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How do You Choose the Best Baby Formula?

Written on May 17th, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Baby, Care, Challenges, Food, Health and beauty, May 2011

If you plan on feeding your baby formula milk, making a choice as to which brand to use can be a minefield. Manufacturers are not permitted to advertise their products, and in Australia, health professionals are prohibited from giving advice as to which brands are better than others.

Before I go on, I’m going to add this disclaimer: when I say, ‘if you plan on feeding your baby formula’, I’m referring to any situation that may call for this plan. You might be an adoptive mother or foster carer. You may have tried breast feeding and it didn’t work out. Or you may not want to breastfeed. This post is not about women’s reasons for using baby formula. Everybody knows that breast milk is the best possible way to feed an infant, and this is not an anti-breastfeeding post. I write this piece free of any judgement of any parent or carer who finds them self using baby formula.

In the ten years that I’ve been a parent, a lot has changed. I had my first child then, born a month premature. She was fed a combination of baby formula and my milk for the first two weeks; mostly my milk, though. I won’t go into the reasons why today, but breastfeeding ended up not working out for us, and so after two weeks, we switched her to formula. I was able to talk to health professionals about formula brands, and what the differences were. Some gave opinions on which were better than others or more suited to my daughter’s needs.

In hospital, the brand she was given was Enfalac, but by the time she arrived home, she was fully fed on breast milk. When I put her on formula, I started her on S-26. She had dreadful, painful constipation. Back then, the Tresillian nurse I spoke to on the phone was easily able to tell me that little babies such as my daughter don’t always do so well on S-26 due to it’s high iron and sodium content. She suggested I check the label for these levels, then choose a formula milk that had lower ones. We followed her advice, switched over to Karicare and voila! Crisis over. Happy baby.

Fast forward to six years later when I had our next child, my son. We breastfed for five weeks, then changed to formula after that. Oh my god! What a nightmare it was trying to get any useful information! The brands had changed in that time, and good old Tresillian this time were restricted from being able to advise me on which brands were better than others. I was kindly told this, and she muttered, ‘all I can say is, they’re pretty much all the same’. (Except, in my opinion, when you factor in that all children are individuals and react differently to different brands)

I googled the subject, and got no answers there, either. The only way I could find what I was looking for was to take myself to the store and research the labels myself. With a high-maintenance baby boy, I decided to wait until my partner came home so that he could help with bubs and I could take my time to read in peace.

So, how do you decide which formula to choose these days? If you need advice, who do you turn to?

It’s not great to change a baby’s formula regularly, as it can wreak havoc on their little tummies, so it’s no wonder as mums we feel the pressure to try to get it right as early as possible. I have some suggestions here on points you might like to consider before choosing a brand. Of course, if your child has reflux, lactose intolerance, is premature, or has other medical issues, definitely talk about this with your doctor.

Read the label

Pretty obvious, but read the nutritional information on the back of the tins at the shop, or your friends’ at their home. Do you want your baby to have omega-3′s added, or probiotics? Do you feel comfortable with the nutrients offered, in the amounts given?

Some people choose to boycott Nestle

Many of us are aware of this, and if you aren’t, you can read a brief summary on why here. I mostly boycotted Nestle, but I did go through a stage when formula feeding my son, where I did use it. It’s your choice, but it’s important to know what goes on behind the scenes so you can choose whether you want to vote with your dollar or not.

Think about your budget

Think about how often you get paid; is it weekly, fortnightly? How many tins will you need in that time? How much will this cost? Some brands are more expensive than others. Cost may not be a factor for some, but if it is for you, this could heavily influence the choice you make. The first formula my son started out with was Bellamy Organic formula. It was one of the more expensive ones. At the time, we could factor it into our budgets, and decided to use it. In the second half of his first year, we wanted to tighten our belts a little more, and so we then changed brands to Nestle, which was one of the cheaper options at that time. He was also on solids, so we felt not as bad doing this as we would’ve when we was a newborn.

Try to gauge availability of different brands

When I had my son on Bellamy organic formula, I was very happy with it, but sourcing it each week was often a nightmare. Stocks often ran low in my town, which made it difficult to buy on many occassions. I’d end up having to look for it in other towns, often spending a lot of time and money travelling to do this. This was almost five years ago though, and hopefully things have changed!

