Allergies are back!!

so, all has been very quiet from us for quite a while now. Bear has been really well and hasn’t had any issues for months…..well over 12 to be more accurate. He turned 3 the other week and we seem to be having some unexplained allergic reaction in the form of hives and itching. We started a food diary, but there was no obvious food to coincide with the reactions. We also suspected rubber latex, following his birthday, we had a fair few balloons in the house, which he thoroughly enjoyed playing with in every way……some sneaky culling of the balloons after bed time until they all vanished seemed to see a huge reduction in the frequency of the reaction, although it has not solved the problem completely. He is kept comfortable with piriton when required and a calpol plug in vapouriser seems to make him more comfortable at night time when his reaction causes stuffy noses and itchy throats. It has been a while since we have had to deal with allergy related problems, but it all feels so familiar and there’s no panic this time….thinking we are now seasoned professionals now. Good job really,as we are soon to add another little man to our household…..and the same allergies are never far from mind after our experiences with bear.

 

So, arriving in June 2017 will be our little cub. Pregnancy has resurrected several allergies for myself. Lots of itchy skin related problems have seen me give up on all my usual shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, moisturisers and make up. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself, until I discovered something wonderful……child’s farm! Now, I know I probably have mentioned them many a time when talking about bear as I have been a fan for quite some time, but I never thought to use it for myself! I now smell and feel amazing after using all their shower products as well as their moisturiser, even caught my hubby filling up his bath the other day with child farm smelling bubbles, so even he is loving their stuff.

 

this is just a quick update from me today,but hoping to update more regularly with all things bear and cub! Especially as I will soon get to bring our cloth nappies back out of storage since bear potty trained last summer!!!! Excited!

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

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!!!)

Spreading the Bambino Mio love!

Over the last 7 months we have tried and tested loads of different brands of nappies, coupled with loads of different ways to ‘boost’ them. With varying levels of success…..

I have always thought that my ‘cheapies’ were great, for the cost I cannot and will not fault them, having been swayed by the more expensive nappies and coming away disappointed, I remained faithful to our originals.

However, my best advise now…..if ever you are swayed by the more expensive brands may I recommend Bambino Mio. We love them….the Mio Solo’s are our favourite, we are ever so slowly building up a stash of these (at around £13-£15 a nappy, they are not the most purse friendly to lower budget families) but there are plenty available pre-loved too (as they are sometimes stocked in supermarkets it may be worth a look, recently on a great offer at sainsburys, just gutted our local one doesn’t do cloth nappies). We have some of their super cute prints, but also love their block colours too! We also use their prefolds and wraps for our very successful bed time system (hardly ever a leak, and if there is it is the most tiniest of one!) There is also a rumour going around that some bambino mio products will be featured as the ‘specials’ in aldi at the end of the month, this makes me very excited…..hopefully it will help make cloth mainstream!

Of course, as always, every child is different, so children may suit different nappies better, but talking to a few other of my ‘cloth bum mum’ friends, Mio’s seem to be the popular choice now!

Unknowingly, doing my bit to save the planet!

It has dawned on me, by making certain choices for other reasons, I can feel proud that I am doing my bit to help ‘save the planet’.

Lets start by telling you a few things that me and hubby have always done….we aren’t ones to have the heating on high, we would rather an extra jumper or a blanket on the sofa of an evening, our house is ‘cold’ to others, so much so, they bring coats to put on whilst inside! We installed a wood burner as our main heating source in our house, cosmetically, it looks amazing…and after 18 months we are yet to buy any wood, just burn unwanted fence posts, furniture, pallet boards, etc. Hubby loves to grow his own, so our garden has its own veg patch, our patio is host to the herb pots and our borders are home to the fruit bushes. We enjoy composting as much as we can and recycle anything possible. We waste as little as possible, after a roast dinner, the left over bones are used to make a stock even.

So, some of our new life choices…

As you may be aware, Bear is cloth bummed, from 7 months old until he is potty trained we will not be contributing disposables to landfill (and as I have been reading just recently, the amount of energy used to make the nappies is also quite high) our reasons for cloth bumming was due to Bears allergies, our second reason would be financial, 3rdly, I quite enjoy it…..planet earth is far from my priorities! We have a large number of nappies now and have spent less than £200, we will be able to reuse all the nappies for future children, saving ourselves lots of money and saving the planet a couple of extra tonnes of landfill waste (disposable nappies are rumoured to take 200 years to decompose!!!)

We wash the nappies on the ‘eco’ setting, meaning the machine is not using too much energy to wash the nappies, we wash the nappies twice a week. And we no longer tumble dry them either (mainly because the ‘low’ setting seems to have broken) but since having to hang the pockets, inserts, liners and wipes up to dry I figured I should be air drying everything…..the tumbler has been on possibly twice since I had this genius idea!

Since getting used to dealing with the nappies I have discovered a love for cloth sanitary products (CSP). Again, disposable ones are manufactured in a energy consuming way and take a long time to decompose. These items get washed with the nappies (so no additional loads to do). It isn’t ‘gross’ as many people think…and the bathroom bin at ‘that time of the month’ doesn’t get full or smell!

