LivingwithKids

The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, including Global Patron Sarah Brown and WRA Ambassador Naomi Campbell, are asking people around the world to wear white and hold a dinner party in March to celebrate the 100th year of International Women’s Day, which is on the 8th.

Now as I can’t invite all of you round to my house unless you’re happy for it to be standing room only, I thought I would hold a virtual dinner party  - with a little help from some of my talented friends.  I hope it inspires you to host your own.

Here’s what’s on the menu:

Starter Carrot and Coriander soup served with crusty granary bread (created by Sandy from Baby Baby)

Main course
Pan Fried Sea Bass fillets with new potatoes crushed with spinach watercress and rocket (courtesy of Nick from My Daddy Cooks)
or

Tender Sweet Chicken Satay (from My Daddy Cooks) served with Persian Jewelled Rice (made by Carly at Wives and Daughters) or Butternut Squash Risotto from English Mum

Dessert Cheesecake courtesy of Lorraine from Ramblings of a Mum on the Run or Divine Chocolate’s Little Hot Chocolate Mousse. Served with cream.

Mmmmmm. Enjoy!

Despite Government guidelines urging new mums to breastfeed for the first six months*, a new KidStart survey has found that just 44% of you believe breastfeeding is always best.

Over 1000 of you took part in the survey, which revealed 19% feel it’s important to put their own wellbeing first. 16% believe mums should always put their baby’s needs first, while 13% feel it’s important to research all the arguments in favour of breastfeeding and bottle feeding before making a decision. A further 8% argued that no one had the right to tell them how to feed their babies.

As my recent post on breastfeeding v bottlefeeding showed, many of you feel very strongly about being told how to feed your babies - and quite right too. But a friend of mine who gave birth recently said she was astonished to find she was the only one on the ward of 10 women who was breastfeeding her baby. Perhaps some mums still aren't getting the support and encouragement they need to breastfeed.

‘Breastfeeding is the method that has been proven to be the most beneficial time and time again,’ says LivingwithKids' GP Dr Clare Heggie. ‘Unfortunately it does not suit everyone and lots of women who try breastfeeding and had to give up for one reason or another are left feeling guilty and that they have failed. Ultimately, the decision of whether to breast or bottle feed has to be made by the mum and there is no point trying to breast feed when mum just doesn't want to do it or when breast feeding is intolerable either to Mum or baby. It is vital that mums make their own decision about feeding using all the information provided.’

*What do you think - are you surprised by the survey results?

How cool is Tomy's new mOmma range of bottles and feeding utensils for little ones? Not only is the range available in one of the best colours (orange), but it's really brilliantly designed to help babies and toddlers with their hand-eye coordination and grip, and it's also BPA free.

The range includes the Bottle Starter Kit (£31.49), Developmental meal set (£15.99) and incredibly cute Baby bib (£8.49). All available from Kiddicare (who also have a car seat sale on at the moment).

Peter Andre was on GMTV this morning talking about a picture of two-year-old Princess which has appeared on Katie's facebook page of the little girl wearing make-up. And false eyelashes. 'It's disgusting,' he told Kate Garraway.

Now, leaving aside the fact that this was on his ex-wife's facebook page, which presumably, unlike the rest of the family's lives, isn't usually available for public consumption until someone decided to share it, I can see his point. I don't like the thought of kids wearing make-up.

But at the same time, perhaps she was just playing dress-up and wanted to be like mummy.

What do you think?

Four of my favourite mummy bloggers - English Mum, Mummy Tips, New Mummy and Not Supermum - tagged me recently in the 'favourite photo' meme. But you know what? Choosing a favourite from the many stowed away in bags and boxes in our cupboards (for goodness sake don't try to open them) is really, really hard.

So as it's No 1 Son's birthday today I thought I'd share this one with you. It was taken on holiday in Antigua a few years ago. In between all the snorkelling, swimming and sunbathing we were lucky enough to visit a dolphin sanctuary. As you can see my little boy wasn't quite sure about cuddling up to the dolphin (they're actually wonderfully smooth to the touch and only smell a little fishy) but he didn't stop talking about the experience for ages afterwards, so I know it made an impression.

