Category Archives: Baby Health

Happy Holidays from Little Sproutings!

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Little Sproutings is taking the week off to soak in Baby Jia’s 1st Christmas!

To all of you new mommies and daddies celebrating your baby’s first Christmas (or any other holiday), we hope that you have a fantastic extra special holiday season and get lots of snuggles and cuddles!

(and how cool does the falling snow look with this picture?? If you don’t see it yet, give the snow on this page a chance to fall…)

And for any of you who were wondering, things baby should NOT consume*:

egg nog
chips and salsa
cheesecake
sweet tea
pumpkin/apple pie or any other pie (or pie filling)
oreos or any other cookies
bourbon or caramel sauce
whipped cream
flourless chocolate cake
ice cream
wine (or champagne)

*There are MANY other off-limit foods, but these alone are based on ridiculously true stories/Facebook newsfeeds

The Gift of Milk Giving

Fa La La La La!! ‘Tis the season for giving, so I thought, hey this would be an appropriate topic to cover!

I very recently ran into a new mom (Hi, Christa!) at Buy Buy Baby who isn’t able to feed her newborn breastmilk due to a protein intolerance. She expressed her disappointment that her frozen milk is going unused. So, I suggested milk banking. After voicing her interest in the topic, I mentioned Little Sproutings (of course) and the post I’d written earlier that mentioned milk banking (“Boobienomics: Nature’s Supply & Demand). One of my loyal Sprout readers also suggested the topic, so how could I not dedicate a post to something I feel so proud to have been a part of?

A quick bit about my experience: I donated almost 600 ounces of milk to The King’s Daughters Milk Bank, in Norfolk VA after we realized we couldn’t feed any of my pumped milk to Jia. If you recall, we went through a process of eliminating dairy and soy from my diet (see: My Little Soy-Free Dairy-Free Sprout) so the milk I’d pumped couldn’t be given to her. I had a freezer almost entirely filled with frozen bags of milk (and no room left for food)! The milk bank I contacted made the process quick and painless!

So for those of you who have been lucky to have a supply like I was/am, your little one is past the point of breastfeeding and you’ve got a stash, or if your baby isn’t able to drink the milk you have saved up, here’s some info about a wonderful thing you can do with your liquid gold! Continue reading “The Gift of Milk Giving” »

{giveAWAY!} A Tiny Collection for your Tiny Sprout

I am so excited about Little Sproutings’ VERY FIRST GIVEAWAY, just in time for the HOLIDAYS!

The Tiny Collection is a great baby clothes company based out of Richmond, Virginia. Lindsey Frank, owner of The Tiny Collection and brilliant artist and interior designer, was constantly disappointed by the lack of variety while shopping for products for her son. She created The Tiny Collection to take the designing and production into her own hands to offer unique, beautiful, comfortable, and high-quality baby clothing.

Jia in the Lucky Horseshoe Onesie

All of Lindsey’s designs are lovingly designed by hand and are printed with baby-friendly water-based inks (even the metallics!). From a sweet Galileo quote, a dreamy night’s Pleiades constellation, to a whimsical Ship & Anchor design, all Tiny Tees and Onesies are made and printed in the USA.

Each Tiny Package is artistically wrapped and packaged, most complete with a Tiny Tag filled with a matching Tiny Tattoo (pictured above). Lindsey’s attention to detail does not go unnoticed and the special touches don’t skip a beat.

I LOVE The Tiny Collection! Seriously, The Collection’s tees and onesies (both the organic and non-organic) are incredibly soft and the designs are so beautifully illustrated and printed! The metallic ink is so eye-catching, and well, every girl’s gotta have her shimmer!! Continue reading “{*giveAWAY!*} A Tiny Collection for your Tiny Sprout” »

Product Spotlight: Prince Lionheart Reusable On-The-Go Bottle Warmer

Prince Lionheart Reusable On-The-Go Bottle Warmer

The Prince Lionheart Reusable On-The-Go Bottle Warmer was a product I stumbled upon accidentally when I was shopping for other baby supplies. I didn’t realize this type of thing existed! Jeff and I would gripe about the process of having to ask for really hot water to warm a bottle, in the event that he was with Jia and I wasn’t there to nurse her. Why wasn’t there an easy solution?

Well, enter the Reusable On-The-Go Bottle Warmer! There are only a few other travel bottle warmers out there, some require a car lighter, others require hot water to be poured into the walls of a thermos. But, this one is a handy click-to-activate wraparound pouch that begins to warm instantly!*

I actually get more use out of this bottle warmer with heating up my Infantino Fresh Squeezed pouches when we are out and about. Since I am exclusively breastfeeding and don’t want to throw my body’s schedule off, I nurse and don’t feed her bottles. However, I found a great use for the bottle warmer when we went on a road trip – warming up a few ounces of breastmilk to mix oatmeal with fruit! Genius. (well, I thought so…)

Anyway, at $14.99 (and don’t forget a 20% off coupon from Buy Buy Baby!) this item is a really great deal!

