Baby Product Alert: Petit Terraillon All In One

I thought the "All In One" part sounds too good to be true, and this product has an interesting name, but the full name of this item is: Petit Terraillon All In One: blender/ food warmer/ food steamer/ bottle warmer/ bottle sterilizer. I came across it on a parenting forum in a thread that discusses about how to provide a baby with food when travelling. The reviews seem to be pretty good and the product is compact enough to bring along when travelling. I guess this will be useful if one has a baby who is drinking from a bottle and/or still eating blended food. You can see it here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Petit-Terraillon-All-one-steriliser/dp/B000HHKKLK

For Kristina - Part 2

Kristina, I realised that I probably shouldn't compare your pocket dipes with Thirsties. That's like comparing apples and oranges. :) Thirsties are AIO with the pocket for stuffing an extra soaker, if needed. Anyhow, here are the pics.

Here's DD with your dipe, stuffed with a Happy Heiny's Stuffin (hemp soaker) without the extra oval. I love the melon color. It's such a bright and happy color! :)

Here's DD with a BumGenius 3.0 one size dipe. This is also a pocket dipe. Somehow, the outer and inner fabric is very thin, so the diaper looks slightly trimmer than yours. Here, I used BG's one size microfibre terry soaker, which is slightly bulkier than the HH Stuffin.

And here's the Thirsties AIO. I also placed a HH Stuffin oval in the pocket, but this dipe still looks pretty trim.

For Kristina

OK, most of you can ignore this blog post. I'm putting up this post for my friend Kristina, who sews the most beautiful cloth diapers ever!!! She sewed 3 dipes for DD recently, and this is the feedback that I'm giving her about her diapers.

Kristina, I owe you the pics comparing DD wearing her Thirsties AIO/BumGenius/Bum-ware and your dipe. This is for comparison of the bulkiness of the dipes. I thought I had taken the pics, but I can't find them now.


Poo wick seen around the legh0les of the sage colored dipe. The wicking was pretty quick too, I think DD was sitting in it for 20 mins at most before I noticed the wicking on the outside.

Sorry, this is probably TMI, but I just wanted to show how the wicking happened - that it soaked across the inner gusset (probably exacerbated by the fact that the inner gusset isn't a snug fit), onto the outer gusset and then across into the PUL.

Here is DD wearing a Thirsties AIO. The inner gusset fits snugly. No poo leaks yet on the Thirsties AIO. (I hope I'm not jinxing myself here!)

Of course, your double gussets are a bit different from the Thirsties gussets. Yours are similar to a disposable dipe, in which both gussets should be snug against baby's skin (hence the inner gusset shouldn't be exposed like the Thirsties). In Thirsties AIO, only the inner gusset is snug against baby's skin (but the inner gusset is also PUL, so it's leak-proof), and the outer gusset serve to help keep the inner gusset stay snug against baby to prevent leaks.

This pic is to show how I was able to get a snug fit for the outer gusset against baby's thigh. But I couldn't get the inner gusset to fit snugly (see next pic). In my email, I was suggesting that you could probably tighten up the inner gusset slightly so that both gussets will be a snug fit.

The inner gusset still has a small gaping hole (ie not a snug fit) even though the outer gusset fitted snugly.

This is Bum-ware AI2. This shows just the dipe without the snap-in soaker.

Bum-ware AI2 with snap-in soaker beside it.

Bum-ware AI2 with snap-in soaker in place and extra lay-in soaker beside it.

I flipped up the soaker to show you how think it is. I think it's just made of 3 or 4 layers of flannel.

I have slight problems with stains on the inner of the orange velcro-closure dipe. Stains seem to hold and is harder to wash out, I suspect because the fibres on this fabric is longer. Do note that I rinse off as much poo (and yellow stains) as I can usually immediately after I change baby.

Here is a side-view comparison of the gussets of your dipe and a Thirsties AIO.

