Playtex Women’s Secrets Signature Floral Underwire Bra #4422 Review

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All of the details were exactly as described. Wide comfortable straps and extra support but not padding. Lovely material. Only drawback, it seemed a bit large or ample for the stated size. I am still able to wear it, but at the tightest closure hooks. NOT a minimizer, gives a normal look, but large if you are a large size.

Playtex Women’s Secrets Signature Floral Underwire Bra #4422 Feature

• Top cup frame, Center: 90% Nylon, 10% Spandex. Cups, Back, Cami Strap: 48% Polyester, 32% Nylon, 20% Spandex. Cami strap lining, Center lining: 100% Nylon. Support panel: 85% Nylon, 15% Spandex. Exclusive of other trim and elastics
• Full figure underwire with hidden shapers to add extra contouring
• Soft stretch fabric with delicate lace accents.
• Back adjustable camisole straps
• Hand wash cold water with like colors. Only non-chlorine bleach when needed. Line dry. Do Not Iron.

Playtex Women’s Secrets Signature Floral Underwire Bra #4422 Overview

This Playtex Secrets bra includes underwire for support and is seamed for shape. Featuring smooth cups with an embroidered floral design and a wide, lace trim along the cups. The sexy plunge cut style is completed with a pretty bow detail.

Playtex Women’s Secrets Signature Floral Underwire Bra #4422 Specifications

Playtex

Portable DVD Player for car

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Nov 20, 2009 16:30:09
Best Bra ever! – Disney Grandma – So. California
I love these bras, they hold up even the saggiest boobs! I couldn’t find a black one ANYWHERE, so thank you Amazon.com for having one! I bought the white one for the free shipping!

Very basic, old school, itchy! – Cj Martin – Santa Monica, CA
I did not like this bra. Here are some facts to help you decide.
1) I’m 25, and a 42 D
2) This bra is “rocket shaped”. If you want to look like a sweater girl from 1958 this is for you. If you want a more modern “natural” look this won’t work if you’are bigger.
3) This bra is unlined. It’s just one layer. This causes 2 problems- nipple issues and comfort. The seam is running directly across your breast.

It wasn’t for me, but maybe you don’t have sensitive skin, are never cold, and like the rocket look.

Panty shields up, Captain! We’re rebooting the Ovarian Operating System . . .

I know, the title of this blog alone makes you want to click fast and away. But I have to tell you a tale of consumer eco-angst removed from the simple and often expensive decision to buy local, organic products and food. But first, a little herstory . . .

There’s already been enough shame, secrecy, and taboo surrounding “that time of the month” and all the other fine euphemisms invented to be humourous or circumspect about the mystery of menstruation. There are countries where tampons weren’t and still aren’t sold because you’d have to “touch down there.” There are women who follow this practice willingly, even in forward thinking countries. They build huts and red tents and spas for this exact purpose. To wear pampers or to be pampered. Elsewhere.

But it’s moved beyond that to a place where we’re supposed to celebrate and “have a happy period,” a campaign from a company that stupidly chose their brand name to be “Always.” As in, “I’ll ALWAYS bleed, and I’ll ALWAYS wear these things.” At least Kotex, Tampex, and Playtex (all with –ex as a suffix to mean “out, from or away”) sound almost medical or medicinal. And it’s not ALL feminine hygiene, even wounded soldiers are prone to use a tampon (French for “plug” or “stopper”) to halt bullet wounds from weeping. “Always” doesn’t seem to imply medical or even chronic, instead, it implies a life sentence. Doesn’t your uterus protest? Well it should. War is hell and there’s a war in your drawers and the sick folks at Always were also responsible for aerodynamic pantyliners and pads. That’s right – they got your code red covered in homeland security and you can feel secure each month knowing there’s a little, white F-16 in your pants.

It’s not just a troubling war at home either . . . it’s covers many land masses and miles of ocean.

Spastic Plastic

Your average lady uses 16,800 tampons in her lifetime, that’s 250 to 300 pounds of tampons and applicators. Tag on a few thousand pads and panty liners, and your ecological footprint is looking more like Sasquatch. Of particular offense are the plastic applicators some tampons are encased in. They are casually tossed into wastebaskets where they later escape the curb trash or landfill, trotted off by animals, resurfacing in parking lots and playgrounds and a host of other locations you’d rather not see them appear.

They come back from the watery depths to haunt you, too.

Plastic tampon applicators from sewage outfalls are one of the most common forms of trash on beaches. Yeah, you thought food wrappers and glass bottles and needles were the only gross & hazardous materials washing out to sea and coming back in with the tides. You flush them and that’s just the beginning. For building owners, pads and tampons that are flushed down the toilet are the most common cause of plumbing problems. Further down the flow, they end up the sewage treatment plants and surf into a lake or onto a river, and on into the ocean where they pool with the rest of the plastic detritus at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. There it all sits and breaks down into ever smaller particles until they are the size and color of plankton or worse, are pelletized high-density polyethylene (HDPE) white “nurdles” that resemble fish eggs or food to sea creatures. Then the birds and fish ingest these hormone disrupters and concentrated toxins like PCB and DDE and the circle of life gets a big kick in the nurdles.

But it’s not just the animals somewhat removed from you, you’re an animal too, and guess what it’s doing to you by directly inserting it? Your conventional feminine hygiene products contain a mixture of rayon and cotton. Rayon is in your blouses, dresses, lingerie, linings, scarves, suits, ties, hats, socks, the filling in Zippo lighters, blankets, window treatments, upholstery, tire cord, yarn and diapers. It’s highly absorbent but no good at retaining shape and as far as biodegradability goes, it’s a real loser. Most importantly, synthetic materials like the Rayon used in tampons show an increased risk of toxic shock syndrome (TSS), particularly for superabsorbent tampons. So if you’re a bleeder, you’re a feeder.

And sweet, white cotton isn’t much better up in there. Cotton is highly pesticide-intensive; 25% of pesticides used globally are devoted to growing cotton. To achieve that lily-white look, pads and tampons are bleached with chlorine, a process which creates dioxins, a known carcinogen and those bad boys shouldn’t be placed anywhere near your reproductive organs. And you swear you never smoked a cigar in your life. Especially in a donkey show.

Think Outside the (Tampon) Box

It’s getting easier to select tampons, pads, and panty liners made from organic, unbleached cotton which is cultivated without the use of pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, sewage sludge, irradiation, petrochemicals, or genetic engineering. All of which we now have think about when looking at the towering isle of soothing, pastel colors, reminding us that yes – we’ll be back out there swimming, riding ponies, surfing at the beach and smiling while playing miniature golf in NO time.

