Can cookies really help increase your supply of breastmilk?  Although scientists can’t prove it, most mothers find that oatmeal, flaxseed and brewers yeast help increase their production of breastmilk.  Since these key milk making ingredients are all in this lactation cookie recipe, (plus chocolate) there’s a good chance they’ll work for you!   (Fenugreek is an herb that is proven to be effective as well.)

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup cooking oil
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons ground flax seed
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry four
• 1 cup white flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups oats
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 2 -4 tablespoons brewer’s yeast

Directions:

1.             Preheat oven to 350°.

2.             Mix the flaxseed meal and water and let sit for 3-5 minutes.

3.             Beat butter, oil, sugar, and brown sugar well.

4.             Add eggs and mix well.

5.             Add flaxseed mix and vanilla, beat well.

6.             Sift together flour, brewers yeast, baking soda, and salt.

7.             Add dry ingredients to butter mix.

8.             Stir in oats and chips.

9.             Scoop onto baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes.

Can eating the wrong foods cause you greater pregnancy and breastfeeding fatigue? How can you better control your pregnancy blood sugar?  With both my pregnancies, I was amazed how quickly my energy level was affected by what I ate and drank.  Since I spent most of my time trying to stay conscious while yearning for naps, I happily skipped the foods that lowered my already pathetic energy level.

1. Sugar is obviously at the top of the list, and is often what we crave most during pregnancy or nursing.  Limiting our intake, especially right in the middle of the day can help us keep our glucose levels in check and save ourselves from a mini-coma later.
2. Simple carbohydrates such as those in pasta, chips, white bread, French fries, and white rice will leave you exhausted and starving in just a few hours.  If you do crave a big dish of spaghetti, you may want to save it for dinner so that you can follow it with an early bedtime.
3. Juice, soda, and other sweetened beverages will spike your glucose levels and then leave you in the lurch.  Try to stay hydrated on homemade fruit infused water,  green iced tea, water with fresh lemon or lime slices or hot tea.
4. Fruit is an excellent snack but big servings will cause your blood sugar to fluctuate unless they’re balanced with protein. Combine blueberries with vanilla yogurt or apples with cheddar cheese slices.

Am I missing anything?  I know the list of junk food is endless, but I tried to pick the top offenders that caused me the most strife—especially since some of them seem quite healthy.  Look for foods full of monounsaturated fats that will satiate your pregnancy and breastfeeding appetite while maintaining your energy. Also please know that I’m not a saint.  In fact, I spent most of my second pregnancy with debilitating cheeseburger pregnancy cravings.

Does the Sealy Naturalis crib mattress live up to its green claims–or are we being greenwashed? We’ve raved about this mattress a couple times on the Green Baby Guide. Not only does it use soybean foam rather than petroleum-based materials, but it comes at a much lower price than other organic mattresses. While neither Joy nor I have actually purchased an organic mattress (as we’ve admitted in The Eco-nomical Baby Guide as well as on this site), we believed the Sealy Naturalis crib mattress was a great green deal.

Then last week we received an interesting comment on the 5 New Baby Things in 5 Years post. One great new thing, I wrote, was the fact that organic crib mattresses were so affordable compared to just five years ago. I didn’t consider an organic mattress when I was pregnant, just because they were so outrageously expensive. A reader advised us to not recommend the Sealy mattress, as it contained toxic fire retardant chemicals. She had called Sealy and been told that that the soybean mattresses did contain these chemicals, despite their claims to the contrary.

I called Kolcraft today and asked about the Sealy Naturalis crib mattress. The customer service representative assured me that there are no fire retardant chemicals on the mattress–the mattress is non-toxic, as advertised. Of course, there is always the possibility that any product we write about is not what it claims to be, but in this case, we do feel like we can stand behind our recommendation.

According to the Kolcraft website, here are the features of the Sealy Naturalis soybean foam core mattress:

Features

Are you tired of keeping up with the never-ending hunger of pregnancy or breastfeeding?  Are blood sugar spikes exhausting you beyond the usual pregnancy fatigue or sleeplessness of early motherhood? Having just a few substantial foods on hand will help you fight that exhaustion while healthily nourishing your body and your baby.

