You may also enjoy these St. Patrick’s Day related posts:
* Little Green Leprechaun Footprints
* Great Ways To Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day With Kids

You may also enjoy: Unique Museums for Kids

According to Christian beliefs, Lent commemorates Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness, and observant Christians mark this period by fasting. So Shrove Tuesday was cleverly invented to use up the ingredients that were given up for Lent – milk, butter and, particularly, eggs – which may not be eaten again until Easter.

In honor of Pancake Day, every year we love to remind our readers of IHOP’s special celebration. From 7am until 10pm, they give customers a FREE short stack of their buttermilk pancakes.

A couple of favorites include:
“My Dad is laid off, and we really do not want to move. So can you help Michigan find more jobs? My other idea was maybe we can find away to use garbage to power things; maybe even cars and electricity. So you know I am just a kid, but I am the next generation and my ideas might work. So think about it.” — Zachary, Age 10, Michigan
“Dear Mr. Obama, Please make it rain candy!” — Aaron, California, Age 6

What is kidthing? It’s like iTunes for kids. Created by parents, kidthing provides a safe haven for kids to play and learn away from Web browsers and ads. The kidthing store is filled with digital animated books, interactive games, activities and videos from some of the world’s leading brands. Parents can preview and buy products with prices starting at under a dollar. (kidthing also provides some free content for parents.) Once purchased, content is automatically downloaded to the kidthing player and can be viewed anytime and anywhere–without needing to be connected to the Internet.

Linsey of Lille Punkin’ Reviews:
Since we live miles away from a doctor, I like to give me kids a natural treatment FIRST — before taking them in for an often unnecessary antibiotic prescription. The Hyland’s Earache Tablets are tiny, easy to take, and dissolve instantly. They are natural, won’t interact with other medications, and won’t cause nasty side effects (like drowsiness, hyperactivity, or stomach aches.)
In both of the cases where I used Hyland’s at the first sign of an earache, my children were feeling much better within the first day (and I didn’t need to take them into the doctor.)

SusieJ/Reviews writes:
My favorite pediatrician, the nationally acclaimed Dr. Sears (who wrote the “Manual on Babies and Toddlers”) says that Hyland’s Earache Drops are clinically proven to reduce earache symptoms in the first 48 hours of the symptoms.
My son, who was just recovering from a two-week persistent cough, complained about an earache, of course at 11 p.m. I put four drops of Hyland’s Earache Drops in his ear. The next morning, the pain was gone, but his ear felt “clogged.” I called his pediatrician, and told her I had given him the Hyland’s Ear Ache Drops, which she said was the best thing I could have done. For the “water” in his ear, she suggested that he take a children’s decongestant. I waited a day, and soon, the ear cleared up without the decongestant.

Kristen of Motherhood Uncensored writes:
I’m all for trying to avoid antibiotics unless they’re absolutely necessary.
I applied [the ear drops], [and] I did see a complete difference in her demeanor, which I totally attribute to Hyland’s earache drops and lollipops. But mostly to the drops. I think.
In my research, I found that over 80% of earaches will heal on their own within 4-7 days. And antibiotics don’t work well for middle ear effusion (which is probably what she has – no infection, just fluid). So a product like Hyland’s can do wonders for helping your kids make it through what could have been a long hard week of your kid being hopped up on Motrin and Tylenol. Don’t get me wrong. I use them too. But a natural option is always my first choice.

The Green Parent writes:
I was able to try out, and can now whole-heartedly endorse, a new remedy for my daughters’ earaches…Hyland’s Earache Drops. I’ve been a fan of Hyland’s homeopathic remedies for years, starting with their teething pills when my eldest was a baby and more recently with their motion sickness tablets (let’s just say I’m a fair weather sailor and leave it at that.)
I was so impressed with how quickly and effectively their earache drops worked. And the fact that they are homeopathic, and don’t contain any harsh chemicals is a big plus for me.

Alyson at Three P’s in a Pod:
I am not a true granola, crunchy mama. I love our Pediatrician and follow his guidance 98% of the time without issue. He is very conservative though and has trained me to hold off on the antibiotics whenever possible and he is more than happy to have me use homeopathic treatments such as earache drops. I just make sure I always tell him so that he can be aware and monitor any drug interaction between them. In my opinion, that is the safe thing to do.:)

Amy at Cheeky Monkey Play
So I am the mom who never gave my kids any teething medicine and really never gives out Tylenol without a high fever. I like to keep it pretty natural and not give put OTC, but I realized that every time my kids have had earaches and go to the doctor they get antibiotics. Every single time.
I used the drops on the whole family and although I did take my son to the doctor that week he did not have to go on antibiotics! ( a first!!!!)

Yay for Hyland’s! Moms really love you.

“The baby was perfectly healthy, but the mother didn’t have milk. He was very hungry. I was weaning Valentina, but I still had a lot of milk that I was pumping, so I breast-fed the baby,” she says, her voice dropping. “You should have seen his eyes. When he felt the nourishment, he immediately stopped crying.”

This was just one brief mention in a feature article that was 19 paragraphs long. I had to re-read it to make sure that I read correctly. NOT because I doubted that Salma would breastfeed a needy child, but, rather I was surprised that USA Today was not making the cross-nursing a focus of the feature article itself.
Kudos to USA Today, for just mentioning this casually and dropping this information as naturally as it should be. Really, just like most nursing moms would stop to nurse a child in need.
Ultimately, what Salma did should not be seen as a big deal. But, it is a big deal because Salma is, well, Salma. She’s a celebrity who’s every move is followed by the watchful paparazzi and millions more around the globe.
Personally, I had the opportunity to ask Salma about her breastfeeding this starving infant more than a week ago when I interviewed her at UNICEF. I chose not, because I just didn’t want to “make it into a thing” when really it SHOULD NOT be “a thing!”
However, I mention it NOW, because my brilliant friends at Celebrity Baby Blog are conducting a poll (still ongoing) and the results are honestly mind-blowingly surprising (in the best possible of ways)!
The question is “Would you or have you ever nursed another woman’s child who was in need?” Over 6,100 women have responded and 78% responded with “Yes, they would” and 4% with “Yes, they have.”
The results of this poll are a BIG DEAL. This is amazing.
If you have no idea what I have been writing about. Here is the footage of Salma on her UNICEF trip to Sierra Leone.