My son thinks I'm a t*t

I was warned in advance by many wiser people than me that Vanessa and I would reach the stage where we'd do almost anything to get our baby to stop crying, or eat or whatever.

Jamie's crying has worsened a bit over the last couple of days and the two of us are currently working on ingenious strategies to help him stop.

However, on the feeding, the reverse has happened; he wasn't so good at the start but is now getting much better.

Vanessa took the very brave decision to breastfeed Jamie and, although this might not continue indefinitely, she and he have got quite good at it over the last 10 days.

The health benefits attributed to breastfeeding are considerable so the efforts have certainly been worth it thus far. On the downside, it's not immediately clear what the father can do to help with this particular aspect of childcare. Unless you employ a little ingenuity, that is.

The hardest part is to get the baby "on to mummy," so to speak. And once you've got him on, sometimes he'll get frustrated that he's not getting milk as quickly as he'd like and becomes unsettled.

It is at either of these points that daddy's nose can come into play. Well, my nose, which is pictured for your convenience.

Jamie first latched on to my nose when one of his first feeds at home wasn't going too well. And he didn't quickly let go. Indeed, he sucked viciously on it 'til it hurt. And because I didn't want to upset him, I just let him carry on.

Since then, if he's not showing enthusiasm for a feed, we'll try him on my nose. And if he's showing frustration to the point where he needs to be calmed, he's back on my beaker.

Other than the fact that I've broken it playing rugby in three different capital cities (good ice-breaker fact that or what?!), I've never thought that my nose is particularly special. A bit big, maybe, but certainly without magical powers. But, following events, I might now have to re-evaluate the situation.

That said, there is clearly a negative side to this story.

I've been called a tit many times in the past but I've never been told I physically resemble one.

Kids these days can be just so harsh.