The Original Ba . . . a Self-Holding Baby Bottle Holder

The Original Ba is a dad-created little genius invention that allows for babies to hold their own bottles. This helps them build early independence, confidence, and gives caregivers a free hand while feeding the bottle-fed baby. The unique and smart design of Ba slips onto bottles and makes for a wider holding area with baby-sized places for them to put their hands. Made of food-grade silicone, The Original Ba is BPA, pthalate, PVC, and lead free, so it’s safe for babies to use and even chew on.  This bottle holder is compatible with most major brands of baby bottles, including the following . . .

• Avent
• Babies"R"Us
• Born Free
• Dr. Brown's Wide
• Nuk
• Pampers
• Playtex Wide
• Tommee Tippee

(Click any photo to enlarge)

My niece is now 7 months old and loves to hold her bottle, but without handles, it’s hard for her to get a grip. The Ba allows her to hold her bottle on my lap, which makes her very happy. When it’s not on the bottle, Ba makes a great ball toy for her to chew on as well. This little invention is really great and can be used for a long time because it is also a toy.

You can buy The Original Ba on The Original Baby’s website, www.theoriginalbaby.com, on Amazon.com, and at select specialty stores. This product retails for approximately $15 and is available in blue, pink, and green.

Thank you to The Original Baby for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon and for providing a second product for our contest prize.


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Giveaway: The Neatnik Saucer Makes Dining Out with Infants Easy [CLOSED]

Dining in public with babies can be an exhausting feat, as most parents would likely agree. Between the questionable cleanliness of high chairs and tables and the problem of baby’s favorite game of dropping items and making someone fetch them, the whole experience can be frustrating. The Sydney Neatnik Saucer offers an affordable solution to these dining qualms.

The Neatnik Saucer is a grandma/mom-invented high chair cover and baby play mat all in one. It fits onto most restaurant-style high chairs and helps keep food and toys off the floor with its unique design.

The play mat area is very large and has a lip around the edge to keep crumbs from spilling onto the floor plus it features handy Velcro straps that can hold toys or a sippy cup in place, to prevent a child from dropping them. It suctions to the table top so it stays securely in place and even has a place in the seat for seat belts to hold your baby in place. This saucer is handy, portable (because it folds to fit in a 12x12” case), and perfect for keeping in your car and pulling out when you have to go out to eat.

Being a mom myself, I wish I’d had this when my kids were little. It is so handy and light and I love that it’s completely wipeable. My niece is only 5 months old right now and not eating table food just yet, but I can’t wait to be able to use this with her when we go places together. The Neatnik Saucer is also very well made and your baby is sure to outgrow it before it starts showing wear.

The Neatnik Saucer can be purchased on their website, www.neatniksaucer.com.  It retails for $32.95 and is currently available in 5 different patterns, including the newest style The Rome, which doubles as a wipe-off doodling surface.

(Click image to enlarge)

Thank you to Neatnik Saucer for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon and for providing an additional product for our contest prize.



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Review: Nourish Bottled Water for Babies & Toddlers

Nourish is a unique bottled water that is designed for babies and toddlers. Nourish bottled water has a nipple or sippy cup top to make drinking easy on little ones and has a wide neck, so adding formula is easy and mess free. The top has been sanitized and kept sterile with a tamper-evident seal, so you know that your baby will be drinking from a clean, sanitary top. Nourish water itself is purified spring water, bottled at the source and packaged in a patented format that is designed for on-the-go parents and the top is completely spill proof, so no messy clean up. As an added bonus, the bottles are made in the U.S. and are BPA free.

I am not a huge advocate for bottled water, I’ll say that upfront. I think it’s very wasteful to rely on bottled water all the time, but I see its value occasionally. That said, I think Nourish water would be very useful to have on hand for times when you’re in a hurry or would just prefer less bulk to your bag. I had this water in my fridge for awhile before we used it and I grabbed one quickly while I was on my way out the door with one of my daycare’s toddlers. It proved very handy to have around and made the little guy happy on the car ride. It also proved very nice to have around this weekend when my four year old was sick. He had a tummy bug and we couldn’t get him to drink anything and he was becoming dehydrated. Finally, I offered him a Nourish sippy bottle and he thought it was so odd that he took it. He drank the whole thing, and I was very thankful for that. We refilled his bottle and he’s been drinking from it since. It may not be glamorous, but it worked and that’s all that matters.

You can find a retailer or buy Nourish on their website, www.nourish-inc.com. It retails for about $3.50 a bottle and can be found in stores like Whole Foods and even in some U.S. airports.  You can also order Nourish water by the case on Amazon.com and from CSN Stores.


Thank you to Nourish for providing complimentary product samples for us to base this review upon.

