The organic bamboo velour (OBV) is one of the major updates in their classic design. The EcoPosh line, known for its use of recycled water bottles in addition to organic cotton and bamboo, really got the OBV upgrade. The fitted diapers still utilize the double gusset and 6r soaker technology. They still have the four-step rise to last from teeny tiny to 40 pounds. Now they come with the luxuriously soft OBV interior. The colors are updated from the previous earthy tones to deep, vibrant jewel tones including boysenberry, Atlantis, saffron, Caribbean, and an icy grey glacier. Kanga Care updated both the one-size and newborn Ecoposh fitteds.

Rumparooz, also Kanga Care, got in on the OBV magic too. I think they took the best of Ecoposh and RaR and put them together into the one-size Rumparooz OBV. It offers all the trademark glory of a Rumparooz one-size diaper (the gussets, four-step rise, 6r soakers, and waterproof TPU) to the freshness of the OBV material. Currently the Rumparooz OBV comes in the five Ecoposh colors, not the entire line of Rumparooz prints and colors.

As for trainers, the Ecoposh trainer continues to have its hidden layer of TPU and the waterproof protection it provides. Each trainer is also made with nearly six water bottles among its materials. The major updates again include the OBV material, far silkier to babe’s skin, and the updated colors.

Rumparooz also now has a line of Lil Learnerz trainers with many of the brand’s beloved prints (and a few more to boot)! They offer patented IMWET technology to help children learn the feeling of wetness while remain waterproof on the exterior. The trainer comes in five sizes up to 44 pounds, and the two smallest sizes offer side snaps for easy, stylish clean up.

Pick yours up today!

Lynette is a mom of three children from 8 months to age four. She has cloth diapered all three since birth and enjoys all things eco-friendly and mindful living.

Before we go setting ourselves up with unrealistic goals we’ll forget by month’s (week’s?) end, let’s set up something that will create a lifetime of treasures. A few themes I tend to revisit annually include:

I will set aside my smart-whatever. Maybe it’s during dinner, perhaps your phone is there at stop-lights, or after a long day you just want to chill to some Bejeweled (or whatever game is hot these days…). Commit to putting your phone, laptop, or tablet down. Use the time to connect with whoever is present, even if that just means some quiet time alone with you.

I will use kind words. We all have different parenting styles, and even within the “whatever is the trendy style” kind of parent there are many nuances. Maybe you never raise your voice and rarely use the word “no.” Perhaps you’re parenting has gotten a little intense lately. Wherever you are in your parenting style or journey, however assertive or passive, and no matter your discipline perspective, we can all use a little kind in our lives. I mean this not only in how we speak to our children, but also how we speak about them whether they are present or not, and how we speak to our own self or partner or mother about parenting decisions. Let kindness reign supreme in two thousand seventeen.

I will keep perspective. It’s not that those grandmas in the store are wrong when they say “cherish every moment” nor is the mama wrong when she says she struggles to find any joy some days. I bet there is truth to both. Instead of shutting the other one down completely, I will, nod, give a half-smile, and learn about myself or them through the comments they make. Perhaps a little more connection is what we all need, and I have an opportunity to ask a follow up question that can either shut them down or open them up.

I will take care of myself. Maybe it’s eating one less sweet (or one more!) per day or week. Similarly, more water and/or less other liquid drug of choice (caffeine, alcohol, sugar, etc.). Perhaps it’s starting to work out or finding quiet time to relax. Some of us need to focus a little more on our budget. It could be stepping up your yoga pants to real-deal jeans. I’m sure we all could do something along the lines of all the above. Pick something. Put a reason to it. Set reasonable expectations, and find accountability in friends, your partner, or even an online group.

I will do something that is not for specifically for the kids. Inventory your time and interests. What has fallen away since you first had children? What were your passions? Where did your time, money, and effort go? Reinvest yourself or invest yourself in something new.

