Bedtime can be quality time rather than battle time. By establishing a consistent routine, you can make bedtime more enjoyable for the whole family.

Haydenburri Lane’s Bedtime Safari products were designed in conjunction with child development specialists to help children learn the necessary skills and activities needed to get ready for bed.

Haydenburri Lane provides advice to parents on how to establish a positive bedtime routine and why routines are important. (Click here to read their Parents’ Guide.) And they offer a series of board books for preschoolers that make learning routines fun. There are five main characters- Bubbles the Hippo, P.J. the Bear, Chomper the Crocodile, Paige the elephant, and Rory the tiger. Each character stars in a board book and teaches a different skill.

If only Elizabeth Pantley would accept my offer to come live with me, I could hear her helpful and calming advice all day long. Maybe her next release will be an affirmation CD for stressed-out parents.

Pantley’s The No-Cry Nap Solution: Guaranteed Gentle Ways to Solve All Your Naptime Problems is another winner–combining research-based information about children’s sleep needs with practical and gentle advice and Pantley’s own unique supportive perspective for parents.

Congresswoman Barbara Jordan once said, “Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap.” That woud be lovely, but I would content myself with just my household…

Setting up a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) is a great way to save money on your doctor’s co-pays, health-care deductibles, prescription drugs, and more. But if you have any money left in your account at the end of the year, you’ll lose it.
You might not know that you can use your FSA funds on home health-care and baby care products like band-aids, aspirin, Desitin, Vaseline and more. Drugstore.com even has a special FSA store listing all the items that qualify.
Check out the FSA store and spend your FSA Dollars before …

The Scott Common Sense Community allows you to share your household shortcuts and get tips from other members that will help you save time and money, organize your stuff and stay healthy.
You can find daily tips at Scott Common Sense as well as helpful tools like a calorie counter, recipe substitution chart, a calendar (pictured here), and a Grocery Checklist. Using the Grocery Checklist, I can create a shopping list in record time, save it for future use and print it.
Scott Common Sense is giving away a year’s supply of Scott Bath and Towel products (AVR $144) to …

Kids across the country head back to school next week. I don’t have a school-aged child, but I do have a teenage mother’s helper who comes a few days a week to help with the baby. So “Back to School” meant I needed to find a new babysitter. 
While I’m fortunate to live close to my mother who can babysit occasionally for free, many grandmas today have jobs, volunteer work and busy lives. Even if you are lucky enough to live near your family, you might not be able to rely on …

Stuffed animals are cute and cuddly. But all of those plush bears are total space hogs. Baby Mwah started off with just one stuffed bunny, but the animals have multiplied as fast as real bunnies since well-meaning relatives (and sometimes even his mommy) can’t resist buying them.
Unless you have a baby too young to protest (or notice) when you abscond with a fuzzy monkey or two, you probably won’t be able to convince your child to part with any of his fluffy friends. And let’s face it: paring down your …

Perhaps you were a neatnik before baby. Or maybe you were always a little messy.  Whatever your temperament, you probably find the idea of getting organized daunting…..maybe even absurd. After all…you haven’t had a good night’s sleep in months (maybe years). So how are you going to find the time to clean the clutter?
My friends can attest to the fact that I’ve always been a bit of an organization freak. Even when I was working 80+ hour weeks, I always had a neat house. After Baby Mwah’s birth, some friends …

Even toddlers who only have to go to regular well-baby appointments may suddenly develop an intense fear of the pediatrician. And this fear can present an even greater problem if your child needs more regular visits to a doctor’s office or hospital. Here are a few products I’ve been using to alleviate doctor-phobia.
Medical Set: HABA makes a beautiful metal and wooden doctor’s kit ($24.95 at Oompa Toys), but it does not include a pressure cuff (sphygomometer) or a stethoscope, my toddler’s main triggers. So, I bought her this …

Dear Mamanista Readers,
As you can tell from our frequent reviews of breastfeeding products, we’re very pro-breastfeeding at Mamanista. But– most importantly– we are pro-mama.
After her c-section and some other delivery complications, one of Mama Mwah’s friends developed post-partum depression. She also was having a difficult time breastfeeding and suffered a painful nipple infection.
Through all of this, the doctors she spoke with were more concerned about how baby was latching than with her health. She felt like they were treating her like a pair of breasts instead of a person. And all of the pro-breastfeeding messages …