Babytalk: Phthalates Are Hard! Let's Go Shopping!

Holy crap. A few weeks ago, a group of educated, well-paid, professional women sat in a conference room at the Bonnier Corporation in midtown Manhattan and decided that, in matters of basic science, medicine, and health, they would treat moms like scared, clueless, little children. Then they published the following article about an unambiguously titled study from Pediatrics: the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, "Baby Care Products: Possible Sources of Infant Phthalate Exposure":

Once again, another scare-your-pants-off study has hit the news: Phthalates -- manmade chemicals that have been linked to adult reproductive issues, particularly in boys -- are turning up in baby pee-pee. Worse, researchers think they're coming from those sweet-smelling bath-time toiletries you lather on. But let us be the first to tell you to stop sweating it. For starters, the levels of phthalates found in the babies' urine have not yet been proven harmful (more research needs to be done). And the toiletry products parents used on their kids in the study were not tested themselves, so experts can't be totally sure that's where they came from. Seattle pediatrician and lead researcher on the study, Sheela Sathyanarayana, M.D., says all moms need do to avoid this scenario is use a little less of whatever you love, or switch to fragrance-free products. Because phthalates are used to stabilize fragrances, no scent often means there's no need for them.

Never mind that they're technically right: parents don't need to be scared out of their pants over phthalates in toiletries; they can simply stop using "whatever [they] love"--because babies don't need it in the first place. Or that phthalate-free and fragrance-free are not the same thing, or that the only reason lotion and powder are cited in the study is because the test subjects reported using them.

They're using freakin'--what else can I call it?--babytalk to diss a plainly written study from the freakin' AAP at the same time they're angling to be treated as the go-to experts ["let us be the first to tell you"]. And then they wrap up their advertiser-mitigated, incomplete advice with a pitch for more product: ["A few of our favorite brands:"]

You don't see any problem with this? Then polish up your resume, Babytalk's looking for an Executive Editor. The paysie waysie starts at $120,000/year.

Chemicals in Baby Bath Products? [parenting.com via dt reader debbie]
Baby Care Products: Possible Sources of Infant Phthalate Exposure [pediatrics.aappublications.org]
Posted: 5/9/2008, Executive Editor: Babytalk Magazine. Company: Bonnier Corporation [careerbuilder.com]

Lotta Jansdotter's Stuffed Toys Are Eco-Friendly!

Sure, I thought they were small and cute and pleasantly crafty, and the colors called forth fond memories of the fridges of my childhood. But thanks to the seven [seriously, I counted] mentions of their sustainable eco-friendliness in a one-paragraph post on Inhabitat, I fully expect Lotta Jansdotter's stuffed toys to be the stuffed linen solution to global climate change.

Buying one is like planting an acre of trees in the Amazon. Buy two, and it offsets the greenhouse emissions of your Denali for a whole year. Buy three or more, and Al Gore himself will wheel up in his little cherry picker and replace all your lightbulbs. Then he'll let you take a ride on his recumbent bicycle.

Linen soft toys, all around 5-7 inches, $18 [jansdotter via inhabitat]

Check Out These Vintage Hospital Symbols

E. Christopher Klumb & Associates designed a symbol and signage system for the NYC Health & Hospitals Corporation in 1972. This great poster shows a selection of them, including the various maternity and nursery-related ones in column 4. I think the fourth one down is Fertility Clinic.

The Terrence & Philip doctors on the right are nice, if not reassuring. I would never have guessed the "weave a potholder, plane a cabinet" symbol was for Occupational Therapy, though.

This PDF review of hospital signage has larger images of Klumb's symbols. But there's still no word on who designed the awesome, more abstract symbols which caught Scott's eye. Check out that baby. [tom's flickr via blog.iso50.com]

Niice. More Wall-Mounted Via Toy Boxes, Please

They're pitching it as a bedside table, but I wonder if this wall-mounted Via Toy Box couldn't be paired with others to make a row of them along a wall, or maybe stick them in a checkerboard pattern or something. That's really pretty sweet.

Via Toy Box Bedside Table, with top and wall mount, $116 [viatoybox]
note: Via Toy Box has advertised on Daddy Types, and we bought and still like our cube tower [retail, yo]

A Little Something To Go With Your Vintage Totem Pole

Wow, I've driven through Parowan, Utah a dozen times, and I had no idea that I could get kid-size American Indian caftans handmade of hand-beaded boarskin. Then I wouldn't need to email to get measurements of the "size 2-4"; I could just have the kid try it on.

beaded leather childs dress native american mt.man, $75 buy-it-now, plus $7.95 s/h [packratleather's eBay store]
Previously: vintage Creative Playthings totem pole stacking toy

How! Sweet Creative Playthings Totem Pole [??] On eBay

Sure, there's a fine-looking Creative Playthings dollhouse on eBay at the moment, complete with a family of squatter dolls, who at least haven't tossed out the matchy [if not all matching] furniture. But who cares when there's a freakin' Creative Playthings totem pole for sale?