I will dole out more grace. I know it’s fun sometimes to thrive on snarky. It is one of my mind’s instant reflexes sometimes. I think grace can build more relationships and understanding though. I don’t want to tear down someone or something else to justify myself. I can be me without pulling down on them. Grace and more grace. To myself, to others… grace.

Lynette is a mom of three children from 10 months to age five. She has cloth diapered all three since birth and enjoys all things eco-friendly and mindful living.

When my older daughter started to eat solids, I decided I would make my own baby food purees. Making my own purees was less expensive than buying jarred baby food. She had a milk intolerance, and I read that cross contamination in baby foods was a common problem. In addition to saving money, I was happy that making my own purees allowed me to control what went into her food (and what stayed out).

Her first food was avocado.  I simply used a food processor to mash the avocado. Once the avocado was smooth, I mixed in pumped breast milk to thin it out to a very loose consistency.

After Lily ate avocado for a few days, I tried sweet potato, then butternut squash. To prepare the sweet potato, I boiled the sweet potato, then used the food processor to puree it. I used some of the cooking liquid to thin it to my desired consistency. With the butternut squash, I halved it, removed the seeds, then roasted it in a shallow pan with a little water until it was super soft. I then pureed it in the food processor, and thinned it with pumped breast milk.

I used my slow cooker to make apple sauce and pear sauce once I started Lily on fruits. I would peel, core, and chop 4 -6 of pears or apples, place them in the slow cooker, added a little water, and cooked on high for 2-3 hours. Once the apple or pears were super soft and basically falling apart, I would puree them in my food processor, again adding the cooking liquid or a little pumped breast milk to thin the puree out.

When making the purees, I made much more than Lily would eat at any one time. I used ice cube trays to freeze small portions of the purees. When I decided what I was going to try to feed Lily, I would pull out one ice cube tray portion, and carefully heat it in the microwave, adding more pumped breast milk as needed.

Although slightly more work than picking up a jar of baby food at the store, making my own purees did not require any special kitchen gadgets and did not require much cooking time or food prep. The peace of mind of making my own purees as well as the money saved more than made up for the convenience of the jarred food.

Becky Nagel is a stay at home mom to two girls, a three year old and a one year old, in Denver, CO who enjoys cooking for her family, running, and hiking.

Baby-led feeding is generally referred to as baby-led weaning because the introduction of table food is the beginning of a longer process of transitioning baby to table foods full-time. Of course this process takes many months (or even years). Weaning, then, is not a loss so much as a transition in the relationship that occurs overtime.

Numerous resources already exist if you’re looking for more information about the process, if you and your child are ready to begin baby-led weaning, and ideas for recipes and general tips to make the messy transition as simple as possible.

KellyMom is a well-known resource on breastfeeding but they don’t leave you cold when it comes time to shift. KellyMom.com offers numerous articles written by those knowledgeable in the field about weaning. Specific situations for mothers who primarily pump are also included. The website continues beyond recognizing if your child is ready to also include information about timing the weaning process, ensuring you do not move too quickly or cut out other needs your child might not have as often with decreased breastfeeding (like cuddle time or other one-on-one attention).

If you are working through your own feelings on the subject know you aren’t alone! Le Leche offers insight into a variety of feelings and thoughts that moms might need to process as the consider or are in the midst of baby-led feeding. They also offer specialty articles such as weaning twins or anxiety associated with this transition.

When it comes to the food Wholesome Baby Food at Momtastic offers a number of recipes and weekly menu ideas to help get you started or out of the “bananas and avocado again” slump. The site also includes age-specific information for weaning. Of course if you prefer holding a book to read up on the subject, several primers exist on the subject.

Simple Bites is a mommy-driven website that incorporates baby-led weaning to the table with their general interest in including the whole family around unprocessed meals. Mama Natural also speaks with similar interest and authority found mostly in personal experience and research. Both sites offer numerous ideas and recipes to help introduce anyone to the concept of BLW.

