An article on the BBC News magazine website about what how you dress your child says about you, got me thinking. We have all got photos of ourselves dressed in clothes we would rather not share with the world, but did you know there are psychological reasons behind the clothes you were made to wear?

Whether it be matching outfits for you and your three sisters, being dressed as a “mini-me”, or resigned to wearing clothes from decades earlier, the psychologists and social workers can tell us why. Apparently matching clothes, a look favoured by The Beckhams, create a sense of unity and managing the family’s public image.

Remember that picture of Daniella Westbrook’s daughter in the Burberry checked dress? She was simply showing the world that her child was hers!

And what about girls dressed in enough frills and pink to rival a toilet roll doll? Her mummy just wants her to grow up to be feminine and girly.

I thought my mum just had terrible taste!

Tell us all about your childhood fashion disasters by commenting here, and if you have a photo, why not let us all have a look!

This month sees the 10th anniversary of Family Learning Week, which is being celebrated by having a Family Learning Festival! Last year more than 3,500 organisations nationwide took part in what was then National Family Learning Week. To mark ten years of Learning celebrations, this year will offer a month long range of activities. It’s a chance for you and your family to discover new interests, hobbies, skills and have lots of fun. Different events are happening across the country, and you can find out what is on in your area on the Campaign For Learning website.

In order to raise awareness and teach parents about the advantages of babywearing, I am pleased to announce that I have been asked to run a workshop and demonstration session at Carlisle Library, on Monday 20th October. The event is free, and there will be a few different types of baby carriers to try out and see which you, and your baby, prefer, so it will be a great way of finding out if babywearing is for you. I look forward to seeing you there!

We are pleased to announce our new arrivals…the Autumn Shoo Shoo range! The new stock has just arrived and looks great - our personal favourites are the pink dots and brown aliens, but with so many to choose from, why stop at one pair?

To celebrate the new styles, we are offering an amazing deal of 2 pairs for just £27 – a saving of almost 10%! At this great price, how can you afford not to look? This offer can’t last forever, so make sure you order your’s early.

Check out the Autumn Shoo Shoo range now!

I am very excited about a special offer we are launching, and just had to share it with you…

We have managed to get hold of a limited number of shoo shoos at a very special price - including some fabulously festive Father Christmas designs, which will make a great stocking filler, and beautiful cosy boots, just in time for Autumn. With prices from just £10.95, these gorgeous leather baby shoes will not stay long, so make sure you take advantage of the bargains while you can!

Happy shopping!

Unless you’ve had your head stuck in a rock for the last 12 months, you can’t have missed the fact that the UK is gripped by a “Credit Crunch”, with most families’ finances being slowly, but surely squeezed. Here at SnugBaby we’re all for saving money, but we don’t see why your little one should suffer. So here’s our list of 5 ways to beat the credit crunch, but still lavish your little one.

Use Cloth Nappies - potential saving £700

The average baby wears nappies for 2 and a half years, and by using cloth nappies instead of disposable ones, you can save around £700! If you manage to re-use them for subsequent children, then the savings are even greater! Of course there are loads of options to choose from when it comes to cloth nappies - flat, shaped, all in ones! And unlike disposables, you get to choose the pattern and colour as well! Not only are they cute, colourful and cozy, but you’ll be helping to make sure there’s some non-nappy covered planet left for your little one to enjoy when they’re older. There are plenty of resources online to help you choose the right cloth nappies for your baby, but we particularly like “Fill Your Pants” for a great selection of nappies, and advice.

Sling Your Baby - potential saving £400

With a pram easily costing more than £400, why spend a fortune on a fancy pram or pushchair that will only be used for a few months before you decide it’s too big and bulky, and you need a lighter stroller? A sling, or baby carrier (which will come in at an average of around £50) is fab from birth, and can be used until your baby is able to walk. Your baby will be kept close to you where he can feel safe, see the world and interact with you. They’re a blessing on public transport, through airports, or at your favourite festival (seriously - try dragging a pushchair through your average muddy British festival field). We make and sell a gorgeous range of mei tai baby carriers, which can be used from birth until 15kg.

Breast is Best - potential saving £600

Everybody knows breast is best in terms of health benefits for you and your baby, but it also helps the health of your purse too! An average tin of formula costs around £7.50, and will usually last about a week. This comes to a whopping £365 over the course of a year, which is the minimum time that a baby should have formula, before changing to cow’s milk. Add on to that the cost of sterilising the bottles before each feed, and the cost of bottle feeding really shoots up. If you are struggling to breast feed your baby, you can contact your local La Leche League, or ask your health visitor.

Toy Library - potential saving limitless!

This is a fabulous way to stop your child getting bored with their toys, and save you money into the bargain! If you don’t have a toy library already, why not get together with a few friends who have babies of a similar age, and swap toys around. Each child gets something different for a few weeks, then it moves on. Even if you all chip in for new toys every so often, it might only need to be every 6 months, instead of every month. And it saves cluttering up your living room with an ever-expanding toy box too!

