As the parent of a newborn baby, its natural to feel apprehensive about all the chemicals contained in laundry detergents and stain removers these days. You've got good reason to be worried. Those chemicals can cause bad rashes and skin irritations on your little one's sensitive skin. It seems like every other week there's another warning about the harmful chemicals in baby items. The focus here is on laundry, something I'm terribly familiar with as the mother of two boys, aged 4 and 2. My oldest, Gavin, was diagnosed with Autism at 13 months old. It was a life changing wake up call to my family that we needed to pay better attention to what chemicals surround our children everyday. Some kids' bodies are better than others at flushing out the toxins and chemicals that are presented every day through plastics, detergents, preservatives, artificial coloring, fragrances, etc. We can reduce and eliminate some of these perils cheaply and easily just by doing a little homework.

One thing that a lot of moms don't consider is that nifty little stain remover they just dab on the onesie before a wash. It sure is handy, isn't it? Well, think about it for a minute. If you're taking every precaution with your child's health, e.g. using BPA-free bottles, natural detergent and organic food, why would you put something on your baby clothes that is nothing more than an ultra concentrated form of the same toxins you are trying to avoid? Petroleum-based detergents used in pre-wash stain removers can be acutely harmful to babies. Babies can be afflicted with an allergic reaction of the skin, lungs, sinuses, and eyes. Solvents in some pre-wash stain removers cause brain damage at high doses, and have been linked to infertility and miscarriages.

So, how can you get those stains out without compromising your baby's health? As the owner of Snugfits™, an online baby clothing boutique, and 2 messy little boys (with one on the way!), I live and breathe baby clothes. These 2 rambunctious rough housers love playing in the back yard, which provides me with plenty of practice taking out the grass and mud stains they acquire daily. I've got some solutions for you, none of which require too much elbow grease.

- Always treat the stain as soon as possible. The longer it sits, the harder it is to get out.

- For a fresh stain, run cold water over it and try to work it out right away. Sometimes this is all you need to do.

- For more stubborn stains, soak it in milk overnight, then wash as usual the next day. This works well on a lot of stains including chocolate, ink, and blood.

- For oil/greasy stains, rub corn flour into it and let it pull out the oil for about 20 minutes. It works great. It has been said that you can hasten the process by putting a paper towel over and under the corn floured stain and ironing it. I've never tried that method because I've always believed that heat makes a stain set into the fabric. I never wash stained clothes in hot water, either.

- Really tough stains might need the old fashioned vinegar/baking soda trick. Just make a thick paste in a small bowl out of vinegar and baking soda and work it into the onesie or baby shirt with an old tooth brush.

- Let the baby clothes sit in the (full) washer for an hour or so before running the cycle. Newer washers have an option to let you do this. If you have an older washer, leave the lid open until it's had a good soak. I think this is a good practice on all laundry loads, not just stained baby clothes.

- When I do break down and use a soap on a stain, I use a natural dish liquid. Just rub some of it onto the stain with an old toothbrush and let it soak in the water.

- Don't ever dry the clothes with the stains until the stain has been eliminated. Once it goes through a hot dryer, it may never come out.

- Another good piece of advice for taking care of baby clothes is to add a half cup of white distilled vinegar to each load during the rinse cycle. The clothes come out fresher because the vinegar breaks down the alkaline and soapy residue, allowing them to be rinsed completely.

One final note on keeping baby clothes non-toxic is to consider washing them separately from your own, especially if you work in an industry where your clothes may be contaminated. Chemists, lab techs, mechanics, and painters are all exposed to chemicals that can harm a sensitive baby. Carpenters working with treated (arsenic) wood should be especially cautious about keeping their clothes apart from baby's. Think about the toxins that might be in your clothes and consider washing them in a separate load.

Take care of those baby clothes! You might be using them again (and again!)