Lynette is a mom of three children from 8 months to age four. She has cloth diapered all three since birth and enjoys all things eco-friendly and mindful living.

Well, no. The name ringworm is a bit of a misnomer, as there are no worms involved. It’s actually a fungal infection of the skin, and a common one, especially in small children and pets.

Yes, pets. This is one thing that can actually be spread from your dog or cat to your child. Cats especially seem prone to ringworm.

So, how do you know if your baby has ringworm? Ringworm presents itself as a red, raised, scaly patch (or patches), and often develops its telltale ring (where the center of the patch is not red) as well. Your doctor can diagnose it for sure if you aren’t certain. Often it’s diagnosed by visual inspection alone, but a skin scraping can be done as well.

How do you treat ringworm? Often, over-the-counter remedies (the same ones used to treat athlete’s foot, actually) work fine. These creams contain clotrimazole or miconazole. Your doctor may also elect to prescribe ketoconazole cream. For any of these creams, they’re generally applied topically to the spots twice a day. You will need to keep using the creams until the spots are completely gone, so they don’t come back. This can take two to four weeks. In my experience, living in a hot and humid climate extends the healing time, compared to a cold and dry one.

In the meantime, ringworm is massively contagious. Wash bedding and clothing daily while treating it, and wash your hands after applying the topical creams. If you have pets, inspect them closely for ringworm as well.

To prevent ringworm, keep your pets and their living spaces clean. Wear shoes in public showers, and keeping skin clean, including frequent hand washing. Still, it’s very possible your child will get ringworm at some point; luckily it’s pretty easy to treat.

Meaghan Howard is a stay-at-home mom to three little boys. She’s seen ringworm once or twice, and has managed to live to tell about it. 

Here are some differences I have experienced in parenting my first versus parenting my third.

1. Sugar-free zone. Y’all, my first baby ate ONLY vegetables until he was one. In lieu of a birthday cake on his birthday, I gave him a BANANA–his first fruit. Third baby? I’ll be lucky to keep her older brothers from feeding her brownies.
2. Germs. Every person that came over was essentially doused in hand sanitizer with my first child. But now? I might have handed my crying third baby to a complete stranger on the airplane that offered to hold her for me.
3. Scheduling. The beloved first child’s schedule trumped all other activities. We rushed home from lunches with friends to make the sacred naptime. Dinner dates were cut short to start our nightly routine. Third baby? In a pinch, car seat naps and sleeping in the Ergo seem to suit her JUST FINE.
4. Bathing. My first child was squeaky clean. He was bathed AT LEAST every other day. My daughter? I aim to bathe her weekly and would admittedly bathe her less often if she didn’t have such long hair that displays my lack of due diligence in the bathing area.
5. Psychosis. I am legitimately a lot less stressed with this third baby. If she only sleeps 20 minutes, I am not lamenting to everyone I see. It will be okay. Each phase will pass. If she needs to cuddle, cuddle we shall. The dishes will eventually be cleaned again to be dirtied again and laundry will be folded. I am a lot less stressed with this third baby and a lot more engaged. Not all parental changes with subsequent children are entirely detrimental. The perspective of time and how quickly it passes has served me well with baby number three.

Kara Garis is a cloth diapering, baby wearing, semi-crunchy mama to two active boys and a baby girl. She lives with her husband in Oklahoma and loves running, cooking, traveling, reading and teaching herself how to braid. She blogs very infrequently at karagaris.blogspot.com. 

We’re an entrepreneurial country and I think that is yet another thing that would not be possible without moms and dads. So parents of America, this one is for you. Or rather, these businesses, conveniences, and products are, largely, for you.

The Drive-thru. Because who wants to pull three children out of the car to get a sit-down meal when we don’t have time between Susie and Jessie’s soccer practice and dance lessons?

Amazon, or any other food delivery service. Granted these are only successful in the most urban of areas, but a large portion of their customers surely are mothers who just balance the cost of a few extra bucks for the convenience of not going into that snow with all these babes. Similar to this might be the order online, pick-up in store offerings of many box and department stores.

