u/burned_feather

Baby is 6 months old, started solids at 5 months due to all readiness signs being met, absolutely loves to eat. At the moment I've just been giving her smallish amounts to try out new tastes and textures. For example 4-6 pieces of pasta, a couple of strawberries, a lump of cheese to gnaw on, one piece of broccoli, a few strips of toast with peanut butter -- you get the idea. Maybe two or three different items per meal. We do two meals per day at the moment, brunch at 11am and late lunch at 2:30pm usually.

When should I start giving her proper meal-sized portions? At the moment she never seems full, she just keeps eating as long as I'm offering food and we finish the meal when I get fed up with the mess or when it's close to naptime 😅 I'm not sure how to tell when she's had enough as she likes food so much! She doesn't play with it or squash it on purpose, she literally just tries her absolute best to get it into her mouth and all the mess is accidental. It's doing wonders for her fine motor skills at least 😂

Baby is doing great with weaning so far, one month in as we started at 5 months due to readiness. She loves fruit and most other finger foods and will eat good amounts of whatever I give her. She's also really got the hang of letting me feed her -- we don't do purees but if something is already puree consistency (yogurt, baby porridge) then I'll feed it to her with a spoon.

I know at some point she has to be able to use the spoon herself. But if I load it up and let her hold it she just bites it and makes a mess 😵‍💫 how do we get from here to the point where I can give her a spoon and a bowl and she'll get the contents into her mouth on her own?

So I added copepods to my tank a couple of weeks ago and was loving watching them. Gradually there seemed to be fewer and fewer out and about. Then today I noticed hydra!! (Also detritus worms, also rhabdocoela which scared me badly because they look similar to planaria 🤦)

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The tank is 3 weeks old and seems to be cycled already (0.25 nitrite reading has now dropped to 0, nitrates are at 5-10, I think I missed the ammonia spike as I didn't test for the first week and a half). The only inhabitants currently are bladder snails but I was planning on neocardinia..... which of course would not do great with hydra.

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What should I do? I'd prefer not to dose with chemicals as I want to add snails soon as well. I've read that honey gouramis will eat hydra (and they seem like such sweet fish as well, I'd really love one) but it's a room temperature tank so I'm not sure it would be warm enough. Do medaka eat hydra? They were my original plan to have as tankmates for my shrimp.

I've been reading about honey gouramis and they sound lovely. I'm in the process of setting up a heavily planted tank without a heater and I'm wondering if I could add one to it. Online I've seen some sources that say they should be kept at 22-28C and others that say they are fine anywhere from 18-28C, so wanted to get some more advice. The tank is in my living room, which is kept at a minimum of 19C all year round including overnight and in the summer is often well above that (we recently had a heatwave where it was 29C in there in the afternoons). Usual daytime temperature is 21C. Do you think it would be okay?

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I've also seen conflicting information on whether the minimum tank size is 5 gallons or 10 gallons for one honey gourami. My tank is 7 gallons so I hope it would be alright? The only other inhabitants will be neocardinia and possibly a few medaka.

I'm usually confident in our decision to cosleep but I've seen a couple of stories lately that have scared me. I hope this doesn't break rule 2 by talking about others but it's context for why I'm feeling worried. One was a mother who lost her baby while cosleeping (though it turned out the father put the baby down on a pillow instead of a safe space, and had also been doing drugs, so I felt quite angry that she was using her tragedy to say that all cosleeping was dangerous) and another was a mother following SS7 who woke up having rolled on top of her baby who was face down with their owlet going off (this one actually scared me more even though the baby was ok, because it sounded like she was doing everything right). Then the usual slew of comments on other posts by people talking about terrible situations they've seen as paramedics, nurses etc and how they would never cosleep because of that.

Here is our situation:

- baby is 5 months old, can roll both ways easily and is almost crawling

- we sleep on a floor bed with a firm mattress

- I wear a slumbersac instead of having a duvet

- there is only one pillow in the bed (mine) and it's natural latex so it's not soft and squishy like a normal pillow anyway

- I sleep either in the c curl facing baby or on my back

- baby sleeps on her side (rolls herself there) or her back, sometimes when falling asleep she rolls onto her front but I roll her back as she automatically holds her head up in that position so I don't think she actually wants to sleep like that

- I sleep lightly and wake up if baby moves or fusses

- while cosleeping I have never woken up in a different position to the one I fell asleep in

- baby sleeps through the night 8:30-6:30 or so

- the only part of SS7 we don't meet is that I formula feed

Does this sound safe to you? If cosleeping is the norm in cultures throughout human history and most of the world today then why do people have so many terrible stories about it? I understand eg Japan has high rates of cosleeping and extremely low SIDS rates but I don't know how to make it all add up when I keep seeing people talk about terrible things happening to their babies. I love cosleeping and don't want to stop but I want my baby to be okay.

