Toddler advice thread

[lasttime]

My son often wore converse and honestly he's never had a problem in them as the soles are quite hard. I found with my sons docs they actually caused him more pain as they were really hard for him to get his feet in even when we sized up x2.

Yea she has quite wide feet so I can see that being a problem for her too. I know she doesn't have wellies because apparently her feet/legs are too wide for wellies.

 

[Emsie]

So just wondering, how much do you get out with your toddler. For instance- in my case it’s just myself & my daughter who is 2. She goes to nursery Monday&Tuesdays and Wednesday and Thursday she’s at home with me. I always feel like I have to be out and about with her, at toddler groups etc.. and she enjoys them. Fridays she goes to a family members as I work (to save nursery fees too).. atleast once a month we go to the zoo (annual pass). I split the weekend with her Dad, so on the day we might go to the park or on the swings, or go for a walk in the woods etc. She has lots of toys and plays with them too at home so she’s never really bored.

I try and have one morning where we chill and just do nothing.. I feel like I do too much with her though compared to other mums on my Facebook. I just feel guilty when we are inside not doing a great deal and she’s stuck in front of the tv. The reason for my post is I’ve just gotten over covid and we’ve been pretty much housebound and she’s not been as bored as I thought she would be

How much do you do outside/groups with your toddler?

I'm the same as you but mainly because I get bored in the house all day. My toddler is fine playing with his toys. We do swimming and soft play and forest school on my two days off. Now the nicer weather is coming we will probably have a few more quieter garden days but I'm just not one for sitting in.

 

[Kim Mild]

How long should a 2 year old nap for? My little boy naps for 1.5 hours still and sometimes takes ages to get up that sometimes it stretches to 2 hours. Is this too long? Tia

Do you think it's too long for your households day to day routine? The people on the Internet aren't the nap police.

My 2 year old would sleep for hours in the afternoon if they weren't disturbed.

 

[BettyCrockerr]

I need some night training advice. My 4.5 yr old is the BEST sleeper but still in a nappy at night. She’s very keen to try to be dry but her room is completely pitch black at night. We tried a nightlight she squeezes to turn on next to a potty but she said it was too dark to find it. Does anyone have any genius ideas of ways she can get it light enough to use a potty?

Can she easily access the bathroom? If so, leave the toilet light on and door ajar, so that when she gets up she can see the light from her room and go to the toilet herself?

 

[strawberrysunshine_x]

Does anyone have any advice on taking a toddler on their first flight ?? We’ve booked to go to Spain In April and I’m a bit anxious about it as my little one ( who will be 3 ) doesn’t really like sitting still for long periods of time

 

[al255]

Maybe try not to be quite so ridged with the schedule. Instead of trying to put her down for a sleep (in the cot) or whatever at a set time maybe just let it flow a bit? A half hour nap on the sofa infront of the tv or whatever is still fine. If you are finding she’s grumpy after she wakes sometimes it just take perseverance - give it a few days and see how it goes?

Shes not that child at all to put it this way - she would sit on the sofa all day and say no for a nap, when she needs one and becomes overtired and a screaming, unhappy mess. She also needs a dark room and her bed to fall asleep in. She’s not the type of child to fall asleep anywhere tbh. We’ve just come back off hols and she wouldn’t go for a nap on the plane until she literally couldn’t keep her eyes open after 8.5 hours of being awake, she just fought it so bad! And this is why everything’s a mess cos routine on hol went to shit (we’ve only been back a few days)

With this being said she thrives off routine. Just can’t seem to get her bedtime right now her awake time has gone to 6 hours. I’m hoping soon she will drop the nap but might be another 6 months yet

 

[Bobbleowl90]

Hey looking for some tips please!

hoping to move our 2 year old from cot to bed next weekend (Easter weekend, bank holidays = doesn’t matter if he doesn’t sleep as no work ) and wanting advice to make it easy as possible! Do we go for a bed guard or has anybody used a bumper under the cover? Thank you

 

[quinzel]

Was hoping to get some advice about temper tantrums. We are truly in the throes of the terrible 2's in my house. Son is 2 and a half and I know temper tantrums are normal but just wondering to what extent? My son gets really angry. We call it his 'red mist' he will try to find something in his reach to throw. He has even started trying to lash out and hit us! is this normal? I will add here we don't display that type of behaviour so I am really struggling to see where it's coming from. His behaviour at nursery has always been good, never any problems there. Just seems to be with mum and dad he is like this. Anyone had any experience of this?

