As parents we tend to worry about anything and everything to do with our children.

One of the big worries is often about whether or not they’re eating well enough.  If you have a fussy eater on your hands it can be really worrying, trying to make sure they get all the vitamins and nutrients that they need.

Even if you have a fantastic eater, it can still be hard not to worry about them actually getting enough of the vitamins they need.

This is why I love multivitamins.

They don’t replace a good, varied diet, but they give me that peace of mind that my children are getting what their growing bodies need even on days when they don’t eat all that well.

I was recently sent a couple of bottles of vitamins from Haliborange to try out, and Rhys was desperate to try them as soon as they arrived.  He really loves the routine of taking vitamins, and tends to remind me each morning that he needs/wants to have one before we head off to school.

For general, everyday health we’re trying the Haliborange softies multivitamins.

They’re for children aged 3-12, which is great for us now because it means that both Rhys and Nerys can take them.  Neither of them were keen on the liquid vitamins designed for toddlers, so I’m really pleased we can move on to these for both of them.

They’re strawberry flavoured, and are basically like jelly sweets which makes them a big hit with Rhys in particular.

As for me, I’m happy because they provide vitamins A, D, E and C along with Niacin, Vitamin B6 and Vitamin B12.

We’ve also been testing out the Haliborange Mr Men/Little Miss Omega-3 and Multivitamins.

These are for children aged 3-7, so again perfect for our family.  And they’re orange flavoured which always goes down well here.

Along with all the vitamins that you get in the everyday multivitamins, with these you also get Omega-3 from flaxseed oil.  I think these are the ones we’ll be buying more of in the future, because there are so many benefits to taking omega-3.

Omega-3s help to support children’s cognitive development and they help children focus and concentrate.  One particular study that was carried out found that children who ate foods that were rich in, or fortified with, Omega 3s showed better social skills and hand-eye coordination and had longer attention spans too.

All good reasons to keep my children topped up with Omega 3!

With school back in full swing now, it feels like there is always one bug or another being spread around the classroom.  So I’m really pleased that we have these multivitamins on hand to help bolster the children’s immune systems.

Hopefully taking these will help them to keep the coughs and colds at bay.  But if they do succumb to them, they should be able to fight them off again that little bit quicker if their immune systems are working well for them.

Rhys has told me that the Haliborange vitamins are really tasty, and that’s so important to us because I really don’t want a fight every morning over them being eaten!

Haliborange are clearly aware of how important taste is too, because they actually offer a taste guarantee on their children’s vitamins.  If your children don’t like the taste of them, you can send the bottle back to Haliborange, as long as you have your receipt for them, and they will send you a refund.

I can’t see many people needing to take advantage of this though, they really do taste great!

Competition time

Haliborange have put together this great little prize bundle for someone to win, perfect for keeping children happy and healthy at school.  The bundle includes a 3 month supply of Haliborange multivitamins and Mr Men/Little Miss items that are perfect for school.

If you’d like to be in with a chance of winning this fab bundle for your family, you can enter below.

The giveaway is open to UK residents only, and closes at midnight on the 20th October.  Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer – I was sent a few bottles of Haliborange vitamins for my children, for the purposes of this review, however all words and opinions are my own.  

For the last few weeks I’ve been doing something a bit different with my laundry.  I’ve been testing out the gorgeously scented lavender and sandalwood non-bio washing liquid from Ecover, as part of the #EcoverLaundry challenge for Britmums.

As a family of four, we create a seemingly endless pile of laundry.   Every once in a while I get to the bottom of the pile, and have a gloriously empty washing basket.  And for a precious few minutes I feel a strange sense of calm, before someone spills something down their top or I find a rogue pair of dirty socks that someone had hidden in the lounge.

I know that some people like to tackle their laundry by letting it build up over the course of the week and then washing it all in one day, in a big washingathon.

This just doesn’t really work well for me though, so I tend to do a load of washing most days of the week to try and feel on top of it.  With the washing machine running pretty much every day I am aware of the impact it might have on both the environment and my bills, so I generally will run the machine on a cool wash.

Which means I need a washing detergent that will clean really well, on a cool wash.

Rhys generally comes home from school each day grubby.  Or filthy, depending on how much he’s played outside in the woods that day.  He wears white polo shirts to school that end up covered in mud and sometimes grass stains.  So they were perfect to put Ecover to the test.

I have to say, I was really impressed with the results.  Even on a cool wash the tops came out stain-free after a wash with Ecover.

See the thing is, it’s not just at school that Rhys and Nerys get grubby.  After school and at the weekends they get up to various things that often result in mucky clothes.

We go to the beach and they get covered in sand and splash in the salty sea water.

We bake together, and as good as they are at it, they often still end up with cake mixture on their sleeves and cocoa powder down their fronts.

They help their Daddy in the garden, and end up with mud all over them.  Normally because they wipe their muddy hands on their clothes; why do children do this?!

So some weekdays I’ll have a dirty set of school uniform to wash for each of them, and then they’ll get the clothes they change into grubby too.  Lots of grubby clothes means that I really do need a detergent that lives up to the claims it makes about how well it works.

We’ve been using Ecover for a couple of weeks now and I have to say that I have been really impressed with it.

Here’s what I love about it:

• The smell is really lovely.  I have always loved the smell of lavender and the addition of sandalwood to this washing liquid just adds a little extra something to it.
• It is lasting ages.  The bottle is really quite small, which is useful if you don’t have a lot of storage space for huge boxes of washing powder, but it claims to have enough liquid in it for 25 washes which I think is great.
• It is effective.  It has tackled every stain we’ve thrown at it so far, so I’m really pleased.
• It’s designed for sensitive skin.  Now, we don’t really have any issues with sensitive skin in our family luckily, but I really like that Ecover has been developed with sensitive skin in mind.  It means that I know it will be gentle and safe for my whole family.

