Mother's Day Eco-Friendly Diaper Discount

I got this clever marketing email in my inbox today... I decided to post it here in case anyone is into g diapers and would like to use the discount code.

Dear Moms,

This Mother's Day I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for all that you do as a mother every day of the week, 24/7, 365 days a year. Your kids, partners, parents and siblings think the world of you for the incredible mama that you are.

It is easy to forget the lifelong lessons you impart, the personal satisfaction gained and unconditional love exchanged as a mother in the midst of a 2-year old's tantrum in the middle of a supermarket but its all worth it. (At least my mum reassures me it is based on her experience with my tantrums!)

So please take this Mother's Day to pause and remember how much your loved ones and all of us appreciate your fine work as a mother. You are doing nothing less than nurturing tomorrow's leaders, visionaries, teachers, social workers, policemen, etc. Keep up the great work!

Here’s one more bit of thanks from me to you. Take 20% off your next purchase at gDiapers.com using this coupon code at checkout: thanksmoms. This coupon code is good through Mother's Day, May 10, appropriately.

Cheers, 
Jason

Jason Graham-Nye
Dad
(Co-founder/CEO)

I stumbled upon this product when my 4-year-old was an infant.  I wanted an eco-friendly diaper that was "flushable" because even though I had bought a bunch of cloth diapers, my typical first-time-mom anxious Internet research on cloth diapers made me paranoid about all the detergent and water wasted with cloth diapers.

It felt like I was in a "damned if I do, damned if I don't" situation.  Use disposable diapers and you are filling up the landfills with stuff that would take 500+ years to biodegrade.  Use cloth diapers and waste water and increase detergent runoff into the oceans.  I thought a flushable diaper would be the ideal solution for the next 2 years of diapering I was facing at the time.  

And lo and behold, g diapers appeared in my Google search.  I did enjoy having them for a time, mainly because they come in cute colors and look adorable on baby bums.  After a while, though, I realized there was still one other thing a paranoid mom could worry about:  the flushable inserts come with those disturbing chemical gel beads.  There's no perfect product out there, but this is a pretty good one.  I guess it's a matter of choosing the least of three evils:  

1.  filling up the landfills, 

2.  wasting water, 

3.  or having chemical gel beads in constant contact with your baby's sensitive areas

All three are debatable, and subject to each person's varying priority levels. ; )   If you feel like getting into the details of these alternative diapering approaches, feel free to start one on the Zefridge forum!

At any rate, happy online shopping for Mother's Day, courtesy of g Diapers, a company I think is getting most things right.  (And no, this isn't a paid endorsement or in-context link, seriously!)

Swine Flu: What You Should Know

The recent swine flu outbrakes in multiple countries have many people worried; what exactly is swine flu and what can you do to protect yourself and your family from contracting and passing on the virus?

Here is some useful information. First, an article from Bloomberg.com -- Understanding Swine Flu Outbreak: Questions and Answers. For more information, check out the websites for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as well as the World Health Organization (WHO) -- both of these links lead to the specific pages concerning swine influenza.

Vegetables, not Fruits

Our precious munchkin progressed beyond her liquid diet and began tackling more solid foods last month. We started with puréed vegetables and have slowly been making the move to fruits. But she doesn't seem to like fruits. At least not yet. 

You'd think that apples would be an easy food, right? Apple sauce seems to be enjoyed by all, yet our tiny eating machine squinches up her eyes and gags with each mouthful. Too sweet, too sour? Her mother has the same reaction to green apples, while I prefer the sour taste of my crisp Granny Smiths. Maybe she's taking after her mother. Same thing with bananas - she has that look on her face like we are stuffing a rabid cat down her throat. Prunes seem to be working, though - they are going down a little easier now after a few weeks of testing.

If only this would last through her later years, this preference for vegetables over sweet tasting fruits, or later on sweetened, sugary products. If only it would have been the same for me - I have a dentist appointment tomorrow morning to replace some old fillings...

Madonna and Child: Age-Old Icon, Indeed

I had another visit to the pediatrician today... I quite enjoy going, actually. And the kids love it, too. The docs are upbeat and funny. The reception area is huge, airy, and filled with great toys, books, and modern, indestructible furniture. They've done up the place so well that I actually hope they'll make us wait in the "waiting room."

So yes, doctor visits for the kids are something I count more as a plus than a minus in my sometimes "grueling" ; ) life as an at-home mom.

Except for one thing.

Those ubiquitous cover articles featuring yet another celebrity mom with yet another flawless child with yet more glowing praise for their innate talent for raising kids in their private magical world, rich with interiority.....

All the articles seem to say the same thing, year in and year out, regardless of which parent-child combination is on the cover and being interviewed. My eyes glaze over as I scan my reading options in the waiting room and see endless variations of the same formula, the same visuals. So boring are the choices that I am actually tempted to pick up the car magazine. And I've never been a good driver.

It is Easter Week, though, so I shan't rant and rave too much. Suffice it to say that:

I'm not annoyed with the mothers in these articles, and their babies are indeed always adorably cute. What bugs me is the idea that ending the first decade of the 21st century, marketers are still using the same old Madonna and Child-driven emotions and ideas to push baby goods and services.

Can't we 21st-century moms get some au courant marketing material, please? Corporations needn't worry.... there's still plenty of desire to buy baby and motherhood stuff. I just wish they'd entertain me with something new while getting me to fork over the cash or plastic.