A lifesaver for our baby with feeding issues
937372
Gelmix has been a huge component of keeping our daughter, who has GERD, healthy and gaining weight in her first year of life. None of the downsides of thickening feeds with cereals--she has no gut irritation with Gelmix, doesn't experience constipation as she did with cereals. She also is able to eat more ounces with Gelmix because it does not add bulk/calories to her feeds, it just changes the consistency. She is 13 months old and has been using Gelmix for about 9 months with no ill effects.
404999
I, like so many moms, was on the path to boxed baby cereals and Gerber jars when my 4 month old got extremely constipated and irritable with her 1st rice cereal experience. My pediatrician advised me to wait a couple of weeks and resume rice cereal. It was so hard to wait because my child was hungry and she had proven she could eat quite well!  The same thing happened with the 2nd try of rice cereal - constipation, screaming and writhing in pain. Here I had this hungry, eager little eater and the traditional American baby foods just weren't working.

I ordered Super Baby Food from Amazon, and all my troubles went away in an instant. My life and and my daughter's diet suddenly involved mashed fresh bananas and water, mashed fresh avocados and water, pureed sweet pototoes, mangos and more. All fresh, all with good anti-viral properties, all helping me contribute to the extent that I can to helping my daughter develop and maintain a healthy immune system.

Today, my daughter is a 2-1/2 year old who is an amazing eater. She eats a wide variety of fresh fruits and veggies everyday including eating fresh steamed green beans the way other kids eat french fries. She devours fresh steamed broccoli, eats pesto packed pork chops, and just yesterday she downed a cold salad of black-eyed peas, green olives and tomatoes. My friends, neighbors, and even I am amazed as she eagerly tries any food I put in front of her.

I attribute her eating habits largely to her Super Baby Food diet where never once did I put something in front of her that I would not eat myself. I believe by feeding her stuff that tasted really good, she came to develop a trust that whatever food I give her, chances are she's going to like it.

I'm a huge proponent of this book, the diet espoused and the fact that by cooking & preparing healthy foods for your child when he/she is an infant you'll develop a great habit of cooking healthy as a mom that will last a life time.

I highly recommend this book to any new mom.  One last unexpected benefit from the book - my husband and I eat a much wider variety of fresh fruits and veggies now too.  We all have benefited from this book!!
1337162
After 8 months of not sleeping more than 2- 3hours at a time, my husband and I were at our wit's end.  The owner of Baby Moon suggested this DVD, and it saved my marriage!  We started the program on a Sunday, and by Thursday she was weaned from night feedings and sleeping through the night.  The first night was hard; but she was crying when we held her as well.  Now she naps great during the day, and is generally a much happier baby!  I will say that you have to be ready for this program mentally.  If we would have tried this a month or two ago, I don't think we would have succeeded as well as we did this week.  I highly recommend this program!
504799
We used this book on both of our daughters starting at age 3 months (they are 16 mos. apart). For one daughter the transition from on-demand feedings to a structured system was a challenge initially, for the other it was really easy from day one.  With my wife going back to work and both of us needing to sleep, we needed a plan to get the whole household on a regular feeding and sleeping schedule.  The daughter that fought this system initially, adapted after a week or so.  I'm glad we stuck with it, as the quality of life impact of this schedule was immense!  I highly recommended this book!
2044927
For the past two years we've been suffering each and every night because
our two cats would wake us up every morning at 4 or 5AM to get their
morning meal.  This device has saved us...

MANUAL/PROGRAMMING
The manual is slightly deficient, making programming was more awkward than
I'd hoped, but once you figure it out it's & forget it... (do keep the
manual!)  84 meals served and counting!

BUILD & PORTIONS
The feeder is very well designed.  Even our smartest cat has not been
able to figure out how to compromise the machine to get more out of it...

Minor flaws:

- portion size
We wish the minimum portion size was less so we could feed them three
(small) meals a day.  The quarter cup works for larger kibble, but the
small (weight-control) food gets in all the nooks and crannies, resulting
in slightly larger portions than we'd typically give them.  We've been
keeping track of their weight though and neither cat has gained
significant weight now that we skimp on the extra treats.