1. Nuts and nut butters are packed with protein, flavor, and healthy monounsaturated fats.  Along with the impressive list of nutrients nuts provide, you’ll get fiber as well.  Of course, if you can swing the higher prices eating organic nuts and nut butters is preferable.  There is some nut consumption controversy for pregnant and nursing women, but we happily munched on handfuls of these little healthy gems during our pregnancies with no negative outcomes for our kids.
2. Oils can be drizzled on salads or steamed vegetables and will keep you fuller longer, while supplying valuable calories that you need to build a baby or produce breastmilk.  Again, remember that monounsaturated fats are your friends!
3. Dark chocolate is packed with antioxidants and gorgeous flavor and yet is low in saturated fats.  It’ll make you feel sinful and indulgent while being actually rather healthful.  My favorite is a handful of dark chocolate chips mixed with chopped almonds or shelled pistachios.  Bliss!  For a more exotic experience, try Green and Black’s Organic Maya Gold Dark Chocolate with Orange and Spices. Nursing mothers may have heard that chocolate contributes to colic, but dark chocolate is better than milk or white chocolate which contain far more milk products.
4. Rich, buttery avocados are an indulgence that aren’t always planet friendly, but are packed in healthy fat.  Unless you live in California, these little gems have to be shipped in from miles around, but I have to confess that I regularly purchase them for their gooey green scrumptiousness.  (I try to make up for it by eating less meat and buying organic and local when possible)
5. Cheeses, especially those that are a bit lower in saturated fats, are a simple handheld snack that satiates without having to be prepared.

So where did most of the items on this list come from? The Flat Belly Diet.  (Read about my Flat Belly Diet success, which has continued for two months now!)  I would NEVER suggest that you should try to lose weight during pregnancy or breastfeeding, but I’ve found that incorporating monounsaturated fats into our diet has been tremendously helpful for our family. What were your favorite snacks during pregnancy and breastfeeding?  Do you remember that insatiable hunger?

If you are tuning into Greenbabyguide.com for our budget-friendly tips, have you always been interested in living on less?  Are you new to this penny pinching lifestyle?

I was born into a family of cheapskates. At one point in my life this was a huge drag, but the older I get, the more I appreciate my homegrown education in personal finance. It dovetails nicely with my green goals and has helped us build a secure financial foundation for our family.

Now that I’m home with the kids, our family has taken frugality to a whole new level. We embrace thrift stores, cloth diapers, garage sales, Grocery Outlet, and coupons. And more importantly, our quality of family life has drastically improved.

Are you naturally thrifty or have the circumstances of parenthood forced you to examine your budget? Do you have skinflint friends? Please consider us your fellow frugalistas!

Oh, how things have changed! These five items weren’t on my radar back in the dark ages of 2005:

gDiapers. Technically, gDiapers were available in some markets as early as 2004. However, I don’t remember knowing about them when I was researching diaper options. I went with Chinese prefolds and cloth diaper covers instead!

Glass bottles. Now obviously glass bottles existed in 2005, but back then, they hadn’t worked their way back into favor. Then reports of dangerous chemicals such as BPA started coming out, steering people away from plastics. Soon everyone was jumping on the glass bandwagon.

Born Free Glass Baby Bottles

Affordable organic crib mattresses. Yes, I had read about organic mattresses in Baby Bargains–but they cost so much compared to a conventional mattress back in 2005. Now you can get one for under $100! (Such as the Sealy Naturalis crib mattress with a soybean foam core.)

Bumbo seats. Well, supposedly the Bumbo was invented in 2001, but I don’t remember seeing them during my baby shopping spree five years ago. It’s just as well–they’re made out of non-recyclable foam.

The Eco-nomical Baby Guide. Where was this revolutionary book on green parenting back when I was expecting a new bundle of joy?! I could have used its wonderful advice on cloth diapering, green baby products, and secondhand baby gear. Thank goodness it’s 2010!

In a perfect world, every one of us would whirl up our own sweet potato purees for baby at all times.  Some of you live in that reality and I salute you!  Since I was working nearly full time while raising my babies, I lived in the land of sleep loss and basic survival and sometimes purchased a little sanity in the form of prepared baby food.

If you do buy baby food for traveling or just to save time, what does your child prefer?  My babies enjoyed Earth’s Best Baby Food and I loved that I could buy them in affordable cases from Costco or individually from Target. I also had hearty approval from my child for Happy Baby Organic Baby Food but I can’t speak to some of the other brands on the market like Plum Organics Baby Food, Sprout Organic Baby Food, or Peter Rabbit Organics.

