Many years ago, someone who worked for Orajel gave us the suggestion to store the tube of teething gel in the fridge in order to provide even more relief to baby’s gums. I’m not sure we ever shared that tip in this space, and I really forgot about it until today when rookie mom Rachel posted her own clever teething solution on our Facebook page.

“Freeze breast milk (or presumably formula) in small rounded ice cube tray. Rub frozen milk lozenges on baby’s gums to help relieve and numb.” Rachel, pictured with baby Gabe above, suggested that this will help baby feel more comfortable nursing – or just comfort at any point.

Do you have any teething remedies for babies who are fussy, drooly, or bitey?

Thanks so much for sharing your tip, Rachel! We love hearing from you guys. Feel free to send us your *a-ha* moments at moms AT rookiemoms.com.

An oldie republished for stir-crazy parents and kids.

This morning, Milo was throwing train tracks at me. And some legos. And some scrambled egg. And a fork. It reminded me that I need to harness this energy and find something he could throw.

Beach balls, like bubbles and 2- and 4-packs of crayons, are items I hoard and keep with me for when the need strikes.

For easy indoor fun:

1. Inflate a large plastic beach ball.
2. Roll the ball to your seated baby.
3. See if he will roll it back.

A baby this age might not catch on very quickly, but he will certainly be amused.

If you’ve heard about baby-led weaning or baby-led solids, the premise is that by six months old, babies are ready to chew their own food and skip purees altogether. Toothless babies can handle more than mush. Anything that can be gummed into oblivion or melted by saliva is a contender.

I’ve compiled my been-there-tried-that lessons learned along with more inspiration for baby meals. The book, Baby-Led Weaning: The Essential Guide to Introducing Solid Foods – and Helping Your Baby to Grow Up a Happy and Confident Eater, offers a detailed guide into this method of feeding if you want even more info.

6 lessons learned from research & testing on my new eater:

1. Offer big pieces. For the youngest eaters, start with larger wedges of food that a baby can easily grip with his fist. Once your baby can easily pinch food with fingers, move onto smaller pieces (around 9 months).
2. Offer small quantities. More food means more to clean up. I like to offer no more than I can count so I’m not wondering,”Oh where did that fifth raspberry end up?!” then squish it.
   
3. Crispy = good. By 10 months old rocking 4 teeth, Sawyer was happy with toast, breadsticks, O cereal, and Mum Mums. Yeah, it’s a carb-heavy diet sometimes but it seems to feel good on his gums.
4. Share what you’re having. I give him pieces of steamed or roasted veggies like sweet potato, broccoli, zucchini, asparagus, and butternut squash. He’ll noodle over pasta too. And then throw it on the floor.
5. Little things for bigger babies. I make small piles of little things like rice, lentils, and shredded cheese. See photo above of Sawyer chucking his shredded cheese onto the floor. Did I mention small piles?
6. Coat slippery foods. To make avocado and banana easier to grasp, coat them with crushed up O’s or baby cereal.

More mealtime ideas?

My friend Alissa’s daughter, Emily (pictured above with Sawyer and the pumpkin) is a very adventurous eater. She also has a lot of teeth. I interviewed Baby Emily a couple months ago and this is what I learned.

A 10 month-old’s favorite foods:

• Cooked broccoli florets and baby carrots, not falling apart, but pretty soft so I don’t choke
• Yogurt + applesauce + cinnamon (I think this is from you, right??)
• Eggs/omelet with veggies like tomatoes, mushrooms sautéed with olive oil then cooked with the eggs and sliced up with fresh spices so I don’t become a bland eater, either basil or CILANTRO!
• Pupusas or cut up tamales of any kind from Whole Foods
• Diced up fruit that I can pick up like mango, nectarine, cantaloupe, strawberry
• Beans that I can pick up, either black or pinto
• Tortillas spread with spicy black bean dip from Trader Joes; I also like goat cheese on top of that. Pieces cut up small.
• Leftover salmon or chicken pieces; I ate leftover chicken tikka masala the other day and couldn’t get enough
• Tortellini with tomato sauce, pieces cut up a bit
• All of the normal baby bread-y stuff like cheerios, puffs, breadsticks. Sawyer likes to steal my Happy Munchies rice cakes.

Brittany from A Healthy Slice feeds her baby fresh and beautiful combos.

She also collects photos and meal ideas from other parents of babies and toddlers in her regular round-up called Munchkin Meals. She describes it like this:

Munchkin Meals is a series that focuses on what moms are feeding their kids. I got the idea when I started sharing what Hailey was eating when I started her with baby led weaning at 6 months old. Other moms became interested and the idea grew. Now, Munchkin Meals takes place every other Thursday and is a place moms can share and get new ideas for healthy foods for their children. For questions, please email me at Brittany@ahealthysliceoflife.com

Important caution: get to know the difference between gagging (a normal response) and choking (requires intervention and possible CPR).

