Living with a Picky Eater

It's a phase most children go through and, with tastebuds changing daily, it's often their refusal to eat previously enjoyed foods that drives parents insane the most.

I have no advice, I'm still working my way through this phase with a toddler that only reliably only eats PN&J on 50/50 bread, sausages, chicken goujons or fish fingers (but only batter).

Instead I'm going to mourn the lost art of the packed lunch.

Before having A I'd been eagerly looking forward to the chance to make his lunches, envisoning lovely picnics with pinterest worth meals.

Instead I got this:

Beige.

There's no other way to phrase it really.

In comparison this is mine

Honestly, which would you rather eat?

I really can't wait until this phase ends.

Let's Talk about Aunt Flo

It sounds pretty gross to the modern ear but until fairly recently this was how all women dealt with their period. Thankfully the modern era has improved this area as well and there are many benefits to swapping to reusables. Many women report these benefits to be:

• Shorter periods
• Less pain
• Less PMT/PMS
• No or less smell
• Cheaper
• "cleaner"
• Less irritating
• Cloth Sanitary Towels/pads
• Cups
• Sea Sponges

and probably more than this blogger knows of.

Not all women get all of these benefits but, anecdotally, it seems many do.
Options for reusable sanitation can be as simple or as complicated, cheap or expensive as you like. Products include:

Like many it was cloth nappies that turned me onto other cloth products. I had my child in 2014 and decided to cloth nappy for both economic and environmental reasons - we were losing a second income and the cost savings just made sense. While pregnant I had the inevitable leaks while coughing, sneezing etc and I took to wearing panty liners. Hating the cost of these slim items I figured there must be a better way and asked in Ravelry.com, a knitting forum, I was pointed towards Earthwise Girls and promptly purchased a handful of liners. This was life changing, they were actually prettier than the pants I put them in and so I started looking further afield.

As a novice seamstress I decided to make my own and 3 years later I'm still using them. The pattern I used is from Amy Nix, who also has some fantastic youtube videos that show you, step by step, how to make them. Lunawolf  is also very popular but most facebook groups have free templates to use.
As you can imagine there is a facebook group for both making and buying pads so I'm going to post a few links below:

Facebook Groups:

• Sewing Cloth Menstrual Pads
• Menstrual Cups Worldwide
• WAHMs who make CSP Cloth sanitary protection sales group UK
• Amy Nix Cloth & Cups YT Group

Articles

• 'Fluffy vagina blankets': How reusable sanitary pads became a period phenomenon
• I used reusable sanitary towels and I liked it (and you should too

DIY Sources

• Everything you need to know about making your own
• Luna Wolf

YouTube

• Amy Nix's Channel
• Precious Stars - perfect for reviews, tips etc.