by Rachel McFadden on November 2, 2009
The ThinkBaby BPA-free Stainless Feeding system is something I have had my eye on for a while. I love the idea of storing my son’s food in stainless steel. I usually not okay with putting his food in anything plastic and have trouble with my glass containers fitting all of the food for him. This would be a great solution to have the entire feeding system to use for those days when I go to work and leave him for the day with his grandmothers.
This feeding system is being offered on the “Deal”ectible Mommies blog to one lucky winner. The system includes:
- The Bento Box is the perfect on-the-go travel container that features an air-tight lid, safely keeping liquids or non-solid foods without fear of leakage.
- The Soup Bowl is deep enough for cereals and soups and after feeding time, you can store the bowl in the refrigerator.
- The Baby Bowl is perfect for beginning toddlers and comes with a thinkbaby orange lid, making it easy to locate!
- The Cup is designed for children who have out-grown a sippy cup and is the perfect cup for this transition time.
- The Spoon and Fork offer handles that are wrapped in thermoplastic rubber, making them easy to grip for little hands.
Sprout Baby is offering this giveaway through “Deal”ectibles Mommies website. Sprout Baby also offers some other great items. One of my favorite items is the To-Go-Ware stainless steel set. I was able to purchase the To-Go Ware Three Tier Tiffen, Bag and Utensils as a package at the Green Festival in DC this year. This To-Go Ware is a very versatile and eco-friendly way to carry food. I especially love the bag that is used to carry the stainless containers and the bamboo utensils. This is not only great for taking a lunch to work, but it is great to have handy if you are out at a restaurant and you want to take your meal to-go!
by Rachel McFadden on November 1, 2009
I have been meaning to try felting wool for a while now. I see so many cute felted items and I figure it can’t be too hard to make them myself. When I found the felted dryer balls that are part of my giveaway, I thought I should try to make them for my first felting project. I found a great site, Crunchy Parent, where she has a how-to-video for felting wool balls. On the site she recommends ordering the colored wool for the balls from Peace Fleece, I ordered the Needle Felting Bagettes and I also ordered the Felting by Hand book so that I can try out some more fun projects. What I really want to make are some cute felt shoes for my son. I’m sure that felting shoes is a bit more difficult that the balls, but it looks like it would be fun to try. 
I made these 3 balls, for my first project! I was surprised how easy it is to make a design on the balls. These balls are very versatile and I can use them for wool dryer balls, like the ones that I am giving away, but they are also a great toy for my son to play with. One of his most favorite toys to play with is a ball, any size! Seriously, he loves the dog’s tennis balls, my husband’s football, our pool table balls, a beach ball and anything he can throw or roll and crawl after!
The felted wool balls are so versatile, I could definitely make some cute designs that I can use as decorations around the house, I think they would be a cute in a basket as a table centerpiece, of I could make a smaller version for a cute christmas ornament. Check out the videos on the Crunchy Parent website to make some of these cute balls yourself.
by Rachel McFadden on October 31, 2009
Here we are on the way into the Hospital to visit Connor’s new cousin. Greyson Carter was born last night (Oct. 30). We dressed Connor up is his pirate costume and brought him with us to the hospital. Connor was the hit of the lobby in his costume, but couldn’t go visit his new cousin because they don’t allow anyone under 12 for visitation.
We have told Connor that he has a new playmate that he will be able to visit soon, he can’t wait!
Greyson is an adorable happy healthy baby boy and is welcomed into a great big family! We are so happy that he is finally here and can’t wait to see him grow!
Here is the happy new family:
by Rachel McFadden on October 30, 2009
Have you seen the high fructose corn syrup commercials? The commercials tell us, “it is simply corn, and fine in moderation.” What does moderation mean? Do you know what you are eating? What are you feeding your children? The fact is that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is genetically modified corn starch with added genetically modified enymes. Doesn’t sound like food does it? Check out the process that the HFCS that you are eating goes through before it makes its way into your food:
- HFCS is the processing of corn starch to yeild glucose and the processing of fructose to yeild a high percentage of fructose. This process is very complicated:
- 3 enzymes are needed to breakdown cornstarch:
- 1- Alpha-amylase is produced by a bacerium (Bacillus sp) to produce shortened chains of sugars, polysaccharides
- 2- Glucoamylase is produced by Aspergillus, a fungus, and used to breakdown sugar chains even further to yeild simple sugar glucose.
- 3- Glucose-isomerase is very expensive, and is used to converts clucose to a mixture of 42% fructose and 50-52% glucose. The enzyme is packed into columns and the sugar mixture is poured over it (can be used over and over until it looses most of its activity.)
- 2 Additional steps required:
- Liquid chromatography takes the mixture to 90% fructose
- Blend this back with original mixture to yeild concentration of 55% fructose (hence, HFCS)
Do you believe after all that, HFCS is actually cheaper than good ‘ol sugar? Not only is it cheaper to make, but is is easier to transport by just pumping it into trucks and shipping it off. This all leads to lower cost for the food manufacturers and higher profits, which is why Americas consume more HFCS than real sugar.
What does this all mean for your health and your children’s health? Well, based on testing done on lab rats, fructose can have severe effects to the gorwing organism in the liver where it is metabloized. Our growing children should not be consuming this genetically modified food (if you can call it that), in fact we should not be consuming it either!
Why do we need sugar? The answer is that we don’t! We eat plenty of natural sugars in our fruits and vegatables on a daily basis that we really should not be adding any extra sugar to our diets, especially our babies and children’s diets.
If you must sweeten your food it is best to choose sugar in the raw. This brown colored sugar is the most minimally processed sugar that is made by rolling out the juices from the sugar cane and then boiling them and drying them until you have the brown crystals that you buy at the store. The white sugar that you buy goes through a longer process of bleaching, removing the molasses (brown color), and breaking it down and re-crystalizing.
Do you eat HFCS? Take a look at the items in your pantry, your cereal?, your ketchup?, your yogurt?, your juice?, your jams, etc….they all use HFCS in their products. If you are trying to avoid HFCS and HFCS for your children, try shopping at Whole Foods. Whole Foods has a partnership with the non-GMO project. GMO (Genetically Modified Foods) products are avoided by Whole Foods for resale
