Bebe Au Lait blogger shares her ordeal of accidentally traveling without her much-needed electric breastpump

… For those of you who have not used a manual breast pump, it is not quite the experience of an electric. The comparison in Barbie’s “The Princess and the Pauper” movie comes to mind: Princess Anneliese has her breakfast brought to her on a silver platter in bed, while her look-alike Erika must retrieve the eggs from the chicken coop for herself. On the upside, I was building strong biceps.

Happy Valentines day to moms, dads, babies, and everybody we love!

Enjoy it!

TenderCargo.com was cited as a resource on eHow for how to breastfeed in plublic

So entertained by the satirical My Baby? My Baby Seems So Smart But I’m Also Scared About My Baby

and also nice finds such as this onesie -it is so refreshing to see a rainbow caterpillar other than the usual Very Hungry variety.

If you don’t read the Daddy types blog, give it a try!

Britax and CPSC recalled their folding umbrella strollers today due to the risk of a child’s fingers being injured in the folding hinges. Click here to see the Britax Recall Poster including the image  showing the manufacturing date and the hinges which are involved.

This recall is VOLUNTARY and there are NO REPORTED INJURIES to date.

Still, as a precaution, Britax is sending a remedy kit to every registered Blink stroller owner. If your stroller might not be registered, you can request your free kit at 800-683-2045 or visit www.blinkrecall.com.

from the manufacturer: While Maclaren was faced with actual cases of injury from its folding strollers, no incidents with Britax strollers have been reported worldwide.  Therefore, the decision of Britax to offer remedy kits and issue a safety advice is a completely voluntary and precautionary action Britax Blink is perfectly safe if properly used in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.  It  meets and even exceeds all relevant US safety standards

from our opinion only: The flaw here is something that all umbrella strollers on the amrket share in common. See Maclaren for the leading example, then others followed right after. Britax is being especially proactive to address this now, but we can expect to see similar retrofit action from all other strollers with hinges as this issue, ummm, “unfolds”

Did you notice? We slipped some Babyhawk brand  “Oh Snap” carriers into our baby carrier section!

The Babyhawk brand is a very respected little company in California, ran by the mom who founded it. They’ve been making mei tai carriers for years and they just launched the new Oh Snap. We were among the first to get it in store and currently there are  8 colors here for immediate shipment.  (Scroll down for UPDATED INFO)

The OhSnap fits babies from 15-45 pounds using either a front carry or backpack position.  It is comparable to a Babyhawk Mei Tai in its style and design, except there are no long straps to tie, and it offers good waistbelt support for carrying older children or for carrying a child for long time periods such as hiking or day trips. The adjustability is meant to fit a women’s size 0 to 22.  The carrier is not meant to be used with newborns, and no, there aren’t any snaps on it, just buckles.

Updated August 11 2010 – The Oh Snaps are getting popular! We now have them in 5 solid colors and 20 fabric prints. These are in-stock items, no waiting. The solid color carriers are black, espresso, steel, charcoal, and caramel.See photos of the fabric print choices below. the only one not pictured yet is the Apple viceroy. Remember, if you have a small baby, the regular Babyhawk is right for you, the Oh Snap is only for older babies, like one year olds and toddlers. you can begin using it with a baby who is sitting up and weighs 15 pounds, but really the carrier design is optimized more for a larger baby than that. We do have one OhSnap baby carrier available to try out in our physical store, but the rest of our supply is in the shipping location so it is better to order online. Click to shop the Babyhawk Oh Snap carriers

After months of only having size large on hand, we are finally re-stocked with sizes small and medium in all colors.

Learners are absorbent underwear for potty training. Made of certified organic cotton to work like reusable  pull-ups.  pull on and unsnap the sides to cleanly get them off.  They are made by a cloth diaper company with material to absorb the wetness without getting the clothing wet, but they don’t have a waterproof layer the way that rubber or disposable trainers do.  This makes them a lot more like “real” or “big kid” underwear, which kids feel proud about.

Tender Cargo founding mama Christine used these personally with two of her children, in the stage where they had potty-trained for daytime but still wet during naps, car rides, or overnight. At $18.95 each Learner costs similar to a pack of pull-ups, and you probably only need 2-4 Learners so that you never need to buy pull-ups again.

The mortality rate of California women who die from causes directly related to pregnancy has nearly tripled in the past decade, prompting doctors to worry about the dangers of obesity in expectant mothers and about medical complications of cesarean sections.

California Watch spoke with investigators who wrote the report, and they confirmed the most significant spike in pregnancy-related deaths since the 1930s. Although the number of deaths is relatively small, the rate in California is higher than in Kuwait or Bosnia.

“The issue is how rapidly this rate has worsened,” said Debra Bingham, executive director of the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative, the public-private task force investigating the problem for the state.

Read more: www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article

We are registered members of the Real Diaper Organization, a nonprofit that supports cloth diapering awareness, activism, and education. They have great lines like “changing the world – one diaper at a time” “real diapers for real babies” . The image above from their latest campaign links to their site, which has a wealth of articles and ideas. The image below points to the cloth diapering section of our store.

This is exciting! I just received the news by email through FirstCandle.org , nonprofit organization we support that has been supporting the research efforts for decades.

From the press release

[Baltimore, MD – February 2, 2010)   First Candle today announced that researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston have further linked low serotonin levels in the brainstems of babies to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS. The research team’s most recent study, being published in the February 3^rd issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, compared brainstems of babies who died of SIDS with brainstems of babies who died of other, known causes. The results of the study are compelling and send a strong message to new and expectant parents, particularly since SIDS remains the leading cause of death for babies one month to one year of age in the United States.

First Candle salutes Dr. Hannah Kinney and her research team for their untiring efforts to unlock what was once thought to be the mystery of SIDS. “After more than 20 years of research, we may now be able to move forward in identifying babies at risk and developing preventive treatments to correct this serotonin deficiency,” said Kinney. In the study, the SIDS babies had 25 percent less serotonin in their lower brainstem and 22 percent lower levels of tryptophan hydroxylase, the enzyme that makes serotonin. Levels of binding to the serotonin receptors were 50 percent lower in the SIDS babies, signifying that a serotonin defect in the brainstem was most likely involved in the death of these babies.

As this defect probably occurs during pregnancy, good prenatal care is of utmost importance. “There is no safe amount of alcohol, smoking or second-hand smoke that is safe for pregnant women,” said Kinney. The Harvard team and other researchers are also exploring a possible genetic cause for this defect.

The study results also send a strong message to parents with newborns. “We now know that there is likely a physical reason that many of these babies die,” says Dr. Rachel Moon, Chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Task force on SIDS. “And when babies with this defect are placed to sleep in unsafe places, the results can be disastrous.”  For babies with low serotonin levels, re-breathing carbon dioxide (exhaled air) and overheating during sleep can be fatal. Parents need to do all they can to make sure their baby is ALWAYS placed to sleep on his or her back and in a safe place.

(it continues on at the link with safe infant sleep tips, etc)