Kel,
Quinn wasn't so sure about swimming lessons to start with but liked it enough by the end, they don't have their heads under water in the first lesson - they just do gradual face under water activities, there is lots of singing and swishing and turning, they put mouth under the water, then mouth and nose then next week it is head under, there are babies there who have already done a term and they go under water and actually swim to their parent - it is soooo gorgeous to watch them, Quinn is the youngest in the class and the littlest - which I am loving because he is usually the biggest even if he is the youngest

Infants friend is an Australian made thing and it has a website so you can have a look on there, I've never seen it in any books either - it has anise oil in it so that is the aniseed smell, but when they are at that screaming point you can't tell if they don't like or do - because of the SCREAMING. Having people on your back about techniques to deal with SCREAMING is so frustrating especially during SCREAMING when you can't hear them anyway - I had a lady trying to sell me a pixie photo while Quinn was going bananas...If I had a free hand I think I would have slapped her, but she did say that a benefit of SCREAMING babies was that they grow up really smart - her daughter had bad wind and is now "really smart" so she would know! Of course being stupid enough to try and sell a mother a pixie photo while she is holding a SCREAMING baby is not a good advertisement for her intuition when it comes to children.

Ryn: I don't even have an accident to blame the giant scratch on I just look like I drag my baby backwards through blackberry bushes!