Child Care & Bathtime Archives

Y-Brush 10 second toothbrush

Kids hate brushing? Well, have you heard of 10-second teeth brushing? It’s true! See why the Y-Brush toothbrush gets all the rave reviews here with my little super tasters.

Kid-approved KAL MultiSaurus gummies

Searching for some kid-tested and parent-approved vitamins? Look no further than KAL Dinosaurs – from the Vitamin D-Rex to the KAL MultiSaurus Gummies, there’s a product for every need.

Make your own foaming hand soap – 3 different ways

DIY Foaming soap castile soap with essential oils ingredients

I love foaming soap, and I love it even more now that I can make it myself right at home from soap I already have. Add in some essential oils and coconut oil and it feels luxurious and yet only costs pennies. Try these three ways to make it and start saving money today!

The JOHNSON’S® Baby tradition

I’ve now been a mom for 9+ years and still JOHNSON’S® products remain one of my must-haves for little ones. Not only do I love them for my kiddos, but they are also one of my favorite gifts for all the new moms in my life. Whether I pick them up in the baby aisle, order using store pick up, or I have them delivered to my home, JOHNSON’S® products are a staple on our Walmart shopping list.

How do you prepare for cold and flu season?

This post has been sponsored by Pfizer Consumer Healthcare. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Do you ever just watch your kids playing, snacking, and interacting with other kids and mentally plan out how you’re going to deal with whatever sickness they bring home from it? No? Okay, maybe it’s just me. But with … Read more

Sick Just Got Real: How do you handle summer germs?

This post has been sponsored by Pfizer Consumer Healthcare. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I have kids, which means it’s a constant struggle to balance the sometimes not-so-clean activities of young kids without becoming the anti-bacterial gel wielding mom. This year has been especially bad and while I’m tempted to sanitize every surface they … Read more

Parenting: when sick gets real

This post has been sponsored by Pfizer Consumer Healthcare. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I’ve got three little kids, all of whom have independent schedules and loads of interaction with other kids. This basically means that cold and flu season is a constant struggle to stay healthy, and to minimize any illness that hits home. This year has been especially bad and there hasn’t even been one day that the kids’ classes were full or there weren’t a few last-minute playdate cancellations due to illness.

I can’t have them live in a bubble or sanitize every surface they *might* touch, so what’s a parent to do? I want to make sure they can see and play with their friends and not miss out on crucial lessons, but I definitely don’t want them bringing home every little sniffle that goes through their classes. To combat illness, we implement these basic rules for keeping healthy:
1)   Wash hands frequently, and make sure kids know how to wash properly.
2)   Staying home when we’re sick – no need to send the illness around the school, family, or playground.
3)   Keep a good routine. With healthy amounts of activity, good diets, and plenty of sleep, we manage to avoid quite a few illnesses a year.

10+ tips for road trips with young kids

In the past 8 years, my children have visited 6 different countries, 3 continents, and countless towns and cities in the United States and abroad. We’ve traveled by train, plane, boat, and car, and at this point our kids can pretty objectively be referred to as seasoned travelers. Recently, we’ve been doing a lot of road tripping, and while it’s nice to not have to plan for airlines, train stations, and long waits before departures, trips in the car with young kids have their own set of challenges. Over the years I’ve learned that these challenges can be minimized by how I pack, prepare, and execute a road trip with baby, and we’ve gotten our system down to a science thanks to Huggies at Costco.

How to pack the perfect carry-on for baby

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SkinCareForBaby #CollectiveBias Our kids go just about everywhere with us, and that includes when our adventures take us out of state by plane, train, and automobile. This go-anywhere, do-anything lifestyle started with our first baby when she was just days old. Even back then we’d have parents come up to us incredulous that we were able to travel with baby and now that our family size has increased their curiosity has only grown.

And I always tell them that traveling with babies was one of the best things we ever did. Not only did it make them more adaptable and flexible, it also made it easier to keep our adventurous side, which makes us all happier. The kids are growing up seeing things others only dream of and we’re spending some really awesome quality time together starting from day one.

My first tip for traveling with baby is that preparation goes a long way. Before we ever set off with baby, we read a ton and played out all of our worst-case scenarios. There were a few missteps along the way but for the most part we were prepared for just about everything that has come up, and even when we weren't, we were able to approach it with a roll-with-it kind of attitude knowing that you can't account for every emergency.

If you are a new parent wondering about the logistics of traveling with baby, you can relax because we are giving you a peek into our carry-on for baby. This is exactly what we'll be packing for our cross-country trip with kiddos this month, and has worked well for us on all of our adventures. Are you ready to start? Great, let's break down our packing list by category: food & snacks, soothing & comfort, playtime, clothing, changing, and just for parents.

Guard Your Teeth: why you should always have dental insurance

You don’t fully appreciate dental insurance until you are ever left without it. In 2014, we made the mistake of letting our dental insurance lapse and to this day we are still dealing with the fallout… and the medical bills.

Who would have ever guessed that my daughter would get knocked into a desk face-first, smashing her gums and breaking the two front teeth in the last month of that year? Or that my husband would get his first cavity, ever? Or how about guessing that I would find out that your bite can get misaligned seemingly out of nowhere and that the result is super painful? Never again will I go without, folks.

Fair warning: the image below could bring a grown man or woman to tears. Now imagine seeing your child in this kind of pain with tooth and gum damage and knowing your options are extremely limited because you don’t have insurance.