u/Different-Pen8269

What's everyone doing for filtering tap water? I live in a city with good tap water, and never thought it was necessary to filter more. The fact that microplastics are now ubiquitous in the environment also makes me wonder about the value of a filtration system at home...if they're everywhere around us, how much difference could water filtration actually make.

However ive had some recent conversations with other moms about microplastics in water ... It's got me wondering.

Is anyone else filtering? And if so, what system are you using?

We signed our 3 year old son up for gymnastics this fall. We could not get into any city run classes, so went with a private club (Etobicoke gymnastics). My son likes the class so far - he gets to use all the equipment (trampolines, bars, beams, etc) and gets a ton of energy out.

After a couple of weeks of classes though, I'm a bit put off by the fact that there don't seem to be any boys in any of the classes at this club (on the night we go, I witnessed at least 5 other classes of varying age groups, all girls). Nor are any of the coaching staff male (there are photos of all the coaches on the wall, they're all female).

I would prefer to send him somewhere where there are some boys in the classes as well. I really hope this doesn't come across as sexist - he's taken all kinds of classes (swim, soccer, dance, art), and I find that he tends to enjoy them more when he has a buddy there with him, and when he feels like he fits in. He may not want to do gymnastics again after this, but if he does, I may consider switching clubs.

So my question - does anyone with kids in gymnastics know of clubs in the city where there would be boys in the classes as well? I'm located right on the border of North York and Etobicoke, and would be willing to go north into Woodbridge as well. Scarborough and the east end are a bit far for me.

So the other day, my husband threw a cloth diaper into the laundry bin without throwing out the disposable liner. Baby had only peed. I didn't see it before throwing everything into the wash. I did my regular wash routine (2 washes, then hang dry). This is when I noticed the disposable liner in the laundry. I took it out and layed it to dry with the rest of my diapers. Lo and behold, once dry, it was still in great shape. I reused it the next day and it worked fine.

It never occured to me to wash the disposable liners, and I try and time it so that I'm only using one when Im fairly certain that baby will poop. But I was super impressed with them! I will probably do it again for liners that are just wet and not dirty.

Does anyone else do this?

The brand I use is Kushies. They're pretty thick and strong.

I purchased a box of Springtime Gentle care bleach from Costco. I'm having a hard time figuring out the concentration of bleach in it. I use bleach to disinfect certain laundry, but without knowing the concentration of this stuff I can't figure out the amount to add to my laundry machine... Can anyone help me out?

I put my 5 month old baby girl down on a towel for some diaper free time. When I cleaned up the towel after, I noticed a speck of red/pink on the wet towel where she had peed...

For anyone who has experienced blood in their babies urine, what did it look like? Was the urine pink? Or did you see visible specks of red in the diaper?

If there is blood in ber urine then it could be a UTI (or other things I'm sure) and I'm wondering if I should take her immediately to a doctor. I'm currently on vacation out of my home province (visiting Quebec, but I live in Ontario), and I don't know how our health coverage would work out of province... But I don't want to wait until I go back to Ontario if it's something that will cause her discomfort.

I'm wondering if anyone has older kids that were SGA at birth? My little girl was in the 10th percentile at birth (just under 6 pounds). She's currently 5 months old and is doing fine - growing well, hitting milestones, etc.

Most of the time I forget completely that she was SGA, and then it hits me and I worry again. I understand that one big concern of SGA is the potential long-term health risks to the baby. Does anyone have any stories of themselves or their kids being SGA, and the outcomes?

Not sure if this is the right sub for this, but here goes. I have a very high energy preschool aged boy (3.5). He is also the kid that never wants to be by himself - he needs constant attention from myself and my husband (or one of his favourite aunts) or he acts out. In short, he can be a handful and we are working with him to improve his behaviour (but he's 3, and it takes time).

One of my family members in particular always makes snide remarks about him. She implies that he has ADD/ADHD, that he's so difficult, that all his cousins are better behaved, etc. I cannot stand it anymore, I just want her to keep her comments to herself. He is a handful, but I don't think he is "abnormal" for 3. He focuses well at school and extracurriculars, has friends, and is a sweet boy. But yes he has high energy and needs attention.

