Baby Wipes 3: Store Bought Wipes Giveaway!!!

Thanks for sticking around through my wipes series where I shared making DIY Disposable Baby Wipes and DIY Cloth Baby Wipes. Now what about store bought wipes? Today I share some information and have a giveaway for a 3 month supply of super natural WaterWipes.

Store Bought Baby Wipes

I have bought a lot of baby wipes over the past 6.5 years. I love the disposable wipes for trips, disposable diapers, quick face washes on the go. I tried to use cloth for these purposes but sometimes a girl needs balance and convenience. You've probably seen these babies with bad chemical rashes from baby wipes. Plain water works great for baby wipes, it is all I have used for baby #3 with our cloth wipes. 

It is easy to pick out wipes, just read the ingredients like you would a food label: if you cannot pronounce it or it isn't natural, don't get it. After all, our skin is our largest organ and everything that goes on our skin is absorbed into the bloodstream.

Example: Huggies Soft Skin Wipes

• Ingredients: Water, Potassium Laureth Phosphate, Glycerin, Polysorbate 20, Tetrasodium EDTA, DMDM Hydantoin, Methylparaben, Maleic Acid, PEG 50 Shea Butter, Aloe Vera (Aloe Barbadensis) Extract, Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E), Fragrance 

• According the Environmental Working Group, these chemicals can cause "Ecotoxicology, Allergies/immunotoxicity, Irritation (skin, eyes, or lungs), Miscellaneous, Organ system toxicity (non-reproductive), Neurotoxicity, Biochemical or cellular level changes, Endocrine disruption, Allergies/immunotoxicity, use restrictions."

YUCK!

I use only water with my homemade cloth wipes and my baby's bottom is always clean and rash-free BUT disposable wipes are such a purse staple for me for diaper changes, dirty faces and hand washes.

Luckily, there are some really great brands out there that understands that water is the best solution for cleaning a baby.  Even my local Walgreens sells these WaterWipes that are 99.9% water and 0.1% grapefruit extract. They are a natural baby wipe that prevent diaper rash by fully cleaning my baby's bottom and keeping the harmful chemicals off her bottom. You need to know what is in your baby wipes! 

Can you tell that I am excited about these wipes?! My toddler gets messy and sticky diapers yet these wipes make her clean using just two wipes. Also check out their facial wipes that clean my makeup and my baby's snotty nose in an easy wipe. Thanks WaterWipes for hooking me up and sponsoring this giveaway!

Here it is... the giveaway!

Post a comment about baby wipes below and you can win 12 packs of 60 wipes! You have until 9pm Wednesday so hurry and share with your friends.  This is open to addresses in the U.S.A. only.

Baby Wipes 2: DIY Cloth Baby Wipes

Now that you all know how I made disposable baby wipes that were extra gentle on my baby's skin and chemical free, here is how my baby wipe journey continued.

I HATED DISPOSABLE WIPES! Mainly because I had to have a second trash can next to my cloth diaper pail and I just don't like clutter and extra STUFF in my life. While pregnant with baby #2, I knew that I would be washing my own cloth diapers so I made my own cloth wipes. I had never sewed before but my aunt gave me my grandmother's 70 year old sewing machine. I had it serviced and the man at the sewing machine repair shop showed me how to thread the string and sew a straight stitch forward and backwards (that's all the machine does). That 5 minute tutorial (and a few YouTube videos) was all I needed to sew a quilt, a bedroom garland banner, a sleep sack, and these cloth wipes as my nesting projects. These wipes are very easy!

Next week I will be giving away a 3 month supply of all natural baby wipes so check back!

DIY Cloth Baby Wipes

My wipes after being used on 2 babies.

The greatest part about these wipes is that when you are done wiping the baby, you just put them with the diaper right into your cloth diaper pail. They get washed the same way that your diapers get washed.

Sizing: You can make your wipes any size you want. I made mine so that they could fold in half in a standard diaper wipes container. I never actually did that but the thought was good.

Ingredients
1 yard 100% cotton flannel fabric (this made enough wipes for a week so I could continue to wash diapers weekly)
sewing machine or pinking sheers

Directions 1: No Sew Baby Wipes

1. Wash your fabric in hot water and dry in the dryer to pre-shrink the fabric.
2. Using pinking sheers, cut your wipes into the size that you want. Done!

Directions 2: Sewed Baby Wipes

1. Wash your fabric in hot water and dry in the dryer to pre-shrink the fabric.
2. Using scissors, cut your wipes into the size that you want. 
3. Sew along the edges using a zig-zag stitch. My 70 sewing machine only did a straight stitch and my wipes look great two kids later. You can also use a serger if you have one.

Note: After the first few washes, there may be some small strings that need to be pulled or cut from the wipes. 

