Homemade Baby Food

As I was preparing lunch for my daughter today I was considering the fact that since I have gone to making baby food at home, I have saved a considerable amount of money. At first I was hesitant about making baby food at home, I figured it would take a lot of time up, create a big mess (I am a good cook, or so my husband claims, but I have a tendency to leave the kitchen in quite a state of chaos).

But since I was curious and I had a gift certificate, I purchased the So Easy Baby Food Kit from Babies 'R Us for $37.99, it comes with a cookbook, two freezer trays with lids, DVD and nutritional information card. The kit claims you can make baby food easily in 30 minutes per week. I have not sat through the whole DVD so I cannot say much for it, I am sure it is helpful but unfortunately when I do sit down and pop in a DVD I would prefer it be a movie that I can enjoy with my husband.

Pros:

• The cookbook goes over everything from picking the produce, how to store them properly or even encourage them to ripen if they are not. It also includes various ways to cook the produce that you pick including microwave, baking, steaming, etc. The cookbook nicely divides foods into the month ranges that they should be first introduced and provides advice on combining foods, possible allergies, even spices. On the page of each item it includes a line to write the date introduced to your baby and notes.
  
• The trays are handy with their lids, instead of wrapping ice cube trays in cellophane.
• The nutrition cards are great, especially helpful to leave out for babysitters because they cover everything from sources of certain nutrients, age that food should be introduced, and first aid for choking. Big bonus is they are waterproof!

Cons:

• I was not aware when I purchased the kit that the 30 minutes a day was mainly dependent on microwaving all of the produce to cook it, as opposed to baking, steaming and other options. I am not a huge fan of microwaves and much prefer the control I have when I am baking or steaming so that the produce is not overcooked and could lose its valuable nutrients. While the cookbook gives the estimated time to prep each individual produce it is based on microwave times.
  
• The cookbook does not include meat recipes in it, but does include tofu which is a great source of protein.
• The ice trays included are the same pretty much as the conventional ice trays you can buy at a grocery or drug store, it would have been nice if they were slightly larger for serving size purposes. If at least one tray had larger cubes it would be wonderful for when your baby gets older and starts eating larger portions. Right now I end up feeding my daughter about 4-5 ice cubes per meal.

Overall I think it is a bit pricey for something that can be easily researched on the internet. I would like to include in this post a website that I think has some awesome recipes especially for toddlers. The website is Wholesomebabyfood.com, and I would highly recommend it, it also has some great articles on food allergies, sweeteners, and even recipe contests sometimes.

Review: Combi Helio 2008 Stoller

Previously we had been using a Graco Spree Stroller that had come in the travel system we bought with a Graco Snugride Infant Car Seat. But honestly while durable (it has survived our dog chewing on the wheels) the stroller is pretty cumbersome and takes up almost all of the bottom of the trunk in our Prius. So before our last road trip we decided to downsize and get something that would take up less trunk space and mean we could still find our daughter among all of the stuff that we previously were packing in the backseat with her. We went to a store that specifically specializes in baby and children supplies and found our new Combi Helio 2008 Stroller in Ember and Wasabi. I have held off writing a review because I honestly figured I wanted to give the stroller some time to break in and really see what problems could possibly arise. We have now had the stroller for a month and have taken it everywhere we can with us from walking around our neighbor, which was a challenge before even with the Graco because not all the roads around our house are paved, to going shopping at the mall, supermarket, walking all over town. The list of features advertised on this stroller include the following:

• Taller Handles
• Wider seating area
• Compatible with Shuttle Infant Seat
• Quick and simple tri-fold
• Lightweight and portable lifestyle stroller
• Opens easily with one hand
• Deep recline will accommodate an infant
• Adjustable European Style Canopy with Viewing Window
• Basket with easy access
• Convenient carrying strap for traveling
• Removable Guardrail with Washable Fabric Cover
• Front swivel wheels for easy maneuvering
• Convenient footrest for toddler comfort
• Removable, Washable Padded Seat Cushion
• Seat cushion has air mesh ventilation that allows baby to stay cool
• Independent wheel suspension system for a smooth and restful ride
• Includes Safety Boot
• 5-Point Harness w/ Logo
• Removable kids tray with a cup holder and snack tray
• Includes removable diaper bag

The stroller weighs 13.4lbs can accomodate up to a 55lb child, has open dimensions of 32.5X15.25X40.

