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GoodyBlog ’
Thursday, October 4th, 2012
Kids (and parents!) need whole grains all year round, and autumn is the perfect time to incorporate these nourishing ingredients into your family meal plan. The most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that children consume at least 2 to 3 servings of whole grain daily. In addition to lowering the risk of many chronic diseases, fiber-rich whole grains have been proven to keep you feeling full for longer, so you’ll eat less and feel energized all day long. There are plenty of fun ways to get kids eating nutritious and tasty meals, so what are you waiting for?
We spoke with Karen Mansur, program manager of the Whole Grains Council about how to help your family make the switch to whole grains. Here are a few of her tips:
1. Host a family taste test
Make three different whole grain pastas (brown rice, whole wheat and quinoa are some popular possibilities) and vote on the family favorite. Next time you make pasta, use the newly crowned whole grain favorite. Do the same with breads, cereals, pancakes mixes, etc. until you’ve switched out all of the classic meal components with whole grain options. And if your picky eater just does not like one particular grain, don’t worry—there are plenty of others to choose from.
2. Cook whole grains together
“Studies show that cooking with children encourages them to be more adventurous with flavors and textures,” Mansur says. Little ones can help out with simple tasks like measuring and stirring. “Getting their help in the kitchen also creates a bonding opportunity and best of all, teaches an appreciation for the effort required to put together a meal,” Mansur adds.
Here are some easy recipes that incorporate whole grains:
You can also adapt your current recipes by simple substitutions like switching from white to brown rice, or by replacing half the white flour with whole wheat flour for foods like cookies and quick breads.
3. Pack healthy lunches for school (or work)
Switch out potato chips for popcorn, make trail mix by combining whole grain cereal with dried fruit or nuts, or select an oatmeal cookie for dessert. Best of all, the whole grains will help kids stay full and focused for the rest of the school day.
4. Look for the Whole Grain Stamp
If you’re having trouble locating whole grains at the grocery store, just look for the Whole Grain Stamp. Food packages with more than a half serving of whole grains are eligible for the black and gold seal, making it easy for shoppers to identify nutritious options.
Image: Various rye bread via Shutterstock.
Thursday, October 4th, 2012
Is your little one outgrowing her shoes so quickly that you now have a pile of sneakers she no longer wants or needs? Instead of throwing them away, consider donating them to the “Big Hearts, Little Shoes” initiative instead. This shoe drive is a joint effort between The Little Gym, a chain of learning and physical development centers for kids, and Soles4Souls, the world’s largest provider of shoes to families in need. Outgrown shoes can be dropped off at Little Gym locations, even if your child does not attend classes there. And don’t worry if the shoes are worn out from lots of playtime, because Soles4Souls will still find a use for them by recycling the materials. This way, you clear off some extra space on the family shoe rack and children in need benefit from your donation. Plus, your kids will learn about charity and helping others. It’s a win-win. Find your nearest drop-off location and start spreading the love now.
Photo courtesy of The Little Gym.
Thursday, August 2nd, 2012
Every baby looks like he or she could be the Gerber Baby, no? But the sketch is of a woman named Ann Turner Cook, who was 5 months old in 1929 when her neighbor drew her for what would become the iconic baby face. She visited our offices a few years ago, and we loved it! 
Gerber is running a nationwide baby-photo search on Facebook right now. The winner will appear in an ad campaign but even better, get $50,000! You have until August 26th to upload your little one’s photo. Best of luck, maybe your own kid will be the 2012 Gerber Baby!
As for Gerber’s baby food, my own daughter was an infant when they debuted their first organics. Now, the organic recipes come in pouches that are easy to throw in your diaper bag and less heavy in your grocery bag than the traditional glass jars. (Though the jars can be recycled, so they have that going for them.) I have such fond memories of planning out baby Grace’s meals. She loved prunes and apricots most of all, so we’d often do one of those for breakfast, but always got a green vegetable in at lunch or dinner. It’s still pretty much the same for her at age 10; fruit with breakfast and broccoli or peas or salad with dinner!
I’m happy to say that Gerber is going to give one lucky family almost $110 worth of free baby food just for leaving a comment at this post. Tell me your baby’s favorite puree flavor, perhaps? You have from now through the end of the day on Wednesday, August 8th, to leave a comment. We’ll randomly pick one person to win 15 Gerber Graduate Puffs, 15 Gerber Graduate Lil’ Entrees, and 25 Gerber Organic 2nd Food Pouches, a $108.95 value. You can read the official rules here. Good luck! 
