There have been 12 reports of a hinge on the stroller that amputated children’s fingertips.  At least that’s what I read.  Sounds horrifying eh?  Apparently the fix is just a simple hinge cap that Maclaren will send out to stroller owners.

This sounds very similar to the hinge cap that Phil and Ted’s issued with their Sport Buggy v1 recall after they had complaints people were gettings their fingers stuck in the hinge.  Of course then we didn’t hear the word amputated.

Does this mean you should worry if you have a Maclaren?  Apparently when the recall is public this Tuesday you should stop using your stroller.  Should you really?  That depends on your comfort level but in either case I would be very careful not to leave it out where your children can play with it as that seems to be the real risk.  Once the recall is public Maclaren should have a hotline and website form to request the cap for the hinge. Of course do this as soon as possible and don’t forget to actually install it on your stroller when it arrives.

My guess is that the words “safety recall” can sound a whole lot more ominous and worrisome than they should be to most parents.  All of this does serve as a great reminder though that strollers are not good playtoys for toddlers or young children. There are too many hinges, clasps and parts where little fingers can get stuck.

10 TIPS FOR RAISING A SUCCESSFUL EATER

Parents often want to know how to raise a “healthy” eater, usually referring to what foods their children are eating. I prefer the term “successful” eater because I believe it captures a broader perspective including not only what, but also how, children eat. Because the term “successful eater” is not commonly used, I will describe what I mean.

What does a “successful eater” look like? A successful eater is someone who likes eating and feels good about it. A successful eater is interested in food and likes a variety of foods. A successful eater enjoys being at the table and has fairly decent table manners – most of the time, at least. A successful eater knows when they are full or hungry based upon their own internal cues. A successful eater will try some new foods and will politely refuse
foods that he or she doesn’t want to eat. A successful eater can make do with less than favorite foods and can eat in places other than home.

It’s important to raise successful eaters for a number of reasons. First, variety in diet is important for children’s (and adults’) health and nutrition. Second, learning to recognize internal cues of hunger and fullness is important in maintaining healthy weight. And finally, learning how to tolerate less than favorite foods and learning appropriate behaviors related to food are important in the development of positive social skills.

You may be asking yourself, how do I get one of these successful eaters? What can I do to raise one? Here are some tips:

1. Have family meals. If you can only do one thing, I would argue that this is the most important. Research has shown that children who eat meals regularly with their families develop better eating habits, do better at school, and are also at lower risk for obesity, substance abuse, and disordered eating.

2. Serve meals family style. Allow your children to serve themselves from all the food you put out on the family table.

3. Always include one or two foods with meals that you know your child usually likes. Avoid catering to your children and only preparing foods that they request, but always make sure that there’s something, even if it’s just bread, on the table that they will eat.

4. Don’t introduce too many new foods at once. Try to pair new, unfamiliar foods with familiar foods.

5. Maintain a positive social and emotional environment at the table. If your child’s eating is an issue, don’t make it the focus of mealtime conversation.

6. Understand the typical development of eating and progression of food
acceptance. Know that it is normal for toddlers and preschoolers to be somewhat finicky, to take many times to learn to like a new food, and to vary from day to day in how much they eat and what they eat.

7. Be a good eating role model yourself. Look at your own eating behaviors and diet and examine any unintended messages your behaviors may be sending to your child. What you do matters more than what you say!

8. Understand the division of responsibility in feeding. Familiarize yourself with Ellyn Satter’s classic work, stating that parents are responsible for the what, when, and where of feeding, while children are responsible for whether and how much.

9. Relax about individual meals. Your child’s health is not determined by the nutritional value of a single meal. Look at patterns in food intake over a longer period of time than one meal – more like a week’s worth of meals.

10. Have patience. Raising a successful eater takes time. There will be ups and downs along the way, but stick with it, don’t give up, and have faith!

Kathleen Cuneo, Ph.D. is a psychologist and the director of Dinner Together, LLC, (www.dinnertogether.com) which provides consultations to families on how to raise successful eaters and to organize successful family meals.  Dr. Cuneo also offers coaching to parents who are seeking help in raising healthy, confident, well-adjusted kids.  Sign up for a free newsletter at www.dinnertogether.com and follow www.dinnertogether.blogspot.com for recipes, cooking tips, and ideas for making mealtimes positive.

We’ve been stocking the Baby Jogger City Double Carseat Adaptor for a few weeks now and the feedback is in and it’s not that positive.

Does it hold a carseat securely? Yes definitely? WIll your stroller be tippy with it on? No. However, we found it really difficult to attach to both the City Elite Double and the City Mini Double strollers. We had two staffers struggling to put it on and this was with directions and Baby Jogger customer service on the phone!

