KidletNation

Unique toys, books, music, and clothing for babies, children and their parents.

Update on Baby Shoe Purchasing

August 18th, 2011 Posted in clothes, safety, shopping
Aug, 18 2011
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On the subject of buying toddler shoes, and whether new is smarter than buying used I heard back from one person. Her perspective was that you shouldn’t buy used because the shoe will have been worn in to the shape of the previous owner. I guess this makes sense at some level, but on the other hand I wouldn’t have thought that a baby or toddler would be walking enough, or with enough pressure to wear a shoe down that much. Especially in our scenario where our little guy isn’t walking yet and so would do very little wear on his boots and shoes.

Any thoughts from others?

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Baby Sunscreen. Here Comes The Sun.

August 8th, 2011 Posted in safety
Aug, 08 2011
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So after a pretty dreary spring and early summer the sun has arrived and it’s arrived with a vengeance. The sun rises early and chases away the clouds on a daily basis, beating down on the poor folks who forgot to apply sunscreen before they left for the day… but not our son.

After trying a few different baby sunscreen options we’ve settled on Aveeno Baby Sunscreen, and specifically the Aveeno Baby Sunblock SPF-55.

Why the Aveeno Baby? Well, I won’t say its the best as we only tried a couple before we settled on this one so there may well be others that are as good or better, but the Aveeno sunblock seems to meet our needs.

  • It has a very light, unobtrusive smell.
  • It goes on easily and isn’t sticky or greasy
  • It is easy to apply and doesn’t leave our little guy streaked with white
  • It is reasonably priced

Believe me, easy to apply and not greasy are KEY. Once you start to apply the sunscreen if your baby is anything like ours they’ll have little patience as you rub it on. Further, the greasier it is the harder it will be to contain your child, and so the harder it will be to finish applying the sunscreen :)

I’ll also mention that my sister in law highly recommends Badger Baby Sunscreen though we’ve never tried it. For now I think we’ll stick with Aveeno if for no other reason that the Aveeno Baby is SPF 55 while the Badger Baby sunscreen appears to be SPF 30-35.

Anyway, hoping this will help some folks looking for options where the products they’ve tried to date haven’t met their needs. Good luck!

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Baby and infant life jackets and PFDs revisited

May 31st, 2011 Posted in clothes, safety, shopping, travel
May, 31 2011
1 Comment »

A while back I wrote a short post about our purchase of a baby PFD / life jacket (what is the difference between a PFD and a life jacket anyway… I can never remember) and my frustation at finding an appropriate size. Let it be known that the sizing, being based on weight is misleading. Our son ‘fit’ his life jacket, but I would be hard pressed to say that he was comfortable in it. Understand however that the Mustang Survival jacket we purchased was the only one we could find that would fit someone of his weight at the time. The jacket in my opinion was meant for a child of the quoted weight, but someone of greater age. The combination of heavy / chubby baby and small life jacket was a questionable one. The one forgiving factor that allowed it to work? Apparently the rocking and white noise of the boat was enough to rock him to sleep on each of his first 5 trips on the water… allowing him to forgive the discomfort of the life jacket.

To recall, the jacket we landed on was the Mustang Survival Lil’ Legends Child’s Life jacket

My takeaway? If you’re looking for the safety of a PFD or life jacket for a baby well under a year you may end up trading comfort for that security. Further, few jackets appear to be specifically made for an infant of that age, so you’ll have to make due with what you can find , and what your son or daughter will tolerate when on the boat.

Finally, welcome the noise of the engines and the motion of the ocean. If you’re as lucky as we were the two combined will have your child asleep in no time and the questionable fit will be a non issue.

Now, once they hit 8 months or so, at least in my experience their willingness to give in to sleep decreases markedly. Gone are the days of quiet sleep while the boats makes the 45 minute trip from dock to dock. Instead fidgiting is the name of the game.

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Baby clothes sizes continue to confound me (in this case baby life jackets and baby PFDs)

October 4th, 2010 Posted in clothes, safety, security, shopping, travel
Oct, 04 2010
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Click here to review some Children’s Life Jackets as well as Children’s PFDs.
We ultimately purchased a Mustang Survival Child’s Life jacket, though being in Canada we purchased from a local retailer since Amazon doesn’t offer to ship this product to Vancouver.

