My top ten Books...The best way to escape!

Books! Ain't they great!
 I love to read, I read in the bath, on the loo ( Sorry TMI, but comes from the days that we had a stack of  Mandy's, Dandy's and Beano's nestled in our bathroom!) BUT I am gutted for kids that they just don't seem to have the passion for reading these days.
I understand, a computer gives you instant access to a world where you feel involved, a fantastic escape, but so do books! But it all depends on you as a parent for how you get your kids into books.
Do you read alot yourself? Granted, a lot of the time there just isn't enough hours in the day, but MAKE time. Reading for yourself will make your kids sit up and want to do it themselves, our own little copy-cats!

My idea of Heaven...Just throw in some digestives and I'm there baby! 

My kids only started to love to read because of one book I shared with them from my childhood. I had great fun reading it to them, I made the characters sound fun, I screamed where it was needed, I left them wondering at the end of each chapter what was going to happen next.....Before I knew it, I had got them!
I blogged a little about this book the other day, Room 13 by Robert Swindells. Its a fantastic book, its slightly scary, about kids on a school trip and their encounter with ....Nawww, you'll have to read it for yourself, blimey there are some cracking good reads out there! 

I am actually pretty soon going to be related to one of those! Teresa Ashby ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Teresa+Ashby&x=0&y=0!) has been a writer pretty much all her life. I love her way of writing, I always feel comfortable in her stories, and that is what I look for when I'm reading a book, just how quickly have I adjusted to this authors use of words?
Teresa does a lot of magazine work, as well as taking care of her grandchildren. I really don't know how she does it! But a lovelier writer you couldn't hope to meet. Read her cracking blogs here! ( I am hoping to learn alot, namely how to shorten my blogs lol) http://teresaashby.blogspot.co.uk/

So I guess I'll start my top ten with Firestarter!

10. Firestarter. Stephen King 

It starts with Charlie McGee, ( In the film played by a very young Drew Barrymore) Many years before her mother and father participated in a psychological study back in college which gave them very strange powers indeed. However, theirs is nothing compared to what their beautiful baby daughter can do....This sparks interest in the Founders of the study and they want little Charlie, and will stop at nothing to get her back. 


 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Firestarter-Stephen-King/dp/0340899042/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1335349058&sr=8-13

The book made me cry, the film made me cry harder, however it will always be a firm favourite.

9. Second Child. John Saul.  

Secret Cove. Ruggedly beautiful and remote, bordered by dark woods and deserted beaches, this postcard-perfect village harbours the mansions of the wealthy - families who have summered in splendid seclusion at Secret Cove for generations.

Here, one hundred years ago, on the night of the annual August Moon Ball, a shy and lovely servant girl committed a single, unspeakable act of violence - an act so shocking its legacy lives still. And now, long after the horror of that night has faded to a tale whispered by children around summer camp fires, an unholy terror is about to be reborn. Now, one family is about to feel the icy hand of supernatural fear - as Melissa Holloway, shy and troubled and just thirteen years old, comes to know the blood-drenched secret that waits behind a locked attic door ....

For in the dead of night as Secret Cove sleeps unaware, a soul-chilling presence slowly begins to enact a terrifying vengeance. 


Most of John Saul's books are terribly frightening, and based around young children, which makes them more terrifying. I do love to be scared, however in John Saul's books you are never quite sure who the goody or baddie is until the final twist, which is why he is such a favourite with me. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Second-Child-John-Saul/dp/0553058770/ref=sr_1_30?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335349407&sr=1-30 

8.  Heaven By Virginia Andrews.  

Such a fabulous story. I love it, I never wanted the family saga to end.

HER NAME WAS HEAVEN, HER LIFE WAS ANYTHING BUT

Heaven’s mother Angel,  had died in childbirth, and from that moment her father turned against her. Her only allies, it seemed, were her four half-brothers and sisters.

When their father, poor and desperate, sold them to strangers, Heaven was left alone and friendless. Her only hope was to reunite her family. But how?