DIY Cloth Baby Wipes Spray

Now that you have a beautiful pile of wipes, you will need to moisten them before you use them. You can use just water, water + a squirt of baby soap, or water + a squirt of baby soap + a drop of oil. Here are the methods that I recommend:

1. Water: Simply wet the cloth before a diaper change at the sink. Since my older kids wouldn't stop straying everyone with my diaper spray, this is what we resorted to and it works perfect! Soap can be too harsh on the baby's skin. Two wipes and we are done!
2. Diaper Spray: Fill an empty spray bottle with water (with or without soap and oil). Spray your cloth to moisten it before wiping.
3. Diaper pump: Use the above directions in an old pump soap bottle. If find this easier than the spray because I can do it one-handed during a diaper change.
4. Pre-moistened: You can your pour soapy water in your wipes container and keep them there for several days so they are always moist when you go to use them. I never tried this since I wash once a week and was afraid of the potential yuck factor.

Baby Wipes 1: DIY Disposable Baby Wipes

Here's the start of a series about baby wipes (homemade, cloth, and bought) from when I used to make my own disposable baby wipes with baby #1. BUT I also use disposable wipes in my purse for the out-and-about diaper changes, playground hand/face washes, and for the babysitter. At the end of this series I will be giving away a 3 month supply of all natural baby wipes so check back!

DIY Homemade Disposable Baby Wipes

A reaction from the chemicals
 in mainstream baby wipes.

photo: http://waterwipes.com/2014/02/14/
what-nasty-chemicals-are-hidden-in-baby-wipes/

Sometimes you want more natural wipes than the mainstream brands. Maybe you're baby has a reaction to mainstream wipes or you are a natural minded person. Purchased natural wipes are great (and keep checking back for that 3 month supply giveaway that is coming up), but can be 3-4 times the cost of store brand wipes. So for those of you who have a tight wallet or are obsessed with DIY projects, here is how to make your own disposable baby wipes.

With baby #1, I was new to cloth diapers and I used a service. I was not about to use cloth wipes and have to figure out how to wash my wipes in the laundromat (which I later did when I stopped the service). To help in my transition I used cloth wipes and had a trash pail next to my diaper pail. I was buying store brand wipes and realized that they contained chemicals that I just didn't want on my baby's skin.  After a little research, I realized that I could make disposable wipes with things that I already had in the house.

Photo: http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/
2011/10/19/how-to-make-homemade-natural-baby-wipes/

Ingredients
1 T. castille soap (or other gentle baby soap)
1/2-1 T. olive oil
1 c. water
1 paper towel roll
large scissors or a large serrated bread knife
empty baby wipes container

Directions

1. Using your large scissors or serrated bread knife, cut the paper towel in thirds so that it looks like three toilet paper rolls. 
2. Place one roll in your empty baby wipes container on its side as pictured. Save the other 2 rolls for future use.
3. Mix the first three ingredients together.
4. Poor the liquid over the roll that is in the baby wipes container. Let sit for 10 minutes. Then turn the roll over and let sit another 10 minutes.
5. Remove the cardboard core. Pull your wipes out of the top of the wipes container. Use within a week.

These wipes can also be put in a ziploc or other water tight container for out-and-about use. Enjoy!

How to stock your freezer with whole food meals with the help of friends

Tip 1: Baby carrots are already cleaned and cut.
Tip 2: Make an extra bag of each meal for yourself.

Whether it is in anticipation of a new baby or just needing some time off of cooking, here is how I just stocked my freezer with freezer meals with the help of friends (because I was way to shy to do this alone).

What are Freezer Meals?
Freezer Meals are meals that have already been prepped and are sitting in your freezer ready to be eaten. They could be raw ingredients ready to be dumped in a pot or slow cooker or they can be completely cooked and just require a reheating.

Step 1: Get Friends
I was way too intimidated to do freezer cooking by myself. In fact it seemed like all the planning that was required would take more time than making the meals and I don't have a lot of time.  I asked a group of friends and found that several friends were also in need of this type of meal help. Plus it is the winter and we are all bored of our own cooking.

Step 2: Decide on some standards
We had a few chats in a Facebook message forum to get on the same page about a few things:

1. This was an experiment so we acknowledged that there will be a learning curve!
2. As soon as we decided to do this, we started eating from our freezers to clean out the current contents. The date was set for our meal exchange three weeks later so we could plan to have freezer space in time.
3. There were 5 of us so we each decided to make two types of meals so at the end of the exchange we would go home with 10 different meals. This means that each person made each of two meals 5 times.
4. We would each make one vegetarian and one meat meal.
5. Meals were dairy free and gluten free to accommodate everyone's needs.
6. We would try to make it a one-dish meal.
7. Raw ingredients to be dropped into a pot or slow cooker were fine with everyone. Pre-cooked food was also okay.
8. Zip-loc type gallon bags would be mostly used and pre-frozen laying down.
9. We agreed to "try" to use organic but at a minimum stay away from the EWG's Dirty Dozen. I did appreciate that no one labeled the ingredients with organic. I appreciate this because if there was a economic difference, it was not visible. We exchanged and were equals.

Step 3: Finalize Recipes

A Google-Doc was created that we could all go to and post our recipes. 

