be most happy to have love hearts. we love love hearts the most. i know it’s shocking, always asking forlove. but apparently, you know, we all need hugsand love, every day, every week to get by. so, i think the more love hearts and loveand hugs that get sent out to everybody the better it is. and those of you that know me will know thati am a very huggy sort of girl. but if you’re not huggy don’t worry, idon’t force myself on anybody, but i think

hugs are really really good, and i think itmakes us all feel better. so, there you go, i know, hugs. so, questions. now, i’m not going to do a competition todaybecause i’ve got a book to finish and every time i do a competition, it takes me probablyanother hour of my week. so i’m really sorry peoples. this week there is no competition, but therewill be other competitions soon. so, watch this space. i just felt it was time for a rest this week,you know what i mean?

so, i’m going to come onto the questions. now i’ve got some seriously good questionsand i have some seriously great situations case studies recently. so i’ve had quite a few babies who havebeen waking up in the early hours. i’ll give you a couple of these, well 3,i’ll actually give you 3 of them. these are all within the past 2 weeks, andthey’re all, they’re all linked together. and they also link in with an email i gotfrom a mum called alex as well so it all links together nicely. so this a change of season and we now in australia,in sydney, we’re moving into autumn.

so it’s starting to get cool at night times,and babies and children, they struggle with their temperature control. and did you know that babies and childrenlose their body temperature 3 to 4 times as much and as fast as what an adult does? and they can’t problem solve to pull blanketsup on themselves until they get to the age of over 3, 4, sometimes 5 even some of them. and i know they refuse to put their clotheson, and i’ve had lots of discussions with mummies this week about “but my child doesn’tlike clothes! my child won’t wear things!”

well, we need to find away around the problem,okay. because if we just give in to them and allowthem to do whatever, they only keep on waking up and is that good for them? and is it good for you? well, i don’t think it is really. so we need to find something that they like. so i went to see a little girl called amelia and once we found the right sleepwear, amelia was happy. but it’s saying to them, “do you wantto wear this one or this one?” you know give them a choice as well becausethen they feel in control.

we need to look at something that keeps themcool at the start of the night, but gets warmer in the middle of the night. so things that are great for heat exchangeare things like cotton, cotton bamboo mix, and then you’ve got merino wool. and as you know i’ve got "hello nightkids" in my online store, and the beauty of "hello night kids" is you can layerup and down. and then you don’t have to buy just onesleeping bag and spend a fortune, you can just you can just have a sleeping bag, andlayers and then you can alter it for seasons as well. you can have it for summer, you can have itfor spring, you can have it autumn,

you can have it for winter. so it’s just one sleeping bag, and thenlayers, rather than a sleeping bag for winter, and then a sleeping bag for summer. i think it’s really logical is that. and it’s very interesting, a lot of thecompanies now are getting these arm warmers too which are good but as you know, "hellonight kids" ... tu has been developing a gilet, it’s a body warming vest, so i think thisis going to be a real game changer, and i can’t wait to see this getting used, andseeing what happens, because sleepwear has been a massive issue with most of these kids.

and i think many mums struggle because theygo “it’s really hot in the daytime karen, and it’s really hot at bedtime, and i don’twant to overheat them”, and we're all frightened of overheating our children. but, if we use the sleepwear that is breathable,that has no acrylic fibres in, no, you know, there’s no acrylic, there’s no polyester,nylon, so it won’t trap heat in. so if you use cotton, cotton bamboo mix, merino wool, they breath, and they’re all good with eczema as well. so that’s all really really important. so the fabric that we use, so important.

and that core, that top half, that’s whatneeds to be really warm. the bottom half doesn’t matter as much,but top half definitely. and as you know when it comes to winter, ilove socks on kids in winter. if you’ve got cold feet, you can’t goback to sleep. i’m actually sat here with my socks on rightnow, because i’ve got a very cold floor. so, practice what you preach karen. so what you put your kids in, to wear, is really important. now, another big issue i’ve come acrosswith these kids ... so they were waking up, one little boy i went to help, he was waking upbetween 1 and 3am, and he’d been sleep trained

previously through a phone consult with me,and i went round to see what was going on. and he went down to sleep so easily at bedtime,so i was like going “what is this, what’s the problem?" he’s 13 months old”. i did look at his dinner, and his main anddessert, and dessert was a really healthy muesli bar. and i think this is where a lot of the problemsare coming from, is that we’re giving our kids this really healthy diet, because welook at our diet, and we put the same thing onto them. so as most of you know, i worked in manchesterin salford before i came to australia. so we didn’t really know what healthy foodwas too much over there in the north of england. sorry north of england, but it does tend tobe a little bit true.

and kids were getting fed meat pies, sausagerolls and things like that, and ... but it was hi amy. hi kelly ... but it was a really high fat diet. so i’ve come over here to australia, andparticularly working in the eastern suburbs and in the west, and we’re all very healthconscious, which is good for us as adults, but it’s not ... i can hear a cat. i think i could be in trouble, hope not. i have this cat called ziggy who tends tophotobomb this. so i get very nervous now. so, we you know, we tend to eat too healthyand so i’ve gone from the pies and sausage rolls

to suddenly the quinoa and the chia seeds and the organic and the brown rice and all the rest of it. and i’ve been looking at all these mealsand going “where is the fat in here? where’s the carbohydrate?” so, if we don’t have the right balance ofcarbs and protein ... so you need to be in balance, really important, then kids are going to struggle with their sleep. so we tend to give a lot of yoghurt by itself.yoghurt is a disaster for sleep given by itself. complete disaster because it’s really highin tyrosine. tyrosine keeps kids awake.

i think if parents knew that, they’d nevergive yoghurt before bed. disaster! okay, so we need to look at food combining. does it tick all the boxes? okay, i’ve even got julie who works withme really paranoid about her little girl’s food and she sent me a picture today, andshe wanted to know if it ticked all boxes, and i did, i went “tick, tick, tick!” so it’s need to be, high in tryptophan,that’s that lovely amino acid that i talk about so much.

the turkey, the chicken, and it is thingslike porridge oats, it is weetbix, it is cheese, it is avocado, it is things like nut pastes,all those things. so we need to look at that amount of tryptophan,and we need to have the low glycaemic index carbohydrates, that balance, that is really key. so most of these meals were lacking in balance,okay. and the biggest thing all these meals werelacking in was fat. so i’m going to give you some stats nowthat are going to shock you. 80% of your child’s brain is formed by theage of 2 ... 2 years old. and the brain is made of fat.

