Mommying BabyT

Mommy T's adventures; bringing up Baby T

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C is for Cloth Diapers: Why are we obsessed?

April 4, 2017 / / 36 Comments

Cloth diapers got me totally cray cray y’all. And I mean they’ve captured my very soul and essence. So obviously the letter C was bound to be my favourite one in the #AtoZChallenge

I’ve written many posts about Cloth Diapering, but still its never enough. And i think you will agree when I say that you have never met (ok maybe barring 1 – 2 people) anyone who cloth diapers and is NOT obsessed with them. I am the biggest example of that and everything mentioned here in this post is about me. 🙂 Quite shamelessly too!

But why are most new moms obsessed with cloth diapers?

Here’s my feeble attempt to justify all my CD obsessions by giving seemingly valid and scientific reasons for the insanity.

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My precious laundry pile

Continue reading

B is for Books: How we are #raisingareader

April 3, 2017 / / 7 Comments

A small background –  Ok, so I just learnt today about the A to Z blogging challenge and it sounds like a great opportunity to get me into the groove with my blog. So obviously I have missed the theme reveal and the letter A (I shall nonetheless blog about A is for) but with this challenge I want to talk about all things baby, mommy and babyT and our life. This month is jam packed with lots of plans, events, family time, celebrations and some more plans and I think it will surely be an ideal time to be blogging about it. So here we go!

B is for Books

One of the first things I added to my shopping cart for all the baby shopping I did before I had babyT was books. 🙂 I was reading aloud to him when he was in my tummy – I used to read a book about a little bunny, panchatantra tales and of course What to Expect when you’re Expecting. 🙂  And not only me, I made sure daddy-to-be and my parents (babies grandparents) also took turns to read my growing tummy.

I knew I wanted to surround our little one with books.   Continue reading

#MommyT’s Tips: How to make baby hair cuts more fun & less scary?

March 27, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Baby’s first hair cut – its a big step and even more so in the Indian cultural landscape where most communities have some religious or ritual significance attached to it.  Almost every new parent dreads that first hair cut session for their little babies, yet come armed to the event with mobile phone cameras on full enthu mode. And what do the babies do – cry, bawl, howl and generally get all traumatized with their first experience . So too with us!

Look at that luscious mane – BabyT at 1 year

BabyT has had 2 hair cuts now. He was born with lots of lovely hair, and we waited it out to trim those luscious curls that our little rock-star had. If we had had our way we would probably have let them grow out much longer but the hot Indian weather meant he had a tough time with his lush mane and was constantly sweaty and irritated. So we decided to chop it off. The first hair cut babyT got was in MommyT and Daddah’s favourite salon chain near home. Its a pretty well established salon and we have always been very satisfied with our experiences but we realized that baby hair cuts were not their expertise.  BabyT was not too happy and we were equally disappointed with the hair cut. So the second time around, we did manage to hunt for and take an appointment at a salon meant for kids.  We loved the experience and the hair cut. Yet babyT cried his eyes out. We have now realized that there were some things we did right and some we could do better and so here’s my list: Continue reading

Snuggly Wuggly Blankies: We love our #SoulSlings Snuggly

March 18, 2017 / / 3 Comments

Raise your hands if you received a baby blanket as a gift from all the friends and family who came visiting. And now keep your hands raised if your little one outgrew that blanket in a few months or if it was either too hot or too cold or too ‘synthetic feeling’ for you to use. Yep my hands are raised too! #BabyT’s first year for me has been pretty much about the Eternal Search for the Perfect Blanket. Sounds like a movie title, no? Well it certainly has had all the makings of a good drama – surprise, shock, love and disappointment and some exhilaration. 🙂

Once #BabyT outgrew his muslin swaddles/ blankets, around 8 months onwards, I felt the need for a new baby blanket – one that would be perfect for day naps (no AC, warm Octobers in Mumbai) and keep him warm all night (AC on all night, baby hates anything on his body) And all of us moms and caregivers know that baby blankets go so much beyond just “blankets”. They also become play mats, nursing covers, sun shades in the car (Mumbai has a no shaded car window ruleK) and so many other avatars.

