Tatyanna Wright's Haute Mama

Real Food

I’ve never been into dieting. That is to say, I’ve never consumed diet or light foods, beverages or any other manufactured food with the word ‘diet’ in front. My outlook on food has always been to enjoy what I eat.
Growing up I was lucky to spend a lot of time in Europe where eating is an absolute pleasure, people eat slowly, butter is sweet and salty, pastries are rich and the farm animals most of the produce derives live in open pastures feeding on lush green fields. This exposure taught me the importance of a harmonious ecosystem and showed me that it was healthy for woman to enjoy what they ate, rather than pick at a salad or deprive oneself of dessert.
I love pastries and cheese, and combine my indulgence with plenty of fresh organic fruit daily, we cook at home almost every night using fresh food - with the exception of dining out (at a restaurant that serves local, seasonal fare) once or twice a week. So when I read Nina Planck’s new book Real Food for Mother and Baby I was thrilled to discover it filled with common sense advice on eating. Her advice extends to how eating real foods can affect fertility, pregnancy, breastfeeding and babies starting out on their first foods. Her book is extremely well researched offering excellent facts.

I’ve always thought ones diet affected milk production and how quickly your body recovers post pregnancy since your body requires a certain amount of calories. Depriving your body deprives your baby when it comes to nursing. I strongly recommend Nina Planck’s Real Food for Mother and Baby for pregnant woman, new mothers, parents seeking to prepare better meals for their children and themselves as well as anyone struggling with food issues, or simply wanting to learn more about real food. Real Food for Mother and Baby is not a cookbook it’s a complete guide to eating real foods and why.
My motto has always been never deprive so get yourself a copy and start eating how you were meant to.

Haute Mama Video - Pregnancy & Body Piercing

In this installment of Haute Mama's new online web series, we find out what happens to your body piercerings when you become pregnant. Haute Mama met with Venus, by Maria Tash, regarded as the premier body piercing studio in New York City to find out.  

Post Partum Bottom Balm

Post partum recovery can really take a toll on some very specific parts of your body. Take it from me, as the imminent arrival date of my second child drew near I wanted to be as prepared for those post birth pains as I possibly could.
The discomfort I’m talking about hails from the nether regions… specifically your rectum and “birth canal” as the vagina so becomes known during pregnancy.
Prenatal and postpartum hemorrhoids, vaginal swelling, bruising, and episiotomies can create some serious anxiety about your next bowl or urinary movement. So when I discovered Earth Mama Bottom Balm, I packed a jar in my hospital bag and thanked the creators for this wondrous innovation.

Earth Mama Bottom Balm soothes and cools with an organic olive oil base infused with healing organic herbs - St. Johns wort, yarrow, witch hazel, calendula, shea butter, and more. From front to back you’ll feel the cooling effect of this powerful healing potion immediately.

The packaging asks you to store it in the fridge, but who seriously has the time to dash from the kitchen to the bathroom home alone with a new born? I keep mine right next to the toilet and I suggest you do to! Although my OB permitted me to apply the balm hours after giving birth vaginally you should ask your OB how soon they will allow you to use it.   
You can pick up a jar at Whole Foods or online at Earth Mama Angel Baby. 

Haute Mama Video

Introducing Haute Mama's new Maternity Lifestyle series. Click on the image to view the first episode featuring Green Depot, and find out about eco-baby bedding, toys and more...

Eco-Baby Registry

Choosing items for a new baby and your registry can be daunting. With so many baby products on the market - what does a new parent really need? Many stores have created a wish list of items they recommend you buy, but even this can be overwhelming to a new parent. First time parents spend the most money of any demographic, purely because we have no idea, and think, or rather, are told, we need to buy everything – from the right baby bath, a pack ’n’ play, a vibrating bouncy seat to nighttime celestial ceiling projections to all kinds of toys your new born won’t react to for months! Not to mention all the feeding and changing accessories – and most of it all plastic.

So how on earth are you meant to create your baby registry if you don’t know what you really need? Earth might just be the key word here. If you’re suffering from product anxiety, consider doing your baby registry at Green Depot. They have wisely chosen a wonderful selection of eco-friendly products truly useful for your new baby. Items like bio-degradable diapers and wipes, organic bedding, blankets, towels and onesies. No VOC paints, FSC wood toys and cribs, glass bottles, phthalate and BPA-free plastics bottles as well natural rubber pacifiers. They also have well versed, non-pushy staff ready to answer any questions. I just did my registry there and was thrilled to receive the organic cotton changing pad amongst other items.
If you don’t live in New York City, you can easily visit Green Depot online and create your baby registry there. I hope this makes your shopping experience a little easier, it will definitely make it greener!  

June Style File - A-dapt Dress Wear It Four Ways

To view how to Wear It Four Ways, click here. To purchase, visit the store section of hautemamaonline
Coming next month…the A-dapt pant.

Moses Basket

A Moses basket is the perfect portable accessory for your baby. Its small and light enough to move from room to room keeping your little bundle cozy and close while you work at home, relax in another part of your house and want your baby near, or travel away on weekends and need something convenient to place your baby in. So, whether you have environmental or budget concerns, here are three Moses baskets offering a little something to everyone.

Pearl River Chinese Supermarket Baby Basket
While there’s nothing organic about this Moses basket, its price is the appeal. At $19.95 its practically a steal. However, this basket doesn’t come with anything, which means you’ll need to buy basket bedding. A great inexpensive resource for all things Moses basket related is: mosesbaskets.com If you prefer a greener option, consider naturesbabyblankets.com
This basket is only available for purchase at the Pearl River store in Manhattan.

