Carrie is our winner for the Little Helper Signing Stickers from last week's giveaway! For those of you who didn't win. Head on over to Mom 4 Life and get yours for 10% off for one week only! This week we are giving away a fun item (scroll down to the bottom of the post to see what it is). We added a few new family videos on YouTube. Click here if you wish to see them (the first three are the newest ones).
A recap of lasat week: over 120 of you chimed in on your thoughts about Milkscreen, a product that allows you to test for the presence of alcohol in your breast milk. As expected, your feedback and opinions were varied but overall I was surprised at how many of you liked the idea of this product even if it was not something you personally would use or had a need for. Below are 5 random comments (of 71 total comments provided) for and against this product and I honestly had to look hard to find 5 comments that were really against it:
In favor of it:
"Even conservative people may have a glass of wine now and then so just because this product screens alcohol does not mean anyone who uses it is being an irresponsible mother. It is a unique product that can help make a mother's life easier and provide peace of mind for those who need it."
"When I was nursing, I just decided not to drink because my milk was too important to "dump". However, I know many mom who did pump and dump and I think this product would be very useful for them."
"We are all human and sometimes want to celebrate a birthday or anniversary. The milkscreen product would allow a nursing mother to have a glass of wine or etc. with her husband. I think it is a neat product to offer. It would not be something I would purchase, because a drink is not that important to me. However I could see how some mothers would occasionally."
"Better safe than sorry. Babies are too innocent & precious to turn your back on a product with stigma attached- it's not like the product encourages nursing mothers to get wasted!"
"When I'm breastfeeding, I just don't drink alcohol. However, I know that some moms do. If this product made the difference between a mom guessing and being wrong vs. testing and being safe, I think it's a great idea. I hope that such moms will use this product."
And against it:
"I strongly believe that if you are nursing you don't need to be drinking alcohol. =)"
"I think that a lot of moms would be less likely to purchase from you in the future, as I think this might degrade your overall company image."
"Personally, I think if you are nursing or prego you should abstain from alcohol. The occasional glass of wine would be okay, but that is my opinion."
"I can see where some women need to feel "normal" or honestly just "need a drink" to unwind, but I feel that offering such a product, really the creation of such a product, will give women a sense of security that dismisses their responsibility to their child. If you want to drink, don't nurse."
"I guess I don't see the need for a product that would allow mothers to feel better about drinking. If there is any concern, why even do it!"
When asked if you felt like this item was a good fit for Mom 4 Life's selection of unique and useful products, 70% said yes, 25% said no and 5% gave no response. So there you have it! It was pretty fun really to see how you all responded and I thank you for your honest feedback.
I have known about this product for about a year and had decided against caring when I first was presented with it simply because I figured it might be too controversial to be worth it and I didn't want to send the wrong message to my customers by offering it on my site. I decided to revisit the idea and see what you guys thought about this product and found that you were much more open minded to it that I expected.
Want to know my personal opinion on milkscreen:)? Ok here it goes: To give you some background, on the survey when asked, "Have you ever been in a situation where you avoided an alcoholic drink because you were nursing and didn't want to pass it on to your child or have you ever "pumped and dumped" milk because you had a drink?" 28% said no and 66% said yes (the remainder of you provided an answer in the form of an "other comment". I feel that a product like milkscreen is totally unnecessary for a mom that doesn't drink (obviously) but for the rest of the moms out there (which looks like about 66% of you), it provides an opportunity that if they choose to drink, they can do so with the knowlege/assurance that they are not passing on the alcohol to their child. In almost every case I can think of, it seems like that knowledge would be a positive thing because what mom would willingly expose their child to alcohol if they have that awareness? Not many. Obviously moms can avoid the situation all together by not drinking at all. However, this product is reaching out to the (aparent majority of) moms that might like that choice so it seems to be providing a service that, until now, was not available to those moms--peace of mind. Breastfeeding is such a beautiful and positive thing. I would love for moms to be able experience it as long as possible. I nursed my daughter until she was almost two years old. When I did wean her, it was because I had to take some antibiotics and I didn't want her to have it from my milk. We were very close to being all the way weaned at that point and I knew that the antibiotics would be in my milk and passed on to her, so I ended up just opting to wean her at that time. I know that I could have continued nursing her though it and she would have likely been just fine drinking my milk with the antibiotics, but it was just in the back of my mind and as moms we hate to willingly expose our children to things they don't need. I could see a mom being in a similar situation as myself where she has been nursing for a long time and is thinking of weaning and would like to have an occasional glass of wine. If a product like this could help her know when it was safe to nurse and therefore extend the length of time she nursed, that seems pretty great to me. So there are my thoughts. I welcome you to leave feedback below on any of the comments above or my opinion:). Our product waiting list is currently quite long so I haven't fully decided on this product yet but it could very likely be something that you see on Mom 4 Life in the future.
This week we have a super fun item that your kids are sure to love! I am sure you have all seen the cute bath towel options that are out there but you will love the FUN variety of hand made styles that are offered from Yikes Twins! Choose from infant or child size and characters like unicorns, monsters, horses, super hero's, lions, ducks, bunnies, dogs, frogs and more! Truly, you have to take a peek at these to see how precious they are. You can even have them personalized with your child's name for only $5.00! Wouldn't these be a cute gift item?! This week we are giving away on infant or child size towel in your choice of style.
To enter to win: Click here and take the 9 question survey:), you have until Tuesday the 18th at 9:00PM to enter, good luck!
Some people love to be organized, I am one of them. With kids this can be a challenge, as you know. Here is something that has worked well for organizing many of our kids little toys. 
When you buy new bedding the sheets and pillowcases often come in clear plastic zippered bags. I save these and use them for our kid's toys. They work well because they are sturdy and allow us to easily see what is inside. Inside their closets, under their clothes, we have put together the metal storage squares that you can buy and assemble to the height/width that work for your space. This makes an easy area to store these bags of toys. We find that this method allows for quick cleaning as we can give each of our kids a bag and tell them "ok Hunter, you put all the plastic animals in here" and they have a focus and something easy to carry with them. 