Obviously, I had no clue this was a problem when I started my son on this brand, otherwise I wouldn’t have chosen it. If you know other mums who are formula feeding, it’s a good idea to ask if they ever have problems with low stock for their brand, or if they’ve ever heard of it happening to mums who use other brands. It’s especially important if you don’t live in a metropolitan area.

Sometimes it takes trial and error

Despite our best attempts to choose carefully, sometimes certain brands simply don’t agree with our babies. Like the S-26 with my daughter. Or my son, with a particular brand (the name which now escapes me) with high levels of acidophilus. He got a terrible rash with that formula, and I had to switch to something that had no acidophilus instead. Although I said earlier that it’s not good to switch products regularly, sometimes the only way to know what’s best for your child is to experience it first hand.

Have you ever been in a position where you’ve used baby formula? How did you choose which brand to use? Who did you turn to for advice? What would your advice be to other mums in this situation?

Other reading:

Baby formula in Australia – brands sold, where to buy and cost

Bottle feeding (all about infant formula)

Bottle feeding with formula

Our experience with baby led solids

The frugal baby

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Influential sex-talk without the “blah, blah, blah…”

Written on May 1st, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Behaviour, Care, Challenges, Emotional, May 2011, Parenting, Relationships, Social, Teens

This is a guest post from Liz Walker on an important topic for parents of teens, or even tweens.

Despite loud protests of “I’m going to do things better!” how are we fairing? Often the awkward moments with our parents discussing sex (or not discussing it at all) come rushing back to haunt us. The fears of “What does my child already know?”, “What if I tell them too much!” and “How can I keep the lines of communication open?” seem to churn through our mind like a washing machine spinning out of balance. As parents, the last thing we want to ponder is “how did our kids go from ‘cute and innocent’ to ‘got-it-all-together expert’ overnight?”

The difference between when we were kids and now is not too hard to see, however many of us have become desensitised to what has actually happened over the last 40 years. The web has completely rebooted the world. For instance, ‘Amazon’ has changed the way we shop; ‘EBay’ has changed the way we sell; ‘Google’ has changed the way we find information; ‘YouTube’ has changed the way we share experiences; ‘blogging’ has changed the way we share our thoughts and ‘Facebook’ has changed the way we relate to each other. Technology has shifted culture.

Gen X (parents of teens) were introduced to and wowed by technology… Gen Y has experienced and expect exponential advance… Gen Z (our kids) believe technology just ‘is’. Gen Z have never known life without the vast array of superefficient, ever advancing, ‘simple to use’ and ‘couldn’t live without’ technology. A great deal of technology is incredibly beneficial; however there are some pitfalls we need to be aware of when raising healthy teens to make smart choices about sex.

In dealing with the downside of media and technology, ask yourself a couple of questions. What messages has your child picked up about their worth? When they watch music clips, what are they being told about how they dress? When they hear another report on the news about rape, what message are they receiving about the value placed on another human being? When they see advertisements with men and women presented as sex symbols, how can parents effectively tell them about the beautiful gift of sexuality and intimacy?

These are messages no one can escape, so use them as learning points with your kids. Recently my youngest was watching music clips, usually listened to on her radio, but the imagery adds a whole other level of meaning. Bumping and grinding with minimal clothes is a soft porn message I don’t want her to absorb. So I asked her how it made her feel. “Uncomfortable”. This was the perfect opportunity to suggest that if it makes her feel yucky on the inside, it was up to her to switch it off. She needs to develop strategies to recognise unhealthy viewing.

The influence of pornography on Gen Z is far-reaching. If we want to raise sons and daughters who have a healthy respect for themselves, others and sexuality, we need to be discussing sex topics. The biggest concern I hear from parents is they are worried about telling their kids too much too soon. I say, take a deep breath and dive right in. It’s far better to tell them in age appropriate increments and allow them to ask questions, than have their first knowledge of sex come from an episode of the latest sitcom or a flash encounter with an adult-only site.

In a healthy safe environment, kids take in what they are ready for. If it’s too much information, just like an overdose of vitamins, they won’t absorb it. However viewing inappropriate visual images leaves a biochemical imprint on the brain, so they need a safe place to come and discuss if this occurs. It’s important you have firmly established yourself as a reliable authority on sexuality prior to teenage years, when both peers and porn culture have the potential to become the dominating voice.