Thursday, July 26th, 2012
My kids were both heavy pacifier users. They each stuffed those things in their mouth right through their third birthday. My mom gave me some grief about it, because from what she understood, the pacifiers were going to mess up their teeth. I will admit, Gracie has epically wrong teeth, but not because of her pacifier…some of her teeth are just not coming in, and two of them have grown together. She is an orthodontist’s dream. Joe’s teeth are fine though. So I shrug at the angst about pacifiers. As I see it, they soothed my kids a lot, and they’re even touted by the American Academy of Pediatrics as one way to help prevent SIDS.
If someone asks about orthodontically correct pacifiers, I point them toward the NUK line. In addition to being the bestselling pacifiers in the country, they seem to be the most vigilant about promoting pacifiers that don’t press against a baby’s palate. I’ve met with the company’s experts and heard their description of how the nipples mimic the real thing, and how they’re all built so that Baby can still move his tongue. They take that stuff super seriously. Though as far as I’m concerned, that’s all just gravy on top of the fact that the pacifiers can actually calm a baby down!
NUK goes beyond pacifiers too…they have bottles and cups and other feeding supplies, and they’re all built with orthodontics in mind. To help them spread the word about their extensive (and incidentally, SO cute!) line, we’re going to give one lucky family a box full of NUK products. Post a comment below, up to one comment a day. Maybe tell me what all of you use to soothe your little one, or what you plan to use. (Because I’m not going to pretend that the pacifier is the only weapon in any parent’s arsenal: Usually you have to do something like sit your infant in a swing, sing at the top of your lungs, and make sure the paci is in her mouth at the same time.) We’ll randomly chose one winner who will get 8 NUK Soft OrthoStar pacifiers, 8 NUK Lollipop Orthodontic pacifiers, 4 NUK Orthodontic 10-ounce bottles, and 4 NUK Babytalk Learner Cups. The total value is worth approximately $85, and the contest is open now through the end of the day on Wednesday, August 1. For official rules, please click here. Goody luck!
Monday, July 2nd, 2012
Would you be surprised to hear that kids today are more technologically savvy than ever before? Probably not. But what if we said that your child’s dependence on the Internet is actually affecting the life she’ll someday lead?
According to a survey from the Pew Research Center, today’s kids are learning to rely on the Internet as a second brain, changing the way they’ll approach problems later in life. They belong to an “always on” demographic, dubbed Generation AO, and are growing up in a hyper-connected culture of instant gratification and serious multitasking. Not only are 95% of tweens and teens online, the survey finds, but 76% of them are already using social networks. This rapidly evolving culture is leading experts to believe that tech-wired kids are the key to opportunities and careers we can’t yet fathom.
So how do you prepare your children for jobs they will invent themselves? Well, we’ll let you know when one of them figures that out. But while you’re waiting for your kids to write the future, we’ve stolen a peek at it and found the top 10 careers Generation AO will most likely covet. Of course, this doesn’t mean your child’s dream of becoming a princess or superhero can’t still come true—these just have better salaries.
Image: Little girl using a laptop via Shutterstock.
Thursday, June 28th, 2012
Two amazing features of the new 4Moms Origami stroller really stand out: It folds itself at the touch of a button, and it lets you charge your cell phone while you roll. It’s a techie dream machine. This thing even has headlights! They’ve engineered it so that it can’t fold if anything is on that seat; that way you can’t fold your baby in there by accident. (Watch Ellen demonstrate it on her show.)
But I have to talk about the other cool feature: It’s from my hometown, Pittsburgh! There’s plenty of good that comes from my city (the Steelers, Pittsburgh Dad, Eat n Park) but it’s especially exciting for me, being the products editor at American Baby, to find some cool baby gear from the ‘burgh. Since 4Moms was born there, we’ve shown their innovative Cleanwater bath tub, and more recently, their MamaRoo in our article on Tia Mowry (she’s a fan!).
Being the cool Pittsburgh people they are, 4Moms will let me send one of you lucky ducks the new Origami stroller, which retails for $850. That’s right, it’s a luxury-priced stroller! Just leave a comment below. You can post up to once a day. Tell me your must-have stroller feature. (For me folding small is key, so the Origami is pretty great for that.) You can read the full rules here. The giveaway starts now and ends at midnight on Wednesday, the Fourth of July 2012. And I’ll leave you with an image that my Pittsburgh friend Emily took, of the city at the end of a double rainbow. See you in September, Pittsburgh friends! 
