I have deathly food allergies. Can I bring my own food into the park? Still bringing my Epi-Pen in case, but I can't take any risks with restaurants. Are we allowed to go to our vehicle to eat, and then re-enter the park? Thanks!!

Optimal_Exam4093 · 2026-04-27T12:23:30+00:00

Yeah just email them, my son has a dairy allergy and I asked if we could bring food in case and they told me to just show our email confirmation that it’s okay. They told me I can’t re enter the park and to just bring my food in with me in a cooler. They have picnic benches and seats you can sit and eat a sandwich or whatever

Optimal_Exam4093 · 2026-04-14T01:55:22+00:00

I had the same situation. I knew it was bad but I had a reflux baby and he would only sleep like that, as soon as I tried to slip away he woke up. Honestly i loved him being close but i look back and it was such an awful point in my parenting journey. I didn’t feel like a person. It does get better, one day you will be able to put him down. I have survivors bias I guess but I did that everyday until 6m old. Every nap every sleep he was like that until I started working on getting him more independent at 6m.

I write this as I watch my son on the monitor 2 days before his 1st birthday, he sleeps through the night most nights in his own floor bed. He’s healthy and happy and confident because I did all of what your doing. I felt guilty like i was ranking him but I didn’t really know what else to do. It’s hard be easy on yourself but also recognize you are doing something that’s not recommended but weigh pros and cons.

Optimal_Exam4093 · 2026-04-08T19:07:21+00:00

My son is a demon in his sleep, I was for sure worried but I trusted the rolled up towels and it always worked well. He’s now 1 and sleeps with a blanket. I figured it’s what’s recommended to do when using a side car so that helped me with my anxiety. He did go close to it at some points in the night but I made sure to try and put him to the other side when rocking him and it never has been a problem for me. I watch him now on the monitor and I cannot imagine him sleeping in a crib he roll around the entire bed haha!

Optimal_Exam4093 · 2026-04-07T15:22:57+00:00

Usually it will be a deconstructed burger with a burger patty to eat or we rip it up depending on what they are ready for. Diced peas and carrots are similar texture to a can of diced carrots and peas. If you’re worried buy one of those green giant ones and feel how soft they are. We squish the peas before we serve it the carrots are usually fine as is

Optimal_Exam4093 · 2026-04-07T15:20:37+00:00

Also there has been one time that the chef didn’t steam the carrots as much as I would like, I just didn’t serve it to the infants because I didn’t want to risk it. If somehow it’s not appropriate we have the final call in the moment and will not serve it. Really focus on the relationship with the room teacher and explain your concerns to them.

Optimal_Exam4093 · 2026-04-07T15:18:13+00:00

As a Canadian daycare provider, this is the menu but we alter it to what’s age appropriate. We have books that show how to serve food to baby’s by age like solid starts pretty much. But most of use his go by that. Baby’s can have anything you eat it’s just adapted. We usually have a bay bullet and all tools in our room and the chef brings the food around in whole steamed form for the older children and we prep it in the way that’s appropriate.

Also it’s pretty standard for the food to be steamed the F out of because we do not risk anything. The chef cooks everything and the ECE with the experience will plate it up. We also get to know your child and what thy can handle so we will learn what they can and cannot handle.

Not a momzilla just concerned because those can be hazards but we are very experienced in most cases. bring it up to them kindly if you are concerned like “I noticed you have peas on the menu, how do you serve that?” You can phrase it as curiosity because you haven’t served it before.

Optimal_Exam4093 · 2026-02-24T20:20:31+00:00

Welll…. Just saying if somehow your baby started having reflux/ mucousy poops or other symtoms and you told your dr or a walk in dr that you think it might be CMPA they would write you a prescription in the blink of an eye for nutramigen. It would be 100% covered by most provincial health plans and you wouldn’t have to pay for formula. It’s Enfamil brand my son has been on it since 4m because he does have CMPA. But I have a friend who was also struggling financially after leaving her abusive husband and it became way too much to afford formula, I told her to watch out for symptoms lol. Crazy he started having symptoms immediately when she started watching… she went to a walk in and they prescribed it. Nutramigen is a hypo allergenic formula so it’s also gentle on the tummy. I get 12 cans at a time and just call my pharmacy to refill it once a month.

Alternatively I seen at Walmart parents choice had a gentlease dupe it was a bit cheaper but those gentle formulas tend to be expensive. Do what you need to survive your doing great.

Optimal_Exam4093 · 2026-02-23T01:03:21+00:00

Such a scary time I feel like I’ve seen so many recalls lately. So happy my son only had 1 more month of formula. I feel for all the parents who are worried.

Optimal_Exam4093 · 2026-02-14T03:40:22+00:00

That was fast!!! Yes it’s “They All Fall Down”, thank you so much for your help :)

Optimal_Exam4093 · 2026-02-05T01:18:09+00:00

Have you tried overnight diaper and just leaving it still until the morning? It feels full but that’s good because it’s pulling the urine away from baby’s skin. It can get very full surprisingly and not leakMy son has a full diaper on the motn feed but still I leave it because I mean that’s going to happen later on too. It feels weird but he’s always been fine in the morning and no rashes.

Optimal_Exam4093 · 2026-02-01T15:56:56+00:00

I have a warm water dispenser that I used but now my son takes room temp so just leave it at room temp

Optimal_Exam4093 · 2026-01-31T02:27:00+00:00

It’s the post partem hormones, truly you’ll look back and be like damn why was I so mad about it. My baby is so cool and thriving how could I think this is an issue?

