Childs Farm Bathtime Skincare Review

Lara is absolutely LOVING her swimming lessons at present; I'm sure it is something to do with the stage of development she is at and the realisation that she is control of her strength and power.  After swimming, Lara and I ALWAYS fall out about a shower.  Week in, week out.  I don't know why it has to be such a stressful thing but it almost always ends in tears.  Thankfully, my new buddy is this bottle of Childs Farm Quick Dip! 3 in 1 Swim which at least helps me make the process short and sweet.

Childs Farm Quick Dip! 3 in 1 Swim offers head to toe cleansing for kids - it is a shampoo, conditioner and body wash all in one and the best thing is that it is made with 98% natural ingredients.  One of the reasons why I always insist that Lara showers after swimming is because she suffers from dry skin and ezcema so not only is it important to wash away all the cholorine but it is also important to me that her post-swim routine is as natural and gentle as possible.  Childs Farm toiletries for kids are free from parabens, SLS, mineral oils and artificial colours.

The 3 in 1 Swim has a very sweet scent of strawberries and mint... I found myself standing at the side of the swimming pool this week watching Lara swim while unconsciously sniffing her bottle of Childs Farm shampoo and body wash!!!  I have struggled a bit with the lid on the bottle which seems a bit wonky and so far has leaked inside two of my sports bags but I hope this is a one-off because the lid on our Childs Farm bubble bath seems fine.

After swimming, Lara's long hair does need a bit of attention when it comes to knots and tangles so to avoid another argument in the shower we normally use a spray-in conditioner on her wet hair. The Childs Farm detangling spray is quite a thick spray for help with removal of knots and we get some particularly evil knots after swimming.  I'm really pleased with this detangler; it is very effective compared to other sprays that we've tried and yet it is also 98% natural.  I absolutely love the smell (again, another difference compared to big brand named detangler sprays!), this one is scented with grapefruit oil and tea-tree oil which also has the added benefit of deterring head lice!

Childs Farm is a cartoon on Cartoonito which features Radar the dog and his farmyard friends.  All of the labels on the Childs Farm toiletries products feature images from the cartoons and they all have a strong farmyard theme.  The range features bubble baths, body washes, hand washes and body lotion as well as detangling combs, hair ties and gift bags.  I think its a fun range with a really wide appeal to children from birth right upto pre-teens.

Fairy Princess and Pirate Bath Sponges Review

A couple of weeks ago I was working in the US and on an afternoon off I managed to get in a little bit of shopping. I found a very groovy gift shop which had an eclectic mix of gifts for kids and adults and I wanted pretty much everything in the store.  The whole store reminded me of The Handpicked Collection which I know and love... when the Handpicked Collection catalogue plops through my door, I usually want one of everything!

In that quirky US gift shop I saw some fun sets of bath sponges.  It put a smile on my face because I knew that the Handpicked Collection had just asked me to review the exact same sponges which were waiting for me at home for my return.  Since I have been back, these fun bath sponges for kids have certainly lightened the atmosphere at bathtime.

When the girls start their bathtime, they quite civilly negotiate who will use the princess bath sponges and who will use the pirate bath sponges.  I think that secretly Holly would very much like to be a pirate.

The sponges come in pairs - the pink princess crown comes with a purple wand and the green pirate hat comes with a blue sword.  The wand and the sword don't really maintain their shape when they get wet so you have to wring them out if you want a sword fight.  The crown and the hat have surface areas big enough to actually use for washing rather than just playing.

For us, bathtime is normally a bit of a struggle with quite a lot of barking orders so it has helped to lighten the mood and make bathtime more of a fun time of day.  As long as the negotiations remain civil I think the sponges will survive but I would say that because of the fancy shapes, the sponges probably won't withstand a heavy hand and I can imagine the crown and wand could quite easily tear if the girls were to argue over them.

These fun sets of bath sponges for kids from the Handpicked collection would make great gifts and each set costs under a tenner.

Koo-di Bathtime Ideas

Koo-di are a brand whose guiding principle is making parents lives easier - exactly the same as the Mellow mummy mantra!  The Koo-di Parent Kneeling Mat totally embodies that goal - my knees say thank-you!

The Koo-di Parent Kneeling Mat is designed for parents as a handy aid for while you are bathing your baby or child in the family bath.  With two children, we usually share the load with one of us sitting by the bath on the toilet and the other one making do with the hard cold bathroom floor.  We did once try a kneel mat but the fabric perished and we found it got in the way for the rest of the day but Koo-di have tackled both of these things in their brightly coloured kneel mat.

The Koo-di Kneel Mat has a handy hanging hook at the top so, after use, I simply hang it up on the back of the bathroom door handle and it is tucked away until the next time we need it.  The material is a firm anti-slip foam-type shock-absorbing plastic that is pthalate free so safe for use around babies.  We found the parent mat to be very quick drying (for when your 4 year old decides to dump an entire bucket of water over the edge of the bath) and I'm really pleased with this product, it certainly does help make bathtimes easier when you are more comfortable yourself.

Over our taps we have a Koo-di bath tap protector.  I have wanted one of these ever since I first became a mum but I'd never previously been able to find one big enough to go all the way over our mixer tap; the Koo-di tap protector has a really big push-in aperture so it should fit on a wide range of bath fittings.