Getting a child with autism ready for a big trip is essential to the trip's success, I think. We haven't ever really tried it yet. We're going to Disney World, and these kids couldn't be more excited. All that Gavin talks about now is Disney World. Every day, he thinks we are going to go there immediately. He understands that we have to take an airplane, but I think he assumes it's just across town. Gavin hasn't been on an plane since he was a baby, so this trip to Disney World will be a huge event in his life. He's never been on a roller coaster, so who knows whats going to happen. There is plenty of fun stuff to do there besides thrill rides, so I know it will be a great time even if the big rides are too scary.

The things I worry about with him are the loud noises and lack of room to move. Gavin is tirelessly energetic, and requires an outlet for that energy, especially when over stimulated. He likes to just hop and skip around when he's excited, and there's not a lot of room for that type of activity on a jet. We do regularly make trips to Raleigh and Greensboro to see family,which are 2 and 3 hour jaunts, but he's used to that routine. He knows what to expect: chicken nuggets at the halfway point and hugs and kisses when we get there. This is a totally new endeavor. We are talking long lines at security, possible delays, and a very loud take off. Not to mention the painful eardrum pressurization upon take off! How do you prepare a kid for that? If you've got a child with autism, you probably understand the apprehension we feel. Chernobyl type nuclear meltdowns are not a fun start to a vacation. Hopefully we can avoid that!

To prepare Gavin, YouTube has been a huge help. We've been watching videos of airplanes taking off, landing, the safety instructional performance and just views of the interior of 747's. He knows its going to be loud. I crank the volume on these videos for him. I'm thinking of getting him some headphones to wear so he can listen to his favorites (Blues Traveler or the Cure) on the way down. He loves music in the car, and I've tried those little earbuds that came with my iPod on him but he won't keep them in very long. Or if they fall out in the middle of his favorite song - not good. High meltdown potential. There are also a lot of great videos of roller coasters on YouTube, filmed from the rider's perspective. Gavin's eyes get really big when he watches those. I'm not sure if he's going to like it or not. He loves going down the big huge slides at Monkey Joes by himself, so maybe he can handle some of these. We will start slow, at the Tea Cups maybe, and gradually work our way up to Space Mountain and beyond.

Through her friends on the autism parenting discussion boards, Sara has found out that we can get a special pass for Gavin when we get to Disney World. It will allow him to skip the lines and just get right on the rides (with me, of course). That will be extra nice. Waiting in a line for 30 minutes is just not an option for a child with autism. I'm not sure if we need to take a note from his doctor or how it works, but that is the only way we'd be able to do a trip to Disney. I can get him to wait for some things, like an eggo waffle in the toaster, for example. I just tell him to count to 20 or 40 or 100, however long I think it'll take to cook. He quits his bellyaching and starts carefully counting. Standing in a line at Disney, he would have to count to about 6500. We've never ventured much past 1000, and that old trick would wear out quickly.

Yes, the waiting is the hardest part. Especially the waiting for the day we actually get on the plane and go! When we first told Gavin about the trip, he woke up the next morning and said "Now, Disneyworld. Yay!" We decided to print out a simple calendar with just the days left on it until the trip, with a little picture of an airplane on the last day. Every day he marks off a day with an X and counts the remaining boxes. Its pretty funny, on any day since we've started doing the calendar countdown, you can ask him how many days left until "Airplane to Disneyworld" and he can tell you. He thinks about it constantly! This is actually a great way to make him aware of the concept of time. This is going to be a huge experience for all of us. I'm sure I'll have plenty of topics to write about when we get back!

My son is a model in a calendar! He's Mr. October! Sara entered him (Gavin 4yrs) into a contest for the National Autism Association annual calendar and he was picked! I just thought I'd use this little platform to brag a bit. We always knew he was a handsome devil, but wow. And now he's also on their advertisement for the big spring sale email. We had no idea they did that until it just popped in the inbox and whoot, there he is! The picture they used was one from 2 years ago when he was two.

I need to get more shots of him modeling our baby and toddler clothes before age starts taking its toll, right? He likes his black "Future Mac User" shirt quite a bit, so maybe I'll put that on him for the big Easter Egg hunt at the church today. Or maybe it should be the "Junk in the Trunk" shirt? That one probably wouldn't go over well with the older patrons. Well, they probably wouldn't get it, especially since Gavin has zero junk in the trunk. He doesn't have one yet, but I could make him one that says "You're Old" just for fun today. That would be a hoot.

