Safety

New Mom Series: Car Seat Installation

This is our first post in Gugu Guru’s New Mom Series, where we will be providing helpful information for new and expecting moms about preparing and registering for baby. For this Infant Car Seat feature, we have partnered up with expecting mama Terra LaRock, the leading brand in infant safety Britax and, the Baby Safety Zone powered by the JPMA (Juvenile Products Manufacturing Association). JPMA is a national trade organization representing 95% of the prenatal to preschool industry dedicated to the safe manufacturing and usage of products.

When Terra LaRock, who is expecting her first baby, was researching car seats the most important factor was safety. Terra is 36 weeks along and most experts will tell you that installing your car seat 4-6 weeks before your due date is a smart idea, just in case you go into labor early. As you may or may not know, most hospitals won’t let you leave without an installed car seat.

Based on her lifestyle and budget, Gugu Guru recommended the Britax B-Safe 35 Elite Infant Car Seat for her registry. The B-Safe car seat is engineered to exceed the highest safety standards out there. Aside from the B-Safe being built to last, parents and caregivers love that the seat is easy to adjust and comfortable for your child as s/he grows. In Terra’s words:

“We settled on the Britax car seat because it got rave reviews for safety and it is much lighter to carry than many of the other car seats we tried out. We also love how easy it is to click in and out of the base and the fabric appears super easy to maintain and keep clean. The extra bonus of this Britax car seat happens to be the color and pattern choices—they are so fun!”

Terra loved the perfectly unisex Cactus Green color (Baby LaRock’s gender is a surprise!)

The next step? Reading up on Car Seat Safety on Baby Safety Zone‘s website. The Baby Safety Zone is an information hub and community for parents and caregivers. Baby Safety Zone helps make safety fun, one baby product at a time. It’s very important for new parents to check resources like this because the unfortunate fact is that *most* car seats are installed incorrectly.

Tip: Some parents will tell you that you can go to the your local fire department for installation. We see this as a “checking your work” step and don’t recommend you have a safety technician or fire department personnel install the seat from the start. While these are great resources, it’s important that YOU know how to install it yourself.

For example, did you know that a properly installed car seat should not move more than an inch in any direction? Learn more helpful tips for proper safe use and installation of a child’s car seat with Baby Safety Zone’s informative car seat safety infographic. (Find it here or scroll down to the bottom of this post.)

Featured in this week’s New Mom Series:

Terra LaRock
Terra is an educator who lives in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado with her husband, Perry, and their husky named Rio. She enjoys gardening, floral design, bluegrass music and getting their home ready for baby’s arrival. Terra is expecting their first baby at the end of October and the gender is a surprise!
Follow Terra on Instagram at @LoveAndLaRock

Britax
Britax has been leading the way in child safety technology for more than 70 years. Always innovating, always focusing on what’s best for the child, always going beyond ‘good enough’. From Europe’s best-selling car seat brand, Britax has become one of the brands most trusted by American families since they launched here in 1996.

Since then, Britax has revolutionized side impact protection, transformed safe seat installation, and introduced a range of smart strollers designed around the changing needs of today’s families.
Visit Britax at: https://us.britax.com/

Baby Safety Zone
The Baby Safety Zone is an information hub and community for parents and caregivers. We’re helping make safety fun, one baby product at a time. Parents and caregivers are encouraged to immerse themselves in the Baby Safety Zone experience and become a part of a circle of parents dedicated to making their child’s first years, happy, safe and sound.

The Baby Safety Zone is powered by the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association. JPMA is a national trade organization representing 95% of the prenatal to preschool industry. Today, JPMA represents 250 companies in the United States, Canada, and Mexico who manufacture, import and/or distribute infant products such as cribs, car seats, strollers, bedding, and a wide range of accessories and decorative items.
Visit the Baby Safety Zone at: https://babysafetyzone.org

Learn helpful tips for proper safe use and installation of a child’s car seat with Baby Safety Zone’s informative car seat safety info graphic here:

Bottle Style: Plastic or Glass?

by Gugu Guru Leave a Comment

Glass or Plastic – Which one is best for your lifestyle? Here’s the team at Gugu Guru‘s list of pros and cons to help you decide which is best for you.