This weekend we left for a few days at the cabin which involves a short drive to a local harbor followed by a not-so-short water taxi ride from the mainland to the cabin. The Kidlet is presently about 3 months old and a robust 16-17 lbs based on last visit to the doctor. Now, prior to the trip I did a bit of research to find out where I could find a baby life jacket and guess what? All the information I could track down pointed to life jackets not being certified for children under 20 lbs (or was it 30? It’s too much work to find the page again on the crappy Canadian Government maze of websites) which suggested we shouldn’t worry about it. That seemed like a bad idea, so we went ahead and purchased the smallest approved PFD we could find (and yes it was a PFD and not a life jacket, and yes I did read that life jackets do a better job or keeping the wearer oriented upright).

PFD and life jackets / life preservers for babies and infants are available to purchase Anyhow, we got to the boat, got aboard with the Kidlet in his Baby Bjorn and then proceeded to remove him from the Bjorn and put on the PFD. I’ll say this again, the Kidlet is no more than 20 lbs and the jacket we purchased is for children between 20 and 30 lbs. It was ridiculous. He looked like he was going to tear that thing apart. When we zipped it up to the top it looked like his jowls were going to spill over the neckline.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Baby sizing is ridiculous. At best it represents a near estimate of whether or not your baby will be able to wear the clothing. Why don’t they include dimensions as many adult clothing makers do as well in order to address the wide range of baby sizes out there? The PFD we purchased was for children up to 30 lbs or, apparently, chubby babies up to 17 lbs.

I would love to know how many tons of baby clothes are purchased and never worn each year simply because parents have no way other than ages ‘sizing’ and in some cases weight ‘sizing’ on which to base their purchase decision?

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Traveling with an infant on Westjet? You’ll be just fine. Hints for traveling by air with infants.

September 12th, 2010 Posted in security, travel
Sep, 12 2010
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So we spent the last week on the other side of the country and we flew WestJet for this particular trip. This was our first trip with the little guy, and definitely the first time on a plane so we weren’t really sure what to expect. We spoke with friends about what advice they had for us based on their experience of traveling by air with babies and young children and the advice was good. Most of it we put into practice and I’ll outline that here for anyone who might benefit.

Before I get to the list let me say that the WestJet crew was great with us and made the trip as easy as it could have been. All were eager to help out, but us time when changing etc and generally making sure we were comfortable, aware of policies (in a friendly way) and happy.

    My takeaways from this trip:

  • Borrow as much as you possibly can. We arranged a ride to the airport with a friend who had a suitable car seat in his vehicle. On the other end we were able to arrange a loan of a car seat for use while in town. This saved us lugging a bulky car seat through the airport and worse, risking damage as it was stowed in the hold.
  • Wear your carrier. Keeping junior in the Bjorn while moving through the airport is huge. It frees up hands to do other things, as well as keeps him calm despite all the distractions and noises around him. Note that while the Bjorn was great for moving through the airport and getting on and off the plane it was not permitted during flight. More accurately it was not permitted during takeoff, landing or when the seat belt sign was on which means it really wasn’t practical during the flight. Note that I’ve heard some people get lucky and so were able to keep their child in the Bjorn for the duration of the flight, but based on our experience you shouldn’t count on it.
  • Bring a nursing pillow. My wife brought her nursing pillow as carry-on despite its size and it was well worth it. Given that the Bjorn was not allowed through the flight the nursing pillow provided a comfortable surface for our baby to sleep (we did not purchase a third seat), not to mention made things more comfortable for the person holding him the most.
  • Bring a changing pad. The washrooms do have a changing surface for your baby, but I question how clean those washrooms are. We had a properly sized changing pad that fit perfectly on the changing table in the plane restroom, and which also made the time more comfortable for our son.
  • Sit near the back and ask for window and aisle. The largest restroom on our plane was at the back, and additionally most people tend to avoid the back row of the plane. Sitting there with your baby will get you closer to the restroom when needed, limiting the need to guess when the line will be short. Additionally booking the two outside seats will mean that virtually every other available seat on the plane is more desirable than the one you’re guarding – the middle seat in the back row which doesn’t recline. Since you won’t be sleeping you won’t miss the ability to recline. We tried this strategy and it worked like a charm. We ended up with the middle seat open and the extra space was quite helpful.
  • Use the soother on takeoff. Pressurization is a problem especially if the little one is congested. If you can get him working the soother on takeoff and landing it should help limit the discomfort.

