Jul 24 2014

Stokke Flexi Bath Review.

Posted on July 24, 2014 by admin

Stokke has garnered quite the following from well-heeled British mummies. Their products, particularly the Xplory and Tripp Trapp have taken on cult-status with parents proudly tweeting and instagramming box shots. We’ve all come to expect that their products will trump all high street equivalents. So when I was invited to road test the Stokke Flexi Bath (the foldable baby bath) I thought I’d give it whirl.

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My regular baby bath of choice is the Acqua Two Stage Ergo Bath with integrated neck and back support for newborns. It’s robust, gives you added peace of mind, you don’t need to purchase additional inserts, and its been excellent for both Dexter and Heidi as a first-stage baby bath. My only issue with it, and I really mean only, is its size. Although its width is really nice and roomy for baby, its a double-edged sword as it makes it a real faff to store. It doesn’t fit in standard baths and is oval-shaped so you can’t lean it against a wall.

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The foldable element of the Stokke Flexi Bath therefore really appeals. There’s no denying this bad boy folds well. It stows away nicely in your bathroom cabinet and is equally great for taking away on holiday or weekends away. It’s incredibly lightweight and fits perfectly in a suitcase or your hand luggage. This is not to be downplayed - you have no idea how frustrating it is to trip over our mammoth baby bath everyday. We’ve had some pretty significant accidents.

Another great feature is its non slip rubber base which makes it the perfect option for tiled or laminate floor, and also for popping in an unfilled bath.

It’s also worth pointing out its eco-credentials. The Stokke Flexi Bath is made from soft plastic without any harmful materials - even the packaging is made from recycled paper.

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It’s also much sexier than our bath! The two tone pink and grey looks uber stylish and far more exciting than conventional baby baths.

The product specification states it’s suitable from birth to four years but I’m not quite sure I’d agree with this. When Dexter was able to sit up confidently, we popped him in a bath seat in the bath with us. At two years old we’ve now ditched the bath seat and he splashes around contently with me. If we popped him in the Stokke he’d kick up a fuss as he’d feel too constricted.

Price-wise, the Stokke weighs in at £35 RRP - I have however found it on sale at Peppermint at £31. Newborn inserts will set you back a further £12-15. Would I pay this for it? Possibly. It’s a tough question. I really appreciate the folding mechanism and can this as a really durable and practical solution for the style-conscious or frequent traveler.

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But is the foldable option enough for me to ditch the Acqua Two Stage Ergo Bath? In short, no.

Surprised? So am I!

I just can’t recommend the integrated neck and back support of my current bath enough.

I just think we’ve struck gold with the bath we already use, and at £22.80 (sale price) at Mamas and Papas it’s cheaper too.

That said, I also regularly bath with Heidi and would have loved an option that can make this easier. Unfortunately, the Stokke baby bath isn’t an option for this as it’s so lightweight it’ll float in the bath making it dangerous for baby. Perhaps therefore in hindsight, the Stokke Flexi Bath just isn’t the right choice for us - but will be for others…

To find out more, head to www.stokke.com, or join the tribe on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram.

Don’t hate me Stokke!!!! I still love your Tripp Trapp!!!

I have been sent a free baby bath for this Stokke Flexi Bath review .

Jul 24 2014

Managing your health with PowHealth.com - Perfect for busy mums!

Posted on July 24, 2014 by admin

My obsession with social media knows no bounds. I used to work in social marketing, then social recruitment and now I’m a professional blogger. I’m a regular reader of Tech Crunch and have countless apps on my iPhone to help me organise this chaotic life of mine. Therefore, when I was recently contacted about the launch of new social media health site PowHealth.com, I couldn’t resist a sneak peek.

This is what piqued my interest…

Do you have drawers full of paperwork, test results and appointment cards?

Are you always running to find the ‘red book’ to track your child’s health?

Do you forget some of your child’s symptoms in the panic of seeing the doctor?

Or do you just want to connect with someone quickly to get some advice?

Yep, yep, yep and yep. I find tracking appointments, monitoring minor illnesses and keeping on top of the children’s development a constant challenge. As our little family has grown, it feels like we live at the doctors, even when we’re not ill! There’s family planning, PND check-ups and smoking cessation for mummy, constant man-flu and allergies for Craigy, immunisations for Heidi and a variety of development checks and specialist appointments for the little man.

My kitchen is currently a homage to post-its and posterised notes to Craig about some appointment or another. Yet still we manage to miss appointments with increasing regularity.

With this in mind, PowHealth.com is really intriguing. It promises to help busy parents manage all their health needs in one place, helping them track their family’s general wellness as well as long term health conditions. With 60% of us in the UK having some form of long-term condition there’s certainly a demand for this kind of application.

Pow Health is a social media network to help you manage your health records and monitor your symptoms and progress, whether you’re doing it for yourself or your children. Parents often turn to each other for advice and Pow Health allows you to not only broaden your network generally but to focus on very specific communities who are in similar situations. Our aim is to bring the experts and the patients together in one place to start building better communications. Ifty Ahmed, CEO and Founder of PowHealth.com

This is a seriously smart website. Free to join yet rammed with clever and intuitive features.

When you join, you’re invited to fill in some basic profile information, join relevant communities, and record any conditions you are experiencing. So far, there are over 11,000 conditions currently listed on PowHealth.com, with more added as and when new users join. Against each condition you can then document any symptoms and track any medications - strict privacy settings will ensure this information is not accessible to others using the site.

