Christmas Candy Craft

Here is a new Christmas print-out for this year! These are a bit more time consuming than the candy cane craft from last year; but chocolate with a side of breastfeeding info will probably go over even better than the candy canes did! You could also do a healthy treat in these - nuts? trail mix? raisins? These treat bags were 2"x3" and I found them at my local Wal-Mart in the cake decorating isle - $2.50ish for 50 bags. The template has 8 cards per page and can be downloaded here -->    

1. Fill bag with treats - I did 3 pieces of chocolate in each.
2. Print the template on card stock
3. Cut and fold the cards in half
4. Fold the top of the bag down and staple the card on! 

If anyone needs something non-Christmas, just let me know and I might be able to whip something up for you! Leave a comment if you've got something in mind.



Candy Cane Craft

I wanted to make some quick little goodies to hand out to people while at work, so I made these little papers to slide onto candy canes. Sugar with a side of breastfeeding info!

There are two different sheets you can download and print. Print on red, green or white cardstock. Each sheet has 8, just cut on the lines and then cut with a craft knife on the litte X to slide the candy cane through.

Sheet 1
Sheet 2

Enjoy!

Aiden's new outfit

Aiden, our Wayne County doll, got a new outfit!

WARNING!!!

Every Mother, Inc. posted this picture on facebook of a sign seen in an Arkansas WIC clinic! Love it! Cathy Carothers and Kendall Cox of Every Mother, Inc. are such wonderful ladies! Make sure you check out the website and the facebook page!

Here is a PDF of a similar warning sign for you to hang up.

La Leche League Picnic 2010

We had a wonderful World Breastfeeding Week Picnic this year at Maynor Creek Water Park. I'm so grateful for all the help from everyone to get this picnic together, and especially from Michelle!

Left to right: Lexi, Michelle, Christy holding Shepard, Monicah and Chrimson, Scotie, Missy holding Oscar, Denise, Melissa, Patrick and Kristen

Top Photo: Michelle and Missy

Bottom Photo: Denise and Missy

Patrick, Scotie, and a few other children had their faces painted.

Top Photo: Christy, Shepard and Monicah

Bottom Photo: Janie, Oscar and Rosetta

Since it's still early in the year for World Breastfeeding Week activities, I can't wait to see what everyone else will have going on. I'm hoping to have a breastfeeding display in a local library. Kristen and I will be doing another demo at the food center like we did last year. We'll also be having our breastfeeding class on August 2nd and will probably have a similar celebration as last year.

Breastfeeding is Green!

Here is a handout to use if you're planning on promoting breastfeeding this Earth Day!

Breastfeeding is Green!

The 12 Days of Breastfeeding

Download a copy of the 12 days of breastfeeding and share a little bit of holiday cheer!

image via

Breastfed Baby Poo

One of the things I've been making for the past few breastfeeding classes is breastfed baby poo. I based this recipe on an Amy Spangler recipe that I found online.

Breastfed Baby Poo

• 1 tsp. yellow mustard
• 2 tsp. sesame seeds (I ran out of sesame seeds and my sister suggested chopped up brown rice)
• 1 Tbs. cottage cheese
• enough milk to make a good consistency
• meconium - molasses
• transitional - baby poo, tiny bit of molasses, teeny tiny bit of green food coloring

Chop up the rice if you've used all your sesame seeds for other things.

baby poo

meconium

When I say a teeny tiny bit of green, I mean it. A little bit goes a LONG way. With the molasses and the food coloring just add small amounts until you get it the color you like.

transitional poo

Contact Ideas and NIP Tips

While I was working last night I was wishing I knew everyone else's little tricks they use to keep up with everything. Here are a couple of things I do:

The Post-it.

I have a post-it note on the corner of the blue sheet for every client. It helps me see at a glance if it is time to contact them and how they are feeling about breastfeeding. I write down when their 1st and 2nd trimesters end so I know how often I should be calling them. I also put the date they are 37 weeks along if I know the client wants to breastfeed - especially if it is a first child. This way I can remind myself to remind them to do a nipple check. As I call them, I cross out the date and write down when I need to contact them again. The mark in the bottom corner lets me know what they are thinking about breastfeeding. I put an 'o' for wanting to breastfeed, an 'x' for not wanting to breastfeed or a '?' for undecided.

The Calling Card & Class Sticker

Every time I mail off a note or some breastfeeding information I attach a calling card with my phone number and email address in hopes that they will hang on to the card. I use address labels with the date of our next class on them if the client will still be pregnant at that point. If not, I use cute stickers from noodle soup.

I made a flier with tips for nursing in public and now that I've figured out how to share PDF files, I'll post it here:

NIP tips - front

NIP tips - back

let me know if you have any tips to add!

August Class & WBW Celebration

Monday night was the breastfeeding class for Wayne county. We sent out special invitations hoping to draw more people to the class. Our average is 4.3 people per class and last night we had 7 attend!

We set up a table full of extra pamphlets that we don't usually put in our folders, goodies for them to take and books to look at.

We had yummy food. We need to start having healthy snacks at our classes instead, but since this was a WBW celebration as well, we had not-so-healthy food. Anyone have some really good healthy snack ideas? (looking back, I said the same thing about the last class...)

We had balloons! It's not a party without balloons!

