Orlando Children’s Expo Orlando’s annual expo for parents and kids sponsored by Winn-Dixie – FREE ADMISSION! Featuring exhibits, entertainment, parent seminars, children’s safety information, free child safety ID cards, games for kids, car seat check stations, bicycle helmet fitting, book readings and free baby product samples!
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| Pre-register by September 16th at www.ChildrensExpos.com to receive 50% off parking!
Orange County Convention Center |
Are you a new mom who needs a little help with breastfeeding? Are you planning on breastfeeding your baby once he or she arrives? Ready your questions and ask the experts during World Breastfeeding Week 2010. Visit the official website to find resources, watch videos, get a calendar and more. If you have a blog or are a website administrator, be sure to download a banner for your site.
The World Breastfeeding Week website offers a variety of materials in multiple languages. If you work with or know expectant mothers who need materials translated, this site is an excellent resource.
Thanks to Medela for the following:
Celebrate World Breastfeeding Week with Medela, August 1st-7th. To help you continue your breastfeeding journey successfully, Medela is hosting two free live chats with breastfeeding experts on Tuesday, August 3 at 11:00 a.m. EST AND Thursday, August 5 at 4 p.m. EST via a toll-free number.
(8/3): Maria Lennon is a Clinical Education Specialist with Medela. Maria has been with Medela for 10 years, is a Certified Nurse-Midwife, and has been a board-certified as a Lactation Consultant since 1985. Maria is the mother of four breastfed daughters who are now grown and having babies themselves.
(8/5): Cindy Wagner, MS, RD, IBCLC works with Medela as a Sales Consultant and is a Board Certified Lactation Consultant. She speaks locally on various breastfeeding topics, including workplace lactation and breastpumps. She is the mother of three sons, all of whom were breastfed, and the grandmother of three breastfed grandchildren.
(8/3 and 8/5): Julie Hamilton hails from Nashville, Tenn., and, in addition to recently earning her certificate in lactation counseling, is a mother of three breastfed children, including 23-month-old twins who are still nursing. As Mrs. Nashville, Julie works to spread the message of breastfeeding preparedness and is dedicated to helping moms and babies have breastfeeding success.
If you’re interested in joining this live chat, please email medela@mommavens.com with the subject line “MMM Live Chat” by August 2nd. Include your name and any questions you’d like to have answered during the call. We will provide dial-in information closer to the live chat date.
Do you have a pregnant or breastfeeding friend who’d appreciate advice from an experienced mom? Invite her to join the call, too! We welcome any and all breastfeeding questions. Our goal is to help you (and your friends!) successfully breastfeed. We look forward to seeing you there!
As baby planning consultants, we aim to provide our clients, or “Bloomers” as we prefer to call them, not only our knowledge and support, but also an understanding of the best in local baby services and products. One way in which we hope to give our Bloomers a little extra something is through the creation of the Bloomer Bonus program.
The Bloomer Bonus program is our way of not only linking our Bloomers with excellent local services and products, but by offering them exclusive pricing and specials for being a Baby Bloomers client. As our program grows, we will be adding a list to our website to inform current and prospective Bloomers of our local friends and partners as well as those providing a bonus to our clients. Additionally, we will introduce you to the services or products that they provide through our blog and Facebook links. Be sure to keep up with us to find out what our newest Bloomer Bonuses are!
Have a favorite local baby service or product you would like us to include in our Bloomer Bonuses? Let us know and we will do our best to add them to our growing list of friends!
If you have not yet checked your crib to make sure that it is not one of those recently recalled, be sure to visit the CPSC website. By looking under the Recent Recalls menu, you can select the link for “drop- side cribs” or “fixed-side and drop-side cribs” to find out more information regarding those cribs on the recall list. If you own a Graco brand or Simplicity crib, make sure that you investigate to determine whether or not the model you own is one of those being recalled.
In addition to crib recalls, read about this weekend’s recall of children’s health products including: Tylenol, Zyrtec, Motrin, and Benadryl.
To learn more about what to do if you have these products in your home, read McNeil’s FAQs and/or see their list of specific products included in the recall. See the article below, found on the parents.com website for additional information:
DATE: April 30, 2010
CATEGORY: Health & Safety
COMPANY/BRAND: McNeil Consumer Healthcare
THE DANGER: McNeil Consumer Healthcare is initiating this voluntary recall because some of these products may not meet required quality standards. Some of the products included in the recall may contain a higher concentration of active ingredient than is specified; others may contain inactive ingredients that may not meet internal testing requirements; and others may contain tiny particles. While the potential for serious medical events is remote, the company advises consumers who have purchased these recalled products to discontinue use.
SOLD AT: Drug stores, grocery stores, and other retailers nationwide.
WHAT TO DO: Consumers can contact the company at 1-888-222-6036 and also at www.mcneilproductrecall.com. Parents and caregivers who are not sure about alternative pediatric health treatment options should talk to their doctor or pharmacist and are reminded to never give drug products to infants and children that are not intended for those age groups as this could result in serious harm.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: http://www.mcneilproductrecall.com/page.jhtml?id=/include/new_recall.in
Are you one of the many mothers who has to go back to work but wants to continue breastfeeding? While you can try using things like herbal teas to increase your milk production, one of the best ways to keep your milk supply up is to use a pump. If you aren’t yet familiar with pumping, you can talk to a lactation consultant or visit websites like La Leche League or those of pump manufacturers. You can learn about the various types of pumps (manual, electric, hands-free) and when the best time of day is to use your pump. Many women find that pumping after baby’s first feeding in the morning yields the best results, however if you are just beginning to pump, try a few different times and see what works best for you.
