Your Questions About Baby Care

what toys do people buy?

I really don’t want anything made from china, I am too nervous with all the recalls. I even swtiched my bottles to the playtex nursers original because they are made in the usa. The cute ones with designs are made in china. 🙁 Everything is made in china. I am just looking for rattles or bathtub toys, things for an infant. I don’t know if I am overreacting. Anyone else concerned with all the toys being recalled? I went into babies r us and couldn’t find one toy for an infant that wasn’t made in china…
“no need to show off”….show off what? I use rattles to play with my baby. Have you ever distracted a crying baby with a toy that makes noise?? I’m not looking to spend lots of money, just toys that are safe.

WAL-MART: Notice the poor quality of what they sell?

I’ve bought underwear which falls apart in months…shirts which develop holes after a few washings…blank DVD’s which don’t format/work. The few DVD movies I have bought there seem to be as thin as a potato chip.

So for a change, I went to a LOCAL Baby/Toy Store for a friend’s birthday party. I was scared to look at the tag (where is it made)…Made in USA! Imagine that! We actually do manufacture something. And the profit went to someone local, instead of a conglomerate/monopoly which is already swimming in billions.

So what are we REALLY getting from Wal-Mart? Initial “savings”, only to find the product is of inferior quality (and has to be replaced several times over), and the real money went to some off-shore account, never to be seen in our economy.

Anyone else notice a real LACK of quality in offering from Wal-Mart?

Plastic sippy-cups (imbibing benzene particles for babies)?

The next time you place a plastic cup on the table, or hand a sippy-cup to your child (instant chemicals in the system)… are we thinking what’s going in (lead paint on the coloring? benezene in the plastic?) — and where it came from/was made? I’d sure like an across-the-board study on when/where/why we all don’t use PAPER CUPS anymore. And why kids have to walk-around with sippy cups, and soccer moms feel kids must drink everywhere… which created the need for using plastic? (who’s fault is that). Even bottled water for adults — when heated upon traveling, or plastic dishes being mic’waved… there HAS to be displacement of chemicals from the plastic?

It’s always made me laugh, that the USA toy industry has gone to China — and I look for the ‘Made in China’ label, even on the underside of plastic animals, dinosaurs, and fast-food giveaway toys… sure, they find their way into kids mouths, the way my Army Men were chewed when I was a kid… but this is more serious.

Do you think that the gov. should provide $$ means to provide testing of home based products sold?

