Sustainable Soothers

All my kids have had soothers when they were babies. I got lucky with my first two boys and they gave them up on their own before they turned one year. No weaning required, just cold turkey, their choice. So of course toddler K is just under two years and still in love with his "nene". K always loved his soother but really had a hard time keeping it in his mouth until he was one year, that's when his love really blossomed. Having a toddler with a soother is costing me a lot of money!! K has a pacifier in his mouth a majority of the day and night, we are trying to break him from his daytime habit but his night time habit is the worst. When he is about to fall asleep sometimes he chews on it and rips chunks out of it. We used to use Gumdrop's and at first I really liked them but they are made of hard plastic in the inside and they can crack if squeezed or played with too much. Once the biting started K would bite chunks out of the silicone nipple and try to eat it, yuck! Then I bought some Wubbanubs, at first I loved them because he could find them at night time without fully waking. But the Soothie brand soothers were not any better and he started biting chunks out of the nipple on these ones as well. At $15 a Wubbanub this was not going to work for me either. When Hevea offered me the chance to try out one of their pacifiers I was excited. I have seen them in stores but didn't know how they would hold up to K and I was worried about spending more money on what could turn out to be another cheap quality soother. Hevea's pacifiers are 100% natural rubber (which is a natural material), are biodegradable, BPA free, PVC free and phylate free. The soothers themselves are packaged in plastic to keep out germs, the outer packaging is a recycled, biodegradable cardboard pr thick paper packaging, even the inside has a super cute pattern that is a cute added touch. Their pacifiers are ergonomically shaped to fit your child's face, accommodating both their nose and chin. They have both anatomical and orthodontic nipples to choose from and come in two sizes; 0-3 months and 3+months (3-36months). Instead of tacky designs and sayings they are adorned with small adorable cut outs of flowers, cars, crowns, stars and moons. We chose the the Round, Crown in 3+ months. As it turns out the quality is amazing as well as the customer service of both the US and Canadian distributors. The first soother I received seemed to have had a defect maybe, after a couple of weeks a tear appeared in the top layer of the side of the nipple. It didn't pierce through the whole nipple itself, just a layer of the rubber which you could then peel off. I contacted Hevea in the US directly as I didn't know who the Canadian distributor was. I sent a picture and explained my problem and was promptly responded too. They were willing to replace it for me but since I live in Canada I was directed to the Canadian distributor, Bug in a Rug Canada , who also was willing to replace it for me and did so immediately. Absolutely astounding customer service. The new pacifier has been in commission for a month now and no rips or tears, I have since bought a couple of back ups and they also have no rips or tears. Biting and teeth pulling have nothing on this bad boy!! I have finally found a soother that withstand the wrath of K. Not only that but the whole on the back end of the nipple is so small that he can no longer put his finger in the whole and pull the nipple inside of itself and bite it back out, another favorite night time activity to keep himself awake at night that drives me insane. Just like K I love our Hevea Pacifiers and would recommend them to any parent looking for a good soother.

To solve our problem of loosing soothers in bed at night I now attach our Hevea Pacifier to our taggie blankets (from Mod Tod Designs and Snug Tugs) with the extra extender piece from our Toy Saver looped through one of the tags and the other end attached to our soother. If anyone would like me to post a video explaining this be sure to leave a comment and let me know. ;)

Hevea Pacifiers retails for $10 CAD and can be purchased in Canada online at Bug In a Rug and in the US at Hevea USA.

I am in love!! His name is Jeremy, he's in a band and he plays guitar!

Here at Baby Let's Shop we get asked to review a lot of children's music. In fact I turn a lot of it down. When it comes to children's music I cannot stand a lot of it. After 14 years of kids music droning through my house there is only so much I can tolerate. Let 's be honest, just because your kids like it doesn't mean you want to sit through hours and hours of the same mind numbing music. But Jeremy Plays Guitar is not your usual children's music. I actually came across the album Use Your Words online, after listening to a sample I was hooked. All day long I sang "House Rules". It really stuck with me, I drove my kids nuts because I only knew the first line but I sung it over and over all day long for weeks. House Rules, now this was really something I could get behind. I liked house rules, I wanted and needed house rules. And a catchy tune too?? Sign me up I was sold. I quickly made arrangements to get my hands on a copy and anxiously stalked the mailbox for it's arrival. Upon arrival I immediately uploaded it to my itunes so I could put it on my ipod for the car and popped the cd into our dvd player (where I play cds in the living room) so we could listen to it over and over. Jeremy Plays Guitar was a hit with everyone except for teen C but lets face it unless you are a character in a video game Teen C is not impressed by you at all. (That and teens are not really the target audience of this album haha) Toddler K has always loved music so he was an easy sell. Kindergardener L is the critic lately and he was sold! And now I have a partner to sing House Rules with and it's even better now that I know more than one line! Not only is the music catchy and enjoyable but all the songs really teach your child about house rules, it's ok to be wrong, taking turns, being different, using your words, dealing with our feelings, making mistakes, being silly, liking different things than others/allergies, meeting new friends, sensitivity to sounds etc, controlling your temper, emotions and more!! I can honestly say that I really enjoy each and every song on the album and could listen to them all again and again and we do!! You can check out the album here and have a listen for yourself. I'm sure you will love them just as much as us. I only hope we will be seeing a new album soon!

Jeremy Plays Guitar retails for $13.99US and can be purchased from their US based website here. Don't forget to check out their facebook, twitter and youtube either and tell them Baby Let's Shop sent you!!

Happy New Year 2012!!