Scotts Weekly Review - Safe and Sound Car Seat

This weeks product review is on Safe & Sound Car Seat, Pyper has just about grown out of her capsule, I'm a bit sad about that as it meant we had to buy another car seat ... so more money down the drain. But once again it's all about safety so there's no excuse really.

We got the Safe&Sound Car Seat as a gift and initially I thought "it's a good looking car seat". Here's what I found:



Pros

• Certified up to a weight of 18kgs
  
• Sturdy with lots of cushions and padding
  
• Pretty dirt resistant from what I can tell

Cons

• Needs hooks in the car to lock the seat in place
  
• Only reclines in the back facing position
  
• Quite expensive
  
• It has a 3 point (6 straps) harness - quite complicated to put on and secure

How to use your iPhone as a Baby Monitor

Using your iPhone (or other iOS devices) as a baby monitor is a pretty cool solution to keeping an eye on your baby when you don't have another baby monitor to hand ... like when you are traveling or visiting friends and family. Here's a list of the top 7 Baby Monitor Apps (in no particular order) that allow you to do that (some of them require 2 devices):

• "iBaby" by Cyan Design ($0.99)
  
• "Baby Monitor" by CodeGoo http://www.codegoo.com/page/baby-monitor ($4.99)
  
• "BabySight" and "BabySight Lite" by Softopinion Group Corporation (free)
  
• "Baby Monitor & Alarm" by TappyTaps ($2.99)

Luke ... I'm your ... shoe!

Star Wars dads check this out ... you can now get shoes for your kids that resemble some of the key characters in Star Wars. Amazing what you can do with shoes these days! The shoes are called "stride rite" and come as 4 different characters (Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Captain Rex and Boba Fett) - look them up online if this is your kind of thing.


3 Things you probably didn't know about shoes and feet:
* Up until age 5, the foot is still forming and is mostly cartilage
* The arch begins forming at age 2 and it is normal for a child to develop a fairly complete arch by age 6
* Children's feet remain vulnerable to ill-fitting shoes right through their school days, up to the age of 18 years


And in case you have not seen the all time favourite Darth Vader clip - it's Eddie Izzard and Darth Vader in the Death Star Cantine!

iPad Dads - top 5 free apps for preschoolers

If you're a dad and have recently splashed out on a new iPad you'll be pleasantly surprised how many apps there are for kids and especially young kids. Because of the iPad's screen size, touch-screen operation and general robustness it makes it "the perfect toy" for young kids. It is probably one of the most versatile electronic toys you can get for you child (not that you need electronic toys to have a happy child ... but if you happen to have an iPad anyway you might as well use it together with your child). So here's the official DIYFather list of top iPad apps for preschoolers:

1) "Music Studio Lite" - awesome play a musical instrument experience with a keyboard and various instruments - really great fun to play around with

DIYFather.com launches "THE FATHERS PACK"

Dads around the world have been waiting for this day - 29 March is the day that DIYFather gives new dads their own "Fathers Pack". Cool!! So what's a Fathers Pack? It's a box filled with lots of products and essential information for dads - and it's free! New dads can order their free Fathers Pack online at DIYFather.com from March 29.

Tummy Tub - Mum versus Dad Face Off

Welcome to DIYFather Face Off reviews, featuring Andrea and Eric parents of Ava. In this series of reviews Andrea and Eric battle it out and give their own view "mom" and "dad" perspectives on a range of products. This article is a review of "Tummy Tub".

TummyTub was designed in the Netherlands by child carers to ease the transition from the comfort of the mother's womb to our world. Babies naturally adopt the fetal position and it is amazing to see how quickly they calm and relax.

Features and Benefits:

• Bathing in the familiar fetal position – helps babies feel reassured and relaxed
  
• Stress free bathing for both baby and parent – excellent for colicky babies
  
• Anti-skid base and low center of gravity for safety and stability
  
• Compact size – takes less space and less use of water
  
• Especially useful for premature babies
  
• Ergonomic hand grips and extremely lightweight
  
• Made of environmentally friendly materials
  
• Less surface area of water – temperature stays warmer for longer time
  
• Has European TÜV safety certificate/assessed by BSI

Why not a normal bucket?

• Normal buckets don't have an anti-skid bottom.
  
• The bottom is not curved and therefore does not give the baby any support.
  
• Babies discover their new world by touching with their hands and tasting with their mouth. The pigments in plastic buckets will most likely contain toxic elements, as normal buckets aren’t meant for bathing babies.
  
• The handle of the bucket can easily hurt the fingers of the baby. It also does brings an extra risk, as an older brother or sister could – by holding it – pull the bucket from the table.
  