So begins the heartbreaking, magical story of the Casteel family, continued in ‘Dark Angel’, ‘Fallen Hearts’, ‘Gates of Paradise’ and ‘Web of Dreams’.
One of the most tragic yet beautiful stories I have read. 

7. Bless the Child. Cathy Cash-Spellman 

AN INNOCENT CHILD IN MORTAL DANGER. AN AGE-OLD BATTLE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL.

 Vibrant, youthful, and a grandmother at forty-two, Maggie O'Connor has lovingly raised her drug-addicted daughter's child ever since the newborn appeared on her doorstep three years ago. But when little Cody is kidnapped and sequestered inside a satanic cult, Maggie's world is shattered by unimaginable evil. Drawing strength from the bond she shares with her granddaughter, Maggie vows to fight anyone and everyone who dares to claim this child for themselves. Even the Devil.

This had to be in my top ten, as the story grips me like no other. I love the belief of life after death, and they touch upon this a lot in this book. If you have watched the film, it barely even TOUCHES the book, a sad disappointment to the book, but worth watching on its own ground. Stars Kim Basinger. http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Bless_the_Child.html?id=kSbBhpHh1M0C&redir_esc=y

6. Flowers in the Attic. Virginia Andrews. 

Cathy and her brother Chris and their younger twin siblings are waiting for their beloved Daddy to come home for his surprise party. They get the surprise though with the tragedy that soon unfolds. A loving mother turns into a stranger they barely know, an evil grandmother who knows no love for the Devils Spawn' she believes her grandchildren to be, and a moment of love, that despite laws, no-one could blame anyone for. A story of life, death and hardship but most of all the courage to escape the claws of evil before the children are lost to the world forever.


The first Virginia Andrews book I ever read, and it is a corker. An absolute must-read, but have a hanky ready!   http://fallenangels.fan-sites.org/books/vcandrews/dollanganger/

5. Intensity; Dean Koontz 

I have watched the film of this, and Edgler Vess is actually played by one of my favourite actors, and actually does the guy justice! Shame its not on DVD as its a corker of a film, really a tense thriller that you can get your teeth into. Edgler Vess is a sociopath intent on murder. He lives for one purpose only: to satisfy all appetites as they arise, seeking ever more outrageous experience. To live with intensity. 

When he attacks her friend, Laura, Chyna Shepherd is saved by the instincts developed during a dark and turbulent childhood. Not knowing Laura is already dead, Chyna follows, hoping to save her friend, as Vess carries her body to his motor home - a dungeon and morgue on wheels. The killer, unaware of her presence, drives away.  But Chyna is now trapped in his dangerous orbit.

 Her sole aim is to get out alive, but when she learns the identity of the killer's next intended victim, a young girl he has abducted and keeping at home in his cellar, she knows she must act to save that precious life - and take risks beyond any that she ever imagined she could endure.
So tense, if you bite your nails on a regular basis I suggest having a teething ring handy for this book, I usually have to read it sitting bolt upright, as you cannot slouch when Edgler Vess is about! http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intensity-Dean-Koontz/dp/0747248400/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335358867&sr=1-1

4.The Adultery Club; Tess Stimson

Something a little less sad and gruesome! I never thought I would get into any kind of chic-lit, what a mistake that was! I had read this book in one evening, not because it was so easy to read but simply because the story had got me hook line and sinker!

  Nicholas Lyon is the perfect husband—a handsome divorce attorney who dotes on his family. Sara Kaplan is the perfect seductress—a vivacious young lawyer unburdened by sexual scruples. And Malinche Lyon is the perfect wife—a beautiful cookbook writer and mother to three darling daughters. Now, in this smart, wickedly sexy novel, Nick, Sara, and Malinche are all about to join…The Adultery Club

Suddenly Nicholas—a man totally in love with his wife—is fantasizing about Sara. Sara is toying with Nick. And Malinche is facing temptations of her own. While appetites are whetted and sated from London to the English countryside, one heretofore happily married man and two very different women are about to discover the difference between fulfilling your wildest desires—and getting your just deserts!