Hi everyone 😊🐌

I'm currently in the process of setting up a 25L (6.6 gallons) tank. It is heavily planted (Walstad style but with a small sponge filter as well) and the cycle is underway. Currently it has copepods that I added on purpose and a few bladder snails that hitchhiked in. Once established it will have neocardinia and a few medaka, along with MTS that I plan to add to help keep the substrate healthy.

I would like to add a nice snail. I thought I'd come here where everyone has direct experience with them and ask what would be suitable! I know some of the bigger ones have a heavy bioload so may not be suitable for my tank. If it turns out I can only have a nerite then I'll also be happy with that, my local store has some very pretty ones and I think they're sweet.

Thankyou!

Baby is 5 months old. Until recently we were on 4 naps/6 bottles during the day but she started waking up super early and fighting the last nap hard so we dropped to 3 naps/5 bottles. It's the same amount of milk being offered overall as the bottles are larger now, plus she's actually finishing (or near-finishing) them whereas before she'd sometimes leave quite a bit. Feeds are now 3 1/4 hours apart, previously they were 2-3 hours apart.

It's only been a week or so, so I'm not sure if she's just still adjusting, but I'm a bit worried about whether I'm asking too much of her. Positives are: no longer fighting naps, goes to sleep quickly, better night sleep, finishes her bottles instead of playing with them and fussing, naps are usually longer than they were. But my one big concern is that by the time she's due a nap or a bottle she REALLY wants it and will cry a little more than she used to while I'm getting sorted (warming the bottle, putting the carrier on for her nap, etc).

I just don't want her to be upset? It's never more than a couple of minutes of crying (or 15-30 minutes of general fussiness leading up to a nap) but I don't know if I should be following the very first sign that she wants something rather than following a set schedule which seems to be pushing her close to the limits of what she can put up with. But if I did that then sleep would be a mess and feeds would be all over the place and I'd go crazy from not knowing what was going on!

(If it wasn't obvious, I'm autistic and thrive on a schedule myself 🙈)

Here's our schedule for a full picture:

- 7am wake up (sometimes closer to 6, but we just snuggle or play in bed until 7)

- just after 7am milk

- first nap starts at 9 or just before, usually 40-60 mins

- milk between 10:15-10:30 depending on cues

- next nap starts between 12 and 12:45 depending on what we're doing, this can be a long nap of 70 mins or above

- milk at 1:30, or 2 if it was a late/long nap

- last nap starts any time between 3 and 4:30 depending on the middle nap and our activities, but it's always over some time between 4 and 5

- milk between 4:45-5 depending on cues

- milk and bedtime at 8, asleep by 8:30

We are currently in the very early stages of weaning and baby is loving it. I showed her a banana the day after she'd tasted it for the first time and she reacted like I'd shown her a bottle of milk 🤣

I know at this age we offer milk first, and then food a little while after the feed. At the moment she's not actually swallowing enough food for it to make a difference (though the enthusiasm is certainly there lol). When do we switch to offering food first when she gets hungry?

Hi everyone, I made a post on the shrimptank sub but got no replies so thought I'd ask here and hope some shrimp keepers are about! I'm starting a tank and have found lots of advice on what to feed online but no clear guidelines on how to feed it!

Here's what I plan to get:

- glasgarten bacter ae

- glasgarten shrimp dinner

- glasgarten shrimp baby

- vegetable wafers (small sinking food)

- snowflake protein food

I'm going to start with six neocardinia but hopefully will end up with more before too long 🤞 what schedule would you suggest for these foods? Alternate between them? Feed once a day?

There will also be a few rice fish in the tank but they will be fed separately (tropical micro pellets twice a day).

