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Sleeping Beauty Crown and Cinderella Star Earring Sets sold at Wal-Mart Stores in Florida from February 2007 to June 2007 for about $5 have been recalled because metal earring sets contain high levels of lead. Lead is toxic if ingested by young children and can cause adverse health effects. Remedy: Consumers should immediately take this recalled jewelry away from children and return it to Uncas Manufacturing Co. for a full refund. Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact the firm at (800) 776-0980 between 8 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or e-mail the firm at skenney@uncas.com

Some rice and oatmeal have clumps that don’t dissolve, company says

WASHINGTON - Gerber Products Co. recalled all packages of its organic rice and organic oatmeal cereals Friday because of potential clumping of the baby food, which can pose a choking hazard.

Gerber said it has received complaints of choking but no reports of injury.

The company said a “limited quantity” of the cereals could contain lumps that do not dissolve in water or milk. The cereals were distributed nationwide and to Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.

Food & Drug Administration compliance officer Sandra Williams said the agency was aware of the voluntary recall “and we concur.”

Gerber spokesman David Mortazavi said the company was recalling 306,760 packages of organic rice cereal and 167,724 packages of organic oatmeal cereal.

All codes of the two products, sold in 8-ounce boxes, are being recalled. The organic rice cereal UPC code is 15000 12504 and the organic oatmeal cereal UPC code is 15000 12502.

The baby food should be not be eaten, and customers can call the Gerber parents resource center at 800-443-7237 or 231-928-3000 to return the product and receive a full refund.

Think your cutie pie has what it takes to make it as a yogurt face?

Visit http://www.yobabyyogurt.com/CoverBaby/ for more information and be sure to check out their FAQ section to learn how to upload the photo of your choice.

I added Anthony on Sunday night So come October don’t forget to cast your vote for the little cuties!

(Contest info from their site)
We’ll award two grand prizes: one in our baby category (6 to 12 months); and one in our toddler category (13 to 24 months). Each grand prize will include:

• A $5,000 U.S. savings bond;
• A trip for four to San Francisco, CA;
• A professional photo shoot, and the possibility of appearing on our YoBaby multipacks or in our advertising;
• A childhood of portraits from the Picture People.

We’ll accept entries from July 15th until September 30th. Our judges will select eight top photos (four from each age group), which we’ll post here on YoBabyYogurt.com. Public voting will then determine our Grand Prize winners.

From their FAQ:

1. What happens to my photo once I submit it to the contest?

Once you submit your photo, it will be judged based on overall emotional stopping power and ability to capture the photographed child’s inner beauty and unique personality. Four finalists in each age group will be posted to www.yobabyyogurt.com. Public voting will begin on October 15th to determine the Grand Prize winner.

Babycheapskate.com reader Sarah B. wrote about this awesome Target/Gerber deal that allowed her to get 40 jars of Gerber baby food for 80 cents:

1. Print this Target coupon for $1 off two Gerber toddler or baby foods. Sarah printed 20 copies!
2. Buy two jars of Stage 2 Gerber food. At Sarah’s Target they were $.52 each.
3. Repeat until shelves are empty!

Oh, and if someone tells you Target doesn’t accept web coupons, ask to speak the manager. They do. I haven’t had any problems using them.

The Bush administration said Saturday that senior advisers would recommend the president veto Senate legislation that would substantially increase funds for children’s health insurance.

read more | digg story

Here is what I think. Women have come along way but until a man has to deal with the soreness and excruciating pain involved when your breasts are so full of milk you can’t move without leaking nothing will come of this. Why? Because they don’t get it on so many levels. If you think of it most “officials” are going to be on the rather elderly-side and their generation didn’t get into such “matters of the sexes” and a lot of them were told that breastfeeding is bad for the baby and they should use formula instead. Obviously since then the decision has been reversed but a lot of their opinions on it have not! (Trust me I know.) Granted since they are officials for MD-PhD testing you would think they would be up on the times but you never know.

One person commented on digg that it takes at least 45 min to pump so either they were not using a very good pump or they didn’t have that good of a supply. I managed to get (I don’t pump anymore since Anthony is 11 mo old now and will probably start weening..anywho..) about 3-6 oz in a 5 to 10 minute period. I guess maybe I was just blessed, who knows. For those of you wondering I used the Medula Double Breast Pump (can’t recall the exact name) and it worked awesome!!

This is a very delicate situation since if she extends her breaks she will disrupt everyone else when coming back, but I do think they should work out some way for her to be able to complete the testing. Her child and her health should not have to suffer over such a ridiculous rule. Good luck to her!

She already has a doctorate from Harvard. Now, after five years of medical training, all that stands between Sophie Currier of Brookline and an elite, double-barreled MD-Ph D is a daylong exam and her commitment to breast - feeding her infant daughter. But officials won’t let her pump her breasts during the nine hour test. Yikes, what do you think?

read more | digg story

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, only 50 percent of infants and toddlers are routinely read to by their parents…

Ok, I mean, WOW! I try to read to Anthony although most of the time it is a struggle between reading and just flipping pages back and forth. But he does show interest in his books and does routinely play with them so there is progress. He likes the ones that are textured or have animals at the moment.

read more | digg story

Although stores are flooded with intelligent-enhancing products for babies, you need not buy them to raise a smart and happy infant. If you think back to your childhood you’ll remember the *fun* things that didn’t require batteries to entertain you. I mean, remember when you actually had to make “bang, bang” noises when you had a play gun or how to build a fort out of blankets and couch cushions? Just a little article to remind us all…

read more | digg story

So I’ve thought a lot recently about alternatives to sippy cups. Anthony hates the ones with the handles, and god forbid if you give him one that has a regulator in it to stop him from drowning when he tips it upside down. The ones that he prefers are disposable ones made by Safety First that simply have a pop on lid and are insulated. They are easy for him to hold and have no regulator so he can drink as fast or as slow as he wants.

Now, I’m sure you’re wondering “What is the problem?” Well…. he’s figured out how to toss them on the floor at the right angle to pop the lid off and then we have a huge puddle of water. And before you get into a hissy, I am not disposing of them after each use. In fact he is still using them but I need an alternative to save my sanity!

I found this really cool site (well I thought so at the time but since have come up with an alternative) that sells pop-up top lids for water bottles in a set of 3. If you are interested you can visit www.snacktrap.com to see more. Which sounded really intriguing but I since realized that I can just buy a sports-style water bottle.

Then it hit me. With all of the information in the news lately about plastic and how it leaches chemicals into our food and drinks I don’t really want to use that with Anthony as a new sippy. See this article for more information. Grrrrr! What’s a mom to do?!

Then I found this Stainless Steel one that is a modified sippy that is made for little hands so I will head to my local store to see if they have anything like that before ordering. I’ve tried the larger plastic “big people” ones with Anthony before but when filled with water it is too hard for him to hold up and drink from.

I’ll let you know the outcome to my trip to the store.

Have a helpful tip? Feel free to add a comment!

I found this while surfing the web today.

Glubble is a new plugin for Firefox that allows kids to surf the web safely, showing only the best of the web that parents choose to allow. It causes Google and Yahoo search results to show only content from the trusted “Glubbleworld” instead of the entire web. It also has a “child friendly look and feel with interfaces for pre-reading and reading age young children.”

How cool is that?!

If you are an Internet Explorer user you won’t miss it much, if at all. I’ve been a Firefox user for years and love it. Firefox has tabbed browsing, and you can import your IE links. Thanks to the new IE 7 upgrade there are hardly any differences at all. Give it a shot yourself by clicking on the link below