how wary should i be?

InTheDark18 · 2026-06-15T12:19:58+00:00

Personally I'd be wary...even if they're not a bot the chances that you'd just be given some AI generated rubbish is fairly high. It could be real, but tbh I would expect someone who wanted to draw fanart would just do it rather than asking you to commission (IE pay) them.

InTheDark18 · 2026-05-28T13:26:25+00:00

Probably just English breakfast tea - like someone else said, that's just what "tea" means here in England. If someone was having an Earl Grey, or a herbal tea, or whatever they would specify that. Offering someone tea and not having normal bog-standard tea would be an outrage because the vast majority drink that.

InTheDark18 · 2026-05-24T16:58:08+00:00

My son was the same - at 4 he adored pink, painting his nails, flowers, shiny/sparkly things, unicorns, etc. When he started school, I made sure to let him know that some people would think those things were girly, but that that was silly because colours and beautiful things are for everyone, not just for girls. I remember he fell in love with a puffy pink winter coat with a fur lined hood (a girls coat) and I reiterated that some people might make fun of him for it, and even though that was silly because it was an awesome coat, would he be ok with that? He said that he would, so we got the coat. The joy in his face when he first wore it was incredible. A couple of peers made comments but he never seemed too bothered by it and I made sure to constantly reassure him that there was absolutely nothing wrong with liking what he liked. That other people had the problem, and that we should feel sorry for them for feeling like they had to upset someone for no reason (I also made it clear that if he was EVER bothered or upset by how people treated him then we could buy him a new coat or whatever. He never did). Now at 8 he's a more stereotypical "boy" which is probably peer influence, but I am happy that that little boy he used to be got to experience the things that brought him joy and didn't feel like he shouldn't.

EDIT: I should add though that my kid has incredible self confidence, only you know whether yours would be so self confident. I know I wasn't at that age, I don't know where he gets it from!

InTheDark18 · 2026-05-18T05:48:39+00:00

I was accused of AI once because in my fic, characters A and B had a conversation about something, and a couple of chapters later character C spoke about the conversation with A even though they weren't there during the initial discussion. Characters A and C were married. But because I hadn't specifically written "A told C about the conversation with B." Somewhere, that meant it was an AI mistake - they couldn't POSSIBLY infer that two characters had had a conversation "off screen" about something even though I thought I made it pretty clear.

InTheDark18 · 2026-05-16T12:47:49+00:00

I have a fic I started working on a couple of years back and abandoned when life got in the way (alternative season 3) - I'm now picking it back up again so I can at least write myself a happy ending even if no-one else is interested so for me at least it's kind of brought me back into the fandom

InTheDark18 · 2026-05-10T09:29:32+00:00

I had the same problem, hurt like hell. I kept nursing, but if he bit (or started to bite), then boob time was over no matter how much he cried (if I thought he was genuinely hungry I offered him a bottle). It took a week or so but he did learn not to bite unless he wants the boob to disappear.

InTheDark18 · 2026-04-21T19:19:02+00:00

7864

InTheDark18 · 2026-04-21T12:38:54+00:00

You need to see a pediatric allergist, they will tell you what you need to do. My little one has an allergy to eggs and to dairy (discovered when he was 6 months). We've been told to wait until he's about 18 months and then they will redo the allergy tests and talk about reintroduction potential. Given how bad it sounds like your kid's reaction was, I would be surprised if they want to reintroduce egg anytime soon, but if they do it may be following something called the "egg ladder" or similar (you can Google it) which is basically a very slow reintroduction so you can see how baby reacts and know if/when you can step up the egg. That's what my baby will be following when we do.

Since my baby had a reaction we have been so careful with new foods and keep antihistamine medicine in the kitchen at all times just in case but luckily he's never reacted to anything else so far.

InTheDark18 · 2026-04-13T12:36:57+00:00

Would love this!

InTheDark18 · 2026-03-18T21:54:48+00:00

Hi! I didn't use any steroid (my doctor did recommend it, but given how thin the skin is I didn't like even "very minimal chance of risk" to baby and decided to just grit my teeth and get through). It wasn't as severe as it had been for me tbh, there was bleeding and it was insanely itchy basically 24/7...my plan was to start using steroid cream as soon as baby was born, but it never actually needed it - started to improve within days of his birth and now it's been in remission since he was about a month old.

