Rice Cakes for Car rides!

I had TWO awesome Mommies remind me of how toddlers LOVE rice cakes!  We're working on weaning our girls from the bottle and for fussy car rides I've turned to handing over bottles in the past.  Now we hand over snack cups with gold fish or broken up Ritz crackers.  However, in the past two days two awesome moms have told me about how if you hand your kid a rice cake they love working on eating it for the rest of the car ride home. I was told one rice cake takes about 20 minutes of busy (quiet) work in the car.  Guess what's on our shopping list!!!  We love rice cakes so why wouldn't our girls!  Such a GREAT idea!  The moms were giving either the smaller or full size rice cakes.  Healthy & tasty!  Give it a try!!  Give them full OR in a Munchkin snack catcher! 

 

Thank you Cousin Jamie & Emily for this tip!!!

Keeping those Baby Bottles Clean

One of the BEST tips we learned in the NICU with our girls was to soak our baby bottles in warm dish soap immediately after we fed the girls breast milk, formula, or whole milk.  This way the milk (especially formula) doesn't get stuck on the bottles and become hard to clean from drying-up.  Also, this process helped reduce the 'odor' that spoiled milk starts to release in the air.  For the past 17 months we've had our 'blue bucket' in the right side of our sink to soak our bottle pieces.  I'm so used to this process I even use it for our sippy cups.  The tip for today is to use a soaking bucket for those bottle pieces and even pumping pieces to make cleaning that milk off easier...once you have time.  There was no way I had time to clean each bottle right after we used it and with the Dr. Brown bottles (that we love) there were too many pieces to deal with right away.  We've found this soaking method to work the best.  For now, we're used to the bottles drying on our kitchen counter and although its not the prettiest site, its the most practical for us to have quick access to the clean pieces when the girls are screaming in hunger.  Also, check-out your dishwasher and see if there is a sanitizing rinse.  We do use the dishwasher to sanitize our bottle pieces.  There's only so much hand washing a gal can do!  Give it a try and let us know if you have any questions.

We found a new spill-proof sippy cup that we really like! Try the Munchkin 10oz Mighty Grip cup!

We've been battling making the move from bottles to sippy cups with our girls.  They both love to have a bottle before their naps and bedtime.  We've tried several different cups and straw cups which they enjoy playing with and only taking a few sips from.  Right now the best cups that are working for our girls are the Munchkin 10oz mighty grip cups!  We had the straw style in this brand but we're really liking the cup style with the silicone spout that is really similar to a bottle.  Also, the girls like to tilt the cups up to their mouth like they would have for a bottle so the straw style isn't working well for us anymore.  If you are struggling with making the switch from bottles to cups, give these ones a try!  

Munchkin 10 Oz Mighty Grip Spill-Proof Cup - 2 Pack

Making the switch from Formula to Whole Milk Tips...

We did move to cups AFTER we switched our girls to whole milk.  We also waited until their adjusted age of one since they were preemie babies to make the milk switch.  In order to make the switch successfully from formula to whole milk, we gradually introduced whole milk into their bottles to adjust their digestive system.  We started with 1/4 milk with 3/4 formula, then 50% each, then 75% milk and 25% formula for like 3 to 5 days each.  This phase switching worked well for us.  When we did try to just switch to whole milk ("cold turkey") via a whole bottle of cows milk instead of formula one day we ended up with projectile vomit back at us!  Ask your pediatrician for recommendations that are right for your kiddo.  This was just our experience and tips of what ended up working for us.