Seventh Generation: BTS Blowout {Giveaway}

With Back to School time upon us there is one thing I worry about year after year more than anything else…my children getting sick!  It seems that no matter what I do or how much I try to teach them the dos and don’t of germ control I end up visiting the doctor’s office as often I do the grocery store during the school year.

Did you know that nearly 22 million days of school are missed each year because of the common cold and the flu (CDC)?  Or that there are as many as 2.7 million bacteria found per square inch on common school supplies (NSF International)?  That kind of makes the plea of “Don’t share your pencils” much more urgent!  This school year Seventh Generation is sharing tips from best-selling author and pediatrician, Dr. Alan Greene, to help parents protect their child’s health during back-to-school season.  Dr. Greene gives the following precautions:

Optimize the immune system

• Reap the benefits of probiotics like those found in yogurt. A recent study showed that children who received enough probiotics daily throughout the cold and flu season had a significant reduction in the number of illnesses they had and, when they did get sick, the symptoms were both milder and didn't last as long.
• Be sure your child is getting plenty of vitamin D from the sun, from food, or from a supplement.
• Build a strong foundation. Good food, good sleep, and good physical activity all help the immune system to flourish.

Be wise about reducing unnecessary exposure to harmful germs

• Teach children the key times to clean their hands in the classroom. The most important times include after sneezing, coughing or using the restroom, upon leaving "high-risk" places (recess, naptime, play stations) and before meals or snacks.
• Sixty percent of teachers surveyed said that they request that parents donate disinfecting wipes to the classroom. Seventh Generation’s disinfecting wipes kill 99.99% of germs* naturally using the active ingredient thyme, a component of thyme oil which is derived from the herb thyme.
• Stress the importance of not touching their eyes, nose or mouth. Germs are often spread when a person touches something that is contaminated with germs and then touches his or her eyes, nose, or mouth.
• Demonstrate to your children how to cover their mouth and nose for every cough and sneeze. This simple maneuver has spectacular results in decreasing the spread of viruses and bacteria floating about the room, waiting to be inhaled.

Check out the video below about the history of germs! 


Through MyBlogSpark I received a Seventh Generation gift pack to review.  I’ve never used Seventh Generation prior  to this review, but I had heard so many great things about both the company and their products from other bloggers and friends.  And I also think it’s only right that I admit that I have an obsession with sanitizing everything, hey with babies in the house keeping them from being exposed to germs is very important to me.  I was sent several products from Seventh Generation:  2 canisters of Seventh Generation disinfecting wipes, disinfecting multi-surface cleaner, facial tissue, and paper towels so I had plenty of cleaning to do (and I couldn’t wait)!  One of the things I love most about Seventh Generation is their commitment to inspiring conscious consumption!  I love that Seventh Generation is pushing to make the world more conscious of the decisions we make!

Since I strongly feel that honestly is the best policy (especially where review bloggers are concerned) I have to say that I do not love the scent of the Seventh Generation products.  That being said I hate the smell of bleach too!  Aside from the smell I love everything about the products that I reviewed!  It may sound strange but it just felt like my house was cleaner after using the Seventh Generation products—and I live for that feeling!  The best part about using the Seventh Generation products though is that I feel like I’m giving my children a fighting chance against the germs and illnesses that will surely plague their (and many other) school this year!

How would you like to win a Seventh Generation prize pack just in time for Back to School?  Well thanks to MyBlogSpark and Seventh Generation you can!  One Misadventures in Baby Raising reader will win the Seventh Generation Prize Pack shown below!

Win it:  Mandatory Entry!

Leave a comment on this post sharing your tips for keeping your kids healthy and germ-free!  Super Duper Simple, but MANDATORY!  

Extra Entries:  Please leave separate comments for each!

Follow the craziness that is MIBR via Email, RSS, or GFC:  2 extra entries each

Follow Me on Networked Blogs:  2 extra entries

“Like” MIBR on Facebook:  2 extra entries

Comment on one of the Discussions on the MIBR Facebook Page:  2 extra entries per comment

Share this giveaway on Facebook:  2x per day per length of

“Like Seventh Generation on Facebook:  2 extra entries

Follow MIBR on Twitter:  2 extra entries

Tweet this giveaway on Twitter (please include @Allie_23 in your tweets) Copy and Paste the following tweet:  2x per day per length of giveaway

Keep your kids germ-free this school year with @SeventhGen-WIN a Seventh Generation Prize Pack @Allie_23 http://tinyurl.com/276tq2z

Follow Seventh Generation on Twitter:  2 extra entries

Grab our Back to School Blowout button:  2 extra entries

Stumble this giveaway:  3 extra entries

Enter any MIBR giveaway:  1 extra entry per additional comment/entry

Blog about this giveaway:  5 extra entries

This giveaway ends on Friday August 27, 2010 at 11:59 PM EST.  One winner will be chosen via Random.org and announced in a separate winner post.  Winner will have 48 hours to contact me and claim his prize, failure to do so will result in winner forfeiting his prize and me choosing a new winner.