Precious Naptime

At a time like this Soul Snuggly walked into our lives. I had been eyeing the gorgeous prints and colours on the Soul website but was really unsure of how their jacquard fabric would fare in the perennially hot Mumbai weather and also mainly because I never could decide on which of the pretty designs to select and hit ‘Add to cart’ on. Soul sent me one for trial and review and I am so glad the universe conspired and brought me what I was looking for.

What’s a Soul Snuggly?

Soul Snuggly blankets are made from the same fabric that is used to make Soul’s wraps and other baby carriers. More details about the Soul Snuggly:

  • Sized at 45” * 48” – perfect for smaller babies and toddlers alike.
  • They are 100% cotton and therefore contain only all natural fibres.
  • The dyes used are baby-safe dyes
  • They are dense jacquard weave patterns which makes them delightful to look at and are strong and sturdy, yet become softer with each wash.
  • Easy to care for
  • So much choice: the Snuggly is available in 10 jacquard patterns, 6 Ikat weaves and 4 linen varieties. And more keep getting added to the stock regularly. 🙂

We chose the Maze Blues Soul Snuggly. And #babyT and our Snuggly have been inseparable since. This is a #nofilter pic.

The gorgeousness that is the Maze Blues Snuggly

After using them for over 2 months, count a sort of wintry January/ February and an already hot March, we have grown to love our Soul Snuggly. What we love about it is:

  • Just right for Mumbai winters – warm without being too sweaty, is breathable.
  • Perfect for nights when we leave the AC on all night.
  • Summer friendly – it got as high as 35* in early March and we found our Snuggly was perfectly breathable and did not discomfort #babyT
  • BabyT is a blanket “Kicker-off’er” – nothing stays on his body and he’s been that way since his newborn days. No caps, no socks, no heavy blankets, no fleece blankets for sure. But, the Soul Snuggly stays. That is a certificate in itself.
  • Gives two looks in one – Our Maze blues is prominently blue on one side and black on the other.
  • Very versatile – park mat, nursing cover, car window blinds on sunny car rides, cuddly time with books.

    ParkLife with Soul Snuggly

  • Great on #babyT’s sensitive skin. Fleece blankets which are so commonly used for babies, were a nightmare for us. It gave babyT rashes and dried his skin up a lot. We hunted far and wide for 100% cotton, but many of those blankets did not live up to the natural claim. Soul Snuggly however has been the best experience in terms of its promise of being all natural and safe.
  • Value for money: Soul Snuggly blankets are priced at Rs. 750 for the Jacquards and Rs. 950 for the newly launched Ikat and Linen baby blankets. Complete value for money considering you can use them from the newborn stage to toddlerhood (2-3 years) and even more.

What we love even more are the newly launched Summer Snugglies – they are blankets in the Ikat and Linen range of fabrics that Soul has. I got mine free during the offer they had on purchase of the Onbuhimo carrier. And they have become our go to blankets for day naps. They are also great for post bath wraps when #babyT steps out (or sprints out) of the bathroom. They dry so fast that I can reuse them as his blanket in the time he dresses up, feeds and slips into slumber land post his bath routine.

Soul Snuggly – Ikat Eclipse

Although I’ve had my Ikat Snuggly only for a week and so not had many opportunities to use it, but this range could easily be used for a stroller cover, crib sheet, swaddle. They would also make great gifts for baby showers and newborns.

If there is one recommendation I could make about the Soul Snuggly is that if it could be slightly bigger. I have a roller baby and at times he tends to roll out of the blanket. I could always get the Soul Shawls which are the same beautiful fabric and designs in a 80” * 40” size, but that would be an adult size (read: Me) and I don’t intend to share. J

Have you used the Soul Snuggly blanket for your wee ones? Tell me what did you love about it and what has been your favourite design?

This Women’s Day can we not…

March 7, 2017 / / 16 Comments

This Women’s Day can we judge a little less and accept a little more?

After spending close to a decade in corporate HR, and being forced to organize employee engagement activities, most festivals and “days” have become another tick mark on the to-do list for me. I still have very fresh memories of my last organization where Women’s Day would mean we would plan elaborate surprises for all our women team members and even get each one a gift. Exhausting really, but satisfying and fun.

