Milton Mini Portable Steriliser Review

I had been expecting to need some form of sterlisation utility to take with us on our Family Road trip across Europe so the Milton Mini portable soother steriliser seemed ideal because it would barely take up any space in our boot.

The Milton Mini is a small ball about 8cm across into which you can place a dummy when you need to sterilise it. The steriliser uses a combination of cold water and a single tiny Milton mini sterilisation tablet.

The Milton Mini has a little fabric handle which allows it to dangle off the handles of a buggy or to attach to your changing bag. I was worried about sloshing water inside the ball but in fact the sphere contains two sponges which absorb the solution and distribute it across the soother.

Sterilisation takes about 15 minutes. As a newbie to cold-water sterilisation I'm not sure whether this is fast or slow! When I'm out and about I think I'd want a quicker turnaround for a soother that needs to be used for an angry baby but then 15 minutes isn't that long in the grand scheme of things and afterwards the dummy is ready for use straight away.

I found the Milton Mini very easy to use, to assemble and maintain. I can imagine it would come in very useful given my previous experience of lost dummies at the bottom of a gungey changing bag. As it is, Holly won't take a soother (despite may attempts when all she needs is to suck on something to send her off to sleep) and so the Mini Milton didn't come with us to Poland but you never know, she may change her mind!

Yumee Dumee Dummy Clip Review

Today I'd like to introduce you to a local lady called Maddi who runs D&M*R Yum-ee Dum-ee, a hobby business making functional and decorative (and most importantly, SAFE) dummy clips.

As an expectant mum-to-be, dummies and dummy-related gadgets are just coming back onto my horizon as you can tell from this morning's review. Maddi handmakes all of her dummy clips and is passionate about finding new and exciting designs - she stocks a wonderful array of ribbons and can make designs up to order as well as the items she has in stock.

I really love some of the themed designs for Christmas, as well as the character designs such as Peppa Pig. The dummy clip we tried really was very sturdy and it would take some mean feat to pull the dummy from it once attached.

Yum-ee Dum-ee Clips are handmade using durable ribbon, plastic clips and snap fasteners that are sewn into place. All ribbon is heat sealed and heat bonded to prevent fraying. I use a sewing machine to make sure stitches are secure. The plastic clips are kinder to clothes than the metal ones many other brands use and because there are no beads or embellishments on the dummy clips, there is a reduced risk of choking and entanglement compared to others on the market. You can buy Yum-ee Dum-ee clips with a traditional clip fastening or the specialist MAM clips to support MAM soothers.

Maddi's dummy clips cost from £2 to £3. You can find out more about Yum-ee Dum-ee clips on the website or on facebook.

  

Dropping the Dummy

We have, officially, dropped the dummy. Yay! We didn't do it consciously... it just kinda happened.

I never really intended to give Lara a dummy at all. I bought some before the birth just because I felt it was the right thing to do; just another one of those things on the checklist that the world told me I needed. As a breastfeeding mum, I was very careful not to offer Lara a dummy during the first 4 weeks to make sure that she was well-established at the breast. As it was, we didn't need to use one during that time. Lara took to breastfeeding easily and so, when the moment came, I didn't feel worried about introducing a dummy.

I can clearly remember the first time I gave Lara a dummy. She was about 6 weeks old. It was about 3am, Lara had been awake for over 2 hours and screaming for most of that time. I had fed her, changed her, sung to her, rocked her in the bouncy chair and played a little Baby Mozart. All of the usual tricks had failed to calm her and so, feeling desperate, I fished out the tiny little dummies from the cupboard and hey presto – peace at last. I felt guilty for about 5 minutes but then I fell asleep and accepted the fact that the soother really had done what it said on the tin... soothed her.

Image: Carlos Porto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Over the next 12 months, we used a dummy/soother to settle Lara to sleep or to chill her out a little when she was particularly ratty. The dummy came with us wherever she went and I supplied one each day for the childminders but it never became part of the furniture. For us, the dummy was used to calm Lara down when she really needed it. This weekend we went swimming at Coral Reef in Bracknell. In amidst the whirling rapids and showering water cannon there was a baby in a rubber ring who was probably about 6 or 7 months old; her mum was struggling to keep a dummy in. The child was smiling and giggling having the time of her life and I just didn't understand why she needed a dummy at all.

Anyway, Mr. B. and I decided that at 12 months we were going to attempt to remove the dummy. We didn't do it straight away because we were also moving Lara over from formula to cow's milk AND introducing a fixed bed time so we thought that we would get those two things out of the way before attempting the dummy cold-turkey. Both the cow's milk change and the bedtime change went well and then about 2 weeks ago I was at my parents and my Mum asked about the dummy (she was going to be babysitting for a night so was asking whether she would need it); it suddenly dawned on me that we hadn't used one for days! We had dropped the dummy by accident!

We have now been dummy-free (apart from about 5 minutes this Saturday morning at 4.30am after Lara has been awake and whingeing for over 3 hours) for about 4 weeks. Now that we look back, Mr. B. and I realise that while we were introducing the new bedtime routine we were both resisting the dummy as part of that routine. And, when Lara stirred during the night, our first reaction wasn't to go and pop the dummy back in but to turn her over, comfort her and leave her to it.

Having dropped the dummy, I feel like Lara is now in control of her own moods. If she is stroppy, she lets me know rather than sucking away the stress. If she is tired, we have to find a way to settle her down (and she has to find a way of chilling out too). I feel like I have passed onto her some of the responsibility for her own peace and quiet.

I don't regret using a dummy but I'm glad it has gone now.