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We’re well in the middle of cold and flu season and you may well feel like every week your child has another runny nose or nasty couch. Parents of nursery age children suffer the most as kids are bound to pick up bugs in school and nursery, which they then helpfully pass on to the rest of the family.

Unfortunately there is no sure-fire way to prevent your family from catching colds entirely, but there are a few steps you can take to minimize the risk of your children getting ill and help them to fight off that cold once it’s taken hold.

Get plenty of sleep – Children who don’t get enough sleep tend to have weaker immune systems so it’s important for your kids to get lots of rest. Stick to a set bedtime and try to make sure they get their naps too – lots of parents think cutting out the daytime nap will ensure their kids get an early night but in fact the opposite is true and over-tired children can take longer to get to sleep.

Encourage hand washing – Frequent hand washing is probably the most effective step you can take against catching colds and other bugs. Remind your kids to wash their hands before and after they eat and show them how to do it properly with lots of soap.

Provide a healthy varied diet – Kids are notorious for not eating their vegetables but the vitamins they provide are important for warding off illness. Try hiding vegies by blending them into pasta sauces or smothering them in cheese if you have a picky eater. Fresh fruit is also a great way to boost their vitamin C levels – vital for fighting colds. Multivitamins can fill in the gaps for any less than ideal diets for picky eaters.

Go outside more – Encourage your children to play outside, even when it’s cold. One of the main reasons colds are more common in the winter is because everyone is cooped up inside. Regular exercise also helps to strengthen the immune system. So bundle up your kids in some of our winter gear like our Dempsey Duffle coat and Hemingway hat, scarf and mitten set and get moving!

As you’ll know if you’re a regular reader of our blog, here at Bamboo Baby we love finding out about new products made from bamboo. We never fail to be amazed at the versatility of this wonder material and how it is used in everything from baby clothes to building materials.

There are now a surprising number of companies dedicated to the production of bamboo bikes. Bamboo bicycles are now available worldwide, from the most basic of models sold to locals in Ghana to top-of-the-range custom high-performance frames for professional cyclists and eco-conscious consumers.

Bamboo is a great material for bike frames because it is light, and strong, with a higher tensile strength than steel. A bamboo bike also happens to look very cool and is sure to attract questions and admiring glances.

If you’re the type who likes to take on ambitious DIY projects, you may even want to consider building your own bamboo bike. This instructables project walks you through the steps from frame design to finishing touches.

Bicycles are a wonderful eco-friendly way of getting around anyway, but a bike made from bamboo will really set you apart from the other commuters in the morning!

You’re probably aware of and have used essential oils before – as a massage oil, to scent a room, as a topical skin treatment or you may have even made your own cleaning products incorporating essential oils. But have you ever considered using essential oils with your children?

Essential oils not only smell great but they can be used for a huge range of purposes and each oil has its own unique properties. Most people know that the scent of lavender can help with relaxation, while citrus scents invigorate and refresh (hence the many lemon and lime ‘wake-me-up’ type shower gels that are on the market).

Just as these aromatic oils can have a positive effect on your mood, they can also do the same for your kids. Essential oils can be used to help your children sleep, calming temper tantrums, soothing sore tummies and reduce the pain of teething. There are also several ready-mixed essential oil products available to relieve congestion and cold symptoms – olbas oil is one of the better known ones.

You can try aromatherapy with your kids in a number of different ways. Oils can be heated in a special burner to scent the room or you can add a few drops to a carrier oil such as sweet almond oil and use for massage or as a bath oil. When making up oil mixtures to use on children, you should generally use less essential oil than normal to adjust for their sensitive skin and noses. Not all essential oils are recommended for use with children so be sure to do your research first.

Another fun option for kids is to add a few drops of essential oil to some homemade play dough for a wonderful introduction to aromatherapy that is fun as well as fragrant. Try peppermint for concentration, lavender to relax and calm, or sweet orange to promote happy feelings.

If mixing your own essential oil blends sounds too much like hard work, don’t worry because we also sell a selection of aromatherapy treatments designed specially for little ones:

Cheeky Monkey Organic Cheek Rub for teething

Belly Better Organic Tummy oil to sooth little tummies and aid a restful nights sleep

Hello Mellow Organic Massage Oil to relax and calm

We’ve blogged previously about the amazing bamboo school and bamboo chocolate factory in Bali. Bali is obviously the place to be when it comes to finding amazing buildings made from bamboo because there is now an entire bamboo village of luxury eco-homes available to rent or buy.

The green village is a sustainable community on Bali’s Ayung River, designed on the same concepts as the famous Green School. The houses are designed in an open-plan style to take advantage of the natural breezes that blow through the river valley and are a strictly air-con free zone.

It’s not only the main structure of these homes that are built from bamboo. Everything from flooring to kitchen cabinets to bathroom fittings are made from the wonder-material, in surprisingly innovative and beautiful ways.

If you like the look of the Green Village villas but don’t have plans to move to Bali any time soon, they are also available as nightly and weekly rentals for holidaymakers. Find out more at the Green Village website.

Just to remind you, Valentine’s Day willonce again be upon us on the 14^th of February and if you haven’tstarted shopping for presents for your loved one, now is probably a good timeto do so!