what does the brain need to grow? fat. and so if we don’t give our kids enoughfat, and that’s why we give a really high fat diet, high fat dairy until we’re 2. in the uk they’ve changed that to 5 years old recently and i’m a big believer that i think australia will go this way as well and all this low fat stuff that we did, itwas a disaster as probably most of you know. because then we just replaced it with sugar,and that’s where a lot of these sugar problems have come from. so, i’m a big fan of high fat diets becausei’m from the north of england.

and my other half will probably be smilingat this now. i know he’s watching me today. and i’m a fan of the hot cross bun. but i like to have butter in my hot crossbun, and my dad used to say to me, "karen, are you having bread with that butter? or are you just having honey and butter with that bread?” so i was really bad when i was growing upfor loving butter. but i did come from the north of england,we needed extra insulation because it was really really cold and i was a very activechild and teenager. so my grandparents were farmers, i spent a lot of time on the farm, and it was freezing.

it was really really cold. so, they’re things just to really think about. so fat, really important. don’t bother with marge, it’s really fullof those horrible trans fat blah-de-blahs. i’ve never been a fan of margarine, i thinkit’s way overrated and not very healthy. so butter, butter is the way to go people. and yes i went and bought a heap of hot crossbuns last night, probably too many, may need to go on a diet soon, but you know, all things in moderation. so, but i think things like adding butterto every meal, adding cream to every meal.

if your child’s dairy intolerant, then we’relooking at things like coconut oil, we're looking at olive oil. we’re looking at oily fish like tinned sardinesin olive oil, tinned salmon in olive oil. don’t go for the spring water, go for the"in oil" because kids need that extra fat. and fat has got double the calories of carbohydrate,which is like massive. so, i looked at this meal last night, andit had ... and it was lovely, and you know, gabriella, she was really shocked, she didn’t realise that the meal wasn’t quite what it should be and she said “oh, that’s a meal forme really, isn’t it?” and i said “yes, actually it is gabriella."and i find this all the time.

so when i do a consultation, i go into foodin a massive way. i look at exactly what kids are eating, whattime they’re eating it, how much they’re eating. michelle says, “yes just had hot crossbuns and butter.” i’ve been sampling all the ones in sydneymichelle, and can i just say, i think holsers has actually got the best hot cross buns,but a near second is the black star pastry place. they actually glaze those with a ... i thinkit’s myrrh or frankincense, myrrh i think it is or is it frankincense the glaze? oh my goodness, they are divine. so if you’re ever passing the black starpastry ... “luckily my older two are eating cheese."

yes kobi, so cheese is amazing, put gratedcheese into all the savoury stuff. you know the kiwis, they have grated cheesein their pies, so when i went to new zealand, i couldn’t believe you get grated cheesein pies! which is like, amazing, yum! so you know, look at how you can maximisethat diet to get really high fat. okay, these kids will not get overweight. you will not fur their arteries with fattydeposits, okay, because it’s good fat, okay. it is not these horrible trans fats that weknow that are not really good at all for children. so, they need more calories than what youneed as an adult.

these kids should be eating as much as whatan adult is eating, and i very very rarely see that. so if kids are sleeping well, their appetiteis through the roof. so the kids i see, because they’re havingsuch disturbed sleep, their appetite is really poor. so you’ve got to sort the sleep out to sortout the diet and the food. you can’t do it the other way around, it’sjust not possible. and some of these kids i meet are having 6to 8 breastfeeds at night time. a litre of milk in the middle of the night is quite acommon thing for me to see. but when you’re not sleeping, and it’sthe same for mums, your appetite’s not great and you tend to binge on sugar and fatty things, but mainly sugar.

and i know this myself you know, and i’vehad to wean myself off sugar at times in my life. i’ve done the ‘i quit sugar’ diet. i did it for 3 months and it made me justrealise how much i was addicted to sugar, because you replace sleep with sugar. and we need to look at sleep, because sleepis the cure of everything for health, everything. so, that’s the big thing i’ve come outof this week. so, food. massive. most of these diets i’m coming across whenthere’s a sleep problem, are really not conducive for sleep at all.

and when you’re looking at pouches ... againas you know, karen really dislikes those pouches, most of them with vengeance, because theyare not nutritionally complete. they don’t have the balance of carbs andprotein and they don’t have enough fat in them. they’re full of fruit and veg and sugar,and kids get really addicted to them. so i ... you know i’d like to see more kids on proper food. you can make your own pouches with proper food. and you know, you could freeze them so ... and then you could have you know, for the convenience, but at least then you know what you’re giving your children ... and you know, then they’d sleep much better. so that is my big thing for this week ... isfat and lots of it in every meal, in every snack.

i want you to think, "does it tick all theboxes? does it have tryptophan? does it have the low glycemic index carbohydrates?" don’t waste your time with white processedfoods at all. yoghurt is way overrated i’m afraid. if you do yoghurt, give it as a smoothie withoats in and banana in etc. lots of recipes on my blog, lots of ideason there for healthy desserts that promote sleep, for breakfasts that promote sleep, forother things that promote sleep. so, it is actually all there on the blog,you’ll be able to find it.

in the future maybe i’ll do some recipes, who knows. maybe i’ll do a recipe book that promotes sleep. that would be a great idea. so, that is all about what i came about last week. so, this little mum called alex. right i’m going to go through this emailshe sent me, because it’s pretty typical of what i hear. so alex and her 21 month old little boy. “hi karen, i’ve seen your name recommendedmany times on posts about baby sleep on inner west mums and northshore mums. i was wondering if you would be able to help us.

we’ve had a long road. 1 day and 2 x 4 night stays at tresillian canterbury, plus a 3 night sleep consultant home visit, to get to a point with our 21 month old where he now puts himself to sleep about 7pm and sleeps all night most nights unless sick or teething, which is amazing”. that’s absolutely fabulous. i’m really thrilled for you alex. you’ve obviously worked really really hard at that. “but he has been waking gradually earlierand earlier to the point where now wakes at 4am most mornings” ... eeek! “we’ve tried letting him cry a bit, trying to resettle him.

lots of screaming until we get him up, gettinghim up to watch tv quietly. basically all he wants is boob and then tostart the day. even if he had a breastfeed, and then snuggledand went back to sleep with us afterwards, that would be fine. but he finishes his feed and then rolls overand starts climbing and wanting to start the day. trying to cuddle him at this point resultsin screeches of protest. we usually send daddy down to try and resettleor deal with him at 4am, but it makes no difference, as he just wants me and the boob”. so i come across this a lot.

