You win, child

My 3yrold: I'm scared of the dark.

Me: Why?

My 3yrold: Why not?

Well played son, well played.

Computer Learning

I grew up with computers before most anyone else had one... back in the 80s and 90s... so I'm used to growing up with a plethora of really terrible educational kids games. At least, as a kid I thought they were terrible.

So I always had something of a negative opinion of children's computer games... even though my son has been playing and learning so much with games on my tablet that he just wasn't learning from me, and even though I saw how much kids loved the AWE brand computers at the library (even though they were full of the games I thought were crap as a kid) my heart still had a very negative view of PC games. Meaning, every time I  saw a commercial for ABCmouse.com my brain would just switch off, boxing ABCmouse into the lands of crap children's PC stuff.

But, when my daycare sent a letter home with a code for ABCmouse and knowing they were using it at the daycare I decided to log in... just to check his progress...

Well, once I realized there was a decent mouse use tutorial in there.... one thing led to another... and now my 3 year old who just couldn't "get" the mouse because he is so used to touch screens he thinks everything works by touch screen is now clicking around and playing games all over the ABC mouse website in under an hour!

My opinion, it is changed. I am in awe.

Ruminations on Junk Food and Picky Eating

Stale Christmas cookies and green peas... a winning combination?

I never considered my son a particularly fussy eater. I attributed this in part to the fact that I tossed the advice of feeding bland foods nearly completely out the window. Baby food was something that I fed on occasions when my son was hungry when I didn't have a meal prepared, something he got with his babysitter, and something I offered at the very very beginning of the feeding stage. I never viewed it as food-food. 

Spicy Indian curries were one of his favorites when he was under a year of age (and he still eats that kind of thing, but a little more selectively these days). Of course I avoided the extremely spicy stuff, and was careful to make sure he didn't smear any capsaician in his eyes. He also grew up enjoying sliced fennel bulb, green peppers, and other veggies with tuna salad dip, and canned salmon with homemade neufchatel dip (tastes like shrimp dip if you add onion and chives)! Broccoli and cauliflower he tries from time to time but dislikes.

The real mystery, though, is lettuce and any other leafy vegetable. It cannot be attributed to finickiness, because he has always refused to try them at all. If it wasn't for the fact that kids are known to try to eat poisonous plants all the time, I'd suspect some kind of protective instinctual aversion to eating leaves in toddlers and infants.

Except for when he is at hibachi restaurants. Inexplicably, he will down several bowls of iceberg lettuce in ginger salad dressing. Tried to offer it at home and no go.

However, I discovered a trick.

He was cuddling next to me and distracted, playing some new game I had put on the tablet that he was really interested in. I was eating some iceberg lettuce with Italian dressing. On impulse, I swerved the fork from my mouth towards his. The lettuce approached from slightly behind and to the side. Below his radius of vision. He was aware I was moving the fork towards him, but too distracted to make the effort to see what I actually had. Reflexively, he opened his mouth. Took in the oily lettuce. Chewed contemplatively.

Then ate all the good heart pieces. ;_;

That happened several days ago. But today I was thinking about his eating habits when he had to choose between finishing an old Christmas cookie and some peas. The pediatric dentist and oral hygienist have been very impressed with my son's teeth. This makes me exceedingly sad, since the plentiful bad teeth in other two and three year olds is starting so early from poor feeding habits that are not in any way necessary. Leaving bottles filled with juice with infants, endless flour-based snacks, cookies, cakes and candies, etc... My son brushes his own teeth, but not every day. Yet his teeth are clean. (I know, I have to be more vigilant to develop good brushing habits, I'm merely explaining the shocking differences in oral hygiene.) My son mostly eats apples and bananas throughout the day. A sandwich or two and sometimes he just likes to eat bread, and he drinks lots of milk and water. Occasionally I buy juice. He almost never gets soda pop and I almost never buy it. When we do have it, it is Coca Cola, which we don't give often, primarily because of the caffeine. Nearly all his soda consumption and a good portion of his junk food consumption come from family members who treat these items as daily items of preference.

