New Petunia!

New Mod Petunia Pickle Bottom at Real Baby! Petunia Pickle Bottom creates baby and child necessities for todays woman.  By combining bold, sophisticated designs with everyday functionality, Petunia Pickle Bottom has reinvented the diaper bag to suit the modern mom.  Real Baby has a great collection of all the new Mod Petunia bags in stock, just in time for Mothers day!  Deck yourself out, or someone you you love, with these super fashionable and functional bags. They will love you for it!

New Dr. Seuss book to be Released!

Dr. Seuss long ago passed from the scene but old manuscripts by the beloved children's author keep turning up.

Random House Children's Books said Wednesday it will publish a recently discovered manuscript with Dr. Seuss sketches, called What Pet Should I Get,on July 28.

The publisher plans at least two more books based on materials found in 2013 by his widow, Audrey Geisel, and his secretary in the author's home in the ritzy seaside neighborhood of La Jolla in San Diego.

The author, whose real name was Theodor "Ted" Seuss Geisel, died in 1991 at the age of 87.

According to Random House, when Audrey Geisel was remodeling her home after his death, she found a box filled with pages of text and sketches and set it aside with other of her husband's materials.

It was rediscovered 22 years later, in the fall of 2013, by Audrey and Claudia Prescott — Ted Geisel's longtime secretary and friend — when they were cleaning out his office space.

They found the full text and illustrations for What Pet Should I Get?, among other work.

Seuss lovers were excited at the news.

Baby Names 2015!

Names are an important business. You don't want your child to have the same moniker as everyone else his or her age, but you also can't really reinvent the wheel, so to speak. Here are Parenting.com's picks for the most popular baby names in 2014. They are listed in alphabetical order, not by rank.

Baby Girl Names

1. Anna
2. Aria/Arya
3. Aurora
4. Avery
5. Claire
6. Cora
7. Ellie
8. Elsa
9. Fiona
10. Genevieve
11. Harper
12. Isla
13. Mackenzie
14. Merida
15. Mila
16. Natalie
17. Penelope
18. Piper
19. Scarlet/Scarlett
20. Violet

Baby Boy Names

1. Asher
2. Caleb
3. Dominic
4. Eli
5. Elijah
6. Finn
7. Henry
8. Hunter
9. Isaac
10. James
11. Jasper
12. Jax
13. Knox
14. Leonardo
15. Levi
16. Logan
17. Oliver
18. Owen
19. Sebastian
20. Silas

Too many parents still ignore dangers of baby blankets

Sudden infant death syndrome is a parent's worst nightmare and often one that's preventable. However, too many U.S. infants still sleep with blankets, pillows or other unsafe bedding that may lead to suffocation or sudden death, despite guidelines recommending against the practice. That's according to researchers who say 17 years of national data show parents need to be better informed.

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health and federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed annual telephone surveys involving a total of nearly 20,000 parents. Back in 1993, almost 7 out of 8 parents used blankets or other soft bedding for their infants; the number dropped sharply over the years but by 2010, more than half still were doing so. The practice was most common among young mothers, blacks and Hispanics. The study was published Monday in Pediatrics.

Accidental suffocation in bed, though uncommon, is the leading cause of injury-related deaths in infants. While the number of deaths from SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) has declined in recent years, it still totaled about 2,000 in 2010.

For more than a decade, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the NIH and safety experts have warned parents against using soft bedding in infants' cribs, either over or under the baby. That includes blankets, quilts, cushiony crib bumpers, pillows and soft toys.

That doesn't mean letting babies freeze; experts recommend safe sleepwear including one-piece sleepers, and keeping the room at a comfortable temperature

Another study published in July in the journal Pediatrics, looked at the sleep-related factors linked to sudden infant death. The researchers found SIDS involving newborns up to three months old often was a result of sharing a bed with a parent, also known as co-sleeping. Deaths among slightly older infants ages 3 to 12 months was often related to the crib environment, such as objects that rolled into the sleeping area or unsafe bedding which caused suffocation.

The decline in SIDS deaths is often attributed to the government's "Back to Sleep" campaign emphasizing the importance of placing babies to sleep on their backs, not stomachs.

"Rates of SIDS have dropped more than 50 percent, so really just getting rid of that one risk factor has really made a huge impact," medical contributor Dr. Holly Phillips said in July on "CBS This Morning."

To encompass other sleep-related risks, including suffocation, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and its partners renamed the effort the "Safe to Sleep" campaign in 2012. Safe practices include having babies sleep alone in cribs or bassinets, not putting them to sleep on couches, water beds or sheepskin that could smother a young infant.

