Parenting Blind/When sight escapes us

Yes I’ve covered this briefly another post but I wanted to get to this in a little more detail because when you’re out and about it can get messy with distractions and stressful.

Okay, his and her diaper bags may be trendy for most but for a blind parent it’s essential if they are going to find things with the least amount of attention and fuss on the bag. 

Peter and I actually had a talk about how we were going to handle baby vs objects and the amount of attention the deserve and when.  I.E. Phone vs baby in bath, answer cordless phone in pocket before setting up the bathroom for Ben’s bath.

Yes you can find a list of items you need in a diaper bag and it’s a mile long.  Which translates into a bag heavier then your baby.

We found that with most diaper bags are ackward with too many loose items inside them to find anything even with eyes.  You can easily run out of supplies and end up with empty jars,  dirty soothers, and empty bottles.

Our answer to this was to first find a diaper bag that was a backpack rather then messanger bag style.  It gets it out of the way so you can leave both hands free to deal with a baby or toddler.  The messanger bags can swing and bonk a toddler if you bend over too fast with it on your shoulder.

To fix the clutter issue what we did was use a travel langerie bag with zippered multi pockets that you can unroll to house all the ”travel” sized items we got. One zippered bag to hold diapers. Two drawstring waterproof bags from www.comfycotton.ca where we used their diaper service also.  If you’re in the GTA area I highly recommend this environmentally friendly cloth diapers it saved us time, money and hassle.  Their customer service is a 10 in my estimation.  Note: their diapers never need pins and the covers use velcro like the tabs on disposable diapers.

What did we keep in these bags?

Langerie bag held:

-diaper cream

-sunscreen

-baby tylenol

-bandaids(5)

-antibiotic ointment

-disposable washcloth(for messes that wipes won’t fix,”Spit up happens”)

-wipes

-extra formula(incase I’m not there to breast feed)in packet(bottle with sterile water is added to bag before we leave the house)

Zippered plastic bag

-2 diaper covers with cloth diapers folded and pre-inserted(just add baby)

First drawstring bag

-change of clothes

-sweater/blanket

- 2nd drawstring bag(this bag is waterproof and used to hold wet diapers and diaper covers)

Now Ben stopped using his soother when he figured out Mommy had an extra benefit (Milk!).  He never really got attached to anything to sleep with even though I tried.  If your child gets attached to something get more then one and rotate them so you can safely clean them without tantrums.

But always have a distraction item packed in the diaper bag also.

Now this is NOT an overnight bag, it’s just a bag for going to appointments, shopping or the playground.  Don’t expect it to last much longer then about six hours.

Now for the Toddler, the number of diapers lowers, you can survive with a little grime on the t-shirt and increase the number of bandaid (possibly change to character design ones too).  Add snack food too.  Here’s a tip, by some ziploc twist’n'loc type small containers and make your own snacks.  I usually have to have 3-4 types in my bag at any time.  One fruit(fresh/canned), one crackers, one vegatable, and the last is cereal bits.

Gerber produces an adapter for water/juice bottles to give them a sippy type lid.  I keep one if I get stuck in a pinch and can’t help him to drink from the bottle.  These are much smaller and lighter then carrying around a huge sippie cup that he may not want because it has the wrong liquid in it or he goes through and I can’t wash it out.  I bought this at Shopper’s Drug Mart.  I got two in one package.

Also look for the helpful feeders they come under different names and I’ve seen them at Zellers and Shopper’s Drug Mart.  They are handled items that baby can hold and a soft piece of food can be put into a net and they can suck on it so that the food goes through the mesh net and can be swallowed without choking.  These are great at home or on the go when a baby is just learning to eat.  You just clip/twist the mesh net into place with the food in the net and baby can enjoy.

Well back to painting the now disaster of my bedroom. I’ll post the before and after in the next blog post.  I’m still trying to figure out if I’m painting brown, orange, peach or what.  It was a bargain paint what can I say? I’m cheap I’d rather spend my money on things that keep my family running smoothly then on decorating right now.  Funny I love decorating and might like to get into that field to help others with “disablies” or “difficulties” with “normal” living arrangements but don’t want to forfeit beauty and convience.

ttfn

This entry was posted on Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 3:25 pm and is filed under Notes for Manual. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.