Step 4: Grocery Shopping

Since I knew in advance what I was making, I planned around a great sale ($4.50/lb for organic grass fed ground beef!).  We had been eating a lot of food from our freezer the previous weeks so the economics of buying 10 extra meals worth of food sort of balanced out. To not waste time making separate a shopping trip I added the ingredients (including the quantity) to my regular weekly shopping list. 

Step 5: Cooking Day

These are the steps that we found most efficient:

1. Ditch the kids and set aside 2.5 hours of solid work time. We all have very young kids and it was much easier to not have them around. There are other cooking projects to do with kids.
2. Use a permanent marker to write the name of your dish on the Ziploc bags and the cooking instructions.
3. Get out all ingredients and put them on a pile for each meal (the floor works).
4. Start Meal #1: Wash all produce. 
5. Prep produce so that it needs only a final chop. 
6. Setup your Zip-loc bags by folding over the top. Then place your hands in side the bag and make the bottom a rectangle that stands up. The folded top will help it stay in this position. Now you can put your five bags for meal #1 standing next to each other.
7. Go down the recipe one ingredient at a time. Add the first ingredient to all bags then the second and so on. Chop as you go. Some people like to do the final chop earlier in the process but then I cannot tell how much 1 onion or 1 pepper is.
8. Squeeze out as much air as possible from the Zip-loc bags, close them and lay them down in your freezer. They should nicely stack on top of each other.
9. Repeat steps 5-8 for meal #2.
10. We found that the food needed at least two days to freeze solid.

Step 6: Enjoy Not Cooking!

After you meet with your friends and exchange your pre-frozen meals, you will have 10 pre-made healthy whole-foods meals in your freezer! My friends had different uses for their meals. Two ladies wanted to just not cook for the next 10 nights. One lady was saving the meals for after her new baby arrives. I am saving my meals so I can get a break from cooking on the weekends. 

THE VERDICT

So here it is. The truth. This seemed like a lot of work before I did it. I spent years reading about moms homeschooling 5 kids and making 30 freezer meals in one morning. Getting friends to do it with me and only needing the mental space for preparing 2 meals made it much easier. I also enjoyed the idea of getting to eat other people's cooking since I am so bored with my own food. 

Everyone was excited about the project except during the cutting stage. ALL of us starting thinking "I am never doing this again" but it is just like giving birth or running a marathon in that the toughest part is only a small part of the whole picture. When we exchanged meals it felt like Christmas and we all promised to do this again. Maybe next time I can convince them to do it with 15-20 meals!!!

Check out my tips on getting organized with your meal planning here.

DIY Placenta Tincture by Jennifer Leigh Mayer

My placenta went home with me for baby #2 and baby #3 to encapsulate my placenta (a.k.a. "happy pills"). I started running really low with baby #3's happy pills and a friend suggested that I make a tincture that I could use if I ran out of pills and also for hormone balancing during menopause (1-3 capsules full in 8 oz. grain alcohol). Jennifer Leigh Mayer, a Placenta Alchemist with Mama Moon NYC and Brooklyn Placenta Services has shared her recipe for making your own placenta tincture.  Thanks Jennifer for this great placenta tincture tutorial!

DIY Placenta Tincture

DIY tinctures are a wonderful remedy for mothers to use during the postpartum period. Many mothers use the tincture during times of transition such as teething, weaning, change in caregiver or even travel. They are easeful to prepare, all you need is 7-10 drops of tincture in a bit of water. The effect is a gently uplifting emotional support.

This step-by-step guide will teach you everything you need to know about making a DIY Placenta Tincture after the birth of your baby. Good luck!

First thing is first: gather your supplies

To make the tincture you’ll need:

• A clean glass jar- preferably tinted and not clear (I use an 8oz glass blue bottle)
• A small tinted glass dropper bottle
• A good quality grain alcohol such as vodka
• Paper towels, chux pad or other water proof counter cover
• Disposable gloves
• A small knife
• A spray bottle
• Bleach
• A clean work space
• The placenta 

Preparation:

1. Wash your hands carefully. Clean your designated workspace and put down a chux pad or waterproof cover. Make a stack of paper towels to put the placenta on. Take the placenta out of the fridge and place on the paper towels, the baby side with the umbilical cord facing down.
2. Get your tincture bottle ready by filling the larger bottle with grain alcohol up to the shoulder of the bottle. Keep the cap off for now.
3. Push aside the membranes and wipe clean the mother’s side of the placenta. There might be some blood clots present.
4. Find a healthy looking, robust area of the placenta and trim off a piece the size of a thumbnail.
5. Place the thumbnail size piece of placenta into the prepared tincture bottle. Wait until you take your gloves off to put the cap on.
6. Return the placenta to it’s container.
7. Clean up your workstation, throwing out the paper towel and chux pad. Wash the knife with warm soap water.
8. Place a cap on the placenta tincture and a label on the bottles. Date the bottle and give the tincture a name.
9. For professional use: Make a 10% bleach solution in the spray bottle. Spray down your counters with the bleach solution. After the knife is washed, spray the knife with bleach solution too.
10. Let the placenta sit for six weeks in a cool dry place. After six weeks decant the placenta tincture from the original bottle into the dropper bottle. You can now use your tincture as needed!