and the very strong personalities these kids,really strong temperaments, and they don't like to have things declined, they will shoutuntil they get what they want. “i don’t really want to wean him from his last breastfeed. the only one he has now unless he’s sick,unless we have to. but my husband thinks it is the main problem. we’re exhausted and not looking forwardto the daylight savings change as then he'll be up at 3am. can you help us? what sort of services would you recommend for this problem? thank you so much in advance, alex.”

so, i think your husband’s right alex. i think giving him this feed is a problemand he is 21 months old, so does he actually need this feed at 3, 4 o’clock in the morning? i would say not. a baby at 6, 7 months of age doesn’t necessarilyneed a feed at that time in the morning. if you wanted to do several breastfeeds, thento me it’s not an issue, but if you wanted to stop them, i would look at ways that youknow ... you can ... they don’t need that feed. they need a long night's sleep. and your boobs and your breastmilk will bebetter with a really good night's sleep.

so everybody’s better on sleep. so i would take that feed away, i’d do parentalpresence where you’re going to sit by the cot and each week you move on with the process,until by week 6 you’re in the doorway. you’re going to sit by the cot, say nothing,pretend to be asleep, don’t pat, don't rub, don’t even pat the mattress, you are asleep, your eyes are closed and you are snoozing by that cot, okay. so that’s what needs to happen. it might take you know, a couple of weeksbefore you break this problem. it might take a month before you break thisproblem, but you will.

but if you keep on doing what you’re doing,i’m afraid your little boy alex is going to keep on waking up. and then with having that one feed, that’sgoing to reduce the actual food in the day, and then that’s going to perpetuate theproblem of the night waking, because he’s not having enough food to be able to sleep. so you’ve got to pull the rug and take thatfeed away alex unfortunately. so the sort of help i’d be looking at, i’dlook at a phone consult first with this sort of problem. i don’t think it’s a massive issue, butit will if it gets left will this, it could get out of hand quite easily.

so i’ve had kids having 6 breastfeeds, alitre of milk in the night time at this sort of age. i even had a child at 4 and a half recentlyhaving 5 breastfeeds at night time. so if you leave, children are not going togo, “no mummy, you’re so tired, let me just go back to sleep again”. they’re going to scream and scream and screamuntil they get it. and if you don’t want to do that feed, don’tdo it. because 3 or 4 o’clock ... to me that’s not morning. and like i say, it could get really out ofhand, could this alex. so i’d do a phone consult, i don’t thinkyou need me in person to sort this out.

okay, so i hope that has helped. gemma, yes, “parental presence works so well for us, 2 nights of pain and harper was back to 6.30, 6:30. yay! “yes, a sleep recipe book” says lauren. yes, i think it will come. so, first the sleep book and then we’reon to other things. so, exciting. so bryony evans. so bryony asked me a question last week andshe’s got a 6 month old baby. so hi bryony!

if you’re here, hello. so, she’s says, “i have a question about how to transition a 6 month old from swaddle suits at night time?" which is a great question. now in winter there’s a really great sleepsuit that transitions from the swaddle beautifully. and i discovered it last winter, it is calledthe magic merlin soup ... suit, not soup! the magic merlin suit! could be a soup. and it is very stiff with cotton, it’s madeof cotton so it’s really breathable. but the arms are literally sort of out likethis, they can move them a little bit,

but they’re sort of positioned so that they’re out. and it just is a great transition suit froma swaddle right to no swaddle and a sleeping bag. and it’s so important to move on from theswaddle, between 4 and 6 months, as soon as they’re rolling, and they need to have theirarms out and doing stuff. so i’m a fan of the magic merlin suit. as you know karen is not seduced by anythingthat overpromises and doesn’t deliver, but i saw this work, so, i was quite happy with it. and it’s cotton, it’s breathable. maybe i shall put it in my shop, i don’t know.

it might be something for the future so, iwill talk to my online shop person and see what we can do with that. because i think it is really great sleep suit. other thing to do is, i would take away theswaddle at night time rather than take it away during the day to start with. you can take one arm out and get those ... love to dream do the swaddle where you take, you know, undo one arm, or you unzip it. one arm in one arm out. i’m a bit of a fan of doing it all in onenight but that’s just me, not everybody likes doing things all at once.

i just think if you’re going to go througha bit of pain, do it quickly, get it over with quickly. to me it’s like taking a sticking plasteroff bit by bit by bit versus going “pwew!”. i’m a bit of a fan of doing that. because i think doing bit by bit by bit isactually more painful over the long term, but that’s just me. but at 3 months, 3 to 4 months, babies knowthey’ve got hands, they can self soothe with their hands, and that’s what we need toteach them to do. so the longer we leave them in a swaddle suit,the bigger problem we have and i had a baby at 7 months of age having a swaddle suit still.

and i had to get them out of the swaddle suit,because obviously he was rolling over, and i took him out, both hands out, and do youknow he completely freaked because he had bare hands he didn’t know how to sooth himself withthese bare hands. he was like, “oh oh!”. and so i had to get my creative little thinkinghead on, and what i did was i put socks on his hands. so you can put socks on. if he’s going topull them off, put micropore around the actual wrist so they can’ ... so micropore’s likea surgical tape you get from the chemist. it’s hypoallergenic, safe. okay, so you could use that to keep the socks on. and over 2 weeks what we had to do was

gradually cut more and more holes in the socksuntil eventually he had bare hands and he was sucking on his fingers. but what a palaver! so it is much better if you can get rid ofthe swaddle suit at there right time, which is around 4 months, i’m a fan of 3 months personally. but if their startle reflex is really strongthen you might want to leave it until 4 months, but that startle reflex should have gone away by about 4 months of age, particularly if your baby is self-settling properly. if your baby’s not self-settling, that’sprobably why babies are swaddled for a long time.

i’m not sure what your situation is bryony,but that’s ... we’re managing startle problems because we’ve got overtired babies, whereasif we do sleep, baby sleep learning and prevention we tend to not have that startle reflex problem. so, it is a problem that is ... i’ve come acrossin australia, i didn’t come across it in the uk because we prevented the problem. and if any of you have read my book, "helpi’m a new mum and i don’t know what to do" about baby sleep learning, that is the reason why. so i’m not going to go into it, becausethere is plenty of blogs out there about baby sleep learning and what used to happen in england.

