If you were asked how long do you think a mattress should last, what would your answer be? Five years? 10 years? Or would you say something shocking like 15 years? It’s not uncommon for people to believe that a mattress should last around 10-15 years, even if they’ve only paid a couple of hundred pounds for it. The NBF estimates the average replacement cycle is 11-12 years. Most people only replace their mattresses when they’re finding them uncomfortable. But what they don’t take into account is that it is no...

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Because of my work with some of London's top Gastro Paediatricians, I am an Allied HEalth PRofessional and as such attended a conference in Greece in May 2016. It was an amazing trip with some excellent speakers talking about subjects that are very clsoe to my heart. I'm delighted to have been accredited by the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (EACCME) to provide CME activity for medical specialists after my attendance at the ESPGHAN conference in May

Dear Alison,  I have been meaning to email for a number of weeks now to thank you for all of your assistance since my daughter, Cressida, was just a couple of weeks old.  She is now 9 months and absolutely flourishing.  Without your help, we would not have questioned the advice of our local GPs on her reflux to more-or-less overdose her on Gaviscon and ‘under-dose’ her on ranitidine, and we would not have been to see the Paediatrician to get a proper diagnosis and treatment plan.  Whilst it has taken about 8 mon...

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Every family is different and has different expectations of what their perfect sleep scenario will look like. This is why there is no "one size fits all" approach.  How ever you and your family approach the issue of sleep, it should  suit your needs and feel right. Believe me, if we have happy parents, we will have a happy child/children. With every family that contacts me, I first need to rule out any medical issues such as reflux as reasons for waking. Once I have confidently done this, we can unpick the habits and work wi...

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Why breastfeeding is a learned skill and not necessarily an instinctive one!! Fascinating last lecture at ESPGHAN conference on Friday called Monkey See, MonkeyDo, presented by Patrick Van Veen, a biologist and behavioural scientist who studies primates to learn about human behaviour. One of his findings was that female gorillas in captivity who gave birth appeared to 'starve' their babies and not feed them, so the babies were hand reared by keepers. What he then did was to put 'human' breastfeeding mothers in view of the pregnant gorillas an...

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Did you know that Alison offers personal phone consultations? Every baby and each situation is different. Alison has found that talking to the parents is the best way to truly understand what the problems are and come up with a plan to resolve them.  She doesn't offer an email advice service because she needs to ask the right questions to get all  the right  information. Only when she has a real understanding can she give the right help. Talking things through can be incredibly helpful in itself.  Alison will make suggesti...

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