Which Baby Products Are Safe?

I was talking to a friend of mine, who is a nurse and she mentioned that I shouldn't put sunscreen on my baby till he is at least 6 months. Weird. "Why?", I asked. She said that there are chemicals that could be irritating to the baby's skin, or even be dangerous... That got me thinking. What exactly is in the baby products that I use?

I found this website that lists products (I've been able to find everything we use) and you can search them to see if the products you use are considered safe, have lower levels of chemicals and other carcinogenic properties, allergens, etc.

HERE is the link.

I don't mean to cause unnecessary concern, but I like the quote by Maya Angelou "Now that I know better, I do better". I'm using up the products that I have, but once they are gone, I'll probably be more selective about certain things I get for Colin, like his body wash/shampoo, lotions, bug spray, etc... If I can limit the harmful substances that he comes in contact with, I try to. Just passing along the info - hope it helps!

Delaying Solids - an interesting article

I just found this article interesting. It makes some good points about why it can be beneficial to delay giving baby solids. Hope you like it. :)

http://www.naturalnews.com/027418_iron_food_foods.html

Great Slings

I thought I'd just share some great slings if you're looking for a good one for wearing your little one. My favorites are the Maya Wrap, Sleeping Baby Productions and Comfy Joey. Sleeping Baby Productions has the most affordable options, just FYI.

Sleeping Baby Productions: http://www.sleepingbaby.net/basics.php

Maya Wrap: https://www.mayawrap.com/oasiscrm/shopping.asp?Directive=ItemList&Parent=Baby&Category=RS

Comfy Joey: http://www.comfyjoey.com/catalog.php?category=40

A friend of mine has a Maya wrap and it is GREAT to use in a hip carry. LOVED IT!

Wraps/Slings are also really good to use with newborns. The Sleeping Baby Productions link has a link to some great information at the top of their page, on wearing baby safely. I recommend taking a look at it.

Happy shopping & babywearing!

Naps: are they hard for you and your little one?

It seems like with each new "stage" in Colin's life, we find that nap time changes, a little. In the early days (first 3 months) Colin would sleep whenever he needed to. I didn't have a schedule for him to nap and I just followed his cues. He usually took between 3-5 naps per day, ranging from 30 minutes to 2 hours. Then around 3 months, naps became more challenging. He seemed to be easily distracted by what was going on around him and couldn't "let go" to sleep. I had to make some changes.

I started watching his cues more carefully. I tried to be home for nap time, because this seemed to help him sleep better and longer. I also made an effort to help him drift off to dream land. Sometimes that meant patting his back/bottom to help him fall asleep. Many times I would nurse him to sleep, which worked very well. (I'm a big fan)

Now that he is 6 months old, it seems like he doesn't need to take as many naps but also has a harder time falling and staying asleep. I do not subscribe to the "cry-it-out" philosophy, which seems to be the typical advice I am given....

I don't like "cry-it-out" methods for two reasons:

1) I think that letting a child cry alone is a very sad thing and sends a very sad/depressing message to the child. I worked in orphanages in Romania and saw first hand, the effects of neglecting a child's needs in this way. Babies and Children do not cry there. At all. It was very strange and very sad. They have learned that crying will not illicit a response from a care giver so crying is not beneficial. They have learned to be silent because they will not be helped. This is an extreme example, I know, but it has the same result. Babies who are left in their cribs to "cry it out" learn a form of behavior modification, which leads them to the conclusion that when they are in their crib, they will not be helped. They won't cry because they know no one will come to them. I cannot, and will not, ever do that to my child or any other child.

Information on "cry-it-out" methods and reasons it is not beneficial:

http://www.pantley.com/elizabeth/books/0071381392.php?nid=386&isbn=0071381392

http://www.kellymom.com/parenting/sleep/4mo-sleep.html

http://www.kellymom.com/parenting/sleep/comfortnursing.html#cry

http://www.storknet.com/cubbies/parenting/cryitout.htm

Also, check out AskDrSears.com for more on Attachment Parenting.

