1 Tonight ` a code-yellow crisis. His nappy had leaked through into his pyjamas, into his sheets and also into the mattress. Soothing the little ones just got a whole lot harder. Whoa. We've got a leakage. Yeah. These nappies are soiling the life of this young mum. What if a child puts that gel in their mouths and ingests that? That is a real health hazard, in my opinion. And fighting for the right to wear pants I knew I was gonna get a little bit of backlash, but I didn't think it would be that bad. So why have some people been giving her a dressing down? I had one of my teachers say that a one-man army would never win. How did that feel? That hit a little hard. Plus ` pining for a parrot. I walked around calling his name, but I couldn't find him, and I couldn't hear him. Bambi the parrot has gone missing, and her owners are in a right flap. It's like losing a family member. I'm very upset about it. Copyright Able 2017. Welcome to the show. As you can tell, Pippa's got about 450 frogs in her throat, so I'm gonna do a lot of the heavy lifting tonight. And we're gonna start with sleep deprivation. It can take a toll on newborn parents. Yes, according to overseas studies, they lose 2.9 hours sleep a night. That adds up to roughly 1000 hours a year. Yowza. It's a tough gig, and the last thing you need in the mix is a code-brown or should that be a code-yellow crisis. Here's Matt. (GIGGLES) Ow! That's my hair. Stop. Sure, the wee critters are cute. Well done. But life with little uns can be tough ` tantrums, sleep deprivation, then there's the mess. I'm afraid to invite people over sometimes in case of what they're gonna think. And do you think you can ever learn to like dealing with the vomit and the poo? I think you have to, in a way, really. You don't really have any other choice. It's a life you get used to, but new parents definitely don't need extra complications. Like nappies that don't last through the night, nappies that could put their important little people at risk. Are they fit for purpose? In my opinion, absolutely not. And it's not just me ` it's several other women out there as well. I personally think they should be recalled, because they're a health hazard now to a lot of other children and babies. Holly's issue is with Treasures' new, supposedly improved disposable nappies. I understand you've done your own absorbency test with the old and new nappies. What did you find? I did. The old nappy absorbed water beautifully, sucked it into the centre. And the new and improved model, not so much. So it pooled on the top, didn't absorb down into the product at all, into the material at all and seeped out over the sides. We, of course, couldn't just take Holly's word for it, so another ` sure ` unscientific test. While the original nappy handled the 2 cups just fine,... That's a big pee, isn't it? It is. It's a lot really. ...as Holly predicted, the new nappy soon struggled. And you can already see... That's pooling. ...it's pooling on the top. Whoa, we've got a leakage. Yeah, it just pools and it kind of just spills over the sides. On top of that, the liquid that remained in the new nap appears to stay wet for longer. I don't know if you can see that how it's all wet, and then if you touch this one, it's not at all. So the feel is really different. This is wet on a child. One could argue this backs up Holly's complaint, but again... I just wanna point out that neither of us are experts. Yeah. Or scientists at this point. From day one Auckland's Holly Davey had her little Lucas in Treasures nappies. It was the nappy that the hospital offered me to try and use, and I used it ever since. It worked perfectly. But she reckons the new and improved quick-dry comfy fit model, which replaced the original last month, isn't as absorbent and is, well, a bit crappy. There's a huge chunk missing right at the very top. One other thing ` if you feel it, it's quite... this one's very thin. 2-year-old Lucas found that out the hard way a couple of weeks back, when he woke three to four hours after going down, crying hysterically. He had wet all through his nappy. His nappy had leaked through to his pyjamas, into his sheets and also into the mattress. As well as that, when I popped the nappy off, I noticed that his skin was a little bit red, which had started to create a form of nappy rash Did this ever happen with the original Treasures nappy? No, never. There was nothing wrong with the original product. Holly stopped using Treasures' new nappy immediately. She drove to the big red shed and nearly cleared the shelves of that original product. Holly, how many nappies did you buy? (SIGHS) As many as I could. I got six boxes that were left on clearance, 56 in each box. Do you think you've got enough? It's as many as I could get. I think it's gonna have to do. About six weeks' worth. Holly had to be quick ` turns out little Lucas wasn't the only unlucky one. Good friend Rachel Grove and her wee fella, Luke, had a similar experience with Treasures' new and supposedly improved nappy. Every single night when we put him in a nappy, he wakes up in the morning wet. It's soaked through his pyjamas, soaked through his sleeping bag, sometimes on to the sheets. And we're having to change all the sheets and everything every day. But the poor little guy's lying there wet each morning. So what have you done to ensure dry nights? We've had to change brands. It's as simple as that. We couldn't continue with the Treasures ` we had to change brands. Their sad story told time and time again on Treasures' Facebook page ` 100 complaints