When choosing a gift for a new baby, why not “go green”, and choose organic baby products that will be good for the baby, good for the family and good for the environment
Organic Baby Clothes are a great gift as newborn babies often have sensitive skin. Check out Baby Soy, Positively Organic, and other great brands.
Organic Baby Toys are another eco-friendly newborn baby gift that are available in classic styles like this sock monkey.
There is a trend toward wearing personalized diaper bags, and some consumers are adamant about sporting the cool, and unique diaper bags of various styles and utility. There are a few different types of designer bags for both men and women, so choose wisely.
These tote diaper bags don’t appear like your traditional baby gear bags. They are functional to the extent that style will allow and can be used as a shopping, business or travel tote. Multifunctional style is the mantra of these types of bags. The current leading designers of these high end products are the Coach Diaper Bags, and Baby Phat Diaper Bags, both are beautiful in form and practical in function
Backpack diaper bags have a rugged and practical pedigree, no wonder they have served well as a diaper bag. With a little adjustment to inner linings and special pockets, backpack diaper bags are now in vogue with both men and women.
From whence did the messenger bag originate? It appears to have been built for speed and utility when on the move. The great messenger bag traveled with the Pony Express, Royal Mail Couriers in the United Kingdom and is famous with bicycle messengers in the business districts of New York and San Francisco. Talk about re-use and versatility, the messenger diaper bag is now a big favorite with the modern, mobile family.
Style, art, truth, what do they have in common with beauty? It’s our perception that counts, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, and so is style, art, truth and the resurrected hobo diaper bag. The original hobo bag had to have many pockets for organizing the various items and tools of the traveling person, who had no permanent place to settle. Hobo diaper bags made a natural transition to the world of the diaper bag, with its many inner pockets of various sizes and shapes, designed for the parent on the move while carrying an assortment of baby gadgets and gear.
Parenthood can sometimes be a struggle between chaos and order, organization and a big mess, multi-tasking or being overwhelmed. What better style of diaper bag to come to the rescue than the Mothership diaper bag. Weighing in at a conservative 3 lbs. it is big, free standing and capable of caring for multiple children simultaneously.
Would you have thought that NASA and Star Wars would have contributed to the design concepts of the diaper bag? Yes they have, introducing the much needed escape pod concept to the diaper bag world. Escape pods can be kept in the Mothership or kept separately with just enough items for that quick trip to the store with baby.
Travel pods are multifunctional; there is a separate pod for diapers, bottles and other food utensils. Keeps baby stuff in separate pods, which makes it easy to grab the right pod when you are in the car and can’t pull out the main diaper bag.
Our mission at Baby Gadgets and Gear is to discover the best baby diaper bags made to order for the modern family. We take extreme pride in finding the best diaper bags from the best designers, and created for every occasion imaginable.
The majority of plastic baby bottles marketed to parents of young children has known carcinogens and can leak these toxins over time when washed with harsh dishwashing soap. Recent tests have also shown that BPA can and do migrate from polycarbonate when used in a microwave oven.
Find BPA Free Baby Bottles on Baby Gadgets and Gear
Besides baby bottles, a common source of plastic used in food storage can be found in the plastic polycarbonate lining of cans used to store and sell baby food. Another known plastic that can leach unfriendly toxins are based on Polyvinyl chloride or PVC.
Pregnant women should avoid BPA derived polycarbonate bottles and refrain from eating canned foods. The plastic lining in food cans contain polycarbonate. BPA is known to mimic the behavior of DES, an artificial estrogen banned for use by pregnant and nursing mothers.
BPA can be found in almost every human in the USA at some level. The reason is that BPA is a very common additive found in half of the formulated plastic resins. Make sure to check the labels and bottom of plastic bottles for the SPI codes, which appear as recycling triangles with numbers and letter codes. The codes are a general guideline for streamlining plastic recycling but can be implemented differently depending on the state of origin.
Some less hazardous plastics like PET or PETA, which is indicated by the number 1 inside the recycling triangle are safer than other plastics such as PVC and polycarbonate based resins. A plastic widely used in baby toys is HDPE and this is the number 2 inside the recycle triangle, it is also used in food containers.
The third plastic is called PVC and we know this to be commonly used in PVC pipes, but it can also be found in plastic food wraps, so look for the number three in the recycling triangle. Low Density Polyethylene is commonly known as LDPE and is plastic number 4, there are no known hazards as in BPA derived plastics, one reason why it is used in plastic food packages and soft sport bottles.
Plastic number 5 is a softer plastic used in some baby bottles and is BPA free, it is also know as polypropylene or PP in the SPI codes. Butter, margarine and yogurt are also packaged in polypropylene. Another plastic widely used in packaging food, especially egg cartons, is polystyrene or PS and is indicated by the number 6 in the recycle triangle.
The SPI originally had six codes, the number 7 was added to include new plastics that combined the resins of the previous six, and can include plastics with BPA or plastics derived from natural biodegradable sources.
Baby Gadgets and Gear is your online destination for new baby gear and bpa free baby bottles.
The week of August 4th through 9th is World Breast Feeding Week! In recognition of this important topic, we are highlighting several products for Mom’s that makes breast feeding easier given our busy lifestyles. If you know one of these wonder women who possesses the power to produce milk – consider gifting her a fabulous item to make her life a bit easier, or perhaps a bit more stylish.
First off, we have the very cool, very chic nursing apron, which are popping up everywhere with Mom’s who desire privacy for their nursing babe in public, but still want to look chic in the meantime.