Jennifer Leigh Mayer is the founder and owner of Mama Moon NYC and Brooklyn Placenta Services in New York City. She is a Licensed Massage Therapist, Professional Birth Doula, Certified Holistic Health Counselor and Placenta Alchemist.

Jennifer is unique in her approach to working with her clients, her philosophy is to support and guide her clients down their unique path of health and wellness. She recognizes that this journey of health and healing as continuous and evolving.

Jennifer graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Colorado at Boulder, her work has been featured in New York Magazine, Anderson Cooper’s day time talk show and Flaunt Magazine. She is currently working on her first book, The Placenta Book, about the practice and history of placenta encapsulation.

Are you going to or did you already circumcise your baby boy?

Like many parenting and health topics, circumcision is a very personal decision. Once it is done it will affect your boy for the rest of his life.

Kenyan boy taking part in is circumcision ceremony.
image: BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7536892.stm

This is a non-judgemental page.

Researching circumcision is entertaining! It is traditionally a religious or cultural decision where the historical reasoning is conflicting. Some circumcised to increase sexual pleasure (now known as a myth) while others circumcised to decrease sexual pleasure and decrease masturbation.

The world is very polarized on this topic. Even within Kenya where I witnessed the circumcision ceremony of teenaged boys, the decision is tribal. Some tribes do it and some don't. In the United States, the rate of circumcision changes based on where you live. The west coast has low instances while the east coast has high instances of circumcision. My town is very divided. Most of the moms that I know chose not to circumcise but I know that there are many others that did.

Of the many moms that I know, I have met several with sons who have had botched circumcisions requiring pain and follow-up surgery months later. Some of these moms even told me that they didn't know that circumcision was optional at the hospital. 

How common is circumcision?

"The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that globally 30% of males aged 15 and over are circumcised, with almost 70% of these being Muslim. 

Male circumcision is most prevalent in the Muslim world (near-universal), parts of Southeast Asia and of Africa, the United States, the Philippines, Israel, and South Korea. In contrast, it is rare in Europe, parts of Southern Africa, and most of Asia and Oceania. In Latin America, prevalence is universally low. The WHO states that "there is generally little non-religious circumcision in Asia, with the exceptions of the Republic of Korea and the Philippines". Estimates for individual countries include less than 2% in Spain, Colombia and Denmark; between 0% and 7% in Finland; 3% in Cambodia; 7% in Brazil; 9% in Taiwan; and 13% in Australia....Citing three different data sources, most recent rates for the U.S. were 56.9% in 2008 (NHDS), 56.3% in 2008 (NIS), and 54.7% in 2010 (CDM)."  [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prevalence_of_circumcision]

Why circumcise?
The reasons I found are for religious reasons, or to "look like dad".

Why skip circumcision?
It is medically known that the foreskin is a nerve and that removing it decreases sexual pleasure. Despite conflicting claims Dr. Sears points out how there is no medical evidence of circumcision being helpful. The foreskin acts as a protective barrier like our eyelid. There are also the ethical questions of doing such a procedure without the child's consent.

History of Male Circumcision: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_male_circumcision

Myth vs. Fact: http://intactamerica.org/learnmore

What was your #1 reason to circumcise or not circumcise?

How to get 2x the milk from breast pumping!

I am sharing a great video from Stanford on how to get almost 2x the milk from pumping for premature babies and moms immediately returning to work outside the home. Of course only nursing (no bottles) is the best way to have a good supply of breastmilk as the baby can eat on demand and his or her suction is the best type for draining and stimulating more milk. Pumping is not as great at getting milk out. New moms who try to pump when their babies are very small find that little or no milk comes out. These moms should try to keep the baby on the breast as much as possible. If the baby is premature or she is already returning to work outside the home, here is a great "hands-on" method to use your hands and pump simultaneously to maximize output. If output does not increase a Lactation Consultant should be privately hired (pediatricians and OBGYNs are not specialized in milk production).

http://newborns.stanford.edu/Breastfeeding/MaxProduction.html

A FREE Double Breast-pump and My New Facebook Page

GIVEAWAY ALERT!

You, my readers, have given me so much support!  So much so that I am going to the next level and I am thanking you for it. I set up a Facebook Page and if you LIKE it by December 20th, I will enter you to win a FREE brand new double breast-pump: The First Years Breastflow Memory Pump valued at $179.99.

Do you just want to support me and don't need a pump? No problem. You can pass on the pump or have it shipped anywhere: a friend, a relative or a women's shelter.

I had the opportunity to try this pump and it turned the head of every woman in the pumping room. The entire ensemble is incredibly light weight which was great for lugging around all day at the conference that I was at. The handle allowed for me to easily pump one handed. It's battery is rechargeable and was able to hold enough charge for me to go all day without plugging in although I had the light-weight plug in my bag just in case. It makes a great travel pump.