- sound
The sound resulting from the kibble rushing down the incline initially
*scared* our cats away.  They've gotten used to it, but a 'trickle'
mechanism would probably work better to announce feeding time.

- controls
Programming is difficult.  Once you set it, don't count on changing much.

A solid plastic cover guarantees that inadvertent changes are impossible.

- color
The black color does not fit our kitchen.  Moreover, the black base does
not generate a lot of contrast with the food, so it's difficult for the
cats to see it.  We 'fixed' this by lining the bottom with a white
sticker.

WARNING: WHERE'S THE LOVE?!?
One warning! The reduced interaction with your cats made us feel like
we'd been replaced by a machine...  Because of the somewhat large
portions we've stopped giving them the extra treats, which cuts down on
our human-cat interaction even more... (on the plus side, no more early
morning cursing)

TIP
We started to mix the extra treats they love so much in with the kibble.
Just like those gum ball machines... the real desirable treats are visible
and come out at random...

Yep, We LOVE this machine.

--

UPDATE (6 MONTHS?):
I now have two machines.  Both still work peachy after 6
months (on the same set of batteries I might add).

NOT SMART-CAT PROOF
Our smartest cat has also figured out how to cheat the
machine into giving up some kernels when he gets hungry.

PORTION CONTROL A REAL PROBLEM
Our cats gained so much weight that we had to switch back to
a once-a-day automated schedule... (and we hand-feed at 6pm).

Still love the extra sleep this device provides me, so I'm
taking away only one star (still leaves 4 stars).
2011567
My son's Cavalier puppy was eating every meal like he hadn't eaten in days and may never eat again. This resulted in terrible gas and gastrointestinal distress. This bowl did a great job in slowing him down to an almost normal pace. The metal is easy to clean. It is heavy enough that it stays in place. The medium bowl was larger than expected, the 1/2 cup of feed we use has more than ample room. I highly reccommend this product.
1144168
People warned me about my baby having a flat head if they sleep in a rock 'n play. Because of this, I didn't get one for my first baby. He had terrible reflux and we instead resorted to giving him zantac (for over a year). My second baby had reflux as well but it wasn't as painful as it was for my son. Her pediatrician also prescribed zantac (a different pediatrician since we have moved).  I didn't want to resort to medication right away so we tried other things. I worked HARD to ensure she ate sitting up (breastfeeding and were previously doing the cradle position), I started blockfeeding, and made sure to burp her and keep her upright for an hour after each feeding. This started getting hard to do at night because I wasn't getting ANY sleep. She was getting better though but would sometimes spit up while in the pack 'n play. I decided to try out the rock 'n play because it elevates her. Oh my goodness, I now get 3-4 hours of straight sleep. She grunts less, spits up less, and just seems a lot happier overall. Some of this may be her age as she is 7 weeks now but I'm sure the overnight grunting and crying that she used to do is greatly impacted by using this rock n play. I make sure to give her plenty of tummy time during the day to try to offset the "flat head".  She also turns her head to the side while in the rock 'n play which is good. I don't know how long we will be using this but so far, it's pretty awesome! I wish I had gotten one for my son. We may have been able to avoid having him on medication for so long.
1858005
This has been an amazingly helpful device and the positives really outweigh the few minor inconveniences.  Our problem: we have two cats - one who howls inconsolably, especially at night, when he doesn't have enough food (preferably, he would have enough in the bowl to rub his whole chin in without ever reaching the bottom of the bowl), and another cat who never demands food, but will eat the whole dang bowlful if it's there.  Our previous solution was to fill a mound of food in a curve-shaped bowl at night (so the food would slide down and provide enough kibble for cat 1 to rub his chin in), and then try to not feed them during the day to make up for eating too much at night.  This let us mostly sleep at night, but wasn't great for our cats' weight.  And we dealt with pitiful pleas during the day begging us for food.