Caffeine anything. Really, need I explain? Combine caffeine to drive thru or delivery services mentioned above and you really got yourself a business model.

Dollar aisles. Anything sold in any “deal” area or near the checkout line of any store ever in the history of commerce is made for people on a budget looking for a cheap thrill. The dollar spot at Target is so alluring with its cheap gadgets that conveniently break just in time for our next visit.

Icee machines. Again, I’m letting my Target show here but the Icee machine in our local store accounts for 73 percent of our successful shopping outings. Length of to-buy list and awesome parenting skills account for the other 27percent.

Car vacuums. Once upon a time I said I’d not let my children eat in my car. Then I had children. Eating in the car happens rarely, but evidence of said eating is abundant.

Most all of the gum industry. Bubbalicious gets us hooked when we’re young, with all that sugar and bubble-ing delight. And before-mentioned caffeine via coffee always leaves the mouth looking for freshness. Combine that with checkout line convenience and you’re in business.

Yoga pants and other comfort wear. Sure, just like all these other things parents are not the only ones responsible for each industry’s success. But between mamas talking about baby weight and the struggle to find time to get ready in the morning, mothers make up a large portion of financial support in this market trend.

The home workout market. Consider who is up in the wee morning hours of the morning to see those Beachbody infomercials and what population is known for the pressure to “bounce back” after baby. And these are results by “normal” people, people who could be in line in front of you at said Target, not celebrities. Of course this leads me to…

Multi-level marketing. Look, mamas gotta make a buck. Mamas also need some sense of community and a sense of living and giving outside of their children. MLM offers all of these things, usually with an alluring fragrance or stylish bag included. #momboss

Lynette is a mom of three children from 8 months to age four. She has cloth diapered all three since birth and enjoys all things eco-friendly and mindful living.

I’m convinced that my two-year-old wanders around, taking inventory of all he hopes to accomplish when mom is occupied. Dump spices? Check. Unroll all of the toilet paper? That sounds fantastic. Smear an entire jar of peanut butter on the dog? Can’t wait. And, yes, all of those things have actually happened.

It has taken me six months, but I think I am finally to the point to, cautiously, say, I think I’ve figured out a way to navigate this particular issue… sometimes. And it is to simply Choose My Mess.

This means leaving out the box of play dough and cookie cutters and being okay with some of the hardened pieces ending up inside the trash and the colors getting mixed together. This means a gallon-sized Ziploc bag of crayons and a stack of coloring books on the kitchen floor. This means free reign on the bubbles in the backyard.

Maybe this isn’t a difficult concept for some of you. But, for me? I really like it when the play doh colors are in their correct containers, untainted by other colors. I really, really like for all of the crayons to stay in their wrappers. And, I don’t particularly enjoy bubbles dumped out into my flower beds.

But, this is a mess of my choosing. And it is a mess I prefer over dumped spices, shredded paper towels, or plant food distributed evenly across every square foot of my home.

Kara Garis is a cloth diapering, baby wearing, semi-crunchy mama to two active boys and a baby girl. She lives with her husband in Oklahoma and loves running, cooking, traveling, reading and teaching herself how to braid. She blogs very infrequently at karagaris.blogspot.com. 

Do:

• Call your local domestic violence shelter and ask how you can help. Some offer Sub for Santa programs, where they can match you up with a family staying in the shelter and give you a list of the things they might want/need this holiday season.
• Offer to purchase gift cards for the shelter or the women staying there. Gift cards are great to use for planning holiday parties, or can be used by the women to purchase gifts on their own to provide for their children. As wonderful as the Sub for Santa programs are, it can help the self esteem of a shelter resident to actually go to the store and be able to purchase the items herself.
• If baking is more your speed, contact your local shelter and see if they can accept homemade goods. Sometimes due to allergies and safety reasons, some shelters can only accept store purchased food. Find out what works for them, and see where you can drop off treats to share to help boost the morale of those living there.
• Call the shelter to see if they have a list of items they might need. Shelters often rely heavily on donations, and can run low on things like tampons, toilet paper, and diapers. At your next holiday party, request on the invitation that your guests bring one of these items to donate.

