A blog for cloth diapering Mammas. Doing our best for our babies and our Mother Earth.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Living Green Expo August 25, 2012

Living Green Expo 2012
Saturday August 25th
Agg Expo Park
4215 Long Lane, Franklin, TN 37064
 Exit #61, off I-65
9:30am - 3:30pm


This is a free family event featuring 69 differant vendors of sustainable products and services.  Green Pixie Baby is excited to be participating again this year and spreading the word about cloth diapering and green parening options!

This event will also have children's interactive educational activities.

We hope to see you there!

Green Pixie Baby

Sharing our love of cloth diaper fluff and American mad stuff.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Planet Wise Giveaway

Planet Wise is hosting a new giveaway with great prizes including Planet Wise Products and a Kindle Fire! Head over to their facebook page to enter https://www.facebook.com/planetwise/app_208195102528120 ! Be sure to write in Green Pixie Baby as your favorite Planet Wise Retailer. If we win the Retailer portion we will have a special giveaway for our fans. Please share this with your family and friends.

 Planet Wise Planet Wise Inc.™ is a privately owned family corporation; founded by Nicki Maynard and later joined by husband Jesse. As a husband and wife team, we are working together to ensure the highest quality products while following responsible environmental and social business practices.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Living Well Green Marketplace March 10th, 2012






Living Well Green Marketplace

Where:
Factory at Franklin
230 Franklin Road
Franklin, TN 37064


When:
Saturday March 10, 2012 from 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm CDT


Looking for a FREE family friendly outing this weekend? EXPERIENCE the Living Well Marketplace, Saturday March 10th from 12pm to 6pm in Franklin, Tennessee.

COME ENJOY:

-Cooking demonstrations by Whole Foods Market Franklin

-Take advantage of free workshops provided by The Sustainable Living Guild, "How to get a Farm in a Box" at 1pm and 3pm.

-Support our Cell Phone Recycling Program by Get Green to Get Green. Check those junk drawers and bring down all broken, and unused cell phones. All proceeds will benefit Thistle Farms, Magdalene House Project.

-First 150 attendees will receive a hand created cloth shopping bag, compliments of The Green Bag Lady.

-Experience Vendors that include everything from solar panels, air quality, repurposed building materials to hand made natural cleaning products, health & wellness services & products, and delicious local organic foods.

Green Pixie Baby looks forward to spreading the word about cloth diaper fluff and American made stuff at this event. We will have a booth showcasing some of our products and will be handing out coupons for our store.


We hope to see you this Saturday, March 10th at the Factory at Franklin.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Baby's Food

When is Baby ready for solids? There are some that say between 4-6 months. I am of the belief that month six is the best time for healthy babies to begin on solids. During the first six months breast milk is best for baby and no additional juices, or foods are needed. The maturity of baby’s digestive system is not something that we can readily observe, research indicates that 6 months appears to be ideal for avoiding the allergies and other health risks of too-early solids. Of course all babies are different so watch for these signs to tell if your baby is ready to begin on solids.

Signs that indicate baby is developmentally ready for solids include:

•Baby can sit up well without support.
•Baby has lost the tongue-thrust reflex and does not automatically push solids out of his mouth with his tongue.
•Baby is ready and willing to chew.
•Baby is developing a “pincer” grasp, where he picks up food or other objects between thumb and forefinger. Using the fingers and scraping the food into the palm of the hand (palmar grasp) does not substitute for pincer grasp development.
•Baby is eager to participate in mealtime and may try to grab food and put it in his mouth.

Here are two sources for additional feeding timeline suggestions:
http://www.unicef.org/nutrition/index_breastfeeding.html

http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/policy/policies/b/breastfeedingpolicy.html

Once your baby is ready for solids your family will need to decide whether you will purchase baby food from the store, or make your own at home.

If you decide on purchasing commercial baby foods read the labels carefully. Choose foods without added sugars, modified starches, wheat, rice or other flours. Products with single ingredients and water are best, and avoid baby food "desserts". Purchasing commercial baby food can be costly. New parents spend an average of $300 on baby food during their infant's first year of life. Many parents spend much more, while a few never buy prepared baby foods.