Over the years and bring on one year of mommyhood, I have come to realize that women are indeed such complex creatures. And truly it is the women who can make or mar another woman. I really did not want to make a post on Women’s day with a negative sense to it, but I have just come off a Facebook support group for mothers, where a poor new mommy has poured out her soul about how everyone right from her best friend, to her MIL (sigh), to her maid question and ridicule her choices. No it doesn’t end there, I even saw some respondents on the group tell her to ‘man up’ and ‘bear it.’

This got me thinking as to why is it that women are their own worst enemies? Why do women constantly pull each other down? Why do women fall into the trap of transferring their own life’s miseries onto the younger lot? Why don’t women just accept and not judge size/ shape/ colour/ length/ breadth/ personalities/ upbringing? I have NEVER seen a man do all this to other men.  Some men do make women’s lives miserable, but no, they will never do that to their own tribe folk – other men. Nope. Then why do women?

I have been guilty of it too.. Oh no, I have not come here at 100 am to say I am perfect. Far from it. I enjoy a good gossip session with my girlies as much as that couch on Koffee with Karan. I have vivid memories of college life, where my gang of girls and I would judge almost every girl for what she wore and how she behaved.  I am appalled now, really head in hands kind of appalled.

So why do women do it? Is it pure biology – you know the mating game and survival of the fittest, evolution and all that? Possibly. Somethings are genetically hardwired and there’s little you can do to change that. Heck, research shows that women become fiercely competitive and vengeful when they are ovulating. (It is always the periods fault isn’t it?) But ideally, evolved brains, the power of knowledge and social maturity should weigh over whatever pull comes from the genes, no?

A large part is also to do with centuries of living under patriarchal terms… if a woman’s worth comes from her man be it father/ husband or son (picturing a MIL making sure her new DIL is serving her husband well) then for sure women will see each other as competition and try their best to bring that threat down. Women are forever trying to fit into norms about looks and conduct, which have been culturally and socially ingrained in us. We don’t really stop to think and ask why should I be that way? But we just continue to blindly follow some invisible code and when we do that it stresses us, puts pressure on us. And when that happens we look for the nearest weakling to transfer our stressors on to. Read: The MIL who was tortured by her own MIL, now makes sure the newly wed daughter in law is having a hard time too. It is so easy to rip apart another woman’s soul than to look within and see her for what she is or hell, just let her be and do her own thing.

And then there is the woman who is smarter, brighter, more beautiful and more everything nice. Yes more than you. And what do you do? Judge her. Judge her looks – “oh layers and layers of makeup. Or hey even a nose job maybe?”, Judge her brains – “She is just a pretty face”,  judge her success – “Oh we all know how she got there.” Yes, we especially love to pull such women down. What ensues is a full on catfight or a totally destroyed woman on the other end? I personally have been at the receiving end of that. Its horrible ladies, its black and its scary what this judgement does to the judged. Just stop.

This is why I am in awe of those women who facilitated and did wonderful things for other women – Women centric organizations, online support groups, non-profit networks, coaches, teachers, family and friends. If you have been at the receiving end of a happy, generous and encouraging woman (don’t count your mom. She’ll do it selflessly. 🙂 ) count your blessings. Firstly, it is rare and secondly, maybe it bodes well for a brighter future.

So this Women’s Day, this exHR specialist isn’t giving you some ol’ fun and games, but wishing ardently that we love more, accept more, understand more and give a better experience to fellow women than we ourselves may have encountered. Because great things happen when we women stand up for each other. And the world better watch out!

#Review – Superbags: Wetbags by Superbottoms

February 23, 2017 / / 3 Comments

If you have remotely heard of Cloth Diapering you may have also heard the word “wet bag” being thrown about casually in conversations about wash routines and diapering accessories. Essentially, a  wet bag is a bag that holds wet stuff. TaDa! No surprises there. It is, in fact, a reusable, waterproof and leak resistant bag which holds in odours and of course prevents liquids from escaping. But did you know that a wet bag can be used for many purposes other than just cloth diapering? This makes it an investment that is quite worth it and very handy around the house. Especially a house that has a child.