I thought this was interesting I am sorry for the detail, but I received this in an e-mail, and I find it hard to believe that we can accept this.
I am pasting a post that I just wrote on my blog about the
>
> URGENT! Please Read and Act!!!
>
> Okay People…I do not write this lightly. I am begging you
> to read this post, research the links, and act now!
>
> About a week ago I received an email posted on a homeschool
> loop I am on about the new Consumer Product Safety
> Improvement Act. This act was signed into law last August
> and will be in effect on Feb. 10th of this year. Rebecca
> Wilson from Hope Chest Legacy, a homeschool vendor who will
> closing down her business as a result of this Act says
> explains it better than I can:
>
> “This law may have been intentioned to protect
> American children from lead and high PCB levels, but what it
> will actually do is cause havoc in American homes and in our
> economy. It is a VERY badly written law, vague and open
> ended in many ways. Although written with China made
> products in mind, it is open for ANY item sold in the USA
> regardless of where the item was manufactured.
>
> This law requires that ANY item that comes in contact with
> a child who is 12 years old and under, to be tested at a
> government approved testing facility and have a
> ‘certification’ placed on the item. Sounds simple
> enough, but the fallout is much more intense.
>
> The cost of having a single wood block tested is $150. To
> have a wooden baby‘s teething rattle tested would be
> $4000. Even books, DVDs, clothing, handmade toys or
> blankets, children’s clothing, the bags items are packed
> in and sold in, etc come under this new law. ANYTHING that
> comes into contact with a child under 12 years of age is
> required to be tested and certified.”
>
> I honestly figured this was hype when I received the first
> email and blew it off. Until I received the email from
> Rebecca Wilson. I adore her products and the fact that this
> was hitting so close to home had me concerned. So I started
> researching…
>
> Check out this post on a forum from a woman named Kathleen
> Fasenella who has been to Washington D.C. in attempt to
> fight this. She says:
>
> “Dear Friends
> There is a grave crisis in the industry. I don’t post
> here much so if you don’t know me, I don’t blame you
> for thinking I’m a kook, alarmist, extremist or
> conspiracy theorist. What I’m going to tell you is all
> too true. In a nutshell, as of 2/10/2009, it will be illegal
> to sell most products intended for children 12 and younger
> unless you undergo expensive product testing to certify your
> products as safe. There are no exemptions or exceptions.
> This includes wahm or grandmas making items for bazaars,
> craft shows, etsy, ebay, or just person to person sales. As
> of February 10, 2009 (National Bankruptcy Day) anything
> without a General Conformity Certificate is legally
> considered Banned Hazardous Material.”
>
> Let me break this down…ANYONE WHO SELLS PRODUCTS, NEW OR
> USED, THAT ARE INTENDED FOR CHILDREN AGES 12 AND UNDER WILL
> BE REQUIRED TO HAVE ALL OF THESE PRODUCTS UNDERGO EXPENSIVE
> TESTING…I’m talking toys, clothes, BOOKS,
> CURRICULUM…Even selling used toys/books to your friends
> WILL BECOME ILLEGAL without having them tested.
>
> This means no more selling children’s products on Ebay
> or Etsy.
>
> I received an email that said Amazon has ALREADY contacted
> their vendors to let them know they will not sell
> children’s items without the testing. I contacted an
> amazon.com rep this morning who verified that vendors had
> been notified that they would need to comply with this act!
> But she obviously didn’t understand that in order to
> comply with the act, anyone who wanted to sell their used
> copy of Goodnight Moon for $2 on amazon.com that was
> published pre-2009 would first need to have it tested for
> $500+. She gave me the fax and address for their legal dept.
> for further questions.
>
> Children’s Consignment Stores will have to close.
> GOODWILL HAS ALREADY DECIDED THEY WILL NO LONGER CARRY
> CHILDREN’S PRODUCTS AND SOME OF THEM ARE CLOSING.
>
> Do you realize how this will effect the homeschool
> community? Almost every company that I buy homeschool books,
> curriculum, and products from are a mom and pop organization
> that will not be able to afford this kind of testing. We
> will no longer be allowed to sell used products for our
> children online and will be breaking the law if we do it in
> person. How many homeschool moms do you know earn extra
> income by making hairbows, blankets, and toys? They would no
> longer be able to do that.
>
> My husband and I have been in contact with HSLDA
> (Homeschool Legal Defense Association) and they just found
> out about this YESTERDAY! They are looking into it as I
> type.
>
> HOMESCHOOLERS, MOMS AND DADS

What to do if I suspect a child molester but I have no proof?

Ok my husband’s paternal aunt is married to a man who we all suspect of being a child molester. I have never myself seen him molesting a kid or anything like that. When I married into my husbands family I was told by my father in law, sister in law, and husband to keep our children away from him. When I asked why they told me he had been caught by his wife and some other family member long long ago masturbating in front of a baby. Ever since then his granddaughter (who is now 23 years old) told me that when she was a child she woke up and he was in bed with her then he molested her. She didn’t want to go into details but then when she was around 19 years old, we were all at a xmas party, she said she went to grab a coke and when she bent over to get it he came up behind her and rubbed himself on her. Now there was another incident with a girl who is not related to him. This girl is now around 16 years old and she confessed that at one of those x-mas parties when she was a little girl he came up to her while she was playing on a treadmill in the garage and started rubbing her “down there”. Yesterday I was invited to a birthday party and he was there. There was a room where all the toys where and all the children were in there playing. Well this guy would not get away from the doorway at all, so I went and stood by the doorway as well. He asked me to sit down, I told him he should go sit down and that I would watch the kids. Well needless to say he didn’t sit down and neither did I. I was standing by that doorway watching the kids all party long.
I am just so sick of all this. I don’t want to be a part of anything that keeps him safe. And it made me so sick last night that his wife didn’t tell him to sit his old ass down and step away from the kids. WTF is wrong with her. I’ve heard her say once that she still married to him because of her religion. That it’s a sin for her to divorce him and break off their marriage but I think if she is gonna stay married to him and keep him in the family she should be watching out too and make sure he stays next to her at all times.
Anyway no one will come out to testify against him, and I have no proof whatsoever. So what can I do?? I have no problem coming out and calling the cops on this guy or whatever even if this family gets mad at me I don’t care. It’s better than keeping this guy safe, but I know the legal system here in the USA would not do anything because I cannot prove he is a molester. So what CAN I do?
For now I’ve told my sister in law that I will no longer be a part of that and will no longer go to their parties or reunions because they are all keeping him nice and safe.
Thanks in advance for reading this LONG story and any info/advice you can give me.