Parents have more power than what they give themselves credit for. A recent survey indicated that eight out of ten teens say it would be much easier to delay sexual activity and avoid teen pregnancy if they were able to have more open, honest conversations about these topics with their parents. And six in ten teens wish they were able to talk more openly about relationships with their parents. You can preserve the emotional and physical wellbeing of your teen by talking to them about what it takes to recognize, develop, and maintain a healthy relationship.

On the flip side, if the only message teens receive about sex is from peers or media (which places no importance on intimacy or sexual wellbeing) they have the potential to engage in early sexual activity, have more sexual partners, be at greater risk for STIs and engage in other high risk behaviours such as taking drugs and binge drinking.

Use every-day opportunities for learning experiences, such as advertisements on the back of toilet doors. Ask your teen if they know the facts about chlamydia or human papilloma virus (and be sure you know the answers before you ask.) It’s imperative our young people are aware of sexually transmitted infections, contraceptive use and screening. Since the sexual revolution in the sixties, STIs have skyrocketed from 1 in 50 sexually active people contracting an STI to now 1 in 4. It turns out our youth aren’t bullet proof, with around 70% of STI cases in the 15 – 24 year old age bracket. Some of these are viral and remain for life; others are treatable with antibiotics yet can leave a young person infertile if undetected.

Talk about sex when the learning opportunity presents and give them space to ask questions. It doesn’t have to be a full on discussion. Give bite-sized pieces which leave them keen to come back for more. Flipping out over something ‘shocking’ is a sure way to close the door on further conversations, so be mindful of any personal hang-ups which may need to be addressed in order for you to be more effective.

Keep a watchful eye on any boyfriend / girlfriend break-ups and how it makes them feel. It might seem like harmless ‘puppy love’, but emotional baggage can sometimes lead to feelings of depression and worthlessness. It’s important to reassure your teen of how valuable they are as an individual and to offer support, regardless of what they are going through.

In amongst all this, aim to be the loudest voice in your teens life without being the “blah, blah, blah”. Talking about how beautiful sex can be in an intimate relationship gives them an appreciation of its value.

Despite common myths, young people don’t run out and have sex when it’s discussed in a healthy learning environment. If teens know sex holds incredible value in creating a loving and trusting bond within a committed relationship, they are more likely to wait for emotional and cognitive maturity before participating in this important life decision.

Liz Walker is an author, speaker and graduate student in Sexual Health through Sydney University. The work she does with youth include educational presentations on sexuality for both teens and parents; and training community members such as youth support workers, teachers and suitably qualified volunteers to implement GET A GRIP teenz™: a self-awareness & educational program on life, relationships and the body. Liz blogs on teen sexual health and relationships at http://girlzfreedom.wordpress.com/ and information about the GET A GRIP Youth Wellbeing Project can be found at www.getagripteenz.com

You can follow her on twitter here: http://twitter.com/GirlzFreedom

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‘Why Don’t You Just Give Your Kid Contact Lenses?’

Written on January 14th, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Care, Challenges, January 2011, Parenting, Soap box

This is a question I’ve been asked frequently since Missy 10 started wearing prescription glasses full-time at the age of five. I’ve been told by other ‘experts’ on my child (read: busy bodies) that it’s cruel for me to send my child to school with a reason for kids to tease her. It’s cruel, because apparently, according to these ‘experts’, that she won’t feel confident, or attractive. (Of course! I forgot to teach my daughter that her sole purpose in life was to focus on her appearance, because that’s all women are good for, right? I’m guessing that all the science she does and books and learnin’ are a waste of time too?)

Apart from the most important point in all this, which is that other parents’ choices aren’t anyone else’s business, and apart from the fact that the only experts on our child are us, the parents, I have many good reasons why I don’t get her contact lenses.

I’m not prepared to pay for expensive lenses when there are other mouths in this house to be fed, and possibly other children who may (but hopefully not) end up needing glasses also. Not in the name of vanity, I won’t.

