0 Cart
Added to Cart
    You have items in your cart
    You have 1 item in your cart
    Total
    Check Out Continue Shopping

    Blogs

    How to survive working full time and feeding the kids after work

    How to survive working full time and feeding the kids after work

    As you all probably know I don’t love cooking but I do love good food and I always make sure the kids are fed a cooked meal before they go to sleep - perhaps unnecessary when they’re at nursery and they are fed 3 meals there - but I still think a full tummy may help them sleep better!  One of my main anxieties about going back to work was having time to prepare a meal after I pick the boys up from nursery and fed, bathed, dressed, read to and in bed by 7.30! 

    These are some tips on how to feed your kids a healthy cooked meal after work without the stress..  A little preparation goes a long way!

    1. Prep: On your days off, peel, chop or slice vegetables and store in an airtight container in the fridge ready to pick and choose what you need when you’re ready to cook.

    2. Recipes: Have a list of recipes with quick cook healthy meals - share with your friends and you’ll have a library in no time.

    3. Save: Batch cook and freeze meals, defrost overnight ready to simply heat when you get back.

    4. Quick: Invest in a pressure cooker - this will save you at least half the cooking time.

    5. Slow: Invest in a slow cooker - prepare in the morning and have delicious meals ready and waiting for when you arrive home.

    6. Soak: Don’t forget to soak pots and pans as soon as you’ve used them - this will reduce the time you need to wash up. 

    What essentials you should have for your baby in your medicine kit

    What essentials you should have for your baby in your medicine kit

    We never want to think of our little ones to be unwell but it’s always a good idea to be prepared as the last thing you’d want to do in the middle of the night is to go out to buy paracetamol or teething granules when your baby is crying in your arms – especially if you are on your own or you have other children in the house.  

    Read more

    How we live with food allergies

    How we live with food allergies

    Some of you may know my oldest boy has allergies to some foods.  We found out when he started weaning. Take a read of my blog on how we found out he had serious allergies to all nuts and eggs but here is my story on how we lived and live with these allergies.

    It was obvious to not give DS any eggs and nuts.  As I was also breastfeeding at the time I had to cut them out of my diet too.  We don’t really eat nuts in our food and don’t buy them as snacks except my quick hunger pang fix of peanut butter on toast.  We only ate nuts when they were already in meals when we ate out and as we didn’t eat out anymore so it was easy enough to cut nuts out of our diets.   I also stopped eating eggs.  As soon as I cut out eggs and nuts from my diet, DS’ eczema improved.  His skin became baby soft again. 

    Cutting out eggs from my diet and from DS’ diet was actually harder than I thought it would be. I never realised how many things I ate had eggs in it, in some form or another.  Boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, omelettes, quiches, fritata, pancakes, even ice cream! There were also the hidden egg foods such as some pastas, cakes, biscuits, some sweet breads to name but a few.  My quick to cook meals significantly reduced in number. This really hit me when I went back to work and had to find new quick after work meals to cook.   

    There are varying degrees of egg allergies.  Some children are only allergic to the egg whites and some are ok with baked eggs where the protein is changed at prolonged high temperatures.  My DS was allergic to all of the egg and even to eggs baked at high temperatures.  So this ruled out biscuits and cakes.  This suited me as I didn’t want DS to be eating lots of biscuits and cakes but actually when his friends around him were eating it I always tried to offer him an egg free alternative.    This became more of a situation at nursery when there were birthday celebrations at least every other week.  I would bake eggless cakes for him when i knew there was a birthday coming up.  The nursery then changed their policy and didn’t allow parents to bring any personal foods in for their child as part of their inclusion policy.  They assured me they would have a batch of eggless cakes for DS when a child brought in birthday cakes.  There was one occasion that DS grabbed the cake from the boy next to him.  It turned out that he didn’t have a cake himself - only a yoghurt.  No wonder he wanted to to take his friend’s cake!

    When we ate out and on occasions when I didn’t bring a homemade lunches DS’ menu choices were limited. Luckily DS isn’t fussy.  There were also times when the message between the waiter and kitchen was not relayed about DS’ allergies and he would come out in a rash around the mouth with the first taste of his meal.  If it began to spread quickly we would give him a dose of antihistamine to prevent further reaction.  This worked each time we had something he was allergic too.  After which our little boy had to wait to eat something else. 

    When we went to visit family and friends it was so easy for them to forget about the eggs and nuts that may have been prepared in the meals - an egg to bind breadcrumbs, hidden in ice cream, in mayonnaise, satay sauce, walnuts sprinkled on salad.  Even though I thought I was really careful assessing ingredients of everything he ate, I still sometimes missed something that DS was allergic to.  I felt really awful that I was so careless so I can only empathise and reassure my friends or family who cooked that DS would be ok - which he was.  We have been lucky so far that we have not needed to use the adrenaline pens.  He has never become hard of breathing.  I am quite religious at bringing his medicines with him wherever we go even for short trips when there’s no intention of him eating anything.  Even when I leave DS with his grandparents and they reassure me they won’t give him nuts or eggs, and as scary as the thought is and the huge reluctance my parents and my in laws were to using the pens, I taught them how to administer the adrenaline - just in case. I just didn’t want to take any chances of them not knowing. We always carried 2 pens with us and left 2 pens with nursery just in case 1 pen wasn't enough.  

