I'm a full-time mummy

I am so happy to be able to review this product as it arrives just a day before we are due for our short 3D 2N family trip up north recently. Here goes my review for the "BabyDan Bathmat":

The Bath Mat designed by BabyDan is very useful in preventing your child from slipping accidently and is soft, textured and very comfy!

Mat features: 
* Easily cleaned.
* It features suction cups, making it easily repositionable.
* Can be used both in shower and bath. 
* Size: 42 centimeters x 25 centimeters (oval shape)

The BabyDan Bathmat is available from the online nursery shop Hello Baby.  Hello Baby also sells a wide range of other baby and nursery stuff including Baby Toys, nursery furniture, baby travel and baby safety products.

Just look at my little Miss Inspector! The moment I put the packaging on the bed, she immediately crawled over to inspect what's inside! Anyway, the bathmat came in a transparent plastic bag which can be reuse as the cover/carrier for outings.

Then I took out the bathmat and Alyson got more excited! She bends it, and inspects every nook and corner! She plays around with the suction caps for a while to satisfy her curiosity.

The reason why I requested to review this bathmat is because of its portability feature. The bath tub we have currently does have a small area (like 6 inch width) at the bottom which is anti-slip but it cannot be removed at all. Which pretty much sucks unless we carry the bath tub along for our family trip. 

I also thought of the times I had to be super cautious when it comes to water pool time which my kids both love to do almost everyday! Now I can be assured that she will not slipped accidentally while she is seated in the water area.

Picture taken above shown Alyson sitting on the BabyDan Bathmat in the bath tub during our recent family trip and also top right picture showing her sitting on the bathmat again in our mini water pool.

What I love about this bathmat is it is so easy to carry along, it doesn't take up much space at all and while it is very easy to put on and remove, I'm happy to say that the bathmat remains strongly secured! 

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the product by Hello Baby in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.

The last time I wrote about my girl's prolonging case was back in mid November last year, about her 2 months prolonged jaundice ending.

And now, another prolonged case... this time, prolonged NO pooping. Yep... 2 weeks.. well, almost...

At the time I write this post (which is yesterday), she has just pooped! Finally! After almost 2 weeks without pooping! She pooped about 5 times, pebble (chewing gum ball) sized poops. The biggest one was about twice the size of my thumbs stacked together. Sorry for being too graphic here.

To be honest, throughout the almost 2 weeks of no pooping, of course I'm worried. I mean, I cannot imagine how painful it might be for her to poop when the time comes. I started praying after 1 week, telling God about our situation and that I will not mind the mess when it comes. Just let her poop with as less pain as possible.

On the other hand, I was not worried that she might be constipated as exclusively breastfed babies are not at high risks of constipation (confirmed this with our pediatrician via phone call just few hours before she finally pooped). I did checked out websites on the Internet which all confirmed that unless my child is on formula milk (risks are higher as formula milk are harder to digest and can't be fully digested) or in pain, then I should be worried.

Problem is my girl is not in pain. She's her usual chirpy self.

What I did to help move things along are:

- Pray!

- Increased breastfeeding as breastmilk is a great laxative!

- Give more water throughout the day to hydrate my girl.

- Apply more nappy cream on her anus area to lubricate it when she poops (helps avoid straining the area in case the poop is too big).

- Feed more banana (pead's advice) between feedings to help move the poop along (*Note: We didn't get to try this method since my girl pooped before we managed to buy the banana)

My girl cried for the first few seconds when the poops came out but otherwise was back to her chirpy self and once the poop is out, you can see her happy face as if nothing happened at all!

So there you go, another prolonged case which you can now tell people 'It can happen!'

I just want to tell you guys, especially breastfeeding mothers, if your child is in the same situation as mine, fully breastfed, alert and active as usual, then don't get too panicky.

Try the natural ways first before resorting to using medicine or ointment to force the poop out as it might not help your child next time! (think the dependency towards the medicine and ointment for pooping as in they might end up relying on medicine and ointment to poop next time!)

So have your child ever encountered this before? How long can they go without pooping?

* Update on 4th June 2012: I noticed that when I give my girl banana mashed, she will poop. Do take note of the article I mentioned in my comment section below about bananas (it can help in pooping but it can also cause constipation!)

Yet another Twitter luck I have when I stumbled upon this tweet message by Slugs & Snails looking for bloggers to review their products and after telling me they are OK at working with international bloggers, I immediately got down to choosing one of their designs and waited patiently for it to arrive to test it out on Ben! So here goes my review:

Description from the product page:
"Slugs & Snails tights are more than just tights. Our designs (unlike girl’s tights) don’t stop at the knee, which means that they can be worn with or without trousers. Each pair comes with our unique Slugs & Snails© leaf logo and anti-slip soles to give grip to busy little feet.

* No more lost or odd socks.
* Warm legs and snugly toes.
* Soft breathable combed cotton.
* Flexible yarn allowing room for nappies and chubby legs
* Soft non-slip text on the soles, ideal for wooden or ceramic floors.
* Funky designs loved by little ones.
* Beautiful packaging ideal for gifts and baby showers.

All our tights are 80% Cotton (17% Polyamide, 3% Elastane – the stretchy thingies) and made by our lovely manufacturers in Turkey. No Slugs or Snails are harmed in the making of our products."

This product arrived in 2 weeks time somewhere in the middle of April and it took me about 1 month before I can get down to reviewing it on my 3 year old. The reason in the delay is I waited until our recent family trip before I can try it out on Benjamin.

At home, our air conditioning unit is set to 24°C and Ben even kicks away his blanket though he's just wearing his diapers at night. Hence, the 1 month long wait until we have to stay in the hotel (air conditioning unit set low and unless we turned it off, we have no choice but to brave the cold temperature hahaha...) So anyway, back to the review...

The tights came in a neat package with a little transparent window for you to peek into the designs. It is folded nicely and you can read about their 3 Fs philosophy at the back of the box.

I requested for the "Out of this World" design with the biggest size they have which is 2-3 years old since Ben is 38 months old now. I love the anti-slip soles which actually reads the brand name and the tights size. The sewing is nicely done and I really love the funky design and the vibrant colors!

Btw, Slugs & Snails are a great potty training handbag/nappy bag accessory too as they take up no space and are super handy to keep tucked away in case of any little accidents because you have a pair of trousers and socks ready to wear with no fuss! Cool feature!

Pictures below shows my boy in the cute tights! He slips into it easily and was climbing and jumping around the moment he got it on. There was absolutely no need of me to be readjusting or pulling the tights up for him (like I normally do when he wears long pants or socks)

I love the fact that the tights kept him warm and yet did not restrict his movements at all, and at the same time making him look as cute as ever with its funky designs!

And honestly speaking, I think my girl would look cute wearing one of this too!

You can browse for more designs from Slugs & Snails's website

I am so excited to be able to hold this giveaway for my lucky blog followers and readers! ONE of you lucky people are going to win a pair of this funky tights for your child! Now, let's read below for the giveaway terms and conditions OK?

To enter the giveaway, kindly read and follow the instructions as stated in the Rafflecopter form below.

• You can enter either via login through your Facebook account or just key in your name and your valid email address.
  
• Please also leave your valid email address in the post comment so that I can contact you if you win this giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the product by Slugs & Snails in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.