Giveaway & Review: Nature Next Bamboo Booster Seat by Safety 1st [CLOSED]

To my delight, I was given the opportunity to try out a Bamboo Booster Seat for feeding from Safety First Nature Next. These are eco-friendly booster seats made from the renewable resource of bamboo, which is able to grow quickly and rapidly replenish itself. This is both fully functional and environmentally friendly.

It features a three point harness safety belt, a safety restraint bar, and an easy-to-remove three position tray.

Personally, my favorite thing about this booster (besides that it’s eco-friendly) is its look. It is so modern and beautiful and looks great at my table.

I’ve used this seat on both the 13 pound 7 month old that I watch and the 25 pound 18 month old, and both have fit in it great. The straps easily adjust to fit and I love the “crotch bar” that keeps them from being able to slide down.

The crotch bar also is foldable so the tray can sit semi-flat on the table, an idea that is both helpful and unique.

The tray is also easy for an adult to remove and is big enough for even a plate for the 18 month old. It is super easy to clean too because all the surfaces are smooth and don’t have any creases or gaps for food to get stuck in. It was very simple to put together from the box. I put it together by myself with only a Phillips head screwdriver.

Honestly, this is the best booster seat I’ve owned, hands down. I love everything about it and am so pleased I got to review it.

You can find this and other products from the Safety 1st Nature Next line of infant/toddler products on Safety1st.com, Amazon.com, BabiesRUs.com, and other select retailers of Safety 1st products.

Thank you to Safety 1st for providing a sample booster seat free of charge for us to base this review upon and for providing a second seat for our contest prize.

What you can win:
One lucky reader will receive Nature Next Bamboo Booster Seat by Safety 1st.

Limitations:

This giveaway is open to U.S. entries only. You do not need to be a blogger to enter, but you must have a valid email address and be age 18 years or older. If you enter anonymously and do not include a valid email address in your comment entries, I will not be able to notify you should you win this random drawing.

How to Gain Entries:

Browse the selection of bamboo, recycled plastic, and bio-plastic products offered by Nature Next. Then leave a comment telling me the name of another eco-friendly product you saw that impressed you (aside from the product reviewed in this article). You MUST do this to be eligible to win this contest.

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2)

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This contest will be closed on Monday, July 19th, 2010 at 11:59pm EST. A random number drawing will be held shortly after. The winner will be announced here and will be contact via email or through their blog. If the winner does not respond within 48 hours, a new number will be drawn.

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Review: Infant Feeding Tray and Pantry Pouch

TWINtuitive Product #24

I chose this feeding tray by Help Yourself Feeding Solutions to feature as a "TWINtuitive Product" because this product is designed to streamline the process of feeding two infants. It is interesting that this product was developed to assist in caring for the elderly, but has turned out to be a useful tool for those caring for infants and toddlers as well. Deservedly, this product was named "Best in Innovation" for 2010 by the Best Products Media Guide. ~Karen of 3G2S

Please read on to see what Jerinda has to say about this innovative product . . .

For my first product review, I was given the opportunity to try out two items from Mark Industries Feeding Solutions, an Infant Feeding Tray and a Pantry Pouch. This company strives to make products that simplify feeding for families with more than one infant or, in my case, caregivers that have more than one small child in their care.

I used the Infant Feeding Tray with two children in my care, ages 6 months old and one year old. This tray really did make my life easier when feeding them both. It was nice because I could prop each spoon on the tray’s ample space and have one or two open baby food containers for each child. I could easily hold the durable tray in one hand and rotate spoons and feeding each child. It was much simpler and faster feeding them this way than the old way; having the containers and spoons sitting on the table. Both children remained happy the entire time because their patience was never really tested.

The tray is good quality, survived the top rack of my dishwasher, and held both the glass jars and plastic baby food containers nicely. The suction cups were an added plus with the one-year-old, as we are working on him using a spoon himself as well as being fed. The cups stayed in place and held the tray down firmly. The only real problem I ran into was that the child easily removed the baby food jars from the tray, once he realized they were not locked in place themselves. As with anything, though, he just needs to be supervised while he uses it.

*********************************************************************************

The Pantry Pouch that I was given is one of my favorite inventions ever. It hangs nicely on my door and is the perfect size for holding and organizing all my baby feeding items. I have baby food jars, plastic baby food containers, puffs, cereal, spoons, and little bags of baby snacks all stored in the pouch and I love it because they are organized, easy to find in the clear pockets, and all kept in the same place instead of strewn throughout my kitchen. The pouch hangs from a Velcro strip and has holes for nails at the top too, which is highly recommended because the pouch did fall the first time it was suspended only by the Velcro.

I have to say, I was very impressed with everything about this company. They were prompt with shipping and their products really are innovative, unique, and well-made.

You can purchase these and other handy products at Shop.MarkIndustriesLLC.com .

Thank you to Mark Industries for sending two sample products free of charge for us to base this review upon.

