To celebrate Sophie starting to walk my mother in law and I took her along to a well-known shoe shop where you get a commemorative photo with your child’s first pair of proper shoes. It transpired that Sophie has quite small feet and the only shoes they had in her size were purple, since most of her clothes are pink we decided we would look elsewhere. As we were putting the shoes away in their respective boxes we both glanced away for a second… Sophie seized the opportunity to go exploring. As I looked up I spotted her walking very fast towards the stairs (the children’s department was on the first floor and someone had decided to prop the fire doors open). I shouted at her and started to run to grab her. She, thinking that this was a hilarious game of chase, shrieked with delight and began to move even more quickly – much to my dismay. Unfortunately I didn’t get to her in time and she took a nosedive down the stairs.

Luckily there were only four stairs and then a landing area so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but we all went in to shock. My mother in law and I were literally shaking and poor Sophie was crying her eyes out. The staff were about as useful as a chocolate teapot, I acknowledge that she is our responsibility, and that we should have been keeping a closer eye on her, but I still can’t believe that the fire doors had been propped open when there were young children in the shop. We had to fill in an accident form and then left the shop as quickly as we could, still with no shoes.

Even though Sophie seemed to be OK I decided to take her down to A&E for peace of mind – I knew I would worry if I didn’t get her checked over. She thought it was all a great adventure and loved all of the interesting things at the hospital, not to mention all of the fun toys in the kiddie’s corner. We were seen after an hour and a half and the nurses were great. They checked her over thoroughly and concurred that she was fine.

Aside from leaving me a little shaken, the whole experience has made me realise that now that she is walking there is danger around every corner. Much to her disgust we are now using the wrist lead and reins whenever we go out. They are great because I know she is always on the end of them, but she always seems to want to go in the opposite direction to me so on occasion we have ended up in a very tangled mess. I will keep persisting with them though because I don’t ever want to have that feeling again, it’s just a pity that you can’t steer them when they are wearing the reins.

For quite a number of months Sophie seems to have had a recurring runny bum. We have been back to the doctors several times and been prescribed mineral replacement salts, and several different types of cream for the nappy rash that seems to occur even though we change her nappies straight away. It is obviously quite painful when we try to clean her up before putting on a fresh nappy, which in turn is quite upsetting for us. We had worried that Sophie may be intolerant to milk, and booked another appointment with the health visitor to see whether this might be the case, and if not, to get an idea of what might be causing it.

The good news is that the health visitor doesn’t think Sophie is intolerant to milk, she believes that the symptoms are down to teething – as two more teeth have just come through I suppose it makes sense. The health visitor assured me that sometimes babies get really bad diarrhoea when they are teething, and that teething may also be the cause of her runny nose (at the moment she permanently looks like a slug has slithered across her face). As Sophie is gaining weight the health visitor is not unduly worried, but I have to get her weighed every month to keep an eye on her.

So, no cure for the runny bum and snotty nose but at least we now know that it’s not serious. Teething can go on until around the age of two so it looks like the slug trails may be around for some time yet…

 

How can so much snot come out of one small child? Poor Sophie has a cold again. Every time she sneezes a torrent of snot rushes from her nose and if you’re not quick it attaches itself to you and you get slimed. She has also perfected the art of the snot bubble and sometimes can do a double bubble, one from each nostril, not a great look. She is being very brave and putting on a smile as usual, I just wish Andy would be so brave when he has a cold… sorry, man flu.

My health visitor said I could try giving her some liquid vitamins and as it is sticky and sweet tasting Sophie doesn’t object. Since I discovered it tastes yummy I have found myself sneaking the odd spoonful as well, at last something that tastes great and is actually good for you.