A flaming great read n a little bit saucy! http://www.randomhouse.com/book/173652/the-adultery-club-by-tess-stimson

3.The Walking Dead; Charlie Adlard & Robert Kirkman.

Now you might have caught the last two series of the Walking Dead on Sky, however yet again, the programme does not touch the books, and the programme is great in itself. 

I bought these for my fella after a friend of his at work loaned him the first two, and we never looked back. Sadly my fella had pneumonia last Feb but these books kept him going throughout all the agony. 

Set in a comic book style, these are most definitely NOT for children!!

From sexual scenes to children having their heads cut off, ( oh Lord watch out for book seven!) This book really doesn't have anywhere to hide for any of the characters. Its gutting, like real life. Death is indiscriminate to whom he picks. No-one, not even your lead character is safe, and this makes the whole collection of books so amazing to read. The artwork is phenomenal. So if you have a Zombie-hungry fella, these would make the perfect gift! As they say, In a world ruled by the Dead, we are finally forced to start living!

Have re-read and re-read, and awaiting book fifteen!  http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Walking-Dead-Compendium-Volume/dp/1607060760/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335354310&sr=1-1

2.Juniper / A Year and a Day ; Monica Furlong

A beautiful story known by two names. Ninnoc is a haughty Princess who enjoys the finer things in life: That is until her Godmother Euny comes to take her for her training to become a Doran. Ninnoc is told her real name is Juniper, and that if she is to save her parents' Kingdom and her new-born baby sibling from her fathers sister, the Black Witch Meroot Juniper must take the powers of the Doran seriously. For Juniper the way Euny lives is unbelievable, the poorness, the cold winters, and the cruel way in which Euny treats her, so can she really stick at it for a Year and a day to save the ones she loves?

A beautiful book that follows on with Wise Child and Colman, full of magic and love and sheer beauty. You can almost smell the salt of the sea and feel the strength of the Dorans magic in Monica Furlongs books!  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Juniper-Monica-Furlong/dp/0679833692/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335354512&sr=1-4 

So, Number one! I haven't really done these in any particular order, however my number one book has to go to............................................

 

1. Lets Pretend; Jacqueline Wilson.

When you say the name Jacqueline Wilson, these days you think of kids books, (AWESOME) kids books and perhaps the programme Tracey Beaker. However years ago when she first started, Jacqueline started writing crime/thrillers, and they are to date the first books I pack if I go away anywhere.
They are a little dated, but it honestly doesn't spoil the books one iota. Its not really so's you'd notice, and it actually makes the books a little darker.

Young Emily, a girl bordering on puberty awakens one morning to have a massive argument with her

quiet down-trodden mother, and storms off to school. On arriving home, Emily is shocked to realise her mother is now missing, and no-one knows where she could be.
In Emily's mind, there's only one answer. Her nerdy Step-father Adrian whom she dislikes.
No-one will listen to her, no-one will take her seriously, and at first Emily is enjoying the attention having a missing mother gives you, but what happens if mummy never comes back, and this is no longer fun, but reality?
Unwanted by her real father who has re-married, Emily struggles with life without her mum and tries desperately to find her. But where could she be?

This book was bought for me by my mum when I was little, the picture of the little girl on the front leading her to believe this was a kids book. Its actually a very dark twisted story that really captures the imagination. Everyone has been the kid that no-one listens to at some point or another, and I identified with this book massively. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lets-Pretend-Penguin-crime-fiction/dp/0140046259/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335353074&sr=1-1

I cannot live without reading, I read at least three books a week, whether they are new or old ones I'm re-reading. Its a home away from home, somewhere where I can hide for a while and live vicariously through a million different people. When I lived in a hostel, and there was no-where to go but the one little room I dwelled within, I turned to Books the way some people turn to God. So for your kids sake, or even your own, get a book, and get reading. My choices are mainly quite macabre, but there are a zillion different books out there from Child Wizards to the Wizard of Oz! I want to know what YOU read, what books I should try next, and maybe when they see how much pleasure can be derived from a few hundred pages of text on paper, we can all get our kids loving books as much as they love their PS3! 

Well, Maybe!

