Product Review: Children's Claritin

*Disclaimer: I received this product free as a BzzAgent. I do not receive compensation for my review and all views and opinions expressed are my own and given freely.*

While I love living in Oregon for the most part, this is a state with some serious pollen problems. I've gone outside to find my red Jeep completely yellow with pollen if that gives you an idea of what I mean when I say a serious pollen problem. Having allergies and living in Oregon means I am well acquainted with all brands and forms of allergy medications. My husband and I had hoped that our son would be blessed with no allergies, or at least develop them later in life, but that didn't happen. If you've never seen a very young toddler with allergies let me tell you, it is heartbreaking. We had been doing Children's Allegra, but when I had the chance to try out the Children's Claritin I couldn't say no.

First, the differences between the two. Allegra is a 12 hour dose whereas Claritin is a 24 hour dose, meaning the bug won't wake up completely miserable if I gave him a dose the day before. Claritin is sugar free, the Allegra is not, though both are dye free. Allegra had weird rules about what you can and cannot take at the same time as the Allegra (like no juice, which is a problem when you do smoothies for breakfast every single day), Claritin did not. So already off the bat Claritin is winning, and the Allegra is looking less and less appealing.

Now onto the really important stuff, how well did it actually work? To compare how well it worked on bad allergy days I gave my son a dose while I went medicine free (the things I do for science). His allergies typically present themselves with itching, watery eyes, sneezing nose, and a snotty nose. If they go untreated for about a day he will then develop a cough like he has a mild cold. Day 1 on Claritin was nice and sunny (a rarity for Oregon in April) so we took a half hour long walk around our neighborhood to both burn some energy and to test out the Claritin. No coughing, sniffling, or sneezing, which is a good thing, there was a touch of itchiness but I expected there to be some after he dove into a bush chasing after a squirrel. I on the other hand was a sneezey, drippy, snotty, and itchy mess dying to get home and take some Benedryl. Day 2 and 3 were pretty much the same, though with less itchiness on his part.

The Claritin works great, which is all I could ask for, has less bad stuff than the Children's Allegra, and didn't wind my son up like the Allegra did as well. I will for sure be switching over full time to the Claritin as soon as we finish up the Allegra. The only thing I wish they'd work on the flavor a bit, there was a sharpness to it that I didn't like though the bug didn't seem to mind it at all. If you're child has allergies, what do you do to combat the symptoms and keep them up and running around?

Birthdays and Holidays Galore!

Wow, April has been a busy month for us! The bug turned 3, I turned 28, and we had way to many Easter events to go to as well. Add is a busier than usual work schedule and that equals one busy month. This upcoming Saturday is our only day all month without any plans, I for one am looking forward to sitting around in my jammies and not doing anything.

I know the busyness is taking a toll on my little guy, this has been a timeout heavy week compared to our regular amount. I know he's fried and that acting out is his only real way of expressing that, but I can't let bad behavior become a regular thing. It really is a no win situation for everybody, so I'm trying to cut him some slack when I can. Do you have any tricks you use to keep everybody on an even keel when things get busy?

Toddler Humor

My little guy is about to turn 3, I'm so not ready for that, and his sense of humor is in full swing. While he might not get the finer nuances of a good knock knock joke, he will full belly laugh at the silliness of Bubble Guppies or Mom's Classic Shoe As A Hat Routine(tm). It's been fun watching him develop from a serious, matter of fact little boy into this silly little clown. And while he may be getting sick of my "hay is for horses" joke, I'll never get sick of his cute little giggle.

Toddler humor in TV shows is mainly based around visual puns, since sometimes verbal puns are lost on a child who's language skills aren't fully developed. Silly faces and things being used in the wrong way are common ploys, though I've noticed the use of character laugh to help the viewer associate when something is a funny joke versus something that is not. Some shows don't really use humor, while others have plenty of jokes that only the parents will truly appreciate (Toy Story and Shrek are two that come to mind). How is your little one doing in the humor department? What silly thing do you do that always earns a giggle or two?

The Mysterious Sock Eating Monster

As a parent of a small child we buy socks by the bulk I swear (thank you Costco!), and yet we almost never have any matching socks. At any given time there are at least a dozen lonely socks sitting in a box waiting for their mate to turn up. Sometimes I get lucky and I find a sock hiding behind the couch or under a mattress. And then there are the socks that have been sitting there for over a year now patiently waiting for their other half to make an appearance.

Where do these missing socks go? My favorite explanation is that there is a tiny little monster hiding in my laundry room that likes to snack on toddler sized, car printed socks. Or they are getting left behind in the dryer and one of my neighbors has a small collection of toddler sized, car printed socks. The latter is probably the most logical explanation, but I'm going to stick with the sock eating monster for now. How do you combat the sock monster in your household?