We see her fairly often, and I want to say something to let her know to stop with the comments, but I don't want to insult or upset her. I need some advice on how to address it in a way that she won't take too negatively I guess...

Not sure if this is the right sub for this, but here goes. I have a very high energy preschool aged boy (3.5). He is also the kid that never wants to be by himself - he needs constant attention from myself and my husband (or one of his favourite aunts) or he acts out. In short, he can be a handful and we are working with him to improve his behaviour (but he's 3, and it takes time).

One of my family members in particular always makes snide remarks about him. She implies that he has ADD/ADHD, that he's so difficult, that all his cousins are better behaved, etc. I cannot stand it anymore, I just want her to keep her comments to herself. He is a handful, but I don't think he is "abnormal" for 3. He focuses well at school and extracurriculars, has friends, and is a sweet boy. But yes he has high energy and needs attention.

We see her fairly often, and I want to say something to let her know to stop with the comments, but I don't want to insult or upset her. I need some advice on how to address it in a way that she won't take too negatively I guess...

I noticed that Costco sells vouchers for the cirque du Soleil show Luzia, which is performing in Toronto until the end of August. I scanned the QR code on the display at Costco, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to see what tickets are still available. Before I buy the vouchers, I want to make sure that there are seats for the days I'm actually available... Has anyone purchased these?

I'm really not sure how seriously to take my preschooler (3.5 years old) on this. He has become a much pickier eater over the last 6 months. He has a hard time staying focused on eating during meal times, and stops his meal to get up, play, etc. I understand this is normal behaviour.

His weight has stayed almost the same for the last year, but he was on the heavier side before. He has thinned out and grown quite a bit taller in this period. I'm not really concerned about his weight. My concern is that he has recently begun claiming that he gets a stomach ache for no apparent reason, and this is why he isn't eating.

Now, I feel like I need to get him checked out (because what kind of parent ignores recurring stomach pains), but I also feel like he's very likely just saying this because he doesn't want to eat at the table... He has been sick with other illnesses in the past and doesn't talk about any kind of pain or discomfort when sick. He had strep throat, fever, hand foot and mouth disease, and has never complained. We know he's sick due to behaviour changes.

In this situation, his behaviour hasn't changed, but he's claiming pain?

Has anyone else experienced this kind of thing from their preschooler?

I'm trying to make the switch away from plastics. I know there are many silicone options, but I would prefer stainless steel.

Anyone know of a Canadian source for these? Well.ca has a set, but the reviews are mixed.

(Anything but amazon please!)

I purchased some Nellie's Laundry Soda after reading some good things online about it. However, I just took a look at fluffloveuniversity's detergent index, and it seems it's not powerful enough for diapers.

Has anyone used this stuff? I understand there is a version specifically for baby laundry - that's not what I have, just the regular laundry soda.

I'm thinking I should probably just return it before I open it to test it out...

Just got back from our 4 month appointment with my little girl, and the pediatrician was a bit concerned with redness in folds of the diaper area and in the creases of her thighs.

We use both disposables and cloth. I'd like to make sure the cloth diapers aren't causing this - should I strip everything with bleach? Not sure what kind of cleaning is needed to kill fungus...

A mom near me gifted me her stash of old glowbug pocket diapers (Canadian brand that is no longer made). They're very similar to La Petite Ourse, but with more internal gussets. I replaced the leg elastics on a number of them, and they've been working beautifully for 4 months now.

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About a week ago, i discovered that the TPU is starting to crack on a couple of them when the fabric is pulled. I haven't noticed ice any leaks (yet), but I saw the cracks when I was stuffing them.

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I hate to be wasteful, so I purchased some TPU fabric from a local fabric store to place a few patches, but the fabric glue I used came off after the first wash... Is this a lost cause, and should I just trash the ones with the cracking fabric? Or is there another solution to the issue?