Losing Mr. Bubbles...

He always looked so sad.....I wonder if you can get Prozac for Fish?

Bye Bye, Mr Bubbles....

Roxy loves all living creatures, slimy or scaley!

   

Roxy loved him in her own little way. He was a loyal fish, but I had noticed he was poorly for a few days now.
I think the swimming in circles and dipping to one side gave it away!
I tried all the tricks the web had given me but to no avail.
The problems were: He was barely swimming, sinking to the bottom, barely opening his gills to breathe, he'd then start swimming again then once more end up on his side. Apparently by this point of illness there is very little you can do to help. A massive water change of about 75% is needed, which I did, and I googled so many places. Its funny how attached to this little fishy I had become.
I read this message after posting about my little swimming friend by someone who sounds like they knew their fishy stuff. Here is a link if you are having any fish/animal problems that I found very useful.
http://www.justanswer.com/veterinary/experts.html
             

'Almost sounds like dropsy or TB beginings. Or, you could be feeding it too much and the water quality has gotten bad from it. Uneaten food and fish poop creates ammonia. When your tank cycles it is supposed to remove the ammonia. If you are feeding to much the uneaten food and fish poop overload the "bio-filter" and the "system" crashes. If the water quality is bad (meaning too much ammonia in this case) the fish stresses because of the toxicity. It is unhealthy and the fish is suseptible to disease and gets poisoned.' Well, later on today I went to check on him, and sadly he had gone to that huge aquarium in the sky. Sad, I cried but knew I had to go through something much worse...telling a sensitive four year old girl that her first pet was no more. "...So Mr. Bubbles was sad, because he felt poorly and he wanted his Mummy, ok? Like you want your Mummy when you feel poorly?" She nods her head. " So Mr Bubbles has gone now, where he isn't poorly anymore and he can swim all day and never get tired!" More nodding. "So you understand my lovely, that Mr. Bubbles has gone...I know its sad but he is now so so happy, and he loves you so much for being his mummy down here, but now hes the fastest fish in Heaven!" A slight nod...then." So where is he?" Her big baby blues are challenging me now, I sense danger. "He's.... in Heaven darling." A confused look, one that can usually lead to laughter or crying. "But hes dead then?" "Yes my darling, he was very ill and he died." It was the latter, and I swear that when that penny finally dropped the scream probably shattered ear-drums in Africa. It was so heartbreaking to watch her hyperventilating over the fish-tank, begging him to come back and she would feed him, to come back and she would give him the biggest cuddle and even let him stay in her room! Bless my ten year old though, he took his little sisters hand, and they went into the front room, where my little arty-dude Jordan sat and made a little cross out of lolly sticks ( Pictures to follow.) He coloured them all in with pen with 'R.I.P. Mr Bubbles' on it and told Roxy that they would have a proper burial for Mr. Bubbles in the Garden. I went to have a look and was a little dismayed to find he had dug up half of the garden with a fork, and the tiny wooden cross was slap bang where the kids walk to get on the trampoline, but said it could stay there the night until I had to move it to a better location. I can think of better evenings spent rather than digging up dead goldfish, but its for Roxy, so It shall be done. I wrote a poem for him, as it did move me to tears. Poor fishy friend! Mr Bubbles. Why did you go? Was it because of me? Did I feed you too much? Too much dinner, too much tea? Could I have saved you? Could I have helped you stay alive? I tried changing your water but you were floating on one side! You looked at me with empty eyes I hope you weren't in pain, I tried to help I really did But then you'd sink again. I do not think there's anything worse than seeing your child cry It really hurt her oh so much that she didn't say goodbye. So darling Mr. Bubbles, I hope you've now found peace swimming up in heaven in a million fish filled Seas. I hope you no longer suffer and can swim so far and true and we'll keep our little secret that I flushed you down the loo. Carrie xxx As you can see, a bit of an animal lover! It was a sad day today. Mr. Bubbles had been with us only a short while, given to us by a friend as they were moving away. He was ceremoniously given to my four year old daughter as her first proper pet. My youngest son and eldest daughter have always been so close...