Also consider: Stainless steel are arguably the safest bottles for feeding and will keep liquids hot or cold for longer, but they definitely need to be hand washed. If your interest is piqued, check out the Pura Kiki infant bottle.

PLASTIC

Pros

Plastic bottles are lighter weight than glass. Lighter bottles make it easier for baby to start self-feeding earlier.
Plastic bottles are less expensive than their glass counterparts.
And, maybe most notably: plastic bottles don’t break.

Hint: If you prefer plastic but don’t want the hassle of constantly washing the bottles try bottles that use disposable liners.

Cons

The most obvious reason moms are shying away from using plastic bottles is the BPA factor. The chemical Bisphenol A (BPA), which can leach out when heated, is linked to an increased risk of hormonal disruption. The FDA issued a ban on the use of BPA in baby bottles in 2012, however, alarmists are claiming that other chemicals in plastic are just as harmful as BPA, but there is no scientific evidence to back this up.
Many moms feel best washing their plastic bottles in the top rack of the dishwasher or even hand washing. If you don’t want to hand wash and you don’t have a dish washer, you’ll need to buy a bottle sterilizer.

GLASS

Pros

Safety rules with glass bottles. No potentially scary chemicals here.
You can give glass bottles a second life as water or juice glasses.
Glass bottles can get washed in the top or bottom rack of the dishwasher without any risk of harmful chemicals, like BPA, leaching out.
Glass is greener for the environment.

Cons

They’re heavy. Try schlepping one or two around in your diaper bag for the day.
They cost more money than plastic.
There’s always a possibility of breakage with glass.
Glass can get chipped without actually breaking, so you’ll need to be on the lookout for any cracks before handing it over to baby.

Introducing Your Newborn To Your Dog

by Gugu Guru Leave a Comment

The arrival of a baby into a home that contains your dog brings about a few issues and questions that need to be addressed both before the child arrives and after.

But before I give you a few quick tips on prepping the dog for the arrival and addressing issues during the arrival, I would like to note that no infant should ever be left unattended with any dog ever. It does not matter how long you have had your dog and how unaggressive the dog is, any dog can and will bite. For example, if you have ever picked up a dog not knowing it had a hurt leg, and the dog reacts to the pain by nipping at you, you can see that even faithful Fido will bite if he feels he is defending himself, when in pain, or in emotional distress. So please: no dog should ever be left alone with an infant.

When I am asked to do a consult to check a dog to see if there will be issue with a child, I run a few tests.

1. I make sure that I can freely take toys and treats from the dog. Even grabbing the toys or treats directly from the dog’s mouth. The majority of the time a child is bitten by a dog is because the child tried to take something the dog was guarding. Babies are grabby, combine that with a dog that guards toys or treats and that is a recipe for disaster. If you notice that your dog has an issue with resource guarding, consult a professional trainer/behaviorist for an evaluation and possible remediation plan.

1. Make sure that you can freely take toys and treats from the dog.

2. A seed test: I have sound effects loaded onto my laptop. One of these is a baby crying. I play the clip of the crying baby and observe the dog. If there is no reaction at all, that is a good sign. The dog might just look around, try to locate the source of the sound and be alert. That is also OK. Where I take note is if the sound of a crying human baby seems to cause the dog distress. Again, if you note distress, consult a professional. This is an easy problem to deal with with desensitization training.

Infant Cry Newborn New Born Noise Sound Effect

2. Play a clip of a crying baby and observe the dog. If there is no reaction at all, that is a good sign.

3. See how the dog reacts at a playground with excited children running and screaming (as you will find out children like to do). What we are looking for is an abnormal focus on the children that are running.

3. See how the dog reacts at a playground with excited children running and screaming

Again this alone might not mean anything but for dogs that have high prey drive, we do not want the child becoming the object of a game of chase for the dog. Also I look for general distress with normal noises from children playing. This can be addressed, but it is important to see when your dog becomes uncomfortable, so that you can keep your dog out of uncomfortable situations.

With common sense, a solid leader, and clear communication with your dog, bringing home baby should be joyous for all. If you notice anything at all that seems unclear, consult a professional and address it.

John McDonald is the founder of Zen Dogs. Zen Dogs is a full service dog training program focusing on the relationship between human and dog first as a means for positive reinforcement.

For more information, visit https://zen-dogs.com.

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