O.B. tampons: small box, no applicator. Compact, simple cellophane wrapper covering them, easy to use, and take up very little room in your purse. It is unfathomable, but some women simple aren’t down with getting that up close and personal with their own lady bits and maybe getting their finger a little spotty. Come on darlings – this is no time to be prim and squeamish. If you haven’t seen it in a mirror to understand how it goes together and pushed the buttons to see how it works, you don’t deserve to have sex and should just hang an “Out Of Order” sign over your girdle loop. Get over it. Get into it. It’s yours. Deal.

OG-style Tampax: wrapped in paper, cardboard applicator that breaks down relatively quickly if they happen to get loose in the environment. Preferable to the Pearl brand, which has an indestructible plastic applicator strong enough for shotgun shell casings and is then further wrapped in coated paper. Awesome. Go ahead. Try running them over with your car. You can’t destroy them. They’ll only get dirty . . . and more angry. That plastic rocket launcher is just one more wasteful obstacle between you and your nana. I don’t even want to go into the perfumed varieties. Now on top of your plastic fetish, you’re going to open a vapor-impermeable pouch and stick this vulcanized, alcohol soaked albino vampire into your hoo-ha where no one and nothing but your senseless cervix can smell it? Well it doesn’t work and now you smell of lightly talcumed meat. Fail. p.s. Talc is closely related to the potent carcinogen asbestos and talc particles have been shown to cause tumors in the ovaries and lungs of cancer victims. So hey – go easy on sprinkling the Johnson’s about your leaky basement. It’s a safety hazard. You’ll slip and fall. No need to announce “clean-up on aisle one.”

Natracare and Seventh Generation: chemical-free, non chlorine-bleached, simple packaging which means even less waste. Eco-conscious enough with all the key ingredient and disclaimers including no animal-testing and skin-tested only on fellow humans. You can sleep well in the knowledge that no bunnies had to hop about with a maxi pad strapped to their fluffy bums and instead, some nice lady in a lab got itchy a few times. This is still within the normal scope of your monthly cycle.

Jade and Pearl Sea Sponge: natural tampons inspired by the traditional use of sponges by menstruating women of ancient times. So if you want to bleed like Cleopatra, this is your bag. The Egyptians invented the tampon too – so you can thank them for that little wonder. Sea sponges are available in Teenie, Regular, and Large and you precision(?) fit to size by trimming the sea sponge and experimenting with insertion. Wow. Try not to think about doing dishes or wiping counters or a nice hot sponge bath because really, I can’t see how this is either sanitary OR relaxing. So Sally, if you’re worried about sullying up the seashore, (welcome to my new menstrual tongue twister) this is all the rage amongst mythological aquatic creatures. Apparently, sea sponges are what mermaids use.

Menstrual Cups – i.e.: Diva cup, Mooncup, Instead Softcup, Lunette, Keepercup, LadyCup, Femmecup, Miacup: Ok. Here’s where I drawn the line. This ain’t a Dixie Cup, or a Sippie Cup, a Tommee Tippee Cup or an Ice Cream Cup. This is none of those fun, sweet, childlike associations. But I trust you probably got over that the first time you sprung a leak and wrecked your favorite Underroos or your expensive lingerie for failing to count the days. Maybe I just haven’t been brave enough to go with a new, miserable experience, but let me get this straight . . . i fold a plastic, rubbery cup into a jelly roll, insert this, it pops open like a tulip, i “stir” it around to make sure the umbrella’s been fully deployed, which may take some coaxing and pushing and twisting, and then I pull it out by its dangling tail at intervals, wash it and reinsert it like tiny, portable Tupper Ware?!?!

Oh, hell no!

i am not about to wash my snatch basket in the sink (and carry special, mild, perfume-free, hypo-allergenic fem soap) in between classes or you know, when i take a restroom break to freshen up while out to dinner. i mean, how does one do this discreetly? Oh, and once a month, i get the distinct displeasure of a 5-minute boil for my little traveling jellyfish at the end of the cycle in some dedicated kitchen equipment that never sees food. Or, hey, i can use rubbing alcohol (and not hydrogen peroxide) to sterilize it. But I have to be extremely careful not to soak it too long and allow it to dry completely and not degrade the integrity of the plastic and rinse the residue so I don’t fuck up my vaginal pH.

O.B. tampons sounding better all the time, huh? Can you imagine wringing out your sea sponge? Wouldn’t you rather “touch it” now?

Go With The Flow

There was a time when i worked at a place so uptight, they wouldn’t allow the female staff to carry in a purse. Whether this was for security or to keep outside worldly distractions such as cell phones to a minimum was unclear, but the idea completely incensed my friend Nicole.

“What?” she snapped. “Where are you supposed to carry your tampons, up your ass?”

i explained to her how bad the work environment sucked and how tension and impossible precision reigned, thus, the topic of anal retention seemed a very fitting description. The job had me so upset, i couldn’t poop for a week. Then i quit.

And many light flow days from then, here i was on a Wednesday nite, standing there in the supermarket isle, paralyzed by too many choices and horrible, far-reaching consequences of those attempts at informed decision. There i was: hungry, cranky, wanting ice cream and a heating pad at the same time, thinking about plumbing, and ocean waters and marine life and cancer of the Yoni.

i turn to the woman next to me who is clicking and sucking at her teeth in audible consternation, just like me, and we both smile nervously, amazed at the mini internal crisis over what we’re going to buy. Neither of us will move first, both seem to be wondering how the other will select, looking for a brave trend to follow. Somehow, there’s a preposterous sense of worry over being judged, like bringing a film or a music cd or a book to the checkout clerk, the fear of choosing poorly, unwisely, without taste or sensibilities. “Hmmm,” she says. “Yeahhhhh,” I mutter slowly and drawn out. And we both start giggling.

My cup of joy is overflowing

I consider my internal flowchart for assessing absorbency needs:

junior – aww, isn’t that cute, you inked!

light – Miss Kitty has a nose bleed.

regular – oh, yay. my period’s back.

super – omg that’s a lot of blood.

super plus – jesus, maybe you should go to the hospital!

ultra – uhh, i think that blood clot just asked for a cigarette.

i am looking for regular. Just something in between, just a few tampons, a starter pack, a holdover since i don’t see any of my normal go-tos. And all they have is “a mere scratch” or “Carrie – Prom Scene.”

So i think of the dolphins and the salmon and the seabirds and i grab the 10-pack with the small, recyclable cardboard box and no applicator with the green looking package and eco-claims to fame and the woman next to me does the same. Just enough to soldier on.

It’s all i can do, really. If i don’t want to leave with anymore acronyms. Say, add PTSD to my PMS. Christ Almighty in a hybrid – i can’t even BLEED with out feeling guilty about it in my new sustainable world concept! i leave with my chlorine-free, biodegradable, non-applicator, no plastic, rayon-free tampons and my razors (which are free from animal testing) and a pint of, yes, sorry, blood orange sorbet, and it’s a good thing. While i’m happily eating my cool treat, i don’t need to imagine poor, naked bunnies hopping around with razor burn and nicks with only a maxi-pad to keep them warm. And after all this guilt, i just want to sandwich a washcloth and tuck it in my drawers or just sit on a sock and call it good.