but it’s just really interesting to lookat why we swaddle for so long over here in australia. and we are sort of like keeping kids backwith their self-soothing skills, with their rolling over skills, developmental skills.and we need to move babies on at the right time because if they’re not able to roll over, they can’t sleep through really easily because they can’t get comfy. so teach them how to roll over. really reallycrucial. i’d start that around 3 to 4 months. as soon as the head lag has gone. i’d recommend the baby yoga style videoon youtube. i think it’s the better way of teachingrolling over because that rolling over video,

it helps with the vestibular, the balancesystem. whereas the one on the floor, it tends tojar the balance system, the vestibular system. so they’re things i would look at there bryony. so from a little question has come a big answer. so i hope you like that. so next i’m onto brooke and alba. and i said to brooke that i would send heran email. so what i’ve actually done brooke is i’veactually written you a blog instead. so i started getting my thinking head on thisweekend and i’m going to publish it

hopefully tonight when i get back from my visit. so brooke asked me a question about ... alba wasbiting her nipples, and biting them hard. ouch! i can’t imagine much worse than nice littlebaby teeth, because they’re very razor sharp, biting on her nipple. anyway, and alba is a very determined baby,i know miss alba very well. so, we’re going to have to be careful howwe manage this brooke, you’re completely right. so, we need to sort of take her off and sayno to her, and mean no. and when we say no, we don’t smile, we don’t laugh. because once we smile and laugh, she thinksit’s a game, and she’ll do it again

and again and again. so we say “no”. but we don’t ... we’ll try not to do a big“ouch!” because that can upset them and then that can create a bit of breast refusal as well. so we’ve got to be really careful as tohow we say this “no”, that we mean the no for definite. and it is, like i say, your poker face, and you mean it. okay, and do not let her go back on untilshe stops the biting. she might cry a bit, that’s okay.

she needs to learn that this is just not okayfor her mummy. so, there’s a lot of reasons why babiesbite nipples, they bite because they’ve got teeth and it’s fun and the texture andeverything, that’s one reason. they bite as well because of the flow. sometimes you’ve got too much flow. other times you haven’t got enough flow. so it’s about how fast it comes out or doesn’t. so sometimes they bite if it’s not comingout fast enough. so what you can do is just express a littlebit off if you’ve got too much flow, or just express a little bit off just to getthat flow happening, and that letdown happening.

other reasons that babies can bite is becausethe milk taste has changed if you’ve got your period but they’re the main reasons really. it’s just, it is a stage thing, and they’rejust exploring boundaries and it is very very common. so i’ve written you a little blog brooke. so better than an email i think. but it only took me a week to get round toit so i’m so sorry, but i did get there in the end. okay, so i hope that’s helped you, and helloup there in newcastle to brooke and alba, and i hope alba is sleeping well and being kindto her mama. okay ... "yes kobi, early morning wakings are such a nightmare, they are horrible." and they are really hard to resettle butthe best way is the food thing.

the more fat, the more food that you can get into your baby and resettling. unfortunately you have to do it, it’s the only way that message is going to get through. it’ll take 1 to 2 weeks of pain. but when you’re really consistent, it willhappen, i know it will. but you have to take the rug away, to takethat feed away. but how you do the resettling, really important. just wait a few minutes, 3 minutes of crying, then go in and sit by the cot, don’t pat, don’t rub, and try not to take out too muchif at all. so i would tend not to do too many cuddlesif any, so.

right, on to nikki. hello nikki in the southern highlands with lachlan. and nikki’s worked really hard on her baby’ssleep, and i’ve known nikki for a little while. i went to meet her recently when idid a little trip down there to bowral. and she’s doing a great job with lachie. and she did some sleep work initially wheni think he was about 3 months old. and i’ve just done this work through phoneconsults, through email and through face to face. so it can be done. “hey karen, i have a question for your facebook live, if you have the chance it would be greatly appreciated."

no problem nikki, all good. “lachlan is 9 and a half months old now." so wow some time has gone by. “and sleep training is going really well, but i’m still in the process of making my way out of the room. on 2 occasions developmental stages have sentme backwards with sleep training, at 6 months and 8 months." and this is really common with boys. “could you let me know what the nextdevelopmental stage will be that could see some stages to lachlan’s sleep, and what changes i would need to implement if any,

to continue my progress towards putting him in his cot and having him self settle without me being in the room, thank you.” great question nikki. so, as i mentioned before, we do parentalpresence, particularly with babies, sometimes over 6 months, 7 months, certainly 8 months. at this age i’d definitely be doing parentalpresence with him. so under 6 months i’d do a different method,over 6 months i either do a check in method, or i do sitting by the cot thing. it dependson the baby. it depends on the cry. depends on the sleep associations, it depends on lots of things.

so, the next developmental stage that’sgoing to do a bit change will be around 18 months. so between 16 and 18 months, that’swhen he’s likely to flick his switch if at all. i get some kids when they start daycare, ifa new sibling comes along, that's when they also flick their switch as well. so they’re just things to be aware of, butit’s that last wonder week, that 16 to 18 month old one that boys don’t cope with very well. so i wrote a blog about sleep training and gender, and when i would and when i wouldn’t do sleep training. basically there is no age i wouldn’t doit, but there are some ages more than others ... and michelle alifano knows this. “are chia seeds fatty?”... yes michelle they are fatty,

they’ve got omega 3 and omega 6 in. but we still need some more fat as well as chia seeds. but michelle has a little boy called charlie,and charlie is 7 and a half months old, and he’s one of my hardest cases. so he lives in my top 10 does charlie. and he went on for 3 hours and 9 minutes one night. so he was a big case as michelle knows. but all babies can be helped, and it is doingthings in a kind way. i think parental presence is an extremelykind way.

you know, dr howard chilton likes this methodand yep yoghurt and chia seeds are fine, i'd put some oats in there as well michelle. yes michelle i know, you see, don’t youlike to hear that charlie he was challenging, how’s he doing? how's charlie doing at the moment michelle? is he doing well? is your husband ... has chris got him sorted? tell chris fist pump from me and a hi 5 andeverything else, fabulous, well done. yes, charlie was a "persistent resistant" soi know a lot of these "persistent resistants",

they’re very cute. “yes we’re getting there." love it, tell chris excellent i could employhim couldn’t i? i don’t think he’d want to do my job. “much better thank you." that’s okay michelle. i was on the phone to michelle one night andher husband was in the room next door, and michelle was giving me a running commentaryabout what was happening, and it was like ooh 3 hours, yep, yes sandra we did.