The First Years® Breastflow® Memory Pump is designed to make breastfeeding more comfortable and efficient. It features an easy-to-use digital touch screen that automatically tracks and stores data for up to 10 sessions, automatically recording important information including the date and time, suction and speed. For a complete profile, mom can enter milk volume for each session. Plus, the unique handle allows double pumpingwith one hand. Breastflow Memory Pump comes with a custom designed tote bag, plus a cooler bag with removable ice pack, two 5oz. Breastflow bottles with storage lids, 2 sizes of Flexi-fit™ breast shields and a rechargeable battery pack for ultimate portability. MSRP: $179.99, in Target stores nationwide


Win it by liking my Facebook Page.

Formula Freakout - Did you pick the right formula?

I don't judge.

You made your own decision based on their own knowledge or were forced to make through adoption or your own health. If you are still pregnant or struggling with breastfeeding, please read everything and don't be shy to ask for help.

You want the best nutrition for your baby because what you feed your baby will affect them and their longterm IQ. What happens if you eat cake for dinner versus a well balanced meal? Babies get their first exposure to taste and nutrition while in the womb. They eat what their mom eats. Their nutritional habits continue to form by your food choices now that the baby is born. Think how you want your child to eat when they are three years old and what steps do you have to make in order to make that happen?

It is overwhelming to stand in the infant formula aisle. How do you know which infant formula to buy? What is the difference between ingredients? Why are there such price differences? Is generic really the same as non-generic? Can you just grab what your friend uses? Don't forget all that marketing about strange things like DHA and Iron all over the packaging. The best place to start is the ingredient label.

Pick formula like you pick food for your family: you start at the ingredients list.

I met an outraged grandma who had noticed that her grandchild's formula had the first ingredient of corn syrup. One minute of research on the internet found that there were many other options with forms of milk as the first ingredient. Better yet, the other options are sweetened with lactose which is the type of sugar naturally occurring in milk. For those who don't know corn syrup is derived from genetically modified corn and has been medically linked to obesity and diabetes. What nutritional path do you want your child on? Drinking corn syrup or milk?

The grandbaby's formula: Parent's Choice - Gentle Milk-Based Canned Powder  Corn Syrup, Nonfat Milk, Palm Olein, Whey Protein Hydrolysate, Coconut Oil, Soy Oil, High Oleic (Safflower Or Sunflower) Oil, And Less Than 2%: Mortierella Alpina Oil*, Crypthecodinium Cohnii Oil**, L-Carnitine, Mixed Tocopherol Concentrate, Monoglycerides, Soy Lecithin, Taurine Calcium Carbonate, Calcium Chloride, Calcium Hydroxide, Cupric Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Magnesium Chloride, Manganese Sulfate, Potassium Bicarbonate, Potassium Hydroxide, Potassium Iodide, Potassium Bicarbonate, Potassium Hydroxide, Potassium Iodide, Potassium Phosphate, Sodium Citrate, Sodium Selenite, Zinc Sulfate, Ascorbic Acid, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Beta-Carotene, Biotin, Calcium Pantothenate, Choline Chloride, Cyanocobalamin, Folic Acid, Inositol, Niacinamide, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Thiamin Hydrochloride, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D (Cholecalciferol), Vitamin E (Dl-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate), Vitamin K (Phytonadione).

An alternative? (not natural or organic ingredients since the family is penny conscious) Gerber Good Start Gentle Formula - Powder Whey Protein Concentrate (from Cow's Milk, Enzymatically Hydrolyzed, Reduced in Minerals), Vegetable Oils (Palm Olein, Soy, Coconut, and High-Oleic Safflower or High-Oleic Sunflower), Corn Maltodextrin, Lactose, Galacto-Oligosaccharides*, and less than 2% of: Potassium Citrate, Potassium Phosphate, Calcium Chloride, Calcium Phosphate, Sodium Citrate, Magnesium Chloride, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Potassium Iodide, Manganese Sulfate, Sodium Selenate, M. alpina Oil**, C. cohnii Oil***, Sodium Ascorbate, Inositol, Choline Bitartrate, Alpha-Tocopheryl Acetate, Niacinamide, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin, Vitamin A Acetate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, Folic Acid, Phylloquinone, Biotin, Vitamin D3, Vitamin B12, Taurine, Nucleotides (Cytidine 5'-Monophosphate, Disodium Uridine 5'-Monophosphate, Adenosine 5'-Monophosphate, Disodium Guanosine 5'-Monophosphate), Ascorbyl Palmitate, Mixed Tocopherols, L-Carnitine, Soy Lecithin.

Is Generic Okay?

Generic formula has to meet the same standards and guidelines as brand name formula. With generic you are not paying for the research, marketing, or free samples. With the brand name, you get a company name that some people feel they can trust. You are encouraging that company to continue their practices and research. It is a personal decision.

Is there a Benefit to Organic Formula?