The biggest pro for us was that it was lightweight and folded up compactly. Otherwise the other pros that have come in handy are as follows:

• Removable diaper bag, which fits a quite a few diapers, a small case of wipes, and some extra binkies or a toy quite easily.
• The recline is very simple to operate and it goes back to a nice recline for our daughter to sleep in.
• I like the hinges on the side of the canopy to open it and collapse it down, they are easily operated and do not get stuck like on our Graco stroller.
• The carrying strap has come in handy when we have had to just carry our daughter due to certain terrain.

Unfortunately the list ends there, as we have had some rather frustrating happenings with this stroller (note I plan on contacting the company about these and will be writing another review after I do that to comment on the company's response to my complaints).

Cons:

• When folded the lock, which consists of a latch type mechanism, has a tendency to pop open causing the stroller to unfold from the tri-fold.
  
• The basket has a bar blocking access from directly behind the seat and there is not much space to access it from the sides either. I expected the basket to be small but it is almost unsuable except for very small items.
• The front swivel wheels have a tendency to get stuck so after making a turn sometimes they will not return to a straight position resulting in sudden stops.
  
• The locks on the front stroller wheels are very stiff, I have to operate them with my hands, and according to the instructions must be on when you are folding up the stroller to prevent damage to the wheels, which means I have to repeatedly bend over when folding and opening this stroller to work the locks.
• The brakes on the rear wheels are very stiff as well, requiring that you wear shoes unless you possibly like scrapping your toes on the plastic to flip them up into the unlock position.
• The handles do not seem to be that tall, but that seems to be a continuing problem with most of the strollers that my husband and I have tried, I am 5'9" and he is 6'0" and we are constantly kicking the wheels when using this and our Graco stroller.
• It says that it opens easily with one hand, and while yes I can unlatch the lock with one hand to open it takes me personally two hands to make sure that it locks when unfolded.

While I really wanted to love this stroller as it does have a child cup holder and some nice features the problem with the front wheels in particular has become near unbearable, I can barely manuever through the bookshelves at Barnes & Noble without getting stuck every two minutes.

Review: Baby Shampoo & Body Washes

I figured since I was planning on giving my daughter a bath tonight, I would review the couple baby washing products that I have used. We live on a septic system, so I try to avoid putting tons of chemicals that are not biodegradable or contain possibly harmful chemicals in them that will eventually end up in the soil of our front yard. The majority of personal care products that I use that can be washed off the body are usually natural, and that includes what I use on my daughter.


The first that I will review is for Method Baby Squeaky Green Baby Hair + Body Wash (8oz bottle). It can be purchased directly from Method for $7, at Diapers.com for $6.99, in Target store for $6.49, and many other retailers, if you want to find a store near you Method has a search on their website for what stores sell their products.

Pros:

• Biodegradable formula that is hypoallergenic and tear-free.
• Light scent from rice milk and mallow extract, unlike some baby products that have too strong a smell for me.
• Paraben and Phthalate free!
• Does what it should, cleans.
• Does not dry out my daughter's skin, or appear to irritate her eczema.
  

Cons:

• Does not get as sudsy as I would like.

Overall though for a natural baby shampoo and body wash Method is affordable, and I definitely will continue using it.

Nature's Baby Organics Shampoo & Body Wash - Lavendar & Chamomile scent (8oz bottle) is another product I have used on my daughter, my mom gave it to me as a gift with a bunch of other stuff before I had her. It can be found at the Nature's Baby Organics site and Diapers.com for $9.95, and at health food stores and some beauty product stores.

Pros:

• 100% Vegan, Paraben, SLS (Sodium Laurel Sulfate), and Propylene Glycol Free, and Hypoallergenic.
• Has a nice lavender scent that is not too strong.
• I like that all ingredients on the bottle are explained in some form, so you know where they are coming from.
• Does get nice and sudsy.
  

Cons:

• Not tear free.
• Does not leave my daughters skin as hydrated as I would like.
  

I will probably not go out of my way to buy this again, but it seems to do a nice job, personally for the price I would rather go with the Method baby wash. But as a gift it was nice, and the smell is quite delightful, and I can only hope helps when I give my daughter a bath in the evening before her bedtime.