These infant deaths "are tragic and they're just not necessary," said study co-author Marian Willinger, a SIDS expert at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Stay in and Save!

 

 We know it's freezing out.  Actually below freezing!  So stay inside and shop online at Real Baby.  Today only we are offering 20% off  your online purchase of anything in our store! Just use coupon code COLDOUT14 (all caps) at check out to receive this discount.  20% off our entire selection of online products with No exclusions!  Take advantage of the cold and stay inside and get a jump on your holiday shopping and save at Real Baby!

Join Us This Sunday!

Breastfeeding Tips!

Are there any foods I should avoid while breastfeeding

Some nursing moms find they can eat whatever they like. While it's true that some strongly flavored foods may change the taste of your milk, most babies seem to enjoy a variety of breast milk flavors! Generally, the dominant flavors of your diet — whether soy sauce or chili peppers — were in your amniotic fluid during pregnancy. Fetuses swallow a fair amount of amniotic fluid before birth, so when they taste those flavors again in their mother's breast milk, they're already accustomed to them.

 

10 tips for breastfeeding success

Watch a lactation consultant help a new mom learn how to breastfeed her baby.

Occasionally a baby will be fussy at the breast or gassy after you eat a particular food. If you notice a pattern, avoid that food for a few days. To test whether that food really was the cause, reintroduce it once and see if there's an effect. Mothers report that babies most often object to chocolate; spices (cinnamon, garlic, curry, chili pepper); citrus fruits and their juices, like oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruit; strawberries; kiwifruit; pineapple; the gassy veggies (onion, cabbage, garlic, cauliflower, broccoli, cucumbers, and peppers); and fruits with a laxative effect, such as cherries and prunes.
A daily cup or two of coffee is fine, but too much caffeine can interfere with your baby's sleep or make him fussy. Remember that caffeine is also found in some sodas, teas, and over-the-counter medicines.
It's also okay to have an occasional alcoholic drink. But having more than one drink increases your blood alcohol level to the point that the alcohol gets into your milk. If you plan on having more than one drink at a time, wait two hours per drink before resuming nursing (or nurse, then have your glass of wine). There's no need to pump and dump unless your breasts are full and it's still not time to feed your baby. Moderate or heavy drinking is definitely not recommended while breastfeeding. An old wive's tale suggests that dark beer increases milk production, but recent studies suggest this is not true and that alcohol, in fact, reduces milk production.
If your baby has allergy symptoms (such as eczema, fussiness, congestion, or diarrhea), they may be caused by something he's in regular contact with, such as soap, mildew, or foods he's eating himself. Or he may be reacting to foods you eat that get into his system via your breast milk. It usually requires a bit of detective work to figure out exactly what's causing the sensitivity.
If you think that something you're eating is causing problems for your baby, it's usually something you've eaten two to six hours before feeding. The most common culprits include cows' milk products, followed by soy, wheat, egg, nuts, and corn or corn syrup.
Talk to your baby's doctor before you omit any foods from your diet. If avoiding a food could cause a nutritional imbalance (for example, if you eliminate all dairy products), you may need to see a nutritionist for advice on substituting other foods or taking nutritional supplements. Continue taking your prenatal vitamin as long as your baby's fully breastfed to cover any gaps in your own diet.

Poorly placed sticker!

Someone wasn't paying attention when they priced this or Disney is moving into the adult market!

Pain While Breastfeeding

One of the biggest myths that I encounter every day in my practice as a Board Certified Lactation Consultant is that it is normal to have pain while breastfeeding.  Pain is a sign that our body is telling us that something is wrong.  Many nursing mothers feel that they should have pain while feeding their babies, or that the skin needs time to toughen-up. I see many clients in my office at two weeks with nipple pain that hasn't gone away and now they are dreading the feedings. Typically, slight nipple pain can turn into a chronic problem if not corrected.  Nipple pain that goes uncorrected turns into chronic, long-term breast pain or shooting pains in the breast. Many mothers feel they have a yeast problem, when really it is probably due to trauma, or a latch issue.  One of the simplest fixes is to have solid latch assistance from a Lactation Consultant. With some valuable time, the mother and the baby can learn how to achieve a deeper latch, decreasing nipple pain, improving milk removal by the baby, which improves milk supply and weight gain in the baby!  The sooner the correction of the latch, the sooner the overall improvement!  So, I am all for not to have pain!?

Marianne Kmak RN, BSN, IBCLC
Nourish Family Center