The best part though was watching them (the dolphins) chase each other in the sea. (And if you're dreaming of the Caribbean, don't forget Virgin Holidays and Thomas Cook  have brilliant offers on at the moment, plus you get money back for your kids through KidStart .)

Oh, and if my son should happen to read this... Happy Birthday. Please can you pick up the rubbish from your bedroom floor?

We had a lovely weekend catching up with various godparents, friends and their children and enjoying good food and quite a lot of entertainment courtesy of Elliot, eight, who has recently learned to moonwalk, and Ella, five, who treated us to songs from High School Musical.

But the desperate situation in Haiti was never far from my mind.

The expression of joy on the face of two-year-old Redjeson Hausteen Claude as he was reunited with his mum after two days trapped under rubble is a powerful reminder that there is hope, but survivors are still desperately in need of water, food and shelter and rescue efforts are continuing. Which is why I'm giving what I can to the Disasters Emergency Committee in aid of Haiti today. You can donate as little as a fiver here. Not much, but something.

You don't need a psychologist to tell you that most people fail to keep New Year's resolutions. And of course if you don't manage to do something you intended doing you're setting yourself up for that awful feeling of failure.

The word 'resolution' sounds so formal and off-putting. I prefer 'goal'. And experts agree that if you write your goals down you're more likely to stick to them. I think you also have to make them realistic and make a distinction between dreams and something more tangible. My dreams for 2010, for example, would include a balloon ride with David Tennant, but I think we know that's unlikely to happen.  So my goals for 2010 are less exciting, but more achievable: to eat less and excercise more, to finish all the books I start reading (I'm very bad at this), to shout a bit less and to learn a new skill. (I haven't decided what yet.)

What are your goals for 2010? I'd love to know - and if you share them here, it could help you achieve them.

E-cards have always seemed a bit impersonal to me - but if you've forgotten to send someone a card, they can be a useful way of letting someone know you're thinking about them. And Tesco have come up with a great idea this year.

They will donate 5p per card for the first 100,000 sent to the Woodland Trust. If you want to send a card, simply click here.

We've been having a bit of a Disney week, because on Sunday we took Ben, 6, and Harriet and Daisy, both 13, to a preview of the much-talked about new film The Princess and the Frog.

The movie has caused quite a lot of controversy in the US, because it features the first African American lead character, the beautiful Tiana. But as Whoopi Goldberg pointed out on last night's Royal Variety Performance, Tiana spends 70% of the film as a frog. She isn't a princess, either. The movie is set in 1920s New Orleans, and that means Tiana is poor (but rich in spirit, obviously).

I guess the fact so much fuss is being made that Tiana is African American says quite a lot - but it does seem a bit bizarre, particularly when you consider that Mulan was Chinese, Pocahontas was Native American and Princess Jasmine was Middle Eastern, so it's not the first time there has been a non-white Disney lead. Still, it's been a long time coming, as they say, and Tiana can now take her place among Mulan, Belle and the rest as one of the best Disney heroines. There has also been some controversy about the inclusion of voodoo in the film, but it is set in New Orleans, so I'm not sure what anyone expected. Anyway, the kids appeared not to notice anything unusual - they simply thought the movie was 'fantastic'. And it made me really hungry, because Tiana, who's a chef, keeps making beignets, lighter than air square doughnuts.

I'll put up a proper review of the movie closer to the release date (5 Feb 2010) but meanwhile here's a little peek:

There's an interesting article in today's Times about the impact of larger families on the environment - sparked by the climate control debate in Copenhagen. They asked two families - one with three kids, one with six - to take part in a carbon footprint analysis. The results are interesting but perhaps not as conclusive as you might expect.

Our family isn't particularly large, we recycle as much as possible, but we do fly quite a lot. So we are trying to think about our carbon footprint and do what we can to reduce it. If you want to find out yours then just click here - let me know how you get on!