No matter what we may be able to recommend, the true seal of approval comes from those tiny taste testers.  What does you baby prefer?  If you want tips for making your own purees, check here. (And don’t forget that our book, The Eco-nomical Baby Guide, is packed with tips for saving on baby food and recipes for making your own!)

My cousin Liv Slowly and I laughed when we saw it—an article about “The International Day of Slowness” in a weekly magazine. For one day out of the year, it advised, try to take it easy. Unplug that laptop, take a deep breath, and make a meal from scratch. Read a book. The next day, you can go back to your fast-paced life of ringing phones and rush hour traffic.

Photo by Gina E. Kelley

One day of slowness? As masters in the art of rest and relaxation, Liv Slowly and I thought we could do better than that. Join Hurry up & slow down your life on Facebook for “tips and tricks for squeezing the most out of your busy life.” We’ll find recipes you’ll want to try, movies you’ll want to see, and books you’ll want to read—all in pursuit of a calmer, more enjoyable existence.

Here at the Green Baby Guide, we’ve been proponents of slow living from the start. Our eco-lifestyles have us making pumpkin scones from scratch, brewing iced tea in the sun, taking relaxing strolls with our babies tied onto us, and weaving receiving blankets out of organic hemp (hm—couldn’t find a link to that one).

Any slow-down tips to share? Bring them over to Hurry up & slow down your life!

Nothing quite welcomes the fall like a hot pumpkin scone drizzled with frosting.  But who has the time?  Or the four bucks you’d have to shell out at a café?   This recipe gives you loads of taste along with the convenience of being able to mix them up and freeze them for later baking.

Honestly, I’ve made this recipe ahead of time and also baked it right away, and I actually think the freezing improves the quality of the taste.  The pre-frozen version turns out moister and with a nice melding of pumpkin and spice flavors.

If you’d like a fresh baked scone or two on a daily basis, simply use your toaster oven to save energy and bake a smaller batch.  You can even cut them into mini-scones to give your children for breakfast.  I usually skip the frosting, but you new moms may need those extra calories for the hard work of motherhood!

Another note: If you mix up the dry ingredients for these scones and scoop them into a decorative jar or Zip-Lock bag, you can give the mix as a hostess gift.  Simply print out the recipe and include it.  You might even place it in a basket with a can of organic pumpkin and decorate it with some orange ribbons and fall leaves!

Starbucks Pumpkin Scones

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 7 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 6 Tablespoons cold butter
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 3 Tablespoons half-and-half
• 1 large egg

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet or line with parchment paper. (Skip this step if you’re planning on freezing them)
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices in a large bowl. Mix cold butter into the dry ingredients until mixture is crumbly and no large chunks of butter are obvious. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, half and half, and egg. Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Form the dough into a ball.
4. Pat out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a 1-inch thick circle.  Use a large knife or a pizza cutter to slice the dough into six scones. Place on prepared baking sheet and freeze them. Once they’re frozen solid, store them in a freezer bag.
5. When you’re ready for a hot scone, place the frozen triangle on a lightly greased cookie sheet and allow to thaw for just as long as it takes to preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  When the oven is ready, let them bake for about 13-15 minutes.
6. Optional: Frost with sugar glaze or spiced glaze.

Powderered Sugar Glaze

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 Tablespoon powdered sugar
• 2 Tablespoons whole milk

Spiced Glaze

• 1 cup plus 3 Tablespoons powdered sugar
• 2 Tablespoons whole milk
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 pinch ginger
• 1 pinch ground cloves

I recently made a double batch of these before my in-laws arrived.  The next morning I popped them into the oven and served them fresh scones without a care.  My son also fell in love with them and now he has a few dozen mini scones in the freezer for me to pull out now and then for a hot breakfast treat.  I hope you enjoy these as much as we do!

They lighten our laundry loads, stop stains, and keep a certain amount of sweet potato puree out of your baby’s lap.  Bibs are undeniably helpful and even eco-friendly.  But which ones are the best?

I set out to find the very best bibs and then found myself quite stuck. Bumkin bibs worked great with our baby, but there are hundreds of brands out there and I have no idea what the favorites are for other parents in the trenches. Of course, it’s best to avoid vinyl and BPA in your bibs, since those are potentially toxic to babies and the environment.

Does your baby even wear a bib? Do you make bibs from kitchen towels? Do your children simply eat in the bathtub? Thanks for giving other new parents your tips!