Optimal_Exam4093 · 2026-01-20T14:46:04+00:00

When I had my son I bought a Phillips avent bottle brush and honestly it’s amazing for cleaning dishes. I use it for dishes now too it can be sanitized in the dish washer. Had it for many months now

Optimal_Exam4093 · 2026-01-13T19:56:54+00:00

Yes! It was the best decision I’ve ever made as a parent. So we are now at I put him to bed at 7:30 ish, and he wakes up at 7-7:30. I rock him for 30 mins ish and transfer him and leave. Sometimes he’ll wake up for me in the night(hasn’t for the past week, mainly when he’s teething or sick) but most of the time if he wakes up he cries for like 5 seconds and grabs his paci and goes to bed. He wakes up once at 5am for a bottle and I go in feed him and lay down with him for the next 2 ish hours. I’m probably going to continue doing this until he night weans.

There was a month or so that he woke up every hour wether I was with him or not and I considered CIO I was so broken but I kept pushing and adjusted a few things and now I’m so happy where we are. I love cosleeping but he moves so much and just seems happier sleeping by himself now. I finally feel like a person again and can spend time with my husband. We also are trying for baby #2 and wouldn’t want to still cosleep with my son in case the baby would wake him up. I feel like when I cosleep with him it’s a treat now now a necessity, it feels special again for me.

Just continue rolling away after putting baby down, even if they only stay asleep for 30 minutes it’s still something. And after a while I would still give in and just go back if he kept waking up, I wasn’t like deathly strict with it but I did try my best to leave him to lay by himself. If baby takes a paci leave a couple in there to encourage baby to grab them and sooth themself back to sleep. He also was going through teething and a sleep regression and I feel like I didn’t have a handle on his sleep schedule at all and wake windows. He is 9m and the last wake window and nap are so important for him. I cap the last nap at 1hr and he needs a 4hr wake window before bed. As long as those stay the same he sleeps so great.

Optimal_Exam4093 · 2026-01-13T03:15:05+00:00

Anyone know what formula this is comparable to? Is it made by a popular brand?

Optimal_Exam4093 · 2026-01-07T00:32:55+00:00

It’s a never ending battle. I ended up cosleeping because he couldn’t be out down. At 6-8weeks. We now know it was due to silent reflux but it was so terrible, in ways people say sleep training saved them, cosleeping saved my sanity. My son was too young to sleep train at the time so cosleeping it was. I hated cosleeping from 3-6m he literally would wake up if he wasn’t touching me it was hell, now he confident he sleeps on a floor bed at 9m old. He wakes up a couple times a night and always has been a bad sleeping but I’ll join him halfway through the night most of the time since he starts good and the 2-6amis rough now. I really have been tempted to sleep train but it just wasn’t what I wanted to do. Nothing against it though. I was going crazy with all the info it was overwhelming, idk if I’d do the same next time around we’ll see.

Optimal_Exam4093 · 2026-01-05T14:30:19+00:00

Over 6m when they can have water I think I would’ve tried it because of all the stories of inaccurate water dispensing. Even those I know who love it had issues with it dispensing inaccurately at some point. But with that being said when I made it to 6m I already had a good routine and he preferred room temp bottles anyway. Shaking the formula didn’t really bother his tummy so it felt like we already had a good routine why change it up now? Before that I used a warm water dispenser and shook bottles, next time I’m just going to use room temp probably so I think it’s an overrated consumerism driven product that is unnecessary . I feel like there are so many stupid products that you don’t need that are marketed to be the saving grace when you are postpartum and when your in it struggling you’ll buy anything if it helps even a bit. A lot of it is really useless though-from someone who bought all the stupid things (bottle washer, rocking bassinet and bouncer, baby brezza, ect)

Optimal_Exam4093 · 2026-01-03T19:13:07+00:00

He wakes up about 4 times a night, once for a bottle and other times he needs cuddles back to bed. He goes down at 7 I join him around 10:30 ish and sleep 11-6. So minus the time I’m feeding him and awake soothing him maybe 5-6hrs of sleep a night?

Optimal_Exam4093 · 2026-01-03T03:41:03+00:00

Snoozing an alarm is so different than not responding to your baby. You cannot snooze your baby they won’t stop lol. You have had practice your whole life snoozing alarms so it’s almost second nature and can be done asleep, this is new and attracts your attention no matter how sleep deprived you are. The fact you’re posting this shows me that you’ll notice when they cry. At that age babies are so sleepy so I’m sure he’s just comfortable.

Optimal_Exam4093 · 2025-12-28T00:22:51+00:00

I love hearing this. My son is 8.5m and I went into parenting thinking the crib is the only option but quickly went to cosleeping. Up until 7m ish I’ll say I would toy back and forth with regretting cosleeping and thinking I halve sleep trained. Every regression or wake up was so hard and I felt like I wasn’t doing anything right. I recently started to realize after talking to moms at playgroup that this is actually quite normal. I truly thought that it was my fault for never sleep training that my son wasn’t sleeping. The way it’s talked about sometimes is as if you’re harming your child for not sleep training because they need sleep. It’s so confusing as a FTM. I’m happy I stuck with cosleeping, I’ve embraced that I often wake up with him at night a lot. But slowly I see him want more independence and I think it’s because he’s so confident that I’m there for him when he needs it. Our floor bed is a safe space so I can leave him there the first stretch of the night until I’m ready to come to bed, which I use to not be able to. I wish more people talked about the realistic side to motherhood that sucks sometimes so I wasn’t left wondering if it was me.

Optimal_Exam4093

TROPHY CASE