Home safety products for kids

Fritha Strickland has her own Blog - http://www.tigerlillyquinn.com/ She's also a customer and knows our ethos and products well, especially the Orbit Stroller for which she is a brand Ambassador.  Fritha's son Wilf if 18 months so the perfect age to be exploring his surroundings.  Born has just introduced a range of safety devices for home use, something we have considered over the years but were never quite sure if our customers would want them if they were practicing 'Continuum' style parenting.  However, as Fritha discusses and the sales prove, there is a need for these gadgets in the modern world we live in.
~ Eva



I first heard of the Continuum Concept in pregnancy. A friend of mine, training to be a midwife was reading the book written by Jean Liedloff and defined it as being ‘sort of like attachment parenting, but a little different’.  I made a mental note to read the book at some point and yet 18months after my son’s birth it still taunts me as yet another thing to tick off the ever growing list.

Despite not actually having read the book yet I am familiar after a little research into its ideas and practices. What I found most interesting about the concept it the idea that we are inbuilt with the concept of danger and that being the case babies will know how to avoid  falling off a cliff/down a hole etc.

Part of me loves the idea of letting babies and children grow up with an understanding of what is dangerous and trusting in their ability to understand this.  However the habitat the babies are raised in in the book (a South American jungle) is very different to a western environment.

Looking around my slightly (very) messy living room I see the stickle bricks strewn across the floor, the rug that could become a hazard for an excitable running toddler and the sharp corners of our coffee table. Our kitchen houses dishwasher rinse aid, floor cleaner and other cleaning products (although eco friendly) under the sink. Our hallways contains sockets and our stairs, although carpeted are steep and slippy.

My sister as a toddler ran full speed (as part of an exciting game I don’t doubt) into the living room, slipped and bashed into the corner of a chest.  It caused her a gash scarily close to her eye that is still visible 15 years later.

It is because of the above I suppose that we installed a lock on the kitchen and bathroom cupboards, a stair gate on the stairs and draw catchers on our knife drawers.

I like the idea of trusting your child’s in-built instincts for danger, but I feel for the price of a little pad on the corner of your coffee table it is simpler to have that piece of mind instead of the ‘what ifs’.

What do you think? Do you find all this safely equipment too much? Or do you think it is better to be safe than sorry?

~ Fritha

The Orbit G2 Stroller user review

Fritha has a wonderful Blog that I love reading. She's also an Orbit brand Ambassador and is 'road teasting' the G2 stroller for us. Her are her thoughts so far:

Competition to win an Orbit G2 Stroller is on  until May 8th.

I have had the Orbit  G2 Stroller now for almost a month, a great amount of time I feel to really get to grips with all its features and record how I am finding it.

Our original pushchair was a Mama's and Papa's Sola. We never really did any pushchair research when I was pregnant but instinctively felt the need to be able to see and chat to Wilf past the early baby-stage and onwards into toddler-hood. I later discovered however that most brain development occurs between birth and age two, which is when babies and toddlers need the benefit of a 'language-rich start to life'. Considering that on average a baby may be in their stroller for two hours a day, it makes sense that it would be more beneficial to have the seat facing you where you and your baby can communicate with each other.



I love that the Orbit has the ability to be parent facing for as long as you and your child would like. With the swivel design you can face your child parent, sideways or forward facing. We haven’t tried it forward facing but have used it side facing a number of times when in café’s and also at the zoo!





One of the elements I was really impressed with on the Orbit is its incredibly simple to collapse. I've not quite managed the one handed collapse but it is as simple as removing the chair with two clips, then a simple click and twist of the handle and the whole thing collapses very swiftly and compactly. I’ve always been quite worried about being in a situation where I would need to collapse my previous stroller but have been on a number of train journeys now where I’ve been able to do this by myself with no issue.

The stroller is streamline, which is perfect for city living and also for Victorian hallways. Even with both the panniers open it’s only marginally bigger than our old stroller and with the panniers folded is much slimmer. I would rate the addition of the panniers as one of the best elements of the stroller. As someone who doesn't drive we are used to cramming our shopping underneath our old stroller, which could fit two bags at a push. The top picture shows the pushchair with one of them open, they also come with a waterproof cover in case of rain or if you don't want the world to know what you’ve got for tea.



The Orbit doesn't come with a huge amount of storage underneath but rather a cargo pod, which you can use as a change bag and also to keep the rain cover and other little bits in. The lack of space below is more than made up with the storage in the side panniers above though. You can also wear the pod if needed with the addition of a strap.

I'm quite a gadgety type of person so I was really excited by the cup holder and tray attachment and the snack tray for Wilf. One of the reasons I was so excited to be testing this stroller is that the Orbit is a built to be eco friendly, the trays are BPA-free and made out of PVC-free polypropylene and the all the fabrics used meet the 'Oeko-Tex standard 100 compliance’. This is a standard that sets limits on almost 200 potentially harmful substances and chemicals. You can find out more about the potentially dangerous substances this standard address here. The Orbit is also the worlds first stroller to boast rain shields made from a clear PVC-free material.

Within the first half an hour of using the pushchair the man in the bakery, the lady on the train and a lady who recognised me from playgroup all commented on the stroller for different reasons. It certainly does attract people's attention!

Win the Orbit G2Stroller in our competition (ends May 8th 2013)