i’ve had 2 boys at 7 and a half months ofage that went for 3 hours and 9 minutes. and they killed me, both of them. it takes a lot to really wear karen down, but they do. i had a little girl the other night that wentfor 2 and half ... went for 3 hours. and i had to send mum went out first of allbecause she was crying, and then dad went out because i had to send him out. becausethey were so, they were so enmeshed with ... the parents in the behaviour of the little girl,and she was in control in that house. it was really obvious to me what was going on. and i don’t like throwing any ... you knowasking any parents to leave a child’s room,

but it was not working for them in there. and they got themselves in such a situation,this child was waking up 6, 7 times at night time. and they were just completely exhausted. she had a dummy, but the dummy wasn’t the problem. the dummy was the fact that she loved gettingserviced, and the more service that she got, the more service she wanted. so the babies that i meet, parents start offdoing attachment parenting sometimes, they end up in the bed with them. but it works out with the type of children i see, to be a complete disaster in most situations.

so, some babies can "attachment parenting", share the bed easily. the children i know don’t. they don’t want to be in the bed with the parent. they want to be in the cot, and the parentssay this, that they want to do this way, but the child actually wants to be in the ... you know, in the cot. and it’s just like, "oh my goodness." so i see some complete wrecks of parents.poor parents. but this little girl, she could kick ass that’s for sure. but she only woke up once that night, in themiddle of the night, and she was asleep within 20 minutes. and i don’t think she was actually awake, i think it was a nightmare or a night terror she was having.

she didn’t actually look like she was awake. but in the middle of it all ... you’re goingto laugh at this ... this little girl she started singing waltzing matilda to me! waltzing matilda, i ask you! thinking “this is sleep training! this is not waltzing matilda time!”. i was just like wow. so they have a real repertoire. but we heard everything, we heard, all about ariel, we heard all about christmas,

we heard all about the purple sippy cup, and the orange sippy cup, and the purple one, and the orange one and the purple one, and the orange one. the dummy was like a side issue, it reallywas not a fixture at all, and yet you'd have thought that would have been the problem. not at all, it was everything else. but the vocabulary on her, the words ... oh my goodness, was just incredible, it really was. and you just sit there you go “3 hours! 3 hours of my life i’ll never get back again!” plus poor parents.

she was so determined. but karen as all of you know out there, isequally as determined but kind as well. so having those 2 qualities has helped meand helped parents everywhere. and these kids always get worse before they get better. so mum didn’t have an easy night last night,i’d anticipate that because it’s not going to come you know, come good just like that unfortunately, because that behaviour has been there for that long. so, nikki with lachlan, well done for youdoing this early, and i think what would be a really interest blog to write would be "how long does it take to do things at what ages?’"

so how long does it take to sleep train at what ages? and how much crying is involved? because once i’ve discussed that with parents,i say, "right if you’d done it at this age, that would have happened. if you’d done it at this age, that wouldhave happened, do it at this age, that would have happened." so, you know it’s ... i think if parents havethat information ... call, because i’m just sorry somebody just tried to ring me, i’m just a little bit busy at the moment. right, so next i’m going to come onto renee, and then i’m going to come onto the rest of

the questions that people have sent in today. and kristen beckett has got me a question“any tips for a 2 year old when a new baby arrives?" great question kristen, and yes i do havean amazing blog on that as well. so, i’m just going to come back to reneepanichetti and 11 month old, and i think it’s a little girl? yes, it’s a little girl. “hi karen. hope all is well. i have a question for today's chat if that’s okay? we’re travelling to indonesia for a 10 dayholiday in a few weeks.

they are 2 hours behind. was wondering if you have any tips in howto deal with the time difference and potential very early morning wake ups from our 11 month old? since daylight savings has changed, she’s gone from waking at 6, to waking at 5, to bed at 6:30. can’t seem to get her to sleep later inthe morning, wakes up so grumpy. any tips? thanks so much." and you’re totally right renee, great questionto ask, and i think it’s good to ask it

now before you go away, because you’ve gota little while, a few weeks you said. so we could, you could actually make a bigchange with this before you go away, and i think that would really help. so, is your baby self settling? is your baby, can she put herself down awake in the cot? and does she resettle or do you feed herin the night? that’s something that i’d like to know. if she’s able to go down by herself, goesdown awake and there’s no dummy involved, yada yada yada, and she’s proper self settling without anything, without you touching her,

holding her to sleep, feeding her to sleep. “yep self-settles." great renee, thank you for answering me that. hello brooke by the way. hello miss alba.i answered your question before brooke so i hope you liked the answer. “down on her own, no feeds at night," says renee. yep, excellent. right this shouldn’t be too hard to sort out. it is going to take a bit of persistence on your part.

so when she wakes at 5 o’clock, is yourroom really really dark? is it so dark you can’t see your hand infront of your face? because that is really key with this, because at 5 o’clock melatonin’s at its lowest, and if light gets in ... hits the brain loweringmelatonin. “yep it’s really dark." so dark you can’t see your hand in frontof your face? yep? i presume that’s a yes from renee? then we need to look at diet, okay. so we’re looking at those foods high intryptophan. “yep." excellent renee.

foods really high in tryptophan. i’d give her something banana based in brown rice, or banana and some french toast or pancakes before going to bed. i’d do main and desert. we’ve all got a corner for dessert in ourlittle tummies. like i said karen’s a little fan of the hot cross bun at the moment. so you could do little pancakes, little pikeletsand you could spread them with an organic cacau and peanut butter from mayvers. theydo a great one if you don’t want to do nutella. and you could do something ... like you could putbutter on your little pikelets to add some

extra calories to it there. you could even put you know ... if you don’tmind a bit of sugar syrup or some maple syrup, i’m sure they’d go down very well. but if you make your pancakes or pikeletswith wholemeal flower, that will tick a lot of boxes. give some caramelised bananas. “half an hour before bed." excellent. right, so then renee we need to do some resettling. so she ain’t going to like it.

because once they wake up, we feed them, wetake them out for a cuddle, that’s it, it's set that alarm clock. so i want you to wait for 3 minutes of constantcrying, no pauses, no gaps, no silences, okay. if there are pauses, reset the clock. and a pause is between 5 and 20 seconds. so i want you to go in, i want you to siton the chair, do not talk to her, it'll feel really odd, but it is all fine i promise. go in, sit in a chair by the side of the cot, sideways on. put your hand on the mattress, not on her.

