Thursday, May 22, 2008

Teething

My little boy of four and half months are growing teeth already. Imagine my surprise to see two little white pearlies trying peeking out from his gums and I thought babies don't grow teeth until five or six months. I guess this little boy is advance. 

He was crying his eyes out for two days now but he's getting better. He has all his ten fingers inside his mouth and drools a lot. I've been telling him that he has to learn to bear and manage the pain. I know he's too young to understand that but I like talking to him like he's a big boy na. 

To help him with the pain we've been giving him frozen teethers which seems to help. I read that chamomile tea (rubbed on the babies gums) helps with the pain but I'm afraid to give him that so maybe I'll just make a chamomile room spray. 

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Weekend rest

I was looking forward to spending the May 1 holiday out of town and we were blessed to have spent it at the Hotel Kimberly in Tagaytay. It's a fairly new hotel at the outskirts of Tagaytay. That was one of the best things about it, its location. Since it wasn't in the commercial strip facing Taal volcano it was quiet and peaceful. It had a nice pool, a kiddie pool, playground and very nice rooms. 


It was one of the rare times that I didn't get allergies from the room and bed. We liked the place so much that we're praying that we can hold Timmy's dedication by the pool. We're definitely going back. 



Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Eco Moms

There's growing awareness on saving our planet and a growing trend in the U.S are Eco Moms. They have a group meetings in which discussions are about using non toxic products in the house and for your body, how to minimize trash and changing light bulbs to CFL bulbs. 

For these moms saving the earth starts at home. Now I wonder when this trend will arrive here. 

Tips to avoid BPA

All the news about BPA made me think about the other products that might have BPA in them.  So much focus has been on BPA found in baby bottles and toys that it has neglected to tell us more about the other products with BPA. 

Basically, if BPA is found in plastics products and it's leached out when the plastic is heated then we should be more conscious on how often we use plastics and in what way can we change it. Plastic is everywhere in our house. We use it to store food, water and everything else that can fit in it. 

Now for the tips. Here a few ways to avoid BPA.
  • Don't use plastic when heating food in the microwave
  • Lessen use or consumption of  canned foods. Canned beverages contain lesser amount of BPA while canned soup have a higher amount
  • As much as possible avoid buying powdered formula milk in metal can packaging
We already stopped using plastic to heat our food in the microwave and have switched to using glass instead. That means pouring any hot or warm  liquid in a plastic cup is a no no. Sometimes I think I'm obsessing too much on using natural products, staying away from chemical laden products and now swearing off plastics but hey I've got nothing to lose. 

On another note, Rubbermaid has several BPA free products found at their website. Good to know that they have these products available to market. I just hope that other companies would do the same. 

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Harmful chemical in baby bottles

There has been news going around about a harmful chemical called Bisphenol A that is found in baby bottles and sippy cups and possibly in the plastic lining of formula cans. 

Bisphenol A is a chemical that mimics the action of the hormone estrogen. This chemical is a carcinogen, can cause the early onset of puberty, obesity, diabetes and hyperactivity. The chemical is said to mix in with the milk contents when it is subjected to heat. It is found in most plastic bottles such as Avent, Gerber an Playtex. Gerber and Medela bottles to name a few are free from this scary chemical. 

Now, we're planning to change all of Timmy's bottles because of this. There hasn't been a conclusive study as to whether this chemical really does harm to our babies but we wouldn't want to take that risk. 

For more information on this you can view this or read all about it here . You can also view the complete list of Bisphenol A free bottles here and here.