Conspiracy- maybe.

If you've been reading my blog, you may have noted that there once were ads on the right hand sidebar. Now they're gone. I don't normally indulge in conspiracy theories, but this one is just begging me to don my tinfoil hijab for a minute.

What I've figured out is that since I blog about being a mother of an infant, they put up ads for formula and disposable diapers on the site, thinking that other parents will read my blog and go with the cultural norms of formula feeding and disposable diapering. Makes sense. But considering that I blog about the joys of breastfeeding and cloth diapering at times, no one's going to read a post about how much nursing rocks if they're just going to buy formula anyway. I don't read posts about formula brands, either. But instead of plugging in ads for pumps and cloth diapers, the ads get pulled entirely. Why?

Tinfoil hijab on

Formula companies are rolling in dough, and they'd like to stay that way. Companies will sponsor content that highlights their product, but will also try to have attention pulled away from competing products and critical reviews. I'm thinking that a formula company decided that if the blog even offered an alternative to formula feeding, that said blog would not only find itself without formula ads, but pressured Google to pull all ads.

So, that leaves me without ads, and I'm resorting to an Amazon store instead. It will contain (mostly) things that I've used and loved, so while this is no guarantee that you will like them too, if it's in the store, at least one real person has used it and found it worthy of recommendation. While it's harder than the ads for me, it's more personal, and I'm one who likes to offer something of herself.

Sponsored by Medela- not.