• You can view on your baby from all sides, because of transparent material of original TummyTub
  
• Normal buckets are too low and narrow. The water level is therefore also too low and the children can’t stay warm. Apart from that mother and child are hindered in their movements. However simply using a bigger bucket doesn’t give the child the support and a comfortable sitting position.

Porta Chair from BambinOz - Mum versus Dad Face Off

Welcome to DIYFather Face Off reviews, featuring Andrea and Eric parents of Ava.

Andrea and Eric will review products and give their own views on the products.

This is a review of BambinOz Porta Chair

Porta Chair from BambinOz is great for using at home, at a neighborhood cafe, or when you are simply visiting a friend's house. The innovative design fits a variety of chairs and is flexible to accommodate your growing child. Weighing less than 280 grams, the Porta Chair folds compactly and can go wherever you go. It's small enough to fit in your diaper bag or the bottom of your stroller.

Take the Porta Chair with you to restaurants and avoid exposure to germs on highchairs used by hundreds of other children. It's also great way to keep children secure during when you are travelling through busy airports or malls when there's no highchair in sight.

We've paid particular attention to the details in designing this product. All of the straps are fully adjustable for maximum safety and the soft cushioning will keep your child comfortable. We've also added a convenient cord at the bottom so you can neatly fold and carry the Porta Chair when not in use.

Key Features:

• Suitable for ages 5 - 30 months


• Fits most chairs (dining and cafe style)


• Five-point safety harness


• Fully adjustable straps to fit growing baby


• Folds compactly


• Machine washable


• Independently tested


• Accredited and approved by the Infant Nursery Products Association of Australia (INPAA), Inc.

BambinOz

From Andrea (Mum)

Well we have reviewed one other portable chair in our time here on face off so I’m a convert and becoming quite a fan of the highchair alternative.
Bambinoz is an Australian company headed by a mum who found a hole in the marked for parents who were wanting to get out and about with their child.

The Bambinoz Porta Chair i

Bracu Olive Baby Massage Oil - Mum versus Dad Face Off

Welcome to DIYFather Face Off reviews, featuring Andrea and Eric parents of Ava.

Andrea and Eric will review products and give their own views on the products.

This is a review of Bracu Olive Baby Massage Oil

Bracu Olive natural baby products are hand blended with natural ingredients selected to be gentle and nourishing to your infant's delicate skin.

Bracu Olive baby massage oil moisturises your infant's skin and helps to protect it from dryness. The luxurious blend of almond oil, jojoba oil and extra virgin olive oil has been carefully chosen for its hydrating and, nourishing properties.

To a baby, touch is talk.

From Andrea (Mum)
As a newborn baby part of our nightly routine for Ava was to give her a massage after her bath which she really enjoyed, at about 11months of age after a mystery bout of spots (not chickenpox) the skin on her body, mainly her torso became very dry and itchy, it seemed our poor wee girl had developed a bit of eczema and our nightly massage with almond oil didn't seem to make a difference in improving the condition. It was at this point we stopped and started with the aqueous bath washes and intensive moisturising. Things improved eventually however we had to stay on top of things and felt like eczema was just lurking, waiting for us to stop the moisturising routine so when we were asked to road test the Bracu Olive Baby Massage Oil I was bit dubious.

DIY toys from the $2 shop

Recently I've become quite a fan of the $2 shop - it's just got TONS and TONS of stuff for kids. In the past I 've never really found anything useful there for me (other than throw-away accessories for fancy dress parties or presents for secret santa to win the "most useless present" award).

Now that we've got our restless 2-year old things are different. We can spend hours in the $2 shop exploring all their crazy stuff from a "could we possibly use this to keep Noah interested for 20 minutes" perspective. There are quite lot of things that could be used as toys for toddlers in a $2 shop - amongst all the cheap and nasty toys I keep finding some real gems. Like a wooden helicopter kit. It's basically just a small sheet of thin plywood with pre-cut shapes - looks like this:

Budgeting Tip - train sets and tracks

If your toddler is into trains and you've started with the wooden train sets of Thomas the Tank Engine you'll soon realise that the tracks and toys are literally worth their weight in gold. Many simple sets, track extensions or even single engines can set you back by more than $20 a pop. So what do you do? Use alternative manufacturer's sets and tracks that are compatible with Thomas and Friends but A LOT CHEAPER (your toddler will pay with them just the same ... as long as they fit). To save you some valuable research time into this I've compiled a list of alternative suppliers with Thomas compatable products: * Brio * Melissa and Doug * KidKraft * Maple Landmark * Tesco * TulipToys There's also quite a cool product called "suretrack" that you can use for old tracks with broken connectors (so you don't have to replace them). If you come across any other compatible products - let us know! Cheers, Stef