Museum of Menstruation and Women’s Health

for all your bleeding needs . . .

You knew a baby-related post was bound to sneak in here. But since I do more food-prep with bottles these days than I do with my Kitchen Aid, I thought you might give me a free pass and consdier this entry at least partially in the baking category.

Long story short: For the first three months of Baby E’s life, she was not enthused about taking the bottle. Daddy C and some stalwart friends could get her to take the Dr. Brown’s every once in a while, but she would mostly just chew on the nipple and dribble the rest of the bottle out on her onsie. And as a result, Mama Me was freaked–freaked that I’d go back to work and my wee-one would starve and scream herself to death because I’d failed to introduce her to the bottle early  enough in my selfish desire to nurse and cuddle her.

So, like I’ve done with piping tips and fondant and baking pans, I proceeded to purchase just about every model on the shelf. A particular draw? Anything that sported the assurance:  “best of breastfed babies.” Picture me going through the store and sweeping an entire shelf of  “desperate mother” bottles into the cart and you’d have it about right.  Below you see the collection I amassed.

(Left to right) Adiri Level 3 and 2, Breastflow, Dr. Brown's (two variations), Avent and Playtex Drop-In

Before you get too concerned, fast-forward to the day after Baby E turned 3 months old. She batted me away and literally reached out to Daddy C for the bottle. Fiendish child. Though she still nurses, she’s taken bottles like a champ ever since.  But I thought others might benefit (and save a little money) from a run-down of my panicked purchases.  So here goes:

Adiri Natural Nurser — The most boob-looking of all the variations. It takes some jeers from baby Web sites for being gimmicky and, yes, I totally bought into the premise that the more it looked like a boob, the more likely it was to fool my baby. But though I don’t think she’s actually fooled, this is one of only two bottles types Baby E will take at the moment. Up until the Adiri, she was drooling her milk out when she wasn’t screaming at the intrusion. But from the first moment we put the Adiri to her lips, we had success. It’s essentially a torpedo with a hard back end (you fill it on this end), a semi hard middle for gripping it and a soft top third that the baby can press against her little cheeks with milky glee. Each bottle is a different level. We’re currently on Level 2 – Blue.

Breastflow – Next to Dr. Brown’s this one had the most going for it on the technical front. The nipple is actually a two-layered affair and it falls into the “so weird it must work” category. The outer layer is a soft squishy silicone that, again, the baby can smoosh against her face. But this has an inner layer that is a harder, silcone, tube-like device. The intent is to mimic the whole nipple experience for the baby. When the baby latches on, bearing down on the harder silicone inside makes the milk flow up and fill the space between the inner and outer nipple. So I suppose the baby gets the sensation of sucking on a full breast. I have no idea if it really entices babies. Baby E tried it for about a week and never did more than bite on the nipple and then scream at me for teasing her.

Dr. Brown’s — These bottle have a cult following! When I was registering for baby gear, every mother I knew practically grabbed my hands and pleaded with me to get Dr. Brown’s. From what I gather, they are lifesavers in the colic department. Baby E never experienced colic anywhere near the degree to which it plagues other babies. Which is a good thing because Dr. Brown’s were little more than a chew toy for her. I even tried the large-mouthed,  “more natural” nipple. No dice. Looking back at her first bottle experiences with the Doc, I realize that what we thought was her “taking a bottle” was really her “wearing a bottle.” We’ll see if she comes back around to the good Doctor when she’s a little older, but until then I’m happy not to have to clean that fancy venting system. Keeping track of those tiny brushes was pain.

Avent – A no-nonsense mom I know lent me the Avent when I was freaking out about Baby E’s bottle refusal, which is appropriate because Philips Avent’s tagline is “Sense and Simplicity.” Pretty much describes this unflappable mom. If they were to make a tagline for my bottle, it would be “Frantic and Freakability” or maybe “Sucker and Sellability.”  Clearly, this bottle and Baby E were not going to match up. Too much drama queen in her blood. Another wise mom who actually got Baby E to take/wear a bottle in the early days suggested that Baby E’s mouth was a little too small to take the nipple length of the Avent. As with Dr. Brown’s, we’ll see if this is the case as Baby E — and her mouth — grow larger.

Playtex Drop-In — I didn’t want this bottle to be a winner. I’m not a the best environmentalist, but at least I know that it’s wasteful to use and discard thousands of plastic inserts over the life of a bottle-fed baby. But a friend’s lactation consultant recommended the Drop-In combined with a latex nipple for hard-to-feed babies. Something about the texture of the latex combined with the way the drop-in collapses and creates more suction as the baby nurses being ideal. Another big selling point — the liners are pre-sterilized, so there’s a high convienience factor there. Also, compared to all the other “just like nursing” bottles on this list, the Playtex Drop-In Sytem is pretty cheap — about $12 for 3 4oz.-bottles and the liners run about  $10 for 100. And, yes, the liners are recylable. But did Baby E like them? Yes…of course she did.

(Left to right) The winners: the Playtex Drop-In with orthopedic latex nipple and the Adiri Level 2.

Get a free sample of Playtex Sport. The free samples includes 2 regular unscented, 1 super unscented, and a coupon for $1.00 off!

I started wearing a bra in 4th grade.  I briefly sported a training bra and then, within a few months, had moved straight up to the standard wires-and-padding, full-fledged, technically complicated bras.  We could no longer find my size at the store where they sold our school uniforms.  We had to venture to Dillards and buy the kind that came in boxes and had frolicking buxom women on the covers.  I think they were Playtex, and even then I understood that they looked like something an old lady would wear.

I also remember the first day that I learned the bra was visible, as Erin mentioned, through our extremely translucent uniform shirts.  At least five boys popped my straps that day.  At recess Erin and I stood on the tennis courts, pondering solutions.  ”I think you have to unhook it,” she said, staring at it through my shirt and considering alternatives with a thoughtful, 9-year-old gaze.  She probably had a yarn ribbon in her hair.  We were still young enough for ribbons, but we were getting old enough for bras.  I agreed, but confessed that I wasn’t adept enough to unhook it myself, through my shirt.  So we found a fairly unobtrusive (we thought) corner of the yard where my best friend worked tirelessly to unhook my bra for me, through the slippery fabric of my shirt.  After she managed it, she stood back to look at me and declared that “I can still kind of see it, but only if I try hard.”

Little did I know that the absence of my bra would be just as obvious as its presence.  As we took our seats back in class, I heard Scott (yes, him again) whisper something to a friend.  (I don’t remember who the friend was, although I imagine it being a big kid named Jordan who was always up for trouble.  Although it might also have been Mike, who was new that year and once punched me in the arm.)  They asked me, “Did you take it off?”

