A carton/bottle can only be labeled “Juice” if it is 100% fruit juice. This means that the only ingredients in this product are whole fruits that have been processed down into what becomes the juice concentrate which is then combined with filtered water if needed  (there are a few exceptions of course like freshly squeezed juices, where water isn’t added). Occasionally, there may be additives like ascorbic acid (vitamin C) or beta-carotene (vitamin A) but nothing else to dilute the whole fruit juice. Next we have “Juice drink” which can have no less than 50% fruit juice to earn this distinction. Next in line we have “Nectar” which can have no less than 30-40% fruit juice, “Ade” (think lemonade, limeade, grapeade) which can have no less than 25% fruit juice, and lastly we have “drink” which can have no less than 10% fruit juice (reminds me of the “Orange Drink” they used to give us at elementary school cook-outs).

So as we stray from the 100% fruit juice distinction that’s where we can start to see other things in our juice besides real fruit juices such as high fructose corn syrup,  added sugar, dyes, the list goes on!

As one might be able to see from this information, 100% fruit juice is your best bet. In fact, ½ cup of 100% fruit juice counts as one serving of fruit. While serving your kiddos 100% fruit juice can be a tasty way of making sure they get adequate amounts of fruit in their diet, you want to make sure not to over do it and that juice isn’t overly replacing whole fruit. It’s recommended that 1-6 year olds have 4-6 oz of juice per day, and children 7 and up limit their juice consumption to 8-12 oz. simply because although these juices tend to be great sources of vitamin C, they are also high in natural sugars. It’s a good idea to encourage kids to drink mostly water when they are thirsty so as to prevent them from only finding satisfaction in sweet drinks.

So, as if you didn’t know where this was going…here it is:  moderation is key!

We’ve seen a few of these on the market and they’ve always left a little something to be desired – flimsy, doesn’t fit enough food, limited capability – just okay, not exceptional. OXO Tot has raised the bar and created the ultimate Baby Food Mill loaded with useful features:

• Three interchangeable stainless steel grinding disks allows for preparing foods in a variety of textures
• Easy turn knob separates seeds and skins for turning whole cooked fruits and vegetables into fresh purees
• Simple, spring-loaded lever for easy disk exchange and disassembly
• 3 non-slip legs secure placement over bowls and pots up to 11-inches in diameter
• Legs fold for easy storage
• Non-slip handle and knob
• Approximately 2.3-quart capacity
• Dishwasher safe

Take a look at how one mom, published author and baby food expert Chantal Valentine, uses her OXO Tot Baby Food Mill in the kitchen:

We love the idea of pureeing left over foods right after dinner! Less waste and you save some time the next day. As you can see, the OXO Tot Baby Food Mill makes creating nutritious baby meals a cinch.

Here’s a funny little video on what you can expect from your OXO Tot Baby Food Mill after hours =)

Each class is an hour and a half power packed session filled with demonstrations, coupons, recipes, and a Q&A session full of baby food making knowledge. The cost for each session is $20 per person, $15 for members.

Meal time is important to your child’s development and we want to help you raise healthy kids. Read the workshop descriptions below to see which one addresses your baby’s needs. Let’s get cookin’

Baby Food Making Basics Geared towards babies 0-9 months, we’ll discuss what flavors you should introduce before the one year mark, how to prepare meats, best options for cooking preparation and storage and how to make your basic puree.

August 4, 2011: 6:00 – 7:30 pm: Call to register, 401-234-1279, or register online

I am a self proclaimed control freak who plans everything down to the minute detail. If I could plan my own funeral I would. However when I gave birth to my son Zachary almost 3 years ago I lost that side of myself in all the excitement of decorating the nursery, creating a baby registry, etc.  I should probably mention that I’m also incredibly impatient which is why when pregnant with my son I jumped at the voluntary induction the doctor offered. I had wanted a natural childbirth but being hooked up to Pitocin meant excruciating contractions. As a result I had an epidural and was confined to the hospital bed until I delivered.  My son’s birth went smoothly. I delivered a healthy 6lb. 7oz baby boy with no issues. So why go out and pursue natural childbirth if I had a positive experience the first time? Well…why not? I knew I could do better for myself and my baby.

