Meet Leonora Bamford, Founder MyBaba
Leonora Bamford (c)
In this month’s Mimi’s Bowl Blog I meet Leonora, founder of MyBaba.com and co-founder of a children’s supplements business BabaWest.co.uk which grew and expanded rapidly during the first lockdown. Relaunching with lots of exciting new products: including Vitamin D for infants and children, Infant Probiotics and Omega drops for children and (a soon to be launched) natural daily immune support product. Their latest probiotic for babies is winning all sorts of awards for it's relief of colic and reflux, it is an exciting moment for the company and its Founder.
I get asked a lot what supplements my children take and so it is lovely to share more about Leonora and her incredible supplements for children and platform for parents. My children have been taking their Multivitamin and Multibiotic Powder (1-12 years) for quite a few years now, so I am not only a fan but also a customer. Leonora in return has cooked her way through the Mimi’s Bowl recipe archive, sending me photos of what she’s made. Quite a few them look better than mine!
Your founder story, what inspired you
I started My Baba literally weeks after my second child was born. It was a bit of an outlet of what I was going through and cool products I found. Not many of my friends had kids and when they started, they would always call to ask advice on anything from bottles and breastfeeding to prams and maternity nurses. It quickly grew into more of a lifestyle website instead of a daily blog. Any time I saw a Doctor with the children, or a dentist or even an eye specialist (after being hit with a Nurf bullet in the eye........). I would end up telling them about My Baba and they would often write pieces on relevant topics.
Within a year I had over 50 expert writers and my hope now, 10 years on, is that if you need to know about something wether it be nits, hand foot and mouth or IVF, that you would be able to search it on My Baba and find your answers. Our business has grown in to a pregnancy, parenting, lifestyle destination for parents to trust. We have many wonderful bloggers and experts tackling all the questions we have as parents, on this journey so many of us are on.
what do you love about what you do, and what inspires you?
I love a project, a collaboration or even seeing a cool new product. I love discovering new things. But, my biggest inspiration is from people. A friend took me to a talk by Justine Picardie, author of Miss Dior last month and I was blown away not just by her but by the story she told. I am especially inspired by the people I am lucky to interview on our Pod Cast Parental Control and find myself going down a rabbit warren of discovery. Cliff Weitzman, founder of Speechify has bowled me over this year. His dyslexia story was eye opening. My husband inspires me to be better at everything and anything every day. He can do it by looking at me, he doesn't even need to say anything.
The new range at BabaWest.com (c)
New or exciting plans for the business in 2022?
Part of my business is a children's supplement business with Zita West called Baba West. We have some really amazing products coming out this year. I can’t wait for the launch of our new natural daily immune support product to look after the children this Winter. It’s full of the best ingredients including elderberry, blackberry and rose-hip.
I've also got a fun hand cream coming out with Gel Pop soon, which is a collaboration I am excited about.
Typical day?
5.30am I get up early and get myself together, that doesn't take long. My new years resolution is to spend more time looking a bit presentable.
7am I get the children up and after a family breakfast we leave at 8am. That means I'm at my desk by 8.30 which is a game changer now the kids are all at school.
I try to do early pilates a few times a week and I want to walk more. I have a few meetings in the morning and catch up on My Baba and Baba West. We also have a monthly podcast called Parenting Control so we spend time on that. I love looking at products for the tiny My Baba shop and working on fun collaborations. We try to work quite far forward so lots of planning is needed.
We have a My Baba office in London so I try to get in as much as I can to meet clients and our experts. It hasn't been easy the past couple of years but more people are wanting to meet up now.
Leonora Bamford (c)
4pm I collect the kids from school and then the madness starts! We love food so we eat together and they normally flop into bed between 7-9pm after stories.
9pm I sit down and catch up on any drama that might have happened in-between and try to go to bed before 11pm. I've just started taking CBD sleep drops that have been working a dream, excuse the pun!
Work/ life balance, discuss..
This is the million dollar question. I don't do this very well. I can switch off BUT alway have my phone far to close. The kids hate it and I often find myself telling them to get off a device, when I have a phone glued to my hand. In an ideal world, I would leave my phone in the kitchen locked away from 8pm!
What you are reading? What you are listening to? What you are watching?
I'm in the middle of Miss Dior on audio, it's the most harrowing story but I'm listening with my eyes wide open taking it all in.
I'm watching the new Sex in the City and Succession.
I'm listening to my husband's Spotify account. I love his eclectic taste in music.
Tell us about your life through food?
Roast chicken and chicken noodle soup after is my favourite meal. I love Japanese food and Thai. I have two favourite food memories, one is eating gigantic Sicilian lemons in a salad on a car rally with my family and another is my mother’s half baked chocolate cake that we used to call Chocolate gu when we were little.
An Italian friend of mine taught me how to make the best tomato sauce for pasta and it's what my kids want to eat for comfort. That sounds pretty rubbish but it's so good with torn basil, garlic oil and loads of Parmesan and crusty bread. We always have a roast as a family on Sunday, whatever looks good at the butchers.
Anything you are loving right now, that you can recommend
Dream Drops for me before bed
Magnesium flakes in the bath for the whole family
Vitamin d is essential in these dark months, I give the kids BabaWest and I take Zooki
Cosmic Kids for a bit of mindfulness
As Good As It Gets is one of my favourite pod casts with Marina Fogel and Ben Turner
And finally, I saw on @mimisbowl insta some Le Creuset plates which I have my eye on!