They knew I knew what they meant.  But somehow, I honestly didn’t understand that I was supposed to be ashamed, that the bra was like a Scarlet Letter.  ”So?”  I said.  And I went back to my work.

I was a kid who walked around with my head someplace else most of the time.   All of the time, really.  I had a fairly elaborate fantasy life, and I was happy with that life.  I didn’t venture very often into understanding what other kids were discussing.  I’m sure that there was already a lot of talk about sex and puberty around campus, but I honestly remember only two incidences of this: the bra struggle mentioned above and one other strange item that I’ll get to in a later post (it involves accusations of  lesbianism and therefore deserves its own section).  But first, I want to make a point that I consider vital to an understanding of my elementary school psyche: I had breasts and hips and various sexually connotative features LONG before I understood what those things meant to other people.  Frankly, I had barely noticed them beyond the practical fact that they required new clothes.  I just didn’t care much.  There were books I needed to bury myself in, and various elaborate stories I needed to tell, and games I needed to play with my neighbors outside after school.  My breasts seemed completely irrelevant to anything.  In other words, people read my body like a text, and they learned to interpret it  long before I did.  (This can likely be attributed at least in part to my mother, who is one of the few people I know who genuinely believes that appearances shouldn’t matter.  When she would be diagnosed with breast cancer 5 or 6 years later, she did not hesitate to request a double mastectomy.  And when she explained to me what this surgery would involve, she did not do so with the standard lamentation for lost femininity.  It was a surgery, plain and simple.  It would help her get better, and breasts weren’t a big deal anyway.  I imagine – although I don’t remember for sure – that this is also what she told me about them when I grew some.  They just aren’t a big deal.)

One extremely bizarre memory of my disconnect stands out, but even now I have no idea what this memory means.  It’s one of the few moments from elementary school that I wish I could revisit through an objective eye, so that I could understand how and why it happened.  I’m hoping Erin will remember this too, but somehow I doubt it.  I’m not sure I ever told her about it – ever told anyone.  Which is strange, because in and of itself it seems harmless and off-beat.

Our 3rd and 4th grade worlds involved lots of activities that required choosing students at random – pop quizzes, presentations, doing math problems on the board.  The teacher needed an easy way to pick students/victims, and so she wrote each of our names on a popsicle stick.  Anytime she needed a “volunteer,” she could pull out one of the sticks and call a name – easy and fair, no arguments.  One day during recess there was rain coming down hard (as it often does in South Louisiana), and the girls in the class had wrangled permission to stay indoors and work on art projects rather than venturing outside and getting wet and muddy.  Sometime during this indoor session, I noticed a small group of probably 3-4 girls standing around the teacher’s desk.  (I have no idea where she had gone; it’s likely that the boys – who must have been outdoors – were deemed less trustworthy than the girls and that she left us unsupervised while she watched them.  These sorts of things happened often, even though the girls would frequently come close to tears every time they were all left alone in a room.   At Unnamed Religious Schools, boys = bad and girls = good/angelic.)  I started to walk over to them to find out why they were snickering when the Lead Girl, Melissa *, broke away from the crowd and marched over to me.  ”Look, Sharon.  Look what somebody wrote on your stick.”  She held up the popsicle stick with my name across it and flipped over.  Across the back, in pencil, someone had neatly scripted the words “Cindy Crawford.”

Now, I have tried as best I can to tell you only the things that I am CERTAIN were true about this memory, without adding in what I imagine in my head.  Because how you view this story is all in the details. I have a very solid interpretation of this scenario, which is that the girls – lead by Melissa – had written this to mock me in some way.  I was not a cool kid, nor was I a pretty kid.  There were girls in our class who already wore makeup and had neatly combed, brightly colored hair.  Melissa was one of these.  I was not.  I had a fairly awkward, childlike appearance – except for the slowly widening hips and the now bra-necessitating chest.    I cannot fathom a situation in which a smitten boy would compare me to an adult supermodel – but I assume that that’s what I was meant to think had happened.  In my memory, the neat cursive on the stick was clearly a girl’s handwriting – probably Melissa’s herself.  Her tone was knowing and mocking, as though she had some knowledge I did not.  And the snickering girls huddled around the table had to have been the perpretrators.

So this part is open to interpretation.  I have no idea how Cindy Crawford’s name got on that stick, or why it was put there.  All I have is my best guess.  But there’s an added bonus to the story: whatever intended effect Melissa wanted to have by showing me her find/creation, she failed miserably.  Because I hadn’t the foggiest idea who Cindy Crawford was, or why her name was being shoved in my face.

Melissa grew quickly frustrated.  ”You know,” she said.  ”She’s a supermodel.”

“What’s a supermodel?”  (Really.  I mean, why would I need to have known this in the 4th grade?  Did YOU know this in the 4th grade?)

Groan from Melissa, the all-knowing cool kid.  ”She’s on tv sometimes.  She’s on that Pepsi commercial.  You know, on the cruise ship.”

This part is true.  There was a Pepsi commercial out at that time featuring Cindy Crawford.  But I don’t know that I’d ever seen this commercial.  Or if I had, it hadn’t stuck with me.  I’d had no reason to remember the buxom lady in the bathing suit.

So in the end I was laughed at for new reasons – for my complete ignorance of pop culture, a state I occupied happily until well into middle school.  And I bumbled my way into an awareness that somehow, somewhere, some discussion about me was occurring that I didn’t understand.  It wasn’t until at least ten years later that I would hit on this memory and recognize that, for all its weirdness, no matter how you interpreted it, this story had something to do with my body.

No one will remember this now, but being among the first to develop is a little like being the sick gazelle.  Sure, breasts are powerful things later in life, when you know what they can do and what fascination they hold.  But when you’re young – especially if you’re the kind of kid I was – they can be confusing and dangerous.  People suddenly hold intimate knowledge of you.

The same happens, I’m sure, to girls who develop later.  People have knowledge of them too – but it’s knowledge of a lack rather than a gain.  Either way, our assets are suddenly visible and on display.  And we have NO IDEA what to do about that.

I got lucky, I think, in my cluelessness.  At the time I didn’t care at all what Melissa meant by her taunts, nor did I care all that much about the bra strap popping.  It stopped fairly quickly – the boys got bored and moved onto something else, like hanging pairs of underwear out the window of a speeding car on their way to a field trip at the Livingston Parish Safari Park.  And I think this might be the clear-headedness Erin references in her post.  I’m proud to be remembered this way, and I suppose she’s kind of right.  When I was very young, I didn’t let things like this get to me for very long.  There were times later in life when I would fight hard with my body, try to suppress it and change it into something long and lean and lanky, something without all those external markings of sexuality.  But those years wouldn’t come until much, much later – very near my graduation from high school.  Right now we’re concerned with childhood, and in my childhood breasts just weren’t an issue.  For me.  It wasn’t until I got older that I realized they had been for everyone else, boys and girls alike.  And I’m thankful for the good friends who continued to let me live in oblivion, and for the strange, insular mind that let me ignore most of the talk that surrounded me.