2) I believe that parenting wasn't meant to be "easy" or "simple". I believe parenting is about putting your whole heart into it, getting "knee deep in mud" so to speak and making a lot of personal sacrifice. To me, letting your baby "cry-it-out" is taking the easy way out. I think attachment parenting takes more effort and I believe that anything worth having in life is worth the effort and sacrifice it takes to have it. Children included.


So, wanting to find some info on helping Colin take better naps, I stumbled across this website:

http://www.pantley.com/elizabeth/advice/0071381392.php?nid=424

It has a lot of helpful information, in my humble opinion, and helped me come to some realistic expectations. Maybe it will help you, too.

This table of sleeping hours, is included in the link above. I just found it very helpful and I love charts/tables/graphs. ;)

Average hours of daytime and nighttime sleep

Age	Number of naps	Total length of naptime hours	Nighttime sleep hours**	Total of nighttime and naptime sleep
Newborn*
3 months	3	5 – 6	10 – 11	15
6 months	2	3 – 4	10 - 11	14 – 15
9 months	2	2 ½ - 4	11 - 12	14
12 months	1–2	2 – 3	11 ½ –12	13 ½ –14
18 months	1–2	2 – 3	11 ¼ -12	13 – 14
2 years	1	1–2 ½	11–12	13 – 13 ½
2 ½ years	1	1 ½ -2	11–11 ½	13 – 13 ½
3 years	1	1–1 ½	11 –11 ½	12 – 13
4 years	0 -1	0 -1	11–11 ½	11 – 12 ½
5-6 years	0 -1	0 -1	11	11 – 12

Here is some info on Kellymom.com about nursing your baby to sleep and other comfort measures:

http://www.kellymom.com/parenting/sleep/comfortnursing.html

Good luck! I hope naps are a little easier for us all. :)

RENT a baby carrier to see if you like it :o)

There are SO many options out there for baby carriers. Some are better than others. Then there are many great choices, but it just comes down to personal preference... Are you tall? thin? have an older baby? more than one child? need versatility? need something easy and quick to use?

There is no "magic" baby carrier that works for everyone, all the time, in my humble opinion. But there are some carriers that work better for some and in certain situations. You may find that as baby grows, your preference changes.

If budget is important (I know for me, it is!) then there are some great tools to help with carrier purchases to keep cost lower.

1) See if you can borrow from a friend that has a carrier you like. Maybe they will even sell it to you for a lower price, since its used, or you could kinda "rent" from them for a small amount of money.

2) Look on Craigslist or other on-line sites for used carriers. Most carriers are washable and hold up well after lots of use so even if its been used for one or two babies, it likely still has lots of life left in it. You can usually save more than 50% this way.

3) Try renting a carrier before you commit to buying. That way you know you like it (or don't like it) before you are out the money. Good carriers usually cost between $50-150 (some a little more, some a little less) so it helps to be SURE you like it. GRANOLA BABIES is a great website that allows you to rent a carrier for $10 (the cost of shipping) with a deposit. Once you return the carrier, after trying it out, the deposit becomes an in store credit you can use towards any carrier. HEAVENLY HOLDS is another website that lets you rent before you commit.

4) For simple carriers, you can find templates on-line to make your own! If you are pretty good at sewing, you can make a wrap or sling type carrier, usually for less than $25.

5) Check out on-line stores like Zulily or Babyhalfoff to find great discounted deals on lots of baby stuff. Sales change daily and are limited. Many times there will be deep discounts on versions that are being discontinued. This may mean major or minor changes to the product... just depends.


It can be overwhelming trying to find the right thing at the right price. Try to be patient and ask lots of questions.

I've also found that great support websites help where you can talk to other Moms who have tried the carrier you're interested in and can answer questions. TheBabyWearer.com is a great resource as is Diaperswappers.com with a forum devoted just to baby wearing.

Good luck! I hope this helps!

Our culture doesn't support it...

but it is normal for human infants to breastfeed and to continue breastfeeding for 2.5 years on average (maybe even longer!). It is also normal for human infants to wake during the night, several times, until the age of 3-4 years old! Western society does not support this, but anthropologically speaking, it is normal and healthy.

