Since launching DaisychainBaby last year, I’ve always been on the lookout for cost effective yet non-intrusive ways to promote the business. That might sound almost like an oxymoron, because the very nature of self-promotion normally means an awful lot of trumpet blowing but I always like to ensure I can offer something back whether that be by way of advice, support, or a link exchange. I’ve found social networking sites Twitter and Facebook to be invaluable and have made some really wonderful contacts.

One such contact appears on Twitter under the name @MumsLikeYou, and on seeing a message posted on Twitter a couple of weeks ago asking if anyone would like to promote their business on http://www.mumslikeyou.com, it seemed like a great opportunity. I’ve had somewhat mixed experience so far of networking sites for parents, finding some quite cliquey and some comments on really rather unpleasant, so it’s been a breath of fresh air to find a site that although still in it’s infancy, has some very helpful and friendly people signed up.

Founder Iveta Tancheva is a mum-of-one who on being made redundant at the start of this year, took the opportunity to do something she’d been thinking about for quite some time and launch an interactive social network for mums. The site has only been live for 2 months but in that time has grown to a small community of mums, mumpreneurs and companies (like DaisychainBaby!) that interact in ways unavailable on other sites.

I asked Iveta how she felt Mums Like You is different from other sites: “As you have probably seen Mums Like You is based on interactivity. This is at the core if the website - its purpose is to enable mums to share their knowledge and advice and help make each other’s lives easier. We are not relying on expert advice as some other sites do. We believe mums know best when it comes to practical parenting tips. The site has a forum but there are many other ways mums can exchange useful info - posting local events in the Activities area, rating products in the Reviews or placing a small ad on the Marketplace. And the best part of it - it is all free”.

Another benefit from a member point of view, is the decision Iveta has taken to provide two classes of registration, one for businesses (which we have registered under) and one for mums. Mums can still see all the details of those companies which add their information to the site, but it prevents the forums being blitzed by people who are simply interested in advertising and nothing else. We recommend Mums Like You as a great social network for mums and businesses alike and look forward to seeing it flourish over the coming months.

Raw Gaia are one of our wonderful brands, who have produced the world’s first full range of living, organic and vegan skin care products. I’m a particular devotee of their Raw Chocolate Face Pack and love their wonderful range of baby skincare goodies which are all stocked at DaisychainBaby. Here is their guide to the benefits of baby massage and how to perform it correctly.

Being a new mum or dad can sometimes seem an endless cycle of feeding and changing nappies. Massaging your baby gives you a time when you can relax and be together, and also has lots of wonderful benefits. Did you know for example, that baby massage can help your baby if it is suffering from colic, constipation or trapped wind?

• Massage is an excellent way of connecting with your baby if you are a working mum. A short massage each night before bath time can help your baby feel loved
• Massage can alleviate trapped wind, soothe colic or alleviate constipation
• Massaging the jaw can relax a baby who has just begun to take solids
• Massaging the gums through the skin may ease the pain of teething
• A face massage can unblock baby’s blocked nose
• Massage can alleviate the effects of postnatal depression and help mothers have a more positive interaction with their baby

Baby massage should never be probing, but should also not be so light as to tickle the baby. Of course you need to be most gentle with tiny babies: a standard recommendation is to place your finger on your closed eyelid and press lightly, stopping before it feels uncomfortable. Use this as a gauge for how much strength to use on a new baby. For older babies, be quite firm as babies prefer confident handling. Think about what you would enjoy and then watch your baby for reactions.

On the trunk, always massage from your left to right (that’s from your baby’s right to left). This follows the direction of flow in the digestive system, so that you are working with the baby’s organs, not against them. Use your “main” hand - that is your writing hand - for the major part of the strokes.

Rub a little bit of Raw Gaia’s Baby Massage Oil on your hands and you’re ready to start!

Open Book (used on chest, back and forehead)
Place your hands together palm to palm, in a “praying” gesture, with your fingertips pointing towards the baby’s head, your thumbs uppermost. Now imagine that your hands are a closed book, and your thumbs are the spine. Place your little fingers - they are the edges of the pages - against the baby’s skin, and “open” the book by spreading your hands, until your thumbs - still touching each other - reach the baby’s flesh. Separate your hands and continue to move them outward across your baby in one smooth motion.

Squeezing Down (used on arms and legs)
Starting at the top of the limb and squeezing gently, move your hand down to the wrist or ankle. Imagine that you are gently squeezing out any tension in the arm. As one hand reaches the wrist or ankle, start at the top with the other hand so that there is a continuous stroking effect.

Rolling (used on arms and legs)
This is a classic massage stroke - you have probably seen it even if you’ve never done it. Place your non-writing hand under the limb and your main hand above. Roll the limb between the hands - you’ll probably find you do this by moving your main hand rapidly and your other hand hardly moves at all. Then move gradually down the limb.