Body comparison of your dipe and Thirsties AIO. They are similar.

Front comparison of your dipe and Thirsties AIO. They are very similar in sizing and looks.

Front comparison of your dipe and Bum-ware AI2. Notice that Bum-ware covers the velcro tabs with PUL, which changes the look of the dipe if you were to do so too.

Velcro strip at the front of the dipe pilling. It looks like some lint has caught onto the velcro strip as well, but I don't seem to have that problem with Thirsties or Bum-ware.

Comparison of your velcro strip compared with Thirsties.

Comparison of pocket opening between your diep and Thirsties. The biggest difference is that yours opening at the back and Thirsties opens in front. Both I fine, IMO.

The Thirsties pocket close up. See how the microfleece overlaps at the pocket to close the pocket and prevent wicking.

Thirsties pocket again, opened.

My Babywearing Jacket

I totally splurged on this babywearing jacket, which costs more than my relatively cheap (US$69) but fantastically warm everyday jacket that I wear here in Denver to keep the chilling wind out. But I figured that since DD spends at least 3 hours a day on me in a wrap, I might as well get a jacket that I can just put on and go out - with her still on me! The MaM babywearing jacket is seriously the best quality babywearing jacket around (I ordered it from Germany, thank goodness for Alta Vista Language Translation website! Hehe.) Everytime I put it on in preparation to go out, DD falls asleep before we can even leave the building! Usually before we even leave the apartment, actually. :) She's so toasty and cosy in the jacket.

Re: Toys and Lead

With all the recalls of toys in recent months, I hesitate to buy toys for DD and DS. Lead is a toxic substance that is very worrisome, but frequently found in recalled toys. In toys, lead can either be found in the paint on the toys or in the plastic. This is something that I wasn't aware of previously, but lead is added to plastics to soften the plastic and to make it more flexible. The use of lead in plastics is not banned yet.

So what's the problem with lead? The neurotoxicity of lead poisoning is not reversible. That is, any brain damage or learning disability caused by lead poisoning is not reversible. According to the National Center for Environmental Health, children who are at risk of lead poisoning are those below the age of 6, because they tend to put toys, other objects or their hands into their mouths.

While most of the recalled toys involve China-made toys, this is simply because 75% of the world's toys are made in China. Buying a toy that is made in America, for instance, doesn't make the toy any safer than those made in China. Considering the small market share of toys that are made in America and looking at the number of made-in-America toys that are eventually recalled, America may have as high a percentage of recalled toys as China! This is according to data from the Consumer Product Safety Commision (CPSC).

So what to do? We can't possibly avoid toys altogether and have the children run amok at home from boredom. Well, we've just been trying to look at this whole issue rationally and taking a common sense approach to it. If the toy is really cheap, brand unknown, of poor quality (e.g. wood has splinters or plastic has sharp edges) and looks flimsy, then most likely it IS cheaply made. We natually tend to or want to believe that a branded toy (e.g Fisher-Price, Hasbro, Haba, Plan Toys) has better quality control than an unbranded one. Although, having said that, branded toys haven't been spared of recalls either.

Some of you might be aware that there are lead testing kits available for us to test for the presence of lead in toys at home. But according to consumerreports.org, these kits, though "useful", have limitations. For instance, some kits were able to test "surface lead" or "accessible lead", but not lead that was embedded below the surface.

I found a website (http://www.healthytoys.org/home.php) which tests toys for lead and some other toxic substances. This is a project of the Ecology Center, which is a non-profit organisation, so it's good to know this project has no vested interest in any particular toy company. For now, since this has the most information about "safe" toys available on the market, I will try to buy DD toys that are listed as "safe" on this website. At this point in time, I'm more concerned about DD because she puts everything in her mouth!