Anyway, back to the peas. I was thinking about how sometimes my son chooses fruit or vegetables over cookies and cakes. And I realized, I never made much of a special issue about junk foods. I neither treated them as specially forbidden (simply not buying, say, super sugary kids' cereal is not treating it any more special than when I frequently chose to not buy, say, Swiss chard). I don't treat junk food as a main course, and I usually don't treat it as a treat, either (just M&Ms when potty training, and I did see him begin to treat M&Ms differently before the end of their use as a potty training treat). I would expect that he wouldn't treat such foods as a special indulgence he can have whenever he has the money for it. He would either want it or not.

But culture is also shaping his ideas of junk foods. Shows like Trotro have episodes specifically dealing with a main character having a problem with sweets, which instead of teaching my son a lesson about eating too much sweets puts the idea into his head that there is something special about sweets and that kids want to eat them all the time, until they get sick. He has also been learning to fear spiders from kids' shows featuring people having a fear of spiders. Right now the fear is play-acting dramatization for him, but I wonder if he will grow to dislike spiders? I am afraid of spiders, but I have been doing everything I can to be exceptionally brave when I see them, enthusiastically pointing them out when I find them.

/end meanderings.

Brief Hiatus

Holidays and all. Also, will be doing writing for Grounded Parents as well!

Multi-use household supplies

My son has eczema. It is stressful and annoying, no matter how you try to relax there's a special sort of compulsion that arises when your kid's skin isn't flawless.

Step one: breathe. I think I mentioned this in an earlier post. It is important because you need to be objective.

Step two: try to isolate the problem. This can be tricky, because some times these skin problems will just come and go and before you know it you think your kid has a dairy allergy when it was just dry skin or maybe the detergent your mother used on his clothes at her house or whatever.

Ok, so, in my son's case, seems to be related to his clothes in some way. Did not fully realize this right away because we use a "free and clear" detergent and never had unusual problems with diaper rashes or anything. There was improvement when we changed soaps on the Dr's recommendation but we figured we were stuck.

What changed is when we started potty training. Once my son realized he could take his clothes off, that's what he did. All the time. He's still doing it. As soon as we get home, he tears his clothes off.

And guess what? His eczema disappeared. He stopped saying "it's itchy."

Now, one thing to understand about eczema. When it's there. It is there. Its not like an allergy where you rub something wherever on the skin and it flares up. It's always there, hiding, in whatever area its in. It can eventually go away, but a lot of the time its just there, waiting for something to irritate it.

So, the question is, is it the quality of the fabric, detergent residue, or what? One shirt I put on him, he took off 10 minutes later and he already had a flareup. Some take more time. I suspect it has to do with continuous contact with clothes with detergent residue. I say this because laying against my chest or sleeping on his sheets doesn't cause a problem. And, its easier to test.

When I accidentally put my cellphone in the wash a few weeks ago I noticed there was a substantial residue on it. So, first step, rinse away the residue. I'll be doing this with vinegar. 

Step 2, change and reduce detergent.

I decides to use one of numerous online recipes. In this case:

1 bar grated ivory soap
1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda

Then I may or may not use a vinegar rinse. Since I'm going to try to use only a tablespoon of the mix, it may not be necessary but I haven't used home made detergent yet, so we will see how it goes!

If it works, perhaps my son will not be such a nudist all the time. I can only hope!

And there will be a lot of clothes rewashing to do...

BONUS: the Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda is perfect for stripping flesh and fat from skulls. I didn't have any when I botched my deer skull so I ruined it and ended up resorting to cutting off the cap instead. So even if this new soap doesn't work out, all the ingredients have another use! You can of course also use the borax, soap, and washing soda for other cleaning uses... but Google what happens when you put ivory soap in the microwave for a minute or so! Some fun kid activities, there..!

Update: nailed the cause down to an essential oil I used in a home made air freshener. It would be on the furniture and my son would come in contact with it then. It would get on his clothes and continue to irritate.

Is it hard to make a cake? And other questions based on fear.

So, I was making this mayonnaise chocolate cake from this other blog when I got to thinking about certain cultural misapprehensions about food.

