Johnson's Safety Swabs

We've been extremely lucky in that we've NEVER had to take Baba G's temperature in eight full months. (I hope I didn't just jinx myself.) This had been something I was especially freaked out about, because I knew that "the right way" to take a baby's temperature was rectally. And, for obvious reasons, that was something I was really hoping I wouldn't have to put BG through.

BUT I was prepared to if need be, and had found a thermometer that has a rounded shape so that, to put it bluntly, it's impossible for you to stick it in too far.

Then I learned that there were special baby q-tips made for the exact same reason.

Now, I know you're not supposed to be sticking q-tips deep in anyone's ear, let alone a baby's, in the first place. But if there's a better way to clean out ear wax than gently using a swab around the visible part of the canal, no one's told me about it. So Johnson's Safety Swabs it is.

These things rock. They're not just a scam to get you to buy something that's labeled "BABY," like so many other countless products are—humidifiers, vaporizers, etc., come to mind. How are the baby versions any different from a normal humidifier/vaporizer/etc.? I'll tell you: they're more expensive! They think we're suckers.

Anyway, as you can see below, the safety swabs are shaped differently from a normal Q-tip, and they're great for just getting out really obvious gunk that's built up. I use them on Baba G at least every other day for the past few months (I didn't start using them until he was probably four or five months old—was too scared, plus I hadn't seen any wax).

He seems to actually like the feel of them, and I've never been worried about him making a sudden move and me jamming one in too far.

The bottom line: Johnson's Safety Swabs run from about $1.50 - $2.50 per box of 55. In my book, increased peace of mind about not hurting your kid's ears is definitely worth that small expense. I personally have not seen another brand of safety swabs, though I'm sure Johnson & Johnson's isn't the only company in the game.

All Things Reconsidered: Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing"

Part of the reason I haven't posted in a while is because I've been swamped with client work. But part of the reason is because I was trying to come up with a semi-clever title for yet another regular column that has nothing to do with baby products. (Sorry, I'm lame like that.) This new column was inspired by all of the things I've seen in a different light since Baba G arrived. Things that I just didn't "get" before now, or feelings I've had about certain issues that only intensified after having a baby.

But today let's start off with something that's not TOO deep, m'kay? Let's kick this thing off with a rock ballad of the sappiest sort: Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing." (Which, I learned while doing research for this post, is one of only three songs nominated for both an Oscar and a Golden Raspberry. Nice!)

I was NEVER a fan of this song, despite liking most of Aerosmith's other popular singles. Maybe it's because that scene it played in during Armageddon annoyed me. Or maybe it's because I've just never liked many slow love songs in general. Either way, I didn't think much of "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" until my husband—after listening to its lullaby version over and over again these past few months—became CONVINCED that it's actually not a romantic-love song, but rather a parent-child love song, specifically about holding a sleeping baby.

WITNESS THESE LYRICS:

I could stay awake just to hear you breathing
Watch you smile while you are sleeping
While you're far away and dreaming
I could spend my life in this sweet surrender
I could stay lost in this moment forever
Where every moment spent with you is a moment I treasure

---

Lying close to you feeling your heart beating
And I'm wondering what you're dreaming
Wondering if it's me you're seeing
Then I kiss your eyes
And thank God we're together
I just want to stay with you in this moment forever
Forever and ever

---

I don't want to miss one smile
I don't want to miss one kiss
I just want to be with you
Right here with you, just like this
I just want to hold you close
Feel your heart so close to mine
And just stay here in this moment
For all the rest of time

---

It makes you think twice, doesn't it?

So I did some investigating, and it turns out that this song was written by Diane Warren. "A woman!" I thought. "Yep, it's definitely about a baby."

However, this Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe nominated songwriter never had any children. Hmm. I'm not saying someone can't write a song about something they might not have experienced (maybe she had nieces or nephews or was really close to friends' kids or something?), but it threw my husband's theory in doubt.

A quick Google search came up with a few articles that claim Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler has  said that the reason the band recorded the song (which was fairly different from everything else they'd done until that point) was because he regretted not being in his daughter Liv's life when she was younger. So maybe he, too, saw something in the lyrics beyond a traditional love song. We'll never know.

But I'm certainly never going to think about anything except snuggling with Baba G whenever I hear that song from here on out.

The Nuby Grip N' Sip Cup

The full, official name of this product is the Nûby No-Spill™ Super Spout™ Grip N' Sip™.

The day I bought it, however, it was the I-didn't-get-off-my-butt-and-buy-my-kid-a-training-cup-and-he's-supposed-to-be-drinking-water-now-and-this-is-all-they-had-at-Walgreens Cup™. But make no mistake, I do actually like it.