I sure do wish I could go back and ask who wrote that on my stick, though.

*Also not her real name.  I wonder why it is that we’ve protected the girls from specific names but haven’t shrouded the boys quite as much.  For some reason I feel completely comfortable in saying that “scott” is Scott’s real name, and that I am sorely tempted to tell you his last name too.  Also, I’m amazed at how much coverage he gets here.  I never realized except in retrospect how big a part of that school he was.  You’ll learn that Melissa is a similar character, part of the cultural elite and also the absolute wealthiest kid at the school, at least as far as we were aware.  We have many, MANY stories about her.  Some of those stories may even be a part of this sexuality thread.  More to come.

I don’t have a new baby but Vivien just won’t drink milk out of anything but a bottle. It’s her comfort thing. We decided her drinking milk is better than not so we keep using bottles. After two years of use, our Playtex VentAire bottles are leaking and need to be replaced. So the question came up, glass or plastic? I read a comment about the debate over plastic or glass basically saying “Why wait for someone to find more chemicals leaking into the bottles, just use glass.” I thought I’d give glass bottles a try. Glass is heavier and since we are the ones still holding the bottle for her it’s something to consider as our arms get tired.

I bought Dr. Weil bottles as they were the only glass bottles besides the Evenflow brand at Babies R Us in Union Square, NYC. Nice shape, made well. Expensive though. I read somewhere claiming that Evenflow has bad nipples on them so I didn’t bother. Vivien had a complete melt down when it was time for milk on the couch with the new bottle. She kept crying and saying “milkies,” (in between tears) “in other bottle.” She threw herself on the ground, up against the dishwasher…we wreslted her on the couch to try to get her to try it. At this point she had not even put the nipple in her mouth. After she finally gave up about 45 mins later she drank the milk fine. Although there were no leaks, the bottles were a bit heavy and there was a lot of air in the bottles because it didn’t vent out well. The nipples are also pretty wide on the Dr. Weil brand, which could be fine for a new baby but Vivien being almost 2.5 years old doesn’t need the wide shape. I guess the guilt of not wanting her teeth to be pushed out as doctors warn I decided to try a different bottle. Also, the silicon slip cover for the bottles is really a pain to get on and off, not to mention that there’s no way to gauge volume when filling up the bottle with the cover is on. I did more research and after the drama of running around the city looking for them I just ordered the Momo Baby glass bottles online. They are cheaper than Dr. Weil but not as cheap as many plastic brands.

I liked them right away. They seemed a little lighter as the glass isn’t as thick as the Dr. Weil brand. The shape is great. They have options of styles too, tall thin, short stout. I checked and the Playtex VentAire nipples fit the regular size bottles just fine so you don’t have to buy their special branded nipples which are hard to fine in stores right now and about $1-2 more. There are thermal huggers for these bottles but it would be nice to have a sleeve like WeeGo Glass Baby Bottle’s Silicone Sleeve.

I also bought a silicone Momo Baby bottle to try as it would be great for travel since it’s light and seemingly unbreakable. The nipple/neck of the bottle is wider than the other Momo bottles I bought so I will have to have a separate nipple for the silicone one. I will try to see if the Playtex Drop In nipples fit because they are wider than Playtex VentAire nipples. Momo Baby also has another lighter weight glass bottle . The glass is made from borosilicate (same stuff used for lab equipment) verses quartz. Momo Baby also carries BPA Free Plastic bottles (pictured below) if you don’t want glass.  Vivien took the bottle, drank her milk, no tears and after the bottle of wine is done for us, it is quiet & no tears that’s all that matters. I’m sold, Momo Baby bottles are the best! Warning though when you first get the bottles the lid is EXTREMELY hard to get off the top. Even my husband couldn’t get one of the tops off, even after using a bottle opener to try to pry it off, but after it’s removed they are great bottles.

Vivien tried out the silicone Momo Baby bottle (pictured at right) the next morning. She cried at first as she didn’t like the look of it (too different from the other bottles). Then when Julien said he would give her the milk she was fine. No leaks, and as the baby/toddler drinks the milk the bottom collapses keeping extra air from getting in the bottle. I would definitely buy another one.

Here are some links to information regarding the Plastic verses Glass issue I found on my quest for information:

Plasticinfo.org

Environmentcalifornia.org 2007 report on Toxic Baby Bottles

March 6, 2009 The Washington Post article No BPA For Baby Bottles In U.S.: 6 Makers Announce Decision on Chemical

Thedailygreen.com Safer Baby Bottles

Time.com February 8, 2008 article Are Plastic Baby Bottles Harmful?

www.babycenter.com Are plastic baby bottles and formula cans safe?

Theglassbabybottle.com

adiri.com Baby bottles, just thought these were interesting enough to possible check out it you have a new baby.

No, I’m not on the rag, nor am I experimenting with tampons again. I save that kind of shit for The Metal Crypt. But goddamn it, did I scare the shit out of myself today.

Finally, a sport where balls have been replaced with tampons. Maybe it's the new Jarts!

I was in the shower, scalding my skin until I was certain ten layers had been removed (I learned this helpful hint from Mr. Clean). The smell of Evergy Dove was in the air. The bar of soap made love to my skin like a horny tick, sliding down my voluptuous curves to my legs (the kind of legs that look good in fishnets). And that was when I glimpsed blood in the water.

Did you say blood? Mr. Clean will wipe that motherfucker...clean.

Yes. Blood. Like this.

I'm a giant drop of blood! A giant clot! Squeeze me! Watch me leak out your favorite orifice!

Or maybe even like this.

I'm a happy blood drop! Aren't you happy when you're bleeding? Well, why the fuck not, bitch? I'm gonna make you bleed!

My eyes refocused and I paled. A Band-Aid had fallen off my heel. A Band-Aid that had protected a blister. It had withered in the water and sat beneath my foot like a puddle of blood. And it was hot pink.

Are you a horror author? Do you like sexy dolls? Then buy Barbie Band-Aids!

A Peek at the Real-Life Ad Campaigns Depicted on ‘Mad Men’”
With the new season of Mad Men here, Fast Company started reminiscing about the ad campaigns that Don Draper and his creatives worked on during the past two seasons. Sterling Cooper has devised ads and identities for such well-known brands as Kodak, Lucky Strike, and Playtex. The campaigns and pitch proposals vividly evoke the early 1960s and serve as key plot points. But what really happened to those brands and those campaigns back in the day? When did real life trump Mad Men? Read their article and find out.