Babies are expensive. Formula is expensive. Organic formula is even more expensive. Is it a good investment in their future health? Organic is a huge topic. Some parents (me included) want to limit environmental and food toxins where we can and limit exposure to non-organic practices such as added growth hormones (early puberty!?). When it comes to an infant, the less toxins going in the better. The Food Babe has all the information needed on picking a really great organic formula based on brand. How much is your kid's future health worth?

Soy Formula

Soy formula has been a god-send for babies that have trouble digesting milk proteins. If these were breastfed babies, they would most likely be able to digest breastmilk if their mother was on a conscious diet. I know a mom who breastfed her second baby just in case the baby had the same digestion problem that her first baby had because she regretted giving her first baby soy milk.

The idea behind soy formula is that some babies are able to digest this formula but not a milk based formula (standard formula comes from cows and its protein is in a different shape than human milk protein). Duh, cow milk is for baby cows. Soy formula has only been used since the 1970's and I know of a lot of soy formula mothers having issues linked back to their soy exposure but I am not going to go off on that tangent.

Dr. Sears (who is a great resource for those of you who have not found him) has some great thinking points about soy formula.

Making Formula

Yes, I am a bit holistic. So much so that I know about the recipes for homemade formula. The idea here is that [naturally sterile-clean] raw cow's milk, goat's milk or liver is easier to break down than commercially bought formula for many babies because it contains enzymes that in the stomach will aide in the digestion of the protein. Many adults who cannot digest standard grocery store milk can digest raw milk. There are endless benefits to raw milk (perhaps another blog post). There is a special recipe to mix your own formula with the raw milk. Here is the recipe and a video of how to make it.

***

Full disclosure: I was asked by a reader about how to pick formula so this is what I have put together. The topic is big and I kept it brief with only the most important topics. I am a 100% breastfeeding mom. I have never bought or used formula.  BUT I am a certified Health Coach and know how to conduct research and I know what ingredients are healthier than others.

How to Guarantee that your Baby will have a Higher I.Q.

As parents we all want to see our children reach their highest potential. We know that we cannot protect them from every danger, toxin, and heartache. We all want to make the decisions that will have the best long term outcome on our children.

Some moms and dads have known the secret to a higher I.Q. for thousands of years. Yet it comes as a news-breaker in papers such as the NYTimes when JAMA Pediatrics, a major mainstream medical journal, publishes a study about it. The World Health Organization recommends doing this for at least 2 years. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends doing it for at least 1 year. 

Breastfeeding 1+ years WILL increase your child's I.Q.

(for those who have already chosen the formula path, have adopted, or have serious medical issues I am in the process of writing a post on how to pick the healthiest formula so check back and don't feel left out!)

Below is the latest study including the results and conclusion (the important part). The outcome has taken into account factors such as socio-economics and parents education level. They are looking at exclusive breastfeeding (no formula/bottles) compared to just formula feeding for the first six months followed by then breastmilk and solids. If you need another reference, the World Health Organization already found the relationship between exclusive breastfeeding and higher I.Q. (and as adults are less likely to be overweight or diabetic).



Infant Feeding and Childhood Cognition at Ages 3 and 7 Years: Effects of Breastfeeding Duration and Exclusivity.
JAMA Pediatr. 2013 Jul 29. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.455.
Belfort MB, Rifas-Shiman SL, Kleinman KP, Guthrie LB, Bellinger DC, Taveras EM, Gillman MW, Oken E.Division of Newborn Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.

IMPORTANCE Breastfeeding may benefit child cognitive development, but few studies have quantified breastfeeding duration or exclusivity, nor has any study to date examined the role of maternal diet during lactation on child cognition. 

OBJECTIVES To examine relationships of breastfeeding duration and exclusivity with child cognition at ages 3 and 7 years and to evaluate the extent to which maternal fish intake during lactation modifies associations of infant feeding with later cognition. 

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Prospective cohort study (Project Viva), a US prebirth cohort that enrolled mothers from April 22, 1999, to July 31, 2002, and followed up children to age 7 years, including 1312 Project Viva mothers and children. MAIN EXPOSURE Duration of any breastfeeding to age 12 months. 

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Child receptive language assessed with the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test at age 3 years, Wide Range Assessment of Visual Motor Abilities at ages 3 and 7 years, and Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test and Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning at age 7 years. 

RESULTS Adjusting for sociodemographics, maternal intelligence, and home environment in linear regression, longer breastfeeding duration was associated with higher Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test score at age 3 years (0.21; 95% CI, 0.03-0.38 points per month breastfed) and with higher intelligence on the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test at age 7 years (0.35; 0.16-0.53 verbal points per month breastfed; and 0.29; 0.05-0.54 nonverbal points per month breastfed). Breastfeeding duration was not associated with Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning scores. Beneficial effects of breastfeeding on the Wide Range Assessment of Visual Motor Abilities at age 3 years seemed greater for women who consumed 2 or more servings of fish per week (0.24; 0.00-0.47 points per month breastfed) compared with less than 2 servings of fish per week (-0.01; -0.22 to 0.20 points per month breastfed) (P = .16 for interaction). 

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Our results support a causal relationship of breastfeeding duration with receptive language and verbal and nonverbal intelligence later in life.