My daughter actually needed glasses, not lenses when she started out wearing them, as one eye was severely turned inward. Glasses could help to straighten this problem, and train the eye ahead, whereas lenses could not.

I didn’t feel that my daughter was or is at a stage where she can competently and confidently place the lenses in her eyes. Also, I’ve never used lenses, so I don’t feel confident in my ability to help her. (But I would love to try out some cool coloured ones, one day!) The idea of her getting an infection unnecessarily, concerns me. I’ve heard that there can be other risks with contact lenses, and for growing eyes, I don’t feel it’s worth the risk. Poor hygiene when using contacts can be extremely dangerous, and whilst I like to drum the importance of hygiene into my kids, I’m not ready to hand the responsibility of that with lenses over to my daughter at this age.

My daughter has been teased in the past about her glasses, yes. Probably not as much as she would’ve been back in the years when I went to school, kids were more brutal and teachers turned a blind eye. Do I want my daughter to be teased? Of course not! Is it my fault or her fault for not conforming when she does get teased? Absolutely not. I teach my children not to tease or bully others, and that’s the best I can do. If more parents did this, then perhaps that would cut out the bullying problems in schools better than everyone else having to change who they are to suit someone whose opinion just doesn’t matter. It’s important to me that I teach my children not to change who you are for anyone, especially not rude people. Lead, don’t follow, is our mantra in this family.

No one wants their child to be bullied, and when it happens, I help my daughter through it. But let’s face it; we become who we are based on our life experiences. We become stronger people, more compassionate people, when we aren’t shielded from the life condition. If my daughter weren’t teased about glasses, kids would find something else. Some kids just look for reasons to tease, and I can’t control her entire life and all the experiences she is going to have. But I can support her if something bad happens, I can advocate for her at the school, also. Best of all, I can teach her how to cope with the arseholes of the world. She’s going to need to learn how to do that!

As much as I wish she didn’t need glasses, and I know my daughter does as well, the good thing that has come out of this, is that she has now had an experience which I believe has been very character building and enables her to empathise with others in a similar situation. I know she wouldn’t tease someone about wearing glasses, ever.

But for me, possibly the most important reason that I don’t give my daughter lenses, is because she doesn’t want them. A question that these nosey parker ‘experts’ have failed to ever bother asking. Now, as a parent, there are things my daughter doesn’t want to do that she has to do, like it or not. We’re the parents, and we get the final decision. But not on something purely based on vanity. My daughter would be the one who’d have to put these into her eyes everyday, and to be honest, the idea frightens her and grosses her out. I don’t think it’s wise to force this on her if she feels this way.

After all that’s said and done, I remember my daughter’s last eye appointment (she’s due for another one, which has gotten me thinking about this again). My partner took her, whilst I stayed at home. They were told that her eyesight had drastically improved. Looking back, I now wonder if she actually even needs to be wearing them full time at all! Of course, things were pretty hectic at the time, and the idea hadn’t occurred to me. Her eye has drastically straightened out lately, too. We’re hoping she may not need surgery for this, after all. But I’m going to contradict everything I’ve said above, now. When we go to her next appointment, I’m going to ask if she actually needs to be wearing glasses full time anymore, or just for reading. I wonder if optometrists and opthalmologists think to tell people if they don’t need to be wearing glasses permanently?

I want to ask, because I know it’d be the best gift I could give my child. I know she makes the best out of wearing glasses, and is as positive about it as she can be, but I also know that she doesn’t like having to wear them. A couple of years ago, our family had a little photo shoot, and it occurred to me, she doesn’t need to wear them just to have her photo taken. So, I let her take them off, and she was so excited, it gave her this gigantic lift! I so badly would love to give her that again one day, not for peer pressure, or appearance reasons, but to give her that same sense of freedom all over again.

What about you? Do any of your kids need glasses? Do you let them wear contacts sometimes?

Other reading:

Back to school: does your child need glasses?

Upset

How I saved almost $800 on my daughter’s glasses

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Wormwood For Mozzie Bites

Written on January 3rd, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Care, Going green, In the home, January 2011, Saving money

…Or if you’re not an Aussie, mosquito bites. Since moving out to the country, the entire family has been getting hammered with mozzie bites; out here they seem bigger and more persistent. I swipe at them on my body, and they just keep sucking! I’ve even caught quite a few draining my blood directly through my clothes. It’s insane.