Filling their time...do we HAVE to?

I have heard quite a lot recently about how parents feel so bad when their kids have an afternoon of doing nothing. Its all Go Go Go for kids these days, especially at school.
I know not all schools are the same, but take homework for example. My four year old Roxy is supposed to do twenty minutes reading as well as practise her 'Basket of words' and also a worksheet a week. Two of my children were born right at the end of August ( same day with seven years in-between), making them only a day away from being in the year below, and the amount of work they have to get through is astonishing!
So when I hear people saying "Oh I felt so guilty, Jimmy-Joe spent an hour yesterday on his computer/playstation/watching a dvd!"
 Shock gasp horror!
Far from being lazy at school I know our kids are worked pretty hard, so why not let them have afternoons where they do nothing? Do you know how much tougher it is at school now? Its a dog eat dog world out there, and our kids sometimes need to learn that you can just relax for a while!
I think we have now got ourselves the inpatient generation that just don't know how to chill out!
Years ago I had my old Spectrum computer, I was only seven or eight I think when my dad gave it to me & I loved her! I had only two games at first, and to start the game, you would have to type in the code, rewind the tape, press play and enter and wait for about 20 odd minutes ( if you were lucky!) for it to load up, and that was if it didn't crash and you'd have to start all over again! If mine have a game that crashes, it takes them seconds to re-start, but they fidget and moan and whine, they have no patience!
( Well, my ten year old has patience with his Art-work see below, its the only time he'll sit still for longer than 20 minutes!)

This 'Barbarian' is actually WOLF from Gladiators! Although me and my bro
thought he looked rather like  our Milkman!

Some of my ten year olds Art work! 

Mouldy Voldy! I love this one!

Voldemort! 

My older two boys Matt n Jordan know that for every hour on the computer they have an hour or so playing outside. I like them having a chill-out but at the same time they do need sunshine and to stretch their legs! But when I see them curled up with a book or watching a film at the weekend, years ago I would have chivvied them outside again, or told them off for being so lazy! But seeing how much homework they have and how tired they get, I have learned they don't always have to be running about and playing, they do that when they feel like it, if I force them I don't think its fair. So now the majority f the weekend is spent with them wrestling on the trampoline, their little sisters desperate to join in and kick some butt, and when they feel like just lounging around their room listening to youtube and watching dvds, I don't feel guilty. I just hope they squeeze the most out of it they can, this lounging about. I sometimes wish for nothing more than a lay-in where I can stay in bed until midday and read a book and consume toast with marmalade and milky coffees. Since we gave up a our bedroom for the kids we haven't had one lay in. Our bedroom is the front room, and we can't tell the kids to stay out, so up we get, usually about 6, wishing the kids would have just one lay-in themselves, but alas, too impatient for the day to begin!

My beautiful four year old always wants someone to play with her,despite our old adage of
"We had to play alone when we were younger, go and find something to do!"
And if this doesn't work, Daddy either gets roped in to watching Snow-White for the millionth time, or Jordan gets bribed into taking her on the trampoline and they play Fairies. Something tells me Jordan will never quite forgive me for this one......

But we feel so guilty, I don't think I'm the only one. When we hear parents up at the school saying about how little Tarquin has so many after-school clubs now, there aren't enough afternoons left, so now they've had to combine some of his classes and he can now do ballet on horse-back whilst playing Yankee-Doodle-Dandy on the guitar! In all seriousness I hear how guilty parents feel that So-and- so is playing the Oboe, doing three swimming classes a week, singing lessons, then off to the childminders, then doing the school play...add onto this homework and revision which now starts earlier and earlier and you wonder when on Earth these kids just laze around with a bottle of pop and watch Grange Hill or playing on their Z.X Spectrum....Ok I may be a bit out there time-wise lol but you know what I mean! (God I miss my Spectrum!)

But should I feel bad that my kids don't completely fill their time with extra-curricular activities? Or should I be pleased that my kids are doing just that, being kids! We don't have a car, so maybe that has stopped us in the past being able to get them to everything they wished they could join. But like I say, extra avtivities are great for kids, just not every single day!

