Let’s get cooking and be a little frugal!

Now bear doesn’t follow a dairy free diet shopping has become simple. We no longer have to read every label and we can try new things. We always encourage Bear to at least try things, he obviously has the things he likes and things he doesn’t like, but nothing makes us prouder when he just tries things because he wants to. the other day he helped himself to his daddy’s hummus, dipping some of his daddy’s cucumber (he didn’t like that much) and a raw carrot (he enjoyed chewing) although he has had these things before, he didn’t like them on a number of previous tries, but we were so pleased he gave them another go…..and all by himself. He also ate a slice of ham for the first time ever (he has very recently just cut 3 back teeth…..making it 11 teeth in total!! We think this helped him to chew, and enjoy, the ham)

We also like to encourage Bear to help with the cooking, and some fun baking too. We are trying to encourage a healthy relationship with food for him. We all love good, healthy, home cooked meals….cooked from scratch. We have discovered muscle foods as a source for amazing quality meat for a cheap price (they often do really awesome deals on big bundles, so we are definitely needing our big freezer!) I have included a link to muscle foods in case anyone is interested, if you use my referral code you will also get a free item (and i will receive some credit too). Our meat portion of our meals work out at around £2 a meal (with the latest order made, should come out somewhere near £1.50 a meal…..and that is for the 3 of us!) You can also get great groupon deals for muscle food bundles, that is where we sourced our last order…..and don’t forget you can get cashback on it if using quidco (I will also include a quidco referral code for anyone who wants it, once you start earning, we both get £5 cashback) Using quidco I have received almost £200 cashback in the last 15 months on things that I would have bought anyway…..we are really trying to live a little more frugally to save money for the finer things in life (life trips out and nice holidays!) I am thinking I may start to turn this blog into a frugal living and general life type of blog to share my experiences now we don’t have allergies to concern ourselves with. Will see how it goes and see what our followers reaction to it may be.

Muscle food link, and referral code: Receive a free gift (and i get a little bit of account credit!)

http://www.musclefood.com/LS201491

LS201491

 

Quidco referral code: we both get £5 cashback once you start earning!

http://www.quidco.com/user/4763630/2147432/

Black Friday Madness and lots of Nappy goodness

So, I am not one to be tempted into black Friday…..cannot be bothered to go wait outside the shops with my elbows raised ready to attack anyone who gets in my way! But from the comfort of my computer I am pleased to say I have succumbed to the Black Friday madness a little.

I have been toying over getting some Cheeky wipes for a while now, but struggled to justify the cost….but with their 25% off Black Friday sale and the fact I sold some stuff so had a decent fund in my paypal, I treated myself and Bear to some lovely new wipes with their snazzy clean/dirty boxes and bags! I am so excited!

On another nappy note….we have fallen in love with Gnappies (I completely blame Ocado for that one, their latest offer was unreal!!) But we get way longer out of them, with no leaks at all. I have 5 medium block colours which I am managing to use plenty as I wash the pouches and covers in with the normal wash and the inserts with the nappy wash, but have plenty of inserts (need to wash at 40, my normal nappy wash is 60 so would rather be safe than sorry!) But love them so much I have purchased a christmas themed one for Bear…..only down side is i didnt realise I was buying from the USA…..fingers crossed it arrives in time!!

Also, I won a competition by Ecopipo and got one of their newest nappies. I am very impressed with the inserts and overall quality by them too. We have been discovering lots of new brands just lately and loving it.

Our stash is somewhat impressive now, fingers crossed I can get some new stash shots and On the bum pictures soon….Bear is getting so big now!!!

Our year in cloth!!

So, Bear has been in cloth nappies for over a year now and I feel that it has changed us a lot. Bear with me whilst I try to write a summary of our journey over the last 12 months!!!

After months of steroid cream and trying every nappy cream on the market we were at a loss, nappy changing was unbearable with the screams and tears from the pain it caused Bear. One of my husbands work colleagues mentioned that they had used cloth nappies with their 2nd child as he too was suffering badly with nappy rash. We spoke about it a few times and were unsure. I spoke to my mum who was definitely against it (she cloth bummed by older sister back in the 80’s and had the old terries boiling on the hob firmly in mind). But we had to do something for Bear so spending a little money on a few to ‘trial’ was worth it…..after all we were spending a fortune on creams and nappies anyway as we couldn’t let him sit in a nappy if it was at all damp.

After very little research we purchase 10 ‘little bloom’ nappies off eBay to try.Bear was in them only a day when we started to notice a difference to his nappy area. After 3 days in cloth we decided to order more so we could cloth first time. Little blooms and TJ’s were fine for us for months, I had one ‘special’ elephant Bambino Mio Solo which I loved, but was our special nappy as we couldn’t justify spending £15 on a single nappy.