Of course, this means that we are all blotchy with big, red welts all over our bodies. The initial itch and sting is enough for us to want to tear our skin off.

The good news is, when I was making homemade fly repellant, I was actually on the phone to my good friend Myrtle from Mimsical Soaps, and she gave me some great tips. At the time, she let me know that wormwood, or artemisia absinthium (yes, you read that correctly, this is the stuff that makes absinthe) can be used to make an effective treatment for mozzie bites.

She gave me directions, and about a week ago, I tried it for the first time out of sheer desperation and itchiness.

I picked a basket full of wormwood (I recently learned it’s also called Mugwort. Who knew?), placed it into my slow cooker and drizzled a bottle of oil over the top. I added some lavender as well, because I love its soothing, antiseptic properties. I also have a bloody lot of it, so why not? I hope Myrtle is ok with that idea. Hi, if you’re reading:)

Then, I put the slow cooker on the lowest setting, and let it cook for about 6-8 hours, stirring regularly. I like cooking with wormwood in the kitchen, because it has the side bonus of driving every fly out of the house at the same time.

I let it cool, then strained it into a freshly washed, recycled pasta sauce jar. Because last time I made something with wormwood it went mouldy, I have been keeping this in the fridge. It’s been keeping well so far. The best news is that we can dab some of this onto our mozzie bites with a tissue, and it’s probably the most soothing thing I’ve tried yet. I also have a patch of eczema on my ankle, and it’s been making that a lot more bearable too. Keeping it in the fridge just makes it more refreshing on irritated skin.

Now, there is a better way to make this treatment, but according to Myrtle, it takes much longer. Say, a year. So I’ll make some soon, but we’ll have to wait to see how that turns out.

Do you have any wormwood growing around your home? What works best for your mozzie bites?

Other reading:

How to get rid of flies

How to clean carpet naturally

Lavender

Picking our mushrooms

Our fruit garden is planted

Drying mandarin peel

Homemade air freshener

Fresh, homemade cat food

Homemade flax seed hair gel

Beneficial plants and insects – companion planting

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – will you let your child see the movie?

Written on November 19th, 2010 by Hear Mum Roar in Care, Challenges, Emotional, Good times, November 2010, Parenting, Soap box

If you’re a true Harry Potter fan, then you’ll know that tonight is an important night in the grand scheme of things: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is on at the movies! Squeeee!!!

All of us here, bar Missy 2 are gigantic Harry Potter fans. We have every single book (although Chamber of Secrets has gone missing; we must replace it immediately) and DVD. My fiance, Missy 10 and I have read all the books a gazillion times (Missy 10′s been reading the books since she was 6, and watching the movies since she was 2. She’s truly grown up on Harry Potter). The movies? We’ve watched those a gazillion times one hundred. We’ve even had Harry Potter movie marathons.

Mr 4 loves his Harry Potter as well, but obviously just watches the DVDs at his age. Which leads me to the great debate that always comes up every time the next movie in the series is released: is it right to take a child to see Harry Potter at the movies?

It’s a debate I’ve been quite vocal about in many forums. There’s always someone claiming, ‘I went to see Harry Potter last night, and I couldn’t believe that an 8 year old was allowed to go see it!’ I often wonder if it’s my child they’re talking about.

We’ve probably been taking Missy 10 to see the latest Harry Potter movie since she was about six, maybe? Much to many peoples’ horror. Yes, we know they’re not rated for her age. Many have shown concern that young children might be scared by these movies.

When the Prisoner of Azkaban was released in theatres, that seemed to bring out the strongest reaction from the punters. Many were concerned that the Dementors would frighten children. My daughter had already read it, and seemed just fine. Plus, she’d seen every other movie in the series by that time without any fear, so we felt confident in our decision. It turns out, she was fine. It was exciting for her to think about how she imagined the story from the book, then see it made into a movie.

The Goblet of Fire movie also drew concern for keeping children from watching it. Why? ‘Because it’s got dragons in it’, I was told by several people. Hmm. Dragons are one of my daughter’s favourite things, right up there with dinosaurs. She’s loved dragons for years now, attracted to the mythology of them. It turned out, during the predicted ‘scariest’ part of the movie featuring the dragons, she laughed loudly in the movie theatre at how fast the dragons were as they chased the Tri Wizard Cup contenders.