Everyone got a folder full of pamphlets and handouts, a world breastfeeding week button, a few breastfeeding stickers, a name tag, a piece of paper to take notes on, a pen to write with, an evaluation form to fill out and a little card that they can fill out if they'd like more information about anything specific.
We played the breastfeeding treasures game, which is always really fun, and then drew names out to give out more prizes. Everyone ended up winning something!

We have a box that they can drop their evaluation forms in.

We have our doll, Aiden, who we demonstrate positioning with. I encouraged the moms to gather around me while I demonstrated last night. I felt they could see better and were asking more questions because it didn't feel so formal.

We also had some fake poo. I don't remember which website I found the recipe on, but it said it was an Amy Spangler recipe:

• 1 t. mustard
• 2 t. sesame seeds
• 1 T. cottage cheese
• For meconium—use molasses
• For transitional stool—use molasses + baby poop

we felt it was a bit too thick and could use a bit of watering down (perhaps with milk).

Shirts for Breastfeeding Class

Kristen thought it would be nice if we had special breastfeeding shirts for our breastfeeding class. We stopped by Cato's and bought two cute orange shirts and this is the design I'm thinking about putting on them:

WIC Food Center Set-Up

Kristen and I set up a table (or 3) at our WIC Food Center on August 5th for World Breastfeeding Week. This was our first time setting up at the food center. What does everyone else usually do?

Kristen sitting at our table

Here are some of the things we had for moms. After awhile we filled a bunch of the goody bags to leave in the shopping carts.

We also served refreshments! We had WIC juice and cheese and a few things Kristen and I baked. Also on this table: One of our entry boxes for our WBW Contest (currently EMPTY). Any ideas how to get moms to enter? We've got great prizes to give away!

La Leche League Picnic 2009

A few pictures from the picnic on Saturday:

Hopefully my first of many LLL picnics..

Three More Days!

Only three more days until World Breastfeeding Week! What is everyone doing to celebrate?

On my agenda:

• August 1st - Posting a picture of a breastfeeding mom on my Facebook profile for the M.I.L.C. Virtual Nurse-In.
• August 1st - Attending the La Leche League Family Picnic.
• August 5th - Kristen and I will be setting up a table with refreshments and breastfeeding information at our Wayne County WIC Food Center.
• Ongoing - We have an essay contest in Wayne County until the 21st to win fabulous prizes.

I'd love to see what everyone else is up to!

This is my picture for my Facebook profile: Danielle, Aaron (4 months), Oscar (almost 1 year) & Missy - Having a picnic!

Class Invitations

This afternoon I finished up work on our class invitations. We are planning a special extra fun class for August and so we wanted special invitations. They're ready to be addressed, stamped and mailed.

I printed the invitations on the front and back of card stock and cut them out.

Then added a little insert with some information about this year's WBW theme. I plan to use the back of these to write notes to a few moms on. I can email a .pdf of this if anyone wants to print some for WBW, there are four per page (just let me know if you want color or black and white).

Overlapped the flaps and sealed with "Breastfeeding does a world of good" stickers from noodle soup!

I think it would be fun to have a game that would show moms the advantages of breastfeeding during emergency situations (especially hurricanes), but I haven't come up with any specifics yet. Any ideas anyone?

Health Fair Photos

Here are a few pictures I took at the health fair this afternoon:

Kristen with our little setup. Big giant thanks to Scot for the tent! I am very grateful that I don't look like a lobster.

Our presentation board. I don't think anyone actually read a word on it (besides 'breastfeeding')- so if you're planning on making one, use lots of pictures! Also, large pieces of cardboard do not stand well on windy days. We provided the other health fair participants lots of free entertainment while we tried to catch our presentation board every time it blew away!

Table full of pamphlets. We also had various fliers available to anyone that wanted more information, but no good way to display them.

I think freebies were the main draw to the event, so it's a good thing we took bracelets and a few stickers from noodle soup. Kristen managed to sell 10 of our bows! yay Kristen!

Golden Bow Pins

I thought it would be really helpful to our breastfeeding classes if we had some dolls for the moms to use to help learn proper positioning. If they hold a doll and position it at their breast during class it may help them feel more comfortable and remember how to when their baby comes.

To help raise a little money for the dolls i made these golden bow pins to try to sell:

I used a $2 spool of ribbon cut into 10" pieces and tied into bows and adhesive pin backs that i found in the jewelry findings in walmart ($2 for 20). I added a little bit of super glue to make sure they stay on good. Be careful with the superglue - it messed up the color of the ribbon on my whole first batch. I ended up spray painting them gold again. I also added a little bit of fray check to the ends of the ribbon to prevent fraying.

I pinned each bow to a business card which explains the symbolism behind the golden bow. If anyone wants to make these, I can email the .pdf files I made or mail a sheet to be copied.

I printed a little sign and bought a little basket from the dollar store and I'm ready to sell. I'm not sure where I'll try to sell these or if anyone will buy them, but it's worth a try!

(Jeremy bought one for me and Kristen bought one today for on her purse!)

Scotie's Birthday Shirt

Dr. Scotie - Future Breastfeeding Doctor

I made this shirt for Scotie's 5th birthday because she said she wants to be a breastfeeding doctor when she grows up!

Welcome!

Kristen and I were brain storming ways to help all the counties in district VIII get together and share ideas. She suggested a team blog and so I set one up! Everyone in the district is welcome to post - just leave a comment with your email address and I'll send an invitation for you to become an author. We can share all sorts of things this way - class ideas, special projects we're working on, pictures, events, etc. I hope everyone jumps in!

Gold Standard '09