We are planning on expanding our line of designs to more older kid stuff someday anyway. With one more baby on the way, our progression of in house models will grow concurrent with Sara's website. Of course, we welcome any of our customers photos to be entered into the modeling contest. Your baby could win a free Snugfit™ and gain the distinct celebrity of regularly appearing on our website! Check out the home page for more info.

Gavin was embarrassed today! For the first time ever, I saw Gavin get red in the face and look very self conscious. He's nearly four (next week!) and he has Autism, so it is kind of a big deal to me. I feel like he's really healing when he shows tangible signs of a unique personality like that.

Here is what happened: We were at Fit for Fun, a cool little place downtown for toddlers and babies to hang out and play together. It's a great place. It's kind of a Saturday morning tradition for me and the boys to head downtown for a playdate at either Fit for Fun or Monkey Joe's. We were eating snacks at a toddler sized table and polishing our proficiency in barnyard animal sounds. All of a sudden, from behind Gavin came a little lad that recognized Gavin from school. "Hi Gavin!" he exclaimed. Gavin looked at him, completely caught off guard, then looked at me and in the same instant turned beet red. I was completely thunderstruck. Shyness! I couldn't help it, I just started roaring with laughter, elated to see this new show of his true character. I wanted to tell everybody there "HEY EVERYBODY! My son is EMBARRASSED! Can you believe it?" Of course, probably no one there would have grasped the depth of what I had seen, unless they too had a child stricken with Autism.

I don't go around introducing him as "Gavin, with Autism." So, a lot of people we encounter at the park and other places might not even see him as different. Yes, he's got some really odd behaviors, I guess. Maybe people do see him differently? I don't know. At any rate, I was pretty psyched when I saw that flash of individuality in him.

On the subject of potty training, I am really mystified. Gavin was using the toilet for about a week. He loved it! It was his favorite thing to do.

"Gavin, do you have to pee pee in the potty? Yes or no?" I'd ask.

"Yes!" he would shout with great enthusiasm.

Now, when I ask him the same question, he pretends not to hear, or runs away. What's the deal? Since he has autism, I'm thankful to get any kind of response to a question. Being able to ask "Yes or No" is extremely valuable. But why now is his standard reaction a nonverbal vamoose?

I think the answer is that the novelty of using the potty is gone. The honeymoon is over. It was fun for a week, but he's found that it is much easier to just let it go, on the go. Dirty pullups don't seem to bother him at all. We've tried the cool alert pullups. They haven't had an effect that I can measure, and I have reservations about the chemicals in them. There is one thing that motivates him like no other, and that is the "Cars" movie. Gavin absolutely loves the extra film that comes on the dvd called "Mater and the Ghostlight." We've turned that into a huge bonus prize for him to earn only if he poo poo's on the potty. He knows that the only time he gets to see Mater being chased all around Radiator Springs by the Ghostlight is after he does a number two. So far it's worked pretty well. One of us has to remind him that there is a great prize waiting in the dvd player if he succeeds. When he doesn't remember (which is most often) and I have to change his pullup, I remind him then that Mater is going to have to wait. He's always very regretful.

I love the way his brain works sometimes. He can be so funny. When he's sitting on the potty, just looking around and humming to himself, I remind him of the task at hand. I'll say "Get that poo poo in the water, so we can flush it away!" (He loves to flush the toilet) He looks at me thoughtfully for a moment, then coaxes "Come on poo poo, take a drink!" As if the poo poo is hiding, not wishing to be flushed. What a kid.

Gavin goes to a great little pre-school where they are working with him on this subject as well. They take him to the toilet every hour, and he has very few accidents. When Garrett is potty trained, I hope his older brother will finally catch on. Garrett seems ready now, so I guess we should be concentrating our efforts on him? Sometimes peers are the best teachers, I think. I just hope they're both in regular underwear by the time the third ankle biter arrives! Three rounds of diaper changes would be more than I could handle. God bless you parents of multiples! I don't know how you do it!