Review: Buns Up Wipe Solution Cubes

Even now I still occasionally will use cloth wipes to take care of our daughter during diaper changes, and as a result a wipe solution is a necessity to help clean up. I found the Buns Up Wipe solution cubes while surfing the internet for cloth diapering accessories, at Granola Babies. I figured I would try it out instead of always having to make home wipe solution, just due to time constraint at times. And surprisingly I really have no complaints about this product, I tried to think of some, I guess the only one I could come up with is that you have to wait for the cube to dissolve in the water. But the pluses to this product completely outweigh that small inconvenience, I actually will even use it when I use moist wipes because I like the smell and it seems to help prevent diaper rash.
Pros:

• Truly all natural they are a mild glycerin base with chamomile, witch hazel, tea tree and lavender (beat that Huggies!).
• Very affordable, a 3 oz bag of cubes is $10 dollars on Granola Babies, you can find them on other websites as well, and that 3 oz bag will make up to 5 gallons of wipe solution.
• Smells great!

Cons:

• Procrastinators like me will have to wait for that little cube to dissolve in the water if you don't pre-make solution ahead of time.

By far this is one of my favorite products that I have found on the internet, and yes I realize it is just wipes solution but it is a really nice and simple wipes solution that really does the job.

Review: gDiapers

These were our first choice when we had the big dilemma of having to give up on cloth diapering. We thought great these are just as wonderful, if not a better option because it doesn't require a ton of washing, so we save water, and the liners are compostable or can be flushed. We picked a starter pack up from Whole Foods Market, the starter kit includes a little manual, two "little g" pants, 10 flushable inserts, and a swish stick for toilet disposal. You can also purchase them directly from gDiapers.com or from Diapers.com. But unfortunately gDiapers were not a big success in our house, I was willing to keep giving them a try, but my husband actually put his foot down when he ended up with #2 on his shirt after it leaked out of our daughter's diaper.
Pros:

• Wonderful cloth outer shell that has a a snap-in liner into which you place the biodegradable liner. The snap-in liner allows for the cloth outer shell to be reused numerous times before having to wash. The fact that you can reuse the cloth outer shell repeatedly until dirty is wonderful, it actually is more eco-friendly than cloth diapering if you consider the fact that potable water is not exactly abundant, especially in California right now.
• The liner is made of sustainable farmed wood pulp, sodium polyacrylate, cellulose rayon, which means no plastic!
• The liners can be composted, flushed, or thrown away and they will break down in 50-150 days.
• The cloth outer shell is 92% cotton and 8% spandex, no perfumes, no latex, no elemental chlorine.

Cons:

• Nowhere near as absorbant as a conventional disposable, although I have heard that you could squish two of the liners in for added absorbancy.
• I found that with #2 it had a tendency to leak past the liners and either into the cloth outer shell or out of the diaper completely, I don't know if this was a problem of fit, but I could not seem to remedy it by getting a different size.
• Significantly more expensive even when compared to Nature Babycare, as a refill package is $14.49 for 40 flushables for the small size, or $14.49 for 32 medium/large size.

So unfortunately our foray into the world of gDiapers was an unsuccessful one, for those who have had success with them, wonderful I am very glad people are using them. And if you haven't tried them and have the money please do as they are a wonderful alternative and you may have more success than I did with them. I have considered giving them another try as my daughter is now on solid foods and her stool is much more firm now so that may have solved the explosion problems. Overall gDiapers is a wonderful concept that I wish was more popular.

Review: Huggies Natural Care Fragrance Free Wipes

I am obviously already partial to using the Nature Babycare line of products and so no this is not going to be a very positive review for these wipes, they aren't necessarily bad, there are definite pluses to these wipes, but I do not see the pros outweighing the cons.
Pros:

• Very moist
• Very thick
• You can first purchase a hard case and then purchase bulk packages of refills which is nice.
• Alcohol-free.
  
• Cheaper than Nature Babycare per wipe.
  

Cons:

• While they are moist, they have a tendency to almost be soapy, they actually left what looked like soap bubbles on our daughter's bottom after wiping.
• They are not fragrance free as stated, they have a chemical smell to them.
• They tear easily despite their thickness.
• The list of ingredients are not as natural as one would think, and just to make my point here is the list of ingredients on the back of the packaging: Water - Aqua, Potassium Laureth Phosphate, Glycerin, Polysorbate-20, Tetrasodium EDTA, DMDM Hydantoin, Methylparaben, Malic Acid, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Tocopheryl Acetate - Vitamin E (Note: The links lead to a website "Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Database - Ingredient Report" that lists possible dangers of the chemicals found in personal care products, it is a great website to look up ingredients both in your and your child's personal care products).

