Aiden, who is currently obsessed with seeing his own name in print, is tickled by the new Mabel’s Labels on some of his belongings. We bought a Basic Kit with a variety of tags and stickers to put on items that may go with Aiden to preschool. The labels are fantastic!
We have run the Skinny Mini labels through the dishwasher without any fading or peeling. Can’t wait to get more of these – particularly around Christmas!
I admit it. I’ve been a judgmental non-parent and even a judgmental parent about what I see other kids eating. “I would never let my child eat that,” I’ve thought. “All that toddler food is just marketing,” I would say. Oh, how I’ve eaten my words.
When Aiden was first introduced to solids, he’d eat just about anything. So, I gave him healthy choices – food we ate, but chunked or pureed up a bit. I definitely adhere to the “eat what we eat” philosophy.
As he grew older, and went through picky stages, I’ve relaxed a bit. Rice crackers and bananas may have cut it for snacks when Aiden was younger, but he demands more variety now. Trying to come up with 3 meals and 2 snacks a day is exhausting, so pre-packaged snacks, in particular, have invaded my home. I’ve also realized that a few “bad” foods are really not a big deal if the overall week-long diet is pretty balanced.
So yeah, I let my child eat THAT.
Lest you think I feed my child a horrible assortment of foods, his most common snacks at home are cucumber and edamame. We don’t eat fast food, though fries and burgers may adorn our plates at restaurants. We try to eat organic, though not to extremes.
At the end of the day, Aiden eats, and mostly well. I’ve learned that keeping him happy and full is worth relaxing my standards a bit.
P.S. – I also provide a snack cup in the car more frequently than I’d like to admit.
What about you? What foods do your kids eat that you never thought you’d “let” them?
Almost as harrowing as the struggle for more sleep is the search for the perfect bib. We’ve tried several with Zayden, one of which I reviewed here. Our extensive “research” has shown us that fabric bibs should be avoided most of the time because they stain easily and exponentially increase the amount of baby-related laundry. We do like the Kushies washable bib with sleeves, but found the sleeves were making Zayden too hot during the ever-warmer summer weather, so on a whim, I picked up a J. J. Cole bib because I liked the design and believe I may have found the perfect bib.
It’s washable and cleans up very well. The pocket is a generous size and catches 90% of the food that falls out of his mouth. But the snap closures are my favourite part. Zayden cannot remove this bib no matter how hard he tugs, and with three different settings, he’ll be able to wear it for quite a while before it becomes too tight. And did I mention, I think the design is super cute?
Purchased at Jack and Lola.
Solid foods can get messy. Even the best bib can’t prevent 100% of the stains. Thank goodness we’ve discovered Buncha Farmers Stain Remover. It’s an all natural product, and it really works as well as it claims to. We’ve managed to get out a number of set in stains (everything from avocado to raspberry). The only stain it didn’t get out completely was a carrot stain, but even then, it got close.
We do find it works better if you wet the article of clothing rather than the stick, which goes against the directions on the packaging. And if you can, soak the stained article of clothing rather than letting the stain dry as it will increase the chance the 100% of the stain will come out in the wash. And of course, it works just as well on grown-up stains as it does on baby stains.
We have seen the sticks for sale at a number of locations including Jack and Lola and Lunapads.com.
We just started Zayden on solid food about two weeks ago. The very first food we decided to give him was oatmeal, and we decided on the President’s Choice brand for a few reasons. We were looking for organic, but most of the larger brands offer organic options these days. What made the decision for us is that President’s Choice baby products gets one of the highest ratings from environmental groups because they don’t use any BPA in their packaging.
Zayden loves the taste of the oatmeal. He certainly prefers it to the flavourless and pasty rice cereal we have also tried. He likes it so much that I often combine it with other foods like cinnamon or bananas, so that he can get used to other flavours in a familiar context.
The only criticism I have is the “easy pour” spout that the package offers. Most of the time it’s great, but when I’m not being careful it is quite easy to pour out way too much and not easy to pour it back into the box through the small opening.