By March this year Bear was leaking through almost every nappy…..he was more active, drinking more and peeing more too. It was getting very frustrating and we were getting disheartened a little. I came across a great bargain lot of Tots Bots V3 on a local selling page, an offer too good to resist and I thought (as tots bots was a well known brand) it would be the answer to our problems…..it wasn’t, in fact, he leaked worse!!! But,as they were such a bargain, I was able to sell them for more than I paid to fund a few different nappies to try.

By this point we had figured out the night time problems with prefolds, an insert and a wrap (we have always used a mixture of wraps as there wasn’t a single one that was ‘better’, they all did the job). So we started to look around at the day time nappies. We tried tots bots bamboozles, mio solos, little lambs…..mio solos seemed to be the best so we up graded all the nappies so we had enough to be in solos full time. We love Bambino Mio Solos, we have always promoted them as our personal favourite, and although they are heavily boosted, they work brilliantly (and lets face it, they are so cute!!!) The only time Solos aren’t fantastic is when Bear is running around with only a nappy on…..velcro is easy peasy to undo!!

I have recently discovered Milovia Pocket nappies (courtesy of a mystery box I got!) and they are also fantastic. These nappies dry over night, whereas the solos take several days to dry inside in this weather. And the Milovias are poppers, which also solves our clothes-less issues! The only problem is the price….we happen to have fallen for a nappy that is even more expensive than the solos.

Had it been set up a few months earlier, when first starting our journey, our local cloth nappy library would have been a great place to ask questions and get advice from. But since we started our journey, the number of local nappy libraries has increased massively, so hopefully this will encourage more to cloth….especially if the local midwife services allow cloth nappy demos in ante-natal classes, if ours had of mentioned cloth (instead of showing us how to put a disposable on a doll) maybe we could have considered it earlier.

Our cloth journey has spread beyond nappies for Bear, we also have cloth wipes for Bear and Cloth Sanitary Pads for mummy 🙂 it has made a massive difference to me too, no more cramps, and my time of the month is no longer dreaded…it just comes and goes without a fuss, completely pain free! I never realised how the chemicals in both Bears disposable nappies and my disposable sanitary pads could have such an affect on us. Bears were obvious, his eczema and rash. Me on the other hand, I always thought that the monthly visit was supposed to be a horrible time to be dreaded….it doesn’t have to be, believe me!!

Myself and my husband have already made the decision to use cloth on all children we may have in the future, you don’t notice it when you are using them so much, but the smell of disposable nappies is not nice (in my opinion, and my husbands, anyway!) they make my stomach turn, so even if the next child is not allergic, it will be cloth all the way as a choice, not as a necessity x

MOOvember!!!

Don’t forget everyone that November is MOOvember….CMPA awareness month! Although Bear is no longer CMPA we will continue to support the cause forever, we are grateful for 20 months of amazing support and care from CMPAsupport and other facebook pages, always somewhere to turn in our hour of need, for advice, or a rant or just some shoulders to cry on, and now in turn, I can offer some advice, a friendly pair of ears and possibly a glimmer of hope to new parents embarking on a CMPA journey! Awareness is vital for the cause…..people are all too aware of how serious nut allergies or other well known allergens can be, so why aren’t people taking CMPA as serious? Some children to suffer anaphylaxis, rash, swelling, and other obvious signs….other children (like Bear) may seem ‘fine’ after consuming some dairy, but hours, days, weeks of painful stomach ache, sickness, diarrhea/constipation, fatigue, etc. a little while after consumption would suggest that that ‘little bit’ that ‘wont harm’ in fact did harm, A LOT!!!! It isn’t those who are neglectful who have to see the results, its mum/dad/carer, who have to listen to the cries, screams and constant grunts…..a little bit of knowledge can go a long way!

If all you do today is tell one new person about CMPA then we are getting a little closer to getting noticed!

CMPA – The final stage has begun!!

So, last night we began the final stage of challenging Bear’s CMPA!

Although Bear has been having yoghurts and cheese for a few weeks now, he has been a little under the weather so we didnt want to give him the added stress of testing the most dairy-est of items….COWS MILK!!

Last night we started by adding 1 oz to 7oz of his formula and he seemed to drink it without a fuss (we were unsure of how he would cope with the taste as well as any possible reaction!) We will up it again slightly in a few days, thinking it may be up to 2 or 3 weeks to switch from his formula to totally cows milk!!

We are keeping everything crossed that Bear can complete this final stage so we can officially remove his CMPA from allergen lists (which will make life easier for his childminder, who has to still check everything and worry about him joining in with baking, etc as he has the allergy, even if I say not to worry!! Also, easier for us as he will be able to join in like ‘normal’ children!!)