[related: Baby-Led Weaning: The Essential Guide to Introducing Solid Foods - and Helping Your Baby to Grow Up a Happy and Confident Eater and Munchkin meals round-up from A Healthy Slice of Life]

[Photos are from Heather Flett except the hot dad from BabyBjorn and the gorgeous food from Brittany Dixon]

Sometimes you just gotta get out of the house. We say it all the time. You might not really want to, but if its noon and you haven’t showered yet or if it’s 4pm and you’ve been rattling around your cage all day, IT IS TIME. I’m getting stir crazy on your behalf.

Armed with a little one and a stroller, here are five super duper easy activities to do right NOW (and please girl, if the baby is crying, just push through, $5 says he’ll chill out once you get rolling):

1. Take a sensory tour of the neighborhood. Stop and smell the roses and crinkle the trash beneath your feet. Enjoy a baby’s eye view of the world. And chill the eff out.
2. Walk or run your errands. Put on your jogging shoes and make it all the way to the post office or take-out restaurant. Impressive, you just got something done!
   [Preschooler variation to engage cooperation: go huntin']
3. Take a walk on the wild side. Rather than strolling your usual haunts, seek out the bizarro sights and sites. Take photos.
4. Pretend you’re in Paris. Is your baby small enough that you could enjoy cafe culture without whining? Go for it.
5. Scope out some big wheels. This activity is perfect for those vehicle-lovers out there. Can you park in front of a construction site and entertain your kid? For how long?

All you need for these mini adventures is a small child with age-appropriate carrier and yourself. Report back on your success stories or botched attempts! Now, git.

Hi there fellow parents! Do you have a recipe for totally non-toxic finger paint you’re willing to share? One that you’d use with a baby or very young clueless toddler?

I went to a charming local art studio (warning: annoying music if you click!) with Sawyer and we played with some infant-friendly paints. He loved it, I loved it. I asked for the recipe and was told, “[The recipes are] intellectual properties, and as such cannot be shared with the general public.” I understand.

Of course I could google a thousand recipes and test them all, but that would take a really long time. Eventually, Sawyer would grow up and stop licking his hands while painting. I trust you guys. So please share any concoctions that you’ve actually used with success in this age range. Bonus points for ingredients I actually have in my home.

Thanks so much! If we’re lucky, the wisdom will be in the comments.

If you’d rather us tell you how to do fun DIY projects, see the rest of our fab makin’ it series.

Reader Carolyn, rookie mom to Clara, sent us an email to share her enthusiasm for a crib protector. It protects baby from crib (and crib from baby!)

What Carolyn said:

I was always confident leaving our 4 ½ month old daughter, Clara, in her crib to snooze, until one day she bumped her teeth on the side of her crib railing and began to scream. Even though she didn’t bang her mouth hard enough to cause an injury (unlike the time I fell and bumped my own teeth on a table—thank goodness for the saints at our cosmetic dentist office) and there was no damage done to her teeth or mouth, my husband and I vowed to find a solution, and we began our search for a product that my sister told me about using with for my 8-month old nephew called a crib teething rail protector.

This product is really ingenious. The crib teething rail protector that we bought was from Trend-Lab and it was just under $20, but I noticed after that I could have purchased another brand of crib teething cover on Amazon.com for about $15).

The one we purchased wraps tightly around the rail of most standard baby cribs. With its thick batting pads (the one we bought measured in at a quarter inches), the crib teething rail acts as a protector for baby and crib, safely covering the wood on the crib rail from Clara’s toothy damage; as well as protecting our precious daughter from doing any damage to her mouth or ingesting any wood stain, varnish or paint chips from her crib. Plus, the crib teething rail protector that we purchased is covered in super plush Sherpa fleece (this was the selling point for me), which, I imagine, feels much softer on our daughter’s sensitive teeth and gums compared to a hard crib rail.

Why do we love our crib teething rail protector?

• It’s soft, safe and easy-to-use—I can feel confident putting our daughter to bed with it on her crib
• It protects our Clara from ingesting any dangerous crib parts—like wood chips, stain or varnish
• It protects our crib purchase from unsightly baby teeth gnaw marks, and we might actually be able to use the crib for our next baby
• We can attach Clara’s teething toys right to the crib teething rail protector with the handy Velcro tabs, so if she gets sick of it, she can suck on another choice toy
• The crib teething rail protector wraps easily over the crib rail and ties in place
• It’s soft Sherpa fleece on one side with a waterproof backing on the opposite side—protecting our wooden crib from dreaded drool damage
• To wash it, I just throw in the washer and dryer

What we don’t like about our crib teething rail protector?

