The Dangers of Baby Orajel

The FDA recently made an official warning regarding Baby Orajel.  The FDA has found that the use of Orajel, which contains benzocaine, can result in a blood disorder known as methemoglobinemia - especially in children under two.  You can read more here at The Mom:  Informed .

Instead of Orajel, a great option that I've repeated heard praised is amber teething necklaces! 

Imagine how adorable little ones are in amber teething necklaces!

Babywearing in Morocco

During our visit to Whole Foods Market yesterday, The Pure Baby (PB) and I met a lovely cashier.  She noticed that PB was on my back in our Kanga XT, and this sweet woman could not say enough great things about how wonderful that was :)  Our new acquaintance shared that she was from Morocco - and that when her children were young in Morocco, she wore them on her back all.of.the.time!  To her, the greatest gifts of babywearing were: (1) having a safe place for her young children - where she was always with them; (2) being able to get everything done at home - cooking, cleaning, playing with other children, etc.; and (3) the biggest one of all - bonding and building a close mother/child relationship.

Happy Birthday to The Pure Baby's brother!

The Pure Baby (PB)'s older brother celebrated another Happy Birthday!  With that came another GFCF and Feingold Diet birthday cake.  PB's brother wanted a beagle cake, in honor of our 14-year-old beagle :)

I used another Wilton cake pan, along with (again) King Arthur Flour gluten-free chocolate cake mix and quite a lot of cocoa powder (for the frosting colors).

The dog cake pan was used for the groom's cake at our wedding, back in the beagle's tiny puppy days :)  I did not make the cake then, though, and it definitely was not GFCF or Feingold!

Preventing Lyme Disease

Fox News today put out an informative article regarding Lyme Disease, focusing on prevention.  While I definitely do not agree with their recommendation to apply DEET to body and/or clothing, I think it is overall a good article. 

The University of Rhode Island's Tick Encounter has always been my favorite resource for Lyme Disease prevention as well as tick identification, etc. 

Happy Birthday to The Pure Baby!

The Pure Baby (PB) celebrated another super birthday and enjoyed his GFCF/ Feingold Diet Elmo cake :)

Inspired by my expert-cake-decorating mother, I made the Elmo cake using the Elmo Wilton cake pan, King Arthur Flour gluten-free chocolate cake mix, and India Tree natural decorating colors.

I completely adore King Arthur Flour gluten-free mixes - and buy them online by the case. Its much cheaper than in the stores, and I love having a good supply in my pantry.

I've been using India Tree natural decorating colors for my oldest son's past eight years on The Feingold Diet. While the colors may be a little more challenging to work with, they are safe and healthy - containing no petroleum or other nasty chemicals.

Jumping up and down with JOY: The happiness of finding a pediatrician :)

The Pure Baby (PB) finally has a pediatrician!!!  I am so super happy :)

PB's new pediatrician is actually a pediatrician that our older boys used to see, back when we lived in this state four years ago. He was a truly wonderful guy. He helped our oldest son (who is on the autism spectrum) with so much. He did all kinds of testing required by our DAN! doctor. He wrote a bunch of notes to the school - lunchtime supplements, diet, clothing issues, and more. He was always available to me for whatever concerns/issues came up.  I was so very thankful for him :)

When PB recently saw his new pediatrician for the first time, he happily remembered our family.  I was a little nervous about asking if he was still on board with taking non-vax patients (especially PB who is 100% non-vax), but I was completely overjoyed at his response of *yes*.  And not only has he taken PB as a patient, he also seemingly made no notation regarding PB's non-vax status.  To top this all off, our pediatrician is homebirth-friendly and actually seems pro-homebirth!  He even recommended homebirth midwives for my future homebirth :)  And as an extra bonus, he even pronouned PB's ethnic name correctly - which lately seems to be a minor miracle 

Unbelievably, this is PB's first real pediatrician.  Previously, there have been no pediatricians who will accept PB as a patient.  Really bizarre.  The pediatricians in our former states have required either (1) vaccinations per their schedule or (2) me signing off on a form stating that I was endangering the life of my child as well as the lives of everyone else by not vaccinating.  Crazy.