*Seventh Generation product, gift pack, and additional gift pack to give away provided by Seventh Generation through MyBlogSpark.)*

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"Fun in the Sun" Summer Blog party Day 2...Green Toys!*CLOSED*

So it's day 2 of our Fun in the Sun Summer Blog party! Yesterday was the Julbo USA giveaway so if you missed it make sure you check it out...their glasses are awesome!

In case you've missed it I have a son and my son is such a manly little boy! I swear he walks with a strut and insists on wearing a hat like his dad, and don't even get me started on his toys; his favorite at the moment is his tool set. Since I do try to be more conscious about the environment I am always on the lookout for products for my children that are eco-friendly and when I came across Green Toys I became a huge fan of their toys!

Green Toys makes a great line of classic children's toys constructed of recycled plastic milk jugs and other environmentally friendly materials. The mission of green toys is to provide environmentally friendly alternatives to traditional plastic toys while doing their part to preserve the earth! Green Toys are not only made environmentally friendly they are also made to be so much more safe for our children than traditional plastic toys (no BPA, phthalates, or lead to worry about). Green Toys are also packaged in recycled (and recyclable) corrugated cardboard. Some of the toys in their line include a tea set, indoor gardening kit, recycling truck, sand play set, and jump ropes to name a few.

We received the Green Toys Tool Set for review and I have to admit I was impressed with it before I ever took it our of the package! First of all I have to say that this tool set is hands down the best made plastic tool set I have ever seen! I have been looking for a tool set for my son for months now and the tool sets that I've seen are cheaply made, easily broken, and pale in comparison to Green Toys Tool Set...seriously this set was impeccable! The tools are all constructed of one piece of plastic making breaking them nearly impossible, and they are also solid which makes a huge difference in the longevity of a product, especially a child's toy! The Tool Set is a 15 piece set that includes a tool box, 2 screwdrivers, hammer, saw, pliers, 2 two-hole connectors, wrench, 2 nails, 2 bolts, and 2 nuts!

(Gaige fixing something with his wrench)

Buy it!!! Green Toys can be purchased from a variety of online retailers as well as certain retail stores.

The amazing people at Green Toys are offering one of my great readers their very own Tool Set (just like the one Gaige received to review)...can you say awesome?

Win it!!! To be entered into this giveaway please go over to Green Toys and come back and leave a comment on this post telling me which toy is your favorite! This is mandatory and must be done before any extra entries count!

Extra Entries!!! Please be sure to leave separate comments for each extra entry! If you posted our "Fun in the Sun" button before June 22 then you get 5 extra entries into this giveaway and if you blogged about our "Fun in the Sun" summer blog party you earned yourself 10 extra entries into this giveaway!

2. Keep up with my Misadventures via my feed, email, or following on Blogger...2 extra entries!

3. Grab our "Fun in the Sun" button...2 extra entries!

4. Grab my Misadventures in Baby Raising button...2 extra entries!

5. Blog about this giveaway with links to this post as well as Green Toys...4 extra entries!

6. Follow me on Twitter and Tweet this giveaway...1 Tweet Per Day!

7. Become a friend of Misadventurous Mommy (Allison Proffitt) on Facebook...2 extra entries!

Giveaway ends on Tuesday July 7, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. EDT. One winner will be chosen via Random.org and posted in a winners post!

GOOD LUCK!!!!

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Flame Disk review

Summertime means one thing to me...grilling! I love to grill, but I am terrified of starting a fire with charcoal or lighting our gas grill. This means that I have to depend on my fiance to light the grill for me which I hate.

When I was given the opportunity to review the Flame Disk I was super excited because it meant I would finally be able to light the grill and be grill master again...yay! The Flame Disk is a charcoal alternative which uses solid ethanol grill fuel in place of charcoal. The Flame Disk is a safe, fast, and eco-friendly alternative to traditional fuels. It's super easy to light and cooks for about 40 minutes. The taste is actually very close to charcoal thanks to the smoker plate which creates that flame grilled taste we all love.

I was actually quite impressed with how well the Flame Disk performed! It was very easy to light, strike one of the matches that are provided and drop it onto the Flame Disk and the disk does the rest. I was skeptical at first at the Flame Disk's ability to get hot enough and stay hot enough to cook a steak but very quickly realized that my worries were unfounded because it did indeed get hot and it stayed hot enough to cook a one inch steak to well done!