 

[WhatABore]

SO. I’ve been trialling waking my daughter up at 2pm. 1 hour 15 nap and bedtime is still well past 8pm.. lights out at 7.45pm and even that isn’t helping. Do I cut it down further to an hour?

I would say so. It's worth a try.

Can you start her bedtime routine earlier?
Do lights out at 7.30?
My 4yo has always taken at least half an hour to settle down

 

[al255]

When did everyone move their LOs into their own room?

Just wondering really...I've seen some people do it at 4, 6 and 12 months and others 2 years.

Personally, my LB is still with us but we will be looking to transition into his own room very soon

My daughter was 6 months and it was the best thing I did as she kept waking up when her Dad was getting up for work I had a breathing mat and monitor though as I was a very anxious first time mum. With that being said, we moved house when she was 1 and new surroundings doesn’t phase her really. As long as it’s “similar” to home I think she’s ok. Going from cot to toddler bed to single bed hasn’t been hard either!

 

[Jellybean093]

My son was 2 in September. He still has a nap, try and put him down at 12.30 for an hour but I always let him go over. A few times, at a 2pm wake up, he will mess around at night. I put him down at 7.30, but as he shares a room with my 5 year old, they can be messing around until 9pm! But he’s very good and stays in his cot and just chatters away, doesn’t moan x

 

[al255]

Do you think it's too long for your households day to day routine? The people on the Internet aren't the nap police.

My 2 year old would sleep for hours in the afternoon if they weren't disturbed.

My daughter would too she loves napping!

 

[al255]

My sister has a books called "hands are not for hitting". It’s not something we have had much experience with but we usually say similar, and then second time it happens I would say "I am not going to let you hit me, if it happens again I am going to leave the room/stop playing", and then if it happens again I simply walk away without a word. If it’s very bad I would just do the "I won’t let you it me" and then second time just walk away.

Thanks both!! She laughs and even when I fake cry she realises she’s hurt me. But she will forget about it and do it more or less straight after. I will try the above technique you mentioned first and see how I get on, thank you xx

 

[BettyCrockerr]

Hi guys. Just wondering if I can get some fellow parental opinions.

Took my 2.5 year old daughter to A&E Thursday night. Basically the childminder told me when I picked her up, that she's choked on some food at lunch and been sick, but that she was otherwise ok and just scared herself a bit mainly. Anyway, when we got home, she was hysterical, kept putting her fingers in her mouth, gagging, pulling these weird faces and sticking her tongue out and just generally miserable. So I rang 111 as I was worried that maybe some food was still lodged or something. The GP told me to go to A&E. They were a bit off with us and made us feel like we'd wasted their time, but they listened to her lungs and tried their best to look in her mouth (difficult!) and said nothing was there but maybe her throat was just sore from being sick or she was traumatised etc.
Roll on the next morning, she wakes up with a raging temp of 39.9. I instantly have visions of this being connected and her having bloody sepsis or something so we ring 111 again. After an age on hold, they say to wait for a callback from a GP. 5 hours later, the GP books us a face to face appointment. We turn up, GP is fuming we haven't done a lateral flow (my bad but I don't have any and I'm not paying!). Basically checks her temp which is lower by now as we've given Calpol etc, listens to her chest, checks briefly in her mouth and diagnoses tonsillitis.
NOW my issue is, the doc at the A&E the night before actually expressly said 'her tonsils are quite big but not red and definitely not infected'.
We've been given antibiotics (Penicillin V) but I cannot get them in to her for love nor money. 4 of us pinning her down and she still won't open her mouth and I've tried everything. She gets so distressed she then vomits and it's a waste of time. Can't put it in yoghurt or juice as it's bright orange, so she notices the colour change and the taste and just refuses it.

