Issue #023
4 June 2008

What's in this issue...

• Win a Stroller
• Protein - Your Questions Answered
• Visit our New Pages
• Competition Corner
• Join Us As a Baby Food Blogger
• Tip of the Month
• Safety Recalls
• Our Featured Product Review
• Visit Our Featured Website
• This Month's Recipe - Barley and Broccoli Puree

STOP PRESS - FATHER'S DAY!!

Does your little one have the perfect gift for Daddy? If not, you'll be pleased to hear that the BabyCenter Store is holding a sale, with up to 50% off Father's Day gifts!

You'll need to be quick, though - orders for Ground delivery must be made by 11:59pm PT tonight.

For Express delivery, you have until 11:59pm PT on June 10th!

What's more, shipping on orders over $49 is FREE! Just click below to find that perfect gift to make Daddy's day extra special...

Save up to 50% off gifts for Father's Day at BabyCenter Store

Win a Kolcraft Umbrella Stroller

Just tell us all about that one item that you - or your baby - just couldn't manage without... and if your review is chosen as the best of those sent in throughout June, then this lightweight and attractive stroller is yours!

Last month's winner was Lindy from Orem, Utah, with her great review of Baby Cubes - congratulations to Lindy who won a stylish Diaper Bag and Insulated Bottle Bag Set.

Don't forget...

... to include your e mail address when you send in your review (that's how we notify you if you win!).

And be sure to send in your review by this month's closing date of June 29th!

Protein - your questions answered

This article has been moved

and you can now read it here.

New and updated pages

• This month, we've added a new page to our site which brings together many of our tips for including meat in your little one's diet. With advice about the current recommendations for introducing meat - plus some great tips for cooking meat in ways that will really appeal to your little one - visit...
  
  How and when to introduce meat to baby

• They're not ideal as a finger food for your baby for several reason - but raisins, when properly prepared, can be a useful addition to your baby food recipes.

  So when can my baby eat raisins?

• Buying everything you need for your baby can be expensive - so it's always good to save a little where you can! With that in mind, we've just added links to lots more offers to our Free Stuff for Baby section, including free wipes, bibs, a sippy cup and a feeding bottle!

Competition corner

The Homemade Baby Food Recipes Competition

May's winner of our Homemade Baby Food Recipes Competition was Dominique from the United States, with her wonderful recipe for Organic Chocolate Pudding made with cacao powder, a natural and nutritious ingredient.

Dominique's idea - plus more recipes for ...

Oh-So-Nice Rice Balls for Two
Vegetable and Chicken Mash
Berry Nice Ice Snack
Baby Chicken Veggie Quesadilla
Bouncing Baby Berry Breakfast
Warming Cream Corn Chowder From Scratch

are all available on our Baby Food Ideas page.

Do you have an original baby food recipe you'd like to share with other Mums?

Then send it in using this simple form - you could be June's winner of a $20 voucher from Amazon!


June's Baby of the Month

Thank you to everyone who sent in their babies' photographs for our 'Baby of the Month' competition.

As usual, we've had loads of fun reading about your babies and only wish we could publish EVERY entry we receive!

You can now see June's Baby of the Month - plus more of our favourite entries submitted during May - on our Baby of the Month page - and you'll also see the entry form you need to submit YOUR baby's photograph!

Join Us As a Baby Food Blogger

We're looking for more parents to tell us about their babies in our Baby Food Blogs section.

If you'd like to show off your little one and tell us more about him - particularly the foods he is enjoying and those foods that are traditionally introduced first to babies in your corner of the world - then please visit our Baby Food Blogs page.

You'll find contributions from visitors all over the world - plus the simple form you need to send in your own!

We look forward to reading all about your baby!

Tip of the month - How to make your own yogurt cheese

This article has been moved - and you can now discover how to prepare homemade yogurt cheese here

Safety Recalls

Here's our round up of all the recalls posted to our blog since our last newsletter. Please take a moment to look through the list - if you have any of the products mentioned, click on the link to visit the relevant blog post for more details.

Please forward this newsletter to anyone you know who may have any of these recalled items.

