Want to know the instant your baby pees? There’s an app for that. No, really. There is an app for that — in Brazil.
Huggies Brazil recently announced Huggies TweetPee, a small humidity-detecting sensor that looks like an owl and clips onto Baby’s diaper. Once your baby pees, the sensor will send you a tweet telling you it’s time to change your little guy’s diaper.
The accompanying TweetPee iPhone app uses the sensor to help you keep track of how quickly your babe goes through diapers and lets you order Huggies diapers when your supply runs low.
Check out the Huggies TweetPee video (in Portugese):
Huggies is only testing the product with four parents and will expand that number to 10 in July, ABCNews says. The company hasn’t announced plans to release this product in North America, but if it were available here, would you use it? Tell us in the comments below.
Should Babies Be Allowed to ‘Cry It Out’?
Hands down, the biggest mom fight I ever witnessed involved two Upper West Side parents debating the pros and cons of the “cry-it-out” sleep method right before a Mommy and Me class. The young instructor, who appeared ready to cry it out herself, had to break up the fight so she could start class. (via CNN)
Children’s Complex Thinking Skills Begin Before Going to School
New research at the University of Chicago and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows that children begin to show signs of higher-level thinking skills as young as age 4 ½. Researchers have previously attributed higher-order thinking development to knowledge acquisition and better schooling, but the new longitudinal study shows that other skills, not always connected with knowledge, play a role in the ability of children to reason analytically. (via Science Daily)
Diapers Hinder Walking in Babies
It’s a given that most babies wear diapers, in western cultures anyway. But diapers may trap more than waste—they may also confine a baby’s ability to walk. Scientists compared the walking gaits of 60 babies who were either naked, wore a thin disposable diaper or a thick cloth diaper. Half the babies were 13-month old novice walkers and the other half 19-month old experienced walkers. (via Scientific American)
New Florida Bills Would Make Gun and Ammo Taxes Pay for School Security
In the wake of the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, one Florida lawmaker wants to make gun owners foot the bill for students’ safety. Friday Rep. Linda Stewart (D-Orlando) filed HB 325, which dictates mandatory guidance counseling for students in school safety issues, widens gun prohibition from school buildings to a “safety zone” within 500 feet of a school, and allows anyone to “check” their firearm with officials when they arrive at school to avoid prosecution. (via Huffington Post)
Fontana School Rifles: California Schools Get High-Powered Colt 6940 Guns
The high-powered semiautomatic rifles recently shipped to school police in this Southern California city look like they belong on a battlefield rather than in a high school, but officials here say the weapons could help stop a massacre like the one that claimed the lives of 26 students and educators in Connecticut just weeks ago. (via Huffington Post)
Luckily, Weston, Conn. mom Jennifer Roh recently launched Diaper Bag Dailies to help make diapering duty as seamless as possible for all parents.
Roh drew from her own experience with children–she has two young boys ages 3 and 15 months–to design pre-packaged themed diaper kits filled with daily diaper bag essentials like diapers (of course), hand sanitizer wipes, and diaper cream. All kits are also accompanied with reusable inserts such as baby bodysuits, pacifiers, and nail files.
The eight themes on sale include: crib sheets, sick kid, airplane, sun & swim, green & organic, potty training, and snack. The kits retail between $26 and $32 and include special items appropriate to each theme. The sick kid kit includes extra diapers, the airplane kit throws in a ready-made formula in a 2 oz. bottle (TSA-approved!), while the sun & swim kit includes swim diapers and sunscreen. An additional twins kit retails for $40 and includes double the basic items.
Parents can select their preferred diaper brand (Huggies or Pampers), formula brand if it applies to the kit (Enfamil Premium or Similac Advance), and diaper size. Diaper Bag Dailies provides alleviation to the stress associated with diaper duty that can be well worth the price. And if you really love it, a subscription to Diaper Bag Dailies ensures automatic refills–so that you’ll never have to worry about last-minute diaper purchases again.
Children excluded from school shopping?
Only 56 percent of parents say they’re bringing their kids along for back-to-school shopping this year, down from 80 percent last year, according to marketing data firm America’s Research Group.
Bilingual Homes Help Babies Exercise Their Brain: Study
Babies living in bilingual homes have a longer period of time when their brain is flexible to different languages than infants living where just one language is spoken, researchers say.
Pampers Revamped After Blistered Baby Bottoms
Procter & Gamble is changing how it makes its Pampers Cruisers and removing the words “Dry Max” from the package, a year after a highly-touted diaper revamp led to consumer complaints of blistered baby bottoms. (MSNBC)
Do Video Games Make Kids Eat More?
An hour spent playing video games may make teenage boys eat more over the rest of the day, a small study suggests. (Yahoo)
Penalties for Drug Offenses Weigh Heavily on Students
As many high school seniors thrill over their college admission offers, Nick Hanna wonders about the effect of his mistakes in Fairfax County. Four Virginia colleges have turned him down, and two have placed him on wait lists. (Washington Post)
Two Students Plead Guilty in Bullying of Teenager
Two of the six students in South Hadley, Mass., who were charged with bullying a 15-year-old girl before her suicide last year pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment charges on Wednesday and received a year’s probation each, plus 100 hours of community service. (New York Times)
Check out this proud little girl! This picture was taken this morning. Lila now asks to go straight to the bathroom as soon as she wakes up, and even though her diaper was soaked, she still managed to go.
Lila really impressed us this week. Especially yesterday, when we were at a birthday party at Pump It Up. I put her in a diaper and decided to not even mention potty training to her. But in the middle of the party chaos, she told me she needed to use the potty. I scooped her up and sprinted off to the ladies’ room, asking her to hold it. She calmly replied, “I am.” I did the whole routine you’re surely familiar with: put my hand inside the toilet paper holder and then spun it furiously to collect as much paper as I could, then gingerly covered every inch of the seat, yanked my child’s pants down, and ripped off her diaper (all while trying not to create too much air flow around us, thereby causing the toilet paper to gently float down into the toilet or onto the floor). I plopped her down and within seconds, she went. How cool is that? As we exited the bathroom she shouted to the people coming in, “I JUST WENT PEE ON THE POTTY!”
PS: I decided I’m going to spare you (and older Lila) the details on her exploits learning to go #2 on the toilet, but I’ll say that she’s starting to have success on that front, too, and leave it at that!
The update on potty-training my daughter Lila: We’re getting there, but I think this is going to be a slow road. She had some success on the potty (both real and portable), but she was sitting there for so long, it was almost inevitable. By Wednesday of last week she got tired of passing the hours this way. When I made my lunchtime check-in phone call, Lila answered the phone by proclaiming, “DON’T WANT TO SIT ANYMORE.” Another day she greeted me with, “I NOT SITTING ON THE POTTY!” We’ve been tracking how often she actually goes, and when you subtract the naptime and nighttime diapers, it’s not that often. So over the weekend I wanted to see if Lila could try sitting on the potty only when she needed to go. Two accidents later, I can tell you the answer: not yet.
I’m not discouraged, though. She’s actually doing pretty well considering how many (unmissable) events and activities we crammed into the past two weekends. This week’s challenge is helping her understand that she needs to go before it’s too late. Any advice? I’m all ears!
Want to know the instant your baby pees? There’s an app for that. No, really. There is an app for that — in Brazil. 
Diapering your newborn
The update on 