References:

http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/default.htm

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200602/17/eng20060217_243653.html

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2007-10-04-toy-fear_N.htm#open-share-help

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/safety/2007/10/testing-the-lea.html


http://www.healthytoys.org/home.php

BPA-Free Drinkware for Babies and Toddlers

Yes, I admit that I'm a bit obsessed about Bisphenol A (BPA). I recently found more information about BPA in drinkware for babies and toddlers.

In case anyone is interested, this page contains a review of BPA-free sippy cups:
http://tinyurl.com/2anx4r

And this page has recommendations for BPA-free baby bottles:
http://tinyurl.com/2f9wrh

And finally, this page has a directory of BPA-free bottles and sippy cups. This is such a fantastic resource!
http://tinyurl.com/22wxra

Hyland's Teething Tablets - Important Info

Prior to today, I was a big fan of Hyland's Teething Tablets. (http://www.hylands.com/products/teething.php) Most mothers I have "met" in online forums both in Singapore and internationally sing praises about this wonderful product, which does wonders to relieve the crankiness and irritability of a teething infant or toddler. I have given this homeopathic product to DS when he was teething (he was horrible everytime he cut a tooth) and would always be amazed at how his crankiness would miraculously disappear. As such, I have recommended this product to quite number of mummies. I have even bought a new bottle of Hyland's Teething Tablets in anticipation of DD cutting her first tooth, just in case she doesn't take very well to teething, like her brother.

Well, after reading what one mother posted on the Baby Center board, DH and I discussed it and we decided NOT to give our children anymore Hyland's Teething Tablets. We're going to throw away the bottle that we bought for DD. Here's a summary of what the mother wrote on the Baby Center board, for those of you who do not wish to read it - essentially, this mother gave her infant son the recommended dose of Hyland's Teething Tablets and he got anticholinergic poisoning from it. In anticholinergic poisoning, the person may, for example, get delirious, hallucinate and have urinary retention. If medical care is not administered, death may result in severe poisoning.

For the record, I would like to say that I am a skeptic. I usually read what others write with a pinch of salt, especially if it's related to personal experience and not evidence-based. However, DH has read what this mother wrote and he says her description of her son's symptoms does accurately fit a case of anticholinergic poisoning. Some of you will know that DH is a medical toxicologist-in-training (that's why we're here in Denver!).

The reason why Hyland's Teething Tablets work is because they contain a substance called Belladonna. According to DH, Belladonna causes numbness, hence the tablets work to ease the discomfort caused by teething. However, in large doses, Belladonna can cause anticholinergic poisoning. Now, do note that the dosage stated on the product label of Hyland's Teething Tablets is NOT high enough to cause any sort of problems. However, there is no guarantee that there will not be any mistake in the manufacturing process, hence resulting in a higher amount of Belladonna present in the tablets. Hyland's Teething Tablets are manufactured in the US, and the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) in the US does NOT regulate homeopathic products, Hyland's Teething Tablets being one of them. There is really no guarantee that the tablets contain the substances in the proportions stated on the label.

In addition, infants/toddlers may accidentally be overdosed on Hyland's Teething Tablets. I know that I am guilty of having given DS slightly more tablets than recommended on the bottle.

For those mummies who have used or are still using Hyland's Teething Tablets, it is really up to you whether you will continue to use it. I just wanted to highlight the hidden dangers of using this product, which I didn't give much thought to before. DH and I have decided not to use it anymore, even though it worked very well to ease DS's crankiness when he was teething.

I will follow up the case posted on the Baby Center board and post if the laboratory test results are out. I am also curious to know if the tablets in that bottle did contain more Belladonna than they were supposed to.

Baby Product Alert: Thermos Straw Sippy

In the hunt for a non-plastic straw sippy water bottle for DS, I came across Thermos' range for children. They have sippy cups for infants, non-leak straw sippies for toddlers and even straw water bottles for older children.

