How often do parents nowadays ask a question “Is this healthy for my children?” These days parents may feel really overwhelmed; every day they need to make choices for their little ones. There are tons of options when it comes to newborn and children clothes, food, personal care products, toys and furniture. Adria Vasil, the author of Ecoholic Body: Your Ultimate Earth-friendly Guide To Living Healthy And Looking Good, talks about healthy choices for children in the interview with Laura Grande, Todaysparent.com Editorial Coordinator.

Adria Vasil advises parents to be aware of hidden chemicals in children and newborn clothes. She states that such thing as formaldehyde coating in children clothes that make garments at the stores look wrinkle-resistant and shiny, are dangerous. Another hidden source of chemicals that Adria Vasil mentions is the squishy bubble plastic in the front of many children shirts. She warns that such innocently-looking detail contains PVC and hormone disruptors which currently are not allowed in toys’ production. Ironically, those hazardous substances are still used to embellish children clothes. Apparently, every parent needs to be on the lookout for hidden chemicals in children clothes.

Adria Vasil suggests that parents go for natural fabrics such as cotton when making decisions about children and newborn clothes. When I come across information like this, I get even more excited and enthusiastic about baby hats and children hats that Wearcute has to offer. I think of how it is not easy to stay “green” nowadays. There are chemicals in children clothes, toys and furniture. I am not even talking about the food for children which is marketed as healthy choice when it is actually not. Luckily, we have access to information. Most of the time there is lots of controversy in every health-related subject, but at least we could gather as much information as possible before making the decision for our children. Moreover, there are always choices.

There are small and some large companies that steer towards green and environmentally-friendly products. For example, Adria Vasil mentions Ikea furniture for kids as a safe option; the company follows European standards and their children furniture is made from solid wood.

I was glad I stumbled upon this interview with Adria Vasil, because it provided such vital information that, I am pretty sure, every health-conscientious parent would like to know. I believe that we can make a difference by choosing green products daily. The more parents choose to buy all natural newborn clothes for example, the more demand it will create. As a result small and big newborn clothes manufactures will not be able to ignore the growing demand for natural baby garments. Making small choices and giving our preferences to products which are safe and healthy for our children, we do make a difference.

Adria Vasil also talks about healthy choices when it comes to other baby products, such as baby wipes and shampoo. She gives examples of brands which offer safe and healthy products for babies and children. If you want to read the original interview with Adria Vasil, click here. 

 Mother’s Day is special – it is the day when we get to say our thank-you-s to our moms officially. But there are so many things we can do to make our mothers proud, happy and appreciated. Small things – like phone calls to ask how she is doing. It does not matter that we saw her yesterday, and we know mom is fine – just a call to say “hi”! It means the world to mothers! When we were babies, our moms devoted all of their time to us. Did their “job” of being a mom stop at the time their children were peacefully sleeping? I doubt that. Small gestures and big gestures of appreciation is just something that we can do on our part now.

Next time we want to say “Mom, please – do not tell me how to live my life”, we should pause for a minute, or may be for more than that… We should pause trying to recall the moments from our childhood, when we listened to what our mothers had to say with great interest. We longed for our moms to talk to us, to sing songs to us and read us stories. Mothers were patient with us answering all, or almost all, our “why-questions”. Why should it be different now? Just because it is the age of information and technology, and we could find literally any answer on the Internet?! When an impersonal article on a certain subject has become more precious than something that comes from our mothers – the persons who still cares for us the most? If we forget about our Blackberries, IPhones and IPads for a moment and care to listen to our moms, this would mean the world to them!

Next time we want to spoil ourselves and buy something, why not buy a present or some flowers for our moms? They are the ones who have been putting our needs first for a very long time. There probably times when they chose to buy some toys children clothes over buying something for themselves.  An occasional gift or a bouquet is something that would mean the world to moms! It is actually not about presents, it is just to let our mothers know that they are in our thoughts.

Next time we feel overwhelmed by the responsibilities and challenges that parenthood brings, we should think of our moms. How much patience did they need to raise us and make us who we are now? Probably we would know that by the time our own children are grown-ups. Taking every opportunity to say “I love you, mom” is something that we can do easily, and it would mean the world to moms! Of course, moms know that we love them, but I bet they would never get tired of hearing these precious words from their children.

Let’s celebrate Mother’s Day every day and make our moms feel special, loved and appreciated! Happy Mother’s Day to all moms out there! And may every day of your life be filled with hugs and “I-love-you-mom” from your children!

If you are a new parent or you already have some parenting experience, you probably have noticed extremely wide choice when it comes to children clothing. There are three major trends in baby fashion.

First trend could be referred to as adult-like clothing. You can see cute little 6-month old wearing adult looking jeans and sweater. Another example is a little girl wearing leggings and matching top of a very neutral color – beige or brown. This style of dressing young children is very popular and I can see why. Those little tiny persons look so serious and cute at the same time in that type of clothing.