Teething is Weird

My son is almost three and is currently getting his last (I hope) molar in, which is such a joy as any parent can tell you. I've been thinking about teething a lot lately because of this and I've decided that teething is kind of weird. Have you ever seen an x-ray of a child'd mouth? They have all these teeth hiding in their jaw or cheek bone just waiting to come out, it is the weirdest thing to look at. Obviously I understand why we don't want newborns to be born with teeth (I nursed my son and I still cringe when I think back to his very first tooth), but the whole process is just weird. We spent almost 3 years pushing sharp teeth out through our flesh only to have them fall out a few years later so another set can get pushed out. And then as a teenager you get extra molars that you apparently didn't need until then? How does that even make sense? Now I got lucky and I had all of my wisdom teeth by time I was 16, but I've known people in their twenties still getting them in.
I was discussing the current case of "owie mouth" with my son while on the way to an activity and he's actually pretty aware of what's going on, which I found curious. I guess he can feel the molar (top right for anyone interested) with his tongue or the finger he's been chewing on non-stop lately. I often wonder just how aware children are of the things that are happening to their body at this early age, or how it feels to grow at such a fast rate. So much happens in such a short amount of time, it really blows my mind. And teeth are weird.

Product Review: Crayola Twistable Crayons

My son is now two and a half and LOVES to do art projects. Color, glue, paint, bead, make stuff with play-doh, the whole nine yards. But since he's two and a half he's not always the most careful with certain items, which is why I have a large box full of broken crayons (which will eventually get melted down into crayon pucks to color with). This Christmas we decided Santa was going to get him a huge collection of various art things and while shopping for crayons I discovered that Crayola makes crayons that come in a plastic container that you twist up like a tub of lipstick. They obviously cost more than a regular box of crayons, but were only about $2.50 for the box we picked up. And honestly I'd pay twice that to not have broken pieces of crayons ground into my carpets.

These are all of the fun and high quality of Crayola brand crayons with none of the breakability, a huge win in my household. And because they're longer than your average crayon they give my son more room to hold onto and fit nicer in the pencil holder built into his craft table. And no more guessing what color it is once the paper comes off (black, blue, green? Nobody knows till you ruin a picture because you grabbed the wrong color) since the plastic tubes are colored to match what color the crayon is. Overall I give these a resounding two thumbs up!

Essential vs Non-Essential Baby Gear

While pregnant we did what most parents to be (the first time around) do, we collected and stockpiled baby gear. Between baby shower gifts, friends who had kids, and garage sales we accrued enough stuff to open our own baby gear store. After two years of being a parent I can tell you what we needed and didn't need at all, plus what I wish I had more of. There are even some purchases that I can look back on and go why on earth did we buy that?!? Don't panic if you bought something on my Don't Need list, every child is different so yours may be the one to like the "fruit mesh pouch".

First up is my Need List, these are items that I could not have gotten through the last two years without. Obviously I'm going to skip the duh's, like clothes and diapers, you need those (although the type of diapers is up to the parents/baby).

-A baby carrier. We got one that converts from a forward facing to outwards facing to backpack style and I swear this was the only way I got anything done when the bug was little. There are lots and lots of different styles, so take a few for a test spin if you have the chance to. While I liked ours (the brand name escapes me right now) just fine, once the bug got big it became to uncomfortable to carry him around that way. If I had to do it again I'd get one with more back support.
-A travel bed. We actually had two varieties, one was the travel bed by Eddie Bauer which was perfect for the under 6 month baby, and the Kidco PeaPod which I HIGHLY recommend. The PeaPod is big enough he can use it until he's at least 4 and it zips up which is a huge plus for a wiggly baby. The PeaPod looks like a little tent, pretty cute. Kind of expensive but well worth the price.
-One of those bouncy recliner seats. This was a life saver for when I wanted to shower or get something done and couldn't (or didn't want to) hold him. We got one that had an activity bar so there was something for him to play with.
-A bath seat. I'm not talking about an infant tub, I'm talking about a seat for the baby that hooks up to the side of the tub so they can safely sit in it with you while you shower. Mine was by Safety First and this was essential. We used it up until he was big enough to sit up in the tub by himself and I wouldn't have a heart attack every two seconds.
-Sunscreen STICK. Sunscreen is a duh for obvious reasons, but I cannot stress this enough, GET A SOLID SUNSCREEN STICK. You can apply it one handed on a wiggly screaming baby with no mess. I even taught the bug to apply it himself, he LOVES the stick. Yes they are more expensive and yes they don't last as long as a regular bottle but the fights and time it saved me was well worth it.

I'll make my Don't Need list a second post, look for it next week. What items could you not live without or would cry if you had to live without it?