I’ll edit this post as I remember additional items that may be helpful, but at minimum I hope the items above prove helpful to some.

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Don’t have a kid to prank? No problem, this is what you do.

August 26th, 2010 Posted in security
Aug, 26 2010
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While I do find this hilarious I expect that it would end badly for all concerned. Or awesomely.

How to prank a babysitter when you don't have any kids

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Here Come The Kids…

August 16th, 2010 Posted in safety, security, shopping
Aug, 16 2010
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Sorry for the pause in posting, but we just welcomed a new addition to the family… and this one’s been a long time coming. As such the posts are going to have quite a bit of ‘new dad skew’ to them and for that I’m not making any apologies. Before it was all about posting things I found when I was researching gifts for OTHER peoples’ kids, but now that its for my own unfortunately the price of items is likely to fall, thereby bringing them into reach.

I’ll be kicking things off shortly… likely with some notes about life jackets for infants since we have an infant now and a pending need for a PFD as we plan to visit on the Gulf Islands

Cheers.

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Serious Post. Update Flash ASAP

November 10th, 2008 Posted in security
Nov, 10 2008
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Sorry for the lack of updates this weekend… no excuse.

What I do have is a plea for any readers to update Flash in all browsers on your machine. A pretty nasty exploit has been published in the past few days that takes advantage of browser weaknesses (nope, using FireFox instead of IE won’t help you here) as well as all previous versions of Flash installed on those browsers.

While there aren’t any browser fixes at this time, Adobe has patched the Flash issue in their most recent Flash update so head over to Adobe and make sure you have the most recent version asap.

The Adobe update page is here – don’t forget to uncheck the shady auto-opt-in toolbar download before you install.

For anyone interested in geeking out over the specifics of the exploit you can find it explained here

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Recalled Toys, Games And Other Children’s Items

October 23rd, 2008 Posted in recalls
Oct, 23 2008
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Warning photo: Keep up to date with children's product recalls to ensure that you kids are not playing with dangerour or otherwise recalled items.

It’s that time again. Time to list the toys, games, furniture and other miscellaneous items sold under the pretense of being fun for your kids, when in fact they pose serious risk. Recall time.

This post we have:
Speed Boats by Dollar General: burn hazard

Playset Gliders by Backyard Play Systems: fall hazard

Science Kit Bar Magnets by Home Science Tools: lead hazard

Baby Walkers by My Way: fall hazard

Convertible Cribs by Playkids USA: suffocation hazard

Drop Side Cribs by Delta Enterprise: entrapment and suffocation hazard

Rage Wireless Gaming Guitar by Performance Designed Products: chemical burn risk

Girls Sandals by Rack Room Shoes: choking hazard

Didj Custom Gaming System Rechargeable Batteries by Leapfrog Enterprises: burn hazard

Be sure to keep up with recent recalls to ensure your children continue to play safely.

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Recalled Toys, Games And Other Children’s Items For This Week

October 9th, 2008 Posted in recalls
Oct, 09 2008
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Child related product recalls. If you have kids you should be keenly aware of these recalls. Lead paint, fire, pinch, choking and other hazards can be avoided.

Check me out… I actually remembered to put another recalled toy post up this week. I was surprised that people seemed interested in last weeks, so I guess there’s some value here. It didn’t hurt that Popular Baby Products also linked to last week’s post (thanks again for that!).

Anyway, the string continues with a series of items recalled that could pose a risk to your little ones. Here are a few that have been brought to my attention:

US Recalls
TCB Imports Toy Police Cars – lead paint hazard
LTD Commodities Wood Abacus – choking hazard

Canadian Recalls
Hasbro Nerf N-Strike Recon Blasters – physical injury while firing the toy

Note, I’m not suggesting this is all recent recalls… but if you have one of these items you should follow the links to the relevant government websites for more information.

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