The Koo-di Bath Tap Protector performs three functions.  Most importantly to me is to protect against scalding - Holly has a tendency to reach up to the tap and I always worry that it will still hold residual heat and has the potential to scald badly.  Secondly, it helps protect against bumps or sore eyes... why do toddlers insist on walking around in the bath???  Finally, the Koo-di Tap Protector changes colour as you run the bath water to tell you whether the tap (and the water coming from it) is too hot but I normally tend to trust my own judgement on the water so I find it more useful if it can tell me that the tap is hot.

Mr. B. prefers to put the Koo-di tap protector on after he has run the bath as he has found that if you place it just ever so slightly off the centre of the tap head that water flows into the cover and comes out of the back.  Maybe I just have the knack of getting it 'just right' because this has never happened to me yet.

The bright colours of the Koo-di tap protector are in keeping with the rest of the Koo-di brand but they make the cover look like a toy and Holly and Lara both try to pull it off the tap and play with it by filling it up with water and pouring it out through the holes - rather defeating the point of the product!

And after Holly has emerged from her bath I can wrap her up in this SUPER soft (the softest I've ever come across) snuggly polka dot blanket - perfect for snuggling tiny babies or for use as a play mat.

The Koo-di Parent Kneeling Mat costs £12.99 and the Koo-di Tap Protector costs £9.99. The Polka dot blanket costs around £21.

  

Infacare Ultra Mild Baby Bath Review

In recent months Holly has developed the same dry skin and mild ezcema on her arms that her older sister has suffered with since she was a baby.  This means we had started to avoid bubble bath at bath time once again.  Infacare asked us to try out their mild baby bath which has a new bottle design and a refreshing new fragrance that is gentle and mellow.

Infacare is pH balanced so shouldn't dry out skin, even for tiny little babies and it is recommended by midwives as suitable for very delicate baby skin.

Our Infacare bottle is a massive 750ml bottle which is a bargain at £2.99 from Boots and supermarkets.  We only needed to use a teeny tiny amount of the baby bath to fill our bath with bubbles (much to the girls delight) and I think this bottle will last us for AGES.

I found the scent to be very mild and, on a big full-sized bath I felt it was a little lost.  I would imagine that in a smaller baby bath that the floral scent would be perfect, it certainly does evoke memories of childhood and would make a tiny baby smell scrumptious and fresh!

I'm pleased with Infacare - both of my girls are still struggling with their eczema but I think that has a lot to do with the time of year (woolly jumpers and central heating don't do great things for sensitive skin) and the best I can do is to look for a bubble bath and baby shampoo that won't further irritate their skin - Infacare manages this well.  For me the best thing if the smile on Lara's face when she gets into a bath so full of bubbles because this has been a very unusual experience for her these past 4 years - most sensitive skin baby washes don't offer the same level of bubbles that Infacare does.  I would say that there are still a few ingredients in Infacare, such as the SLS responsible for all of those bubbles, that could irritate skin as it isn't an all-natural product but I think it is an affordable product that is certainly worth a try if your baby is prone to dry or irritated skin as there are different triggers for different babies.

Bathtime Fun with BabyDan and Fisher Price

Both Lara and Holly have been having great fun in the bath recently, due to a number of new additions and special treats for the girl's bathroom.

Lara was sent this Dive & Swim Mermaid Dora as a special treat from Fisher Price to celebrate the arrival of her little sister. It worked a treat as a way of easing Lara into big sister-hood. Dora and the Mermaid Kingdom is one of Lara's favourite bedtime stories so Lara was over the moon when she met her new bath toy. Mermaid Dora has an ingenious switch which causes her to jump spectaularly into the water and then she starts swimming backstroke through the bath water. You wind Dora's arms up to help her swim and Lara loves it because she has just started learning backstroke herself at swimming lessons so she and Dora can practice in the bath together. Dive & Swim Mermaid Dora also comes with a hairbrush but Lara show as little interest in brushing Dora's tangled hair as she does in brushing her own!

Holly's new gadget is the Fisher Price Happy Bath Hippo Tub. This is an ideal product for myself and Mr. B (and Holly of course). One of my first ever blog posts detailed why I found traditional baby baths a total waste of time... we've tried several other styles and just kept going back to our own normal bath tub. For Holly, we never even bought a baby bath. The Happy Bath Hippo is a mesh sling which sits inside a sink or bath and allows you to place your baby on it for support, leaving your hands free to actually bath your baby, rather than you having to hold them delicately in the tub to keep their head above water. It is great for a newborn.

Holly absolutely loves her baths (Lara used to hate them) - she sits quite contentedly on her bath stand and seems really relaxed on it. I don't know whether this is to do with her being born in water, a natural love of bathtime or because I have more confidence when using the Happy Bath Hippo Tub and so no stress passes on to her. This Fisher Price bath stand costs £19.99 and I think it is much better value than a baby bath. One of the fab things for us is that we can fill the bath with a small amount of water for Holly and then when she is finished, just top up the water for Lara... this saves water and saves us money because we are on a meter.

Our final addition to the bathroom may appear to be the most mundane but actually it is a lifesaver and something I really should have got my hands on a long time ago.  We were sent the BabyDan Bath Storage Basket for review.

The BabyDan Bath Storage Basket is available from the Hello Baby . Hello Baby also sells a wide range of other baby and nursery stuff including Baby Toys, nursery furniture, baby travel and baby safety products.

The storage basket was easy to put together and makes it a lot easier to tidy up all the girl's toys after a bath. Since we got it, I've felt like I can reclaim the bath as my own because when I want a long relaxing soak, all I need to do is lift the BabyDan storage basket off the bath and I am no longer surrounded by toys!