Archive for the ‘Outdoor Fun’ Category

We’ve all heard it. The child yelling “No!” at the top of their lungs. It often seems like that is the first word that children learn to use on a regular basis. I hear it in restaurants, in stores, in church, and at the park. Children love to use that word to separate themselves as individuals.

But it doesn’t have to be something you hear day in and day out in your own home, from your own child. By creating a Yes Environment in your home you really can minimize the amount of obstinate No’s that you hear.

So what do I mean by a Yes Environment? I mean making your home (because that is the easiest place to start) a place where your child doesn’t hear the word No very often. There are two steps to this.

1. You have to make your home a safe, baby and toddler friendly atmosphere. No, you don’t have to live in a place that looks like a playpen, but you can minimize the obstacles that make living with your toddler on a day to day basis more work. This is called Baby proofing. How far you have to go with baby proofing depends entirely on your child. Some children seem to never have any interest in what is under the bathroom cabinets and some will be able to scale multiple obstacles, stack boxes into stairs and pick any lock you put in front of them just so they can see what is exactly in the middle of a jumbo roll of toilet paper. I have had a little of each extreme. But those little Search-and-Destroy types are truly exhausting. No matter what baby proofing aids you use you still have to be hyper vigilant about where they are every second. To create your Yes Environment, you want to remove as many reason for saying no as you can, but don’t even try to remove all of them. The child does still need to learn that there are just some things that you need to leave alone.

Safety is a important issue and Baby Proofing tools can make it a lot easier to handle. But never trust any gadget or device to keep your child safe from dangerous household chemicals.

Allow your child a few things to “get into” that are not strictly toys. Leave one kitchen cupboard with safe (if a bit messy) kitchen stuff like tupperware and cookie cutters. Hairbrushes are a fun thing for them to explore in the bathroom (and are a good deal more sanitary than the toilet brush!) While you fold laundry allow them to dismantle a nice stack of towels or a basket of socks.

2. Examine the language you use with your child. Save the word No for times that there is no alternative. Redirect your child whenever possible. And when it is not possible to redirect, try other phrases that still mean no.

An example of redirection: You stop by a friend’s house for a quick chat and your toddler spots a lovely statue on her coffee table. As you see your toddler heading in that direction with That Gleam in his eye, you get the urge to say No. Instead you say, “Isn’t that pretty? Mommy will help you touch it.” or “Let’s see if we can blow some dust off of this!” (while holding your hands behind your back). Allow a moment or two and then turn the child’s attention elsewhere. You have respected your child’s interest, but not allowed them to get themselves (or you) into trouble. If you child keeps going back to the statue, you may have to walk them through the process a few more times before either they get tired of it or they need to have the situation altered by either removing them or the item from the room.

Another example: You are at a store and your child sees something they will simply die without. They whine, they plead – in that way only a non-verbal toddler can plead, they just have to have it! “Not this time.” is a good one. “I like that too!” “Let’s tell daddy about this.” or just flat our distraction by showing your child other things or acting silly can work. Or you might just wind up finishing your shopping with a very angry child. “We’re not going to get this today.” is a simple and direct negative answer that just doesn’t include the word No.

There are as many ways to deal with these situations as there are parents. Our goal is to raise our children to be good people who understand that the world will not hand them their every wish on a platter. Sometimes they need a plain old No and sometimes they need a negative answer served up with a healthy helping of compassion.

By watching the words you use and keeping things positive but still firm in their meaning, you can guide your child to a vocabulary that has relatively few No’s in it at all.

Now if I could get them to not use the word “MINE!” I would be all set.

Posted by MyFrugalFunLife on Diaper Swappers

Most of us have houses full of nifty appliances that make life easier. However, they are not cheap to run and cutting back on using them can save quite a bit of money! The summer months are the perfect time to go back in time and learn the simple but cost effective way of line drying clothes.

To get started first check your local city ordinance or HOA guidelines to make sure hanging clothes outside is allowed. Then decide which clothes line system will work best for your yard.

If you have a big space to work with the traditional long lines and two poles on each end will give you lots of space to hang clothes. If you don’t have access to polls try utilizing trees or deck railing-get creative
If yard space is an issue look into an umbrella style system. Retail they start at around $50 but many times you can find them used on Craig’s List for a fraction of the cost. The nice thing about the umbrella style is most of them are removable for when you need to mow the yard, or during winter months.