Pros:
My goals with this pet feeder were to (1) automatically feed the cats at regular intervals, even when we're not home, so they're not attacking us demanding food the minute we walk in the door, (2) disburse food in slower increments throughout the night so they eat a reasonable amount and also let us sleep, (3) know how much food they're actually eating each day, and (4) eventually start to reduce the amount of food.  After 2 months, I give this 5 stars on every single goal!!

My cats don't break into it like I was worried they would.  When I set the start now program, it does spin around and then leave tray 6 open.  This confused me at first, but all you have to do is close and latch the lid over tray 6.  When it's time for tray 1, it will spin around and unlatch.  We don't use the sound feature, so all you hear is this very, very quiet whir as the tray spins ... however, our cats are now attuned to it enough that they will come running from the other room.  I don't know how they hear it.

The thing didn't work one of the first few times I tried it.  I don't know what buttons I hit, but I thought I did it right and apparently I didn't, so it just never started.  I'm pretty sure it was user error, because it works perfectly every other time and I've used it for months now.  However, I would never rely on this for more than a day when we're out of town, because if you mess up the settings, it won't start, the batteries could die, and I feel more comfortable having a person come by to pet our cats and check on things in general.  But for regular everyday use, especially if you're having the same problems we were, I highly recommend it.

Cons:
- You can't program the time for 30 minutes, e.g. if you want to feed them at 10:30, you're going to have to choose either 10:00 or 11:00.
- The clock gets slightly off ... so after a few weeks, you'll notice that the clock is about 5 minutes fast ... in another few weeks, you'll notice that the clock is about 10 minutes fast.  Not such a big deal, but if you're trying to keep your cats on an exact schedule, I'd recommend paying attention to the clock when you fill their food every day and when it gets more than 10 minutes off, reset the clock.
852109
We received this book as a gift, and as a first time mom, I wasn't sure how much I would use it. Well since coming home from the hospital, it was a life saver for tracking all Aidan's "ins and outs". It helped us figure out a schedule for him early on. Aidan was on a regular schedule within a week of coming home, which helped me as a breastfeeding mom know when I could get some additional pumps in for our "stock pile". Since I was returning to work shortly after Aidan's birth, we wanted to make sure we had enough milk for me to be gone all day just in case. It was great to be able to track when he ate. So I knew my extra pumps wouldn't decrease my milk for his feedings.

Also our son was tongue tied, and the doctors wanted to make sure he was having a good number of dirty diapers. When I showed the doctor our journal, he was so impressed, and it helped him work out some solutions to his tongue tie issue. Also the space for writing down questions is great because you will find that you have a question at the 2am feeding that you won't remember at your doctor's appointment. I write down any and all questions that I have so when I am at the doctor's office I don't forget a thing.

Last note on the book, the place to write down "I smiled today when...", "I'm feeling...", "My goal for tomorrow is..." is priceless. It's great to look back at some of the things that we wrote in there and read them and see how much has changed in the two months that Aidan has been with us. The day we arrived home from the hospital my husband wrote in the My goal for tomorrow is....to keep him alive. I thought it was so cute and just a little note that always makes me smile. As I said, my son is two months right now, and it's great to see how things have changed from the first week when I wrote My goal for tomorrow is to shower. :) We have tracked the first time he meets people, funny things he has done, his first smile, etc. It's a great place to keep these things.

It always seems that after you go through an experience in life you know exactly what you would give as a present to someone who will be going through the same experience. For example, after I got married, I knew exactly what I wanted to give as a wedding shower present and as a wedding gift ~ the same with having a baby. The Little Bundle of Journal is definitely going to be in my baby shower present going forward as its priceless and something new moms don't often think about getting. So if you are trying to find the perfect baby shower present, you definitely need to add this to the list. It's something that will definitely be appreciated by the receiver.
1973202
This was a lifesaver for our baby. He had really bad gas and it was the only one that made a dufference
2337398
We bought this DVD on our pediatrician's recommendation and I'm very glad we did. I'll admit I was a little skeptical of Dr. Karp's methods at first - my boyfriend and I snickered a bit watching him SHHHH so loudly in the babies' ears, but today we tried it with our 2-week-old and by god it works!