• The crib teething rail cover that we ordered was only available in white, so while it matches pretty much any nursery décor, it gets stained easily and it’s hard to wash the stains out
• The teething rail cover is designed to fit most convertible cribs, however, I purchased one for my friend Liz’s baby shower and the ties were a little too short to fit her crib rail even when she pulled really hard. Just be sure to measure before purchasing
• Some babies, like my godson, Leo who we call Junior MacGyver, was able to figure out how to untie and remove the cover on his own. I guess he preferred to gnaw on a harder surface—the product could be better baby-proofed.

What do you guys think? Is this product a must-have, a nice-to-have, or not necessary?

Your 40th weekly challenge is to celebrate that your baby has been on the outside longer than she was on the inside! There are many fun ways to celebrate this milestone. We’ve done cocktails and sushi (pictured) and a moms night out at the hot tubs in the past.

Inside Out Party at Blowfish Sushi

Unless you’re currently knocked up, I suggest wrangling a posse of girlfriends and doing all those things you weren’t allowed to do (in good conscience) while pregnant, stuff like:

• Drink wine
• Eat soft cheese
• Luxuriate in a hot-tub
• Ride an ostrich or mechanical bull
• Go bungee jumping

These are just my own ideas, maybe you’re dying to burn a duraflame log or indulge in some other activity that has us wondering if it’s so bad for the pregnants, why do we do these things to ourselves at all… Have at it!

Share your ideas in the comments to inspire another mother.

Put away the maternity pants and take yourself out to Old Navy to get some interim jeans to make you feel normal. Go with a girlfriend you trust. Don’t look at the size, just find something flattering and comfortable.

DO NOT THINK ABOUT OR TALK ABOUT THE WEIGHT YOU ARE GOING TO LOSE IN THE FUTURE. Buy jeans to wear this week. When the day comes, you can put these in storage for the next time around, give them to a friend who is a few months behind you, or wear them when you paint that mural you’ve been talking about.

Related rant: Is that #3 in there?!

This is our 35th-ish (I’ve lost count!) weekly challenge for rookie moms. Not relevant to you right now? Choose a different challenge.

photo: Bethan on flickr.

Look at my son. Sigh. This photo was taken almost six years ago at a photoshoot for my former employer who had a last minute need for a baby model.

Although I am usually opposed to studio photography, there is something about it that’s easy to look at. I guess that’s why our parents took us to Kmart for portraits all those years.

Your assignment: Take advantage of a free 8×10 portrait offered by any number of portrait studios on their website.  It seems the style of photography is a step up from the Kmart photos we grew up with. Cheesy or adorable – there is a fine line. And when it comes to your own baby, I’m guessing you’ll side with “adorable”.

This is the 33rd week of our rookie moms challenges.

Check these photography studio sites and use their store locator to find out if this is a feasible spur of the moment outing. Call ahead to make sure they’ll be available and honor your coupon.

• Olan Mills – Free offer only for newborns
• JC Penney Portrait Studios – Free 8×10 for family
• PictureMe studios (inside WalMart) – Free collage-style photo
• Sears Portrait Studio – Free “designer montage” photo

My professional advice (and yes, having done casting for catalogs, I am actually qualified to give this) is to have your baby wear something timeless such as a solid colored onesie and jeans or overalls. The more skin you show, the better. Bare feet and bare arms make baby photography even more irresistible. Jeans + Bare Feet = One Cute Picture. And don’t forget to take a couple of pictures with you in it, even if you think you have bad hair, are fat or unworthy. You are her mother, and you are beautiful. She will definitely want the photos later in life, when she’s done hating you.

Make a deal with yourself that you will not buy more of the pictures than the free one. You might be embarrassed to leave the place with only your single free picture, but that’s the only way we can keep this activity in the free/cheap category.

When Julian was a little guy and I needed to remove my cell phone from his little paws, a decoy cell phone was the way to avoid a mini-tantrum.

Save old sunglasses, cell phones, remotes and key chains that are no longer needed in a drawer.

To keep le baby busy: pull them out one at a time. As junior plays with one, you can usually sneak another back in the drawer for an endless supply.

