The Fish Pond

BurpCatcher: Making Laundry a Bit Lighter

Nemo has reflux, and one of the first things you learn as the parent of a baby with reflux is that just when you thought you might be able to stay on top on the laundry and still get something else in the house done, you find yourself with a "laundry problem," as one of my children's pediatricians so aptly put it, of monumental proportions.  Literally.  We have a mound of laundry in our basement around the machines high enough that the kids jump in it as though it were a pile of freshly raked leaves.  But unlike leaves, there is a great chance of the kids sliding some body part through a smudge of the slimy goo ejected from Nemo's body as we wait for his system to mature enough to hold it in, eliciting squeals and shrieks of "Gross!" and "aw, Mom".  The Puke.

Nemo is a champion puker.  He eats, he barfs.  And when he barfs, he barfs in dramatic fashion, covering himself, whoever is holding him, wherever he is sitting or laying, a good amount of upholstery and carpet, and an even larger amount of bedding.  I've always used cloth diaper liners as burp cloths, but invariably also need a towel underneath as the diaper liners don't quite absorb the spew right away and it runs down the liner onto the clothes underneath.

I absolutely cracked up when I discovered that the product the Parent Bloggers Network sent me to review was the BurpCatcher.  How appropriate that we got that one? It's one of those products that you look at and say "You know, I could've thought of that," it's so obvious, but you didn't, so you shake yourself soundly and be happy someone else did, because now you get to benefit without those messy patent negotiations and production schedules that keep you up at night.  It's simply a soft cloth diaper with a pocket at one end that hangs open to catch the puke.  It comes in fleece or flannel, and we reviewed the flannel version, which comes 2 to a package for $10.

The first thing we noticed is that they're SOFT.  Like, soft like the skin on your baby's belly, soft.  The older kids kept rubbing them against their own faces, and no matter how much we wiped Nemo's face with them it didn't get irritated, which sometimes happened with our regular cloth diapers.  And these suckers are absorbent.  With cloth diapers I typically have to double or triple up on them for a really big emission, but I only needed one with the BurpCatcher.  The barf stays on the BurpCatcher and doesn't get on your clothes.

As soft and absorbent as it is, though, I had 2 issues with the BurpCatcher.  The first is that Nemo takes medicine for reflux that is suspended in a chocolate syrup.  This means that sometimes his puke resembles the original product that cloth diapers were designed to handle.  Because the BurpCatcher is white, ours got stained with little brown stains relatively quickly, and because of the trim on the BurpCatcher, it can't be bleached.  A completely white option with no trim would be a welcome addition to the product line.  The second issue is that with a child with reflux, you can't always predict with any reliability what direction the spew is going to head - over the shoulder or down your front between the baby and you, over your arm or between the baby and the arm, you get the idea (my favorite is down the front of my shirt and bra).  I think I'm going to try sewing my BurpCatchers together end-to-end, so there is a pocket on each end, so I'm covered no matter which way the puke flies and my cups won't runneth over.  At least not with puke.  But really, these are minor issues, and if you have a normal baby with a normal amount of spit and they don't take a strangely colored medicine, the product as is should be fine.  Either way, our BurpCatchers will stay in our diaper bag, and I will be buying more of them, for myself, for shower gifts, for my big kids to use as loveys, to make small animals out of them...sorry, got carried away there for a minute.  Bottom line - get these, do less laundry.  Who could argue with that?

Neither of my two guessers got it right, so if you're interested in winning a BurpCatcher and you are not Angi or Elizabeth (who will be automatically entered), post a comment to this post and I'll do a random drawing on Friday.

Hell, I'll Try Anything, At Least Once, that is

and more often, if I like it.

Did I ever tell you I once put my son's ass on the line in the name of research?  When Little Man was still in diapers, I was tapped to do a comparison test of a name-brand diaper and a different diaper for an "independent" research company.  I got free diapers for six weeks, so how could I say no?  He used his regular pampers (but they provided them - cha-ching!) and then we tried the Other Diaper (three more weeks worth - double cha-ching!).  I kept a log answering questions about performance (mostly asking about blowouts and leaks) and mailed it in.  That's it.  Both performed well and that was that - I never did find out who was funding the research or anything.  But I saved about 30 bucks worth of diapers - woo hoo!

So, given my history, is it any surprise that when the Parent Bloggers Network wanted someone with a baby under 7 months of age to test a baby product I said "Oh, me!  Me!  Pick me!" like an ass, er donkey?  I had no idea what the product was or anything, and we had a great time playing "Guess the baby product" when it arrived in the mail over the weekend.  You get to guess what it is - no cheating if you're also reviewing something for PBN.  The clues as we discovered them:

1. Small enough to fit into a townhouse mailbox (i.e., pretty damn small)
2. Lightweight enough to travel in one of those nifty Tyvex envelopes
3. Slightly smaller than the clamshell case of a VHS tape, but about as thick, when in its packaging
4. Fairly rigid, but not as firm as a VHS tape, when in its packaging
5. It's not a VHS tape
6. It's soft, it's rectangular, and it unfolds

Post your guesses in the comments section.  My review will appear next week, and that's when I'll reveal the actual product, plus the identity of anyone who guesses correctly.  Winners will receive one of the products, or a $15 Starbucks gift card for those who don't have babies 7 months or under.

I know, I know, I'm a damn product whore.  But I'm a sharing product whore.

Be sure to check out my previous post and support heart health for women for National Heart Month, too.

Are you a Busy Body?

For a couple of weeks now, I have been, and I am really, really happy about it.  No, I'm not talking about being Neighbor Nosy, though I'm always happy to be so if you volunteer to tell me your life story, but about this cool book.  I won it through a random drawing from Kristen Chase over at The Mom Trap (thanks, Kristen!).  She had described it and I decided I had to have one.  If I hadn't won it from her I would have bought my own, and now that I have one and have been using it for a bit, I intend to give it to a bunch of Mom friends as gifts.

The big appeal to me?  The columns for up to 5 family members showing a week at a time.  This way I can keep track of everyone and not lose anybody, or at least forget to pick them up.  I can't imagine that - BigDaddyFish says his family used to forget who was picking who up all the time when he was a kid, and that numerous times he was left standing places for HOURS waiting for them to come get him.  I would flog myself if I ever forgot one of my kids, but at the rate I'm going, it could happen (I forgot to pay the homeowner's association dues this month, and I've never forgotten to pay a bill in my life), so hopefully this book will help me keep from doing that.  It also means I can see everyone's activities for each week, which will help me keep from overscheduling everyone so much so that I don't have a schedule for myself because I'm too busy being a taxi mom.

If you don't happen to have kids, you can use it to organize 5 different subjects at school, or 5 different hobbies or personal goals, or 5 different projects for work, or anything else you have 5 of (blogs?).  It has space for phone numbers and a special events calendar, so I don't forget the birthdays of the multiplying family, and it has TEAR OUT to do lists, which I like to use as grocery lists.  And lots of notes pages.  I like to write down directions to friends/relatives houses because my memory for directions, and overall sense of direction, leaves much to be desired - at one apartment that BDF and I lived in it took me probably 3 months to really feel secure I knew how to get back and forth to work every day. 

So, obviously, I like this book.  I think it is a great tool - and nobody paid me to say that or compensated me in any way, so this is an unbiased opinion.  Check it out if you would lose your head if it wasn't firmly attached, like me.  It'll help you keep track of it.