I honestly haven’t really noticed any big negatives about the Ecover washing liquid I’ve been testing.  Although, I would love to have tried it alongside an Ecover fabric conditioner to really test out the product line, because I’ve been adding a conditioner from a different brand to my wash to get the real softness that I like in my clothes.  I found that just using the Ecover detergent didn’t leave my clothes as soft as I would like.

I can definitely see us using Ecover in the future though, as I really like the ethos of the brand and have been really impressed with how well the detergent has worked on our tough mountain of washing.  And I’m not the only one who has been impressed by it.  Back in May Mumsnet asked over 200 people to try it out, and 85% said they would buy it again and 89% would recommend it to a friend.  Pretty impressive!

Now you’ll have to excuse me, I have to go and put another load of washing on before the clothing mountain starts to take over the house!

This post is an entry for BritMums #EcoverLaundry Challenge, sponsored by Ecover.

For months now I’ve been thinking that we should introduce some yoga into our weekly, if not daily, routine.  Rhys is a high energy child who struggles sometimes to sit calmly and to focus.  He is also a very sensitive child, still working out how to cope with the big emotions that he experiences.  I really have a feeling that regular yoga practice will help him with both of these things.

I think it will help me too if I’m honest.

I have a fair bit of anxiety myself, and think that taking time out of my daily routine to do some yoga will really help me to feel calmer and possibly more in control.

During the summer holidays Rhys and I went along to a family yoga session in Cwmdonkin Park which we both really enjoyed.  That experience has made me even more keen to find a way to get some regular yoga in, either by going to a class or by learning to do it ourselves at home.

So when I was asked if I would like to review a copy of a new book written especially to introduce children to yoga, I jumped at the chance.

“Kids yoga” is written by Karin Eklund, who is an experienced yoga teacher, as well as an author.

She has explained that she wrote the book after finding that most other guides to yoga that are out there are written more as guides for parents to read, to learn how to introduce yoga to their children.  Karin felt that there was a need for a book that was written for the children themselves.

She says.

“‘Kids yoga’ is a picture book, which allows very young children to jump straight in and begin copying the poses illustrated.  As they get older, they can read the text to more precisely move into the pose”

I absolutely love that she took this approach to writing the book, and think that it definitely works the way she intended.

I took the book to the beach with us recently, and both Rhys who is 6 and Nerys who is 3 loved looking through it with me.

A huge part of the appeal of the book for me is the illustrations, which are beautiful and really quite clever.

Each page has an illustration of a child demonstrating the pose that is being explained, but with a fun little twist each time.

So the tree pose, for example, shows a child holding the pose but with leaves growing from their outstretched arms.  I know, that sounds a little bit strange when it’s put like that, so here’s a photo to show you what I mean.

I just think it’s a really beautiful way of showing young children what the pose is about, and goes perfectly with the explanation of the pose:

“stretch your arms high above your head, like the branches of a tree”.

And it works too, after looking at the picture in the book with me Nerys was able to have a go at tree pose herself.

With Rhys’ help we had a good look through all the poses together on our little trip to the beach, to see what other ones she wanted to try.

We all liked the look of the sun salute, but decided that might be one for another day when we more prepared and had a mat with us so we wouldn’t get absolutely covered in wet sand trying it!

Nerys did try out a couple of other poses though that she particularly liked the look of.

This was downward facing dog which she had a lot of fun with.

I really love the description of this pose in the book:

“Dogs walk on all fours, so place your four paws on your mat.  Lift your tail high while you straighten your arms and legs”

This just seems so much more fun for little ones, getting them to pretty much just pretend to be dogs, instead of trying to get them to take part in a more serious yoga practice.  It’s putting things in a way that they understand, tapping into their natural desires to play make-believe.

Nerys also had a go at one of the three warrior poses that are in the book.

These are illustrated with a fierce looking child in chainmail and armed with a sword and a shield.  I absolutely love these pictures, because they help get the point across that yoga is for everyone.  Yoga isn’t just soft and gentle, you can be fierce and strong and still do yoga.

What I really love is that this book provides a gentle introduction to yoga for Nerys and Rhys as well as a whole routine that would be perfect for me to do as well.

The book is set out so that you can work your way through it and do a complete routine.  It starts with active, standing poses like warrior and half moon, then moves on to more gentle sitting poses.  You then finish up with some lovely relaxation poses, so that your child finishes the routine feeling calm and grounded.

At the same time though, each individual pose can be done on its own.  So if you don’t have the time or the inclination to go through the whole routine you can let your child flick through the book and choose a couple of poses to do that they feel drawn to.

There are so many benefits to doing yoga, that I think it’s a fantastic thing to introduce our children to.  In fact, I’m pretty sure they do some at school as part of their PE lessons which I think is amazing.

If you want to start getting your children doing some yoga at home, I would highly recommend this book.

It’s beautifully illustrated, the poses are explained in terms that make it perfect for children to explore for themselves, and the author has been teaching yoga for over 10 years so clearly knows her stuff!  I have a feeling our copy will be dog-eared before long (it already has some rogue grains of sand hiding in it), and it feels like that’s the way it should be.  This is a book that should be read and used and loved by children.

I’m hoping that with this book’s help we can slot some yoga into our routine, because I really do think it will have a positive impact on all of us.

Disclaimer – I was sent a copy of ‘Kids yoga’ for the purposes of this review but, as always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.