10 Tips to Keep Your Newborn Healthy This Winter

 Reblogged from: Double The Batch

With winter on its way, I have been bracing myself for the onslaught of infection that inevitably shows up at my house.  I am due to have my fifth child this November, and it stresses me out when I think about trying to keep my newborn healthy during the winter months.  The neighborhood cluster of friends that happily played in my yard all summer will soon be bringing their snow-covered, slimy-nosed, yet adorable selves inside my house, along with all the germs they picked up at school that day. I know from past experience, I will cringe and my heart will beat faster with every cough and sniff as I stare at my newborn and pray she won’t get what ever it is they are packing. My mama bear instincts will come out, and I will start viewing these otherwise sweet, innocent children as enemy number one.


I decided it was time to do some research and see if there are some ways I can fight back.  I realize, short of putting a DO NOT ENTER sign on the door and opting out of every holiday gathering, there really is no way to avoid all contact with the motley crew of viruses and bacteria that prey on us each winter. But there are some precautions we can take to reduce how many of them end up making themselves comfortable in our home.  Here are 10 tips to keep your newborn healthy this winter from my own experience and research.  Read on.

1- Teach your kids how to protect themselves from their classmates germs and how keep their germs to themselves.  Make it fun.  Tell them you have secret mission for them and give them a list of things to do to accomplish this mission, including, but not limited to:

•           Never share snacks with friends
•       Never share chapstick with friends
•       Never put your mouth on the water fountain spicket
•       Use the hand sanitizer on your teacher’s desk often- especially after opening doors or using the water fountain
•       Wash hands thoroughly with soap and warm water after using the restroom
•       Cough or sneeze into your shirt or elbow
•       Open doors with your back or elbows whenever possible

I know these things seem like common sense, but as a parent of children, surely you realize they don’t have much common sense until later in life, and unless you specifically outline these habits for them, they may never even occur to them.

2- Make your school children change their clothes the minute they walk in the door from school and then have them wash their hands.  Easier said than done, I know, but this is the best way to get the school germs off of them and away from your newborn baby.

3- Avoid taking your children with you to public places unless it is absolutely necessary that you bring them along.  I will often go shopping at 10 at night when the kids are in bed and my husband is home, A- because shopping with all my children is usually a miserable experience and B- because I can drastically reduce the number of germs that follow us home from the store if my hands are the only ones that touched anything.  I realize there are times when you just have to take them.  Bring along your hand sanitizer and for your little one riding in the cart.

4- Put your baby’s health before your desire to make other people feel comfortable.  This is the hardest one to do, but if a neighborhood kid comes over with a hacking cough, as kindly as you can, send them home.  When you go to family or friend gatherings, don’t be afraid to ask people to wash their hands before holding your baby.  Bring along your hand sanitizer and offer it to them before they hold the baby. Be selective about what gatherings you go to. If the setting might expose your newborn to an onslaught of germs, just don’t go.  

5- The best way to keep your newborn healthy is to keep yourself healthy as there is really no way to avoid close contact when you are the primary care giver.  Getting plenty of rest really helps your immune system, but that’s not going to happen with a newborn, so you’ll have to beef up your efforts in other areas, including:

•   Keeping your stress level down. Many studies have shown a link between stress and weakened immune systems.  http://www.apa.org/research/action/immune.aspx
•   Drinking plenty of water
  
•    Eating a healthy diet high in vitamins (particularly Vitamin C) and low in sugar which breeds infection.
•    Engaging in some form of moderate exercise if possible.  Studies have shown this also boosts your immune response.

6- Get out into the sunlight, even if it is cold.  Bundle up your kids and spend time outside on sunny winter days.  Vitamin D has been shown to be a very important part of the body’s immune response and the best way to get it is directly from the sun.  You can use Vitamin D supplements if you just can’t seem to find your way into the sunlight, but they are not as effective.  Getting out of the house into the fresh air is good for everyone.  When your family is cooped up in the house all day for weeks on end, the germs tend to pile up. Get some fresh air and sunlight as often as you can- your newborn included.

7- Carry a pen with you.  This way you can avoid having to use the pen everyone else has been touching at the bank and the store to sign credit card receipts, thereby avoiding getting the germs of a hundred different strangers on your fingers that are about to rub your eyes or put food in your mouth.

8- Consider putting a kind sign on your front door that says something like- “Help us keep our newborn healthy by only visiting if you are healthy.”  This allows people to think twice before knocking and will hopefully help you avoid having to awkwardly ask them to leave or not hold your baby once they are in your house sporting some kind of illness.

9- Replace everyone’s toothbrushes every couple of months or right after a sickness has gone through your family.  Sometimes germs will linger on your toothbrush and you will end up getting sick again.

10- Wash your sheets and pillowcases more often and wipe down all your door knobs with Clorox wipes every day or so if you can. This will keep the germs that linger and grow there to a minimum.


There is a good chance your baby will still pick up a few bugs despite your best efforts- that is just a part of growing up.  They have to build their immune system somehow.  But, hopefully these tips will help you avoid the big bugs until their little bodies grow stronger and are better able to handle them.

