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Friday, September 16, 2011

GIVEAWAY! Mother's Little Helper

This giveaway is now closed.

New Zealand's own green goddess, Wendyl Nissen, has sent me a copy of her latest book, Mother's Little Helper, to review...

...along with a copy for one of my readers.

Mother's Little Helper is such a gorgeous and useful book. You know that moment when you bring your baby back from the hospital and think, "Where's the baby manual?" Well here it is. And it's such a kind and funny baby manual at that (the chapter on knitting had me giggling away to myself).

In Mother's Little Helper, Wendyl gives her blessing for new Mums to live in their PJs, turn away visitors, ask for help, and generally do what needs to be done to survive the difficult job of raising a baby.

This book is packed full of information on settling babies, feeding them, dealing with colic, bathing babies, dressing them and, especially, reducing their exposure to harmful chemicals.

Did you realise there are regulations banning the use of certain chemicals in baby products, but no governing body actually monitoring whether those chemicals stay out of our baby products or not? It's up to parents to monitor this for themselves, and most of us wouldn't know the first thing about how to do this.

That's what's so great about this book. Wendyl has taken away all sorts of store-bought baby products and analysed them, often coming to the conclusion that they're not safe for babies at all. In fact, the release of Mother's Little Helper has resulted in several brands of baby wipes being recalled from supermarkets nationwide, because Wendyl discovered they contain the chemical iodopropynyl butylcarbamate (IPBC), which is banned from baby products.

What's a parent to do? Often the safest thing is to make your own version of everything a baby needs.

Again Wendyl has done the hard work for us, trawling through old Plunket books and other manuals from by-gone eras to experiment with DIY recipes that are safe, easy and affordable to make. Things like laundry powders, nappy soakers, baby wipes, bath wash and so on. (To say thank you to Plunket for the awesome work it does plus all the information it has provided, Wendyl is donating $1 from the sale of every book to it.)

All the recipes included are gentle enough for pregnant women and babies to use, however, Wendyl has also given instructions on how to modify them for general household use later. (Note: If you do want to make your own cleaners and cleansers but don't need baby specific recipes, check out Wendyl's other books, A Home Companion and How to be a Domestic Goddess on a Budget.)

I only wish Wendyl had written Mother's Little Helper three years ago, so I could have read it when I got pregnant with Lily and first embarked on my journey to better health. At least I have it now, and I'm already planning which ingredients to buy so I can make some of the lovely recipes in it for Lily and Sophie.

How to win a copy of Mother's Little Helper
This competition is open to New Zealand entrants only. It opens now and will run through till 8am next Thursday 22 September 2011 (New Zealand time). A winner will be selected at random from the comments below. You can enter up to seven times by following the entry criteria below, just comment to tell me which criteria you've filled.

Include an email address for me to contact you on if you are the winner. Write it in code so the spam bots don't find it, eg. cravingfresh (at) yahoo (dot) com. You can either include the email address in your comment, or email it to me separately at cravingfresh (at) yahoo (dot) com.

  1. Tell me why you would like to win a copy of Mother's Little Helper
  2. Sign up to receive Wendyl's newsletter via the side-bar on her website.
  3. Become a fan of Craving Fresh on Facebook (tell me if you already are as well).
  4. Post a link to this giveaway on Facebook.
  5. Follow Craving Fresh (tell me if you already do as well).
  6. Sign up to receive Craving Fresh emails (tell me if you are already signed up as well).
  7. Tweet about this giveaway.
*If you're having trouble commenting below, please post your comments on Craving Fresh's Facebook page instead.


Good luck!

26 comments:

  1. I would love to win Wendyl's book because I think it is really important to keep our children's lives as natural and chemical free as possible and I need all the help I can get to do it.

    Jodie
    tjfranklin(at)gmail(dot)com

    Thanks Emma.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Another great giveaway Emma,

    I agree with Jodie, I want to keep children's lives as chemical free as possible, although I don't have children of my own, lots of my friends do and as a nurse I'm often asked for advice on baby stuff. (I've also just applied for a plunket nurse job so hopefully I'll be giving lots of good advice soon!) So I want that advice to be sound.

    Heather Dunlop
    shdunlop(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)nz

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oops, left the l out of my last comment.

    I've subscribed to Wendyl's email newsletter

    Heather Dunlop
    shdunlop(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)nz

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm a fan of Craving Fresh
    Heather Dunlop
    shdunlop(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)nz

    ReplyDelete
  5. I would love a copy of this book since like you said, you wished you had of had a copy when you started out. Well im just starting out on my motherhood journey and know I have lots to learn.

    Rosy.
    rosyposy02 (at) hotmail (dot) com

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow - awesome giveaway. I'd love to win this book because I love Wendyl's other books and can't wait to try the baby friendly 'recipes'. And if we have baby number 2 I'm hoping there will be lots of good advice in there!

    katie (at) mummy-adventures (dot) com

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  7. I've signed up for Wendyl's newsletter - I normally read it via twitter but now I won't miss one :-)

    katie (at) mummy-adventures (dot) com

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  8. I'm a fan of Craving Fresh on Facebook :-)

    katie (at) mummy-adventures (dot) com

    ReplyDelete
  9. And I'm already a follower of the craving Fresh blog :-)
    Hope I've done it correctly by listing them all as seperate comments!

    katie (at) mummy-adventures (dot) com

    ReplyDelete
  10. would love to win a copy, was interested in her other material so think this would be fantastic to use for my little one, and then to pass on when I am done with it xx

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  11. I am a fan of craving fresh - of course!!

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  12. I'm a fan of craving fresh on FB
    bexandjames (at) orcon (dot) net (dot) nz

    Thanks!
    Bex

    ReplyDelete
  13. I'd love a copy of the book to get some handy hints on keeping harmful chemicals and the like away from my children. I would also like to get some ideas for making my own nappy soaker and baby wash etc.
    bexandjames (at) orcon (dot) net (dot) nz

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  14. Oh, thanks for telling me about this one, I am interested...and sort of scared...but more interested. (You know, the burden of acting once you know?)

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  15. I try to avoid harsh chemicals on my childrens' skin, so would value any extra tips that are available.

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  16. Note: Kate Schick Jnr has emailed 6 entries in.

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  17. yep signed up for newsletter too

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  18. Great giveaway! I was just looking at her website yesterday. Would love to have a copy to see if there's a section on helping improve/control eczema for little ones.

    burntmuffin (at) gmail (dot) com

    ReplyDelete
  19. I've liked/become a fan of Craving Fresh on Facebook.

    burntmuffin (at) gmail (dot) com

    ReplyDelete
  20. I follow/read your blog regularly. :)

    burntmuffin (at) gmail (dot) com

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  21. Hi Emma!

    Exciting Giveaway, as you know I follow your blog already :)

    andiedavies (at) hotmail (dot) com

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  22. Entry number two. I should so win this prize cos soon I am going to be a mum! (and need to learn LOTS before then!) :)

    andiedavies (at) hotmail (dot) com

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  23. Hi Emma,
    I would love to win a copy as I have recently found out I'm pregnant with my first baby and need lots of tips to help guide me through the challenges of being a new mum :)
    Jessie
    greenesque (at) gmail (dot) com

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  24. Note: Kim W has emailed two entries through.

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  25. Thank you for writing about this, I still have a packet of silk baby wipes from pak'n'save that contain IPBC and if it weren't for you I would never have found out that they had been recalled!

    Since I still have them after being out of NZ for 6 months you can probably tell how rarely we use them: pretty much only when there's no toilet paper around.

    - Jessica

    ReplyDelete

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