You can prepare your own baby food at home. Doing so will save you money, and will give you the comfort of knowing what's in the food, and when it was prepared. There are many gadgets on the market for preparing baby food. While they are all probably wonderful products, you can get by with using a standard food processor, blender, or even a potato masher. It is best to start with single ingredients first to watch for allergies.

Simply boil, bake or steam the food, let cool, then puree it (You may wish to push green beans (or peas) through a sieve or mesh strainer to get rid of any remaining skins).

You can make large batches and freeze in ice cube trays covered with plastic wrap, or glass containers with lids.

Each cube is equal to approximately 1 ounce of food.

Once the cubes of puree have set and are frozen, take the trays out of the freezer and transfer the cubes into freezer bags.

Be sure to label the bag with the date of preparation as well as the type of food. The baby food cubes should be used within a month of freezing.

When it is time to feed baby, simply take out the number of food cubes needed and thaw and then reheat.

Once baby has tried several fruits and veggies experiment with combining ingredients like sweet potatoes and apples or pears and butternut squash. To thin out veggies, and to help baby adapt to the new flavors you can add some breast milk to give baby a familiar and comforting taste.

If you don't want to puree your baby food, you can consider Baby Led Weaning. To read more information about this go to: http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/babyledweaning.htm

Each baby and families circumstances are differant, so just enjoy this phase of baby and get ready for baby to walk!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Smile Mommy! Diaper Service

Smile, Mommy! Diaper Service is owned and operated by wife and husband team Kelly and Aron Bacher. They were first customers of Smile, Mommy!, fell in love with it, and decided to purchase it when it threatened to close. They live in East Nashville with their son, Brey – born 12/5/10 – their elderly Australian Shepherd, Mate, and Aron's cat.

Smile, Mommy! was opened in 2007 and is now serving Davidson and Williamson Counties in Middle Tennessee and hopes to continue to serve the Nashville area for many years.

2011 was a very busy year for them, growing from zero to around 35 customers in just six months. Brey was also busy learning to walk, talk, kiss, hug, and type on his mama's laptop while she's working.

In 2012, they will grow the business to the size that the previous owners closed it at - 60 customers. They look forward to serving more parents in Davidson and Williamson Counties, with the possibility of broadening their service area in the future. Aron and Kelly look forward to networking and partnerships with other environmentally friendly businesses and organizations. They will continue to be Nashville's premier diaper service, delivering 100% cotton prefolds to your door each week.

Green Pixie Baby is excited to partner with Smile Mommy! on upcoming events in 2012. Together we hope to spread awareness and the love of cloth diapers around TN.
Cloth diapers have never been easier or more accessible. Little Star Childrens Gear in Cool Springs carries BumGenius, and Wholefoods in Franklin carries Fuzzibunz. Cloth Diapers are finally becoming mainstream and we are proud to be a part of the growing community of "green" families.

Whether you laundry your own, or use a service Green Pixie Baby and Smile Mommy! are here to help you along your cloth diaper journey.

With the love of fluff, and American made stuff,

Marie Sawyer
Green Pixie Baby
www.greenpixiebaby.com
www.facebook.com/greenpixiebaby.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

The Bread Book!!

The Bread Book!!

I am happy to share this link with you. Vintage Remedies is a publisher of books addressing Herbal remedies, healthy eating, and healthy living. They are also a local Franklin, TN business.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Cloth Diaper Swap and Play Date

Join us for an hour of play in the Goof Balls Jungle Blaster Room. Let's get together for an informal play date so we can chat about cloth diapers, or anything and everything. Feel free to bring your clean, gently used cloth diapers to swap or sell. This is a free event and the whole family is welcome.

Goofballs Family Fun Center
1113 Murfreesboro Rd, Franklin, TN 37064
9:00 am - 10:00 am
January 16th 2012

We hope to see you there!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Why We Chose Cloth Diapers

I LOVE cloth diapers and now love to help other families fall in love with them too.

