Water Based Cleaners are Best

I have a kid with asthma and because of that I tend to want to use water based cleaner. This is because stuff like Lysol, Febreze and Windex makes my kid wheeze. To tell you quite frankly I get headaches when I use this kind of stuff too.

If you are environmentally sensitive like my kids and I are then you need not despair. There are options for you.

Most of these water-based cleaners are inexpensive and homes.

For an inexpensive odor remover, mix baking soda in water and saturate the area where the spill has occurred. Let stand a few minutes, then blot with paper towels and allow to air dry. This is good for pet stains.

For fresh bloodstains, try soaking the area thoroughly first with super cold water. Avoid warm or hot water, which can set the proteins in the blood and make it permanant. It can also help to rub an ice cube over the stain, then rinse with cold water and clean or launder the item.

Hydrogen peroxide followed by a rinse with water is one of the best ways to remove bloodstains. Apply the hydrogen peroxide to the stained area, letting it bubble. Repeat this until stain is gone. Follow this scrubbing up by dabbing the area with water, then letting it dry. Or if the bloodstain is on clothing, launder it after first treating it with the hydrogen followed by the cold water rinse. Keep in mind that hydrogen peroxides has a limited shelf life; you may need to replace your bottle annually for it to be effective.

You can also try the 'milk cure' for bloodstains. Pour some milk over the bloodstain to loosen the blood, and then blot it up. Then give the item or the area on the rug a good rinse with water.

Yet another cold water cure for stains is to mix cornstarch and water into a paste, then apply it to the stained rug or fabric. Rinse with cool water and blot dry. Afterwards, use a brush or vacuum to remove the remaining cornstarch.

Some people have also had some success mixing meat-tenderizing crystals with cold water, and then apply this paste to the area. Let stand for an hour, then rinse in cool water.

Yet another homemade formula for cleaning urine and other organic messes: mix equal parts water and white vinegar with a couple squirts of gentle dishwashing soap. I find this gets most things out – even protein based stains sometimes.

Remember that when it comes to stains like urine that rubbing with ammonia sometimes works, but remember that ammonia smells somewhat like urine to animals, so your pet may try to mark on the spot. That is also why I like alternatives like baking soda and water. It just does not reek. Ammonia of course can smell up your house for days, even if it does get that bloodstain out of the carpet.

Parenting Tips
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Baby’s Sleep and Natural Light

Sometimes it is hard to tell why your baby won't sleep through the night. I could be colic or anything. At any rate that good night's sleep seems so hard for some baby's to come by and that affects your sleep too. Now there is a new theory. It is not colic at all but rather due to a lack of light.

This idea comes from another concept, which is that the reason babies don't sleep through the night is because their internal clock has yet to be established. Other theories are that the lack of sleep might be due to a lack of daylight.
If a lack of daylight is the culprit then the obvious solution is to make sure that your baby is exposed to a few more hours of natural light a day. That means taking the baby out in the prom. This might also help moms sleep through the night as well. The idea is to get both child and mother synchronized on the same schedule.

This lack of daylight theory is not that new of an idea. It is actually based on a study published in 2004 with the European Sleep Research Society which details how 56 babies at ages six, nine and twelve weeks old were studies over a period of six days. During those days monitors tracked the amount of light these babies received and then also their waking, sleeping and crying patterns.
So what did this study reveal? Apparently the babies that would sleep all night were exposed to more light in the early afternoon from say noon until two. This helped to develop the baby's internal clock so it would be triggered to produce melatonin at the right times. The babies who were stimulated with light in the afternoon simply were easier to put down at night. This is because the light stimulated the circadian clock, which is located in the babies' hypothalamus. It predicts sunrise and helps get us ready for the day.

Another key is to make sure that the light you are getting is very bright. If you live in a cloudy place like Vancouver or Seattle you might have to buy a Light Book to shine on your baby during the early hours of the afternoon to stimulate than baby's production melatonin.
It is good for moms to get out during the day as well as that early afternoon exposure to the sun's rays can also help heal post partum depression. Without sunshine our hormones become unbalanced and we end up becoming sleep deprived. This can end up in a reliance on antidepressants and sleeping pills to get through your day and night. This is not the kind of stuff that you want ending up in your breast milk!

Parenting Tips
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