For example, I always grew up hearing about how insanely difficult it is to make cake. If you believe the legends, cake is so notoriously fickle at coming out correctly that even the tiniest discrepancy in the Perfectly Crafted Flawless Recipiness that is cake will cause an unmitigated dry disgusting crumbling apart disaster. Actually, come to think about it, the nefarious darkness of failure was never actually described. It was more like some Lovecraftian horror... if the description was given to you it would be either insufficient to express the enormity of the horror you created in your arrogant ignorance or immediately turn you into a suicidal drug addict willing to do anything to escape the pain in your soul.

But listen here... while I won't deny there aren't difficult recipes out there, there's no reason to turn to box cake if you just want some cake. In Bitman's book, "How to Cook Nearly Everything", Bitman laments how divorced Americans have become from the kitchen that premade pancake mix was ever able to find a place on grocery store shelves.

But honestly, I think pancakes are more difficult than the cake recipe I linked above, in some ways. Or close to equal. Which is to say... easy!

Part of your fear of cooking these things may have more to do with fears given to you culturally and timid failures than anything substantial. I mean, yes, it is easy to have a burned, dried out cake... pancake... chicken... whatever. The key is, you just have to practice. Get used to how your oven works.

If you're rolling your eyes at that, think about your microwave. How many times did you make microwave popcorn before learning to maximize the corn and minimize the burn and unpopped kernels? It's like that.

When I decided that I was determined to learn to use my new crockpot I started simple. I kept buying the same kind and roughly same size chicken. I tested the temperature at different times and finally found the right balance between cooked and dryness. I really only took 2 or 3 chickens before I mastered it and nothing was really wasted (even an overcooked chicken is great for soup stock, or shredded for quesadillas or something and with the cheap meat thermometer I never undercooked one). So, in a way I never "failed" I just got better.

When you start more complex recipes the risk of wasting a bunch of food by turning it into a completely inedible pile of slop increases. So don't jump in to completely grandiose recipes. Master the little things. For example, I used to make chocolate chip cookies by dumping all the ingredients at once into my mixer. They came out OK but not great and I couldn't figure out why. Well, guess what? There's a reason some recipes have you cream the butter and sugar first! It will totally affect the fluffiness and texture. So feel free to play around once you've got the basic recipe down. You'll find other techniques and explanations for what they do all over the Internet. And it's fun to see the changes!

And as you become more familiar with the basic techniques and what their role is, the more you can improvise and make your own recipes.

Now, as for making a cake look pretty... I'll get back to you on that.

More skills: newer crockpots

So, one thing I learned how to use after having a kid was my newer crockpot. Newer crockpots heat a bit higher than the old, so all those old recipes just won't work, and you can't dump things in the crockpot before work and come home to dinner 8 hours later because almost no recipe will survive that long.

But who am I kidding? Even in the old crockpots everything came out bland and disgusting for me.

But finally, desperate to find a way to cook certain meals without worrying about my toddler sticking his hand or a toy into an open flame... I learned.

First, I started with whole chicken, trying it at different times. In my 6 quart Rival crockpot the sweet spot seems to be 4hrs30min on high. This is true for roast chicken as well as chicken submerged in water (when making chicken soup). Low just changes how long it takes to reach the max temperature, so extend the cooking time by an hour or two.

When not making soup-like dishes, prop your meat high on aromatic vegetables.

And be very very very generous in your seasonings!

As for today, today is a goulash kind of day.

6 quart crockpot Hungarian Goulash 

4 tbsp Caroway seeds

2 tbsp Cumin

4 tbsp Paprika

2 tbsp Cayenne pepper

4 tbsp garlic powder

4 cloves fresh garlic

Salt

Pepper

3-4lbs chuck stew beef

3 potatoes

2 red peppers

1 green pepper

3 onions

3 carrots

1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes

2 heaping teaspoons tomato paste

3 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup butter, plus more for browning

1/2 cup flour

Chop all vegetables.

Put some butter in pan, brown beef and put in crockpot.

Add more butter to pan if necessary and cook onions until transluscent.

Add vegetables, garlic, and onions to crockpot. Add seasonings, vinegar, and tomato paste. Cover with diced tomatoes. The crockpot will nearly be overfilled.

Cook on high for 4.5 hours. Halfway through, stir well.