Chest and Stomach

• Open book on the baby’s chest, spreading out around the baby’s ribcage and under the arms
• Repeat the above action on the collar bone and shoulders
• Stroking neck - place your hand diagonally on the centre of your baby’s chest, so that your fingertips point to one shoulder. Push your hand up and over the shoulder so that your fingers go under the chin and into the crease against your baby’s neck. Do the same with the other hand on the opposite shoulder
• Arched window - place two fingers of your main hand at the very top of your baby’s right thigh and run them up, under the curve of the ribcage, and down to the same point on the left side. You should have drawn the shape of an arched window, or an upside down ‘U’
• Scooping in the sand - now place the side of your curved hand in the arch under the ribcage, and bring it down towards the groin, as if you were scooping a hole in the sand. Do this 5 times with each hand and then again with your main hand, holding the baby’s legs up with the other

Arms and Hands

• Squeeze down the arm gently, making sure you get into all the creases, especially behind the elbow
• Roll the arm
• Stroke the back of the hand, starting at the wrist and going down over the top of each finger in turn
• Do the same on the palm of the hand. As you reach the tip of each finger, give it a little roll between your fingers.

Legs and Feet

• Start with the left leg - squeeze down the leg, making sure you get into all the creases, especially behind the knee, then roll the leg
• Squeeze and twist the leg, in the style of a ‘Chinese burn’ - but gently and with plenty of oil! Work your way down the leg
• Stroke the top of the foot, going down over the top of each toe in turn
• Do the same on the base of the foot, starting at the heel. As you reach each toe, give it a little roll between your fingers - this can be quite difficult if your fingers are slippery. If your baby has their toes curled over, try putting your thumb at the base of the toes and pushing gently and repeatedly, until they relax

The Back

Turn your baby until they lie on their front. Some babies love this, while some hate it - it may depend on their age and upper body strength. If your baby won’t happily lie on their front, try holding them to your chest with their head lying on, or over, your shoulder, or, if they are old enough, sitting up, perhaps in the crook of your leg to hold them steady.

• Use the open book technique, down below their arms onto their ribs, and up over their shoulders
• Lay both palms perpendicular to the baby’s spine and move your hands back and forth, working your way gradually down to the small of the back
• Use the tips of two fingers to draw small circles all over the back, working roughly from top to bottom. Try to draw the circles by shifting the skin, rather than moving your fingers over the skin

Face and Head

This is perhaps the section that most babies like least. If your baby doesn’t want it, simply miss it out. If your baby likes it, try doing it earlier on into the massage, when the baby is still lying on its back. Most of the following strokes use the tips of the first two fingers of each hand, working symmetrically on both sides of the face at the same time

• Use the open book technique on the forehead, but using just the upper half of your fingers
• Use your thumbs to stretch the forehead gently, pulling outwards from the centre
• Draw the tips of your forefingers down the jawbone from the front of the ear until your fingers meet on the chin
• Draw small circles on the skin above the hinge of the jaw in front of the ears
• Stroke from the bridge of the nose, down the sides of the nose and across the cheekbones
• Stroke from the bridge of the nose along the eyebrows

Thanks so much to Raw Gaia for their guide to baby massage - we’re currently having a summer sale on our skincare range and Raw Gaia products (including massage oil) are a massive 50% off. Grab a bargain and get some quality time with baby!

I’ve realised that the title of our current feature may be a little misleading - if you’ve come looking for pencils for babies who can’t yet write, sorry I’m not a genius! This week at DaisychainBaby we’re featuring three companies who specialise in beautiful stationery for birth announcements, party invitations, christenings and so on. I’m sure you’ll love these sites as much as we do.

Ella Announcements is owned and run by mum-of-three Amanda Farren, who came up with the idea based on her love of graphic design and desire to work from home to care for her children. The range of new baby announcements, christening invitations and other stationery is grouped into four main categories: Sugar & Spice, All Things Nice, Snips & Snails and Puppy Dog Tails which means that there really is something for everyone, and the stationery can all be personalised with your tot’s name and date of birth. We found it really difficult to pick our favourite item as they’re all fab, but the christening invitations in Sugar & Spice just won the vote.

I was introduced to Sandy Wood through a mutual contact and instantly wanted to feature her lovely company sonnyandalfie. She is a mum of two little boys and set up her company on struggling to find individual environmentally friendly party bags and cards. Using vintage feel fabrics, high quality 100% recycled paper and biodegradeable plastic, sonnyandalfie is a bespoke experience that’s kind to the planet too. We really love the new baby cards which have a gorgeous pram design on the front, and use different fabrics depending on a new baby girl or new baby boy.

