Organic food for healthy baby

Organic diet reduces pesticide levels in children's bodies

"Whether that is important in terms of health effects remains to be seen," Lu added, noting that scientists don't know exactly how the pesticides affect the body over time.

There is evidence that they're dangerous, said Dr. Nathan M. Graber, a fellow in pediatric environmental health at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. "We know that at high doses, these pesticides can cause serious symptoms because they are toxic to the nervous system," he said, adding that there's "sound scientific reasoning" suggesting that low doses can hurt the developing brain.

Miffy (Nijntje) Museum Opens in Holland!

Knowing how much Peanut loves the little bunny, this one is sure to be on our itinerary next time we visit Opa and Oma, who also live close by to Miffy mecca!

Dick Bruna Huis

Meanwhile Daddy Types almost checks it out and ponders the similarity of Miffy and Hello Kitty...

EC, IPT, etc by any other name would smell just as sweet?

Thanks to the wonders of playgroups, I was encouraged to start something with Peanut that's been at the back of my mind for some time.

Known most recently as EC - Elimination Communication or IPT - Infant Potty Training, the idea is the same. Getting your baby to use a potty rather than diapers from what conventional wisdom would consider an early, early, early stage.

My first brush with the concept came a few years ago when a friend of mine was holding her little son over a toilet during one visit. Though I don't recall his exact age, he was clearly less than a year old. My friend is from India and matter of factly says that's just the way its done. Diapers are hard to come by and you certainly don't find them in the villages....

Then I'd heard the fuss about EC in the news several months ago. And, now, thanks to one of our playgroup mamas, I've gained a mountain of information and guidance on how to do this myself. A few key web resources:

Infant Potty Training
Late Starters

Though after reading my own baby book and talking to my mom, I think Late Starters may be a misnomer. She had noted in my baby book that I started using the potty at 11 mos and another Finnish friend confirmed her sister's baby had been potty trained at 12 mos. Much literature about EC references the practice in countries like India and China, but overlooks that it seems to have been a commonplace occurance in European countries as well. I wonder how it is nowadays in Finland? or the Netherlands?

It seems a significant shift has occured in the past generations pushing children into diapers for longer periods of time (hmmm, could the diaper industry have anything to do with it??!!) and now a small resurgance is afoot. I sense that potty training takes a large time commitment and the growing number of American stay at home moms (or dads) is making young potty training possible.


As for us, Peanut and I are on week two. We had a slow start just getting to know 'how' we make this work. Then we had four days marked with some successes. Today was a dud. It'll be a journey and I believe that it will be like most things we've tried to teach Peanut; one day she'll just decide that she now knows how to do this and will demonstrate her skill with accuracy :-) (I hope)!

Taking gDiapers for a test drive

Touted by someone more clever than me as the 'hybrid' diaper, gDiapers combine the eco-friendliness of cloth with the convenience of disposable.

With statistics like this is make you mull over your choice, I decided to give gDiapers a test drive.

There is only one thing to do with a disposable diaper once soiled: throw it out. That means every one of the 18-23 billion diapers sold annually goes directly into a landfill somewhere in America. That’s a staggering 3.5 million tons of poop and plastic going into the ground…each year. It’s no wonder disposable diapers are the 3rd largest single consumer item in our waste system – following newspapers and beverage containers.

I simply ordered the starter kit online. Service and delivery were extremely prompt. Several emails along the way let me know where my order was.

Frankly, I was pretty eager to get the kit. As soon as it arrived, I had Peanut at her changing spot to try out her new g-gear.

Assembly was pretty staight forward. I had the most difficulties with getting the g-pants on Peanut. I had gone for Medium since she's about 17 lbs now, but a little skinny-mini. Still I noticed the pants pinching her little thighs while in the waist she had a gap. Over the next day or so, I got better at it, but I don't think they ever fit her perfectly.

The g-pants were admittedly adorable - they also had a 'baby-got-back' effect that was v. cute.

My next challenge was spotting when they needed a change. With Peanut's usual Pampers I can see/feel them swell up when she wets them. No visible hints with the g-Diapers so I had go more by the clock. Soon I felt it had been long enough -- time to check and flush.

I was nervous about the ability of our toilet to handle the load so I did double-flushes in the beginning. No prob. Then I did a few single flushes. No prob - the first times. Then we had a back-up.... we live in a house that's less than 10 years old, but as I had earlier suspected the flush was a bit weak.

Shaking out the g-Diaper was easy enough, swirling was no hassle.

It was, of course, more work than a Pampers change. I had to hold Peanut still longer and then suffered the unexpected side effect of her following me to watch it flush....it never seems like a good idea to get a baby excited about what the toilet can do :-) I had a pre-loaded g-Diaper ready to switch out so that was easy - with two pairs of g-pants and 4 liners.

I haven't yet gone for a refill and I haven't yet figured out the cost comparasion because we weren't 100% sold on the idea.

a great unintended benefit was the interest Peanut had in the boxes which the g-Diapers shipped in. It was actually the first time she started putting objects inside something (the g-Diapers box!) and carrying them around :-)