An hour before it is done, stir. Make a blonde roux with the 1/2 cup of butter and 1/2 cup flour (you make a roux by heating the fat on the stove and whisking in an equal amount of flour. .. do not burn. A lighter roux has more thickening power, a darker is for color and flavor). Add the roux to the crockpot, stir. 

Taste. Add more seasonings if necessary.

When time is up, taste again, stir and serve or store in Mason jars.

Goes great with egg noodles, potato noodles, rye bread, etc...

Self-Induced Childhood Letdown

When I was a little kid, my Grandma watched me a lot. And I used to watch her writing stories for romance magazines and the like.

So I was inspired to write as well. Lots and lots of short stories, like one about a princess who gets kidnapped by a dinosaur and is rescued by a nice dragon. They started out a paragraph or two long and eventually reached a few pages in length as I got older.

Eventually I wanted to submit my stories for publication but I only wanted to submit to adult level magazines. My grandma kept trying to make me understand without insulting me why that was a bad idea but I never listened.

I finally gave up writing in my very early tweens when I received a personal rejection letter from Marion Zimmer-Bradley. Since I was a young kid, and my Grandma didn't read science fiction I never knew until much later the awesome I had in my hands was. At the time I became enraged, cried, threw out the (nice) letter and pretty much gave up writing until high school, where I dabbled a little with fanfiction, the TSA-ML, and shared stories. But I never wrote much (except for a blog, to share my experiences in Japan), and never tried to get published again until recently, but my love of writing just isn't as it was when I was a kid. I feel like I lost something.

So, long story short... as a parent or caregiver what would you do to prevent discouragement from unrealistic goals?

 

Get messy

I know it is inconvenient. Time consuming. Tiring. It can also cause panic.

But sometimes you just gotta let them get messy, play with paints and doughs and mushy things. I find Crayola is very washable. But if you're scared, set up in a special room like the bathroom and lock yourself in with the tot. Keep some rags handy for wiping the child dry, and have fun too!

 

Don't be afraid

I have found that it is really easy to get into a habit of treating your child the same even though they are growing older and more capable.

When was the first time you realized you could leave your child unsupervised for 15 minutes while you take a shower?

When was the first time you let them help you prepare food?

Sleep

I was going to write a post about sleep, but... I didn't have enough sleep this week to write it. See you next week!

You don't like bland food and neither does your baby.

Seriously, have you eaten some of that baby food slop? And maybe you're surprised when you're kid grows up loving soda pop and chicken nuggets?!

Now don't get me wrong, the food has to be developmentally appropriate... nothing that will choke, poison, or burn your child... but seriously, just mince the stuff up as much as needed, use your blender, whatever. Don't give them honey if they are under 1, lots of citrus, or Buffalo wings... but seriously, when my lil guy was less than a year old he loved curry! With just a pinch of heat to it, even.

Also, protip... set up your own food to be safe if they steal it off your plate. Letting them steal the food off your plate is the most awesome way to trick them into trying new foods.

And don't be upset when their tastes change.. it happens. Mine loved peas, now he just lines them up and counts them or enjoys smooshing them and throwing them to the floor. It's OK. I've got shit that I won't eat, either.

What they don't tell you about potty training

Ok, you'll see lots of books on the subject, and blogs, and articles... but they don't really answer the question of what potty training is really like. I'm going to reveal this terrible secret.

It's like training a dog (or parrot, rat or whatever pet you had and trained as a kid). You know, positive reinforcement or clicker style type training? It's like that, and honestly for many of the potty training books and advice out there you'd probably find better value for your money and cut out the fluffernutter. Of course, using a library's resources or borrow a friend's is even better. No need to own a potty training book.

Step one: make sure your child is actually capable of pottying in the toilet. That they can hold their pee and poo, that defecation doesn't scare them, and that they know the words that refer to these things, and aren't scared to death of the toilet or think you're murdering them by putting them on it. You can help them along with some of this, like letting them play on the toilet, to get comfy with it. But some stuff like being able to pull down their pants or being able to tell you they need to go may just simply take time.

Step two: find a reward system you both like.

Step three: don't give a shit about accidents. You must be calm and patient, because if you get mad your kid is not going to cooperate. And kids are not stupid, they can tell when you're pissed.

