Dear Mrs. Pangilinan,
I’m so happy that there are mothers out there who show that being a mother is a full-time job and that raising children may be the most important and fulfilling job a woman can have (aside from being a wife).
I’m Ella, by the way, mother of a one-year-three-month-old boy who’s now toddling around the house. I’m also a work-at-home mom, so with my boy toddling about and managing my small business, I really have my work cut out for me.
My home business is also an offshoot of my focus on mothering. (I used to be a career woman and law student. But I decided to stay at home with my son and this decision has proven to be the best for my soul). I’m into babywearing, I make ring slings. I’m sure you’ve heard about it in one of your birthing classes since I know you’re into informed parenting. A ring sling is just another type of baby sling. My slings, the R’ Jellybean Slings, though are made for the Filipino babywearer because the fabric is light and breathable. But also very sturdy. (My husband even carried me in it for 15 minutes).
The rings I use are made specifically for ring slings so are equally strong. Babywearing is my advocacy. I really believe that if babies form a secure attachment with their parents early on by being carried, hugged, and cuddled when young, they will become secure and independent adults.
Plus being carried in a sling helps a child be incorporated into day-to-day activities, learning from seeing, smelling, touching, hearing, and feeling much like how native Filipino children learn how to fit into society.
I hope that I could share with you this advocacy by talking more about my slings, maybe in person, or you can visit my site at www.rjellybeanslings.com.
Ella Ampongan
My husband and I have two kids, one a precocious 4.7-year-old and a younger one who’s turning one in a few weeks. We practice attachment parenting, breastfeeding, co-sleeping, non-violent communication (sigh, but sometimes, if my voice isn’t loud enough, our elder boy doesn’t hear me).
Recently, a friend, who parents the same way we do, and I got together to look into producing better cloth diapers. We’ve found the right fabric and design. The cloth diapers are leakproof and stay dry. We call them Tushy Wushy. They come in different sizes and are available in red, yellow, blue and army green.
We feel it’s better to use cloth diapers because:
1) It’s economical.
2) It’s healthier. According to the Journal of Pediatrics, 54 percent of one-month-old babies using disposable diapers had rashes. Plus cloth diapers don’t contain toxic chemicals like sodium polyacrylate (the chemical added in powder form to the inner pad of a disposable, that makes it super-absorbent), dioxin (the chemical by-product of the paper-bleaching process, using chlorine gas, in the manufacture of diapers), tributyl tin (an environmental pollutant, considered highly toxic, that spreads through the skin and has a hormone-like effect in the smallest concentrations).
3) It’s better for the environment. Disposable diapers promote aggressive consumption of both renewable and non-renewable resources and overburden landfills. Do you know that it takes 550 years for disposable diapers to decompose?
Check out our site: tushywushy.blogspot.com (or call Jen at 0917-5325643 or e-mail at jencctan@gmail.com; or call my partner Ella at 0917-8433891 or e-mail at ryankachupi@gmail.com.)
I thought that you (or your readers) might be interested to know that there are alternatives out there.
Jen