u/Elegant-Pin9106

Hey everyone, hope this is okay to share. We tried an app called Bramble Trail this morning and my kids loved it. It’s basically a scavenger hunt you can do while you’re at the park or in the woods - kept them entertained for ages (especially useful today because we’re all taking it easy after the heat).
Thought I’d mention it in case anyone else is looking for easy ways to keep the kids engaged and not fighting/ doing your head in over the summer hols 😂 😅

Hey everyone, hope this is okay to share. We tried an app called Bramble Trail this morning and my kids loved it. It’s basically a scavenger hunt you can do while you’re at the park or in the woods - kept them entertained for ages (especially useful today because we’re all taking it easy after the heat).
Thought I’d mention it in case anyone else is looking for easy ways to keep the kids engaged and not fighting/ doing your head in over the summer hols 😂 😅

This is quite a tricky one to summarise but basically, I am still breastfeeding my 3.5 year old regularly. I am a SAHM and he goes to preschool 2 days a week. I nightweaned about 3 months ago because the wake ups were unbearable, but he still feeds multiple times a day and he is PERSISTENT.

My issue is that my family are very anti me still breastfeeding. My mum and dad keep telling me I am cruel to still be doing it, that I am setting my son up for a lifetime of bullying and being a mamas boy and effeminate. It’s ridiculous. I know it is. Every time I speak to my parents they are judging me, making comments, cutting me down for being “soft”.

We are all going away as an extended family in September and my mum and dad keep saying to me that I “have to” have given up by then. I know they won’t stop me from going, obviously, but the pressure I am receiving from them is just making me panic. I can’t help but take their comments to heart and think that I am prolonging the inevitable and that I am doing my son a disservice. Not by making him effeminate or anything like that, but not giving him freedom from me in some way.

Also, when AM I going to stop?! My son shows no signs of self weaning. In some ways, I want to stop because I want to feel free to go out of an evening without having to feed to sleep. I want to hopefully lose the extra weight I’ve been carrying. I want to stop being asked to do it. But I also feel so sad that he is my last child and it would be the end of a beautiful era that he is obviously not ready to give up yet.

I have told my son that as of tomorrow I will only be feeding in the morning after waking up, and before bedtime. But I feel so sad and guilty and ashamed of myself that I am being swayed in this decision by my parents. But then… it has to happen at some point!?

Sorry this is so rambling. I just feel completely lost in it all.

Hi everyone, I feel a bit melodramatic posting in here but I need advice.

My ferritin in 2024 was 30 and I started supplementing. Tested again in Oct 2025 and it was… 31 🫠. Started taking more iron - Boots brand 14mg a day x 3 and Pregnacare (I’m breastfeeding) which also contains 14mg. So 56mg a day.

Recently I’ve been having all the classic symptoms - palpitations, brain fog, muscle aches, depression, severe anxiety. I took one of those at-home tests because I couldn’t get a docs appointment until 18/05 and I wanted to see if Iron was the culprit again. The at home test showed that I was deficient again.

My periods are heavy and I breastfeed, don’t sleep brilliantly because kids, constant viral illnesses over the winter etc etc.

What I need to know is - how come it’s not going up?! 56mg a day feels like a lot and yet it’s seemingly making no difference. What am I doing wrong?!

Also - could these symptoms all be iron deficiency related, because it almost feels like there is something else going on. It’s not like I’m anaemic. Am I just looking for a convenient reason?

Any advice would be really appreciated. I feel like I’m doing all of this off my own back as doctors have always just said that my ferritin is normal and I’m always worried I’m over-supplementing and need to stop searching for an easy fix.

Thanks in advance!