Mr 4 has watched all of the series at home, and has never had a problem. Would I take him to the movies to see this new movie? No. Only because at his age, I know he won’t be able to sit still through it. But I would take him to a Disney movie and put up with his fidgeting. As for Missy 2, she has been brought up with Harry Potter in the background from birth, and we’ve never had a problem. She likes certain parts of the movies, but at her age, they don’t hold her attention very well.

When we make a decision about whether or not a movie is suitable for our children, we don’t adhere to the ratings. We take note of them, indeed, but for us they are more of a guideline. We’re more likely to think about the personality of each child, what they are afraid of, what they are interested in and of course, our values.

We generally aren’t keen on movies that are too violent, but we make the exception with Harry Potter, because we feel that it is a classic tale of the fight between good and evil. Not that we feel it’s overly violent anyway, any fights are usually of the magical kind, so it’s not really the same thing.

We also avoid movies that we feel would sexualise our children at too early an age. If we’re still undecided on a movie we haven’t seen, we’ll watch it first to check if we think it’s suitable or not. So far, this has worked for us.

What’s your approach with children and movies? Do you follow the ratings by the book? Do you watch everything first, before you let your child? Do you have some other way you decide? Also, have you seen the latest Harry Potter movie yet? How was it??

Other reading:

Helping kids to make choices

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Me time – what’s yours?

Written on November 7th, 2010 by Hear Mum Roar in Care, Challenges, Good times, Health and beauty, November 2010, Parenting

Hi! I’d just like to say a big thank you for the support from everyone after my post about OCD the other day. Whether it was via comments, tweets, emails, facebook, it was all appreciated very much by both my partner and I.

Now, that day, I touched on how my counsellor stressed the importance of finding ‘me time’, for the benefit of our family as a whole. I know I’m not the only one who needs this, so I felt it’d be timely to post about the importance of all of us mums getting some down time.

I’ve worked out a couple of things I enjoy doing when I need some down time, but I could really use more suggestions, and you never know, if we can get a little list going, it might help others. So, here’s what I’ve come up with so far:

1) Going for a walk. Sometimes I find this one difficult lately, as my partner can get anxious if I’m not there, but occasionally I get out there, and it’s my favourite thing to do, now I’ve found a walking route I like. Plus, since we bought a car, I’ve gotten fat! So it’s something I want to do for my health and my figure as well.

2) Reading. This is one I really struggle to find the time to do! But I love to read, so much.

3) Having a laugh. There’s so much to laugh at around here. Sometimes it’s the cat teasing the dogs, or running up the chimney. Or it’s the puppies being all cute, silly and lovable. Then, there’s the kids. Hilarious people. Not to be outdone is my fiance, who likes carry on like a silly bugger to get the whole family laughing. Failing that, there’s always funny movies or TV shows. I especially love British comedy.

4) A nice, hot bubble bath. Ok, I know it’s a really cliched, ‘mummyblogger’ thing to say, but I don’t care. I’m comfortable with being labelled that way, I’ll own it and rock it. The last place we lived at in Sydney had no bath. We lived there for five years, and the only bath I had was my water birth . Now, whilst that made the birth awesome, it couldn’t be called a relaxing bath by any stretch of the imagination. So, now we have a bathtub here, I have a hot bath everyday, and honestly, the novelty still hasn’t worn off. And it helps my muscles so much.

5) Blogging or other writing. I love to be writing something, always. Even a list will do, if that’s all I have time for. But the feeling of putting pen to paper, or hands to keyboard is essential to me. I’d be lost without that form of self expression.

6) Crafting. I love to create beautiful things. I love sewing, crochet, patchwork, embroidery, knitting, even dabbling in things I haven’t tried before. You know? This is making me realise that I haven’t made any time for this lately, and I truly miss it! So there’s something else I should do. See? Writing/blogging = therapy.

7) Spending time with friends. Be it on the phone, one-on-one or in a group, I enjoy that time talking to other adults. I don’t always have time to do it in person, but I do try to ensure I can at least do it by phone, email or facebook.