Step four: find a period of several days to a couple weeks when you and all the babysitters and relatives are ready to get going on this. Get books, videos, apps, etc for the kid to prepare. Remove toy distractions and stock fun activities around the toilet. Make you sure have a baby seat for the toilet or a potty chair, and decide if you'll need more than one for a second floor or for travel, buy underwear etc... you'll also be hyping up "big kids use the potty", the difference between wet and dry pants, etc.

Step five: in the first few days in particular, you gotta just keep putting that kid on the toilet every 15 minutes, keep the kid naked or only in undies and load them up with lots of drinks and food that induces them to drink a lot of their own volition. Have him or her check underwear for wet or dry regularly. Do not distract yourself with television or anything that would prevent you from hearing the plops or tinkles. Keep towels handy for cleanup, particularly boys will spray around the toilet.

*of their own volition is important. The minute they feel pressured it's going to be awful and not work.

Step six: get happy and goofy excited when they go in the potty, reward immediately with praise and whatever reward you've arranged and talk in simple terms about what he or she did to help your kid's vocabulary on the matter. I've heard that you shouldn't interrupt and accident on the floor. You just explain it is bad and have the kid practice on the toilet with no reward after. This might be more effective than having him or her finish on the toilet and giving a reward, probably sends a mixed signal.

Step seven: enjoy if your child "gets it" right away, and have unending patience if it takes days or weeks for your kid to understand the connection between the reward and the action. Or discover your kid isn't ready, save yourself the trouble and try again later.

*onlyy having just started potty training for my son, let me tell you it is imperative that you are consistent in your method and that you understand that method.  

http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/schedules.htm

http://www.clickertraining.com

http://psychology.about.com/od/operantconditioning/f/positive-reinforcement.htm

Too many toys

Get rid of your toys.

No, seriously,  I bet you have a zillion toys. Holdovers from when your child was younger, a bajillion stuffed toys and things given by friends, or even purchased by you, and stuff you probably don't even remember where it came from.

This is best done when the child is out of the house or sleeping.

Go through ALL THE TOYS.

Sort them, and discard any that are damaged, irretrievably disgusting or missing pieces. If you can't bring yourself to discard, box them and hide the box where even you don't go often.

Evaluate battery-operated toys. Does the toy need batteries to function best, and if so are you really replacing the batteries as needed or just letting the thing sit around?

Also sort out any toys that are just really annoying. Like, ones that require balls that always roll under the couch or ones that make really stupid noises or talk for no necessary reason. Trust me, most toys don't need to screech or talk. Even supposedly "educational" ones. If the problem is something like the balls and couch thing, decide if that toy can be placed in a different room with less chance for the balls to become lost or if you can make a barrier.

Sort your remaining toys by type.

Stuffed animals can be good decorations but do you need a lot? Blocks are good to have a lot of, but not stuffies. .. so either bag em, or find a place to use them as decoration where the child can't reach. Then, only make a few at a time accessible.

Take the sorted boxes of toys and store them out of site but in an accessible area that the toddler cannot get into (NOT THE SAME PLACE AS THE DISCARD BOXES). Have only one box out for play at a time.

If you keep the TV on all the time, or give your kid a tablet to play with... try not to. Turn off the TV for the day, and place the tablet in another room. If the child is particularly addicted to the tablet, it makes it even more essential that he or she doesn't see where you put it... it's best if it just simply isn't there that day.

Practice some patience as he or she figures out what to do with the limited selection.

You'll enjoy spending less time picking up and sorting toys, less mess to trip over, and the toys will be more thoroughly enjoyed. You'll also get a better sense of what toys your toddler really doesn't like at all.

Tips: The secret to washing baby clothes.

How do I get feces out of baby clothes?
How do I prevent my washer and dryer from smelling like feces or vomit?
How do I get feces out of clothes?
How do I get vomit out of clothes?
How do I get blood out of clothes?

You can do this list forever when you have an infant or toddler. Or if you're drunk and vomiting a lot, I suppose.

This is the ONLY trick you ever need to know! (But don't fool around with dry clean only, I don't buy those kinds of clothes so I can't speak for them)

Step one: keep the clothing item moist and relatively fresh. As in, wash it before it dries out. This doesn't mean you have to have a wet diaper pail, it just means don't leave them sitting around long enough to get dried out or moldy.