To help you out, we’ve rounded up aselection of lovely gifts at our partner notonthehighstreet.com made from our all-time favourite material – bamboo! Bamboo Baby also have a selection of items on notonthehighstreet, so you can pick up some new baby clothes while you are shopping for Valentine's Day.

Bamboo Chunky Braided Bracelet

This bracelet knitted from bamboo yarn is unusual and stylish and makes a great gift for Valentine's Day. Available from Yiskah Knits for £20

Personalised Word Search Ipad Case

This iPad case made from bamboo is perfect for the gadget lover in your life an can be personalised with any words you like - perhaps "I love you" or the name of your loved one. Available for £79 from Sophia Victoria Joy.

Amalie Nightie and Knicker Set

This bamboo and organic cotton set is the perfect Valentine's gift for ladies, available from Luva Huva for £49

Red Teddy Bear Knitting Kit

The kit to make this sweet little teddy bear comes complete with bamboo knitting needles and is available for £15 from Gift Horse Knit Kits

Don't forget to check out the Bamboo Baby store on notonthehighsteet.com!

In our research for this blog we love discovering new products utilising bamboo and are constantly surprised by the versatility of this natural product. If you’ve browsed our catalogue, you’ll know that bamboo baby clothes are soft, comfortable and naturally thermo-regulating. You’ve also probably heard of bamboo being used in furniture and as a building material. But what about drinking from a bamboo bottle?

Many of us will have made resolutions in the New Year to start going to the gym or drinking more water and so you may find yourself carrying around a sports bottle filled with water so you can keep rehydrated on the go. Using a refillable sports bottle is great for the environment but drinking out of plastic is still not ideal. Consumers have become more aware of the dangers of BPA and other chemicals found in plastic bottles in recent years and are keen to find an alternative. Glass is the first obvious alternative but is easily broken. Metal bottles are also available but alter the taste of water and are not efficient at keeping liquids cool or warm. So what is the solution?

The Bamboo Bottle Company produces water bottles for sports or drinking on the go made from glass and bamboo with a range of lids suitable for hot or cold liquids. The glass interior holds liquids without the risk of chemicals leaching from plastic or metal. The bamboo sleeve around the bottle provides insulation and protection from breakages.

As well as being practical, the bottles also look really stylish and are a great option for anyone trying to live a greener life with products made from sustainable materials. We’d love to see this idea expanded into baby bottles in the future!

If, like many parents, you want to try to raise your baby with a minimal exposure to harmful chemicals, you are sure to have come across the idea of using cloth nappies. Of course cloth nappies are not a new idea by any means – disposable nappies are a fairly modern adventures and many of today’s mums would have spent much of their first year in cloth as babies themselves. But modern cloth nappies bear little resemblance to the terry squares, safety pins and plastic nappy covers of the past. Here’s why you should consider making the switch to cloth:

To save money – building an initial ‘stash’ of cloth nappies is not cheap, but when compared to the cost of disposables over the entire time your child will use them, the saving is impressive. If you re-use the nappies on a second or third child, the amount of money you can save is quite incredible. To reduce the initial outlay, there is always the option of buying second-hand and it is easy to find good quality used cloth nappies on sites like eBay and parenting forums.

It’s kinder to the environment – it is estimated that each child gets through 6-8 thousand nappies from birth to age 3. Just imagine the amount of landfill space this takes up! It’s true that using cloth nappies also has an impact on the environment in terms of detergent and energy usage when washing them but this is insignificant compared to the environmental impact of disposables.

They’re better for baby – if you’ve taken care to clothe your baby in organic cotton clothing and fabrics that are gentle on their skin, why expose them to the chemicals in disposable nappies every day? Disposable nappies are full of potentially harmful chemicals and there have even been reports of babies suffering chemical burns from the crystals found in some super-absorbent nappies. In addition to this, babies who wear cloth nappies are less likely to suffer from nappy rash and are toilet trained earlier than their disposable-wearing peers.

They’re cute – modern cloth nappies come in a range of colours and designs ranging from basic white to funky print patterns and can really brighten up your baby’s outfit.

As with any aspect of childrearing, what’s best for one family is not necessarily best for another but the advantages of using cloth are compelling. If using cloth nappies full-time is just not right for you, you always have the option of using cloth together with disposables or using a hybrid system that combines cloth nappy covers with disposable inserts. This can often be the best solution for busy mums.

Pictured: Boris Bodysuit and Hat in Cream

• Chemical free - ethical kids clothing made from sustainable materials including organic cotton, hemp and bamboo will usually have been certified as free from toxic chemicals so you can be sure that they are safe. Conventional cotton is grown with the use of environmentally damaging pesticides. A recent investigation by Greenpeace has found toxic chemicals in clothing from high street chains. Look out for relevant certifications including GOTS for organic cotton and Oekotex to ensure that clothing is chemical free.
• Not made in Sweatshops -tragic factory fires like the recent one in Bangladesh are symptomatic of a supply chain which pays little or no respect to the basic human rights and welfare of its workers. Brands creating ethical children's wear pay close attention to ensuring that factories are operating ethically including paying a fair wage.
• No child labour - child labour is common in the clothing industry from the forced child labour in Uzbekistan, the cotton industry in India to sweatshops around the world. By buying childrens clothing made from organic or Fairtrade cotton that has been manufactured in ethical factories, you can be sure that there has been no child labour in the supply chain.