I was getting waaaaay too stressed out about which sort of training cup to buy Baba G when he began the transition to solid foods. Our pediatrician said to start giving him a little bit of water out of a cup during those feedings, just to get him used to the concept of drinking from something other than a bottle. I figured a cup that had a soft silicone spout would help bridge the gap. And then it was like I became so overwhelmed and confused by all of the options I saw online that it finally got to the point where I said "Screw it" and bought the best option I could find at my corner drugstore.

So that's how we ended up with the Nûby cup. It has worked well and BG took to it right from the start. We've used it for about a month now, and while I still have to hold it for him in order for him to actually drink out of it, he is getting better with figuring it out on his own.

Nothin' to it.

Though he still likes to goof off with it.

Look, Ma, no hands!

The bottom line: There are literally 5 bazillion types of training cups, and I think Nûby alone makes about 1 billion of them. The kind we bought (I am NOT typing out its long-ass official name again) was about $6 and serves its purpose. Baba wasn't thrown by it at all when I first attempted to give him water from it.

What I don't like is its awkward-to-screw-on top with those huge handles that come down on both sides. It won't leak if you screw the cap on correctly, but doing so is hard because its handles get in the way. I also wish it had come with a cap so that we could take it outside of our condo without fear of getting the spout dirty.

Does anyone else kinda see EVE from Wall-E?

But guess what? One of the 1 billion types of cups Nûby makes solved both of those problems! The handles come from the stationary bottom, and there's a cap included as well.

You guys are on your own trying to figure out the official name of this one, though. Sorry.

In Search Of: An Even Better Bib

When Baba G was a newborn, I couldn't figure out what to do with the multitude of bibs he received. He wasn't going to be eating anything for a while, so what was the point of teeny-tiny bibs? Why did we get so many?

Now I blame my lack of connecting all of BG's spit-up episodes in the early months with THE ENTIRE POINT OF A BIB.

As you may recall, I was using these (admittedly awesome) burp cloths to deal with dribbles and whatnot. I'd stuff one under BG's chin while he was taking a bottle or use one to wipe up messes after the fact. I didn't realize that I could've avoided changing BG's outfits, oh, say, 100 TIMES PER DAY if perhaps I'd thought to have a bib on him at any and all times when he wasn't sleeping.

I did eventually come to my senses and started putting bibs on him to help preserve his outfits during and after feedings. But it wasn't until he started "solid" foods that I fully came to appreciate the wonder of a decent bib.

Some of my favorites are made of a terry cloth material, like this one (which snaps in back):

BG's very first solid-food experience. Totally clean and contained.

But then BG's Great Aunt Terry sent along two of these huge, over-the-head terry cloth bibs by First Impressions, and I was hooked. So many bibs itched BG in the back because of Velcro fasteners (which wash horribly) or otherwise weren't snug enough under his chin... defeating the entire purpose.

My bib may rock, but home-made sweet potatoes leave much to be desired

I mean, look at how much bigger the First Impression bib is when compared to newborn and other "normal" infant bib sizes:

Size does matter.

I was also pretty intrigued by plastic bibs from Crocodile Creek. These wiped down quickly and easily, but alas, they had Velcro in the back.

Yes, he is eating peas. And yes, that's a "first tumble" scar on his nose!

So here's what I'm In Search Of: a bib that has soft terry cloth material around the neck and that you put on over-the-head like the First Impression bibs... but then the rest of the bib is made of easy-to-wipe-down plastic like the Crocodile Creek bib.

Does a bib like this exist?

What other bib inventions are out there that I'm missing?

(Unfortunately I couldn't find where to purchase First Impression bibs like the ones BG was given, hence the lack of a link for those.)

The mamaRoo

True story: when I was a kid, I used to claim to be from the planet "Egg-a-tron." I can only assume my imagination had been inspired by one of my favorite shows at the time, Mork & Mindy, in which Robin Williams played an alien who came to Earth in an egg-like spacecraft. Yeah, I was weird. Still am.

ANYWAY, at my baby shower I overheard a few friends talking about this "futuristic egg-looking seat" that was new on the scene, and so of course my curiosity was piqued. But then I forgot about it...

...Until that very same egg-like contraption was gifted to us by a generous couple whose kids couldn't get enough of it when they were babies. And that's when I found out that this thing is called a mamaRoo. (And seriously, what IS IT with all the weird capitalization and spelling of baby products? It's driving me insane.)

Its point is to simulate the motions YOU make when you carry your kid... or that a car ride would make, and so on. I forgot which setting I had it on in the video below (there are 5 settings: car ride, tree swing, ocean wave, rock a bye and kangaroo), but you'll get the point—and quite frankly, I never really thought Baba preferred one setting to another, anyway.