If you think you want to try pumping, but you aren’t ready to invest just yet (electric pumps can cost upwards of $250) you can investigate renting a hospital grade electric pump. Contact your local hospital, or talk to your pediatrician or OB/GYN (midwife, doula, etc.) to find out the best places to find a rental pump. Stores such as Babies R Us also offer new mothers rental pumps. Again, a lactation consultant would also be an excellent resource. If you do choose to rent a pump, always be sure to find out how the parts are sterilized once they are returned, and what the recommended cleaning method is in between uses.
Ready to win a breast pump?! Enter to win a Purely Yours Ultra Double Electric Breast Pump by Ameda, and be sure to look at their products and resources available online.
Here are some excellent resources for tips on breastfeeding once you have returned to work:
Breastfeeding at Work from Breastfeed.com
Breastfeeding Basics from Ameda
Working and Breastfeeding: Making it Work By Nancy Mohrbacher, IBCLC, Lactation Consultant, Ameda Breastfeeding Products, Co-author of Breastfeeding Made Simple and The Breastfeeding Answer Book
20 Tips for Working and Breastfeeding by Dr. Sears
La Leche League: Breastfeeding and Your Legal Rights
La Leche League Articles about breastfeeding (at work, when traveling, in school, etc.)
One of the most important things that new and expectant parents can do to protect the health of their children is to ensure that their home is baby-safe. What many people immediately think of when they prepare to “baby-proof” their home, is purchasing any and all safety related products at the nearest baby superstore. We also scramble to place all chemical and toxic substances out of baby’s reach. What we may NOT do, however, is investigate what is in the products that we expose our homes and families to beyond those that carry a warning on the label.
One easy way to determine how safe our cleaning and personal care products are is to use the Environmental Working Group’s Healthy Home Checklist. By downloading and printing out this checklist, you can easily check your house for common toxic chemicals and subsequently choose safer alternatives.
While sorting out the safe from the toxic may seem like an easy task (just check the label for that warning!), there are probably unsafe ingredients lurking in products you would have never considered to be unsafe. For example, do you have antibacterial soaps, plastic teethers or air fresheners in your home? These are just some of the seemingly harmless products that most consumers would never think twice about questioning.
Think about the following: The AMA recommends against using antibacterial products; they can hinder your body’s natural defense mechanisms, and ingredients such as triclosan (a popular alternative to alcohol based antibacterials) can actually leave a residue on your hands. Additionally, antibacterial soaps have been found to be no more effective than proper hand washing with regular soap and water alone. Despite their popularity on baby registries everywhere, soft plastic teethers and rubber duckies can contain phthalates, which have been found to disrupt the endocrine system, leading to a variety of problems. Air fresheners and other products (think shampoo, perfume, body lotion, and anything else scented with “fragrance“) contain ingredients that don’t need to be disclosed to consumers. A legal loophole allows companies to hide toxic chemicals in fragrance that may consist of hundreds of chemicals that studies show may linked to a variety of health problems.
Is it scary to think that there are ingredients in our homes that we don’t know about and would not want around if we did? Yes. As parents do we need to become alarmists and start to panic? Of course not. Simply become educated. One of the best things any consumer can be is educated. Take baby steps and begin by learning what is in your home, and what you can reasonably replace. Download and print the EWG checklist, take a deep breath, and take your first baby step.
Have questions about living green with baby? Contact Lyndsy or Christine for more information. We are adding How to Grow Your Family Green to our list of services and packages. We would be happy to share our knowledge with you!
One great way to save money and stretch that baby buck is to sign up for newsletters from various baby related businesses. These two promotional codes come courtesy of Planning Family. Members have access to free baby stuff, interactive tools, expert advice and videos, printable grocery coupons, and week-by-week development updates. The best part is that membership is completely free; visit their website and sign up!
While you wait for your first newsletter, take advantage of these promotional codes:
1) “babies” will get you a 3 piece Udder Covers gift set for only $5.00 (a $37.00 value)
2) “family2010″ will make your individual nursing cover free!
The codes are valid once per transaction, so you can order more than once if you want to get one for yourself and one for a friend! Remember that you will be charged for S&H no matter which code you choose.
Happy Shopping!
If you are getting ready to register for your Lansinoh Double Electric Breast Pump, be sure to get your gift bag of free samples and coupons:
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Interested in knowing what we are up to? Log into Facebook and become a fan of Baby Bloomers Planning! We have information about baby planning and welcome your questions and comments. We regularly update our page with new information, contests and freebies, so be sure to check us out.
We attended our second baby expo at the Broward County Convention Center earlier in the month and had a great time learning about new baby products and meeting local inventors! One of the best new products we learned about was the Cuddlecloth. Created by inventor Mary Purcaro, the Cuddlecloth is a safer way to bathe and dry your baby. Worn by mommy, daddy, grammy, or whomever is bathing baby, it is a hands free way to have the towel ready when your little one is ready to come out of the bath. It attaches to itself without any Velcro or snaps and stays in place until you are ready to wrap baby up. It allows you to keep both hands on your baby at all times and, as a bonus, keeps you dry! We got one and it has been a huge success. Not only does it allow us to keep Mackena cozy and warm between the tub and the changing pad, but it dries her much quicker than her other towels. Even in the smaller size, it is a bit bigger than our other baby towels and has proven to be far easier to use.
The Cuddlecloth is made here in Palm Beach County, and comes in two sizes. In addition to making the Cuddlecloth, Mary also makes a Cuddlepet which is used in the same way as the Cuddlecloth when bathing your pet.