in a month and counting. Angry comments and photos to prove a point. These complaints just a few of many ` exploding nappies probably the most alarming. What if a child puts that gel in their mouths and ingests that? That is a real health hazard, in my opinion. Understandably, the midwifery student also complained on Treasures' Facebook page. There was nothing wrong with the Treasures original nappy. And like many others, received a very generic response. Here's part of it. Did you feel like you were being listened to? No, I didn't, and that's part of the reason as to why I've come to speak to you guys. Before Fair Go was involved, though, the frustrated mother of one phoned the makers of Treasures ` Yeah, hi. This is Holly calling. Asaleo Care NZ Limited. They thought it could potentially be a batch issue. And they sent Holly another three packs of the new nappies. Lucas gave them another crack. Exactly the same problem, yeah. Unfortunately he leaked through again. He actually even came up to me the following day when he had one on and said, 'Mummy, no nappy. Want off,' which is pretty strong for him to say to me. Unsurprisingly, Rachel, Luke, Holly, Lucas and many other loyal customers all believe the makers of Treasures could do a lot better. I think they need to listen to the consumer, listen to the people that are using it every single day. Because this product is causing issues for so many people. What would you like to see happen? I think I speak for myself and on behalf of a lot of other mothers ` we'd love the old nappies back. They're brilliant. We're loyal, loyal consumers. I will continue to use Treasures for as long as my child or any other children are in nappies if the old nappies are back, cos they're brilliant. Now, I use these nappies too, and we've had the odd leakage, and the complaints have always been straight towards Haydn here that his nappy installation technique isn't up to scratch. But now I'm not so sure. Anyway, the people from Treasure Nappies didn't like Matt's unscientific experiment. We used 2 cups of blue water. They say a junior baby only pees 1.5 cups a night. They also say pouring that amount of liquid, at that rate, on a flat bench is not a true representation of what actually occurs. Which is true, but Matt's unscientific experiment clearly showed Treasures' old nappy handled the flow much better than their new improved version. In a statement Treasures told us all materials used in the nappies are safe, and any brand of nappy has the potential to break open when it reaches maximum capacity. They also told us they haven't seen an increase in nappy breakage complaints, and their new nappy uses the same amount of absorbent material as before. During testing, most parents said it was as good as or better than the previous nappy, and the complaints represent just .04% of packs sold since re-launch. That said, they are taking action to address each and every complaint and say improvements are on the way. Right. I'm gonna run off and make Pippa a cup of tea. But after the break ` school uniforms get a dressing down from unhappy students. Dancing and dresses ` they go together like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Do you ever wear a dress? If I'm dancing, I do, but other than that, it's not too often. But taking the dress out of a school dress code can get ugly. I knew I was gonna get a little bit of backlash, but I didn't think it would be that bad. And ` I walked around calling his name, but I couldn't find him, and I couldn't hear him. She's pining for her lost parrot, Bambi. He came straight up my arm and started pecking at my lips. He remembered me. This is a 'pet-ternity' dispute like no other. I'm sure they don't want to give him back to me, but all I can do is hope for the best for him. Welcome back. Up and down the country, there are parents heaving a collective sigh of relief as the school holidays come to an end. Oh, yeah, they sure do. We could barely stem the tide of tears as we waved goodbye to our smartly dressed little darlings. That's code for push 'em out the door and put the jug on. But there's trouble brewing over school dress codes. Or should that be pant codes? Here's Hannah. # I know I can't avoid this stuff... # You'd think 14-year-old Karla Mills has been doing this for years, but you'd be wrong. Karla's only been dancing a few months. She loves it, loves everything about it ` even the dress. I say even, because this is a girl who doesn't really wear dresses and skirts. So, you normally wear pants all the time, do you? Yeah, I like wearing pants. Do you ever wear a dress? If I'm dancing, I do, but other than that, it's not too often. In fact, the only other time you'd catch her in a skirt is wearing her school uniform, and she's not happy with that. Yeah, we should be catching up with the times and not living back in the past, following the rules from, what, the '50s. So, Karla wears trousers all the time, wants to wear them to school, like the boys. She recently swapped her school skirt for long pants after coming down with a winter nasty. She'd suggested that, 'Well, I just wanna wear pants. You know, it would be so much warmer. 