Our third featured company is not one that we know personally, but that we’ve come across in endless hours of internet trawling (I’m sure most of you are familiar with the sinking feeling that yet another few hours have disappeared “surfing”!) Papergrain is an online stationery boutique which showcases some of the most stylish personal stationery being created today. Although the focus for Papergain is not just baby stationery, we noticed that they offer a very stylish selection of 100% recycled cards and with our love of colours and animals, our fave pick was the Baby Elephant 1st Birthday Card.

As always, if you have a business that you would like to be included for future articles, please let us know!

Now that Easter is over and the DaisychainBaby team have eaten too much chocolate, it’s time to come back to our Features. We’ve had some really great feedback on the piece we did for Party Time, and have lined up some wonderful products and companies to showcase over the coming months, so do keep checking back.

Today we’ve chosen to cover nursery & playroom art - spring seems to have finally arrived after months of winter misery and what better time to indulge in a bit of light decorating! Camilla Braidwood is the owner of Milly Bee, selling affordable, contemporary fine art prints for nuseries, bedrooms or playrooms. A mum of one, Camilla started Milly Bee after struggling to find affordable and tasteful artwork to decorate her daughter’s nursery and so decided to make her own. We love the range of stylish prints and most importantly Milly Bee’s environmental policy ensures they operate with a print process which generates zero waste. Our favourite piece is the Pop Hands (reminiscent of Andy Warhol’s famous style) which is fantastic for creating a personalised memento!

Hunkydory Home brings together a range of handmade and design-led home accessories and gifts so that you can treat yourself and your friends to something a bit different - I’m already building up a substantial wish list! Founder Alison Ellerbrook established Hunkydory Home in 2005 in a bid to offer “something a bit different” to the home furnishings market and is now helped by her toddler. Amongst some very funky retro designs, our pick for artwork is the Alphabet Chart print, which is a contemporary print of the alphabet in colourful letters against a chocolate brown background. Printed in the UK on recycled paper using vegetable inks, this is a winning way to get your little one learning!

Anyone who knows me will know how much I love animals and so when I came across Carla Daly I fell big time for her children’s wall art with a humourous twist. Based in Ireland, Carla has worked in illustration for many years before taking the plunge to produce her own artwork to retail to the market after the birth of her two children, and has a great range of door signs, growth chart and keepsakes. It was very difficult to pick our favourites from the nursery wall art, but in the end it has to be “Chillin” - a cartoon of a giraffe relaxing in a pool of water. Who knows what they really get up to when no-one is looking?

As always, if you have a business that you would like to be included for future articles, please let us know!

With all the research that we do for DaisychainBaby, we’ve been delighted to come across some really wonderful finds along the way in keeping with our target market and eco-ethos. We’d like to showcase some of the people, products and businesses we come into contact with in what will start out as a monthly feature in our latest news section, with a view to becoming a more regular piece.

For our first ever feature, it simply had to be “Ethical Kids Party Time” - parties are fun and colourful but can still be eco-friendly too. Joanne Dewberry runs Charlie Moo’s, a family business down in Dorset selling party bags, gifts and toys. She has 2 gorgeous little ones and as a result her site is bright, cheerful and very friendly! Charlie Moo’s offers an excellent selection of items, including a collection of pre-loved toys. We particularly love her range of cloth handled party bags which come in a range of designs such as robots, dinosaurs and strawberries. Friendlier for the environment than standard plastic party bags, reusable and brilliant value, these would definitely be top of our party planning list.

Little Cherry is a site which sells entirely eco-friendly party supplies, including everything from organic hemp tablecloths to recycled plastic cutlery and plates made of leaves! Not only that, but founder Lucy Brindley has made every effort to make it a seamless shopping experience for busy party planning parents. She has created a themed section, so that you can see what products might be suitable for fairies or Cowboys and Indians, and also recommends children’s party games and recipes. DCB’s favourite part of the site is that reserved exclusively for celebrating first birthdays, with some gorgeous ideas for party bag fillers for very little ones!

Creative Charlie, run by mum-of-two and artist Kerri Sellens, is aimed at slightly older children than DaisychainBaby, but we loved the concept so much we couldn’t resist a mention. The idea is to promote childrens creative streaks (trying to avoid walls and sofas if possible!) by activities such as mask and jewellery making, and t-shirt painting. It’s a great idea to keep little ones busy, especially at parties (I even indulged in some pottery painting on my hen weekend which was enormous fun) and the “Rainy Day Box” was awarded the overall winner in the Practical Pre-School awards 2008. With those accolades, it has to be our top pick from Creative Charlie.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our first feature and have gone away with some useful tips. If you have a business that you would like to be included for future articles, please let us know!