Personally for me they just didn't fit the bill since they seemed to increase the frequency of diaper rash. But I guess if you can't find anything else they will do the job, but I would rather just use some water and a cloth wipe if that is the case. For those still interested in purchasing you can find these at almost every drugstore, I purchased my package at Target, and you can find them at Diapers.com as well.

Review: Nature Babycare Fragrance Free Baby Wipes

In addition to the Nature Babycare Diapers, which I previously reviewed, we also use the Fragrance Free Baby Wipes from the Nature Babycare line of products. They can be purchased in Target stores or at Diapers.com for $3.79 individually or a case of 10 for $34.99 ($3.50/package). Again similar to the diapers from this company these pros to these wipes are as follows:

• 100% natural and chlorine free as well as alcohol-free
• 100% compostable consumer packaging
• While thin they are pretty durable, they do not have a tendency to tear like the Huggies wipes do when I am pulling them out of the package
  

The cons:

• They are thin and aren't that big, although most wipes don't seem to be that big, so inevitably I end up using at least 2 for each diaper change I do.
• They easily dry out when the packaging is not properly resealed, although I have found that if you get an empty wipes case that seals tightly you can put them in there and they stay nice and moist.

Other than that they appear to be the only wipes that don't seem to irritate our daughters delicate skin, we have tried Huggies wipes as well as Seventh Generation and they both seem to cause mild irritation and seem to increase the frequency with which she would get diaper rash. Other than the cloth wipes, with home made solution, which I think work the best hands down out of any wipes I have tried, I think the Nature Babycare are my second favorite if I have to grab some wipes.

Review: Nature Babycare Diapers

I have been using these since my daughter was about 4 months old, so it has been 7 months. We chose them because we originally started out cloth diapering, but due to some problems with the septic system we can no longer put the stress of doing loads of laundry on our leeching field. So we shopped around for diapers (we tried gDiapers, Seventh Generation, Huggies, and Pampers), preferring that we hopefully would settle on a tmore eco-friendly alternative. We use these because of the following reasons:

• 100% Chlorine free
• Materials based on corn instead of plastic, unlike most disposables, which also means they are breathable. They have a 100% natural based back sheet and distribution layer.
  
• 100% compostable, both the diapers and the packaging they come in (although you of course should not compost poopy diapers), while conventional disposables can sit in landfills for up to 20 years after being disposed of and forgotten.
  
• Thin construction and very absorbant
• Seem to fit just like every other disposable diaper, and they do go up to size 6 (+35 lbs baby weight), which is nice since my daughter is already in size 5 in every brand of diaper I have tried.
  
• No latex, fragrance, or TBT (tributyl tin)
  

They are definitely more expensive than most disposable diapers, they can be purchased either at Target, in stores only for an average of 9.54 per package, or on Diapers.com for $11.99 per individual package or a case of 4 for $44.99 (11.25/package). (NOTE: If you plan on ordering for the first time from Diapers.com please enter my referral code: CABI6588 and you will get $10 off your first order and you'll help me earn $1 credit towards my account for each order you place over $49).

Back to the Nature Babycare diapers, the downsides that I have found are the following:

• They do have a tendency to get bulky when wet, I think because unlike a conventional disposable that traps the urine in a high absorbancy gel, there is no gel in these diapers so they get a little on the puffy side when wet.
• Unfortunately I would love to say we have had no leaks, but we have, which we seem to have a problem with every diaper we have tried with this, it is only when our daughter has pooped, but unfortunately we have eperienced some small leaks.
• Cost versus other disposable diapers
• When disposing them the fasteners to not fasten to just any part of the
  diaper, only the strip along the front side of the diaper meant for
  fastening so you have to roll them up starting from the back.
  

Overall though my husband and I are very happy with these diapers, they hold up just as well as the Pampers my mom picks up for when she is babysitting and personally they don't have the odd perfume smell that I have noticed some diapers have (I have severe allergies to perfumes). I will be posting up reviews soon for Nature Babycare unscented baby wipes and gDiapers later today.