How and why did we land where we are today? I don't even remember what initially made us consider it. We didn't have any friends or family that ever used cloth diapers and they were not as accessible as they are now. In fact I think all of our family thought we were crazy and wouldn't stick with them. We weren't even sure if we could manage it with six other children, and both of us working full time. Yet, we decided to give them a "try". We are a "green" family and it just made sense.

We looked at our options, and also decided that if we were going to use cloth we were going to use American made cloth (I know a completely separate issue). So, we ordered our first round of cloth diapers. OMG!! It was love at first sight. Those soft, colorful, tiny newborn Thirsties diapers were so stinkin adorable!! We removed "try" from our discussion about cloth and changed it to USE. We we're blessed to find a wonderful daycare in Franklin (Creekwood Academy) that happily accepted our cloth diapered baby. I have since visited many day cares in the area and all but one said they would accept cloth diapers. =) So we had our supplies, and our daycare, now onto dealing with the POOP! I was nervous at first (ok, paranoid) that I would not be able to clean off all the poopy and get back those clean fluffy diapers. Thanks to the invention of a diaper sprayer, and soft breast milk poop, my diapers stayed beautiful for two full years. Yes, cloth diapers take a little extra time to launder, and yes occasionally you will have to deal with a bit of stink, but we never once regretted using cloth diapers. We traveled to California and back using only cloth (twice), we worked full time jobs, breast fed, and started a family business selling the cloth that we fell in love with.

There are a million sites with actual facts about why to choose cloth. Financially it makes sense so hubbies read this: the average family saves between $1,500-$2,000 over a two year period by using cloth. Environmentally it makes sense so Earth lovers read this: the standard disposable diaper takes 500 years or more to decompose in a landfill, which means every diaper ever pooped in is out there contaminating our earth right now. Health benefits of cloth are tremendous, so all parents read this: standard disposable diapers contain three chemicals of concern:

1st: Sodium Polyacrylate is often visible as small gel-like crystals on the skin of babies and is thought to be linked to skin irritations and respiratory problems. This chemical was removed from tampons due to toxic shock syndrome concerns. As it has only been used in diapers for the last two decades, there is not yet research on the long-term health effects of sodium polyacrylate on babies.

2nd: Tributyl-tin (TBT). According to the EPA, this toxic pollutant is extremely harmful to aquatic (water) life and causes endocrine (hormonal) disruptions in aquatic organisms. TBT is a polluting chemical that does not degrade but remains in the environment and in our food chain. TBT is also an ingredient used in biocides to kill infecting organisms. Additionally, according to research published by the American Institute of Biological Sciences, tributyl-tin can trigger genes that promote the growth of fat cells, causing obesity in humans.

3rd: Dioxin. Disposable diapers contain traces of Dioxin, an extremely toxic by-product of the paper-bleaching process. It is a carcinogenic chemical, listed by the EPA as the most toxic of all cancer-linked chemicals. It is banned in most countries, but not the U.S.


Why risk the health of your child, or the future of our planet for "convenience"? Besides those disposable diapers are stiff, wouldn't you rather have your baby in a soft fluffy diaper? Plus they look much better in photographs!

Check out the RDA website for additional information http://www.realdiaperassociation.org/diaperfacts.php

With love of fluff & American made stuff,

Marie Sawyer
615) 542-4338
Green Pixie Baby
117 Third Avenue N.
Franklin, TN 37064
http://www.greenpixiebaby.com
http://www.facebook.com/Greenpixiebaby

About Me

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Franklin, TN, United States
Hello my name is Marie. I have four healthy, beautiful children. When our latest blessing joined our lives in November 2008 we decided to do the best thing for her and our planet. We went the cloth diapering route. During our search for cloth diapers we found limited availability in our area. We knew that we were not the only family facing this dilemma. Together we decided that we were going to help bring the green trend of cloth diapering to Franklin, TN. So here we are! We specialize in American made cloth diapers and baby products. Spreading the love of cloth diaper fluff and American made stuff one baby at a time. www.greenpixiebaby.com won’t you join us in saving our planet and parenting green?

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