With this pregnancy I made sure that if I was genuinely sincere about my desire for a natural, drug free birth, I was prepared. I took a hypnobirthing class, hired a doula, wrote a birth plan and read several childbirth books.

I was due to deliver my daughter on April 27th, 2010. I figured this being the second pregnancy I’d have this baby well before the due date. Well…definitely not the case. This baby decided that being an overachiever was not as important as being fashionably late and as a result week 40 came and went.  I started to become nervous when week 40 ended and my doctor started talking “what if’s”.  I had worked so hard to ensure that this would be the experience I wanted and really felt like it was slipping from my fingers. My doctor asked to see me back in the office in a few days when I was 41 weeks.  Tuesday May 4th marked week 41 and much to my surprise I was 5 centimeters dilated. My doctor insisted I had a laboring cervix and sent me over to Kent Hospital. I was 6cm dilated when I got there. Did I feel like I was in labor…nope…but my doctor decided to admit me thinking if I had left I’d be on the news for birthing my baby on Rt. 95!

I phoned the troops: my husband, my sister and my doula. I made sure my son was taken care of as our wonderful daycare provider kept him overnight (which he loved).  By 10pm on May 4th I was 7cm dilated. I was in fact in labor but did I feel like it….no! Morning came and I was still pregnant, still 7cm dilated and exhausted not having slept at all the night before. I consulted my “team” and decided to have my membranes ruptured.  Once my water was broke things moved very fast. I popped in my hypnobirthing cds and walked the halls with my sister Jamie and my doula Shelley. Now I felt like I was in labor! Transition came and I was really uncomfortable. My sister was such a cheerleader insisting I could do it! Each contraction I became unfocused and eventually I begged for an epidural. Unfortunately because I did not have an IV, I would need to wait 30-45minutes before enough IV fluids were in my system to receive the epidural. In the meantime Jamie and Shelley refocused my attention allowing me to breath the baby down further into the birth canal.

My doctor came into the room just as I started to feel the urge to push. I sat up straight in bed with my legs crossed in front of me and began to push. Pushing felt exhilirating! Pushing made the pain go away; pushing meant I could end this! I pushed 3 times and the last push I felt her truly leave my body; head then shoulders until she was entirely born. Because the hospital gown covered my legs nobody knew I had just delivered my baby until the nurse peeked beneath the gown to see if she was crowning. My doctor hadn’t even donned gloves!

Belle Victoria Bradley was born at 10:48am on May 5th, 2010, less than 2 hours after my membranes were ruptured. Her birth was perfect, everything I wanted, everything I worked so hard for. Not only did I immediately walk from labor and delivery to post partum but I asked to be discharged the next morning and drove myself home (because my husband and I both had our cars there)!

I am so grateful to my husband who supported my desire to have a natural birth, my doula Shelley for guidance and coping techniques when things got tough and especially my sister Jamie who never left my side!

Thank you, Melissa!  We’re so happy to hear your experience turned out just how you wanted it!

½ cup toasted wheat germ (don’t leave this out!)
2/3 cup agave nectar
¼ cup brown sugar
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1 ½ cup dried fruit, or a mix of dried fruit (I used chopped dried cranberries and dried blueberries)
¼ cup chocolate chips (because everything I cook has chocolate in it) you could use carob also

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Butter a 9×13-inch baking dish and line it with parchment paper. You will appreciate this later when you don’t need to scrub granola out of your pan.
Toss the oatmeal, almonds, and coconut together on a sheet pan and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl and stir in the wheat germ. Reduce the oven temperature to 300°F.
While the mixture is still warm, stir in the nectar, vanilla and salt until the mixture is well coated, then the dried fruit and chocolate chips. Pour the mixture into your prepared baking dish and press it in until the mixture is packed as tightly as possible. I would recommend covering the bars with parchment and then pressing a smaller baking dish, to make a tight bar. Remember to take off parchment before placing in oven.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until light golden brown. Allow bars to cool for 3 hours before cutting, otherwise granola will fall apart.

What do you like to put in your granola bars?