Firstly let me give you some insight into why a wetbag is so important in a cloth diaper’s journey. Wet bags are essentially made of PUL/ TPU and so are reusable (yayy for planet Earth) They are also waterproof and leak resistant (yayy for all who cloth diaper) Wet bags allow you to continue cloth diapering even when you are out of the home. This without having to stink up and flooding your diaper bag with baby bodily outputs. And you do not need to use plastic bags. At all! Yes, you heard right. Continue reading

Jet-Set-Go: Cloth Diapering on Vacation

January 13, 2017 / / 1 Comment

Now that babyT has been on two holidays, and one staycation and many weekend stayovers at family’s and having exclusively cloth diapered on these, I can assure you Cloth Diapering is #FTW

When I started off cloth diapering, I made sure I followed everything to the T (not babyT’s T) and generally made stuff more complicated than was warranted. But over the months and now with a year of CDing behind me, I think my routines and CD schedules are easy-peasy and I weave CDing around my life events and not the other way around. My household has not seen one disposable diaper since the early months of Ts life (I regret even that) and I have gone on to prove to family members that CDing is natural and easy and doesn’t inconvenience even on the go.

We just got back from a wedding in Mangalore and we cloth diapered over 5 days. We were staying in a hotel, and I am not sure if they had laundry service as I never bothered to find out, but we cloth diapered, oh yes, we did! Here’s how we did it. We took along:

  • 10 Pocket diapers with good old microfibre inserts
  • 7 Natural fibre AIOs for the nights & during the wedding events
  • 3 Hybrid diapers with disposable inserts for longish outings, road & air journeys
  • Grovia Biosoakers (disposable inserts for hybrid diapers)
  • 3 Fleece liners (never leave home without my colourful fleecies 🙂 )
  • 2 Wetbags
  • 15 Reusable wipes
  • Tiny bottle of coconut oil
  • CD friendly Detergent: Soapnuts by Bubblenut wash

Home to airport to hotel and vice versa:

For road and flight journeys we relied on our Grovia hybrid shells and Grovia biosoakers. Ok I admit that I was very skeptical about using something disposable, but Grovia assures that they are environmentally friendly, in the sense that they are made of biodegradable and compostable materials, contain no chemicals unlike sposies, and are fragrance / dye / chlorine & plastic free. And they are so incredibly thirsty. One biosoaker lasted us around 5 hours, no thanks to getting stuck in road traffic and a delayed flight due to fog. I had no intention of leaving it on so long. But after those 5 hours, while the biosoaker was heavy with pee, it still had capacity to hold some more & the gussets it comes with made sure no leaks sprouted.

For smaller trips which involve lesser amount of traveling time we are good with one All-in-One. I mainly use Superbottoms Plus. It has an organic bamboo cotton soaker which in itself is quite abosrbent. But I add a booster during trips.

Pic source: Google

Grovia Biosoaker in a Hybrid shell

The main reason I wanted to use Biosoakers was because I did not want the hassle of lugging around dirty diapers or inserts in a plane or enter the wedding party smelling of ammonia. It was a close family wedding & I was quite involved with the ceremonies to pay minute attention to dirty diapers.  Earlier trips had also shown that it was not so easy to find a spot to change or that babyT would cooperate for a change between journeys. Although I am quite impressed with the performance of Grovia Biosoakers, it remains debatable whether they are truly good for the environment. But it did mean a lot of convenience on our holiday.

For the day & smallish outings

Pockets and good quality micro-fibre inserts held well for day times and any other times we were just lounging around in the hotel room or our family’s homes.

CDing at Brittos, Baga beach, Goa, India

I use pockets by Superbottoms and their stay dry soakers (meant for covers, but I use them for pockets too.) They are incredibly thirsty and justify their price, as they hold around 3 – 4 hours for us. Micro-fibre also dries fast making it the best to use while travelling.

Nights

I rely entirely on my natural fibre AIOs – Blueberry, Thirsties & SuperBottoms, for nights or longish outings. I add a very light booster as babyT is not a very heavy wetter and we are good for the night. With the exception of Thirsties NAIO, the other two brands also dry reasonably fast, making them ideal for CDing on vacation. I did have one night of leak as babyT is a tummy sleeper, but I carried extra AIOs for the night so we were alright.