Similarly you can input any allergies and appointments of your own and any dependents (i.e. your family). There are also daily trackers (sliders) to track your mood, any pain and a variety of other health indicators. The site then charts your health day-by-day so you can share this with your GP or monitor your emotional and physical wellbeing for yourself. On this same chart, you can add in events such as dosage changes, or cessation of treatment so you can see if there’s a notable change in your mood, pain levels etc.

These trackers can also be used to set personal goals – from child growth trackers, weight loss and calorific intake comparisons to tracking glucose and cholesterol levels. You can even record how much screen-time your children are indulging in. With Slimming World and Weight Watchers boasting huge successes due to regular interaction with other members, PowHealth.com might actually end up saving you a few quid if you’re trying to get beach-ready for summer.

Best of all, you control what you share. Your data is encrypted and held securely at a state-of-the-art data centre. However, if you do want to share your experience, seek guidance, or simply connect with others who share your goals or condition, you can join one of countless communities. There are over 400 communities covering lifestyle themes, such as women’s health, new mums, fitness & exercise; as well as condition-specific communities, such as; diabetes, high cholesterol and asthma.

These forums need padding out, but this will come as more of us join. I like how they’ve been designed with users in mind so you can instantly search for new topics or see what is trending in one-click. You’ll also get email notifications when new topics are posted, or someone has contributed to a discussion you are following. It’s all very slick.

The site aims to bring about a greater engagement with your health and that of your family. Close monitoring of your health promotes greater proactivity and a better prognosis for most medical conditions. Collectively harnessing shared experiences via the forums also allows for users to follow other people’s management of a similar condition, leading to greater awareness and making you feel better supported.

Soon you’ll also be able to connect popular apps and devices too, so you have all your information in one place and can track your health whilst out and about.

We are becoming increasingly health conscious, but at the same time our lifestyles are busier, more demanding and more cluttered in every respect, especially if you’re a parent. Pow Health was designed to help streamline anything related to health in people’s lives… Lots of people are sharing intimate health information on Facebook, though many won’t – by offering an anonymous environment which feels very social, just like Facebook, we hope people can engage with one another more effectively. Ifty Ahmed, CEO and Founder of Pow Health

Watch this short video to find out more:

Regular comment and discussion is also available via Facebook and Twitter. If you’re ready to join the revolution, head to www.powhealth.com!

All quotes provided by the genius behind PowHealth.com:

Ifty Ahmed

Jul 21 2014

The Lego Movie Review - Now Available on TalkTalk

Posted on July 21, 2014 by admin

Popcorn? Check.

Small child? Check.

One adult (pretending to be disgruntled)? Check.

I guess this makes us ready to settle down and watch a new movie on TalkTalk Box Office. Not just any movie either. It’s the block-buster that is The Lego Movie!

Yep, the same day that the movie goes to DVD, TalkTalk are making it available for all its customers - grown-ups and kiddies alike. At just £4 for rental (watch as many times as you like for 48 hours) it saves you trekking to HMV with an over-excited toddler in tow.

Here’s what we made of it!

I loved it. I’m usually the animation-grinch (Disney makes me break out in a cold sweat), but this was full of subtle adult humour, and cute little nods to my own childhood and fighting over bricks with my brother. I loved little details such as Wyldstyle’s movable hair-do, and the fact that Will Ferrell’s character (President Business) really looks like him. Emmet’s early shower scene where he was pelted with plastic bubbles also had me sniggering.

All this was, of course, lost on Dexie. The only film he’s ever managed to sit through without wandering off to cause chaos and destruction was Toy Story 3. He’s just not ready for films yet. Pulling out wires, hitting his baby sister and pulling off his nappy and peeing on the carpet is just too appealing. It was a little tricky to follow too and I’d say it’s definitely more suitable for the 5+ crew.

The plot is fast-paced. It opens with Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman) a wizard and “master builder”, who is blinded by Lord Business (Will Ferrell) having failed to protect a ‘secret weapon’. Before Vitruvius is kicked into the abyss by Business, he foretells of a hero, the “Special” who will save the Lego Universe from the eternal stagnation that Lord Business will inflict upon them.

We see this stasis for ourselves as the film kicks into action some 8.5 years later. It takes the form of unrestrained chirpiness which takes on a positively incendiary quality. The Lego kingdom follows a set of rules dictated by Lord Business, characterised perfectly by the irritatingly upbeat theme tune “Everything is Awesome”. All of the characters are seemingly unaware that they are, in fact, living in an imposed form of hell.

The unwitting hero is ordinary Lego construction worker Emmet (voiced by little-known Chris Pratt), who is thought to be the prophesied “Special”. The film follows his epic journey to defeat Lord Business and bring autonomy back to the universe. It’s littered with pop culture references to enthuse young and old alike, from Star Wars, to Long of the Rings, to Harry Potter. There’s also an all-star cast of voices including Elizabeth Banks, Morgan Freeman and Jonah Hill.

I recommend it to anyone who has ever played with Lego. You’ll be surprised just how relevant this movie feels. Maybe not Mega Blox though, hey Dexter?

The Lego Movie Review has been written as part of a series of posts in conjunction with TalkTalk. We are trialling the tv, phone and broadband package for 18 months (free of charge in exchange for our thoughts).