Our baby has been super fussy in the evenings, screaming inconsolably every minute she isn't eating, and it used to take endless rocking and bouncing to get her to calm down. Tonight, however, it only took a few minutes of trial and error using these methods before we got her to settle. It wasn't quite as immediate or dramatic as what you see in the video, but it was definitely much more efficient than our previous routine.

What's even more incredible, though, is that once we finally got her to sleep she stayed asleep for almost 5 hours. She's never slept more than 3 hours at a time so this was pretty shocking.

I haven't read the book but I will say that I think being able to see the methods in action is really helpful, so I would recommend people try the DVD first.

**UPDATE** Unfortunately we've discovered that the Happiest Baby methods aren't foolproof, and since I wrote the initial review there have been many times when no amount of swaddling or shushing or swinging would help our baby settle down. In fact, sometimes those techniques just seem to make her more upset. It's possible that we're not doing it right, but suffice it to say this DVD hasn't totally been the miracle cure-all we were hoping for. Even so, it has given us some useful tools and when it does work it usually makes our baby sleep longer, so I'm still glad we got it.
3598833
Fantastic. This DVD made such a huge difference with our newborn. The 5 S's work! My husband and I found that some combination of swaddling, shushing, side-lying/stomach position, swinging, and sucking always calmed our baby. Before watching this video we just didn't know what to do when she would cry inconsolably - now she cries for maybe 5-10 minutes total FOR THE ENTIRE DAY. In addition, now that we understand why babies like to be swaddled (and we aren't afraid to do it tightly, as is recommended in the DVD), she sleeps 8-10 hours a night (she's 8 weeks old and exclusively breastfed). I had been convinced my baby hated swaddling because she would cry when I'd do it - now I realize that it was the process of swaddling she didn't like, but once it's done she calms down and often goes to sleep. Anyway, the DVD is great since no new parent has time to read a book. Seriously worth every penny.
3135975
Great book that helps feed baby and whole family. No more frozen meals for mom and dad...we can eat with and the food our little guy is eating. I have even started to mix the banana and blueberry mixture into my plain Greek yogurt in the morning. Yum!!
4639923
When my daughter got hit by a gut virus, and needed IV rehydration and this reduced her breast milk supply, these were the BEST lactation and nutritional aide; she would eat one during a night feeding and found them both tasty and helpful - and believes they were one part, along with pumping every two hours, of restoring her milk supply!<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Boobie-Bar-The-Original-Lactation-Bar-Gluten-Free-Oatmeal-Peanut-Butter-6-Individually-Wrapped-Bars-Gluten-Free-Peanut-Butter/dp/B015QQVF74/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Boobie Bar, The Original Lactation Bar, Gluten Free Oatmeal Peanut Butter, 6 Individually Wrapped Bars (Gluten Free Peanut Butter</a>&nbsp;My daughter is so gluten sensitive she requires an epi pen - and these also passed that test.
2725123
We received this awesome bean bag chair from our mother in law. Our son suffers from acid reflux and this product is great because it keeps him tilted as he naps. It has become a life saver around our house and our little boy is feeling much better during the day. It is also portable and easy to take over to the babysitters house. I will be purchasing another one when our baby girl is due late this year! I highly recommend to any new parents with a child that has acid reflux.
181298
I scoured the internet to find something to help our whole family eat right, but mainly to help our 4 year old, who has always been bigger, but has had some weight issues recently.  Two days in, and she likes the recipes that I've fixed from the book.  I packaged up portions on Sunday so she could grab something if she was hungry. So far, it has made everything super easy. When I laid everything out for one day, I couldn't believe how much food she was supposed to eat! She has upped her veggie and fruit intake tremendously, so I now know she's got the best nutrients available. Waiting to see the change for her health and future!
1405168
The feeder, in my opinion is simply ingenius! My baby eats everything from cut up apples to vegetable soup (I admit, that one's messy) to a juicy piece of NY steak! I love the fact that the baby can sit at the table and eat independently and I don't have to worry about her choking. 5 stars!