Storage & Laundry

I store all soiled diapers in wetbags. My ‘Superbags’ from Superbottoms are guaranteed leak proof, very spacious and keep all stinks in. I store the diapers in them before rinsing and once rinsed too. On vacation, once I reached the hotel room, I drip dried the rinsed diapers on the towel rack or hanging rod, until laundry day was possible.

CDs getting a luxurious dip in the bath-tub in our room.. the life these guys lead, I tell you!

I have washed CDs in the hotel room but this time around I had access to the washing machine at my uncle’s home and I washed twice. Nonetheless I have fond memories of me washing diapers in the hotel room – it was my birthday, we were in Goa and while babyT and his daddy slept (like a baby, may I add)… I was washing cloth diapers. And I enjoyed the quiet moment as I ushered in my birthday, doing what I love best.

Drying diapers

Many hotels provide a detachable drying line in the bathroom or the balcony. I usually dry stuff in the bathroom over the towel rod or the balcony. I have carried my own rope to tie up in the room, but never felt the need to actually use it.

How to plan for CDing while on vacation?

If you would like to extend your commitment to cloth diapering and want to try it while on vacation too, give a thought to these areas.

How many days will you be away?

This is basic and simple math, if you use around 5 diapers per day and plan to do laundry on holiday, carry enough diapers to last you for around 3 days. So that’s about 15 diapers. This is still a comfortable number even if you plan to launder every day. Always carry more diapers than you will need.

I do recommend taking along diapers which have good capacity and will hold well for longer periods. So I leave behind my fitteds which only last me around an hour and trust my pockets with microfiber to last us at least 3 – 4 hours.

The number mentioned above does not include night time diapers. For nights, I just take along 1 diaper per night that we will be away and 1 extra for good measure. This takes care of any leaks or accidents.

How will you manage poop incidents?

This trip, we managed poop incidents with our Grovia biosoakers. All I needed to do was plop the mess in the pot and throw away the soaker. However you may want to carry along liners – disposable or reusable to hold mess. There’s no guarantee that you will find a sprayer or the time to clean poopy diapers.

If you don’t have any liners or the thought of cleaning them still seems like a pain, cut up some old cotton fabric and use them to line your diapers. You can just throw them away when soiled and still be rest assured that they will degrade naturally and not harm the environment.

I would also recommend you carry wet bags vs. plastic bags. Wet bags are washable and reusable. Also they contain the messiest of messes, so it is worthwhile investing in a couple of these. Make sure what you are buying is waterproof and leak-proof in case you’re planning to toss it into your diaper bag or other luggage. Not all wet bags give you zero leaks. K

Where are you traveling to? What is the weather going to be like?

This is a very important factor… are you off on a beach vacation or are the hills calling? How much humidity the place faces and how much sunshine you’re going to get will determine how fast your diapers dry and in turn will help you decide how many diapers to carry along. If you’re visiting Mumbai in the monsoon (not exactly a vacation spot, I know) but chances of your laundry drying even over two days are slim. J

What access will you have to laundry facilities?

This is most important of course. If you are going to be away with no access to any laundry facilities, then you will have to rely on hand-washing where you’re going to be staying. I don’t give cloth diapers away to hotel laundry services because it is just too complicated to explain to them about extra rinse and no softeners etc. Besides you never know what else is going into the wash with your clothes. >:-)

So carry detergent along in a small container. I carry soapnuts along because they clean effectively without needing several extra rinses. They work well with all types of water – hard, soft etc. They are also gentle on skin and don’t harm baby skin even if some residue remains on cloth.

For reasons unknown, this is one of my favourite pics from vacation. 🙂

You may also want to consider carrying a small piece of coir rope (not plastic) along to put up a drying line. J

Cloth diapering on vacation is easy. It may seem difficult to think about, but once you’ve tried it you’ll see that it is no different from how you would cloth diaper in your regular space. Always be prepared and plan ahead. You should sail through if you’ve done your preparation well. And don’t be afraid to fall back on a sposie if need be. Your mental sanity and peace and the much needed R&R on vacation score much higher.

