• Last updated 8/7/12 by Cynthia Lair

Focus FOLATE! And where do you find folate?  In foliage!  Dark leafy greens!  If you’ve never tried this Americanized version of bibimbop for breakfast today is the day.  Especially if you want to have strong steady energy all day long.  When I have a big day in front of me and need to stay sharp BE BOP BREAKFAST is the best morning meal.  Brown rice sauteed with scallions, egg over easy, braised dark leafy greens and some sassy condiments.  Printable recipe here.  Trust me.  Cereal from a box does not even begin to... read more

• Last updated 1/7/13 by JenniO11

sponsored post brought to us by Boiron Camilia   by Pam Middleton, integrative pediatric specialist   Q: What is benzocaine, and why is the FDA concerned about its use in OTC products for children?   In April 2011, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned the public about the use of over-the-counter (OTC) products containing benzocaine. Benzocaine is a local anesthetic and is the active ingredient in many OTC products used to relieve pain in the mouth and gums from a variety of conditions such as teething, canker sores, and irritation of the mouth... read more

• Last updated 10/4/12 by Mothering Editorial

By James J. McKenna Issue 114 September/October 2002 Mothers and infants sleeping side by side, also known as cosleeping, is the evolved context of human infant sleep development. Until very recent times, for all human beings, it constituted a prerequisite for infant survival; outside of the Western industrialized context, for the majority of contemporary people, it still does. Because the human infant's body continues to be adapted only to the mother's body, cosleeping with nighttime breastfeeding remains clinically significant and potentially lifesaving. This is... read more

• Last updated 10/22/12 by Melanie Mayo

I gave birth to my second daughter, Olive, at home in January 2012.  It was a beautiful, quick birth, that rocked my very core.  My husband caught her, and laid our 7lb 5oz blonde beauty on my chest.  Immediately after I delivered the placenta, I got myself situated in bed and offered her my breast.  I held my breath…preparing for a struggle, as I had with her sister.  I held her to my breast, gave her perfect button nose a tickle with my nipple, and instinctively, she opened wide and started vigorously suckling with such enthusiasm that my husband and I looked at... read more

• Last updated 11/15/12 by Melanie Mayo

Photocredit: Wikimedia. We are learning more and more information all the time to support the idea that a good start to breastfeeding makes all the difference for meeting your long term breastfeeding goals.  Your baby needs to empty and stimulate your breasts several times a day in the early weeks to enable you to produce enough milk to meet his needs not only now but over the long term.  Many mothers find breastfeeding straightforward, but others struggle and often this can be prevented. So here are some ideas for getting breastfeeding off to... read more

• Last updated 10/18/12 by emilyfrischmann

By Laura Schmitt "I wish I could just wrap myself in the softness of my child's diapers!" That's something you've never heard a parent say-unless that parent uses cloth diapers for the child. Shortly after my first baby was conceived, I became obsessed with finding the best cloth diaper for my money. I no longer concerned myself with events of the day. My prenatal yoga tapes gathered dust as I scrolled through endless websites, absorbing every bit of data ever posted about cloth diapers. I became fascinated with prefolds, fitteds, covers, wraps-you name it. I... read more

• Last updated 2/6/11 by Jennifer Margulis

Although I wanted a baby my whole life, I felt totally overwhelmed when my first was born. I didn’t have trouble bonding with her but I did have trouble with everything else. Twenty-nine years old, I was a fiercely independent Type A graduate-student-turned professor used to having boundless energy who thought she could do it all. I was sore and upset from a difficult hospital birth. We had very few friends with kids. I didn’t know it was okay to accept—let alone ask for—help. When my friend Veronique and her mother offered to bring over food, I was too embarrassed to... read more

• Last updated 6/16/12 by Mothering Editorial

By Karen Plomp Web Exclusive You are nursing HOW many? Are you STILL nursing? Yes, I'm still nursing the baby-and my two year old, three year old, and four year old! I'm tandem nursing four siblings. It is just the way things worked out, because I had my babies close together, and I am letting them self-wean. Actually, it's not that big a deal, and not very different from tandem nursing just two. Nursing older kids isn't the same as nursing babies. They don't nurse as frequently, and they can wait a while if the location or time is not convenient for... read more

• Last updated 10/18/12 by Melanie Mayo

By Christine Gross-Loh Issue 113, July/August 2002 My son Benjamin, almost eight months old, has ridden in a stroller perhaps only five times in his life. Instead, he has spent his days snuggled up to me in a variety of baby carriers. When he was just 12 hours old, we put him in a New Native Baby Carrier. As Benjamin grew bigger, we tried a number of things-adjustable slings, a Japanese hip carrier, the ubiquitous Baby Bjorn, a Baby Trekker soft backpack, a fleece sling, the Sara's Ride hip carrier, a Tough Traveler frame backpack, and a Korean blanket carrier... read more

• Last updated 11/27/12 by Melanie Mayo

Until the early part of this century, mothers didn’t give a thought as to how to feed their babies. All babies were breastfed, if not by the mother herself, then by a wet nurse: a lactating woman who breastfed the child for the mother. Then along came formula, which provided a viable feeding alternative for women and babies physically incapable of breastfeeding and for infants without a mother. Yet the availability of formula has created a complex dilemma for women all over the world. Experts today are unanimous in their support of breastfeeding as the hands-down... read more