Related Posts:

Why Breastfeed? - Includes 10 steps to successful breastfeeding

Pumping at Work - It is the law!

Breastfeeding in Public - So much easier than dealing with bottles.

Parenting School 101 - Includes a great breastfeeding book to read!

Nursing Tea Recipe - One recipe for pregnancy, postpartum, and to increase milk supply.

Forward to your friends and family: How to help me!

Dear friends and family,

I had [am about to have] a baby!  Yay!  I have no clue how my baby will act from day to day.  Maybe I had a caesarian and cannot even get out of bed alone. Maybe my baby is an innately easy baby that lets me rest or get things done while he/she sleeps. Maybe my baby is super fussy and only naps while having skin contact with me, nursing, and marching up and down the stairs at the same time. We all have different experiences so please help me on my journey and don't judge me.

It used to be that "it takes a whole village to raise a child" and then we all moved away from our families and started working outside the home. In India family takes care of the older kids and home chores for three weeks after the baby is born. I don't live in India and I don't have a village of relatives helping.  I don't live in Europe where spouses get paternity leave.  Some women need help after the first baby and some don't need it until their third. Here are a few ways to help me:

1. Tell me that I am a great mom. I need to hear it.
2. If you ask to help and I don't take you up on your generous offer at first, ask again.  Better yet, just show up at my door with some cooked healthy food. I don't care what it is (but respect me if I have a food restriction). If you don't cook, deliver some pre-prepared food like a fruit salad, bagged salad, or granola and yogurt. The sooner the better and please do not promise food and not deliver it. This is really disappointing.
3. Tell me how great I look. Even if I still look 9 months pregnant and have no makeup on, tell me how radiant I am and how my belly looks like I never had a baby. Lies are okay here.
4. Clean my home. Seriously. Just show up and start washing dishes, sweep my floor, fold clothes, whatever. I will be embarrassed that you are seeing my home in such a mess but I will get over it and love you more for it.
5. Make my older kids go away. If I am not up to the task of delivering them to you, come and get them. Hang out at my place. Take them to the park. Feed them. The longer the better.
6. Make sure that I get some fresh air and a walk everyday. Don't let me tell you that I am afraid of my baby breathing fresh air because it is cleaner than the toxic air in my home (paint, furniture, rugs, germs, lack of vitamin D, you get it).
7. If I mention any issues with breastfeeding, support me with breastfeeding and DO NOT MENTION formula. This advice should only come from a lactation consultant (not you). Don't tell me about someone you know who "supplemented" with formula. Just don't. Instead look up a lactation consultant and get her here within the hour! She'll fix it. Period. Doctors are sort of helpful but they are not experts in lactation and have been known to not spot tongue tie, production issues and other things that lactation consultants are famous for instantly finding from the comfort of your home.
8. Don't let me eat junk food. Food is my fuel.  Junk will not help my milk supply and will make those post baby pounds stay on me.

I promise to return to a new form of normal in a few months and I will be indebted to you!

Love,

Me

Survival Mode

Today at our community pool I saw a new mom with baby #2 and she was in Survival Mode and didn't know it.  I went "missing" for quite a while after baby #3 was born.  To outsiders at the preschool I was completely on top of it being early or just in time for drop offs and pick ups with kids that seemed happy.  On the inside, I was in Survival Mode.

Survival Mode is when it takes every ounce of being just to keep the family boat afloat. When you are in "go" mode from the moment you semi-wake until the moment you hope to sleep. This is often brought on by bed rest, morning sickness, pregnancy fatigue, post-partum recuperation, or a fussy baby.  REMEMBER THAT THIS IS JUST A PHASE AND ALL PHASES PASS. 

Here is what Survival Mode looks like for me:

• At least one kid awake and hanging on me from 5am - 10pm.
• An infant that doesn't nap unless sucking on me and rocking at the same time. (This only lasted the first four months until I was able to "aide" her into a better life.)
• Dishes pile in the sink until the end of the day because it is most efficient to load them in the dishwasher once a day. If the dishwasher is full then it is really going to pile up!
• Laundry is such a waste of time! I was able to keep it clean then toss it on the guest room bed. Close the door.  Ignore until the weekend. Buy an extra pack of undies for everyone.
• Have the mommy support line just a few clicks or phone calls away.
• Don't forget to pop those happy pills!
• Let go. Lollipops and screen-time for the older kids may seem more appealing than they used too. This is just a phase and whatever you need to do to help the situation is okay.
• Take help. If your older kids are willing to separate from you and go to a friend's house, let them go. If someone asks how they can help, let them bring a meal.
• There is no time for food prep or picky eaters. Breakfast: Joe's O's or raw oats + milk. Lunch: PB&J + baby carrot sticks. Snacks: fruit. Dinner: 5 minute crock pot meal prepped in the morning while I was still sane using frozen veggies.  A variation of this recipe is a weekly staple in our house depending on what ingredients we have: 

Slow Cooker Baked Ziti

Ingredients

- 1 lb of your favorite pasta (uncooked). I use Trader Joe's Brown Rice penne

- 1 jar of marinara sauce

- Any vegetables you might want to throw in. I use one bag of frozen vegetables since they are already washed and chopped

- Can of beans or leftover meat (optional)

- Cheese odds and ends.Whatever you have. I have even used crumbled tofu in place of cheese.