From one Mama to another – my review for #MamaEarth baby products

January 4, 2017 / / 9 Comments

A lot changed in my life after I became pregnant. I used to be the person who would love to experiment with every new range of cosmetic product that hit the shelves. But once I saw those two faint blue lines, I stopped and read the labels, checked for the safety of my growing foetus and researched like a mad woman on sustainable, eco-friendly, natural sources of everything. But reality was a dampener – nothing was pure, innocent or natural. I was beyond shocked when I learnt that a very popular brand of baby cosmetics, since time immemorial, was rife with rash horror stories and even had legal battles in international courts for causing severe harm to human life. This was almost an eye-opener for me that we needed to pay more attention to what goes inside and on our bodies.

So when babyT did arrive I made sure he was surrounded by only products which were natural, homemade, healthy and safe. I will admit though that finding the right kind of baby products for bath, skin and hair was a bit challenging. There were a dime-a-dozen products and each with varying reviews… five good ingredients and one totally worth avoiding. It was so confusing, especially in his new-born days to choose the most effective yet safe product for him. BabyT was also born with baby acne and has dry skin with bouts of atopic dermatitis which makes it even more difficult for me to just pick a product off the shelf. That’s where MamaEarth won for me, a brand by a parent, for a parent to use on their precious little bambinos.

I received this hamper of #MamaEarth products to use on babyT. #MamaEarth is a nascent company by new parents Ghazal and Varun Alagh who wanted to use and therefore created products SAFE for babies. Their products are “certified by Made Safe, a US-based non-profit organisation that provides a comprehensive human health-focused certification for non-toxic products. All the products are clinically tested to be hypoallergenic and carries no toxins, dyes, artificial fragrances or anything which is even close to the word ‘unsafe’,” says 32-year-old Varun, Founder and CEO of #MamaEarth. Varun, an engineering graduate from Delhi College of Engineering (DCE) and an XLRI alumnus, has over 10 years of experience in FMCG segment.

With the re-assurance that these products are Paraben Free and also free from Phthalates, PEG, DEA, Fragrances, Dyes, Formaldehyde and other ingredient I was pretty excited to open up my hamper and use them. I received their Soothing Massage Oil, Natural Insect Repellent, Moisturizing Daily Lotion and Gentle Cleansing Shampoo.

My MamaEarth hamper

First Impressions

I loved the packaging – the bottles came in a box and are white bottles with green lids, the font is blue and green in colour. Very soothing and reminds me of nature & mama earth. 🙂  These bottles came to me in a cute little zip pouch (pictured here) which I will continue to use to store and ferry around baby cosmetics when I travel. What I also loved about the bottles is that each bottle has a different animal image on it, trust me mamas, it is working like a charm to keep babyT in one place while I massage/ bathe/ dress him. He is very content to look at the lovely animals and keeps blabbering to them, making my job easier. Whew!

So this is now our new found bath routine – Massage – Bath – Lotion. Again babyT loves taking these animals along with him to bath-time. So I thought let me structure this review in the form of animals. 🙂

Tigers say Roaarrr – #MamaEarth’s Soothing Massage Oil

This was the first product by #MamaEarth that I opened and used on babyT. It is also babyT’s favourite because it has a tiger on the bottle and T keeps roaring at his little stripy friend.

I fell in love instantly with the calming scent of lavender and chamomile. Lavender is known for its relaxing properties and sure enough when I rubbed it on, both babyT and I were so soothed by its fragrance. #MamaEarth’s Soothing Massage oil contains sesame oil, virgin coconut oil (which is so great for anyone’s skin), olive oil, sweet almond oil and jojoba, lavender & chamomile oil. Yes, you read that right no other ingredients or preservatives or chemicals. 100% natural.

I have used the oil both before and after a bath (on separate occasions) and liked how it spread on easily, without being too greasy or oily after application. I especially loved that it got so easily absorbed into the skin, when using it after babyT’s bath. This is how #MamaEarth also recommends the oil to be used. BabyT’s skin felt really soft and smooth after its use.

Pandas love bamboo! – #MamaEarth’s Moisturizing Daily Lotion

Another great product by #MamaEarth! As I mentioned earlier, babyT has extremely dry skin and it has become a habit with us to constantly moisturize him. The slight dip in temperatures over the New Year and the week after that in Mumbai, has also threatened to dry out his skin even more.