and i want you to sit there until you’vegot her back to sleep again, or it gets to ... anna. hi anna, yes just ... ooh hang on,questions coming in all sorts coming in. right so, i want you to wait until itgets to either 6 or 7 o’clock, so morning does not start before 6, even quarter to 6i don’t accept. so i’ve got many kids back to sleep by resettling. so i want you to go for at least you know,if it’s 5 o’clock to 6 o’clock, an hour. so most kids will not give in if you do ... ifyou resettle for under 1 to 2 hours. and i know it feels like it’s mean, it is not mean. because when they get up at 5 o’clock they’reso whingey, and then it means an early nap,

it means early everything, and they’re justso whingey through their day, and it affects development and everything. so i’m a big fan of the resettle. do i like resettling? no, i don’t like resettling at all becauseit feels mean like i say, but it’s not mean. so i’ve learnt to become at peace, becomeat one with the resettle. you know not everything that i do i love,but i know what’s good for babies and children. and i think that’s really important to havethat conversation, to say look i don’t like this either. you know, i don’t enjoy sleep training,i love the results it gets, but i don’t enjoy

when babies are upset and they’recrying, and mummies and daddies are upset. and you know, it is a very very hard job thati do, and it’s very emotional. but you cannot harm her renee, promise, okay. what sort of volume of food is she eating as well? i just want to know just sort of what sort of volume? i’ want to give her a snack mid-morning,a snack mid-afternoon, and again the carb, the low gi carb and the high fat as well. so i’d want some philadelphia cream cheese,some avo on some wholemeal toast with butter on. like i say, ladle the fat on there, the calories,the protein and the low gi carbs.

they’re your things that are going to reallyhelp sleep. feed to appetite. too often i go in a house and the food hasgone from the dish or from the high chair tray and yet their child doesn’t closetheir mouth and stopped, and parents are frightened of overfeeding. you can’t overfeed. it is really rare to overfeed a child. so, they’re not like adults who emotionallyeat, or eat just because hot cross buns are nice. no, children actually do. babies will stopwhen they’ve had enough. they will tell you.

so keep on feeding that child until they reallyhave had enough. always give milk feeds and food aboutan hour apart, because that way you go to maximising the amount of food you can get in. so i’d always give food first, and theni’d do milk feeds at least an hour after any solids. always eat with them. yes, that’s a big thing from this week. parents, the ones i’ve seen this week, havenot been eating with their children at all. when you sit down and eat, and they say,“but i don’t want to eat a full meal karen." you don’t have to eat a full meal.

all i’m saying is chop a piece of cucumberup, chop some fruit up, and just put it on the child’s high chair tray, and eat somethings with them, so then we’re modelling behaviour. we’re in participation with the child. when you eat their food off their high chairtray, they will eat 25% more food, and then they’re going to sleep longer. so just those little changes about eatingwith them, you don’t need to eat really high calorie stuff, you don’t need to eat all the stuff that’s really high in fat. your child just needs to see you eat andpick things up with your hands. because when we pick things up with our hands,when we model behaviour, they eat so much more.

a little baby called ava who was food throwing,and ava was food throwing because her mummy was cleaning up in the kitchen. so we need to actually sit with them, be with them, not on our phones, and just be there in the moment. model behaviour, eat, eat, eat with your children please. give them the spoon. i’ve also seen a bit of force feeding thisweek unfortunately as well, and that made me feel a little bit ill. i don’t like anything like that. i like children to be in control, and allowedto do what they want to do.

because they are so much happier. and i know mummies get worried that they haven’thad enough food, so that’s why the spoon comes out, but i’ve seen kids growling thisweek, and being really “grrrr!” so can we please not force feed? it would just make me a lot happier. and that way you’re going to ... your kidswill actually get a lot more more food. so, they’re my real top tips of please eatwith her all day, resettle renee as well, and i think that’s where you’re goingto get to your utopia for your holiday. now when you go away on your holiday to indonesia, just in case the room is not dark where you're

going to be, take some tinfoil with some masking tape, and then you can make those windows dark. and that’s really really crucial, becauseif you go away and it’s too bright, disaster. i would also look at you know those fly babee,they’re now called cozigo that fits over the stroller, to make that really dark as well. oh hi! it’s my cousin tracy from over in england,in yorkshire. hi tracy! this is so weird is this. i get to see all sorts of people on facebooklive, it’s so exciting! how’s your little girl going tracy?

is she going good? aw that’s so exciting! i come from a massive, massive family of cousinseverybody out there. so i have about 21 cousins that are all marriedwith children. my dad was 1 of 9 children. no they’re not catholic, i think they justdidn’t have tv in those days. so, huge huge family and really lovely family,and i do miss them all. and i haven’t seen them all for a very long time. so, i love it how they all follow me on facebooklive, which is so exciting.

it’s a bit weird when your family followsyou, but in a nice way. hi big cuz! “aw she’s fab thank you." great, i’m really pleased things are goingreally well tracy. aw, she’s very very cute. i know that georgia really loves her so, exciting. so renee, they’re the tips that i would be looking at. i’d be looking at foods high in tryptophanto help her get to sleep. if you give things like bananas, avocado,wholemeal things, weetbix, porridge oats,

an hour before a nap, an hour before bed,it maximises their getting to sleep. so i’d be looking at food as the key forthis time difference thing. because food is going to really help you tonavigate that 2 hours. because the more you can get into her, thebetter she’s going to sleep as well. but i’d be working on the resettling. dipti, hi. right i’m going to answer that questionin a moment dipti for you. so i hope that’s helped renee, and ihope you have a fabulous time, so let me know how you go with all this resettling.

right, let's come back to everything else. right, julie sent me some stuff through. so bryony, i’ve done bryony yes, brooke yep, bianca, yep i’ve covered that last week. jess says, “hi karen, riley’s back on cpap for all sleeps and naps, but i’m having huge issues with him keeping it on. he’s figured out how to get the straps off,and now thinks it’s a game.” ah ha. so jess, her little boy riley’s got reallybad reflux, and he’s had sleep apnea so it’s been a big big big journey here.

and i picked it up when he was very young,i think he was only just a matter of a few weeks old. and jess has been through, like i said, big stuff. so i will talk to you jess separately, andsee what i can come up with master riley. obviously he’s of the very clever varietylike most of them are. so hi to jess! so kobi says, “my little one just turned4 months, and she’s still waking 3 to 4 times a night roughly every 2 and a half to 3 hours, wanting a feed. i don’t mind a couple of feeds, but startingto get pretty tired. i have a 2 year old and a 3 year old too.

