Today’s Missoulian carries the news that the Missoula Breastfeeding Coalition has signed on 100 local businesses to its campaign. This means that these businesses, which sport a sticker identifying themselves as “breastfeeding friendly,” support the goals of the coalition and the Missoula City-County Health Department in providing an encouraging environment to breastfeeding moms and their babies.

As the comments posted with this story online illustrate, this support is badly needed. I’m always a bit taken aback by the level of scorn heaped upon breastfeeding moms. These women have to decide for themselves and their children what age is best to stop breastfeeding, what level of modesty is called for in a particular situation and how to go about the delicate business of feeding a baby in a public place.

Kudos to the Breastfeeding 100, as I hereby dub them, for being among the first businesses in Missoula to officially declare their awareness of this reality.

- MM

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Following up on an earlier post, I want to highlight today’s Missoulian editorial – which calls for basic improvements to Montana’s child care regulation and oversight. Particularly, in-home providers should be getting visits from state inspectors before they get their licenses. Anyone who works with young children – and especially children too young to understand or verbalize incidents that risk their health and well-being – should be subject to a comprehensive background check.

These changes won’t solve every problem, but they will get us started in the right direction.

P.S. There’s also a business story in today’s Missoulian about Kim Ormsby, who was named Montana Entrepreneur of the Year for her Natural Baby Company. In just a few short years, her Bozeman-based business has gone gangbusters and is now selling about 4,000 cloth diapers A MONTH to moms around the world. Missoula Mom wrote about her here.

- MM

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A little-discussed nugget of law tucked into the federal health care reform act directs businesses that have more than 50 employees to give lactating mothers a private space in which to pump milk or breastfeed, as well as a “reasonable” amount of (unpaid) time to do so.

This Free Press article forwarded to me this morning discusses it in more detail, and got me reminiscing about all the gross places in which I struggled to pump milk for the short six weeks I breast-fed my newborn baby girl.

Bathrooms, mostly. I was struggling to wrap up my journalism degree at the time, and if the University of Montana had a dedicated lactation room, I was not aware of it. I was also working at the Kaimin, and have fond memories of sitting with my back against the door (because it didn’t lock) of the old editor’s office – a room so filthy I had to scrape what looked like crusty old macaroni and cheese off the windows just to get a little natural light – praying no one would barge in.

The article also got me looking around the Missoulian, pondering places I might pump if I were lactating now. Hmm. Looks like the bathroom again.

Which brings me to my favorite quote from the article. Here’s what Michigan Breastfeeding Network cochair and Children’s Hospital of Michigan pediatrican Rosemary Shy had to say about breastfeeding in bathrooms: “I want every employer who says (pump in a bathroom) to be forced to eat his lunch in the bathroom for a month.”

The law creates a lot of questions – how will this work for non-office staff? – and will no doubt lead to many more as the details are hashed out. But I think it’s a positive thing that the nation is acknowledging its lactating labor force at all, and I, for one, welcome the long overdue discussion.

- MM

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Yesterday Missoulian business reporter Betsy Cohen forwarded an e-mail noting that the founder of a natural cloth diaper business had been named Montana Small Business Person of the Year.

The Small Business Administration picked Bozeman’s Kim Ormsby, chief executive officer of the Natural Baby Company, in recognition of her ability to capitalize on the growing eco-friendly baby products market and expand her small online retail store into “a multi-million dollar brand with retailers in over 20 countries.”

The e-mail says that in just two years, the company grew by 250 percent and expanded its retailed base by 1,000 percent in 2009 alone – spurred on in large part by the growing demand for economical and natural alternatives to disposal diapers.

According to the note:

•    The average child uses about 6,000 disposable diapers in two years.

•    At 25 cents a diaper this can add up to between $1,600 and $2,000.

VS.

•    The average Gro Baby (a brand of cloth diaper sold by the Natural Baby Company) uses 24 cloth shells and 24 soaker pads in 2 years

•    The average Gro Baby parent spends around $455 in 2 years, or just $20 a month on diapers

•    Using Gro Baby diapers instead of disposables can save parents over $1,000 in 2 years!

•    There are currently about 9.5 million children under 2 and in diapers, 7.5% of those babies are in cloth diapers and 92.5% in disposable diapers. If families using disposables switched cloth diapers they would save over $6 billion total.

Ormsby will be going to Washington, D.C. in May to accept her award, along with the winners from other states, at the SBA’s annual National Small Business Week event. 

“I am extremely honored to be named the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2010 Montana Small Business Person of the Year,” Ormsby said in a prepared statement. “What’s most thrilling is that amongst the financial and corporate companies that are making great contributions to our economy, the SBA is honoring a product line in such a niche, but essential category and is highlighting the position our industry holds as a significant part of this nations success.”

Congratulations to Kim Ormsby, Montana’s top “mompreneur”!

- MM

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When my daughter first started eating solid food (really solid food that required chewing, not that baby food mush), I started her out on “circle cereal,” popularly known as Cheerios. My hazy, sleep-deprived mom mind reasoned that, should one of the little o’s get lodged in her throat, she would still be able to breathe through the little hole, thus preventing choking.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and I are apparently on the same wave length, though separated by a few years. In its Feb. 22 policy statement on choking prevention in children, the academy suggests, among other measures, that food and toy manufacturers redesign products with high choking potential.

Apparently, the hot dog makers of the nation felt this targeted them, as the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council has been making the media rounds in defense of the iconic wiener shape.

In a USA Today story, council president Janet Riley said, “As a mother who has fed toddlers cylindrical foods like grapes, bananas, hot dogs and carrots, I ‘redesigned’ them in my kitchen by cutting them with a paring knife until my children were old enough to manage on their own.”

Ah, how I remember dicing up all those little choking hazards myself, wishing all food came in the same form as that blessed circle cereal.

- MM

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Mamalode has posted the entries for its seven finalists from the contest it is sponsoring, and they are amazing!

Online voting begins today and runs through Dec. 31. Remember, the winner will get a free seat in the Montana Community Development Corporation’s FastTrac® GrowthVentureTM course, a free ad in an upcoming issue of the Mamalode magazine and free online advertising. That’s a total prize value of about $1,000.

So vote, and help your favorite win!

- MM

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Are you a mom? Do you own a business? If so, you’ll be interested in this contest being conducted by the moms behind Mamalode.

The winner of the contest will win a seat in the Montana Community Development Corp.’s FastTrac® GrowthVentureTM course, which Mamalode describes as an incomparable tool for improving business performance and plotting strategy. And Mamalode would know, having both worked with MCDC and taken the course. In fact, Mamalode founder Elke Govertsen will be a coach in the upcoming course.

To enter, send Mamalode an essay of no more than 1,000 words: “Up to 250 words about you, 250 words about your business history, 250 words about your business currently, 250 words about your goals and vision.” And hurry – the deadline for entries is Dec. 10.

The Mamalode moms will select three finalists, then post their entries online so readers can vote for their favorite.

The winner will not only get a slot at MCDC’s 10-week course, which starts in mid-January, she’ll also get a free ad in an upcoming issue of the Mamalode magazine, plus free online advertising, putting the total value of the contest prize at more than $1,000.

- MM

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