Another trend in children fashion is dressing up little ones in cute childish clothes. Here come cartoon characters’ prints on the T-shirts, animal hats and bright colored jackets. Again, this trend is very popular, and there is no reason why parents shouldn’t love this style. After all kids can be kids only once.

The third trend is the combination of the first two. The clothing of this style is usually characterized by bright color combinations, children themes, but at the same time contains adult clothing attributes. For example, grown-up-looking jacket would have bright colors. Neutral colors of a T-shirt would be brightened by a print of a cartoon character.

All three trends described here are absolutely adorable, and, of course, any wardrobe of a little one can have clothing of all the trends and all the variations in between.

Most of us have got pictures in our heads – pictures of exactly how it should be… As an example we imagine how it is to have a baby. “A newborn is peacefully resting in a stroller while I am strolling the alleys of the neighborhood, enjoying a nice mug of herbal tea at close coffee shop or exploring new arrivals at the mall with one of the friends”. It was one of several images I had in my imagination of what it’s like to to look after a baby . Here is other snapshot: “A newbornis quietly breastfeeding and dozing off to his day nap. And then I put him into his bassinet and make the full use of two hours-by baking a hottest recipe, cleaning my place and mastering Spanish with the new language computer program just recently bought”. Ok, let me share another picture I had in my head: “Just after having some fun at our good friends’ place our tired infant goes to sleep in the car while we are driving home”. We all possess a belief of how everyday life will be once we have a baby, and next a little one arrives… and proves us all wrong! Welcome to reality – the reality of parenting!

I did not come up with an idea of a newborn blissfully sleeping in a stroller out of nowhere – I have seen it plenty of times. I knew that newborns did scream and got up at nighttime, but I had invariably considered walking with a newborn as a quiet time for a mother, an opportunity for her to settle down while clean air and movement provided the soothing conditions for a newborn to rest. Okay my kid proved it wrong during the initial “going out” we had!

Here is how we used to go for walks. First, I had to rock him to sleep; then I would bundle him up and put his knit baby hat on. I had to do it extremely delicately and silently. Then a second practically inconceivable task was to put him into his stroller with not wakening. I regularly was unable to do that not because I was not thorough enough. I had perfected the strategy of laying down my resting child to brilliance but despite all that he would awake! Since he was now dressed for the walk I would take the weeping little one out. Not a chance he would quiet down in the baby stroller! I would have to rock him till he is sleeping and then try my luck by laying him into the stroller again. If I was fortunate and he would not awaken, it meant I got myself may be twenty-maximum 30 minutes. I used to wander nearest boulevards ensuring I didn’t go away from my place. As soon as my child awoke he noticed he is not in his mom’s arms he cried and I could tell I had to rush home-nothing would cool him down. Nine months have passed since then and my son is still not pleased about sitting in the stroller-now for different excuses than when he was a new baby. He taught me properly and I am aware that I should not go away too far from our house…

The identical picture was with daytime sleeping. My spouse and I came to realization that without swaying our baby would not fall asleep. He would weep, he would be irritable, he would be overexcited- these were the signs- time to rock him to sleep. Rocking became our second nature which definitely had a number of benefits. Our baby would settle down faster if he was in a baby carrier. Regardless of how tirelessly he fought it, sleepiness would conquer him sooner or later. Well, lulling our son to sleep was only one half of the problem. Another one half was far more challenging – having him resting while laying down. Putting him down – regardless of how masterful my partner and I grew to become at that – never became our strength! Our little one still awoke when we did that; at that moment breastfeeding came in handy! Breastfeeding my little one when he was almost sleepingIvery sleepy helped to further calm him down. I discovered that initially I had to rock and calm him down in order to get him eat! Moral learned: I should set aside cleaning the house, baking or learning a foreign language while he is napping. I should be right next to him so he naps.

One more lesson that my husband and I discovered the tough way is that we should never go somewhere by car when our son is cranky. I heard it frequently that irritable and weeping newborns would readily relax and doze while being soothed by the car motion. That was not true for our baby. Absolutely nothing would calm him down when he was sleepy but instead of being in his mom’s arms he found himself in a car seat. He cried like something really terrible happened. He cried so I would think that it’s brutally awkward in his car seat or something was really troubling him. Didn’t take us long to figure out: he would not sleep in the car. My boyfriend and I figured out another lesson and made a decision to say “no” to almost all social gatherings that happens later than 3 pm. Not a very popular decision one might say… But I am open to do that interim everyday life shift to have a happy baby and to hold my own balance also!

Seeing all the Practices that my boyfriend and I learned through the first year and all the life changes that we’ve created, I joke by saying that our son taught me properly. On a serious note, my parenthood adventure only proves that I should by no means think that things would be the way I imagine they really SHOULD be. This straightforward fact that is not very easy to acknowledge for a controlling person like myself. I have been told frequently that “your world completely changes after you have a baby”.

This is the only real truth that was not proved wrong by the birth of our precious son! He has delivered so much happiness and joy into our existence. He has made me strong, patient and nurturing mother. He has also been an inspiration for me to begin doing something I’ve definitely loved and enjoyed. I formed a company that focuses on hand-made baby hats.