Make Your Own Baby Lounger

Reblogged from: Bower Power Blog

It’s like a big leather La-z-boy for your baby.

Except it’s not leather and not a chair.

Ok.  So it’s like a squishy contoured pillow for your baby to lay in. kinda like a pool lounger…that isn’t waterproof.  it would sink.

This is going nowhere fast.

It’s a pillow.  for a baby.  that’s all.

SO…. when I saw that Boppy sells newborn loungers I was totally on board. Except I grow giant babies. They come out toddler-size. So the only thing that worried me about their version was that it looked really small to me. Also…they are forty dollars. That’s right.  Forty. I don’t like spending forty dollars on something that I’m not 100% sure I will even use.

That’s when I had my little light bulb moment... this is a pillow… a weird shaped pillow with a little tufts. 

I could totally make my own.

And that’s exactly what I did.

My materials here are simple…

• two poly-fill pillows (mine were from Walmart for $8 for two)
• about a yard of your favorite fabric

My fabric was roughly 54″ x 24″ and I folded it in half so each side was about 27″ x 24″.

The first thing to do is wash and dry your fabric.

Then pin the wrong sides together.  I pinned each corner to make them rounded (I just used a large bowl to get my curve and keep it consistent).


I left about six inches on one end unpinned…this is the hole in which you are gonna need to turn the whole thing right side out and stuff the poly fill through.

Ten minutes later, a little sweet-talking to my sewing machine and I had an inside-out-pillow-cover with a hole.

I turned the entire thing right side out and ripped open my other Walmart pillows and stuffed like flat-chested Dallas cheerleader.  Oh right…those don’t exist.

Then I just sewed my hole shut.  This isn’t the cleanest way to do it (a hidden stitch would have been prettier) but since my fabric is nubby anyway, I don’t care.

Then I used a needle and thread to create my little pinches.  These will help your pillow stuffing to stay put and to allow for your baby to sit in a more contoured seat.

Since you are gonna pull really hard on this thread, you may want to use upholstery thread or double thread your needle for extra strength.  I decided I wanted the little ‘tufts’ to sit in the middle of the pillow (vs the inspirational pillow has the seat off center).  Then it’s just a matter of choosing your pinched spots and pulling that thread as tight as possible.

As you might imaging, my baby loves his lounger.  I like the fact that it’s machine washable (just in case a burp or blowout occurs) and it ended up being the perfect size for my almost-ten-pounder. 

The best part about this project is that you can make it any size you want and with whatever fabric you love.  I think it might be my go-to craft for friend’s who might be expecting…you know, until they come out with a leather newborn La-z-boy.

All-Natural Homemade Floor Cleaner That Works!

Reblogged from: Natures Nurture Blog

When we moved into our new house a couple months ago, I was so excited to not see one single inch of carpet in the whole place! Not the living room, not the bedrooms, nothing – woohoo!

I hate carpet. It stains easily, it holds on to dust and hair, and it’s just a pain to clean. So the new laminate wood floors at the new place made me very happy. 


But with my new-found excitement, came some new-found stress as well, since our dark-colored floors now showed EVERYTHING. From the dust, to the hair, to the little areas of smeared, dried up baby drool (yes, nasty…I know), to the fingerprints…ughh, I was going crazy!

I initially tried my all-purpose cleaner, which is just a 50/50 mixture of vinegar and water with some essential oils – seriously, it’s a great all-purpose spray for everyday, quick clean-ups and wipe-downs. But unfortunately, it didn’t give me the results I wanted; although it did clean the floors, it left a lot of streaks, which wasn’t so pretty.

Then, in my search for a homemade floor cleaner, which mixes equal parts water, vinegar, and alcohol, with a few drops of dish soap. Ahh, Eureka! The alcohol helps create that streak-free shine because it evaporates so quickly, and the dish soap gives it some extra grime-fighting oomph!

After testing out a small area, I was in love. I proceeded to clean the ENTIRE house in one go – yep, that’s how happy I was. I was so proud of my gleaming laminate floors, I literally couldn’t stop smiling. Even the hubby noticed how clean and shiny they were – and he never notices that stuff, so I took that as a huge compliment!

Where can I buy the cleaning equipment?

I use my old Swiffer mop, which works just fine. You could also use something like the Libman mop or the Rubbermaid Reveal mop, which come with a refillable compartment for your own homemade cleaner, and reusable microfiber pads! Whatever you choose, just make sure to use microfiber cloths (instead of the pads that come with it) so you get a nice, streak-free shine. Lots of readers have also tried this cleaner in their Shark steam mop with great results!

This is a low-traffic area of the house (only part with nice light for pictures), hence the shine. 

This cleaner will NOT shine your floors like this.

This cleaner worked so well on my laminate floors, I also started using it on the tile floor in my kitchen, and the windows and mirrors… Then I tackled all the stainless steel appliances. Seriously, this stuff is awesome! It’s like All-Purpose Cleaner 2.0!

The only thing I didn’t like about the recipe was that the vinegar smell was overpowering (although it disappears eventually). So for the next batch, I added about 10-15 drops of lavender essential oil and it did help a little. Bonus: Lavender has anti-bacterial properties! 