should i just suck it up until she startsto stretch out on her own, or is there something i can do to encourage her to sleep a bit longer?” great question. “she’s been self-settling since 3 weeks, and is a good healthy 7 plus kilos. thanks." absolutely kobi, i would do some resettling. i would look at what feeds you think thatare really good feeds. ... and it’s a pleasure renee. look at what feeds are really good feedsand resettle the other ones. so if she’s only going 2 and a half hourssince the last one, i’d resettle that feed

that is the really ... the other one that’snear that last one. and then i’d keep the next one, and i’dresettle that other one, okay if that makes sense? so say if you did one at maybe 9, and then she had another one at 11:30, and then she had another one at about 2:30,and then another one say at 5 o’clock. so i’d be getting rid of this one here,which would be the 11:30 one. but then if she’s fed at 7, you know, you’vegot to decide, are you going to do that one or are you going to do that one? so, once they get to 5 months of age, i’dresettle all feeds up to midnight, and i'd only feed one feed after midnight.

some people might find that controversial,but it works. and you know, babies should have started solidshopefully and we need to look at food starting to become more important, because food isthe thing that’s going to get these babies sleeping, their brains growing, and developing. so, milk is good yes, but food is more important,certainly from 6 months of age for these babies. so we need to really start to get that intothe picture. so i would definitely be doing some resettling kobi. i think 4 feeds is slightly of the cheeky variety. some mums might not think so, but you know i think it is.

i don’t think babies do need that amount of feeds. do plenty of feeds in the day. have you started, is she 4 months old yet? turned, just turned 4 months. right, i’d start food soon, okay. that’s not going to be the solution. the solution’s going to be the resettling. and when you resettle, it’s just the sameway as what i mention in the book that you’ve got. so wait your 3 minutes, go in, just put yourhand on, and you’d be surprised how quickly

you can get a baby to resettle. most babies will resettle within about 15 ... 20 minutes. okay, you’re going to get some shouting. she’s not going to like this. try not to pick out of the cot too much, justtry and put your hand on, okay. if she does start to get very shouty yes pickher up, just no more than 40, sorry 30 seconds, and then pop down. but limit the amount of cuddles, don’t do too many. only take her out if she’s absolutely reallygoing for it.

and i think that you should get some success within a week kobi. so let me know how you go. i’m going to wave my wand over your way. alrighty, but yes at 7 plus kilos, she isthriving and doesn’t need all those feeds. and you’ve got 2 other kids, you need yoursleep love, i’m on your side. okay, so hi to kobi. and melinda.“hi karen, 17 month old ellieis a great sleeper overnight, but day naps have been getting shorter over the past month,both at daycare and at home. her one day nap is 30 to 40 minutes.

she goes down at around 12:30. i try to resettle her when at home, but itnever works. is this brief nap all she needs now? at night ellie is asleep around 7 and wakes around 6:30. so she’s having 11 and a half hours, sothat’ll be 12 hours in total in the day. anything different you’d recommend trying?” what i want to know melinda is what is her mood like? does she wake up happy from this nap in the day? does she get to bedtime in a happy state?

does she wake up in the morning happy? so if you say yes to all those questions,then i’m happy with the amount of sleep that she’s having. however, i would be looking at the food angle,and i’d be looking at keeping the food in the day as well. looking at what we’re actually giving herbefore she goes down in the day, and maximising the fat in that diet, and i would have mainand dessert, because we’ve all got a corner for dessert. so, that’s what i would look at melinda,so i hope that’s helpful, and hello to you. so now we’re onto kristen, kristen becket,. hi kristen.

so “what tips do you have for a 2 year oldwhen a new baby arrives?” and 2 year olds, it is quite a tricky age. “food at home’s on track melinda,mostly cranky after naps, but happy at other times." okay. can she stay happy from the afternoon to bedtime? if she can, i’m happy with that. but she should be waking happy really, soi’d say she’s just a little bit behind with that nap. it’s worth a bit of resettling, and i woulddo up to half an hour to an hour of resettling.

she won’t like it, but as we know, yourlittle girl doesn’t always like what’s good for her. so, she’s always a slightly challenging thing. “yes just cranky when waking, but happy until bedtime." if she is, then i’m happy with that. that’s okay melinda, it’s you know, beinga parent, these babies and sleep, it's all a work in progress. it’s never just that’s it unfortunately,and it needs always needs working on, and it is hard. the first couple of years, not easy.

but then i guess life’s not easy is it? so, kristen says, “what tips do you havefor a 2 year old when a new baby arrives?”. so, i think preparing them a little bit inadvance, but just talking about it maybe a week before it’s going to come along. they don’t really understand babies ...the concept of a new baby at 2. it’s all a bit out there and too much for them. so i think we tend to go into too much explanationto kids nowadays. so i’d like to keep it really really simple. it’s good to read a book to them about whena new baby arrives.

and i know sally from home and away i can’tremember her proper name, her un-stage name, but i know she wrote a book about my ... you know,"there’s a baby in mummy’s tummy". there’s a few other good books out thereabout those sort of things. and i think it’s good to just start to introducethat little concept, to get a stroller with a ... you know, with a dolly in it, or to havea little you know, sling with a little dolly in it. because then you can ... she’s got her ownlittle baby and you’ve got your baby. when baby comes along and if baby’s goingto be born in hospital, have baby in the cot when she comes into the room, so it doesn’tlook like you’ve replaced her with a newer better model because that’s what often what kids think.

get a toy, get a little gift wrapped up forher to give to the baby, and then a gift from the baby to her, okay. so it becomes a real special thing, that thisis your you know, your special little sister or brother, and they’re very excited to meet you, and this is a little present that they’ve got to welcome into the family. and i think just let her go at her pace, don’treally push her. you can get her involved in the day with thingslike bathing and nappies and stuff. use labelled praise for good gentle behaviourwith the child. because often kids at that age are a littlebit on the rough side because they’re not

sure about what ... you know ... what to do with this baby. and like i say, they’re testing boundaries at 2. but i wouldn’t go into too much explanation. expect there to be some acting out, expectto see some escalation. that’s when sometimes, you know, sleep andbehaviour can escalate a little bit. lots of blogs on there, and there’s alsoa blog on there kristen about how to introduce the sibling to the new baby as well. but it is something that every parent worriesabout and i think, just don’t make a big thing of it. because when we make a big thing of it, that’swhen it tends to go a little bit wrong.