Much ballyhoo has been made of late in regard to a sex toy aimed at horny dogs.  (How highbrow does that sentence sound?  Dog whistle high?)

Anyhound, this is the latest offering in a joke of a world that never gets old:

By far, it is not the first, or the worst.  And that’s when I smell an Awful Battle in the air.  (Maybe I shouldn’t have said smell…)

AWFUL BATTLE… GO!

Les dessous Playtex font la mode…
Playtex nous ouvre les portes de son showroom pour nous présenter en avant première sa nouvelle collection automne-hiver 2009/2010 en édition limitée.

Source : Femmes.com

This was my bottle brand. The, oh, six or so times I actually drank from one.

Like so many moms, I struggled with breastfeeding. Even after C’s latch got better (and on one side it’s never been perfect, still isn’t), I still kept having problems. At one point at the four-month mark, on my third bout of mastitis, I wanted to wean him to formula (which didn’t work, I’m still breastfeeding him with no bottle usage)

At the time, he wouldn’t drink from bottles. He couldn’t latch onto them, trying hard to open his mouth but finding the nipple too short so that his mouth was practically around the plastic rim. Then I had an aha! moment reading Babble blog Straight from the Bottle, where Rebecca Woolf mentions that her daughter couldn’t latch on standard bottle nipples either, and used Born Free bottles, which has a wide, breast-like nipple.

My mom mentioned that Playtex Drop Ins had a similar nipple. So off I went to buy some bottles, breast throbbing. Born Free, while appealingly made of glass, were very expensive and given that I wasn’t sure if C would drink from it, not a good investment at the time. So I just grabbed Playtex Drop Ins, because it had a rubber nipple, and a Playtex Vent Air, because it had a silicone nipple. All are BPA-free, because that’s the law in Canada. 

And lo, little C could latch onto the bottle! Getting him to prefer the bottle over nursing was another matter altogether.

Long of the short, I hated feeding C bottles. He would sometimes take them, sometimes refused. I hated mixing the powder, cleaning the bottles, figuring out how to dissolve the formula well, heat it just to the right temp, etc and so forth. In the end I gave up bottle feeding cause it was just too hard! I know that sounds silly cause of all the trouble that some moms have doing the breastfeeding thing, but once you start exclusively breastfeeding, you can’t just flick a switch and turn it off. I’m glad I perservered, and also glad I got the less expensive bottles! They’re sitting in a cupboard right now, unused. 

Now that he’s 7 months old, he drinks from a cup (something he could do since 4 months, I think because he drank from a cup so frequently as a newborn – never give a baby bottles if you need to supplement formula, use a little cup or spoon or you won’t get your milk supply up AND don’t give into pushy but well meaning relatives who tell you just to give him a bottle. Sorry. End rant. If you do end up bottle feeding, don’t feel bad about it. I drank formula and am relatively intelligent and healthy, if that means anything.) Cillian doesn’t nurse as much, night-nurses about once, and it’s gotten to be such an easy habit, like blowing your nose. 

-GBS

What Cillian did today: Played in his room with his squishy octopus, dangling it and chewing it. Came to Uncle Chee’s house for dinner and entertained everyone by blowing raspberries and rocking on all fours. Aunt Kam called him a “Greedy Cat” in Chinese (this is how Chinese people show affection. Seriously).

For those of you who have never learned how to shop at CVS, this is a must for anyone trying to save money.  With their ExtraBucks program, you can’t lose, getting FREE stuff every week!  This week is great, as there are quite a few deals out there…..OH and DON’T FORGET to scan your card when you walk into the store, as you might get FREE ExtraBucks to use toward this purchase!  They’ve been pretty generous this week, so take advantage of it!

Johnson & Johnson Band-Aid Bandages- GET TWO OF THESE FREE!!  Sale price is $2.99.  Coupons are for $1.00 each, located in Week F (Week 6) of the SmartSource Insert, and Week Q (Week 17) of the RedPlum Insert.  After coupons, total is $3.98 for both boxes, BUT, you will received ExtraBucks worth $4 to use on your next visit, making these FREE.

Colgate Total Advanced Toothpaste- CVS is limiting you to one per card this week, but there are two coupons out there that you can use for this transaction, if you used one of these coupons in an earlier post of mine.  Sale price is $2.99.  Coupons are for $1.00, located in Week S (Week 19), SmartSource, and in Week J (Week 10) through www.coupons.com. 

Revlon Nail Polish- Again, CVS is limiting you to one per card, (one per household), but if you happen to have two cards in your household,  you can get TWO OF THESE and I won’t tell anyone.    The sale price is $3.99.  The two $1.00 coupons are located in Week Q (Week 17), and Week T (Week 20).  Your total will be $2.99 each, but you’ll get $3.00 in ExtraBucks for each jar.  Woo hoo!

Playtex Tampons- These are FREE this week if you subscribe to the “All You” Magazine.  You can subscribe for a low rate, or pick up the mag at WalMart for $2 or $3 bucks I think.   Anyhow, the sale price is $3.99, and the Coupon is on page 11 for $1.00.  You’ll pay $2.99, but you’ll get $3.00 in ExtraBucks to use on your next purchase, making them FREE.

Speed Stick Deoderant- CVS is limiting these to TWO per household, so grab them while you can!  Sale price is $3.99, which is what you’ll pay (no coupons for these).  However, CVS is giving you $3.99 back in ExtraBucks for your next purchase, making these FREE. 

Want to learn how to rock and roll with CVS every week?  I fill you in on the secret in my EBook, which can be purchased for the SUPER low price of $9.97 at www.shopsensibly.com

Roll those Extrabucks!  ~CouponCathy

CVS Trip

4 Cans Chef Boyrdee price: 4/$5
4 Hunt’s Snack Pack price: 4/$5
2 Revlon Eye Shadow price: $4.99 BOGO FREE
1 Colgate Sensitive Enamel price: $3.99

Minus Coupons:
$3 off $15 Store Coupon
$10 ebs
$1 off 4 Cans of Chef Boyrdee
$1 off 3 Hunt’s Snack Packs
$1 off Revlon Color
$1 off Revlon Color

Total: $0.98
Tax: $0.17
Savings: $28.21

Received:
$7 Eb’s
$3 off $15

Walgreens Trip

BIC Lighter price: $1.99
Honey Maid Crackers price: $3.00
Hershey Milk Chocolate 6 pack price: $3.00
Jet Puff Marshmellows price: FREE
OFF Clip On price: $8.99
OFF Refill price: FREE
J&J Forever Lotion price: $3.50
J&J Body Wash price: $3.50
Claritin price: $19.99
Excedrin Migrane price: $4.99
Excedrin Gelcaps price: $5.49
2 Lysol Toilet Cleaner BOGO free price: $2.49
Gas X price: $4.99
Skinintimate price: $1.99
Scunci Bobby Pins price: $1.29
4 Kraft Mac n Cheese price: $1.39
2 M&M Peanut price: $0.70
2 M&M Plain price: $0.50