So there’s mine, but I really am open to hearing what other people do when they need some time to themselves. What are your best ‘me time’ tips?

Other reading:

10 stress relief tips for mums

Coping with kids when you’re sick too

Motherhood: cinch or sentence?

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How to get rid of flies

Written on November 1st, 2010 by Hear Mum Roar in Care, Challenges, Going green, Handmade, In the home, November 2010, Saving money

Flies, flies, flies! I hate ‘em. I also hate spraying toxic chemicals around the house, so unless I do something a bit more natural, I’m screwed. We have wormwood growing in our backyard, and I remembered our gardener telling us that we could make a fly repellent out of it, so I decided today was the day to try it.

To cut a long story short, I picked it, boiled it, then strained it.

This made rather a lot. Once it was cooled, I poured it into a spray bottle and squirted it around the house. It seems to be working so far! I dropped all the cooked, strained leaves around the backdoor also, in the hope it would deter flies and mosquitos as well.

I was talking to my good friend Myrtle from Mimsical Soaps who knows a lot about this sort of thing. She told me that if you boil the wormwood with some chilli, it makes an excellent spray to prevent fruit flies. So I must start growing some and I’ll try that too.

Edited to add: this mixture went mouldy very quickly, so next time I would probably add some vinegar or vodka to the water to help preserve the spray and let it last longer.

The other thing I was busy with today, was picking loads of flowers from the front garden. I stripped the bushes bare of daisies, lavender, roses and geraniums. I was worried how I was going to dry so many flowers, and didn’t want to fiddle around tying them all into bunches and find places to hang them. So, I took an ugly lace curtain that came with this house when we bought it…

..and made a hammock of sorts for my flower haul to dry out on.

Other reading:

Wormwood for mosquito bites

How to clean carpet naturally

Drying mandarin peel

Kids growing mushrooms

Home made air freshener

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10 Speech and Language Activities for Children Under Five

Written on September 14th, 2010 by Hear Mum Roar in Baby, Care, Language, Parenting, Preschool aged, September 2010

1. Reading books.

2. Naming objects with your child.

3. Encourage your child to talk to other children and adults.

4. Give them opportunities to listen. A great example is listening to a recorded story.

5. Dramatic play – eg, dressing up, puppet play, etc.

6. Talk about feelings. This can make it easier for your child to put sad or angry feelings into words as they arise.

7. Encourage your child to draw and talk about what they are doing.

8. Go sightseeing. Your child will be full of questions! It’s also a great way for children to name the things they see.

9. Sing and dance to music. Talk about your movements: shaking, twisting, wobbling, going faster, going slow, stop, go! Talk about the music: is it quiet or loud? Happy, sad, angry music? You get the idea.

10. Sing simple finger play songs together.

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Brianna Lopez – why we need to speak up

Written on August 25th, 2010 by Hear Mum Roar in August 2010, Baby, Care, Parenting, Soap box

I found this story on facebook about a beautiful five month old baby girl, and was first moved to tears, then moved to speak up. Watch the video below about this poor child. Warning: graphic content, may disturb some readers.

As a mother of three precious children, I, as I’m sure all of you cannot imagine how this could happen. How could family do this to their child? How could family watch this situation and not intervene? How could they not take a single photo of such a sweet girl, not once in her entire life? How could they refuse their little girl the love from her community even in death? The angel inside her memorial cage tells us to be quiet, don’t speak about this. Bollocks to that.

We should speak about this loudly. We owe it to this baby to remember how lovely she is. How undeserving.

We owe it to all children everywhere to speak up if we know it’s happening.

All these bastards who did this to her want, is for people to pretend it never happened. When we hear about child abuse, it’s common for people to say exactly what they’d like to see done to these evil people. Well, I say, speak up! That is their punishment. But more importantly, we must speak up so that little Brianna’s life, which was void of joy, protection and love, can amount to something positive. To take away the pain of the children who are still living, still being mistreated.

Let’s hug our children tighter after watching this. And let’s report child abuse. Speak for those who have no voice.

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Protect-A-Bed mattress protector review

Written on July 27th, 2010 by Hear Mum Roar in Care, July 2010, Reviews

I’m really excited about this review. I was wanting to buy some new mattress protectors for my three kids, for all different reasons.