• Ground beef products - Canada (1)
• Heinz Baby Food - Australia
• Munchkin Deluxe Bottle and Food Warmer - US
• Waitrose Organic Eggs - UK
• Animal Tracking Explorer Kit - UK
• Shaw's Ground Beef - US
• Ground Beef - Canada (2)
• Tumble Tower Infant Rattles - US
• Ground Beef - Canada (3)
• Lil' Snugglers Blankets - US
• Little Rider Toys - US
• Ground Beef Products - US
• Various kids' products high in lead - including Pirates of the Caribbean Sleeping Bags, United Scientific Magnets, Basic Beat Shaker Guiro Instruments, Tinker Bell Wands, Yellow Sure Grip Paint Brushes, American Scientific Magnets and Floppy Friends Horse Toys
• Gagou Tagou Pyjamas - Australia
• Little Tikes Toy Cell Phones - US
• Woolworth's BBQ Chickens - Queensland Australia
• Children's Bathrobes - Australia
• Seago and Newton Lifejackets - UK
• Off the Cob Fresh Kernel Corn - New Jersey and Massachusetts
• Makit & Bakit Jewelry Sets and Suncatcher Sets - US
• Mommy's Blss Nipple Cream - US
• Calcilo XD Low-Calcium/Vitamin D-Free Infant Formula with Iron - Worldwide
• Fresca Italia Burrata - San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California
• KingFisher Cantaloupes - Canada

Featured Product - 'Travels With Baby'

Travels with Baby by Shelly Rivoli is touted as being 'The ultimate guide for planning trips with babies, toddlers and pre-school age children'... so does the book live up to its impressive description?

In our opinion, it certainly does - and what we love about this book is how it smacks of 'been there, done that' personal experience! And this is clearly thanks to the extensive travelling that Shelly and her husband have undertaken with their young family.

The Rivolis (when not on their travels) live in the San Francisco Bay area. They have two little girls - now a toddler and a pre-schooler - and took their first trip as a family when their eldest daughter was just 5 weeks old.

Since then, their travels have taken them across the US, over the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and around the Mediterranean. Their modes of transport have included planes, trains, subways, ships, taxis.. and even an elephant!

With this much experience under her belt, Shelly has become an expert on the finer details of travelling with tots - and her book covers just about every conceivable situation you may encounter on a family trip!

Some of the highlights of this guide include

• choosing where to go on your travels
• learning how to adjust your child's sleep patterns as you move into different time zones
• tips for feeding 'on the go'
• health tips for travelling overseas
• advice about driving abroad with kids
• tips for staying in the homes of family and friends (and remaining friends afterwards!)
• dealing with your child's moods
• preparing for cultural differences

In fact, the book runs to over 300 pages of practical advice, including handy comparison tables for airlines and cruise lines.

Travels with Baby was the National Parenting Publications Awards gold winner in Parenting Resources this year and is also a current finalist for two Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Awards.

So if you're planning a trip with your tiny traveller(s), we highly recommend Travels with Baby - nothing beats the advice of another Mum with first hand experience of the very situations you'll be sure to encounter!

Travels with Baby is available in the US from Shop.com.

Featured Website

This month's featured site is all about books - baby books, that is!

www.baby-books-guide.com is an interesting site written by Carmen Benton, a mother of one with a background in teaching.

The aim of her site is twofold - to help parents find the most appropriate parenting books throughout the various stages of their babies' development... and to nurture a love of reading from the very beginning!

The site includes book recommendations from other parents, an opportunity to submit your OWN baby book reviews - and monthly sales where you'll find books at less than half the cover price.

There are also some great suggestions for things to make at home - including instructions for creating your own baby books and baby boxes.

And if you're a 'crafty' Mommy, you'll appreciate the links to sites offering free patterns for knitting and crochet projects.

Don't forget to visit the 'Baby Reading' section, which offers some nice tips for reading with your little one... it's never too early to start!

Find out more at www.baby-books-guide.com

Recipe of the month - Barley and Broccoli Puree (6 months+)

Trying to think of ways to incorporate nutritious barley in your little one's menu?

Then we recommend this easy but yummy recipe which can easily double up as a tasty soup for the whole family by increasing the quantity of milk you use!

This dish is absolutely full of flavour and the unusual blend of ingredients makes for a unique and gourmet treat for your tot!

Here's what you'll need...

6 fl oz (3/4 cup) homemade or low sodium beef broth
2 tbsp medium pearl barley
4oz (1/2 cup) cooked broccoli
milk (use whole milk, breast milk or formula)
2oz (1/4 cup) grated cheese
pinch ground nutmeg
pinch freshly ground black pepper (optional)

Pour the beef broth into a saucepan, then stir in the barley and bring to the boil.
Lower the heat, cover and simmer for around 45-50 mins, until most of the broth has been absorbed and the barley is tender.
Stir in the cooked broccoli, cheese, nutmeg and black pepper (if using) and warm over a very low heat, stirring constantly, until all the cheese has melted.
*Transfer to a food processor and blend, slowly adding enough warm milk to achieve a suitable texture for baby.

*Please note - you should omit this step if you wish to make a soup - instead, pour about 8fl oz (1 cup) of milk into the saucepan and, stirring constantly, warm gently throughout.