#MamaEarth’s moisturizing lotion has ingredients such as Shea butter, cocoa butter, vitamin E; among others which are renowned for their moisturizing properties. A pleasantly lingering fragrance of chamomile has made me reach out to this lotion again and again for keeping babyT’s skin soft, supple and smooth. Forget winter dryness, with this lotion we are shining through. If there’s one product by #MamaEarth I would recommend to those who want to try one out for starters, it would be this one.

Haathi mera Saathi! – #MamaEarth’s Gentle Cleansing Shampoo

The main things I look for in a shampoo are gentle and tear free. BabyT has a lush mane and I have had bad experiences of using certain shampoos on him, which have left him in tears (despite being baby shampoo) and his hair not so soft. So the fact that #MamaEarth’s shampoo did both – kept him happy during his head bath and put a spring in his lovely curls, made me very happy. The scent of this shampoo is quite similar to the massage oil, which is lavender and was supremely soothing. It put babyT right to sleep after his hair wash.

It lathers up well and one wash was sufficient to even take the hair oil out.  Together the massage oil, shampoo and body lotion have become a set part of our bathing routine. I am now tempted to order their body wash and have a complete #MamaEarth bathing experience here. 🙂

The Snake says hissssss… #MamaEarth’s Natural Insert Repellant

And last but not the least, a very important product, one which is every mother’s concern for her baby… mosquito repellent. Liquidator machines have proven to be harmful, forget effective. There are enough jokes about people finding mosquitoes roosting nicely on the machines, even when on. Finding a safe and efficient mosquite repellent is a common query on most mom networking groups I am part of. With growing concerns of drug resistant strains of malaria, dengue etc this is one area which is of prime importance for babies and kids.

#MamaEarth’s mosquito repellent comes in a spray bottle which can be used on baby skin or on clothes, bed etc. It is 100% natural and most importantly DEET FREE which is what you need to be looking for in a safe repellent. It is a mix of various oils which work together to drive mosquitoes away. I find the smell very unique to some of the other natural repellent’s I’ve used for babyT. It has a lovely undertone of cedar and peppermint, apart from the goodness of citronella and eucalyptus which are known for being anti-insect friendly. The smell is not overpowering unlike a new roll-on stick which a big company launched (ugh, that smell stayed for days) and does not give me a headache (I have a heightened sensitivity to smell.) So it was reassuring to know that we have a product finally which will help us in caring for babyT.

#MamaEarth’s product hamper has delighted us and we are happy with the results so far. Apart from the products mentioned here, they also have body wash, diaper rash cream and sunscreen (getting good sunscreen for babies is so difficult, and I am glad for this.) You can buy all of these on Amazon.in

Their website also shows a category listing for mamas and mamas to be, so I am hopeful that I can partake of the goodness of these natural and safe, certified toxin free products very soon.

Visit their website: www.#MamaEarth.in

Twitter: @#MamaEarthindia
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#MamaEarthindia/

Disclaimer: All the products listed in this blog have been sent to us by #MamaEarth for review purposes. I have not paid for them myself.

Flash-a-by baby: why we love flash cards?

December 28, 2016 / / 3 Comments

BabyT’s favourite flash-cards

Once you’ve had your baby and you’ve conquered the basic needs level on the baby Maslow hierarchy (there is no such thing, but my MBA in HR keeps showing up at times) your over-anxious mind asks “what next? What more can I do to make my life a little more complicated but a little more fun and stimulating for baby?” That’s when I discovered that babies love looking at bright, colourful images… and a random browse on Amazon brought me to the section for flash-cards. I remember having read on some discussion threads in the mommy groups I am part of, that flash-cards were effective to teach kids about all sorts of “stuff.” However, the rigour of it and the need to “teach” had driven me off… but still the products I saw tempted me to hit Add to Cart.

So around when babyT was 6+ months old, and we had started solid foods, I decided it would be a good idea to start telling him the name of the vegetable or fruit he was biting into, basically give things a name. And so arrived our first set of flash cards. I started off with showing him the flash cards at mealtimes – so initially we did images like carrot, beans, banana, mango (he started solids in the month of the Alphonso mango, yayy!); and I spoke the word out aloud a couple of times. I did not always use the word as was written on the card. I used the word that we normally use around the house – so some words were in English, some in Marathi (daddy tongue) and some in konkani (mommy tongue). I’ll come to this shortly – multi-lingual homes.