Faced with all his usual toys, Holden turned toward his faux rattle and rolled it and shook it for 2 days. Here’s how to make this awe-inspiring toy:

1. Wash and remove the label from a small container
2. Let dry (important or it all turns to mush and is fun for noone)
3. Insert about 6 Cheerios or Oatios
4. Leave for baby to discover

And that’s it. I’m not kidding that this thing holds his attention right now better than his wiz-bang “real” toys. He likes to shake it and also roll it around the carpet and the floor.

This picture shows one-year old Julian giving it the once over while six-month old Holden looks on sadly.

Time for the fifth edition of our Very Rookie Summer series.

Erin Goettsch shares two different days from her life as mom including her lessons learned the hard way taking a baby swimming. Baby Nathan taught his mama how to treat a baby at the pool; baby Anneliese benefited. Read more from Erin at her blog, Happy Noise.

Erin calls her post “A tale of two rookie summer swims”

I come from a family of swimmers. We swim. It’s our thing. If you want to be one of us, you have to swim too. True story.

My siblings and I were “pool rats” growing up, and I haven’t quite been able to shake off that awesome feeling of the sun on my shoulders and the water on my skin. (And, no, it’s not just because the weightless sensation of being underwater makes me feel mucho mom-skinny.) There’s almost no better way for me to pass the summer days than in the water, enjoying the sunshine.

So when I had kids I was (of course) determined to have them be little swimmers too. Don’t you love it when we moms get these hare-brained ideas about how to project our own likes and wants onto our children? Yeeeeeah. Needless to say, I failed on many counts with my rookie baby, Nathan (now three):

1. We went to a lake instead of a pool. Even though we’re in Raleigh, smack dab in the middle of the south, the water was cold. Really cold. Do you know any newborns who like really cold water? Yeah I don’t either. Including Nathan.
2. He was only six weeks old. Old enough to know he doesn’t like cold water, too young to enjoy intentionally splashing in it. This is not the right age to teach a baby all the reasons swimming is rockin’ awesome.
3. We went right between dinner and bedtime. This was before I grasped what every mom (probably since caveman days) knows about the hours between 5pm and 7pm: they are evil. Even as a rookie mom, I should have known better. Needless to say, he wasn’t in a great mood. (I’m stating that as delicately as possible.)
4. I wore a workout racing swimsuit. Which, in case you’re curious, is quite possibly the worst. breastfeeding. outfit. ever. I ended up nursing, basically topless, in the front seat of my car while both Nathan and I soaked through the upholstery. Fail.
5. We went alone. Well, I had a non-mom friend there, but not Daddy. And when your baby is six weeks old, don’t attempt major outings (or major firsts!) without Daddy. It just isn’t worth it.

Baby Nathan hates the water

The result of his rookie swim? He hated it. In case the picture leaves any room for doubt. But the good news is, he was able to put the trauma behind him and now he loves swimming. So, he’s a keeper.

My second child, Anneliese, was born in October. This year is my “take two” of the rookie mom summer. And baby’s first swim went much better this time around:

1. We went to a pool. The water was still cool, but not bone-chillingly so. Also there was a baby pool and splash area. Full of other moms. Let the befriending and playdate-planning commence! Pool > lake, at least for the first swim! (There’s some rookie mom math for you.)
2. Anneliese was just shy of eight months old. Definitely of the age when kicking and splashing are fun. Also, old enough to be distracted from the chilly water by funny faces from her big brother. Also, old enough to look really really really cute in her first swimsuit. And isn’t a cute suit half the fun of the first swim? Drink in the compliments, mommies.
3. We went around lunchtime (AKA before naptime). Some more rookie mom math: Swimming + a “picnic” lunch (baby food in a plastic tub, no glass allowed!) + sunshine = best naptime ever. Works every time. Every time.
4. I wore a cute towel dress cover-up over my swimsuit. It wraps around and velcros in the front, plus has button-on shoulder straps. It’s a dream for breastfeeding at the pool (assuming you don’t want to get topless, which, while totally within your right, might not sound any more fun to you than it does to me). Baby can just tuck in a drink up, and the coverup stays on even when the swimsuit comes down. Sure, you could buy a nursing suit. But, I’m cheap. And my towel dress also hides my baby belly for those times when it’s not experiencing one of those weightless moments underwater.
5. Daddy was there. And an uncle too! Last piece of rookie mom math for the day: outnumbering the kids with grownups is just good sense. Lots of help with feeding, changing, splashing, and playtime.


Baby Anneliese is having a blast with Erin

Swimming is a great way to spend your rookie summer! Beats the heat, wears out the baby , and it can be a great way to meet other new moms! Just… learn from my rookie mistakes, mmkay? And do it right.

Related Rookie Mom Activities:
Activity #96: Go swimming