It's a 6-piece, 17-in. wood stacking puzzle, a classic of the Indian Modernist movement, had there been such a thing. And it looks early; there were certainly no totem poles in the mid-1960's catalogues I've seen.

And while you're all staring at the totem pole, someone can grab that house for a tasty, subprime price.

Creative Playthings Doll House and Accessories NR, current bid: $49.95+ $22 s/h, auction ends May 12 [ebay]
VINTAGE CREATIVE PLAYTHINGS PRINCETON WOODEN TOTEM POLE, current bid: $52.75+12.25 s/h, auction ends May 13 [ebay]

Virginia Is For Kid Lovers

"No sir, officer. I'm not drunk. I was just laughing at the tag on the car in front of me, and she got away from me..."

[photobasement via jalopnik

Some Parenting Is Local

I don't know if it's a trend, but I do seem to be hearing more these days about very local parenting blogs, sites, and communities being sponsored by the hometown paper.

I just got a tip about The Miami Herald's new "Guide for South Florida Parents," which is called--what else?--Moms Miami. Which is just like The San Francisco Chronicle's new all-things-parenting channel, Bay Area Moms [Oh, don't cry! Dads are welcome!] I haven't been, but I'm very interested to see The Santa Cruz Weekly Journal's parenting portal, Breastfeeding Attachment Parents Who Gave Birth At Home [But Don't Worry, All Are Welcome!]

But not every local media parenting site automatically assumes "parent" equals "mom. Raising Bakersfield is sponsored by The Bakersfield Californian. I suspect their inclusiveness is due in large part to the involvement of longtime dadblogger--and Time Magazine at-home dad swimsuit model--Jason Sperber, who runs the paper's community initiatives. And the Seattle Press-Intelligencer dodged a bullet with their MomSeattle.com site, by launching DadSeattle.com alongside it. [In that case, it's probably the P-I's crack reporter Paul Nyhan, who covers kid, family and parent issues for the paper while also publishing a blog, Working Dad , who deserves a lot of credit for the save.]

Newspapers' parent blogs can range from Big Thoughts [like the Washington Post's On Balance, which opened as a frontline in the Mommy Wars before Rebel Dad Brian Reid muscled in and saved it] to Big Tent & Practical [like the SF Chron's excellent, very dad-friendly The Poop], to the personal [like DaddyFiles, which was just launched by Aaron Gouvela, a brand new dad who's also a reporter at the Cape Cod Times, and like Jeremy Olshan's Dawn of The Dad, where the NY Post reporter chronicled their various fertility treatments (they had twins, by the way, mazeltov!)]

What do you find useful and useless in a local parenting site? If your local paper has a great example of a useful, interesting parent site, especially if they seem to be even slightly aware of the existence of dads, please share it below. Or if there's an independently awesome local parenting site you like, give them a plug, too. Of course, hopeless gender stereotypes are welcome, too, for entertainment purposes only.

Hey! Modernist Furniture Made By A Mom!

DT reader Jason spotted this article in the LA Times today. Apparently, there's a mom in town who taught herself woodworking so she could make her own modernist-style furniture for her kids' rooms.

So she built some prototypes for family and friends and then created a website to show them, "just so I could get into some stores," says [Kiersten] Hathcock in her garage workshop in L.A. To her surprise, she began receiving inquiries from as far away as Italy, France and London. Her plywood toy boxes such as Bertie Box, $250, shown here, began selling. Now she's having a hard time keeping up with production. "I'm booked through July."

The Bertie Box has a freeform cutout lid in the shape of a bird that adds a nice touch of color. No word in the article what the prototypes looked like. She calls her little at-home business Mod Mom Furniture.

Hey! Design Public, which has advertised previously on Daddy Types, just started selling ModMom Furniture last month. They have a Q&A with ModMom on their blog:

What I wasn’t prepared for was the online design world somehow finding my unfindable website. I was BLOWN AWAY by the power of the internet and the design blogs. Frankly, it hadn’t even dawned on me that someone in NYC would be interested in what I was building.

Mod Mom Furniture: Children's furniture made by a mom [latimes]

Removed: The Last Two Reasons For Not Getting A Bugaboo

Did you not get a Bugaboo because you're too chintzy or because you're not chintzy enough? Well, Bugabooyeah, my friend! Today is your lucky day!

Twilite Moon is collecting information on people who like free stuff, and they will trade your demographic data for a chance to win a $2,500 pile of baby gear that includes a Bugaboo Cameleon!

And you can believe Becky Cohen of Becky's Baby Liners when she says, "A Frog without a 3-inch ruffle is like a mule without a spinning wheel!"