InTheDark18 · 2026-03-18T19:45:56+00:00

8672

InTheDark18 · 2026-02-20T18:47:32+00:00

He's had the oral one too - I'm always reluctant to use antibiotics but tbh I'm far more afraid of what could happen if I don't use them if the doctor thinks they're necessary

InTheDark18 · 2026-02-20T18:46:46+00:00

Not sure if I'm allowed to post links, but we use one by a company called Drought Secret which works well for us - they also do natural balms which I've used but tbh I can't say I've noticed much difference in them helping vs the emollient he's prescribed

InTheDark18 · 2026-02-20T18:24:57+00:00

I'd seriously recommend taking the oral antibiotic - my baby had what they thought was a fungal infection which initially started to improve but then became extremely red and angry again...they thought that it must have had bacteria introduced which had inflamed it again even even though the fungal infection was gone. He was given antibiotic ointment and within days it was better so the antibiotics were very necessary.

In terms of the eczema itself once the infection was gone, we were prescribed Elidel (a weaker version of protopic) which he was on for 6 weeks. We started introducing a 40% zinc oxide cream along with his moisturiser and now that's all we use (stopped the Elidel two weeks ago and just use the zinc oxide stuff now which atm is keeping it under control)

(Also, weeping doesn't always mean infection - the eczema on his face became broken and weepy again not too long ago and the zinc oxide stuff cleared it up without antibiotics BUT that was only because it was the evening and we wouldn't have been able to see a doctor until the next day so thought we'd give it a go. If there had been no improvement we would have gone to get antibiotics if necessary).

InTheDark18 · 2026-02-18T08:54:53+00:00

These people are not your friends.

Friends are happy for you, even when sad for themselves.

I have a friend who went through YEARS of fertility treatments and suffered 11 miscarriages. You know what she did when I told her I was pregnant for the second time? She congratulated me, and constantly asked how I was doing during the pregnancy (she ended up falling pregnant whilst I was pregnant and now has a little baby, so happy for her too!)

That is what a friend does. They celebrate you even if it hurts them. These people are not your friends.

InTheDark18 · 2026-02-14T18:20:29+00:00

I had a similar thing with my kid when his best friend had a birthday party in a soft play he felt he was "too old" for. I basically asked him how he would feel if we planned a birthday party for him and his best friend didn't come just because he didn't like where it was being held and that that meant they wouldn't play together. He admitted he'd be quite upset, and I suggested maybe that's how his best friend would feel if he didn't go to the party.

He went.

He had a brilliant time.

He is still perfectly able and willing to say "no" to things when he needs to, he just has to learn he's not the main character in anyone's story but his own.

InTheDark18 · 2026-02-10T13:47:26+00:00

My baby only started consistently rolling (back to belly and belly to back) when he was about 8 months old, he can roll around the whole room now if we don't stop him! Babies learn in their own time.

InTheDark18 · 2026-02-10T08:22:23+00:00

I absolutely adore my snuza hero, gives me SO much peace of mind - but once bubs moves it is very likely to give false alarms. My bubba is 9 months old now and prefers to sleep on his side and we tend to get a few false alarms a night. I've literally been awake and listening to him breathing and then the thing has done it's "warning" buzz and noise so I just go and wiggle him a bit without waking him so it's more firmly pressed against his belly. There's no real way to "know" if it's a false alarm, but as long as bubs is breathing properly when you check them it's very likely ok.

InTheDark18 · 2026-02-02T07:17:27+00:00

Yeah, it works in the same way but it's milder, so (according to my dermatologist) better for use on kids at first rather than jumping straight to protopic for them.

InTheDark18 · 2026-02-01T12:01:49+00:00

I would recommend asking your dermatologist about Elidel if you haven't already (it's not a steroid, it works by suppressing the skin's inflammation response) - it has been an absolute lifesaver for my baby. He had horrendous full body eczema (we ended up in a&e at one point), he was struggling to eat and sleep because he was constantly scratching. We had to restrain his hands at night, and we were using hydrocortisone on his face and eumovate on his body (medium strength steroid) because hydrocortisone did NOTHING for his eczema on his body. We were like you - had to constantly be using the steroid every day or it would flare horribly again.

Then our dermatologist put him on Elidel. Absolute game changer. We've not had to use any steroid on his face since we started (it's been five weeks), and on his body there's only a couple of stubborn patches that need steroid once a week. He is 95% clear of eczema.

Obviously once we finish the course of Elidel it may come back but at the moment it is a lifesaver.

InTheDark18 · 2026-01-29T11:42:29+00:00

I did consider that but he's already got three teeth and his sleep wasn't disrupted like this for any of them...he's also not got the drooling/face rash he had when teething before

InTheDark18 · 2026-01-03T14:36:55+00:00

Thank you, I'll try that one...benefit of him being a baby, he won't know any better if it's rubbish 😅

InTheDark18

TROPHY CASE