Green Depot
The classic baby basket is reinterpreted at Green Depot for the modern eco-conscience parent. The basket is made from palm fibers and filled with luxuriously soft, certified organic cotton fleece and flannel bedding that includes a bumper, blanket, and mattress (hypo-allergenic Poly-fil). Everything is mildew-resistant and quick to dry. For a real splurge, add the Welcome Home Baby Kit to your baby registry. The basket is filled with 3 organic cotton onesies, tees, and karate pants; a soft, comforting thermal hat and a receiving blanket also made of organic cotton; and a starter package of Naty diapers and wipes (chlorine-free, alcohol-free, and 100% biodegradable - The greenest disposable diaper on the market). Price varies from $195 for the basic basket, to $348.95 for the Welcome Home Baby Kit

Giggle
Looking for an alternative to a crib or bassinet? Here’s a good option from Giggle and the perfect addition to your Moses basket. A coordinating rocker base creates an instant cradle. The rocker base is made from unfinished maple hardwood, and the basket is lined with 100% organic cotton fleece and flannel with hypoallergenic fill. It includes a fitted sheet, bumper, blanket, and mattress.  It's a wonderful way to rock your little one off to sleep! Basket and base are available separately or sold as a set for $315.

Green Your Nursery Event at Green Depot

Young children are more vulnerable to poor indoor air quality and other home environmental hazards than adults. With all the questions and concerns new and expecting parents have for the health of their babies, Green Depot - the nation's leading supplier of eco-friendly building and home supplies - is offering a special "Green Your Nursery" event at its new Bowery location in New York City. Presentations and workshops at the "Green Your Nursery" event will address the steps new parents should take to create a safe and healthy environment as well as what "red flags" to look for when selecting products. Expert speakers include interior designer Amanda Moore, Lexy Zissu, author of "The Complete Organic Pregnancy," and Sarah Beatty, founder and president of Green Depot.

Sarah Beatty founded Green Depot when she discovered toxic mold in her apartment during her first pregnancy. Unable to find an ideal resource to address the issue, Sarah made it her goal to demystify green for the consumer, clarifying how and why a product can claim it is "green", thereby allowing parents to decide what aspects of green are most important for the health and safety of their infants.
Green Depot is my first choice for environmentally safe products for my home and family. 

In the coming weeks Haute Mama will be airing the first installments of its new maternity lifestyle web series “Haute Mama” - Our first episodes feature interviews with both Sarah Beatty and Alexandra Zissu. Be sure to watch and find out more about eco-friendly baby products at hautemamaonline.com

This event takes place at Green Depot, 222 Bowery (between Prince and Spring), New York City on Wednesday, May 27 from 6:30-8:30p.m. To RSVP please email: rsvp@greendepot.com

Seed Organic Cradle

On a search for a new crib and wishing to keep within my environmentally conscience approach to products, I discovered the Seed Organic Cradle.
Without side tracking too much here, I already have a wonderful toddler bed my son still sleeps in made by Argington which is FSC certified sustainably harvested wood complete in non-toxic finishes. So, did I really need another bed? Either way someone was getting one. My son looks like he’ll have another year (or less) in his present bed, so I figured we’d get a new bed for the baby, who will move into my son’s bed when he outgrows it.

I love the Seed Organic Cradle for several reasons: It can slide right up against my side of the bed so I will be able to reach in at night and lift my baby into my bed to nurse. The bed is light enough, yet sturdy enough to move it to another part of our room without tipping over or having to worry about my older child toppling it over. And the organic bedding that comes with it is really lovely, very soft and easy to remove for cleaning. It can also easily fold flat or be used as a toy box once the baby has outgrown it.

The Seed Organic Cradle is Australian-made, and is basically an over-sized bassinet (supports a maximum weight of 30lbs), with a sturdy wood cradle frame of recycled birch plywood and an organic cotton liner. The mattress has breather holes and is all natural latex derived from the milky sap of the renewable Hevea Brasiliensis (Rubber Tree). It is hypoallergenic and anti-microbial. The cradle stand is strong and sturdy thanks to its stabilizing feet (not shown in picture), good news for my five-year old son who keeps peering in with impending excitement, and peace of mind for me as I know there is no risk of the cradle falling over.
The cradle comes with all its environmental certifications and can be purchased worldwide from select retailers. I bought mine from Giggle.com  For a full list of retailers, visit: babybaby.com.au

Tough Titties!

Breastfeeding? Well here’s a product your previously precious items of pleasure will thank you for! Picture cracked, red, swollen tender tits. That’s what you’re in for during the early first few weeks of nursing. Don’t be turned off though, these symptoms do pass, but you’re nursing nipples will need a little TLC and Tough Titties Nipple Rub is just the thing a nursing Haute Mama needs.

Not only does the cream have healing properties, it tastes good. Unlike other lanolin products, which taste a lot like where it is derived (sheep wool fat – no I haven’t eaten it, but growing up in Australia one is exposed to sheep sheering on a regular basis at school, hence touching, feeling and smelling the clipped wool, which smells exactly like lanolin in a tube, and not something I’d like to put in my mouth or have my baby suckle on). But the wonderful combination of coconut oil, beeswax, lemongrass, geranium and clove essential oils, in a vitamin E and lanolin base makes this product smell fabulous, less sticky than a purely lanolin based cream and taste quite delicious.
You can apply the cream to your nipples right before you feed, as it is super absorbent, and should your baby come into contact with the cream they won’t be turned off – at least mine wasn’t.  

Tough Titties Nipple Rub cream is made by hilariously named Least Likely 2 Breed. They also make Bad Ass Booty Balm, (for nappy rash), and Whale Oil (stretch mark cream) as well as a couple other well-named balms. To purchase and view their product line, visit leastlikely2breed.net