Please also remember that November is CMPA awareness month, even if we are CMPA free by then, we will still be trying to spread the awareness to remember the 19 month battle we have faced and to make sure that more people are aware of it so people no longer say the dreaded ‘a little wont harm’ that so many CMPA mummies and daddies hear from people who do not understand the condition properly!!

Bear photo update!

Bear is now 19 months old and so so cheeky. Got lots of new photos for you all to see what a gorgeous little boy he is becoming

having fun with daddy in the garden had a mini photo shoot selfie time with mummy looking cool with his new sunglasses All dressed up with his backpack ready for the childminders Enjoying watching tv whilst enjoying ikea meatballs Listening to some music And sat eating a banana for breakfast

GREAT Britain Bambino Mio

It is no secret I love Bambino MioSolos…..so I was super excited for their new print release this morning!!

And here it is…..

It was love at first sight for me…..as the original london print is my favourite, this one has gone down well too! I have ordered it this morning, so eagerly awaiting it’s arrival later on this week 🙂 But, unfortunately, it hasn’t gone down well with everyone. Someone said that there was nothing British about it, it was focused too much on London and only fans of the BNP (British National Party) would like it, the same lady even went as far as to suggest those living in Scotland would hate it as it has nothing to do with them (apart from the union jack, stamps, taxi’s, buses, umbrellas, post boxes and buses……I’m sure Scotland do infact have some of these things too!!!) Others are outraged that it is too similar to the recently discontinued London print…..here is london for those unfamiliar with it

So, Ok some images do feature on both and are both on a white background (as are spring, summer, posie, ladybird, traffic, elephants, circus and forest……sorry, all of these are abbreviated Solo print names), others hoped for something a little more ‘girlie’ and others just don’t like it (I wasn’t a fan of Cheeky Monkey when it first came out, but now its one of our favourites, sometimes they are better ‘in the flesh’) but I still think it is a really nice design as a stand alone print, I love it. I cannot wait for it to arrive and for Bear to wear it…..I will post pictures when he does.

Good work Bambino Mio

(Please note: I do not work for Bambino Mio, I rave about their products so much as I use them for my child…..we have found they are the best for us and I would only ever recommend a product that I am willing to use for myself or my family…..but if Bambino Mio did want to give me a job I would love it, Jokes!!!)

CMPA Sadness!

Ever since Bears initial diagnosis, his allergies have not bothered me. He never missed out on anything, always having a bag of treats on hand if others had things that he couldn’t have…..it wasn’t until we kept creeping up the milk challenge ladder that I have started to feel sad about Bear spending 18 months dairy free. We had a special day out this week, and for lunch we had pizza….the look on Bears face was pure happiness, he loved it all. He also loves cheese on toast, cheesy leeks, chocolate and now we are on day 2 of stage 9, we have discovered he also loves yoghurt (could not have come at a better time after a rough few days with teething pain making eating a little painful!) Seeing how much he enjoys all these things makes me a little sad that he has been missing out on them. Maybe he likes it so much as it is new, and obviously, never having been allowed it before, means he hasn’t really been missing it. I am just really glad we are doing well on the ladder and that he can have a more varied lunch box, with cheesy snacks and a little chocolate treat and a yoghurt too. Will also make the shopping cheaper and taste better (still shuddering at the vile taste of ‘wot no dairy’ and the dent it made in my pocket!) Just a quick note today, feeling a little sorry for myself. Fingers crossed we will be writing a post about Bears first bottle of milk 🙂

Greg Wallace – opinions?

as many people may have read, Greg Wallace made some some-what asshole comments recently about allergy sufferers…..he said that they should ring up and give 2 days notice if they want to visit a restaurant, that they cannot expect to turn up and make the whole place change the way they do something just for them…..now, I am not one of these parents who jump down the throat of anything slightly anti-allergy, I don’t take offence to stupidity very easily and don’t feel ‘victimised’ if someone won’t change what they do it suit my child, but this has riled me greatly. With stupid comments coming from such a high profile person in the food industry allergy awareness doesn’t stand a chance….if he had his way I would have to plan every time I wanted to go out for food with my child days in advance, no chance of a last minute treat for him! And for what it is worth Greg, I don’t expect the restaurant to change their ways to suit me, I simply ask to switch mash for chips, or ask to check the ingredients before feeding my child, surely this would be preferred to feeding him incorrectly and have him vomit or have violent, horrendous poos in the middle of a busy restaurant. Think before you spout utter shite Mr Wallace, your actions, unfortunately carry weight….for unknown reasons, after all you got famous by eating food, not actually cooking it!!