    The best message I was ever given was to give adrenaline if you think he might need it.  Not giving it may cause more harm than not giving it if he was having an allergic reaction.

    I hope this hasn’t scared you if your LO has an allergy but I wanted to give a real account of our life with living with allergies.  DS has grown out of his egg allergies and enjoys his eggs in all forms including ice cream!  He has also grown out of most of his nut allergies except peanuts and walnuts.    He will more than likely remain allergic to these for the rest of his life so he has to be careful and carry his adrenaline pens with him. 

    I have always been open with DS about his allergies, even as a baby, teaching him what he can and cannot eat, why he can’t eat certain foods and what is happening when he has a reaction.  He has learnt to ask about things he hasn’t tried before in case there’s anything he’s allergic to.  We’ve found not making it a big deal and not making him feel left out is really important and has made living with allergies much easier. 

     

     

     

    Protect your health after having a baby

    Protect your health after having a baby

    We all take so much care of our bodies when we want to become pregnant and then even more so during our pregnancy as we miraculously grow our baby but once our baby is born it doesn't stop there. Have a read a read of some tips of my personal top 5 ways to protect your health for after your baby is born. 

    Read more

    How to survive long car journeys with young children

    How to survive long car journeys with young children

    From experience, travelling in the car on journeys of more than 1.5 hours is not something we look forward to. We often think how nice it would be to maybe do a driving holiday along the East Coast of America, drive through Europe stopping at the different countries along the way or even re-do the Garden route of South Africa. This is, until the reality of three kids screaming or crying in the back seats makes us realise there’s no way we will attempt a driving holiday until all the kids are old enough to sit quietly with the iPad for hours on end, or at least get through civilised conversations without one shouting at the other.

    We probably found the most difficult age to travel with a baby was between 0-12 months old. Understandably, a young baby/toddler is too young to comprehend why they are restricted in the car seat and why you are not able to pick them up and bribery at that age just won't work.

    Our eldest (now 6), I would say is at the turning point of when they become a ‘good traveller’, albeit, he's passed the age to fall asleep on car journeys, never stops talking or just wants me to keep changing radio stations, however, he knows to go to the toilet before a long journey, he doesn’t (always) whinge to get out of his seat, he doesn’t need me to sing non-stop nursery rhymes for 3 hours and he rarely spills his drinks. 

    We have made plenty of long car journeys, visiting family and travelling for holidays in the UK and Europe and so we have some tips and advice we’d like to share with you on how to survive travelling with young children - obviously our advice will depend on the age of your child.

    Our top 10 tips:

    1 ) Time your journey - I think my most useful tip is, if you can, perhaps leave in the early evenings so the children can sleep through most of the journey or time your car journeys for when your baby/toddler is most likely to nap if travelling during the day.

    2) Pack lots of clean snacks - by ‘clean’, we mean anything that doesn't cause lots of juicy mess - chocolate can melt, sugary snacks can make them hyper - so stick to fruit and healthy dry-ish snacks - food that they like and plenty of them. Use an Onco car seat protector to catch those crumbs around the car seat.

    3) Limit water intake - For children out of nappies, try not to give your children large amounts of fluids about 45 minutes before a long car journey. Use non-spill bottles (sippy or sports bottles) for water/liquids - we love the plastic free Pura bottles - beware not to give them free reign as you may find you make more toilet breaks than wanted - especially if one child wants to go and not the other only to find them needing it half an hour later.  Try to hydrate the kids 30 min before you plan to stop somewhere.

    4) Kids entertainment - audio books, CD of favourite songs, play games - I spy (for the older kids) is still a firm favourite in our car, first to spot a ..., be flexible with the use of the ipad/smart phone (remember to have it charged up!) - their favourite game/film or even a new film can save a bored child but save this for when it gets really tough as you might not get it back!

    5) Pack a travel toy bag for each child but choose the toys wisely.  Those that are loud with continuous repeating sounds may cause you more pain than the fight keeping it at home.  Reuseable/wipeable drawing boards, books, small items but don't overpack - you'll be able to pick up 'toys' from anywhere. Kids will play with anything even empty bottles/cups/etc.

    6) Allow plenty of time - If you have a deadline to reach your destination - set your sat nav and give yourself enough time for eventualities including frequent stops.  This will break the trip up for the kiddies and also in case you need to take unplanned stops for toilet breaks, change of clothes from spillages, food breaks,etc.  Even with sat nav - take a look at the route before you set off so that you have a rough idea of the major roads you need in case your sat nav fails.  

    7) An empty bottle or spare nappies is a must for children out of nappies for those moments when the next service station is 43 miles away and there are no safe places for them to use nature's land.

    8) Pack an extra set of clothes for those spillages and keep a sick bag at hand just in case they get car sick.  Keep a blanket for when they fall asleep in case it gets cold.  They'll feel more relaxed with a familiar item.  

    9) Keep wet wipes, tissues or even a roll of paper towels and a bin bag for the rubbish close by.

    10) Musical chairs - jump next to them for part of the journey if you are able to.  They will find this a change and the time will go quickly making eye contact with babies or chatting to older children about what you see outside or what you'll do when you get to the destination.  An Onco baby car mirror will let you keep an eye on your baby and allow your baby to see you whilst on the move.

    When all else fails - turn up the music to drown out the noise!  Ignoring the kids and even a crying baby won't harm them and will give you some peace - go ahead - we said you can do it!