- A dash of olive oil

Directions

Add the pasta, sauce and oil to the slow cooker. Add some water (maybe 1/2 cup) to the sauce jar, swirl and dump in the slow cooker.  Stir. Top the cooker with your veggies and cheese. Do not stir, this way the veggies and cheese are weighing down the uncooked pasta. Cover and cook on low for 3.5-5 hours. Mine takes 3.5-4 hours. You don't have to worry about being a little late and it won't really burn!

VIDEO: How to Cloth Diaper

This is the real world, not Hollywood, but here goes my first video!  Here I am demonstrating how to cloth diaper using prefolds.  This is my very easy way of diapering where I only do one load of laundry per week!  Enjoy and don't forget to check out why I cloth diapered baby #3 and the details of cloth diapering the easy way with prefolds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Uk975ujPXQ&feature=player_embedded

Cloth Diapers: The easy way

Baby #3 was born while I still had 3 kids aged 4 and under at home. I had to shave down daily tasks to a "survival" level yet I continued to cloth diaper my baby because I had discovered a great system. It is so easy that I had to share it with you. Here's a video of the diapers in action.

Disposable Diapers

Do you ever think about disposable diapers? They are made in a factory with a ton of chemicals and plastics then transported to your local store. What a carbon footprint! Oh wait, after they are used, they sit in a landfill for 450 years according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Yeah, yeah disposable diapers are not going to cause the human race to cease but it hardly feels like it helps our environment. I have heard arguments that cloth diapering is worse than disposable diapers because water is used to wash them.  Maybe if you wash daily but I wash weekly and there is no way that one load of wash comes anywhere near the environmental impact of making, transporting and sitting in a landfill for 450 years!

From a health point of view, disposable diapers are made of plastic and do not allow for fresh air to flow around the baby's skin which increases the chances of diaper rash. There are also all those perfumes and bleach rubbing against the baby's skin and we all know that everything on the skin is absorbed -- yuck!

Fancy Over-Designed Cloth Diapers

There are some great parents out there who have made beautiful cloth diapers that work just like a disposable diaper ("all-in-ones"). It is one piece and you put it on like a regular diaper. When it is dirty, you take the whole thing off and put it all in the diaper pail. This sounds nice, right? Well these diapers are around $20 each! A newborn goes through about 8-10 diapers a day and an older baby is at around 5 diapers a day. You would have to do laundry daily or have a huge stash of these in various sizes (although some brands have just come out with multi-size models). They are very thick so they take a long time to dry. They are usually made of fleece as the inner layer and this fabric often holds on to stink and causes you to have to do an extra "strip" washing regularly.  More work + more money + synthetic fabric against the baby = not for me.

Super Easy and Cheap Cloth Diapers

When I had a diaper service, I was introduced to the world of prefolds and I was sold. What is the easiest and cheapest way to cloth diaper?  Prefolds!  A prefold is a piece of 100% cotton fabric that has been folded to be most absorbent and is then folded again before put in a perfect fitting cover. Back in the day these diapers were pinned on babies then a horribly fitting plastic cover/bloomer was put on top. It was a horrible combination.  This is not what I am talking about.  This is how I diaper:

STEP 1: WASH COVERS
I wash covers in cold or warm water with regular laundry. This way I only need a 2 day supply (I reuse the same cover over and over until it is dirty or the end of the day). When I lived in an apartment without laundry in the building, I used to hand wash the covers. This took 1 minute in the bathroom since I would wash them while they were fresh.

STEP 2: WASH PREFOLD DIAPERS
I wash prefold diapers weekly. First they get a gentle wash rinse with no detergent, then they get a heavy cycle on hot with Rock-n-green laundry detergent. I have hard water so I use the Hard Rock variety. When they come out of the wash, I fold the prefolds into thirds (or fourths if they are huge) and put them in the top drawer of the changing table so they are ready to go.

Prefold folded in thirds

Prefold folded in forths

STEP 3: DIAPER!

Diaper changes are the same as with disposable except that I have to first put a prefold on top of a cover. When I have a sitter, I put the prefold already in the cover so it is ready to go. I reuse the same cover all day or until it is dirty. Diapers are put in a covered pail until laundry day. I use the Diaper Champ with a homemade reusable PUL liner and it blocks odor perfectly.

That was easy!  Breast-milk only bowels that occur during the first 6 months do not require any special ringing. When the bowels become solid with solid foods then the bowels must first be flushed whether you are using a disposable diaper or a cloth diaper. When using cloth I sometimes put a little piece of fleece on top of the prefold to make the bowel roll off easier into the toilet. I simply cut fleece to the size that I wanted. There is no sewing required with fleece.

You didn't miss the VIDEO of me cloth diapering did you?