Twilite Moon's Amazing May Giveaway, ends 5/31/08 [twilitemoon via dt reader dt]
Becky's Baby Liners by Becky Cohen, price no object [bubbleshare]

Virginia Is For Lovers, Staten Island Is For Wives

Congratulations to Congressman Vito Fossella, Republican [surprised?] of Staten Island, on the birth of his daughter. Three years ago. To his mistress. Who bailed him out of a Virginia jail over the weekend after his arrest for drunk driving. Mrs Fossella and the congressman's three other kids live in Staten Island.

In a statement released to the AP today, Fossella said he was "truly sorry' for the pain he has caused his loved ones [whichever state they may live in.]

NY congressman Fossella admits fathering child from affair [ap via talkingpointsmemo]

Little Red Stuga Keeps Making Toy Versions Of Landscape

If you were wondering what features of the Swedish landscape the design team at Little Red Stuga has been turning into kid-sized play furniture lately, now you know: a folding screen house with mirrors on one side; and a cold-foam coated shrub and cloud. Oh, and Kebnekaise, the country's tallest mountain, which has been faithfully rendered, snowcap and all, as a knitted beanbag chair.

Which was re-cast in this YouTube video as Kiirunavaara, the iron ore-filled mountain looming over Kiruna, Sweden's northernmost city. The video tells the story of how a century of mining has weakened the ground under Kiruna's city center, and so the whole city will be moved 2.5 miles away to avoid sinking into the ground.

No word on production decisions, launch dates, prices, or stores. But who can be bothered with boring details like that when just being Little Red Stuga is so much fun?

Bucklo & Hus prototypes, with more photos [fine little day]
Up coming news! Kebnekaise (under development) [littleredstuga.se]
Kiruna video and a bit of background on the move from Reuters [youtube, reuters]

Previously: Little Red Stuga folding flower chair? Baby you're much too cute

DTQ: What Do You Think Of Your Dozuki?

So I'm still kicking around the idea of building a dining table using a design by Enzo Mari [see some longwinded discussion of it here.] It's supposed to be made out of plain, unfinished pine lumber, which you can have cut to order by your local hardwareman. I'm thinking of something a little more offbeat, which means I will probably need to cut the wood to size myself. In the city, with no room for powertools or tablesaws.

Besides, after watching the video of some Parisian woodworker making a Mari table with a Japanese backsaw known as a dozuki, [Generally, Japanese backsaws are called nokogiri; dozuki is the kind that has teeth on just one side, and a reinforcing steel strip on the other.], I really want one. I think. Their appeal is their extreme thinness, made possible because they cut on the pull stroke, not the push, like Western handsaws.

Does anyone have one? Have you used one? How are they? Anything to recommend or to avoid? If I'm mostly going to be cutting lengths of lumber [1-2" thick, tops], do I need to make sure to get a crosscutting blade? Or should I just find someone with a workshop and an empty stomach?

above: A mid-range, 9-in. Takumi Dozuki Japanese handsaw, $37 at Amazon [amazon]
Nokogiri shop talk at Daiku Dojo, a Japanese-style woodworking group [daikudojo.com]

Now That's Vitalian! Sweet Nesting Dollhouse By Kaefer

Kaefer is German for "beetle," and this sleek, alderwood dollhouse by the toymaker Kaefer is German for, "You can't go wrong by taking a cue from Antonio Vitali." If only it was a little bigger than six inches--no, you know what, that's a fine, playable size.

All-in-one Dollhouse by Kaefer, in natural finish or rainbow stain, $50 in the rather full "New Arrivals" section of The Wooden Wagon [thewoodenwagon.com, thanks dt reader af]

Yo Gabba Gabba!: It's What The Kids Are Watching These Days. WHEN THEY'RE HIGH.

This just in: ABC News reports that college students smoke pot. And watch Yo Gabba Gabba.

Which is funny, because I remember when it was launched, some raver described it as the Teletubbies with the Ecstasy baked right in. But now they're calling it "Bonanza meets Sesame Street." Which is SO DEEP!

On a related note, here is a version of Nick Cross's YGG "Kites Are Fun" animation with the Parallelograms' cover version of the song swapped out with The Free Design's original.

On another related note: Who's smoking what here? YGG! got totally stiffed on the Daytime Emmy nominations. No outstanding children's animation, no outstanding song, no outstanding directing, no outstanding pre-school or children's series, no outstanding performer? Just a single nod for outstanding costume, which freakin' Barney was even nominated for? That dinosaur hasn't changed his look in like 15 years!

"ABC News: Nickelodeon Show for Kids or Stoners?" [abcnews via gawker]
Coincidence? Daytime Emmy Awards To Be Telecast June 20, 2008 On ABC [emmyonline.org]