Make your own food - potential saving £100

Making baby food is easy, and it tastes far better than jars! From 6 months, the recommended minimum age for weaning, babies can have almost anything to eat, whether you choose to puree it, or go for baby led weaning, where you give your baby soft fingers of food to suck and nibble on. If you opt for puree, you’ll need a small hand held blender, which you can get hold of for less that £5 in various shops. All you need to do then is make batches up (or do extra when cooking for yourself) and freeze it in ice cube trays until you need it. Compare this to paying around £3 a day for jars of baby food, for roughly 4 months… I know which I would rather!

If you want to save even more money, you can join your local Freecycle group, and ask if anyone has an abundance of homegrown food which they’d be willing to part with. Or, if you are so inclined, you could have your own mini-allotment in your garden and grow vegetables such as broccoli and carrots - yum!

The Wallaboo changing bags have always been a firm favourite of ours, and we’re pleased to announce that with winter just around the corner we’re now also stocking their gorgeous footmuffs. Available for use with a car seat or pushchair, they’re great for keeping your little ones all snug through the cold winter months.

It is International Babywearing week this November (12th until 18th), and in order to promote babywearing in my area, I have started a babywearing group, which I have affectionately called “Sling Your Baby“. When we went on holiday last month, I was so amazed to see so many people wearing their baby in some sort of sling, mei tai or wrap! It was fabulous! And the looks my husband kept getting when he was carrying Son#2 were pretty good too. So I decided it was my duty to do something about increasing the popularity of it up here in Cumbria.

Sling Your Baby will be holding it’s very first meeting on Tuesday 18th November in Carlisle Library, and we would love to see you there. If you don’t already know about the advantages of babywearing, we will do our best to inform you and you can ty out different types of sling. Or just natter with other mums over coffee.

If you do not live in this area, check out SlingMeet for more events that are taking place to celebrate IBW08. There are lot of things going on, from walks to picnics, so make sure you join in and show off your love of babywearing!

Edited: To celebrate the first ever International Babywearing Week, SnugBaby are delighted to be offering a fabulous 15% off any order for a SnugBaby sling placed until 19th November! Simply choose from our great range of designs, and enter SL_IBW08 at the checkout to receive your discount. Feel free to pass this great offer onto friends, and together let’s spread the babywearing love!

Ever since we first stocked them, Shoo Shoos have been a great success, and we’re really excited to announce that we’ve got some great new designs coming in over the next few days - including these gorgeous pink spots. If you want to know as soon as they’re available - you can register on the Shoo Shoos page.

Since the end of the summer is upon us (I’m not sure it ever started, but still …) - we’re making a few changes to our line-up. We’ve moved some end-of-line items to our Special Offers section, where you can snap up a sling from as little as £30. This has obviously made a little room in our ready-made range, so we’ve take the chance to launch some great new designs:-

Oriental Turquoise & Black is the perfect glam sling to brighten up those dreary days, and Simply Stripes on Khaki is a great autumn sling, and we think it’ll be a hot favourite with baby-wearing dads as well.

Win! Win! Win!

Today also sees the launch of our brand new competition. The lucky winner will take home a ready-made SnugBaby baby carrier of their choice, and there are even some BabyLegs available for the runners-up. It’s easy to enter, and if you can publicise the competition on your own blog, website, or forum, then we’ll even give you an extra chance to win, so check it out today!

Is it? Always?

We know that breastmilk is best for babies (that has long been drummed into us) but is that still the case if it isn’t your milk, from your breast?

After reading a piece in the Daily Mail, by GMTV’s Kate Garraway, on the subject of cross-feeding, or wetnursing, I felt it was too emotive a subject not to add my two-penneth. In a nutshell, Kate has been interviewing women who breastfeed other people’s babies, and has found that the experience of talking to these ladies has changed her view on the act of cross-feeding.

The idea that it is better to give a baby breastmilk from another woman, in favour of formula derived from cows’ milk, is a controversial one, and one on which every mother will undoubtedly have an opinion. Yes, cows’ milk is made for calves, not humans, but infant formula has been treated to be as close as possible to breastmilk. And breastfeeding (or bottle feeding) isn’t just about the milk itself, but also about the act - a mother providing comfort and nourishment in a secure environment is hugely beneficial to both mother and child.

My Thoughts…

Speaking as a short-lived breastfeeder of both my children (only a few weeks each time), I personally don’t think I would like to watch another woman breastfeed my baby - that time is so special and intimate, and, selfish as it may sound, I would be jealous of another person sharing that with my child. Obviously, I want the best for my children, and if breastmilk was available in the same way as formula to everyone, then I wouldn’t hesitate to use that in place of formula. Unfortunately it isn’t, and never will be, so to mothers who are unable to breastfeed directly, for whatever reason, formula is the only option. I am in favour of the concept of natural parenting, although I confess to using disposable nappies, and we don’t, as a rule, co-sleep.

If the issues behind me stopping breastfeeding my own children didn’t exist, I would happily donate milk to a milk bank, but, for the same reasons as above, I am not sure how I would feel about feeding a baby other than my own. Perhaps, given my experiences, I could never answer that.

Having said all this, I have utmost repect for the ladies who wetnurse, and those who choose to put their babies health and wellbeing above their own emotions, and allow people they know and trust to give their babies the best sustenance that Mother Nature can provide.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this very personal subject…