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Just recently we met with some of the Angels who operate the Dandelion Support Network. Dandelion is a grass roots not for profit organisation run entirely by volunteers who give so much of their time and energy to helping those in need.
The Dandelion volunteers accept donations of good-quality second hand children and baby equipment for families in need. Once donated, if necessary they are repaired and renewed. That could mean anything from replacing a missing button or mending a hem to scrubbing back and restoring a well-loved cot. All our the goods are processed by volunteers who follow strict quality assurance standards so that the goods can be enjoyed by their new owner. Once the items are ready for their new home they are packed up with love ready for a new family.
Dandelion partners with some amazing agencies and support services who work with some of the most vulnerable families in our community. Through their partnership with various agencies and social workers, families who are suffering financial hardship can be identified and their specific needs are understood, so that appropriate, tailored packages can be provided to them.
Rock-A-Bye Baby were very happy to donate a couple of van-loads of items including baby capsules, bassinets, prams, travel systems and other necessary baby equipment. We hope that the donation will ensure more infants are travelling and sleeping safely – basic rights for every child.
If you have unwanted nursery equipment and would like to donate you can click through this link and visit one of Dandelion’s many donation days held in various centres across Sydney:
Posted by admin in Breastfeeding, General, How to on November 14th, 2013
I just had a lovely customer who has hired a Medela Symphony to express breastmilk at home call and ask how to clean her kit. So I explained it all on the phone and though to myself – I should probably do a factsheet so that other customers can print it out and have a read of it when they want to clean their kits too. So here’s how.
Cleaning your kit properly is very important to maintain the health and hygiene of your milk and to keep baby safe.
When you first get your kit you must clean the kit before you use it. It is sterile but its always safer to give it a good clean first.
Please note – word to the wise here – your kit isn’t dishwasher safe and the dishwasher isn’t clean enough so handwashing is a necessity.
This post is Part 1 of a 6 Part Series written by our Restraint Fitting Team to try and help parents sort through the many products, myths and misinformation that exist around kids and cars.
Trying to work out which one of the many car seats on the market to buy or hire as your babies first restraint product can be confusing. We know you want a quick answer – what’s the safest? The path to making a choice these days is more bewildering than ever, thanks to a raft of product innovations and the recently implemented National child restraint laws introduced in 2010. If you don’t know your locking clip from your top tether, or what a travel system is all about, let us help cut through the confusion.
Children aged between four years and under seven years to use an approved forward facing restraint OR an approved booster seat.
If a car has two or more rows of seats, children under four years cannot travel in the front seat;
Children aged between four and seven years will not be permitted to sit in the front seat unless all other seating positions are already occupied by children under seven years.
Just like seatbelt laws, drivers will be fined and incur demerit points if passengers under seven years of age are not wearing an approved child restraint.
Children under 6 months of age must use a rearward facing child restraint and travel only in the rear row of a motor vehicle. If your vehicle does not have a rear row, this does not apply. However, a rearward facing child restraint cannot be used in the front seat where there is a passenger airbag.
Most parents are keen to move their child into a forward-facing car seat as soon as possible, so parents seeing the switch as a milestone like baby getting first teeth or taking his or her first steps. Understandably, parents think their baby will be happier facing forward and getting a better view of the world. This may be true in some cases but its a huge risk to take. The baby doesn’t understand that they’re much safer facing rearwards in the event of a collision so its up to us as parents to manage that risk for them.
The most dangerous collisions tend to be front on and a child in a forward facing seat will be flung more forcefully forwards. Additionally, the load of the impact on a baby’s body in a forward facing seat will inevitably be concentrated on the harness area (read – on baby’s internal organs), whereas in a rearfacing seat the load of deceleration is spread across the shell of the car seat, so it’s less concentrated and a much lower impact load on baby. Also in a rear facing seat the baby’s head movement will be much less, so the risk of serious injury to their head and neck will be much reduced (this is a particular issue for babies as their heads are larger relative to their bodies than those of older children and adults).
So much research evidence has built up on this from crash testing that Europe is introducing new laws to keep babies rearfacing until 15 months.
We recommend you keep your baby rear-facing as long as possible.
Part 2 to follow next week – how to choose a rear facing restraint?
Try before you buy is really one of the many (and varied) reasons people choose to hire baby equipment. As we all know, what Mum and Dad like, it doesn’t necessarily follow that baby will like that too – no matter how shiny, how fashionable or how expensive the product is. Babies just don’t care. The same principles apply with baby’s first bed. Babies have grown and developed in a snug, warm, cocoon like womb for 9 months. Upon arrival babies are probably rather surprised to realise that:
Some babies do sleep “like a baby” but many don’t. Some babies are unsettled and can be difficult to settle and resettle to sleep during the day and night. This experience, of having an unsettled baby who was struggling with colic and sleep, is what spurred Ambrose Hooi to develop the Amby Hammock. Ambrose’s little girl slept wonderfully for the first 4 weeks of her life and then developed what is termed “colic” – that often misunderstood syndrome that results in babies crying inconsolably for hours on end. The Amby Air hammock is a great help for these babies and their parents, with the gentle bouncing and swinging of the Amby spring moving baby in both horizontal and vertical directions, naturally mimicking “the colic dance” movements that the colicky baby wants and needs. You could say the Amby is a baby colic home remedy.
The Amby Baby Hammock Air is also the only baby hammock on the market that can be used up to 12 months of age. It is also larger, safer and has an adjustable incline unlike any other.
Here at Rock-A-Bye Baby we suggest you to hire for a week or two, and if your baby loves the Amby Hammock we can replace it with a brand new hammock delivered to your door – yours to keep – and we’ll pick up the hire one once your new one has arrived and is set up. Hire-Try-Buy is 100% risk free – just hire your Amby, if you love it, we’ll get you a brand new one to keep.
Ambrose says: “Today, many thousands of parents in Australia and Europe have finally come to terms with the fact that for babies, to sleep, grow and feed well, they need a sleeping environment that has at least some ingredients of the maternal womb. The use of Natures Nest by hospitals and child care centres in Australia and Europe is extensive and growing rapidly.”
And it doesn’t get you pregnant!
Your pillow can be your best friend especially if it’s a DreamGenii Pregnancy Support Pillow. These pillows are a wonderful invention by an Australian mum and they take a lot of the pain out of your nighttime sleep during pregnancy.
So many mums tell me that they just can’t get comfortable in bed especially as their pregnancy progresses. The weight of the baby pulls heavily on the lower back and it’s difficult to find a comfy position to sleep in. The DreamGenii pillow helps take away the pain and discomfort. It supports your back, bump and knees without taking up all of the room in the bed. The makers of the pillow say:
“If used from around 20 weeks can help to encourage optimal foetal positioning which can lead to a shorter and less painful labour with less chance of intervention.”
Now that’s worth fighting for!
The best thing about the DreamGenii is that it makes a great feeding pillow once your baby is born. In effect it has two lives – double the value for money. I would have paid a king’s ransom for a good night’s sleep especially in the later stages of pregnancy but with DreamGenii you don’t have to do that. It is only $69.95 for a pillow that will allow you to rest, regain your energy overnight and be ready to cope with the next day and the next….
These pillows sell out quickly because they are such a great product. If you are desperate for a good night’s sleep order yours today through our shop: