Bepanthen Nappy Care Ointment and Moisturiser

I was sent a lovely box of Bepanthen goodies to try out on the willing Jim baby. He actually made a very good guinea-pig. He is teething so has quite acidic pee and tends to have dry skin patches on his tummy so both creams were needed.

Speak to any mum and they all have a specific nappy rash cream they prefer to use. I'm a great believer in Sudocrem others prefer Metanium which I've never had work successfully. But Sudocrem is quite thick and icky to apply for every nappy change so I'm afraid sometimes it's only used when redness is already starting to show. But, as with a lot of things there are so many different products to choose from it's easier to just stick with what you know. So I'm really grateful I was given the opportunity to try the Bepanthen Nappy Care Ointment. This cream has a really nice texture - almost gel-like, so it's really easy to apply and your both not inadvertently covered in it by the end of the nappy change. It doesn't contain any fragrance, preservatives colours or antiseptics so it's suitable as a nappy rash prevention cream to be used at every nappy change. The ointment forms a breathable, transparent layer to protect from irritation and rubbing.

The tube is also incredibly easy to use - a flip top lid means you can open and close it one handed which is a massive bonus.

In terms of dry skin again with my eldest I left it until it was a bit late. Only once he had dry skin, mostly on his arms, did I start to apply cream and for him I've always loved Oilatum Junior. I bought stacks of the stuff when Jim arrived and vowed to baste him daily but he still had little dry patches on his tum. These have gone with regular use of the Bepanthen Baby Moisturiser which I try and use every time he gets out of the bath. It has no perfumes or harsh chemicals so it's great for children with sensitive skin and can be used from newborn up.

The moisturiser contains Vitamin B5 which helps to deeply moiturise and nourish the skin and is free from alcohol, colours, fragrances, parabans, lanolin and paraffin.

I would absolutely recommend both of these creams - I'm going to keep Sudocrem on-hand for anytime an antiseptic cream is needed but hopefully this will be a lot less often with the preventative help of the Nappy Care Ointment. Reasonably priced and easily available, Bepanthen works closely with parents, nurses and midwives so they know what they are doing. Their website has a tone of useful information so it's worth taking a look.

What You Need to Know - Bepanthen Baby Moisturiser and Nappy Care Ointment

• Moisturiser is £5.99 for 100ml
• Ointment is available in three sizes £3.99 for 30g, £5.99 for 50g and £7.99 for 100g 
• The Nappy Care Ointment does not contain any antiseptic - it is a preventive barrier cream. 
• Available in the UK from Boots, Asda, Ocado, Superdrug and Tesco

Professor Scrubbington

This is going to be one of those weird cross-over posts that works on both blogs (if you didn't know I have another blog here) so that's where it's going... on both blogs.

I was very kindly sent some gorgeous Professor Scrubbington products to try out. They arrived just before Jim and therefore sat, neglected on the side in my kitchen in their gorgeous suitcase packaging until finally I actually listened when Ned said he wanted to take it downstairs (where his bedroom and bathroom are) and they made their way to the bathroom. We've been using them (for Ned, not Jim, he's too little) ever since and I LOVE them.

Like many parents I am a slave to Johnson's Bedtime Bath because we will do anything that implies it may help our child sleep. Jim is too tiny to be having actual bubbles in his bath but I use the Johnson's Bedtime Body Wash but Ned, well Ned is a good sleeper (so far) and not that keen on bubbles or having his hair washed, so he was good and ready to try something new.

Professor Scrubbington's Emporioum of Clean is aimed at 'young people who want to take charge of their own ablutions', from the age of 3 up. To that end they are completely child-user-friendly, foams that don't slip off the hand, containers that are squeezable with one hand and the packaging and design is very cool. I also really love the smell, much more 'grown-up' than I was expecting and have been really impressed with the products I've tried. Ned is too, he really likes that they aren't for babies (he's quite superior now he's a big brother) the design and the name. One thing I would say is that initially it's quite hard to work out how to open them but once you do it's actually very clever and will stop the entire product being squirted out by little hands while your back is turned.

So my top picks from the Professor Scrubbington range are...

Scrubbington's Magically Foaming Face and Handwash - £5 for 150ml we have this in the bathroom next to the kitchen for post-loo handwashing and when we need a good sleuce down after supper. Ned really loves that he can pump the soap out himself and stops the shouting about me scrubbing pesto off his face - he can do it himself.

Scrubbington's Magically Foaming Hair and Body Wash - £5 for 150ml. Great for super-quick baths or as an all-in-one to have in the wash bag.
 
Scrubbington's Magically Foaming Shampoo - £5 for 150ml. If you child is a fan of bubbles in their bath then this is a great shampoo to use instead of the hair and body wash above. Smells great and leaves the hair clean and shiny.

These are incredibly reasonably priced so I really urge you to try them out - you can see them in action in my video coming soon

Green & Blacks Organic Thin Bar

Send a pregnant woman an email asking if she'd like to try some chocolate for review and I think the majority would think like me 'say yes, eat the chocolate, worry about the review later'. If I get sent something and I don't like it, I email the nice person who sent it to me and say why I don't like it and then never hear from them again. This would be sad if it happened with chocolate but it was a risk I was willing to take. I had no need to worry the chocolate arrived and was delicious and better than anything from Green & Blacks I'd tried before. Big statement I know.

Thin Dark Chocolate 70%

Green & Blacks 70% Dark chocolate is the only plain chocolate I really like and the only one I would buy so I was totally thrilled to try the new Green & Blacks Thin 70% Dark Chocolate. The quality and taste of this is exactly the same but the new thin format is a big improvement. One or two squares is perfect with a mid-morning cup of coffee - really smooth and much more indulgent.

As for the whole new flavour Thin Salted Caramel, it is just the perfect side of sickly with the right amount of sea salt. At the beginning of the year when our cottage in Norfolk was finally finished and I spent a lot of time up there unpacking boxes of stuff that had been in my husbands family for decades and looked its age. A depressing and arduous task I took it upon myself to try every available milk chocolate/caramel/sea salt chocolate combination available in the North Norfolk area. I am qualified to tell you that this is the best I've tried.

Having been fairly disinterested in chocolate pre-babies I know find myself getting through bars of the stuff when pregnant (before this arrived an entire big bar of Galaxy went in over the course of one day. This is unheard of for me) - it's an annoying and expensive habit. With these new Thin bars I can have one or two squares and move on - that's the joy of the large flat squares, they last longer. You're not breaking off the next tiny square before you've finished the first mouthful. The Organic Thin Mint Crisp is exclusive to Waitrose until 2nd May and I will be getting a bar the next time I go there without a doubt. May even find an excuse to go out this afternoon.

They are £2.29 each, not the cheapest but great-tasting and seemingly long lasting. I've had these a week and they've survived the insatiable sweet-tooth of a pregnant lady. These new bars are absolutely worth a try. 

Thin Milk Chocolate with Salted Caramel