I am certainly not saying that after school clubs are a bad thing, I am merely saying that perhaps we are so intent on filling every second of our kids lives with different things, learning an instrument, homework, revision....always trying to better our child to give them that extra step up, but when then do they get to be kids?

I was a lazy kid, I wanted to be home, head in a book, or out with my friends, making bases! I had loads of things I wanted to do, but I think my mum and dad felt guilty that I wasn't part of an outside group, filling my time! But hell, no-one knows better than I that what your parents tell you when you're younger is crud!
"Oh don't worry darling, when you're older you'll have the time to read all the books you want!' My mum would say. Errr, right, I'll squeeze my Helen Dunmore in-between changing nappies and doing a shop, making the dinner that only four out of six will eat and cleaning the darned toilet! ( My 'Be a Sweetie Wipe the Seatie!' is SO not working!!!!' But bored? I was never ever bored!

Jaqueline Wilson filled my time perfectly thank-you! ( Side note!) :Lets Pretend by Jaqueline Wilson Oh my goodness if you haven't read some of her earlier work then you really must. I read this book as a ten year old and still love it as a 31 year old, its very dark, not a kids book at all ( think my mum bought it as there is ayoung girl on the cover!) But this book if you can find it is not to be missed! Sorry, had to add this as its my favourite book of all time, such a twist!

Anyway! Enough of my ramblings now! I am off to go and play with my almost two year old ( Yes, the Fit-ty one who keeps going to Kamikaze off of the sofa backwards, no fear that girl, no fear at all! She is learning to keep herself occupied with her toys and pens and paper, but of course we have to teach them to play, plus it gives me a great excuse for leaving the washing up a bit longer!

So I leave you with this message. Unless your child is consuming his body-weight in Doritos, feet on your favourite sofa, and you feel like telling him to get out, go playing, go do something, go revise.....Give them a break, just for a minute....With all our worrying about how inactive kids are, at school they pretty much don't stop. Let them have their lazy moments without feeling bad, its not too long before they will be us! Their own families, their own problems and worries, bills and rent to pay, Jobs to do and kids to shout at, while their Harry Potter books we bought them gather dust on a shelf ....Let them be kids, just for a little while, in fact, why not join them!! :-)

Another side note, a great book that has gotten two out of my four kids into reading! http://www.feltham.hounslow.sch.uk/FCC%20Library%20-%20good%20reads%20-%20Room%2013.htm
Room 13 is a must-buy!...I had this book read to me by a wonderful teacher when I was about 9. I never forgot the Story of Fliss and her friends on a school trip to Whitby, and the Mystery of the disappearing room. And why does one of Fliss's friends have small blood red puncture wounds on her neck? An unforgettably creepy story written brilliantly by the fabulous Robert Swindells, This book was the winner of the Childrens book award, and still scares me as a toughened 31 year old!

B.H.S and how we deal with it!....(Breath Holding Spells, not the shop!)

IF KIDS ARE OUR FUTURE, WHERE THE HELL ARE THE KEYS TO MY DELOREAN!?

Ok thats harsh...I actually LOVE kids, I have four! Two boys and two girls. But life ain't always a box of chocolates with them is it?

We, meaning myself, my fiance Rich and our children Matt, Jordan, Roxanna and little Charlie           (She is in the picture here, just waiting to be born!) we live quite far from all of our family, so we of course do have our struggling moments. But we overcome most with out P.M.A! Yep, from bullying, to burnt dinners to bad cases of the norovirus, Positive mental attitude is what keeps this family ticking along!

Life is hard for everyone at the moment, what with Job cuts, the governments brutality against the average family and simply life itself becoming harsher and less patient, hopefully with my blog you will see you don't need a massive bank-balance to be happy, nor to be Miss World to feel beautiful. Just P.M.A, cuddles,  and chocolate! Its the secret of life don't ya know!

I have been a single mum, for seven years it was just me and my boys, until Richy came along. We are due to get married in June. I am going to use this blog to sound off, to sound out, and to promote the things we cannot live without, and the little things that make us happy! 