Minus Coupons:
Bic Mfg coupon $1.00
Kraft Mac n Cheese Buy 3, Get one Free Mfg Coupon
3 Kraft Mac n Cheese for $0.69 Store Coupon
Excedrin B1 at $4.49, Get one Free Store Coupon
$1 off Excedrin Migrane
$1 off Excedrin Gel Caps
$5 off Clairitin Mfg Coupon
Buy one Clip off, Get Refill Free Mfg Coupon
$1 off Honey Maid Mfg Coupon
$2 off J&J Body wash or Lotion Mfg Coupon
$2 off J&J Body wash or Lotion Mfg Coupon
$0.50 off Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner
$0.50 off Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner
$0.75 off Skinintimate Mfg Coupon
$1.50 off Gas X Mfg Coupon
Buy 1 Participating Candy, Get one Free Mfg Coupon
Buy 1 Participating Candy, Get one Free Mfg Coupon
$20.50 in RR

Total:$29.43
Tax: $2.90

Minus $4.29 Gift Card
Total: $25.14
Savings: $74.80

Target

Smartfood price: $3.33
4 Pringles price: $1.59
Wheat Thins price: $2.49
Triskets price: $2.04
2 Ritz price: $2.99
2 Playtex price: $6.99
4 Bertolli price: $6.00

Minus Coupons:
$1 off Smartfood Store Coupon
$1 off Smartfood Mfg Coupon
Buy 2 get $1 off Pringles
$0.50 off Pringles Store Coupon
$0.50 off Pringles Store Coupon
Buy 2 get $1 off Pringles Mfg Coupon
$0.50 off Pringles Store Coupon
$0.50 off Pringles Store Coupon
$1 off Wheat Thins Mfg Coupon
$1 off Triskets Mfg Coupon
$1 off Ritz Store Coupon
$1 off Ritz Mfg Coupon
$1 off Ritz Store Coupon
$1 off Ritz Mfg Coupon
$1 off Playtex Mfg Coupon
$1.50 off Bertolli Mfg Coupon
$1.50 off Bertolli Mfg Coupon
$1.00 off Bertolli Mfg Coupon
$1.00 off Bertolli Mfg Coupon

Total: $39.18
Tax: $0.74
Savings: $31.76

Received:
$10 Gift Card

My friends who got married and have children mostly have bought breast pumps. All have their own problems and views but mostly use it because of mothers has to go for work. Some get fed up because electric breast pumps are noisy, where as others became comfortable with manual breast pumps.

I believe and like to follow that my child’s health and care is above all. Working mothers or those who have to go out side and don’t have any flexible routine are getting total benefits from Breast Pumps. Some of trusted breast pumps are hand-operated, and others can be operated on batteries or electricity. With various designs some of breast pumps models can only attach with one breast where as others let you to express milk from both breasts at the same time. Popular Brands at Trusted Breast Pumps includes Medela, Avent, Ameda, Playtex, Evenflo, Dr. Brown’s, Tommee Tippee and their accessories to make the Breast Feeding much safe and trouble-free. With a motive of making Breast Feeding easier for mothers in UK; trusted breast pumps believe in 100% satisfaction guaranteed with safe and secure shopping of top quality products.

Breast feeding is deemed as obligatory for child’s proper growth, therefore child is being feed by mother in all feasible ways. Breast pumps are on the lookout for more importance in today’s   women life. Breast pumps and its accessories make it quite easier to express and store mother’s milk in a safe manner. Child can be nourishing any time with mother’s milk in her nonexistence. Trusted Breast Pumps offering different brands of electric and manual breast pumps, including breast milk bottles and storage bags, new born feeding kits and training cups, tender care gel, nursing bras, breast shields, steam steriliser, toddlers pacifiers, breast shells & pads and also bottle brush and nursing pillows are all demand by mothers in UK. Breast-feeding is usually a round-the-clock commitment. That’s the reason why large number of breast-feeding mothers takes breast pumps as much vital as car seats and baby wipes. Working mothers or those who have to go out side and don’t have any flexible routine are getting total benefits from Breast Pumps. Some of trusted breast pumps are hand-operated, and others can be operated on batteries or electricity.

Por JoniPod

En SEC queremos abrir nuestro espacio a la moda, como en los programas de Maria Teresa Campos, cuando hacían los desfiles de Playtex. No, no vamos a hablar de ropa interior, otro día dedicaremos un post al “Cruzado Mágico”, el sujetador con nombre de postura disney lésbica.

Hace tiempo que tenía ganas de escribir sobre Venca  la empresa lider por antonomasia en venta por catálogo. ¿Por qué? Pues porque un auténtico Sufridor en Casa tiene que haber ojeado el catálogo alguna vez en su vida. En mi caso debo asumir que he sido un “niño Venca”. Desde que era pequeñito recuerdo que en mi casa entraban esos catálogos y esas cartas “afortunas”…

Porque a tu madre no le tocaba la lotería, nunca elegían su carta con el código de barras de Starlux en el Precio Justo…pero oye, con Venca siempre habías ganado coches, cheques, viajes… Mi progenitora es una señora de provincia que esperaba ansiosa sus pedidos de moda que estrenar en fiestas de guardar, pero era consciente del timo que suponían este tipo de rifas.

Además de sorteos, Venca también ofrecía premios directos. Da igual lo que pidieras, y del importe que fuera, que en tu paquete siempre había un regalo. A destacar dos grandes vertientes: la moda y la tecnología.

Así, en mi casa aparecieron edredones, fundas nórdicas, abrigos,… da igual el modelo o el color, todos tenían algo en común: el poliester. Claro, que esperabas, ¿que te regalaran un jersey de chasemire o un nórdico de borrego?…pues no oye. Todo eso hace que uno tuviera una marcada infancia Venca porque, por mucho buen tiempo que haga en Canarias, que tu madre te tapara en invierno con un edredón de poliéster… snif…

En la vertiente tecnología recordaré siempre el “equipo hifi portátil”, que venía a ser una radio pequeña con altavoces en forma de minicadena y un reloj, o la “cámara de fotos digital” cuya resolución era de 640×480pixels y solo tenía 32 megas de memoria RAM. Claro, como le explicaba yo a mi madre que retratar todas las vacaciones con eso, era como decirle a Massiel que vigile las bodegas Osborne y pedirle que no entre.

A pesar de todo esto, Venca sobrevive y se pone al día ofreciendo sus servicios en la web.  O lo que es lo mismo,  ahora los abrigos de poliester están en Internet…

Con el chandal te regalan el chaleco salvavidas

…Y la moda “urban fashion”  a un solo click.

Pincha aquí para ver su propuesta de primavera verano para el metrosexual de barrio…

¿Qué compraríais vosotros?