Once you’ve got your line system set up its time to hang clothes! Instead of fabric softener I use vinegar in my wash rinse cycle-it help keep the clothes soft. I prefer hanging my clothes out first thing in the morning so they’re dry by early afternoon. I’ve also become a pro at making them all fit (socks and dishtowels get pinned on top of jeans and big towels etc).

Some clothing items, like jeans, tend to get crunchy after being out in the sun so some people prefer to throw those items in the dryer for a few minutes to soften them up. Even though you may opt to do this-a few minutes of dryer time is still going to save you a lot of money over using your dryer exclusively!

Now if you don’t have a back yard or are not allowed to hang clothes outside there’s still line drying options for you. You can get an indoor drying rack for a reasonable price at most hardware stores. Having two or three of these racks will be able to handle most regular sized loads of laundry. If you have a basement you can also set up a line drying system down there and just hang your line from nails or other basement fixtures. You’ll have to be a bit more creative without an outside option but most people will be able to make it work-just think outside the box a bit

Not only does line drying save you money-there’s also nothing better than the smell of clothes dried in the sun. The sun is also a natural stain remover so that’s an extra benefit of line drying! If you’ve never line dried before I challenge you to try it this summer, you might never go back to using your dryer!

Which Dirt Should Your Baby Eat?

Mapping how bugs and viruses help

children develop immunity.

By Amanda Schaffer

 Too much cleanliness can be bad for your baby—so goes the prevailing theory that hyper sanitized childhoods may be partly responsible for allergies, asthma, and other diseases. The idea is that early exposures to germs teach an infant’s immune system to regulate itself. Just as babies’ brains need input, stimulation, and training, so, too, do their immune systems.

 But if bugs and viruses are a form of education, which ones make up the perfect curriculum? The research doesn’t serve up a neat answer, and, of course, pathogens that actually make kids sick come at a cost. Still, evidence suggests that some gastrointestinal bugs and viruses, which might or might not cause illness, may protect later against allergy, asthma, and inflammation. Baby respiratory infections, on the other hand, probably don’t shield kids in the same way. So what’s a tiny baby to do? Chew toys off the floor, play in the mud, go to the petting zoo. But stay away from the flu.

The idea that germs protect against allergies started to gain traction around 20 years ago. A researcher named David Strachan found that children with more siblings, particularly older brothers, were less likely to develop hay fever. Strachan’s work (like most of the research that followed) didn’t prove a causal relationship. Nor did it address how, exactly, kids might school one another’s immune systems. But it spurred the theory that all manner of germiness, from dirty hands to runny noses, might help kids in the long run. Researchers also linked growing up on a farm to lower risk of allergy. Ditto for attending day care early on. (Though with caveats. In one study, for instance, day care only seems to protect allergy-prone kids if they attend before they’re 3 months old.) But what is it about farms or day care that might help train the budding immune system—the scat, the snot, or something else?

It could be the scat, at least in part. Last fall, researchers analyzed a treasure trove of data from the Philippines, which tracked kids starting when they were in utero, in the 1980s. The data included information on the households the kids were born into as well as the sicknesses and symptoms their mothers reported them having before age 2. The researchers found that kids who were exposed to more animal feces, and who had more diarrhea before they turned 2, tended in their early 20s to have lower levels of C-reactive protein, a key marker of inflammation. This could mean that they had less of the chronic inflammation associated with a host of ills, from rheumatoid arthritis to heart disease, and thus better immune regulation, says anthropologist Thom McDade of Northwestern University, who led the work.

Bugs and viruses that go for the gut also turn up in studies that show lower risk of allergic conditions and asthma. Helicobacter pylori is a bacterium that lives in the stomach lining of as many as half the world’s people, often without symptoms, though it’s also associated with ulcers. In one paper, preschoolers who tested positive for H. pylori were less likely to suffer from the itchy skin disorder atopic eczema, a hypersensitivity reaction similar to an allergy. In another, H. pylori colonization was linked to a lower risk of childhood asthma.

Hepatitis A, a virus transmitted by contaminated food and water, seems to bolster immune training, too: Kids with a certain common gene variant who had been exposed to hepatitis A appeared to be less likely to suffer from a range of allergic disorders, according to this review by Graham Rook at University College London. (Hepatitis A seems to do this by tweaking the balance of different immune cell types.)