Small mouthed Frog!!!

Wide mouthed Frog!!!!

This week, I shall be mostly blogging about.........................B.H.S.!
No, not the shop! Although you would be forgiven for thinking that!
My daughter Charlie has recently been diagnosed with B.H.S which stands for Breath Holding Spells.
Now that doesn't sound too bad, holding their breath, so what? But anyone who knows a child with this may tell you different. 

Firstly, what makes me angry the most is having to justify my daughters actions. Yes, she gets into a massive paddy, yes she then holds her breath until she turns white and then collapses.And yes, sometimes this leads to her having a fit...so what do you do???

We first saw this happen when our 22 month old daughter began to toddle aged about 12 months old. From being a very calm chilled out baby who slept through the night, almost overnight she became Scary Charlie! 
You only had to tell her No in the quietest of voices, and it could set her off. She would start crying so loudly ( not too unlike the sound of the old Air-Raid sirens!) and then it would either tail off, or the sound of her next cry would never come, and instead you would see her standing there, her mouth open, eyes scared, until she would topple forwards and collapse, falling unconscious for a few moments. Absolutely terrifying.

We learnt quickly that if she was getting into a paddy, be it through being told No or hurting herself, that we had to intercept her. At first we weren't always quick enough. Her newest thing was to climb up onto the sofa in an absolute paddy and simply let herself fall to the floor like some kind of suicidal bid of attention. But I know deep down this isn't her choice to be like this, the fear in her eyes after an episode shows me as a mother that my little girl doesn't want to do this, she has no choice. 

The worst time was a few weeks ago when I shut the back door. Yep, All I did was shut the door so she could no longer go outside. She screamed, then ran across the room, she was crying, but as always, suddenly the sound never came, her lips turned purple and before I could reach her, she had toppled forward, landing on her face. I picked her up, her breathing had stopped so I blew strongly into her face, this can sometimes shock them into taking a breath. Others rely on water, but I find by the time I've gotten to the taps she's over the worst! 

Well, this time the blowing in the face didn't do anything, nor did me shouting her name. Charlies eyes were in the back of her head and her body was jerking as if in a seizure so I knew I had to get her into the recovery position in case she swallowed her tongue or hurt herself more. This is difficult as your first reaction is to scream and shake them awake, and cuddle them close.

Petrified I asked my 13 yr old son, Matt, to remove my four year old daughter Roxanna who by this point was crying seeing her sister in such distress. I had forgotten about her in all the worry. Charlie then started to cry normally, it had all taken under a minute, but in my heart it may as well have been hours.

There are some key things required when your child has a fit. Its easy to learn them, but oh so difficult to remember them when you're panicking, so maybe get a list and have it printed out and put it on your fridge or in your bag, this way if there is ( touch wood there isn't!) an emergency, you can focus on something. 


Firstly do ensure a visit to your doctor to rule out any anaemia as anaemic children will suffer from BHS more than others. Also your doctor can rule out any other causes. 

The main points are to keep calm, if your child does suffer from BHS try to avoid the situations that set him/her off! ( Easier said than done!) If they do start crying and you are worried then hold your child without giving too much attention until he/she calms down, then when they seem calmer just let them carry on as normal. I find now if I have to say "no" to Charlie, I do so by getting down to her level and holding tightly onto her hands ( not so tight it hurts!) but firmly enough to hold her in case my discipline sets her off!

Lastly, don't worry. Kids are resilient little things! After an episode she soon forgets what happened and can carry on as normal. They do grow out of these episodes I'm told, usually by the age of six. Fear or pain can set them off, so you can't ever stop them from happening no matter how careful you are. Just know that if your child does suffer, forget any stares or mumblings that your child is just 'Having a tantrum!' Ignore! Your baby cannot help this, so enjoy knowing your child is special as the more positively you deal with this, the easier it will get!

Do let me know any tips or experiences you have had with BHS, as Its always nice to hear of others dealing with it, stops you feeling so alone! xxx Lotsa love, Carrie!