I have recently discovered a love for Milton cold water sterilisation…after 12 months of microwave sterilising. So much so I plan to cold water sterilise everything for future babies (that means not having to use the microwave up to 3 or 4 times a day!) It is so much more convenient than microwaving, just was the bottles and pop in the sterilising bucket, takes a minimum of 15 minutes (bit rubbish if you are in a rush!) but then they are ready….no burning your hand trying to grab them out the hot microwave too soon….and you can do more than the 4 at a time you are limited to in a microwave system.

I now work within walking distance of my home. I can also do my grocery shopping within walking distance too. This means that the car is used rarely….so much so that we put a 6000 mile limit on the insurance, a mileage we are expecting to come well under in a 12 month period!

Obviously, my choices are not driven by my love of planet earth….I do what I do for Bear mainly (and hoping to save a few pennies through not having to buy disposable products, buy fuel and hoping the electric bill may reduce too!) but simple life choices can easily have an impact on the environment….if more people did one or two of these things then the planet would be looking a lot healthier too!

FLASH THE STASH!

I am a self confessed Nappy Addict! I love them…..although they are not the easiest of things to try and get a full stash shot of, so I try to take a few every now and again so you get the idea of the size/content of my stash! Also have included some very cute OTB (ont he bum) shots of Bear as I couldn’t resist!

 Early on stash shot, his 1st set of nappies, back when it would all fit in 1 small basket!

doing 3 of his favourite things, playing, eating and sitting by daddy! (sorry for any slightly blurry shots, use my phone, but phone cameras and sticky baby hands do not mix, have now added wiping the lens into my daily routine.

another stash shot, half empty though….missing all of our favourite prints as they would already of been used!

Our landing/drying area!

One of my favourite prints…..star wars! Cheeky monkey crawled away from me in the middle of a change!

Another stash shot (with loads missing) but these are some of the new tots bots I got, some stuffed ready for OTB!

Another quick dash away from me during a change, straight to the nappy baskets to help ‘organise’ them (Bears organisation includes throwing the nappies across the room!)

I would love to get a complete stash shot but think I may have to wait until Bear is potty trained and no longer using them as there is always several in the wash bucket!!!

I love stash shots, having seen some on facebook this morning I have eyed up a few very cool prints (to include, toy story, cars and monsters inc!!) Think we may need a bigger house soon!

I would love to see some stash shots, tweet them to me @mummytalesCMPA and spread the love!

Cloth bum rocks….but what is best!?!

So, having only a stash of little bloom ebay ‘cheapies’ to begin our cloth journey we started to experience leaks now bear is constantly on the move. We also found bed time a challenge, even when double or even triple stuffing. So we purchased some more bamboo inserts (rookie mistake thinking mainly microfibre was going to be a good idea!) and some charcoal bamboo for bedtime. We also bought some super cheap china import nappies to try for bed time with a variety of ‘stuffings’ to see what worked (currently having success with a charcoal insert, a bamboo insert, both wrapped inside a standard muslin, reused from bears sicky days, stuffed inside a popper little bloom). Mummy also got tempted by pretty prints (Spiderman, ninja turtles, star wars, fire engines, dinosaurs, the list goes on!) and some amazing bargains (an absolute steal of a deal on a local selling page and a reduced price of cloth in morrisons coupled with my brothers 20% staff discount weekend, practically jumped in the trolley!) so our stash is currently HUGE!! consisting of 5 super cheap china imports, 27 little blooms, 2 TJ nappies, 1 bambino mio and 21 tots bots v3&v4’s…..56!!!! (We are not mental, the ‘steal’ referred to above was far too good to let go so we should now have enough nappies to cloth 2 bubs at the same time when we finally have another!)

My thoughts on our nappy journey!

Super cheapies are failing us a little at the moment, so will be retired for a while.

Little blooms will always have a special place in my heart, Bears 1st ever cloth bum….been relatively reliably so far, just with occasional pressure leaks or ill-timed naps meaning we are attempting to squeeze another hour out of them!

TJ’s are so cool, totally tempted by the ‘boy’ nappies…..ninja turtles and star wars! I love the style of the velcro on TJ’s, find they fit so tidy and don’t look ‘tired’ after numerous washes due to the style of them. Jackie at TJ’s is lovely too, always chatting to her customers via facebook, I like the interactions with the faces behind some of the small, UK based nappy sellers!

Bambino Mio, this one we have had less than a week and as we only have 1 it has only made it on to the bum once! I love the print (elephants) though. In true Bear tradition, he poo’d in it pretty quickly, as he does to all his new nappies! But the quality feel and fit of it was amazing….can’t wait to get this one back through the wash!