After showing him selective cards I soon graduated to doing the entire set of cards once a day and we did this almost daily. I soon found that babyT was trying to say sounds like carrot (kaat) and Kellein (keyy for banana). I also referred to this set of cards as the ‘bhaji (vegetables) cards’ and we were so surprised when once we were waiting our turn outside a restaurant in South Bombay (always South Bombay, never South Mumbai, or whatever would happen to SoBo.) babyT squealed and shouted at the top of his baby voice – “Bhajiii” We were stunned, it took us a few seconds to decipher what he just said in babytalk, but we looked around and saw that he was looking at a vegetable vendor selling his wares near the restaurant. So all those days and weeks of flash carding were actually helping in some way. We were quick to add other sets of flash cards to our collection – animals, birds (we have now lost this set somewhere between our mess and the ones we make at grandparents houses), things in my home, body parts etc. I don’t want to sound like a over-excited new mom who thinks the sun, moon and stars revolve around her baby, but babyT had a fairly wide vocabulary around the time he was 10 months. I don’t know if this will translate into him speaking early or having an ability to speak 3 distinct languages that we do speak at home, but even our paed did admit that his vocabularly was definitely above average for his age. 🙂 And I do believe flash carding helped.

How I used Flash cards:(Note – this may not be the way flash cards are meant to be used as per the instructions on the box. But I did not want to “teach” anything to a baby that small. Our objective was to find something engaging and enriching.) 

  1. Show the image to babyT and say out the name clearly once or twice. Do this one-by-one for all the cards. Then show the entire set of cards in a flash – while saying out the name just once. Experts say this should be repeated a few times in a day and then everyday. However I did not follow this. I used them whenever we had some time to spare from our other activities or when babyT himself dragged out the cards and brought them to me to read to him.
  2. You can say the name of the object in any language you wish. Ideally use the same word for it that you use at home. For example, in our multi-lingual home we use words which are Marathi, Konkani and English. But we usually stick to only one word per object. Crows are  Kailloh (Konkani), Apple is in English and Brinjals are vaangi (Marathi)
  3. Wherever possible add the actual object along with the card – especially in cases of fruits and vegetables, parts of body.
  4. As the child grows do try and add some descriptions to go with the images – we started to roar like tigers/ lions, say baa or moo for sheep and cows and blinked our eyes and twitched our noses doing body parts. Its quite cute really, every time babyT sees an image or video of a tiger he growls. 🙂
  5. We also talked of songs and stories where that object featured. Nani teri morni (a popular hindi song for babies which talks of peacocks) was referred to or a line sung from when we showed the birds flash cards. 🙂
  6. We made it a point to walk around the supermarket fruits and veggies section, pointing out all the familiar objects from our set of cards.

There are schools of thought which say very young babies shouldn’t be read to or shown flash cards to teach words or reading. However, books and reading have been the major source of comfort, fun and happiness with babyT. He loves books, he loves being read to and he loves receiving books more than toys. We also don’t follow the general guidelines on age wise books (obviously he isn’t reading nuclear physics yet) but we have been reading all sorts of books – touch and feel, hard bound, board books, paperbacks, soft books. Everything that we think we will enjoy and make some sense of. (Wherever we felt books are a little too advanced, we have stored them away for a future date.) So too with flash cards. They have worked really well for us and have benefited babyT immensely. I do hope you think of introducing them to your child. And if you haven’t already begun reading or books, its never too late to do so. 🙂 Happy reading! Happy flash carding!

We used flash cards from AppleTree available on Amazon.in

Thank you for the Appreciation 

December 19, 2016 / / 0 Comments

I cry myself hoarse about the importance of breast-feeding and try to educate people (not just new moms) about it at every given opportunity. I’m personally very proud that I was able to stick my guns and exclusively breast-feed babyT for one year (and we are still going strong.) However it is this kind of appreciation which made me realise that my advocacy has benefited someone and that I have done some good and helped another child. This really brought tears to my eyes.

Note: the person is referring to a poem I wrote on breastfeeding I wrote as part of a series for World Breast-feeding week in September. The poem is amateur by far, but has been shared widely on social media (Facebook groups and WhatsApp, I myself have received it a few times as forwards.) You can read it here.

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