Giveaway & Review: YoBaby 3-in-1 Meals Prize Pack [CLOSED]

Although this was not the case when the twins were younger, we now are experiencing much resistance from both when it comes to eating vegetables, especially green ones. So since we were already big fans of YoBaby fruit yogurts, we happily obliged when we were invited to try these new YoBaby 3-in-1 Meals, which contain a blend of yogurt, fruit, and pureed vegetables. We will do whatever is required in order to get the twins to eat more veggies, even if we need to disguise it as a treat.

These YoBaby organic toddler meals currently are available in three varieties . . . Pear & Green Bean, Peach & Squash, and Apple & Sweet Potato.


What my children and I thought about YoBaby 3-in-1 Yogurt:

1) I have to say that I was surprised at how creamy this yogurt is. I was expecting to see chunks or different colors mixed into the body of the yogurt, but the vegetables were completely undetectable.


2) All 3 of my children ate this yogurt up just as if it was regular fruit flavored yogurt.

3) I let my 5yr old eat the yogurt too because he is a huge fan of yogurt and could use a little more veggie intake too. He described it as "yummy" and "very good."

We were able to find these yogurts, which are still fairly new, at Whole Foods. We could not, however, find them at our local Stop & Shop yet. So if you are unable to locate them in your regular supermarket, then you might want to try markets that have a larger selection of organic foods.


Thank you to Stonyfield Yogurt for providing us with both a review product and a contest prize free of charge.

What you can win:
One lucky reader will receive a YoBaby 3-in-1 Meals Prize Pack.

This prize pack contains:

• Reusable YoBaby Bag
• Eric Carl Growth Chart
• YoBaby Travel Bowl with Lid
• YoBaby Feeding Utensils
• Organic YoBaby Bib
• 5 Free YoBaby Coupons

Limitations:
This giveaway is open to U.S. addresses only. You do not need to be a blogger to enter, but you must have a valid email address and be age 18 years or older. If you enter anonymously and do not include a valid email address in your comment entries, I will not be able to notify you should you win this random drawing.


How to Gain Entries:
Visit YoBaby Meals . Then leave a comment telling me which of the three varieties of YoBaby 3-in-1 Meals you would like to try first. You MUST do this to be eligible to win this contest.

Extra Entries:

1) For 5 extra entries, leave a relevant comment on one of my non-giveaway posts. Then leave FIVE separate comments with the name of the post on which you commented. You will earn 5 extra entries for each different non-contest post you comment on.

2) For 5 extra entries, enter one of my other contests. Leave FIVE separate comments here telling me which contest you entered. You will earn 5 extra entries for each contest you enter.

3) Add this blog to your Technorati Favorites. Then leave a separate comment telling me you did so and under what username. Add to Technorati Favorites

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5) Follow me on Twitter. Then leave a separate comment with the link to your Twitter profile.

6) Tweet about this giveaway linking back to this post. Then come back here and leave the link to your tweet in a separate comment. You may do this once per day until the end of the contest.

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Review: Munchie Mug Spill-Proof Snack Cup

I know that spilling is a part of life, but it does not mean that I shouldn't do whatever I can to prevent them. With three young children in the house, what are the chances that all three will be careful and attentive when they are eating? . . . Pretty slim.

Spill-proof drinking cups are quite common, but I have yet to find an a spill-proof snack cup that meats all my needs until now. The benefits the Munchie Mug has to offer make it a perfect fit for my family.




What I thought about our Munchie Mug Snack Cup:

1) This cup really does not spill when used with your average dry snack, such as Goldfish Crackers or cereal.

2) The neoprene top, which keeps the snack food inside the cup makes the cup very user-friendly. It is much easier and more comfortable to use than snack cups that have an asterisk cut into a plastic top.


3) I love that all the parts of the Munchie Mug are top-rack dishwasher-safe. Also, the neoprene by nature dries very quickly.

4) I really like that this snack cup comes with a lid that can be used to seal the cup to keep snacks fresh. This lid is self-storing and can sit right on top of the neoprene lid when not in use. Also, both lids screw on so it prevents children from opening the snack cup too easily.



5) Another reason this cup is perfect for my family is its size. It is not tiny like other snack cups we've owned and is perfect for holding enough snack food for two young children (at least 10oz). It was smart to design the Munchie Mug with that handle on the lid otherwise, because of its larger size, the child would need two hands to hold this snack cup, making it difficult to use.

6) I think it is important that the body of the cup is transparent. This allows both the adult and the child to always know how much food remains inside.

7) I also think it is important that these Munchie Mugs, as well as the plastic used to create them, are made in the U.S. and are BPA and phthalate free. Although they are not disposable one-use products, these cups can be recycled.

These Munchie Mugs currently sell for $12.95 each in 3 different colors on MunchieMug.com. They would make a fun practical gift for a toddler or preschooler and is a great alternative to buying him or her a toy.


This product review was written for Family Review Network as part of a program for Munchie Mug, who supplied the product for review.