Here is link to read more: http://www.kathydettwyler.org/detsleepthrough.html

Its an interesting short read, if nothing else. :)

Cebu City, Phillipines

On the visitor feed I saw that we had a visitor from Cebu City, in the Phillipines!

I hope you enjoyed the blog! :) Thanks for visiting!

Someone from Sweden visited!!!

I was looking at the visitor feed and saw that someone from Goteborg, Vastra Gotaland Sweden visited the blog! Very cool. :)

I've never been there but I'd love to go!

If my memory serves me correctly, I think Sweden has some of the highest midwife assisted births in the developed world. I believe they also have some of the highest breastfeeding rates, too! Sweden (I believe) also headed the way with kangaroo care for NICU babies and pioneered the idea that babies thrive and are healthier when they are with their Mother, skin-to-skin. The Swedish people are very smart! :)

I hope you enjoyed the blog!

Baby Wearing - GREAT INFO!!!

I just found this awesome website by a really neat lady named Kristi and it has TONS of great info on baby wearing.

She shares tips, tricks, and safety info. She also tells you which carriers are great and which ones should be avoided (like the plague!) and she gives good reviews. I seriously can't say enough great things about this website. Go check it out for yourself!

http://betterbabywearing.blogspot.com/2010/03/babyweaing-overload.html

I also learned quite a bit about wearing baby safely. Not all carriers are designed well and may be harmful to baby's spine. I had no idea...

Here is some more info on that: http://www.sleepywrap.com/2008/11/ha...t-in-carriers/

And here is more on baby wearing safety for baby: http://www.continuum-concept.org/rea...nalStress.html

From the blog post (at the top) I learned that the Infantino and Bjorn brands have a narrow seat that puts baby in an unsafe position and is not good for their little developing spine. I obviously didn't know that and used an infantino when Colin was just a newbie...

(I think he was about 3 weeks in this picture)

I also have the Moby Wrap, which is a safe wrap style carrier that is great for use with tiny newborns, from 8 to 35 lbs

(This is Colin at 5 weeks in the Moby - He loved it and would usually fall asleep in it! He still loves it, even now!)

(This is Colin in the Moby, under my coat, at 3.5 months)

Oh, and be careful about buying baby carriers that are "homemade" or from ETSY shops/Ebay. I'm not trying to say anything bad about ETSY - I love it and have found lots of great things there - you just have to be careful about buying something that will be holding your baby... it needs to be made REALLY well and there are safety designs that not all makers follow. Just FYI.

Good luck and happy baby wearing!!!

Tandem Nursing - Is it for you?

My little one is now 6 months (tomorrow!) and boy have things been busy around here! There isn't as much time to be on the computer as I once had (when he was a sleepy newborn...) but its really fun having an active and interactive baby to play with all the time, too! I'll try to post more often, as I get my time more organized. ;)

I've been thinking a lot about having a second (I know, crazy... my little one is ONLY 6 months!) and I've been trying to decide what I would do as far as breastfeeding. To tandem nurse, or not to tandem nurse... that is my question.

I have been reading some great stuff on Kellymom.com and I thought I'd share in case you were thinking about the same things. Hope it helps you, too!

Thoughts from Kellymom.com:
http://kellymom.com/nursingtwo/articles/tandempregnancytips.html

An excerpt from a book called "Adventures in Tandem Nursing": http://kellymom.com/nursingtwo/excerpts/TN_ch.011.pdf

Tandem nursing may not be for every mom, but some moms may really enjoy it. Plus, if you are faced with the idea of having to wean because of pregnancy or a new baby when your current little one is not yet 2 yrs, this might be a viable option to continue nursing. The American Academy of Family Physicians asserts that breastfeeding during a healthy pregnancy is a personal decision for the mother--indeed, that weaning before two years of age can increase a child's risk of illness. (Another option, if breastfeeding while pregnant, or tandem feeding doesn't work for you, is to have some pumped milk frozen that you can give your little one till they are two. Even 3-4 oz a day would give their immune system a boost as they head into the toddler years, not to mention a nutritional boost - the perfect natural supplement!)