Step two: put the clothing items in your washer and do an entire cycle on cold (I find the extra pre-rinse on my washing machine insufficient), no detergent necessary.

Step three: when the clothing is finished on the entire cold cycle, then add your detergent (of course remembering that for babies you'll want some non-irritating gentle detergent, particularly for cloth diapers) and run on whatever hot/warm/cold cycle you normally are supposed to do with your clothing.

Step four: run the clothes through your dryer or on a drying rack or whatever it is you normally do to dry them. Done!

Summary: RINSE WITH COLD WATER ASAP, then wash as normal!

Seriously, the only time baby messes have ever stained or stank is when I let them dry or mold before washing, or forgot and ran it on a hot or warm cycle before a cold cycle.

If you accidentally do run a warm or hot cycle on a load and the washer and dryer end up reeking of feces or whatever, just run a clean wet towel or two with a little bit of bleach through both machines. Then remove the bleach by running that same towel through the washing machine enough to get the bleach out, then run it through the dryer.

Experiences: "Pimples on infant"

Ok, so, it seems like one day your little hunka-munka is suddenly mutilated with little bumps everywhere (particularly on his adorable, flawless little face)! Or, perhaps he had them when he was born.

Don't panic! I know everyone panics about these things. There's just something about your kid appearing less-than-perfect that inspires parents everywhere to lose their shit and smother their kid with tons of creams and lotions, or overwash their kid, or cut out this or that food, or whatever, but don't panic! It's ok!

First, remember you (should) have a pediatrician to consult for these kinds of things. But knowing you, just as I know myself and a bajillion other parents out there based on all the forum posts about this, you're cruising the Internet trying to figure out what this is. But please, CONSULT YOUR PEDIATRICIAN. I am not one of them.

So, let's take a look at some of the possibilities here:

Milia : teensy weensy little white bumps that your baby may have been born with and will go away within a few weeks. Don't squeeze them or try to treat them with ointment. It's just tiny pockets of dead skin.

Baby acne : may be a reaction to mother's hormones, or a skincare product. Again, don't try to attack this problem with scrubbing or lotions or ointments. No one is exactly sure the cause. Just wash your baby gently with gentle soap and water regularly, and try to pay attention if he's getting any oils or creams from you on him.

This is one I commonly see as attributed in parenting forums as "dairy allergy." Typically the online advice would have you cut out ALL dairy (even if you are breastfeeding, because the dairy you consume can find its way into your breastmilk) for about 2 weeks until you see improvement. It's worth noting that baby acne in general clears up in several weeks to several months. Imagine you take this advice to avoid dairy and the acne clears up in 2-4 weeks? Yes, you'll think that your baby had a dairy allergy (or sometimes people believe it is artifical hormones in the cow's milk). Nearly all the posts and comments on this fall into this category. I've even seen posts by people who have cut out dairy for about a month but still encouraged to believe it is a dairy allergy because it must be sneaking in somewhere as some hidden ingredient in something. But here is the problem... it can also be true! It really can be an allergy to milk, soy, peanuts, etc... and dairy can sneak its way into many foods. Check your labels.

If you really believe your child has an allergy, please consult your pediatrician! I mean, think about it... why wouldn't you?

When my beautiful baby's face became covered in pimples, I read all these forum posts about food allergies. It didn't seem so unbelievable to me that there would be this massive internet plague of dairy allergies (after all, we live in a world with a lot of people on the Internet, and those people with genuine conditions can and will find support groups for each other), it was the snap judgement by strangers on the Internet that it must be an allergy without any reason to believe so, and continued insistence that dairy must be "sneaking in" somehow even when all dairy is cut, or talking about dairy allergies that went away very quickly (as in, after a few weeks or months). So, I ignored this explanation and lo and behold, my son's "dairy allergy" cleared up on its own. Ask your pediatrician what the true signs of an allergy are, to be safe.