Thursday, June 14th, 2012
Your mind doesn’t work clearly when you’re pregnant. You come up with grand visions and crazy rules, like “my daughter will NEVER use a pacifier.” Then cut to two months after the birth and you’re frantically buying one of every pacifier the drugstore sells, hoping she’ll take one of them.
I actually decided, during my second pregnancy when I was sleepy, hormonal, and seriously morning-sick, that my son would come out into the world and wear nothing except Zutano clothing. I really thought I could somehow limit his wardrobe to this, my favorite brand. It was as if my brain refused to remember that some relatives would pass me bodysuits emblazoned with sports themes, or that friends would give me stuff with goofy slogans on it. Or that my mom, chief grandchild-clothier, has her own brand attachments. Most importantly, I had somehow shut down the part of my brain that remembered that a baby can vomit on every outfit in the diaper bag, and often you just have to stop into the nearest mass-market store and buy a huge pack of Onesies.
So lets just say that things didn’t go as planned. Joe rocked a lot of different looks. But I can promise you that when he was wearing clothes that I bought him myself, they were Zutano. Check him out below, determined to walk in his little Zutano footie! (Yes, he used his big sister’s potty as a walker.)
My kids have outgrown the brand now, but I still love to give Zutano stuff as gifts to friends who have babies. I love to visit their showroom here in New York City, where founder Michael hosts the press along with his now so-grown-up daughter. (Sigh…they grow so fast!) The company itself is up in Vermont, you can read their whole charming history here.
I could go on and on with my Zutano love letter (They let employees bring their kids to the office! They’re one of the few lines that offer extensive clothes for preemies!) but let me cut to the chase: They’re going to give a $250 giftcard so one of you loyal GoodyBlog readers can get a little closer to my “this baby will only wear Zutano” fantasy. You can use it to go hog-wild at Zutano.com, where the sizes go from preemie to 4T.
Here are some groundrules: You can only post once a day, through the end of Wednesday, June 20th. You can post anything you want, but maybe go ahead and say what you love and what frustrates you about baby clothes. (I love soft cotton clothes. And I hate when a decoration is all scratchy on the inside of the clothes.) You can read all of the official rules here. Goody luck! 
Thursday, June 7th, 2012
It’s June and my thoughts are turning to…road trips! My little Brooklynites don’t spend a lot of time in cars like all of their suburban friends. Summer—when we start to drive around on weekends and do some big drives across several states—is always when we reevaluate what they’re sitting in.
Here are the current guidelines. Your baby needs to be in a car seat from birth, and that car seat should stay rear-facing as long as possible, ideally up to the second birthday. At American Baby we generally recommend you begin with an infant car seat, because 1) It’s shaped for a tiny person’s body and 2) It’s so convenient, because you can easily take it in and out of the car. The base stays in the back of your car, but the seat itself snaps out and is easy to tote around.
Newborns can start right out in a convertible car seat, facing the rear. You save money going that route for sure. The new Evenflo Symphony DLX, for instance, is meant to hold a baby from 5 to 40 pounds rear-facing, and a child all the way up to 65 pounds forward-facing. Most of the time, though, we see families switching to these big convertible car seats when their baby has outgrown the infant seat. The convertible seat has to stay installed in the car; you don’t want to be taking it in and out all the time.
Most people, when they ask me about a car seat, want to know which is the safest one. But all the car seats on the market that have a JPMA certification stamp have to pass the same safety tests. Choosing a car seat, then, becomes about ease of use. I like the Symphony because of the infinite-adust harness straps; they’re so easy to move as your baby grows, or even as he comes in and out of bulky winter clothing. It’s easy to recline the seat, and to adjust the headrest as well. Finally, I give Evenflo kudos for having some of the most helpful car-seat installation videos. They don’t replace reading the manual, but watching a video certainly helps when you’re new to the car seat world!
To help kick off road-trip season, Evenflo will give one Symphony DLX away to someone who posts a comment here. It’s worth $229! Tell me where you’re driving your family to this summer. Here’s a picture of the payoff my kids get after I drive them for 8 hours: Sitting on Pap’s tractor in his backyard! 
You have until the end of the day on Wednesday, June 13th to comment and can post up to once a day. Read all the official rules here. Goody luck!
Categories: Babies, Giveaways, GoodyBlog, Shopping & Gear, Travel | Tags: American Baby, car seat, convertible car seat, Evenflo, Giveaway, GoodyBlog, Symphony