-Kelly

At our Baby Food Making Workshop last week at Whole Foods in Cranston we all sampled Apple Chicken Balls.  What a big hit! Here is the recipe, as promised:

Makes 20 balls

Suitable for freezing

You will need

1 tbsp light olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and grated

2 chicken breasts, cut into chunks

Half tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped

1 tablespoon fresh thyme or sage, chopped or a pinch mixed herbs

1 chicken stock cube, crumbled (from one year)

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

Salt and freshly ground pepper (from one year)

Plain flour for coating

Vegetable oil for frying

Directions

1 Heat the olive oil in a pan and sauté half the onion for about 5 minutes.

2 Using your hands, squeeze out a little excess liquid from the grated apple.

3 Mix the apple with the chicken, cooked and remaining raw onion, herbs, stock cube (from one year) and breadcrumbs, and roughly chop in a food processor for a few seconds.

4 Season with a little salt and pepper (from one year).

5 With your hands, form into about 20 little balls, roll in flour and fry in shallow oil for about 5 minutes until lightly golden and cooked through.

Recipe is from New Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner by Annabel Karmel published by Ebury Press

Enjoy! -Kelly

Sunshine Kids, Radian Car Seats: You know we love these car seats at Bellani. As car seat techs, Kelly and I have installed every brand of car seats out there. The Radian 65, 80 and XT are by far our favorite. We learned today about SUPER LATCH. What is it you ask? Super Latch takes the latch system to a whole other level. Instead of only having one anchor, Super Latch actually has three. The weight on it was truly impressive. Most cars are rated for latch until a certain weight…ie: Toyota may only hold a child in latch until 48 lbs at which time you will have to uninstall your car seat and reinstall using the seat belt. The new SUPER LATCH in all 2010 Radian Car Seats will enable you to use latch up till 80 lbs, no matter what car you drive! We are expecting all the 2010 Radian car seats to be arriving at Bellani 10 -1 -09. There are new colors for the XT and the 80. The 65 will have the same three colors. We are accepting pre-orders for the show now. Order while we are here in Vegas (until Wednesday) and receive 5% off your car seat! Call Bellani to reserve yours!

Do you Pack Smart? You can with Innobaby products. This is a product we have looked at every year we have been at ABC yet it never caught our attention until this year. What you might recognize is the Packin’ Smart all-in-one storage solution. It lets you stack and connect up to 5 containers together. Need to take cheerios, dried fruit, juice and other items with you? No problem. You can have it all in one place. After the baby food, use it for ribbon, pom pom (yes, I said pom poms) and any other craft item. You can also use it for powdered formula and liquids. What other product can you do that with?

Being a Lactaion Counselor, this has to be my favorite product I saw today. It again is from Innobaby. It’s called Nursin Smart. The entire bottle is made of silicone. There is no plastic or glass. It is super light weight and break-proof. The bottle significantly reduces nipple confusion and provides a similar breastfeeding experience. The nipple actually moves in and out while the baby is sucking on it. It is much softer then your traditional nipple. The next item is the Spoon Feeder which is perfect for babies who refuse to take the bottle, babies for preemies and with cleft palates. I have had two lactation appointments in the last week where this would have been priceless to you. It’s like using a baby cup, but so much easier. Especially when it is 2:00 am and you haven’t slept in days.

Last product from this company, I promise. We hear a lot of customers ask us what to store their children’s food in. After making baby food their are great silicone trays to use, but how about storing freshly made food in the fridge or the strawberries you just cut up for your toddler. Innobaby has come out with Keepin Fresh. Airtight, leak proof GLASS containers. They come in Stage 1 up to 90 ml, or Stage 2 up to 110 ml. This is a great solution for storing all that wonderful food. Sorry there is no picture available, but they will be arriving at Bellani soon.

While strolling through the Modern Child section of the ABC Kids Show we ran into a new/old friend, Jessica Kim from BabbaCover. We first heard of BabbaCo when a new mom walked through Bellani doors with the cutest Infant Car Seat Cover I had ever seen. This fleece and flannel cover sat over the seat entirely. There were window flaps in the front and the back, side cargo pockets that can hold keys, wipes, pacifiers and such, and it really stayed in place! Every time this particular customer was in the store more than one customer would ask where she found it. Jessica is her friend from college, and what does any good friend do when they make baby products and their friend has a baby, but send her one. There is no doubt that it is really cute, and will draw lots of attention to your car seat, and keep germs away from your child. Is this something that we should add to the Bellani repertoire? Retail cost would be $86.00 and we would bring in this print in both Green and Pink.

