The Importance of Dad’s
I recently spent an evening handing out information to new Mothers at the local hospital. It was only 12 months ago that I was in their position and so I had anticipated the empathy I felt for the slightly dazed, sleep deprived and sore mothers. What I hadn’t expected was the empathy I felt for the fathers.
Being a mother my bias is obviously female and I would not, for a moment, say that the Dad’s have it worse than the Mum’s in early parenting. But what I noticed for the first time was that there is no support for the Dads.
Dads’ miss out on all the good stuff. They aren’t as hormonally charged to nurture the baby, which is not to say they are less nurturing, but that they get far less biological help to do so. Fathers don’t experience the hormonal shifts that aid in returning to sleep after being woken mid sleep & they have fewer feel good hormones raging through their bloodstream that help mothers out in the early months.
Dad’s even miss out on a lot of the ‘stuff’ that goes with a baby. There is really no male equivalent to a traditional Baby Shower, and even if there were what would you gift to a father-to-be? They really don’t have any use for body creams, re-usable breast pads or spa treatments. At best Dad’s get the practical things like a baby carrier- but nothing really cool. Until now that is.
Last week I met Alan Jones and was introduced to his very kool product for new Dads’ – The Milkooler. Yes that’s right it’s a stubby holder for a baby’s bottle. Aside form being super cute there is more to this product than the novelty factor. It keeps Milk warmer, or juices cooler for longer, it is far easier for little hands to hold, it prevents the sun getting to the contents inside and when children are in the mimicking phase it is just like an adult stubby holder. They are inexpensive, fit most bottles and scrunch up easily in a nappy bag.
My son is totally breastfed but still uses his on some of his sippy bottles and bottles of expressed breast milk. My partner loved this product and it went straight to the top of his ‘Great kids gear’ list. We have ordered a few more for expectant friends.
http://www.milkooler.com/
You can read more of Rachael Stott at http://www.rachaelstott.com/
I also had the pleasure to meet Alan Jones and to see the Milkooler myself. As our children are no longer using bottles or sippy cups I gave one to my brother as he has 3 children under 3. The kids all wanted to try it, and dad thought it was cool too. The Milkooler is an Australian product that can be shipped to New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, UK and Ireland, Canada and the US.