We are currently a couple of days into weaning. She's doing really well with a small soft open cup (I hold it, she puts her mouth on the edge/in the water and I can hear her swallow, it also has two handles so she can hold it herself eventually) and we have the miracle 360 trainer cup for when she's a little bit older. I HATE straw cups/bottles with a passion as they're a massive pain to clean and I would never have one myself. But do I have to get one for her? Will she be missing out on some kind of development if I don't teach her to use one?

How often and how much are you feeding your shrimp? I've found a lot of advice on what to feed online but no clear guidelines on how to feed it!

Here's what I plan to get:

- glasgarten bacter ae

- glasgarten shrimp dinner

- glasgarten shrimp baby

- vegetable wafers (small sinking food)

- snowflake

I'm going to start with six neocardinia but hopefully will end up with more before too long 🤞 what schedule would you suggest for these foods? Alternate between them? Feed once a day?

There will also be a few rice fish in the tank but they will be fed separately (tropical micro pellets twice a day).

Weaning is almost upon us! All I have for baby so far is a pack of spoons 🤣 what plates and bowls have you found best for daily use? I'd like to avoid plastic but I've heard silicone ends up absorbing smells?

I've been looking at getting an adult slumbersac as baby (4.5 months) has started rotating in the bed and trying to end up upside down and even though I keep my duvet away from her it feels a little risky. I have a question though if anyone has one -- do the foot covers feel like socks? I can't stand wearing socks in bed and can't sleep if my feet don't feel free 🙈 I'd honestly prefer a sleeping bag shaped like the baby ones but they don't seem to make those!

I'm considering partial EC for my 4.5 month old -- mainly I just don't want to deal with pooey nappies once she starts solids 🙈 but I can't quite wrap my head around how it will work. Right now she's very predictable with her poos which theoretically is a good thing, but the problem is that she does 70% of them while she's feeding and the other 30% immediately afterwards. The ones that come immediately afterwards I can understand, although I'm still not sure how I'm supposed to get her undressed fast enough when she doesn't give a very long warning, but what am I supposed to do during the feeds? She signals quite clearly (stops sucking on the bottle, starts grunting) but again it's not a very long warning and more importantly I can't imagine she'd be impressed if I took the bottle away! Anyone else have a baby who likes to poo and eat at the same time? 🤣

Alright, this one is going to be a real bat to the hornets' nest, so I'll apologise for that in advance. Just a rant tbh.

I'm starting to get really annoyed with how many people act derisive and assume you're not going to follow through when you say you're going screen free for the first few years. Just saw someone say it's a bingo card item for unrealistic crap people say before they actually become parents, along the same lines as how everyone says they won't get an epidural until they're actually in labour and then they're begging for it!

I don't get it. I was raised screen free, I don't watch TV myself although I've gone through plenty of phases of being glued to it in the past, currently I don't even have a TV in my living room. TVs and tablets and so on are such a recent invention; parents survived for all the rest of history without them. I don't care what anyone else does with their kids but why is everyone assuming I won't have the "willpower" to not give my daughter a screen? I've nannied for toddler triplets without screens, I think I can handle my own single baby.

I know I'm probably sounding like a right asshole by saying all this but I just don't understand why it's supposed to be this unrealistic difficult impossibility to avoid screens. Just don't buy the damn ipad or whatever in the first place. Or do if you want to! But don't assume everyone else is going to.

Little one is 4.5 months. Usually a very happy baby but has started to be grouchy and unsettled and a little bit off her milk (still acting very hungry at the usual times but will decide she's done after only 1/2 - 3/4 of the bottle). She's also taking longer to settle down at night, whining/wriggling even with her eyes shut for almost twice as long as usual -- but she's been having shorter wake windows during the day because she seems really tired. Today she woke from a nap at 4 and was inconsolably tired at 5!

Initially I thought it's because she's had a snotty nose this past week (which is also weird because it's not like a cold, her nose isn't blocked and she has no other symptoms, just snotty noises when breathing sometimes and a bit runny), but I've also noticed she's really starting to bite things quite hard rather than suck them when she puts them in her mouth. Sometimes she seems a bit uncomfortable while she's doing all that biting. Massive amounts of dribble as well.

Could it be teething? I can't see or feel any lumps in her gums yet. If it is what can I give her to help? Calpol? I've seen people mention gels or powders? I have six younger siblings so I usually know what to do but our mum has always been quite anti-medication so I'm a bit clueless here.