'Can you please write me a note?' And I said, 'Yeah, sure. I'm happy to do that.' And so I made sure that I got some nice, tidy, plain black pants, and I wore them with the top half of my winter uniform. I was so much warmer. I could freely move. I could run around if I needed to. It was just so much easier. But the reaction to her wearing the trousers to school? That wasn't nice. It's why she came to Fair Go. I knew I was gonna get a little bit of backlash, but I didn't think it would be that bad. That negative. Yeah. Karla says the backlash began within days. Yeah, I got a lot of my teachers saying that I should really not have done that. I had one of my teachers say that a one-man army would never win, and a few other teachers when I came back without pants say, 'Oh, so have you wisened up about it now?' How did that feel? That hit a little hard. And then came the phone call from the school. Karla was sent home to change. The message ` lose the trousers. I said, 'OK, that's what you've been told to do, then that's what you do.' But Karla's friends had been supportive. They were saying that I should definitely be doing this, and at this day and age, it should be a normal thing to wear. I mean, most women you see walking round the street will be wearing pants or shorts. So Karla did what all rebels with a cause do these days ` she took her idea on to Facebook. That blew up very fast. That was a very big reaction. There was one that said, 'Be careful what you wish for.' I'm actually still shocked by what some of the comments were, I think. Some of them were over the top. And another one, I think, said,... It was hard not to feel fired up about some of the comments. Karla got a better reaction when she posted on the petitions online website. There is people writing comments from countries that I've never heard of. And it showed Karla's not the only one looking for more flexibility in school uniforms. That really lifted me up and made me want to fight back against the people that were being so horrible. There does seem to be a mini-revolution happening. More and more schools here now offer gender-neutral uniforms, and it's not all one-way traffic. These English boys hit the headlines recently for wanting to wear their school's girl's uniform ` skirts rather than trousers ` in the hot British summer. What does it feel like to wear skirts? It feels comfortable. Really nice. I know quite a few people at my school that don't feel comfortable in what they are wearing to school every day, and that distracts them from being able to focus in class. After the Facebook backlash, Karla wasn't sure what to do next. It was Mum who said, 'Let's take it to Fair Go and see what other Kiwis think.' Yeah, there's lots of schools around the country are changing. There is multiple people around the world that are doing what I'm doing and protesting against it. It's quite an uncomfortable feeling, knowing that there will be backlash, and it's just a... it's just a pair of pants. Karla knows that she's putting herself out there, taking a very public stand, hoping that the reaction won't be kneejerk and vicious, but thoughtful and supportive. I'm really proud of her. I remember actually getting a little choked up the last time she hopped out of the car, before I went to work, in a pair of pants. I got a little choked up, cos she walked in with her head high. She is strong, regardless of what people say, which is cool. She just wants to be comfortable, and she wants other people to be comfortable. OK. So we're looking at a full-blown Fair Go epidemic. Now, Hannah's not too well either. No. I'm gonna make a big brew of lemon and honey drink, I think. Yes, now, look, the principal of Whanganui High School tells us their records show Karla was on the receiving end of just one teacher complaint. But there is some good news ` Whanganui High School's uniform policy will be reviewed this term. And that review will involve students, parents, caregivers and staff. And that's a good thing. Right. Continuing with the kid theme, we turn our attention to the do's and don'ts of modern manners and child etiquette. We're talking etiquette, and tonight we're focusing on those apples of our eyes, kids, and whether it's OK to take toddlers to flash restaurants. As long as they're going to be well behaved, but you can't guarantee it, can you? (LAUGHS) No, I think it's a time where parents should be able to have a good time. Oh no. People pay a lot of money in a fancy restaurant. They don't want children running about. I'm dead against. So that'd be a no, then. Parenting expert John Cowan says it's all about behaviour. I guess it depends on whether your children know how to behave themselves, and a good way to do that is to practise eating at a restaurant at home. OK, so what about when you travel? Should kids be allowed in business class? Ooh, we're about to do that tomorrow. (LAUGHS) They're too troublesome anyway, and we usually just leave them at home. (LAUGHS) Spoilt little brats. (LAUGHS) You're purchasing something from the airline ` you're not purchasing subservience from fellow travellers. And children have to travel, children cry. I quite like the idea of three rich people being disturbed, than 20 poor people back in cattle class. How about giving other people's kids sweet treats? Ooh, parents get a bit hot under the collar about that, don't they? Yeah. Only if you know the kids. Yes, if we know them. Only with the parent's permission. Always just check, because people have allergies and ideas about diet and things. But in general, you're not gonna be feeding your children anything too toxic. And the biggie ` should you tell off other people's offspring? Yes, definitely. I wouldn't be disciplining anyone else's kids. (LAUGHS) No, not really. No. Oh, you mean just verbally? Yes. So no, we're not allowed to spank anybody. (BOTH LAUGH) No, smacking kids is a definite no-no, but it is a tough one. What do you reckon, John? It's