See them all here: http://www.thermos.com/

I have always wondered what the differences were between the Foogo (range for toddlers, includes non-leak straw sippies) and the Funtainers (range for older children, includes non-leak straw water bottles, similar to the Foogo range). Well, here's a review if anyone's interested:

http://tinyurl.com/2rk69q

Klean Kanteen (high quality stainless steel bottles from the US) also has a sippy cup. Edited: Just wanted to make a correction - the Klean Kanteen sippies are also non-leak. They use the Avent sippy sprout.
http://www.kleankanteen.com/

Bisphenol A, Plastics and Baby Bottles

I looked up this information for a friend (she just gave birth a week ago!) and since I know so many other mummies who are due soon or have infants, thought I'll post this on my blog too.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a compound commonly found in plastic containers/bottles. More specifically, they are found in polycarbonate plastic (hard plastic containers) and can leach into the food and liquid that we store in these containers. To put it simply, BPA is cancer-causing, but is commonly found in unacceptable levels in our bloodstream and even in umbilical cord blood and in the placenta.

Here's a link to a good article about plastics and kids. This article also recommends safer alternatives: http://www.healthobservatory.org/library.cfm?refid=77083 . Here's another similar article: http://tinyurl.com/23595a

For those of you in Singapore, here are your options if you want to use BPA-free bottles for your baby:

1. Pigeon glass bottles (if breakage is not so much a concern to you) http://tinyurl.com/2a79ku

2. Bfree bottles (sold at bigger Kiddy Palace stores, Baby Hypermart and Pharmaplus at Camden Medical Centre)

3. B-free bottles from Dr Brown (I believe I saw this at The First Few Years at KKH before)

4. Soft plastic bottles like those from Medela

During the first 4 days of DD's life, when I had to supplement her with special milk formula for low birth weight babies, I just used the glass bottles from formula samples they provided at the hospital. But do note that if you are feeding expressed breast milk (EBM) in the glass bottles, there are suggestions that nutrients from the EBM may cling to the side of glass bottles (more so than to plastic) and hence, not get ingested by baby. I can't seem to find references at this point in time that support that claim (although I know that I've read it somewhere before), so if anyone reading this can point me to the references, I would appreciate it if you could send them to me for posting on my blog. Thanks!

How We Are Coping So Far

When friends and relatives found out that we'll be spending a year overseas, we generally got two types of reaction. The first reaction would be from relatives and friends who are married with kids. They would say, "If you are not bringing your maid along, how are you going to cope with a toddler, a newborn, cooking and housework?". The second reaction would be from friends who are single or married with no kids. They would say, "Oh my, what will you be doing in Denver while your husband was at work? You'll be so bored!" or "You'll be able to spend all your time going shopping and watching TV!". Seriously?!?

Anyhow, we're coping well, I must say. Generally, I get DS involved in my household chores, but I must say I feel bad for him when he wonders around the house aimlessly at times. I think he is used to being engaged in play WITH someone (since I was also previously mostly a SAHM and then there's the domestic help and the grandparents to entertain him) that he's not used to spending so much time alone while I'm busy doing stuff. DD, on the other hand, is either sleeping in her crib or sleeping on me. I have to say that a baby carrier is a life-saver. In the pictures above (sorry about the self-taken pics though), I'm using a wrap to carry DD upright (otherwise she spits up a lot) and my hands are free to do other things. There are many different types of baby carriers around besides the Baby Bjorn, which is supposed to be not too ideal for baby's back. There are ring slings, mei tais, pouches, wraps, etc. If anyone is interested, hop over to http://www.thebabywearer.com/ . This website is so full of information on babywearing that it can be overwhelming at first. But you will be able to find almost everything you need to know about babywearing there. But be warned - it is very addictive.

We've also been cooking our own meals, which is great. My only complain is that my personal time, ie. time after the kids are in bed, are non-existant at the moment. For some reason, DS has been unwilling to go to bed until very late at night. He just can't seem to stay in bed and gets up to turn on the lights, open the room door or closet doors until past 12 midnight. I'm just hoping it'll pass soon.