Tots Bots….now having a stash of 21 we are getting to test these out lots. The first one Bear poo’d in almost instantly (was OTB less than an hour!!) the second one, boosted with a single bamboo insert, leaked massively, not sure if it was bad fit, pressure leak, under stuffing or if the fleece liner made the wee run off instead of soak in due to the fleecy inside of the nappy (leaking pattern indicated that it leaked from top and leg holes though!) We have had much better luck with the 3 he has tried since (now increased to double boosted!) I thought I loved the cute patterns he has (rainbow spots, 3 little pigs, london, to name a few) but also find myself loving the block colours too, including the purple ones! What is great about Tots Bots is that when I mentioned I had some leaking troubles with my first try they offered to phone me to trouble shoot and try to improve my experience….I felt I didnt need them too as I feel the cloth journey is very much trial and error suited to each child but it is the little things that make the difference!

At the moment I can’t say what is best, I do find myself grabbing for my favourite prints (ninja turtles and star wars) or my tots bots…..but am sure the mio will be very quick out the clean pile again after nappy wash day! Not sure whether it is because of the novelty of new, feeling that they should be better as they are more expensive or that they actually are yet! Only time will tell.

One thing is for sure, cloth is still definitely working for Bear, we barely have to fight any soreness (only when teething), mummy and daddy both love it and we cannot wait to cloth bum the next one (when we have one!)

Would love to hear what your opinions on nappies and brands are….these are the only ones I have tried so far, there are so many more to experience yet! Due to the lack of a nappy library near me we were forced to go it alone, you never know though, I may end up with enough variety and quantity of nappies to start my own!

Parenting styles – don’t categorise me!

Most of my posts inspirations come from Facebook, I am in a variety of groups including ones for cloth nappy parents, babywearers and CMPA support groups. Over the last few weeks I have seen an increasing number of ‘what sort of parent are you?’ type posts based upon whether your child is cloth bummed, if you baby wear, breast feed/formula feed, co-sleep, let them cry it out or cuddle to sleep etc, etc. I have witnessed arguments break out over differences of opinions or certain aspects of their parenting do not suit their overall ‘style’. Mothers telling other mothers they are doing it wrong! These types of posts are beginning to get on my nerves, why should a parent feel the need to fit into a category? Does one or other make you a better/worse parent? As long the child is happy and healthy, can you really do it wrong?

So, how do I parent bear? and why do it that way?

Bear was breastfed for 7wks, but due to his allergies he has been formula fed since 4wks old too, had he not had his allergies, who knows how long I would have fed him for.

He is cloth bummed (due to his eczema, I would never of considered it if he didn’t get so sore. Although I love it now and will cloth bum any future children too!)

Bear has a dummy, he has had one since 4 days old. He took to it well, initially to stop him using the breast as a comfort (somewhat selfishly on my part) but he continued to feed well and still uses his dummy today. I am in no rush to take it away, he finds it a great comfort and doesn’t have it in every second of every day (if it is on the floor whilst he is playing, I quietly pick it up and give it back only when he needs it)

I babywear on occasion, often during a quick trip round a shopping centre, it is easier than manoeuvring a pushchair around and waiting for lifts as well as putting the pushchair in and out of cars. I also babywear at work a lot, it helps bear go to sleep and leaves my arms free for doing my work!

We do co-sleep sometimes, more out of necessity, should I let him cry all night long, getting himself in a state and no one would get any sleep? Or should I put him in bed with us, where he settles well and sleeps for longer so we can all get rest? This is only really the case when he is poorly, otherwise he would sleep in his own bed….and YES! His cot is still in our room, with no plans to move him out soon.

If bear wants to, I am happy to cuddle him to sleep. The only time he ever falls asleep without cuddles is in the car or pushchair (with the exception of once, last week when poorly from his reaction, where he fell asleep in the middle of the living room floor). I am happy with this, he is not going to be wanting mummy cuddles forever, so make the most of it!

We began weaning Bear at 4 months (against the ‘new recommendations’). He hated his milk, which we do not blame him for doing, it is vile, and has since thrived on proper food. We switched to baby led weaning as soon as it was safe to do so as bear wanted to, he got bored of being spoon fed and wanted to be a big boy!

I do not let him ‘cry it out’ with the exception of occasionally in the car, where we don’t really have any other option (he gets way less worked up whilst travelling now he is in his ‘big boy’ seat, which is forward facing *gasp* he isn’t in an extended rear facing seat??). If he is sad, I pick him up and cuddle him, smother him in kisses and play silly games to make him smile….this does not make him a mummy’s boy wimp, when he falls, he barely ever cries, he gets back up and starts again.

He is a very independent little boy, he loves to feed himself the same as everyone else, even trying to use a spoon or fork when he can. My choices as a parent were made with me and bear in mind. I will bet that some reading this will have very different opinions to me, which I value, everyone is different and get on better making different choices, ones that are better suited to them and their child. I wouldn’t devalue their parenting because they use disposable nappies, or have sleep trained their little one or moved them into their own room at 4 months or anything else they have decided to do for their child, it is their right as the parent to make these choices. I think a little less judging others parenting skills and a little more focussing on their own children would go a long way in life. All I ask is to not be categorised as anything else, other than a loving mother doing the best she can for her child.