When PB was one week old, the front desk women at a  supposed non-vax pediatrician's office attempted to bully me into signing the form - by refusing to let me leave the office!  After all we've been through, I'm a tough mama - and not to be bullied :)  I made my way out of the office (while babywearing my one week old baby!), only to start getting phone calls from the county health department.  Due to the wonderful gift of Caller ID, I was able to let the bullying end there.

I'm so very appreciative of our new (and old) pediatrician :)  While I am very much not a fan of where we live, finding him (again) makes living here almost tolerable.  I'm so glad to have a pediatrician for PB, especially since he is actually ill for the first time right now.  Adding in the fact that homebirth is actually legal here - and with a CNM midwife - maybe I'll be finding some peace in living in this not-so-favorite state of mine.

Babywearing: "Available-now" options, when you can't wait for a custom carrier

Recently, quite a few moms and grandmas have asked me about my Kanga XT.  While I LOVE my Kanga XT, I've been thinking that I should post a bit of information about how to get a Kanga XT of your own as well as thoughts about possible alternative carriers that are easier to obtain.

Kanga XT is made by one work-at-home-mom named Kirsten.  She produces custom carriers, using a custom wait list.  Lately, it seems that the custom wait lists take about 6 months to complete.  The custom list is open for a very short amount of time (as in a couple of minutes).  If you are interested in getting on the custom list, you should join her yahoo group.  There, she makes announcements regarding the custom lists.  She also occasionally posts in-stock carriers for sale:  Kanga XT, Kanga X2, and Kanga J.

My Kanga XTs are the only buckle carriers that I have owned.  Therefore, I truly have no expertise on other ABCs, and I can only recommend based on friends' experiences.  (Buckle baby carriers are known as "All Buckle Carriers" or "ABCs" and "Soft Structured Carriers" or "SSCs".)

For petite moms, the following carriers are supposed to work quite well.  Please keep in mind, though, that fit varies person-to person.  Additionally, these carriers often work well for non-petite moms.

1- Pikkolo by cat bird baby

2- Oh SNAP! by BabyHawk

3- Angelpack LX

4- Action Baby Carrier

5- Calyx  (I am unsure if this company is currently in production.)


In addition to the above carriers, the following carriers are supposed to work very well for non-petite moms:

1- ERGO baby carrier 

2- bECO baby carrier

Another option to find a great carrier is For Sale or Trade at TheBabywearer.com.  This is place to buy and sell previously-loved carriers.  I bought my first Kanga XT here, as well as other carriers :)

Please note that the above listing is definitely not exhaustive and is based on second-hand experience :)

Our New Kanga XT!

Our new Kanga XT went to the zoo!  The Pure Baby (PB) fed a giraffe, from the safety of his Kanga XT :)  He was a bit apprehensive, but the option of safely being behind mom brought suffficient bravery to allow PB to participate in this fun privilege.

After months on the Bloo Kangeroo custom wait list, I was extremely thrilled to receive my new Kanga XT in the mail.  I absolutely love the Marimekko Unikko fabric that a very sweet babywearing friend shared with me!  Thank you so much :)  And Kirsten at Bloo-Kangeroo did a marvelous job and created perfect matching strap canvas!  I love love love my new Kanga XT!!!

Our new Kanga XT has a petite waist, extra-petite straps, and has a 1/2 inch wider base on each side.  The 1/2 inch wider base allows for the knee to knee support that you can see above, even in an older baby/toddler.  At the same time, Kirsten says that our Kanga XT should be fine for a younger baby around 12 months or so (and up).

The Children's Museum of New Hampshire ~ amazing and wonderful fun for children on the autism spectrum!

This past weekend, our family happily visited The Children's Museum of New Hampshire for the first time!  I've been wanting to check it out, and we had an amazing opportunity to attend the special autism-only hours.  On the second Sunday of each month, The Children's Museum of New Hampshire opens early and offers free admission to children on the autism spectrum along with their entire families.  And not only that...  Additionally, the Museum seeks to offer networking and socialization opportunities for the families.  And, the families are invited to spend the entire day at the Museum - not just the special autism-only hours.  Plus, on top of that, the Museum gave us free tickets for our entire family to come back any time!  Pretty incredible, I think.  We've lived lots of places - and have had memberships at several children's museums - yet, we've never found a children's museum who has this loving heart for children with autism.

So, if you live in New England, I greatly encourage you to pay a visit to The Children's Museum of New Hampshire!  With or without autism, its a super fun place to play :)