While I tested the Flame Disk at home I think the Flame Disk would make more sense for grilling at the lake, at the campground, or even tailgating at a football game. The price while very reasonable (at $14.99 for 3) is a little too steep (at least for me) to purchase on a regular basis and as much as we grill it really would end up costing far more than the alternative fuels. I would however absolutely purchase the Flame Disk in place of charcoal on every single camping trip I take it's that convenient!

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ECOZOO backpack review

If there is one thing my son loves it's backpacks (I have Dora and Diego to thank for that). He tries all the time to carry Taylor and Savanna's backpacks around but to no avail and I see the sad look in his eyes every single time he tries and fails to pick them up. I've looked into buying him his own backpack but most of the ones I've come across are either plastic (yuck) or they are way too big for him.

I found out about ecogear when I was asked to review one of the backpacks in their new kids line called ECOZOO. ecogear offers an array of Eco-friendly bags in many different styles in colors to fit anyone's taste.

We received the ECOZOO Puppy Backpack to review. As soon as I took the backpack out of the package my son went crazy screaming, "Backpack. Backpack!" I think he liked it. I liked the fact that the backpack wasn't too big or heavy for him. I swear to you he's wore that backpack every single day since it arrived in the mail. Let me give you a little information about the product.

• ECOZOO backpacks are constructed of organic cotton canvas.
• They have padded adjustable shoulder straps and they actually adjusted to fit my son (he's 2) and my middle daughter (she's 7)
• ECOZOO backpacks are free of toxic dyes.
• The backpacks are made using sustainable wood and organically grown accessories.

The ECOZOO line of backpacks come in 4 different animals, Panda, Puppy,Pig, and Elephant. They are available at ecogear.com and sell for $29.99.

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BabyGanics Review

I've mentioned in the past that I'm not all that "green" but I have been trying. Having children totally changes your awareness of things that you never really worried about before you become a parent. As soon as I became a mother I developed OCD like tendencies when it came to two things; 1. My house being clean...it was an obsession and it had to be spotless and sparkling all the time. 2. Not using anything toxic or not safe for babies in my house. I used to freak out when my husband would come home from work smelling even slightly suspicious. Though some things have changed since then my obsession with keeping my house clean and my babies safe has not.

When I was asked to review the BabyGanics line of cleaning products I immediately said yes because after doing some research on the products I realized that these were exactly what I needed to be using in my home. BabyGanics was founded by two "compulsive, clean freaks" and there products are not only safe for the environment they are also safe to use around kids and pets!
I received the BabyGanics Essentials kit which includes; The Grime Fighter all purpose cleaner, Dish Dazzler foaming dish and bottle soap, Breathin Easy Air Freshener in Lavender, The Grime Fighter all purpose wipes, and The Germinator foaming hand sanitizer. I have to admit that I was skeptical at first about how well these products would work (because for some reason people seem to equate the smell after cleaning (which are the chemicals people) with clean and these products (except for the air freshener) were fragrance free.

The first of the BabyGanics products I tried was the Grime Fighter all purpose cleaner and I used it everywhere; I was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked and amazed that it got the job done as well as the leading cleaners without all of the chemicals. I was also very impressed with the hand sanitizer, there are so many times that I want to put hand sanitizer on my sons hands (he is a boy after all and he gets into quite a bit of stuff that he shouldn't) but I refuse because all of the alcohol in the hand sanitizer scares the crap out of me. BabyGanics hand sanitizer is alcohol free and it has been a Godsend in our house. The product I was most impressed with though was the Dish Dazzler bottle soap; my daughter's formula is a hypoallergenic blend and its quite possibly the most revolting thing I've ever seen put into a baby bottle. The formula separates within the first 30 minutes of mixing it turning it into a stinking oily mess that it very hard to get clean. The first bottle I cleaned with the Dish Dazzler soap I was amazed...not only did it get rid of the oily residue that my normal brand of dish detergent usually leaves behind but it also got rid of the horrible smell that seems to never leave her bottles. Honestly I would pay any price to get that nasty stuff out of her bottles and this stuff worked... kind of makes me wonder why in the world I was soaking her bottles in the other stuff all of this time with no results...all those chemicals and they still couldn't get the job done like the Dish Dazzler!

If you're looking for cleaning products that are safe for your family and are also earth friendly then BabyGanics just might be it, they have an entire line of cleaning products from laundry detergent to floor cleaner. Whatever your cleaning needs BabyGanics has you covered!

Provided for review by Southard Communications on behalf of BabyGanics.

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