The silver lining of protection against later asthma or allergic conditions is harder to spot for respiratory infections. Papers that sort through the evidence generally find scant evidence that runny noses and sore throats help kids stay healthy later. In fact, children hospitalized for severe respiratory syncytial virus or bronchiolitis may be more likely to develop asthma later on according to Anne Wright of the Arizona Respiratory Center. The flu, too, might spur asthma’s development. And early bronchitis or frequent common colds seemed not to lower the risk of atopic eczema— bronchitis, in fact, seemed to increase it. The theme here seems to be: Ingest; don’t inhale.

All of this makes some sense in evolutionary terms. Some of today’s bugs and viruses have colonized and infected our ancestors, including other mammals, since way back when. In certain cases, we might have evolved in response to their presence. And so these organisms may now help to establish or maintain an aspect of our normal immune regulation. Respiratory viruses probably didn’t play this role, Rook says, because they were sporadic and transient, present in some groups of humans but not others. Viral infections like measles, mumps, rubella, or chickenpox probably didn’t either, for the same reasons. But pathogens like H. pylori and hepatitis A that infect the gut and are thought to be very old make sense as regulators of immune development. So do microbes found in mud, soil, and rotting vegetation. And so do little worms called helminths.

Note, however, that this is maddeningly hard research to do. Scientists must figure out which critters to pay attention to and then untangle how exactly these organisms interact with the immune system. And they must sort through other factors that probably affect how a child responds to the germy stew of life—like how old he is when exposed, what other infections have already occurred, and what his genetic predispositions are.

And so we’re not likely anytime soon to have anything like a lesson plan for boosting your child’s immune system by, say, exposing him to H. pylori at 1 month and parasitic worms at 3 months (especially given the risks of deliberate infection). But what we do know helps explain why that hour in the garden or cuddle with the dog is probably all for the good.

Since the summer season is upon us, I thought I would post some tips & prevention methods on how to avoid ticks and mosquitoes. These tips were taken (and edited!) from the EPA’s website; if you want to learn more (probably more than you’d ever want to know about pests), go to, http://www.epa.gov/

TICKS
Checking for ticks and prompt removal of attached ticks is probably the most important and effective method of preventing infection.

Behavior & Risk of Exposure

• Nymphal blacklegged ticks are very small (about the size of a pinhead), difficult to spot
• Are active during the late spring and summer months
• The majority (about 75%) of Lyme disease cases are associated with activities (play, yard or garden work) around the home.
• Ticks do not jump or drop from trees, but grasp passing hosts from the leaf litter, tips of grass, etc.
• Most ticks are probably picked up on the lower legs and then crawl up the body seeking a place to feed.
• Pets can bring ticks into the home, resulting in a tick bite without the person being outdoors.

MOSQUITOES

• Remove mosquito habitats
• Eliminate standing water in rain gutters, old tires, buckets, plastic covers, toys, or any other container where mosquitoes can breed.
• Empty and change the water in bird baths, fountains, wading pools, rain barrels, and potted plant trays at least once a week to destroy potential mosquito habitats.
• Drain or fill temporary pools of water with dirt.
• Keep swimming pool water treated and circulating.
• Keep mosquitoes away from exposed skin by wearing long-sleeved shirts, long pants, and socks.
• Tuck shirts into pants and pants into socks to cover gaps in your clothing where mosquitoes can get to your skin.
• Stay indoors at sunrise, sunset, and early in the evening when mosquitoes are most active.

Ingredients:

• 1½ c. watermelon, 1″ cubes
• 1½ c. cantaloupe, 1″ cubes
• ½ c. chopped cucumber (peeled and seeded, ½” dice)
• 1 c. nonfat vanilla yogurt
• 2 c. ice cubes
• fresh lime

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
2. Pour into glasses and garnish with a squeeze of fresh lime juice.

Makes: 2 16-oz. servings

Serving size: 16 oz.

Nutritional analysis (per serving):
173 calories
7 g protein
0.5 g fat
35 g carbohydrate
2 g fiber
3 mg cholesterol
109 mg sodium
213 mg calcium
1 mg iron
34 mcg folic acid

Note:  analysis may vary depending on ingredient brands used.

Why this recipe is good for pregnant or breastfeeding women:
This recipe is an excellent source of vitamin A, vitamin C, and calcium, which are important nutrients for women during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

This is a great recipe for pregnant women, but it would be good for anyone looking for a nice cool drink on a hot day!

