Winter's coming

Just sent these product picks to a friend of mine and thought I might as well post them here also.

Nature's Baby Organics
Organic Soothing Stick
great for chapped lips and cheeks, dry skin, minor skin irritations, etc. A diaper bag (or even purse) must. available here

Alba
Multi-Purpose Un-Petroleum Jelly
great for snotty noses and red cheeks
available here

This friend was also looking for mittens for her 4-month-old. Hannah Anderson sells mittens as small as XXS, they can be a little pricey but for mamas of very young ones the price may be worth it to avoid driving all over to find them in stores.

boogie wipes

I got these the last time my son was sick after reading great reviews about them from other moms. They are saline wipes designed to wipe little noses with. I totally like the idea of a moist gentle wipe to get off the gooped up and stuck on crust from my little guy's nose. At home I often use a warm wet washcloth on his nose. Although I don't absolutely love these wipes as other moms have, and they didn't have my son running to me for nose wipes, I do like them from keeping in the diaper bag, they are much gentler on sensitive sickly noses then the dry tissues I would otherwise use when we are out and about.

click here for the boogie wipes website where you can join the "boogie bunch" and get a $1 off coupon

I found boogie wipes at Walgreens. You can also order them from diapers.com coupon code "Jami" will get you $10 off your first order of $49 or more and go through ebates for cash back.

tyke light Jr

I was very excited about the tyke light jr for our trip. Since we went to Ireland we didn't want to deal with outlet adapter and that this light ran on batteries seemed perfect. It is also small and light weight, great for travel. However, I was slightly disappointed in the amount of light it gave off. Even in the "low" setting the small light illuminated the entire room. Much more light than what my son is used to when sleeping. I do like the idea of being able to see my son if I have to go in to help him during nights in strange places, but this was a bit too much light for him to have on for sleeping. If your child typically sleeps with a significant amount of light than this is a good light for travel or everyday use. If you child is used to less light when he/she sleeps you might want to think again before purchasing.

The Pampered Chef: Stonware

OK, a little bias here since I sell Pampered Chef, but I just love stoneware. It just bakes so great. And makes a great gift for showers, holidays, birthdays, etc. So, what's better than stoneware? Stoneware on special! You can get 20% off most items this month, 60% off one item if you host a show. Interested? Contact your Pampered Chef consultant. Need help? Just leave a comment or email stlmamablog.gmail.com

mutli-vitamin for toddlers

I just started giving my toddler these multivitamins. Of course this this a decision you should make along with your pediatrician.

Here is what I liked about them

• most other vitamins I looked at started at age 3 or 4, you can start these at 13 months
• the loads of vitamin C (I was looking to build immunity before our upcoming trip)
• no added sugar
• my friend used them with her son and he's not contracted colds from the YMCA's nursery since starting them
• they are from a company I trust
• my son can easily chew them, once you bit in they break up quickly

What I don't like about them:

• they are "candy like," but so were all the others I looked at, so it's really nothing against this particular brand, just how kid vitamins are I guess
• the dosage for my child's age does not contain the recommended 400 IUs of vitamin D, but that is ok too since I already have a year's supply of D drops

for more information:

http://www.sweetpea.usana.com/

Diapers and Wipes

Diaper Down Low
I LOVE BumGenius diapers from Cotton Babies. My son has never had a diaper rash from them. They are cute, soft, and comfy. And they grow with your child so you only have to buy them once. The only thing I don't like about them is that after all these months of use the velcro tabs are starting to roll out and not say closed like they used to. Part of this is my fault for buying only about half the number of diapers we really needed, so mine have had lots of wear. Also Cotton Babies are great and will send replacement tabs out for free if you can just find someone to sew them on for you.

I HATE pampers. The smell is intolerable. We had some when we first came home from the hospital and tried to air them out on our deck in a laundry basket for days because of the smell...and they still stunk! Not to mention disposable diapers do not decompose well and will still be in a landfill 500 years from now.

I do like Seventh Generation's newborn diaper. My son was on the small size and they were the only ones we found that (didn't stink and) ran small enough. I will occasionally use Seventh Generation now if we are going someplace that our cloth diapers are just completely impractical. These diapers are chlorine free, but they still will sit in a landfill for generations to come.

I wanted to love gDiapers. We used them for a little while but as my son's urine production increased the liner would draw up and we were wetting the cover every time. Maybe a girl who wets in the middle wouldn't have this problem? Once I was washing every time I though I might as well be using cloth and that's when I found BumGenius.

Wipes

If you use cloth diapers like I do I hope you also have found cloth wipes to use. I think this makes the whole process so much easier to be able to just put the wipe in the diaper and drop them both in the pail. Not to mention the impact on the environment.

I bought my cloth wipes (rookie mistake maybe, or maybe just the thing a tired mom needed to do), however you can easily make your own. Check out the easy instructions here. I keep my wipes in a container that disposable wipes had come in. I mix a little baby wash (California Babies to be exact, but that is another post), a little grape seed oil (I also use this oil in my toddler's bath), about 6 drops lavender oil (for it's antiseptic properties, I get mine from Cheryl's Herbs), a little aloe, squeeze in one or two vitamin E capsules, add water, mix, and pour over the wipes in the container. It has worked very well for us. Hope is works for you too.

Product Review: First Years "Take and Toss" Products

OK, I admit, these are not the "greenest" products on the planet. I had refused to buy then even as a gift from others' registries. But as all my nuby sippy spouts had cracked and broken I had to find a replacement and we were about to go on a trip so I thought I'd give these a try. Of course I wanted something BPA free and this line is. And I have to say I like them. They hold up well to washing so I don't have to participate in the "toss" part until he is really done with them. And if one does get lost it is no big deal since they are fairly inexpensive. Also nice about the cups is that they are simple--cup & lid--no valves or extra parts (to annoy grandparents with). Now I have the spouted cups, the cups with straws, and a few bowls with lids. Great for home use and for travel. When you're done (out grown or completely worn out), they can be recycled. So bottom line is they are not the evil product I had previously viewed them as and I am happy to own them (and would even buy them off a registry).