A Fine Parent Post

I am honored to be a contributor over at A Fine Parent this month!  This community is a great group of parents who are actively seeking to raise their children in a positive atmosphere.

I have learned so much through the discussions in this community - and I think you will too!

Please head over and visit my recent post and leave a comment.  I'd love to know what you think about my views on raising kids with character and character education in general!

Throw Up... Continued

This is part two in a two-part series on vomit removal, lovingly written by my friend (and fellow foster mom) Mie. If you like this, you're bound to like her blog, so head on over there for some good stuff!

Clean-up, Clean-up, Everybody Clean-Up…

So what do you do if prevention doesn’t work? Have a baby who suddenly becomes ill in the car? Here are some quick-tips for clean-up.

1. Don’t Panic, Stay Calm – Preventing the adrenaline from rushing through your body will help you maintain control of your own stomach. You’re going to need that. Plus, if your child is sick it helps when their parent isn’t freaking out about it. Or, if you’re lucky like me and have a behavioral challenge to deal with, keeping your cool and not reacting to the behavior with extra attention will help avoid reinforcing it.


2. Remove The Chunks – If you’re at home, use disposable or bleachable towels to wipe the mess in to a disposable container (bag, trash can, etc.). If you’re in the car, use wipes and diaper sacks to get rid of as much of the solid/liquid material as possible. Make sure you pull over as quickly yet safely as you can – the less chance the mess has to sink in anywhere the better. Quick Tip#2: Use these wipes and these diaper sacks – keep them as a stash in your car and not only will you be prepared for a diaper blow-out, boogies, or any other mess but you’ll also help contain the lovely scent until you can get somewhere to throw the mess away.


3. Clean Your Kid – If for some reason the Vomit Catcher didn’t work, hopefully you have a spare change of clothes in the car. Change the kiddo and put the clothes in another diaper sack. Wash the kiddo with the wipes to remove some of the yucky residue that may have seeped through the clothes.


4. Clean the Car Seat (in car) – I’m going to assume your child was in a car seat and that is what you need to clean. Use club soda (or water, if you need to) and slowly pour onto the affected area enough to soak it. Concentrate on the straps and seating area. Dab/blot the club soda-soaked area with the dry towels, using a new dry area each blot, until the liquid is removed, repeating the use of club-soda and blotting until the vomit appears gone. Please note – it is not gone and you will need to do more later, but for right this minute this step will help prevent the mess from seeping in further or spreading all over the car. If you’re really zealous for clean, you should probably move straight to step 6, which means you’ll need to also have the Vomit Cleaner Mix on-hand. That doesn’t happen in our car but we’re ok with that. I’m assuming you didn’t get vomit anywhere else in the car – if you did you’ll need to make sure that is cleaned also, including disinfectant.


5. Remove Odor - Generously sprinkle the wet area with baking soda. Rub it into the straps and the seat. If all of the baking soda is wet, sprinkle some more until you have some dry baking soda remaining on the area. If you have a child with sensitive skin or are concerned about the baking soda being in contact with his/her clothes, cover the seat with a hand towel and have your child sit on the towel. If you need to, put a towel or paper towel between the strap and your child to protect clothing – go for it. We don’t use the towel(s) here, but then again I’m not worried about my children’s clothes that much – I am too cheap to buy them expensive clothes so if they are damaged I’m not worried about it but remember baking soda is both edible and used in cleaning clothes and other surfaces without harming them so, I take the risk.


6. Disinfect – As I pointed out, you may want to do this after step 4 – it’s just not always practical and not how we do it. There are two ways you can disinfect and it purely depends on your preferences:


1. Machine Wash– This is what we usually do. It’s easier than other ways. We remove the car seat and wash the car seat cover using hot liquid, a tiny amount of bleach, and regular laundry detergent made by yours truly. Then, dry according to the cover instructions on the hottest temperature it can handle. While you’re waiting for the cycle to be done use your preferred disinfectant and wash/rinse the rest of the car seat, including the straps, the base, etc, so that when the car seat cover is done you can reassemble and put it back in your car. It takes a couple hours to do this, so it only works in our family because we have 7 car seats and 4 kids – we can switch out one of the spare car seats while the other is being washed. I’ll also caution you that the more you wash the car seat cover with the machine the more you’ll probably see wear and tear – that doesn’t bother us but might bother you.


2. Hand Wash – In my research I found this site that provides a good hand-wash/rinse/disinfect process and the recipe for a Vomit Cleaner Mix that you can use if machine washing isn’t an option for you. The benefit is that most of the products recommended here are natural cleaners which is a plus when you’re working with your child’s car seat.

I sincerely hope that sharing my expertise with all of you has been helpful – really, because there HAS to be a reason why I clean up vomit daily. There just HAS to be.

Want to win your own Mobile Vomit Relief Kit with all of the items that Mie described in this post? I thought you might! All you have to do is share this post on Twitter or Facebook (it's super easy, just use the buttons at the top of the page) and then come back here and leave a comment to let me know you did. The winner will be drawn at random next week. And if its give aways you're looking for, I suggest you head over to Hip Homeschool Moms to see a full list of swag people are giving away! Ready, set, go!

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Mie is providing this kit, I am in no way being compensated for sharing her amazing talents with you, but aren't you so glad I did?

Throw Up

The other day, Stone threw up in the car.  I have three small children, so this shouldn't be a big thing, right?  Would you believe that this is only the second time my children have ever thrown up in a car?  Luck is on my side, people!  The first time was also Stone, but we were in a rental car, in a rental car seat.  No big deal.