For years advertisers have wrestled with the challenge of selling tampons. As Seth Stevenson of Slate wrote a few years ago, most tampon commercials used fear appeals and included scenes in high school, somewhere around attractive men, or situations in which women were wearing white clothing. Only recently have advertising firms attempted to use different strategies to sell feminine hygiene products. Playtex, for example, has linked their brand to active, athletic lifestyles, while o.b. has appeared more bohemian through promoting an earthy feel that is approved by gynecologists. Tampax, though, has moved toward humor in the past few years, and has demonstrated more candor than ever before.

For classic tampon commercials, see the following:

For examples of the new “Mother Nature” ads by Tampax, see the following:

Discussion Questions:

1.  Why were advertisers in previous years forced to speak of tampons and menstruation in coded language?

2.  What are euphemisms, and how were they used in tampon commercials in the past?  Even in this age of candor, how are euphemisms still used in advertising tampons?

3.  How are current tampon advertisements more open or direct?

4.  How might the mass media have played a role in promoting a culture where it’s finally okay to discuss menstruation?

Why Society Should Let Up on the Bra Standard
Today’s society views the bra, or brassiere, as a symbol of American society standard. Go braless here, and you just may catch a few dirty looks, lingering stares or unwanted attention aimed at your breasts.

Unfortunately, this stigma is prevalent, and the bra wearing standard keeps going strong. Bra wearing isn’t so bad when you wear a comfortable, loose fitting bra that allows your breasts to move somewhat freely, rather than closely restraining them against the body at all times.

Too many women insecure with their breast size or fullness opt for the stiff underwire bras (I was one of them, until I enlarged my breasts naturally through means described on this site) with tons of padding which restrict the movement of your breasts for a period of ten to 16 hours, depending on how long you wear your bra during the day.

Although you may feel the added fullness and cleavage looks more appealing and attractive, you are actually doing your breasts a disservice. There is much speculation and conjecture that bra wearing, especially tight bras that really restrict blood flow and circulation may contribute to breast cancer causes due to abnormal cell growth from inadequate lymphatic drainage and circulation, which actually rids the breast area of toxins that can build up.

So, what type of bras should you opt for? Preferably lightweight, cotton bras which are built to stretch and move with your body. When wearing a bra, you can minimize it’s circulation-hindering effects by lightly to moderately massaging them throughout the day to circulate blood flow and promote healthy “cleansing” and blood circulation.

Go braless whenever you can! When you’re at home, at night when sleeping, or whenever you feel personally comfortable enough – go braless! It really is liberating and it’s a step in the right direction toward breast health. 
 

Are you interested in buying Bali bras, olga bras, Wacoal bras, Playtex bras, warners bras or Champion Sports Bras or other bras panties or shapewear come to Isaac Sultan & Sons for all your online bra store and online panties store needs,  If you are looking to purchase Bali panties, warners panties, olga panties or barely there panties come to the online pantys store.  Bali panties, olga panties, Wacoal panties, Playtex panties, warners panties, champion sports bras, bali panties, warners panties, olga panties, barely there panties can all be located at Isaac Sultan & Sons.  Bali bras and olga bras and Playtex bras are great in quality and price.

The Insulator Twist ‘n Click Straw Cup
Playtex
For ages 2 & up

Our The First Years Take and Toss Sippy Cup lids are coming to their ends, and the The First Years Take ‘n Toss Straw Cups are not great for traveling. Although The First Years Insulator Cups do a great job, it does tend to leak when it is not upright. We decided to get the Playtex Insulator Twist ‘n Click Straw Cup. At the Babies ‘R Us we went to there were not too many choices for designs. Melody’s been into trucks lately because of the highway construction nearby so we bought the 2-pack with trucks on them. Each cup holds up to 9 oz. These cups do a fairly good job keeping liquids from spilling, even when the cup is turned upside down. The only suggestion would be for you to remember to make sure all parts of the straw are tight, or some liquid will drip out. It does seem to take a little sucking power to drink from the straw compared to other straws and sippy cups. (Yes, I tested it.) I guess that is why the liquids stay in so well. The lid is a bit on the tight side. These cups are easy to wash, but hard to store. The part of the straw that the child drinks from is a rubbery material which is a lot better than the usual hard plastic that dents when the kid bites on it. It is also insulted when you want warm drinks to stay warm, or cold drinks to stay cold. I also like how there is a slider on top, so if the cup is dropped the straw will stay clean.

Other reviews of Twist ‘n Click:
Amazon 1, 2
HomeSolutions Store

Image Source: Playtex

- Joyce

It was bound to happen sooner than later – the six main baby bottle manufacturers have decided to stop selling polycarbonate baby bottles containing BPA in the US. HOORAY!

The six manufacturers Avent, Dr. Browns, Evenflo, The First Years, Gerber and Playtex all already have BPA free bottles. It really is a no brainer move since large retailers including Target, Wal-Mart and Babies R Us vowed to stop selling baby bottles containing BPA at the end of 2008, and Canada banned the sale of polycarbonate baby bottles last year. So if there is no market or sales channel, then why bother? Either way, this is to be applauded. But sadly, these bottles will continue to be sold outside North America.

This is a great first step; however, there is still work to be done on this issue. BPA still lines the insides of canned foods, soft drink cans, lids of many jarred foods, dental sealants, etc. And of course the FDA still is trying to convince us BPA is safe even though 130 studies have linked BPA exposure to behavior problems, breast cancer, obesity, diabetes and several other disorders.

See how to avoid BPA.

See my lists of BPA free items for children and some for mom too.
BPA free bottles, sippy cups and food storage
BPA and phthalate free pacifiers
BPA and phthalate free teethers and rattles 
BPA free dishes, utensils, snack containers and food storage

Follow me on Twitter!

Related Articles
Harmful plastics with BPA
Lead and PVC-free lunch boxes
Non-Toxic Toys for Christmas 
The Real Story Behind BPA

Connecticut’s attorney general says six companies have agreed to stop manufacturing baby bottles that contain Bisphenol-A, a chemical some studies suggest may be harmful to infants. Attorneys general from Connecticut, Delaware and New Jersey sent letters last October to 11 companies, asking them to stop using the chemical.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal says Avent, Disney First Years, Gerber, Dr. Brown, Playtex and Evenflow have agreed to the request. Blumenthal says the companies stopped manufacturing bottles with BPA a couple of weeks ago.

On Wednesday, lawmakers in Suffolk County, N.Y., became the first in the nation to vote on a ban on baby bottles and toddler sippy cups made with BPA.

Related BPA posts on Baby Lifestyles:
Suffolk County in New York Bans BPA Baby Bottles, Nation’s First
Introducing the First Silicone Baby Bottle, BPA Free
FDA Plans Baby Bottle Study on BPA