Adventure BanZ Baby Sunglasses

Since today's holiday (Labor Day, for those outside the US and Canada) has come to signal the end of summer, I thought I should write about a particularly summery product: baby sunglasses.

For us, these ended up coming in handy for a reason that's totally unconnected to the season (that kind of rhymed). Baba G had an eye exam where he had to get his pupils dilated... and they freakishly stayed that way for nearly two days. Since he goes on a multi-hour stroller walk each afternoon, the sunglasses were key. But otherwise you'd want them so that your kid can play the role of a bad-ass, like so:

Don't front.

I had no intention of buying BG sunglasses, but got sucked into it when purchasing his wide-brimmed hat. That damn Amazon and its "recommendations." People seemed to like the Adventure BanZ brand (don't get me started on that z... or the fact that it's capitalized. Reminds me of this classic Ben Stiller/MTV sketch from '98 (2:55 mark, and wow, do I feel old now)).

But ANYWAY, we got the glasses at the same time we bought the hat, and when put together they put BG in full adventurer mode.

Give me my own show on Animal Planet, already.

The bottom line: I would assume baby sunglasses are nice to have when your kid needs to spend time in the sun and a wide-brimmed hat isn't enough (or isn't practical at the moment). They're definitely great for when your kid has an eye exam and has to stay out of brightly lit areas. The Adventure BanZ glasses have a wide, soft-elastic band which keeps them in place. But the reality is that we've only put these glasses on BG a few times in 7.5 months. When he has his daily stroller walk, he's already shielded from the sun thanks to both his hat and the sun shield that flips down on his stroller (which usually makes even the hat unnecessary).

It might just be that we aren't as outdoorsy as others who could find more use for kiddie sunglasses. Maybe if you went to the beach a lot they'd be indispensable. But that's not the case for us.

Does any else have baby sunglasses and actually use them?

MAM and Nuby Teethers

A huge thanks to everyone who gave me video-monitor advice. I'll let you know what we end up doing.

Today I'm going to talk once again about the joy that is teething.

This misleading picture makes it seem like he's HAPPY about teething. That is not the case.

My pediatrician was like, "He's going to be teething until he's two..." so she wasn't a big fan of relying on numbing gels or meds for that long (as previously mentioned in my Sophie the Giraffe post). And I didn't want to either. We've gotten through 7 months without any sort of Baby Tylenol, and I want to keep that streak going for as long as possible.

I'm writing about teethers again because Baba got his first tooth at 4.5 months... and now he's got 4 (the top-center 2 and the bottom-center 2), and therefore the drooling doesn't stop. Nor does his constant search for crap to stick in his mouth to make things feel better.

In addition to Sophie, I'd had this Nuby "IcyBite" key-ring teether

and this MAM "cooler"

for a while and was always just putting them in a little bowl in the fridge. Baba really dug them... for like 10 minutes. Then he would lose interest. But last night I tried putting them in the freezer in order for the water/liquid in them to, you know, FREEZE.

I am aware that many teethers are not meant for the freezer. Maybe these ones aren't, either (packaging is long gone and I couldn't find out online), but I tested them out on myself to be safe (as well as I could without exposed gums...), and honestly do believe that they're pretty much made to be frozen. At least the MAM one is, for sure.

So after suffering through about an hour of extreme fussiness before bedtime last night, I remembered I had the MAM thing in the freezer. I gave it to him, and it was like a damn miracle. IMMEDIATE change in attitude. This picture was taken long after the usual ten-minute disinterest mark.

I can't get no satisfaction... until now.

I wish I could've gotten a video, because BG was moving this thing all around to every corner of his mouth and switching between the three prongs. He was gnawing it like there was no tomorrow. He loved it. I can't believe I hadn't been freezing it this whole time.

The bottom line: Fellow parents, learn from my mistake. Rely on a freezable teether when your little guy or gal gets cranky. I was able to find both the Nuby IcyBite key ring (which he also LOVES... and which lasts longer since there are more "cold parts") and the MAM cooler at my local CVS and Walgreens, and they're both cheap ($6). The MAM one is designed to help infants reach their back teeth, and I do believe it works. Both products are BPA-free and all that good stuff, too.

You know what's even quicker, easier, and cheaper? Putting a small, wet washcloth in the freezer and then letting your kiddie chew on that. I haven't yet tried this with Baba G, but I know his daddy used to love to chew on cold cloths when he was a baby, and BG does seem drawn to wet washcloths when I wipe him down after a meal. So I'll have to try my own advice soon!

Any other teething tricks I need to know about?

- e