Hope you enjoy the product spotlight! Please feel free to leave any feedback on my contact page!

*The reusable bottle warmer can only be reused when the crystals are reactivated to their liquid form with boiling water. Once used, it cannot be reused prior to reactivation.

Click Here to return to Product Spotlights: Feeding and Nursing

Happy Sproutsgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all the parents, expectant parents, grandparents, and the rest!

Since this is a holiday weekend, I wanted to publish a quick post for those of you with little ones this Thanksgiving. BabyCenter recently sent out an email listing foods to avoid feeding your baby. Junk food does more bad for your baby than it does for us grown-ups, since their tummies are so small and can easily become filled with non-nutritious calories.

Remember, your baby’s diet (under 1 year) consists primarily of breastmilk (or formula) and is COMPLEMENTED by solids to provide her with new experiences with textures and flavors. Foods should be nutrient-dense, packed with lots of vitamins and minerals. These foods are whole foods, like fruits, veggies, and meats. Over 1 year old, babies should still consume nutritious foods so their bodies and immune systems become stronger.

With the holidays being filled with such excitement and delicious foods, it may be tempting to sneak in a spoonful of pumpkin pie filling, a smidgen of cranberry sauce, or a little buttery mashed potatoes (or sugary sweet potatoes) to your baby. But keep in mind these foods are not healthy for him. Added sugar and fat fill up a baby’s calorie needs with junk and can negatively affect their taste preferences for healthier options for the future. And, when consumed at even this young an age, these habits can lead to Type 2 diabetes and weight problems in the future.

Foods NOT to feed your baby:

Juice
Soda
Crackers
Gelatin desserts
Processed meals

Why Not?

Continue reading “Happy Sproutsgiving!” »

Your Little Sprout’s Growth Charts Explained

Almost all of us have been there. Sitting at the pediatrician’s office, the nurse wheels in the infant scale for his or her weigh-in, encircles your angel’s head with a halo-like measuring tape, marks the examination table paper at the heel and top of the head.

After gathering all the important info, they enter the information into the computer (or on a form) and scribble a number down on your progress report paperwork in their corresponding ” _____ %ile” spaces (“blank percentile”).

Maybe you’ve sat there confused. “If there was something wrong, they’d tell me…right?” you thought to yourself.

If this sounds like you, I’m here to clear it up! I’m going to walk you through reading a growth chart and interpreting the numbers.

What are Growth Charts?

First off, growth charts were made in order to track infant, child, and adolescent’s development (length, weight, and head circumference factors) from birth up to 20 years of age.

The lines show the distribution of the population according to that specific measurement.

For instance, if a measurement falls along the “75” line, then that means for that measurement, 75 percent of girls (or boys, depending on the chart) at that age/weight/length/head circumference were shorter/weighed less/had smaller head circumferences. We’ll get into that in our practice exercise below. Continue reading “Your Little Sprout’s Growth Charts Explained” »

Avoiding a Sick Sprout…

OK guys – As a healthcare provider (even if I’m on an extended “break”) I wanted to put this out there as my nurse’s Public Service Announcement for all parents who have babies, young children, kids, if you have little baby cousins, nieces and nephews, best friends who have little babies, or who are pregnant… GET A FLU SHOT!

Flu season is September 1st through March 31st (that’s the guideline we follow in the hospital) and the best way you can protect your child against a whopping case of sleepless nights, fever, crying, irritability, difficulty eating, etc etc is to get vaccinated and to vaccinate your kids!

Why Vaccinate?

In general, your baby needs to be up-to-date on all vaccines. ALL VACCINES. There really is no excuse for this. So much media sensationalism exists trying to unjustifiably pin long-term health effects on vaccinations, but no. Don’t buy into it. It’s ridiculous. It leads to worse problems, like the resurgence of diseases that used to be things of the past. Here on Little Sproutings, I try not to be incredibly opinionated about some issues, but failing to vaccinate your child is a whole other story.

For more about vaccinating your child overall, see the “Additional Info” section below and additional resources at the end of this post.

Flu Vaccinating You & Your Sprout

The flu virus affects everyone. Babies and young children especially need a vaccine to defend their little bodies against the flu, because their immune systems aren’t at full strength and the effects of a flu illness are worse for them. Additionally, the course of a flu illness is more easily complicated with pneumonia because of a developing immune system. Continue reading “Avoiding a Sick Sprout…” »