Once we finally got it on (which took a good 20 minutes. . . and we are USED to putting on lots of attachments), it felt so cumbersome. It stuck out really far from the stroller so that if we folded our stroller with it attached, it took the superb compact Baby Jogger fold and turned it into a monster big fold.

Can you take it off to fold? Not really. Even with practice, this puppy took about 2-4 minutes to take off and put back on. Not something you would want to do everyday in and out of the car several times.

The whole point of carseat compatibility is to make your life easier if you want to pop your carseat in with a sleeping baby. This adaptor does NOT make your life easier.

The final verdict: We love the Baby Jogger Double strollers and they are carseat compatible in a pinch but if you are looking for double carseat compatible ease, the Baby Jogger City Doubles are not the right double stroller for you!

BPA is frequently used in plastic containers like bottles and sippy cups to harden the plastic and make it less vulnerable to shattering. While the evidence is still out on the effects of BPA, many scientists do believe the long-term effects of BPA can be harmful. This is felt to be especially worrisome for babies who drink much of their nutrition or liquids from containers where the BPA can slowly leech out into their drinks.

While Canada banned BPA in bottles and sippy cups last year and many retailers in the US have removed bottles and sippy cups with BPA from their stores, many manufacturers are still reluctant to discontinue the use of BPA.

Personally I applaud Suffolk county for being the first in the US to take the “Better safe than sorry” approach to our youngest children’s health. I think so many manufacturing substances which were initially thought to be perfectly safe are banned due to mounting evidence of longer-term health effects.

For parents that are purchasing new products for their baby, let’s give them what we know, at least for the moment, is perfectly safe instead of waiting years and years for the evidence to be sufficient for the FDA.

P.S. We love the Zo-Li BPA free bottles and teething toys as well as the Klean Kanteen Sippy cups.

We first heard about this study when one of our customers brought us a UK newspaper extolling research that indicated that babies in rear-facing stroller interacted more with their caregivers than babies in forward-facing strollers.

Now the New York Times has picked up word of this research and featured it earlier this month in their Health Section. Click here to read the full article.

In summary, a researcher at the University of Dundee in Scotland did observational studies of 2,700 infant/caregiver pairs and then conducted a controlled experiment. She studied at the interactions and conversations between caregivers and babies/toddlers in rear- and forward-facing strollers.

Her findings? She found that caregivers both talked to children in rear-facing strollers twice as much! They also laughed more with the children and the children laughed more as well!

Apparently forward-facing strollers are a much more recent invention due to the manufacturing requirements of making lighter, easier-to-fold strollers at the end of the 20th century. Fascinating!

So should you spring for a reversible seat stroller based on this research? That is totally up to you and your budget but we have found that many children are happier to sit longer in a stroller if they can interact with their parents. So whether your goal is more baby-bonding time or longer walks with a happier child, it might be worth taking a second look at some of the great new reversible options on the market these days!

Here’s a short summary of some of our favorite – non-obvious tips.   If you’re interested in hearing more details – contact us for our next sleep seminar details or contact Karen Pollak directly for a sleep consultation. Karen says if you don’t have the foundation elements in place, sleep training won’t work either.   Keep in mind these tips are for babies 6+ months or older and not geared towards newborns.

1) Your baby needs 2-2.5 oz / lb of baby weight’s worth of milk everyday to sleep well at night. (max 32 oz) This is in ADDITION to solid foods. Solid food should supplement this and not replace this for babies up to 1 year old.  ”If your babies tank isn’t full, they’ll keep running out of gas in the middle of the night – not good”

2)You should not be feeding your child more than every 3-4 hours.  They won’t be hungry and won’t have a good feeding.  Similarly for bottle-fed babies, make sure you are using a old enough nipple stage (2, 3+) so they are getting the milk fast enough before they get bored bottle time.

3) Make sure the room is dark. “At least 8 on a scale of 1-10.” Even for naps.  This helps their Circadian sleep rhythms.

4) Get them attached to a lovey. The Lovey should be something you hold on you when you are cuddling, feeding, comforting your baby. Whatever they are attached to of yours or theirs, it can be your ac/dc t-shirt, make sure they have it when they are going to sleep.

5)Swaddling – don’t stop swaddling before 6 months if your baby sleeps better with it.

6)Use white noise, whether it is the SleepSounds CD, or just a white noise machine.

7)Babies bedtime should be between 6-8pm. Ideally 12 hours from waking. Between 2.5 hours-3 hours after their last nap.

8- You are fighting cortisol production, so you want to only do very calming things before bedtime. No fun roughhousing, no stimulating activities even baths if they get too amped up.Get your baby to bed now and get some rest!