After a few years of tweaking this recipe, I’ve now settled on 1 cup water, 3/4 cup vinegar, 3/4 cup alcohol, a few drops of dish soap, and 5 drops each of lavender, tea tree, orange, and peppermint essential oils. This combination of oils not only smells fantastic, it also provides a level of antibacterial, antiseptic, antiviral, and antimicrobial protection.

Will this work for real hardwood floors?

I have only used this on laminate and tile floors. I wouldn’t recommend this on hardwoods as the vinegar may be too harsh on the finish.

Can the recipe be adapted for a mop and bucket?

Several people have asked this question, and although I haven’t tried it myself, I did find a recipe online that seems like it would be comparable to this one. So if you want to use a mop and bucket, try this recipe: For a gallon of water, you could try 1/2 cup of vinegar, and 1/3 cup of alcohol, plus a few drops of dish soap.

Is this safe for use around pets?

The base of the recipe (water, alcohol, vinegar) is perfectly fine for use around pets, but there is concern that essential oils may be harmful if ingested by pets, especially cats. Although essential oils, when used properly, have been used to treat many ailments in pets and humans alike, you should take precaution when using them around your pets especially if they have compromised immune systems or other health issues. As always, please do your own research and consult with your pet’s veterinarian or a licensed aromatherapist, if you have any concerns.

A note on fabric softeners and microfiber:

Never use fabric softeners or dryer sheets when washing your microfiber cloths because they’ll affect their ability to absorb liquids properly. I don’t use either of these products on any of our laundry anyways; instead, I just use some vinegar in the rinse cycle to keep our laundry fresh and soft.

Just make sure that whatever you buy is labeled as essential oils, and NOT fragrance oils.  *NOTE: Essential oils are very potent and should be used with caution. If you are pregnant, nursing, or have any health issues, please consult your health care provider prior to using essential oils. If possible, seek the professional help of a licensed aromatherapist.

Natural Homemade Floor Cleaner

A natural, non-toxic homemade floor cleaner that cleans more than just floors! Just 4 simple ingredients is all it takes to clean almost any surface in your home.

Ingredients

1. 1 cup water
2. 3/4 cup vinegar
3. 3/4 cup alcohol
4. 2-3 drops dish soap (Castile, Dawn, etc.)
5. 5 drops each of lavender, orange, tea tree, and peppermint essential oils, optional
6. Fine-mist spray bottle - 24oz

Instructions

1. Add all ingredients to spray bottle and shake to combine.
2. Sweep/vacuum the floor.
3. Spray cleaner on the floor (or other surface).
4. Wipe up with a microfiber cloth.

Notes

1. As with all cleaners, please do a spot test to make sure this will work on your floors!
2. For a mop and bucket version, try this: For a gallon of water, you could try 1/2 cup of vinegar, and 1/3 cup of alcohol, plus a few drops of dish soap.

 By Sarah UmmYusuf

How to Wean a Cosleeping Baby from Your Bed

Reblogged from: eHow

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, cosleeping in the same bed puts a baby at risk of suffocation or strangulation. Still, parents and health care professionals who advocate the practice say children can benefit from this type of sleeping arrangement. Despite the differing opinions surrounding both the potential risks and benefits associated with cosleeping, the time eventually comes to wean a child to his own bed or room.

Instructions

1. Place a crib or bassinet in your bedroom. As your baby becomes more comfortable sleeping on his own, you can try moving the crib into the nursery. If you want your baby close without the dangers of cosleeping, you can buy a bassinet that attaches to your bed; your baby would still have the security of being with you without sharing the same bed.
   
   
2. Put your baby in her crib while she is still awake, recommends the National Sleep Foundation. Once you are ready for your child to make the transition out of your bed, you can still bring her in bed with you when you nurse her. But return her to her crib before she is fully asleep.
   
   
3. Give your child something he can sleep with at night (if he is old enough enough to sleep with it safely) to help make the transition easier, suggests Cleveland Clinic. Babies often develop an attachment to a special blanket or favorite stuffed toy that gives them a sense of security. Include the lovey in your child’s regular bedtime routine, even if he isn’t sleeping in a crib or his own room yet.
   
   
4. Sleep on the floor or on a cot in your baby’s room for a few days while she gets used to her new sleep environment. Keep her bedtime routine the same as it has always been. The only difference should be that you are tucking her into her own bed instead of into your bed. Try to be consistent in your baby’s bedtime routine, even when activities out of the ordinary interfere with her normal sleep schedule.
   
   
5. Use the "chair shuffle" sleep-training method. Sit in a chair next to your baby’s crib while he goes to sleep. Work on moving the chair farther away from the crib until you no longer have to be in the room while he falls asleep. Kim West, a licensed family therapist and founder of SleepLady.com, suggests moving the chair every three days. Avoid rushing the process to give your baby time to adjust to falling asleep without you.
   
   
6. Include your toddler -- if your baby is bit older -- in the planning as you get ready to move him to his own bed or room. If your child is transitioning to a toddler bed, take him with you when you select a bed. Allowing him to help in getting his room ready may get him excited about sleeping there.