Crackerjack’s Underpants wants to announce that we are now on Diaper Pin.  You can find us in the directory along with other cloth diaper and mama care businesses.  All the businesses on Diaper Pin are WAHM businesses, so please support those of us who choose to stay at home with our babies.  If you are looking for anything baby related, this is the first stop you should make!

In other Crackerjack’s news- we will not be having any cloth diaper seminars during the summer.  We want to encourage families to spend time enjoying each other and the great outdoors.  We will resume cloth diaper seminars in the early fall.  Look for a posting sometime around late August or early September.  Enjoy your summer, we intend to!

For those of you looking for GroVia AIO’s and Bio-soakers…. We have been told we can order the end of June.  Crackerjack’s plans on getting the products out on the website ASAP after we get them in our hands.  Please be patient, we are trying to be too!

Thanks to everyone for supporting Crackerjack’s Underpants as we grow!

Freedom

Ok- so everyone has seen the disposable swim diapers at the store, right?  Well have you ever used one?  The one and only time I used one on my daughter I was mortified!  After she had been in the pool with me for about 5 mins., I noticed that she was starting to gain weight.  I swear that disposable swim diaper gained 20lbs!!!

Kushies Unisex swim diaper

Now in case you were not aware- the swim diaper is NOT supposed to contain or absorb water!  The purpose of a swim diaper is to contain solid messes, I mean who wants to swim with poop, right?  Most cloth swim diapers have excellent leg gussets to contain “messes” and they don’t take on water.

Kushies swim diapers come in 2 styles- unisex which is just a bottom or girly which has an attached top.  They both close with velcro and have the added security of being tied closed (so you don’t get a streaker at the beach or pool).  These come in a variety of super cute patterns or solid colors- so no more boring white! 

The real bonus here is the cost.  A pack of disposable swim diapers costs about $10 and you get around 12 of them.  Now if you are in the water much at all, you find that you will go thru that pack of disposables very quickly, then you have to go to the store to buy more.  With cloth swim diapers you make one purchase for about $11 or $13 (depending on style) and then you don’t have to buy again!

Kushies Girl swim diaper

Come on try a cloth swim diaper, I know you will not be disappointed!  They are so cute you might want to buy more than one.  My daughter had 3 because I could choose just one!

You can find Kushies swim diapers at Crackerjack’s Underpants

Most parents understand that using sun block is important and they try their best to avoid letting their kids get sunburned. Unfortunately, no matter how careful they are, they are sometimes left with a sunburned child or a child with a deep, dark tan.

Avoiding common mistakes that parents make when using sun block can help you avoid painful sunburns. These mistakes include:

1. Not using sun block. This is especially common early in the spring or summer, when you don’t think it is sunny enough to get a burn.  Parents also sometimes forget to use sunscreen when it is late in the day, when they underestimate how long their kids will be outside, or when it is cloudy outside.
2. Not using enough sun block. The average person uses less than half the recommended amount of sun block when they do apply it on their kids. So apply a thick layer to each section of your child’s body, to the point that it is actually hard to work it all in.
3. Missing areas of their child’s body when they apply sun block. Many kids, especially younger ones, don’t like to have sun block put on them. This can make applying sun block quite the battle, making it easy to miss a shoulder, thigh, or nose.
4. Not reapplying sun block every few hours, especially when your kids are in the water or sweating a lot. Even sun block that is waterproof should be reapplied often.
5. Waiting too long to put sun block on. Remember, to be effective, sun block should be applied about 30 minutes before your kids go outside. If you wait until your kids are already outside, they will be unprotected for about 30 minutes until the sun block is most effective, which is more than enough time to get a tan or sun burn.
6. Letting their kids play outside when the sun is strongest, between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm.
7. Not providing kids with shade. To avoid the sun and help keep kids from getting overheated, some shade can be helpful.

 Sun Safety Basics

In addition to using a thick layer of sun block with an SPF of 15 or higher once your child is 6 months old (keeping younger kids out of the sun), you should be sure to apply it about 30 minutes before your kids will be out in the sun and reapply it every few hours or even more often if your kids are swimming.

A hat, sunglasses, and loose fitting, full-length clothing can also help protect your kids from the harmful effects of the sun.