This time, we were in my car in one of our brand spanking new car seats. Big deal.


I didn't really know the protocol for throw up in a car, so I called the only expert I know in this department, my friend Mie.  I'm sure she loves that she has mass quantities of experience in this department....


After her initial help to get me situated (and save my seat from the dumpster) she took the time to write a series of two guest posts on how to handle vomit, both the prevention of and the cleaning that comes when prevention fails.  She has some awesome ideas, read on:

As a working mom with an active career and a few educational credentials next to my name, I have plenty to put on my resume under the heading of expertise.  I honestly never planned to have that list include vomit removal.  But it’s there in size 1.5 font, one of the many fluencies I’ve managed to build through my job as mommy, and more specifically as foster mommy.  You see, in the past few months I’ve had a couple children in my home that like to vomit.  A LOT.  One does it because of severe motion sickness – if we drive more than, let’s say 2 miles there’s a high-probability she’ll empty the contents of her stomach.  The other does it as a way to control the situation – if he doesn’t want to do something (sit in time out, stop playing, go to bed, try a new food, eat his dinner vs. play, etc.) he vomits.  It’s been wonderful.  So when my friend Brit asked me to share my expertise with her in a way that doesn’t actually involve vomit removal from MY home (or car, or shirt, etc.) I jumped on the chance.  Any way I can use this talent for good by applying the new-found skill without actually sticking my hands in vomit is a task I’m happily willing to sign up for.  Plus, guest-blogging on one of my favorite sites?  Yes, please and thanks!

Here is a list of best practices we’ve learned that help us manage the mess:

An Ounce of Prevention…

A.  Limit Consumption 60 minutes before travel – that’s easier said than done and not always possible, but it’s something we attempt.  It also doesn’t guarantee a vomit-free car ride, but it seems to help.

2. Boundaries and Choices – This is critical for our kiddo that vomits on command.  I’m guessing that most of you won’t face this challenge because in all the people I’ve talked to about this booger’s unusual behavior I have only found 1 or 2 people that knew of someone who had done it – it seems fairly rare.  Therefore, I won’t go into detail about how we prevent his vomiting, except to say that because it’s a way to control his situation, we provide him choices with strong boundaries.  As an example, rather than telling him “you must eat your oranges to get dessert tonight”  we tell him, especially when we see him start to get “the look”, “You don’t have to eat your oranges if you don’t want to”.  This always makes the look go away, but then we say “but remember, if you choose not to eat your oranges tonight, you will not be able to have any other snacks until breakfast.  If you eat your oranges, you can have snacks”.  Snacks in our home, after dinner, is equivalent to dessert.  Sometimes he chooses to eat and sometimes he doesn’t – either way he gets to choose and we stick to the boundaries.  Of course, knowing some of the main triggers we also try to set boundaries that set him and us up for success which means, as an example, when we serve mandarin oranges we won’t serve him any or we will serve hi a tiny piece and concentrate on the other food on his plate instead.  If you have more questions about this, I’ll be happy to answer but it’s more of a behavioral parenting challenge that happens to result in vomit than a vomit-related challenge.
3. Recognize Immediate Warning Signs – Fevers, malaise, and other “sickly” behavior are the obvious things to look for.  The other thing we’ve learned to watch for – coughing.  Our kiddos always cough before vomiting.  Therefore, when I hear them start coughing (in situations where I think vomiting is probable), I immediately tell them to stop.  When it is a precursor to vomit (i.e., they’re making themselves do it), this is enough to avoid the vomit about 50-75% of the time.  If they’re truly coughing for normal coughing reasons that becomes quickly apparent and I help them with that as necessary.
4. The Vomit Catcher – We have these ones, but these ones look like they might work.  Bibs you ask?  Why yes, they might appear to be bibs but in our family we actually call them vomit-catchers.  Though our motion-sick queen never needs one of these for actual meal-time, we keep these in the car and put one on her anytime we plan to drive further than the edge of our driveway.  That’s a small exaggeration, but not by much.  Finding a vomit-catcher that covers at least to the shoulders and has one of those catchy tray things is critical…this way no matter what direction she’s facing the car seat, her clothes and most importantly the car seat is covered and it catches the mess.  Also, make sure when you put it on it goes OVER the car-seat straps…the straps are the hardest to clean.  You can then pull over, wipe it out, wrap up the mess as you would a diaper, put the vomit-catcher right back on and keep going.  Quick Tip#1:  To make sure the little pouch stays open for when it’s needed, stick a few wipes in it…it will then stay open enough to catch something if needed.  Plus, then your kiddo has a napkin/wipe available if needed to wipe his/her nose as they get old enough.  
5. Assemble a Mobile Vomit Relief Kit:
1. Diaper Wipes
2. Disposable Diaper Sacks
3. Change of Clothes
4. Bottle of Club Soda
5. Bottle of Water
6. Paper Towels or Dry, Bleachable Cloths
7. Baking Soda (shake-able is best)
8. Hand Towel

So, how genius is that vomit catcher idea?  Super smart lady!  Head back tomorrow to get all of Mie's vomit removal tips, as well as enter for a chance to will your own Mobile Vomit Relief Kit.  And don't forget to share this post on Facebook and Twitter using the buttons on the top of your screen.  What mom couldn't use this advice?

Mom and Wife

Looking for a new post? I'm over at Mom and Wife today talking a bit about our adoption story and family. Head over there and check it out!