Recently, About.com Toddlers Guide Stephanie Brown posted a thought-provoking blog about pools requiring swim diapers for babies and toddlers. It seems that swim diapers are required in order to protect swimmers from the spread of illness from diaper leakage, and also to keep the pool cleaner. Yet, the swim diapers aren't actually leakproof, and may not be all that great at keeping germs from spreading, either. Some pools have taken it a step further and now require plastic pants over the swim diaper, which is an improvement, but still not as effective as you'd like, if you're the one swimming next to a baby who is trailing illness-causing organisms throughout the pool.

If your local pools require swim diapers, though, and you don't want to keep buying the disposable variety, take a look at reusable swim diapers. Traditionally, reusable swim diapers were targeted at cloth-diapering families. However, if you swim often with your baby or toddler, investing in a reusable swim diaper or two could be a way to knock down part of your summer diaper budget, and they reduce the number of disposable diapers headed to the landfill to boot.

One million Kolcraft, Jeep, Contours, Sesame Street, Eric Carle, Carter's and Care Bears play yards are recalled because the side rail can unlatch when a child leans against it, posing a fall hazard. Nearly 350 incidents of the side rail unlatching and more than 20 injuries have been reported. Some of the play yards had accessories such as parent organizers, electronics, bassinets, changing tables or mobiles. See the links below for specific model numbers. If you have one of these play yards, stop using it now and call 866-594-4208 for a repair kit.

• Current Baby Products Recalls
• CPSC Page on Kolcraft Play Yard Recall

Good news for owners of Sunshine Kids Radian car seats - you may not need to buy a new seat if you'd like to keep your child rear-facing a little bit longer. According to Russ Berger at Sunshine Kids, the company recently did some additional crash testing and they're now increasing the Radian's rear-facing weight limit to 40 lbs. That makes the Radian the third car seat in the U.S. to have a 40 lb. rear-facing limit (the Graco My Ride 65 and the brand new Safety 1st Complete Air are the others).

Even better, Sunshine Kids is making the change retroactive on all U.S. models made in or after September 2008, so if you already own a Radian 65 (16500), Radian 80 (18500) or Radian XT (19500) car seat made after that time, you can go ahead and use it rear-facing to 40 lbs., according to Berger. The change will start to show up on new U.S. Radian car seat labels and in manuals by late summer or early fall.

A recent study showed that toddlers were more than 5 times safer on the road if they stayed rear-facing to age two. The increase in car seats with higher rear-facing weight limits and taller shells makes extended rear-facing well into the toddler years possible for most children.

• Top 8 Convertible Car Seats

Infants don't actually need shoes for walking, but isn't half the fun of shoes just the decorative quality? Now even the littlest member of the family can have fashionable footwear thanks to Heelarious baby shoes. These soft crib shoes are made of satin and look like a miniature pair of high heels. They're only for babies 0-6 months, though the heel would flatten down if a baby tried to walk on it, and they're made just for looks and laughs. Five current styles will go with almost any frilly, girly outfit your little one owns. My favorite is a light pink peep-toe version with a toile-like print on the inside. Heelarious baby shoes would be a great baby shower gift for a shoe-loving friend!

• Compare Prices on Heelarious Baby Shoes on Pricegrabber.com.