November. 8, 2007 - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (“CPSC”) has announced a recall of Curious George 12-inch plush dolls with plastic faces, manufactured by Marvel Toys, of New York, NY, in China.

According to CPSC:  “Surface paint on the toy’s plastic face and construction hat contain excessive levels of lead which violates the federal lead paint standard.”

Consumers are advised to remove the toys from children and contact Marvel Toys for a refund.

The recall affects about 175,000 toys.

For more information, check out the CPSC news release.

Baby wearing is hip. But, baby wearing is trendy not just because there are so many chic kid carriers on the market today that allow you to show off your adorable new bundle of joy.

Rather, according to pediatrician William Sears, M.D., there’s actually a development psychology theory behind baby wearing, and engaging in other activities that encourage baby-parent closeness like co-sleeping and extended breastfeeding.

This theory, or parenting philosophy, is known as Attachment Parenting. According to Attachment Parenting International, Attachment Parenting is the practice of developing strong bonds—a.k.a. “a secure attachment”—between infants and parents (or their caregivers, like Grandma). Secure attachments built from infancy provide the essential foundation for creating a lifetime of healthy, trusting, and secure relationships.

It’s easy to get “hooked” on Attachment Parenting philosophy and practice. Long before my first child was born, and well before I purchased my first Ergo Carrier (and well before Ergo was a household name), I knew Attachment Parenting was the way to go for my family—for me, it made life with a baby much, much easier—think less crying, more cooing). Now, two babies and two Ergo Carriers later, saying I’m “hooked” on Attachment Parenting is an understatement.

Thanks to some great products on the market today, I’ve found easy ways to bond with my children—sometimes with fringe benefits, like more or better sleep for everyone in my household (see #1 below).

While it’s not “stuff” or the acquisition of “stuff” per se that makes emotionally healthy children, there are a lot of products available to new parents that make practicing Attachment Parenting and developing those bonds easier.

Here are three quality products that complement Attachment Parenting which I’ve used over and over again with each my children:

1. Snuggle Nest. The Snuggle Nest provides a safe co-sleeping area within your own bed for your infant. Besides making co-sleeping safer and giving you more time with your infant, the Snuggle Nest is convenient—think, less time running down the hall to check on your baby (I can’t be the only mom familiar with those “is she still breathing?” checks!), easier nighttime feedings, and extra sleep for mom and baby!

2. Ergo Baby Carrier. I can’t imagine parenting little ones without this versatile carrier. I swear, I’ve tried dozens of different carriers with my babies, and time after time I return to the Ergo. You can wear your baby (up to 40 lbs) on the front, back or hip. Ergo, the company, supports the 8 Principles of Attachment Parenting. That’s another plus in my book.

3. Boppy. I loved using this pillow with my children, although I admit it has seen progressively less use with each child—though, I attribute this to my increased confidence and comfort with breastfeeding and not as a fault of the pillow. The Boppy is more than a pillow for breastfeeding support. It is also great for “tummy time” and for those early learning to sit days.

Even if your “baby” is no longer a baby, don’t think you’ve missed the Attachment Parenting boat. Empathetic parenting (the core concept of Attachment Parenting) never goes out of style.

For more reading on Attachment Parenting, check out Natural Family Online which features links to articles on Attachment Parenting.

Now, it’s your turn. What products are on your Attachment Parenting must-have list?

Amber Alert has come out with a portable Child ID Kit aimed at gathering all of your child’s pertinent information in the event that it ever needs to be shared with law enforcement officials. I’ll be honest, when I first heard about it, I wasn’t terribly interested. I’m not one for wanting to think about the terrible things that can happen in the world, especially when it comes to my children. I’d rather bury my head in the sand and believe with all my heart that nothing bad will ever happen where my children are concerned.

After a little thought, though, I decided that this product is absolute genius. In the event of an emergency, I’m probably not going to be able to ramble off all of my children’s vital statistics (height, weight, distinguishing marks, etc) with great accuracy. I’m certainly not going to want to waste valuable time going home to gather the most recent pictures I can find or to dig through my address book for the phone numbers / addresses of the people they come in contact with most often.

Amber Alert’s Child ID Kit takes care of all of this and keeps all of the information you’ll need right at your fingertips. It took about 20 minutes to enter the information for all 3 of my children into the portable USB flash drive. It’s all date/time stamped so we know exactly when it was last updated and every bit of information we need is right there, password protected and ready if we ever need it - which we hopefully never will.

Like I said, I’d rather not think of the terrible things that can happen in the world and I’d rather not believe that any of it could ever touch my family but if it ever does, I’m ready.

A new recall and a new country to add the list of questionable toys. Mattel / Fisher-Price announced a recall today of 155,000 toys manufactured in Mexico over safety concerns. Click here for the full article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071106/hl_nm/mattel_recall_dc.

The focus of the recall is Fisher-Price’s Laugh and Learn 2-in-1 Learning Kitchen and was prompted over questionable lead levels.