I know antibiotics are important but:

1) I'm wondering how two different GPs can have such differing opinions when they barely looked in her mouth in the first place.
Also she now has a runny nose and cough, which surely is a virus and ABs won't work?
2) Is it worth distressing my daughter and making her vomit? Disguising it is just not working and I'm worried she'll refuse to eat or drink even the tiny amount she is now having, as she suspects me of hiding it in her food.

If you read all this, thank you

If you can’t get the medicine down her then I think you’ve sort of answered your own question. The only other thing I can suggest is to mix it up with something like a capri sun or put it in a carton of juice so that she can’t see the colour and hope she will just suck the straw and down it before she realises.
It could be tonsillitis or just a cold. I think just keep an eye on her over the next 24hrs. Keep taking her temperature and if she gets any worse or her temp gets higher and isn’t coming down, call 111 back.

 

[PillowsofFluff]

We have Bluey bedding and dinosaur bedding, two of her favourites so I am hoping that helps
I guess my main concern is the getting out of bed and playing silly buggers but once the novelty wears off I'm sure it will be fine. Think we may try soon, once I get over my nerves

 

[BettyCrockerr]

At the moment she DEFO has to be up before 2:15pm but now I’m thinking 2pm. Then that’s 6 hours to bedtime. I just don’t want her to be cranky cos then the afternoon is a mess with a stressy toddler lol

Her nap time is too late in the day. If you want her to start going to sleep around 7.30/8pm you can’t have her asleep at 2pm!!!

If she wakes up at 7am let her nap either around 11ish for 30mins or 45mins or so and then get her up and give her lunch etc and then have a nice busy afternoon, dinner at 5ish then bath and into bed around 7/7.30 or keep her up until lunch at 12ish then let her nap after lunch but no more than an hour sleep make sure she’s awake before 1.30pm and having an active afternoon

 

[Ss1471]

Can I ask what age others put their little ones into a toddler bed from cot? My boy is 19 months old and recently when it comes to going into his cot at nighttime all hell breaks loose. He winds down really well, bath pjs then we sit in his chair to read some books whilst he has a cup of milk but then as soon as I go to put him into his cot he starts crying his heart out, a couple of occasions gripping onto the side to try and stop me lowering him in which broke my heart. I had a thought would it be easier if we moved to settling him in a bed so we would lie in there with him whilst he has milk and a story then leave when he’s pretty much asleep with a night light on, or is he too young yet? I feel like he’s old enough now to realise pitch black room in the cot the opposite of relaxing if that makes sense? Almost frightening for him?

 

[BettyCrockerr]

I will definitely give this a go and see how we get on. I predict he will find it annoying at first but I’ll persevere as it’s for his own good!

Well yeah he will!!!!!! But you sort of have to just persevere and not give in until he starts using proper sentences. He will 100% know the words and how to use them but he’s just being a bit lazy and doing the bare minimum because he can get away with it!

 

[saltandvinegarcrisps]

Should he just be able to stay dry whenever we’re out then? I thought he’d need to learn that aspect as well or once they know when they need to wee they just ask to go or take themselves regardless of being in a different environment?

Yes my son just asked to go wherever we were straight away, soft play, out for lunch, at the park, at nursery, grandparents houses etc. He just learned the signs and asked. He didn't want to have wet clothes but I get he was a fair bit older by the time he wanted to try so made sense he just got it and it was so easy and stress free.

I work full time so he's at nursery 4 days a week with one day at my mums so it wasn't that easy for me to get 121 time to focus on training, We did it over Christmas break and if he hadn't of gotten it I would have asked nursery for support in getting him out of nappies.

He will use a big toilet when we are out but prefers to use his potty and small toilet shaped potty at home as he can do it all himself. He uses a small toilet at his nursery etc so I'm not worried about him progressing on to that once he's ready. Whatever works for you and your child really, but if it's not working then pause it for sure.

 

[watermelon sugar]

Do you think it's too long for your households day to day routine? The people on the Internet aren't the nap police.

What do you mean?