Man, BumGenius/Cotton Babies is one amazing company. Started with just $100 seven years ago this brand has grown into quite the presence. The innovation hasn’t stopped this year. Cotton Babies is releasing the new Flip one-size cloth diaper system to retailers on January 1, 2010. This diapering system allows you to use any one (or two) of three possible inserts! The Flip is a one-size cover, working from 8-35 lbs that you can add a Stay-Dry insert to, this allows your baby to feel dry, while still being very absorbent, like a BumGenius 3.0. If you would prefer to keep Organic Cotton against your baby’s bottom, you could use the Flip Cover with a one-size organic insert that is made of the same 100% organic cotton that we have come to love from the BumGenius Organic All-in-One One-Size Diaper. Last, but certainly not least, the Flip will also have a One-Size Disposable Insert available, this is a dye-free, fragrance-free disposable insert that you could use while traveling, or for daycare, or if baby has a diaper rash and we need a good barrier! The Flip will retail with one of the two reusable inserts, either the Organic Cotton or the Stay Dry, $19.99 or $16.95 respectively. The disposable inserts will be $4.95 for an 18 pack. There is also an option for a Day Pack, 2 covers and 6 inserts, the total cost for the pack will be $49.95 for the Stay-Dry Liners, and $59.95 for the Organic Cotton. Bellani will begin accepting pre-orders tomorrow, September 14, 2009. Almost forgot, this will be in three colors, Zinnia, Ribbit, and Moonbeam.

Good night all or good morning,

Kelly & Shannon

There is new information that just came out…read it for yourself here: Siggs Bpa Confession You Aren’t Going to Like it Anymore Than We Do.

Sorry, Sigg…being honest with customers is something that is really important to us. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens with them. Glad we just got in the new Safe Sippy Cups!!!

-Shannon

I work in the high tech industry and have my very own cubicle to prove it. I love my job and have flexibility in the work place but after I cam back to work with #2 I found it hard to pump and fit it all in. There were 7 moms using one space, which was an old shower room converted – there was a rocker, a shelf and an outlet. A keypad lock and a shower curtain kept the room off limits to people passing by. However with 7 women using the room if you missed your pumping start time by 10 minutes because a meeting ran late or whatever you were reduced to pumping in your car, borrowing an office and hoping no one walked in or the worst choice of all a bathroom stall. I spoke to someone in HR about it and got immediate results. They outfitted a room with a wonderful chair, lights, and best of all a sink! Now we had two places to go. I remember the facilities person asked why only 7 women needed 2 places to pump and telling him “well they have 4 lanes on Rte 95 for 1 hour of rush hour in the morning…it’s sorta the same situation with pumping.” He laughed and immediately “got it.”

Not everyone at work was so comfortable with the idea of taking time out to pump. I had to leave an all day meeting twice to pump and I remember a guy (grown man, father of 2) asking “how long are you going to do that?” and eyeballing my pump as I sat it under the table. For some reason his comment brought out the inner lactavist in me and I retorted “THAT…as in feed my child? Probably till she’s 18…THAT as in breastfeed my child? Well it’s none of your business but at least till she’s a year old. But now that I know it makes you so uncomfortable I will bring my pump to every meeting and leave it right next to you on the table…sound good?!” Needless to say he never asked me about pumping at work again!

I found that after I helped get the new mother’s room up and running and after I quietly exited meeting to pump and then return younger female co-workers would ask me about pumping, and other new Mom questions. It actually made me feel good and I didn’t realize until I put it out there in a semi-public way they were too embarrassed to tell their bosses they had to pump and instead sat in meetings uncomfortable and worrying about finding the time to squeeze in another pumping session. I learned speaking up about mom/work/life balance issues helps us all feel a little more normal and we get great advice and support from some of the mostly unlikely people and places. Moms –be it breasfeeding, not breastfeeding, birth mother’s or adoptive moms-are on a journey together and we need to have each other’s backs.

Stacey