Baby Care Archives -

Homemade Teething Rusks

April 10, 2012October 22, 2022 by Julie Cottlein Baby Care

My little 15 month old Lachie is teething up a storm at the moment. Mother nature is testing his limits as he sprouts 4 teeth all at once including 3 molars. On top of that, or maybe because of that, he has a snotty nose and frequent poo that seems to resemble battery acid in the way that it’s been burning his poor little bottom. He’s become somewhat like the family puppy, gnawing on anything that will fit in his mouth.

After several days of puppy dog behaviour, I decided to whip up a batch of the teething rusks I used to make for my big boys when they were babies. They are very simple to make, work a treat, Lachie likes them and are a much tastier and healthier option than the refined white wheat flour rusks you get in the supermarket.

Here’s my recipe 🙂

What you need:

10 slices of rye bread (you can use any kind of bread really, I’ve used rice bread for my babies when they were younger)

2 cups of miso soup (I use miso paste in water to make a broth but you can also just use those packets of dried miso soup mix so long as it doesn’t contain artificial flavours and flavour enhancers)

1 Tablespoon each of finely ground sesame seeds or sunflower seeds

What to do:

Cut the bread slices into little fist sized soldiers

Mix the sesame and sunflower seeds together in a bowl

Brush some of the miso soup over the bread

Press the bread slices into the seed mix

Bake in a low oven (around 150 C) for about 11/2 hours until they resemble dried out dog bikkies

Cool ’em and put them in an airtight container

One batch of these makes around 30 rusks and will keep much longer than it takes for those teeth to sprout!

Eczema? Dermatitis? Dry itchy skin? Check out Hope’s Relief- A review and giveaway

November 25, 2011October 22, 2022 by Julie Cottlein Baby Care13 Comments

My eldest son has suffered from eczema off and on for his entire childhood. He recently had a flare up despite his usual krill oil, vitamin and mineral supplement routine. I hadn’t changed our washing powder, he hadn’t changed soap personal care products, hasn’t changed his diet, it was just an unexplained flare up. Boo. I figured it was the perfect time to try something new and the opportunity to review the Hope’s Relief products came at exactly the right time.

Being a herbalist, I am well familiar with what a real herbal cream should look and feel like. The first thing I noticed about the Hope’s Relief cream was that it felt and smelt just like a cream I’d make up in my clinic. It has that herby brown look to it which tells me it really does contain therapeutic amounts of quality herbal extracts. It smelt really herby too. No stinky artificial smells, just therapeutic herby goodness.

The problem I’ve had with some of the herbal creams I have made up for my biggest boy is that the base I use is quite thick and it sticks to his clothes and takes a long time to penetrate the skin. The Hope’s Relief cream is a perfect consistency and gets into the skin quickly without leaving a greasy residue.

Within 24 hours of starting the cream, Mr Biggest Boy had stopped telling me his eczema was itchy or hurting. Within a week I noticed that I was only having to apply the cream to two patches on his back. The smaller patches on his tummy, arms and legs had disappeared. The 2 patches on his back were markedly better. They were now mostly just dry, not red and angry looking. Certainly not cracked and bleeding like they had been before we started.

The other product that came with the cream was the Hope’s Relief cleansing bar. Mr Biggest Boy doesn’t use soap at all because even the most natural unscented soaps tend to cause a flare up in symptoms. I got him to start using the cleansing bar and it hasn’t caused any problems. The cleaning bar is better than his usual no soap routine because because water alone can be quite drying to the skin. The bar contains aloe vera, calendula and manuka honey which makes it healing, moisturising and antimicrobial. It’s the perfect product to use in combination with the cream.

Hope’s Relief has given me a cream and a cleansing bar to give away to a Natural Transition family. To gain entries to the giveaway, you need to comment on this post. I’d love to know what you’ve tried to treat eczema, what’s work or not worked for you. You can earn extra entries by liking the Hope’s Relief facebook page and by sharing this comp on facebook or twitter. When you comment on this post be sure to let me know what you’ve done to get your entries. I’ll draw the winner on December 5 at 5pm.

Update- The winner is Kerry 🙂 Here’s hoping your little one finds it as good as my son has.

5 Reasons Babywearing Rocks My Socks

August 29, 2011October 22, 2022 by Julie Cottlein Baby Care

Last Friday and Saturday, I had the privilege of attending the Connect2mums Mumpreneurs conference and Bio Oil Ausmumpreneur Awards. As well as learning a lot and meeting a lot of great people, there was an unexpected benefit- I got to spend much of two whole days and nights wearing little Lachie. He’s always a pretty cuddly baby and spends a lot of his time in my arms but at the conference, he was stuck to me the whole time. As the baby in a family of 4 kids, he had found his nirvana, he had his mummy all to himself.

I didn’t try and put him down to sleep as I would at home, I didn’t put him down to respond to a 3 year old calling “help, help me mummy!”, I didn’t have to prepare food or go searching under the trampoline for school shoes. I just got to hold him, wear him, feed him and respond to his needs even before he realised he had them. It was lovely! Honestly he wimpered about 3 times during the actual sessions and made a few gurgly noises. Apart from that, he slept and slept, had a bit of crawl about on the floor, fed, looked around and smiled at people and slept some more.

The 2 day conference with a 98% fully breastfed, very slowly crawling 7 month old in tow was made simple with my sling. I chose my pocket sling for the conference because it is so simple to use and doesn’t take up much room in my handbag. I took his stroller too, but he hardly used it.

Here are my 5 reasons why babywearing rocks my socks.

He sleeps for a looooong time in the sling- He always gets more sleep when we are out and about than when we are home. He still find it comforting to sleep on me and will open his eyes then go back to sleep in his sling. At home, he wakes and cries after 40mins or so and I never get him back to sleep because my 3 year old like s to help. 3 year olds are not good helpers when it come to getting babies to sleep.
Octopussing (AKA multitasking for mother)- I can breastfeed listen and type notes all at the same time. I often sling him at home if I need to get something done on the computer and he doesn’t want to be put down. He can easily feed to hearts content and usually just falls asleep. Sanity saving on ‘those’ baby challenge days.
Gives familiarity and security in an unfamiliar situation- As you can imagine, a conference can be noisy and there are lots and lots of new people. Little Lachie was able to take it all in his stride. I like to attribute that to the comfort of my familiar smell, feel and sounds. You don’t get that degree of reassurance from a pram.
He is easy to settle and get to sleep in a sling- I know not all babies will sleep in a sling but Lachie does it well. Whenever he got restless I popped him in the sling, feed him, rocked him and he was out like a light.
It helps him to be social- During the sessions, Lachie’s favourite thing to do while he was awake was to look around the room, make eye contact with people and grin at them. He was able to do this because he up at our height. If he was in his pram, all he see would be legs. Faces are so much more interesting than any pram toy I could find to tie to the pram. It’s the same story when we are out and about too. People talk to him more when he is up close to adult head height rather than knee height and he loves that.

Does baby wearing rock your socks? Why? And… what’s your favourite sling? Speaking of favourite slings, the winner of the prestigious 2011 Bio Oil AusMumpreneur of the year award went to Anita of Babes in Arms. This is the lady responsible for bringing slings like the Ergo and Peanut Shell to Australia and is the founder of Australia and New Zealand Baby Wearing Week. She will be joining Koshie on the couch on Sunrise in about 6 hours. What a fabulous opportunity to share the benefits of baby wearing to the mums of Australia 🙂 And what a deserving winner!