and at 2, they don’t really have a concept of time. so you might think it’s really exciting. they probably won’t think it’s all that exciting unfortunately. but i think having a doll for her with youknow ... a little bassinet, a stroller and a little sling and she can just model the behaviourof what you’re doing. when you’re with baby at home and feeding,bring her in close. you can read a little book to her while you’refeeding the baby so it’s like a bit of special time for her, and having special time canbe really really helpful. so, exciting kristen. so congratulations,and i hope it all goes well. and amy says, “maddie is 6 weeks now, oh,yeah 6 weeks now, she’s going down and

greeting bassinet with every sleep fine, nocrying. but last few days, her day sleeps have onlybeen for 45 minutes to an hour. she tries to resettle when we go in, and resettle. i think we make her worse. she fights it. do we keep continuing to resettle with hand on chest? when we settle it can take over an hour, she’s still not settled back, and she's still not settled back to sleep.” babies under 3 months sometimes can’t put2 sleep cycles together, so i wouldn’t worry too much about that amy.

i ... you know ... i’d try a little bit of resettling,but i wouldn’t make a big meal of this. when she gets the message, she’ll just do it naturally. so, i would just go with whatever you can do. i think when she gets to 3 months, definitely resettle. but at this age, i’m happy for you not toresettle necessarily, okay. and particularly if she’s getting up andshe’s happy, you know, it’s more about when you put her down, that’s the key withhow long she’s going to sleep for. so it’s more to do with the timing thing. so she should be going down for a sleep byabout an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half.

i want to see a few tired signs, but that’sgoing to be your key there amy, but well done. you’ll get there, hard work pays off love. and obviously the baby massage as well, i’ve got to send you the book haven’t i? the video. sorry amy, i will send that rightaway as soon as i finish this. dipti, “hi karen ... what finger foods are okay for my 7 month old? your determined little mate dev.” as you’ve heard dipti, i know a lot of thesedetermined ones. i don’t know any other type of baby.

i never get to see them. “he gags on mushy veggies when he feedshimself, so i freak out and stop giving them to him altogether.” and i think every parent worries about thegag thing and the gag reflex. you need to get through that and the gag isprotective, and so it helps with moving them on with speech development. so they need to go onto lumpy stuff at 7 monthsof age, but finger foods are going to be your friend. so just put things onto cruskits, and likeavocado, philadelphia cheese, whatever, all sorts of things. i’ve even put oven roastedpumpkin or sweet potato onto cruskits as well.

so the cruskit can be great, because it’sbig, the bigger the bit of food the better. what finger foods for a 7 month old would i give? so, cruskits like i say with spreaded avocadoor philadelphia cream cheese. i’d also look at things like french toast,so it’s like egg and cream, and you can use brioche and pan fry it. that would be fine to give. i’d look at things like cucumber sticksyou cut into little strips. i’d look at things like sliced tomato, iwould look at some grated cheese, i'd look at a banana.

and you can give like a half a banana or just one. a whole banana. the avocado, you can even give avocado init’s actual shell, and they will actually suck it off the skin. make sure it is quite ripe. other things that i would give for ... sort offinger foods, i’d be looking at things, even like a frittata, omelette, scrambledeggs, because they’re all really soft foods. you need to start off on soft things first. oven roasted pumpkin, so oven roasted rootvegetables that you’ve oven roasted in olive oil they’re all great for finger foods,and have bigger bits rather than smaller bits.

so, when we give smaller bits, they tend moreto gag and choke on stuff. things that kids do choke on are things likepopcorn, which i don’t think anybody would give popcorn. babyccinos with the marshmallows.so babyccinos are a big choking hazard. cherry tomato, olives and cherries, you shouldalways cut those into quarters. same with grapes as well. so always cut them, never ever give a wholegrape, or a whole olive, or a cherry tomato. cut them in at least half, if not into quarters. frankfurters you can choke on as well, lolliesyou can choke on, nuts you can choke on. like i say it tends to be little bits of stuff,hard apple, hard carrot, they’re big choking hazards.

bread, i wouldn’t give bread as a first food. cruskits are fine because cruskits actuallymelt to mush in your mouth, so cruskits you’re safe with. test it yourself, so anything you eat yourselfyou think “ooh i could possibly choke on that," not a great idea. so, be careful with steak. steak that’sa bit, you know ... not great steak. i'd cook it medium/rare, same with lamb cutlets. so, they’re things that i would try first. at 7 months you could even give things likechicken drumsticks to your little man as well. if you’re looking at indian food and i’dbe looking at things like pakoras, onion bhajis,

which is yum yum yum yum yum! and i’d also be looking at bombay potatoesand all those lovely little yummy yummy yummy indian foods. so, things that are quite big ... get a holdof ... which i think yep, things like lentil patties all that sort of stuff. but that’s where i’d be starting dipti. so i hope that’s helped. now tracy, last but not least, my cousin tracy! hi tracy. so, “have been weaning taylor for a weekand a half..." and by weaning in england

we mean moving onto solids, because in australiathat means stopping breastfeeding, so it has a completely different connotation in englandthan what it has in australia. “so i’ve been weaning taylor for aweek and a half, and she won’t accept anything other than pureed food yet. am i expecting too much too soon? she gags on finger foods and spits them out,and also gags and spits on mashed food. is she just not ready to move on? she’s 25 weeks old now." so, 25 weeks, 5 ... 5s ... 25.

so she’s not quite ready yet tracy. when she’s exactly, karen’s maths is rubbish,when’s she’s exactly 6 months old, then i’d be looking at some of the things thati just explained to dipti about. i’d be looking at things that are reallysoft, i’ve got a heap of videos on youtube, they were my earlier little attempts at a youtube videos, so you can have a good laugh at them tracy. i even give a weather report in one of them. but it’s things like oven roasted root vegetables,pumpkin, butternut squash, sweet potato. they are great things to give as first finger foods. i’d also be looking at things like i said,your cucumber sticks, tomato that you’ve

cut into pieces as well. but just have a lookat my youtube video, banana, banana's a great one. you can’t choke on banana. but expect the gag reflex to happen, there’sa great video on there of oscar and the gag reflex. i think about 50 odd thousand people haveseen that video, that’s how much the gag reflex panics every parent. so always remember a gag is noisy, and a choke is silent. so if they’re gagging and they’re ... andit sounds really horrible, then that is a gag and it’s protective. and it goes away around 9 months of age.

try to keep your face straight and don’tworry about it. but it does look a bit revolting i know, butit’s just part of their speech development. so, i hope things go well tracy, all goodup there in leeds. and i hope you’re keeping well, and sayhi to auntie dot for me, and yes say hi to georgia and everybody and auntie sheila ifyou see anybody. so, bye from australia and bye from karenand that’s it for another facebook live,