Eczema and cradle cap/sebhorreic dermatitis : this will look a lot more like a patchy rashy thing than a pimply thing. If it happens in the groin area, of course, realize it will probably be diaper rash. Eczema and cradle cap are skin conditions with not-fully-understood causes. Follow your pediatrician's advice. For cradle cap, it'll usually go away on it's own. Don't over or underwash your infant.

Eczema seems to have an inheritable component and although it isn't an allergy itself, it might be triggered by certain detergents, fragrances in soaps, etc... best to switch to something mild and fragrance-free. Moisturize with aquaphor and make sure the infant's clothing is light and breathable. My son, who has just developed eczema recently as a toddler, seems to suffer from it more when he gets sweaty, so I often leave him shirtless when I can. It's very itchy so it is important to keep it moisturized and as untriggered as possible to prevent damage from scratching which can make it worse.

Cradle cap/sebhorreic dermatitis... nothing much you can do about this one. Use a gentle, non irritating shampoo/soap, make sure to rinse it all out. I say this as an adult sufferer. For mine, a liberal rubbing in of virgin cold-pressed food-grade coconut oil helped a lot (but was unsustainable for me because I found it impossible to thoroughly massage my scalp enough to reduce the flakes and NOT have a greasy blob of hair to go with it). I didn't know about coconut oil when my son had cradle cap, and don't bother googling it... the Internet will tell you coconut oil will cure everything. Ask your pediatrician if it is safe. I know it irritates me to all hell when/if it drips into my eyes. Well, at least for nearly all infants dermatitis simply vanishes on its own! Lucky bastards....

Your baby's face isn't clean : if you don't gently wipe up all that drool and spit-up and overflow off your baby's face, chin, neck, and wherever else it's oozed, it will encourage bacteria to grow and that can give you some pimply red patch goodness. Just a damp soft cloth will do.

If any of this comes on real suddenly, is oozy, bleeding or cracking, is blistery, etc... call your pediatrician right away! There are real and severe allergies, atopic dermatitis, infections, impetigo, yeast rashes and more that need to be treated ASAP.

Sources:

Baby acne (Babycenter)
Mom and baby skin care (AAD)
Baby acne (Mayo Clinic)
Rash - child under 2 years (NIH)
Food Sensitivity (Kellymom)
Allergic Proctocolitis in the Exclusively Breastfed Infant (Breastfeeding Medicine)
Milk allergy in infants
Food allergies (Babycenter)

Craft Review: Homemade washable paint

So, I ran out of commercially produced washable kid paint the other day and in desperation turned to one of several recipes on the Internet.

I had avoided this recipe before because it had seemed unsound. It called for flour, water, and food coloring. I thought to myself, won't this stain? But then I thought of how I never got a stain from goods baked with food coloring so, maybe food coloring diluted and mixed with flour would be OK. And of course, a simple recipe like that, similar to salt doughs and such seemed just so comforting and familiar... and it looked adorable in my muffin pan.

So what happened?

Well, first off the particular recipe I used was a bit watery. The result of this was that much son quickly learned that splashing it everywhere would be AWESOME. It was on the walls, all over him, all over anything within 15'.

If it was cleaned up before it dried, it was OK.

However, if it was not cleaned up before it dried... well, it was a bit tough to get off the wall. And although I intended to wash my sons clothing immediately I forgot about them for some time after I tossed them down the stairs. After washing, they did not appear to stain, but dozens and dozens of little balls of colored dough became stuck to them. I ended up throwing the shirt out instead of fighting with it.

Oh, and forget getting it out of the brushes if you use brushes. 

Verdict

Can be OK in a pinch as long as the area and the surrounding area is easily wipeable and immediately wiped and cleaned.

If you're more laid back, or just letting the kid paint with minimal supervision or have a kid that's going to run around the house covered in paint and hug all your cloth furniture, you'll want to stay away.

Alas!

Alas, the fundraising goal has not been met.

There is apparently still time to order Glass, so if anyone is interested in funding this quest... please let me know.

I'll be keeping this blog up as a placeholder for Glass parenting news and in expectation of the day when I own a pair of my own upon the retail release.

Thank you all!

Less than a day left!

There is less than a day left to meet our goal on IndieGoGo!

For posterity

I almost forgot to post this for posterity. :)

The purchase post from +Project Glass.