Don’t:

• Request to be there when the kids open the presents that you purchased for the Sub for Santa. This was a frequent request, and understandably so—part of the joy of buying presents is seeing the happiness on the faces of those you purchased them for. As a parent, though, one can imagine how difficult it can be to know that your child wants or needs something, and you aren’t in a position to provide it for them. While these women are not technically providing the gifts, they are doing an incredibly brave and difficult thing by choosing to leave what was likely a more financially secure situation because of the abuse they would no longer endure. What greater gift could you offer them than their pride on Christmas morning?
• Forget the dignity of the people you are donating to. The saying is, “Beggars can’t be choosers,” but there is also the saying, “Don’t add insult to injury.” We would receive wrapped packages with requests that they be given to the residents, and the staff had to open them for safety reasons first. We would find partially used rolls of toilet paper, wrapped individually to be given as gifts. We would open boxes with an item of clothing inside, with food spilled on it that had not been laundered.
• Overextend yourself with offers to volunteer. Spreading yourself too thin is an easy thing to do during the holidays, with all of the opportunities to do so that are presented. When an organization depends so heavily on volunteers, it can make the difference between an organized event being successful or stressful when a volunteer does not show up. It is wonderful if you can; but don’t pencil yourself in if you aren’t certain you can be there.

When in doubt, call and ask. And when you do, be pleasant to the person who answers the phone. It could easily be a new volunteer answering phones for the first time, and I can say from experience, little is more terrifying than answering a potential crisis call when you haven’t before. Thank you for caring to help; the world could use a lot more of that.

Keighty Brigman is terrible at crafting, throwing birthday parties, and making sure there isn’t food on her face. Allegedly, her four children manage to love her anyway. 

My firstborn did not understand why I couldn’t read the book he wanted right away. My second-born took great issue with my failure to refill his sippy cup. New baby daughter had strong feelings about being out of the womb in general. I was a mess. I quickly realized that maybe, rather than meeting needs, I simply needed to adjust my thinking.

1.     Realize that “Loudest” does not equal “Neediest”.
My oldest son has this idea that volume equals importance. Just like the patient complaining in the ER waiting room about waiting, my son thinks if he can just tell me the right thing in the right way, that will magically move him to the front of the line. This only works if you let it happen. I promise, the more times my son sees that yelling does NOT get him what he wants, he starts to try other tactics. I am guilty of doing whatever I can to shush the loud child in the moment. But I try to think of life lessons in these moments when I so desperately want to do what creates instant comfort.

2.     Use my words, and use them calmly.
So often I find myself so frazzled that I just want the noise/whining to STOP RIGHT NOW. This is when I need to calmly say, “Son, I see that you want me to refill your sippy cup. I would love to do that for you. First, I am going to feed your sister.” If he protests loudly, I suggest he sit on his bed until he calms down.

3.     Do as much as I can on the front end.
I can’t anticipate every need. But keeping a couple of bananas within reach of my oldest child, trying to keep sippy cups filled, trying to nurse my baby near a stack of books that can be read aloud while sister eats; these are things I can intentionally do that might eliminate some of the chaos.

4.     Accept that, sometimes, some things will have to wait. And waiting is okay.
I don’t think any mom wants to raise a child that grows to be a man or woman that is incapable of patience. I try to keep the adult version of my child in the back of my mind when I am doing something that seems hard in the moment but I know will pay off eventually.

Kara Garis is a cloth diapering, baby wearing, semi-crunchy mama to two active boys and a baby girl. She lives with her husband in Oklahoma and loves running, cooking, traveling, reading and teaching herself how to braid. She blogs very infrequently at karagaris.blogspot.com.