I have a nine year old daughter, who has a reasonably new mattress, and I want to ensure it stays well looked after for as long as possible, and protect it from those times when she vomits during an illness, situations like that.

I have a four year old son who is toilet trained but is wearing nappies to bed, but being older, often has leakages by morning. That, and I plan to night train him without nappies when Spring time comes. Anything that can keep the washing to a minimum during those first accidents, and protect the mattress is welcomed here!

I also have a two year old daughter who has the occasional nappy leak, or will sit on her bed during the day with her sippy cup and spill it, or vomit when she’s ill, basically, all the wonderful messy things that come with having kids.

When the opportunity arose to do this review, I jumped at the chance! The good people from Protect-A-Bed were lovely enough to send me the following items:

A king single Elite mattress protector for my son’s bed.
A sheet protector/drawsheet for my son’s bed also (he is the most likely to have a mess on his bed, and entering into night training, after all!)
And for my two girls, who both have regular single sized beds, two fitted quilted mattress pads.

I’ll start with the fitted quilted mattress pads that my daughters received.

These are beautiful to use, and provide a waterproof, anti-allergy surface for children to sleep on. The surface is pure cotton, and is a little like terry fabric. It’s quilted, and deliciously soft. Missy Nine informed me that night as I tucked her in that her bed felt much more soft and comfortable. The fabric is highly absorbent yet breathable too. This is the type of mattress protector in the range that is suited to bedwetting and night training.

In the picture below, you can see what both sides of the pad look like:

The shiny side is the waterproof, underside of the mattress protector. On the right hand side, is the terry cotton fabric that is the top side. The fabric you see in the middle is the soft, stretchy fabric that wraps around the sides of the bed and around the underside. I’ve always hated putting fitted sheets on beds, it’s so awkward. But this is very simple and quick to put on a child’s bed. The side pieces just seem to snap in place with ease, and I find this extremely kind on my back, as I don’t like to be bent over doing this job for too long.

I was impressed with how well the mattress pads fit on my daughters’ beds. I think there’s nothing worse than when you buy something fitted, be it a sheet or a protector, and it goes on all wonky. Protect-A-Bed’s range seems much more neat and you can’t notice it under the sheets.

Onto the Protect-A-Bed Elite. It’s described as the ‘ultimate protector for luxury mattresses’. So, if you have a super plush top, memory foam or latex mattress, this would be the protector for your bed.

The Elite is also suited to adult beds, as it protects against dust mites, stains, perspiration and accidental spill stains. It’s not as suited to protect against bed wetting, but my son’s mattress was the wrong size! It’s still good to try the different types though, and I will definitely be buying this one for my bed in future. I’ll show you a picture of how this one looks:

You can see on the left side (the top side), that it is much smoother and more sleek than the terry mattress pad. It is deliciously soft and stretchy, and again, a dream to put on without any mucking around. I hate making the bed, and there’s no way in hell I want to waste time doing it.

You can see by the fit that the sides wrap around very generously, I was surprised just how far it went under. I think it fit his bed perfectly.

Next is something I’ve always meant to try with my kids, but never got around to doing before now. A draw sheet for night training. My son (who, remember, has a king sized single bed) was sent a single sized sheet protector/drawsheet for placing over the top of his sheeting. I was amazed at how generous the sides were for tucking under even a larger bed than it was intended for! My son is a very rough sleeper, and this has never moved around or come off after a heavy sleep.

True to form, my son put this drawsheet through its paces the first night he used it. Without wanting to be graphic (but I think it’s called for to do this review properly), my son did a major puddle all over the draw sheet. This would’ve definitely gone right into the stuffing of the mattress if it had nothing to protect it. I was amazed that the drawsheet was so wide, that none of his wee spilled over onto the sheets, and both sheets and mattress were bone dry. I washed the drawsheet straight away am pleased to say that it dried incredibly quickly. Which is important if your child is saturating their bed every single night!

So, my verdict? I was utterly impressed with all the products I tried, and I plan to order some more things in the near future.

To learn more, you can visit the website: www.protectabed.com.au and follow them on twitter and facebook.

Once Spring is upon us Aussies, I’ll be writing more about potty training and night training, so stay tuned!

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