Next we are featuring the all important Breast Pump – which makes it all
doable for moms to be able to breast feed their babies and still have some time away from the baby. We have great models full of features like this backpack style or this designer breast pump for the diva mom in your life.
by San Francisco Bay Area Maternity & Newborn Photographer Anna Myers
Whenever a new baby arrives, everyone wants pictures. But when you use a flash camera to try to capture pictures of that beautiful new baby, the baby tends to not look like the baby you see with your eyes. Using window light to photograph your baby can give you the results you are looking for and give you some great images that can be used for an artistic birth announcement.
- Film or digital? It actually does not matter. But if you are using film, try to get some black & white film that is rated at least 400 ISO, preferably 800 ISO. Newborns often have skin coloring issues for several weeks and black and white removes that aspect, and besides that will always be a classic look. If you are using a digital camera, you can turn the image black & white on the computer, or online if you are using an online printing service.
- Make sure the flash is turned off! Using window light will yield a beautiful soft result which is key to capturing the beauty of the newborn baby. To achieve this, find a window that has good light coming through. You do not want direct sunlight, just a nice amount of indirect light. Morning light works great if you have a room with the right exposure, and morning is also a great time to capture the baby.
- Simple is always better, so remove visual clutter. Use a white sheet or solid colored blankets under the baby so that the look is simple, classic and totally focused on the baby.
- Remove the babies clothing down to the diapers. Less clothing is better for newborn photography to really show the baby as they tend to not fit clothing well at this age, and clothing is more of a distraction. If the diapers have cartoons on them, try to cover the cartoons by folding the diaper over, or putting fabric over that area. Or take your chances and remove that diaper! Work quickly at this point if you choose this route.
- Make sure the babies face and body are turned toward the window light. Stand so that the window is at your side and you have a good view of the baby. Take pictures with your camera, trying to fill the frame with the baby and solid colored backgrounds, avoiding other background clutter.
- Take pictures from all different angles. Talk to the baby to try to get them to look into the camera for some of the images, but do not focus on trying to get the baby to smile. Just sing and coo and work on getting different expressions and features of your newborn.
- If the baby falls asleep, no problem – photograph them while sleeping! When they are asleep you can take pictures of feet and hands as they are not moving. Think of the beautiful images by Anne Geddes, who became famous for her sleeping newborns images. When newborns are awake they tend to move constantly which can make it challenging to get still images without motion.
- Take more pictures than you think you need, you never know which ones you will like. Make sure to get come full body, some half body and some close ups of face, hands, feet and other cute, memorable body parts – like the fuzzy wrinkly shoulders, funny hair lines, ears, legs, bottom, etc.
- Develop your pictures at the lab or on your computer, and make sure to look through them with an artistic eye. Find the images that really look like the baby to you – the images that capture their features in the way that you want to remember, and use those ones for a birth announcement.
Anna Myers is a fine art San Francisco Bay Area Portrait Photographer who specializes in San Francisco Bay Area Newborn Photography.
More than one babe to haul around with you? No problem-o these days with the fantastic features available from 
strollers for multiples. Many parents have children close in age so that they have a very young infant as well as a squirrelly toddler in tow. One of the best lightweight, maneuverable strollers we have seen for these folks is the Joovy Caboose Ultralight Stand-On Tandem Stroller. Notice that this is not a wide stroller – but still has the narrow footprint of a single stroller, with a little space for that toddler to take a rest when needed.
For a more sporty rig with a new twist on the stand on we also love phil&teds Sport Buggy – check out these wheels! 
Compact Video fits easily into your diaper bag to pull out and capture all of those great moments - and easily share them online!
So we just had to try out this product when we found it for the store. It had such great reviews, and the size and features are just perfect for parents with babies and toddlers – Flip Video Ultra Series Camcorder.
This will easily fit in to a small purse or coat pocket which makes it perfect to carry along every day. It stores up to 60 minutes of video at a time – then you can easily off load the data to your PC or Mac. The software included makes editing a snap – and then here is the totally cool part – you can instantly share these video moments via email or on youtube etc. How great is that to be able to send friends and family tidbits and moments of your baby or toddlers day?
Face it – busy parents do not always have time to mess with the more complicated and bigger video camera. But this one is so small and easy to use you really do not have any more excuses to not be sending more video to grandparents – or those hysterical moments to youtube.
Taking steps to baby proof your home is as essential for baby and toddler safety as food is essential for growth and nurturing for parent to child bonding.
Start by studying areas at a level where kids operate, things at and below an average adult’s knee height are among the first places to start securing. Then categorize these areas and start looking for items to baby proof and make these dangers non-threatening to your baby.
Tips for Baby proofing your home:
Electrical outlets: Baby proofing electrical outlets are your main priority.
Don’t wait for baby to start crawling, make it your first baby proofing duty while baby is not yet mobile. I prefer to use universal outlet covers that slide shut when the electrical appliance is removed. Remember to use power strip covers to guard against electrical shock from power strips that are usually under the office desk or around home appliances and electronics.
Safety Gates: These come in many different styles and function. Some are designed for the top of the stairs, some can be custom configured and some are made of soft material, while others use pressure mounted designs that won’t mar walls. Most of designed to fit standard doorways.
AquaGuard Pool Alarm System detects a child, pet, or object of 18 lbs or more falling into a pool or spa.
Drowning threats: Secure your bathroom toilet lid cover with a lid lock. Use wireless outdoor/indoor monitors to monitor areas around you swimming pool or areas where large pools of water exist. It is a good idea to use baby walkers equipped with safety brakes if baby is mobile around swimming pools.
The not so obvious: At the level where kids crawl, live, dust, dirt and insects that can irritate lungs and skin. We use a robotic vacuum to clean areas where baby crawls, while the robot cleans we use this time to play with baby.