very, very tricky, no easy answer to this. If the children are doing something dangerous or hurting people or causing damage, then of course you step in, but when you're dealing with, even your own children, it's always good to tell them what to do rather than what not to do. Ooh. Disciplining your own kids is hard enough without disciplining someone else's. Now, next week, we're gonna look at the etiquette of coming in while being sick. Coming up after the break ` Bambi takes flight, and her owner is in a right old flap. It's like losing a family member. Pining for a parrot ` her search led her to Bird Rescue. I didn't expect to see my bird there, but I did see him in a cage. Now everyone's in a flap over this ownership battle. He remembered me. His name was Bambi. Welcome back. Anyone who has owned a dog or a cat will know how quickly pets become part of the family. Losing them can be heartbreaking, and it's far worse when the person you suspect found it won't give it back. So this story involves a cockatiel called Bambi who's in the middle of bizarre 'pet-ternity' dispute. Did I say that right? Pet-ternity dispute. Here's Anna. One day I was taking my bird out of the cage outside, because it was summertime, and that's where I keep my birds in the summer ` it's nice and warm. And he flew up off my hand, above the house and... away. I walked the streets calling his name, but I couldn't find him, and I couldn't hear him. Lesley Rimes has an empty nest. I'm very upset about it. It's like losing a family member. Her beloved Bambi, the cockatiel, has flown the coop. Accidentally, of course, but gone. I don't know ` I was hoping he might be flying around somewhere or somebody had found him, and I was hoping that he was OK. After weeks of waiting for him to return, Lesley decided it was time to move on. I went to New Zealand Bird Rescue looking for another bird. This was about... over four weeks later. I didn't expect to see my bird there, but I did see him in a cage. And I'm a hundred per cent sure it was my bird. He came straight up my arm and started pecking at my lips. He remembered me. His name was Bambi, and he responded well to me. But there was no happy ending to this tale. They said the bird was going to a volunteer that had taken a liking to him. Of course, he was a lovely bird, very friendly, very tame ` who wouldn't like him? Lesley begged and pleaded ` the markings, the way he pecked her lip. None of it mattered. The bird had a new owner ` a volunteer from the centre. Lesley's last shot ` a DNA test to prove the bird was related to one from her breeder. But... But then, um, New Zealand Bird Rescue are unwilling to give a sample. Bird Rescue told us the new owner, a volunteer, didn't want to provide a feather sample. They did agree to talk to us about this, but then cancelled. Instead, they sent us four pages about why they didn't think the bird belonged to Lesley. So we're gonna give it to Maggie here to pull out the important bits. They say the bird didn't respond to Lesley, that its behaviour towards her was the same seen in all birds, that the wing clippings didn't match the way Lesley described Bambi's, and they don't think the bird could have flown that far anyway, that Lesley didn't have any photos of Bambi and that she didn't come to the rescue centre soon enough after Bambi went missing. Lesley says none of that is true. I'm not happy about it. All I can say is that I hope that he's happy and being well looked after. I'm sure they don't want to give him back to me, but all I can do is hope for the best for him in the future. If only cockatiels could talk and tell us what they really want. Why didn't they just ask Bambi? Can't cockatiels talk? Now, the Bird Rescue people say the cockatiel became their property after it was unclaimed for seven days and that policy is in keeping with SPCA guidelines. They also tell us the DNA testing would be inconclusive, as there is a considerable amount of inbreeding of cockatiels, which is news to me too. That flies in the face of what Massey University told us. They reckon they can conclusively prove if the bird in question is related to Bambi's parents. Tricky stuff. Right, before we go, let's check out a classic ad from the '70s. Because it could provide some inspiration for this year's Kids' Ad Awards. Hey, Mum. Why is this called Palmolive? It's got olive oil in it. Why? Well, olive oil's good for skin. Why? It's healthy, natural and makes your skin nice and soft. Ew. I don't wanna be nice and soft. But I do. Well, you use Palmolive, and I'll stay dirty. With pure, gentle olive oil, Palmolive... Ooh, I'm thinking that's early '70s. Looks early '70s. Yeah, colour television came in '73. Listen to you. Just before the Australians. Just before the Christchurch Commonwealth Games. Yes. Just before Mr and Mrs Jones said one more for the family. Oh, OK. Thanks for that. (LAUGHS) And then we're perfect. And that ad from the 70s is a little bit of a clue there, because the Fair Go Kids' Ad Awards are back at the end of the year. Yes. Next Monday we're gonna share all the details with you, so stay tuned. Indeed. Well, that is the show for tonight, but we will be on Facebook for the next half hour to answer your questions. Our programme is all about your problems, your concerns, if you have any cold remedies, please do contact us. We would love to hear from you. We're on Facebook or you can email us ` fairgo@tvnz.co.nz or write to us ` Private Bag 92038, Auckland 1142. That's our show. Until next week,... ...goodnight. Well done. Copyright Able 2017.