Washable Workwear Wednesday: Dress Pant Yoga Pants

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A woman wearing a pair of Betabrand Pants and Jumpsuits Betabrand Classic Dress Pant Yoga Pants Straight LegIf you haven’t yet heard of Betabrand and their washable dress pant yoga pants, you should definitely know about them. They’re highly rated and come in a million colors as well as bootcut, straight-leg, skinny-leg, cropped-leg, and leggings styles. Readers have always been singing their praises, so if you want something that’s very easy to take care of, these are good to keep in mind. They’re $78 and available in regular, petite, and long sizes. Betabrand Here’s an option in plus sizes from NYDJ. Looking for other washable workwear? See all of our recent recommendations for washable clothes for work, or check out our roundup of the best brands for washable workwear. This post contains affiliate links and CorporetteMoms may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more details see here. Thank you so much for your support!

Sales of note for 2/7:

(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)

  • Nordstrom – Winter Sale, up to 60% off! 7850 new markdowns for women
  • Ann Taylor – Extra 25% off your $175+ purchase — and $30 of full-price pants and denim
  • Banana Republic Factory – Up to 50% off everything + extra 15% off
  • Boden – 15% off new season styles
  • Eloquii – 60% off 100s of styles
  • J.Crew – Extra 50% off all sale styles
  • J.Crew Factory – 40% off everything including new arrivals + extra 20% off $125+
  • Rothy’s – Final Few: Up to 40% off last-chance styles
  • Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
  • Talbots – 40% off one item + free shipping on $150+

And — here are some of our latest threadjacks of interestworking mom questions asked by the commenters!

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My kid had eczema (mild/medium- got patches that wouldn’t go away but nothing super itchy) and in parallel, had bowl issues that indicated a dietary issue. I did full on elimination diet for 2 weeks with no improvement. Her diaper issues were so bad our ped had me switch to Nutramigen. I pumped and dumped for 2 weeks and the second day she was on formula she was fine. After 2 weeks I went back to BF with nondairy or soy and it was fine.

So, if you can’t solve via other suggestions and really need to explore dietary allergies, you might want to do a formula trial to see if it’s even worth the time to try eliminating. If she’s on formula and skin doesn’t improve, no need to cut.

My twins are three. My husband is planning a party for his work friends on a Saturday. He’s asking me about timing. He clearly has NO IDEA what time our kids nap. Or how they nap. Or when they fall asleep. Or what it means if they do/don’t nap. Now if I say “sure have your friends show up right when the kids are going down” and the kids don’t nap and are crabby, he’ll ask why I didn’t say something. If I say “no, that’s the beginning of nap” he’ll say I’m being inflexible. But WHY DOESN’T HE KNOW WHEN THEY NAP?! Why is this my call? Why can’t he be responsible for figuring out his own damn kids’ nap?! (Coming off a long weekend of potty training where he also told me I hadn’t been clear enough with him about the kids’ potty training. Uh, when did I become the designated expert? I’m just googling. You can google, too, unless your fingers miraculously broke without my knowing it.)

A further final note: aquaphor contains bisphenol, which can irritate super sensitive skin or people with an odd set of contact allergens (ask me how I know). Vaseline is a good alternative, and Cetaphil soap with the blue cap is the gold standard in our house for all baby-washing now. Burts Bees was the very worst for triggering skin reactions.

Over here! I’ve been through this! My child’s eczema was persistent and awful, though, beginning at 5 weeks. She was covered head to toe in patches of eczema, she would scratch her skin in her sleep, despite the baby mittens, and leave little flecks of blood on the cribsheet–it was horrible. I can’t believe the pictures when I look back. I switched to frangrance free detergent and soaps, gave her oatmeal baths, used calendula cream and acquaphor, dressed her only in natural fibers, etc. No change. This was 10 years ago, and the 2 ped practices we saw both said just to use steroid cream (! On a tiny baby! All over!) and wait until she was old enough to do allergy testing. I tried an elimination diet on my own, and it was very very hard. I’m also a vegetarian, working at BigLaw at the time with tons of lunch meetings, and lactating–I needed a lot of calories and didn’t have the time to track everything and prepare everything well enough to figure out what the elimination diet was telling us. Her skin would get a little better, then worse, then better. Finally we found a pediatric allergist who would test her that young, and the test showed the list of foods she was allergic to (severely allergic to wheat, eggs, nuts, stone fruit, on and on). I stopped eating those things on the list and her skin was clear in maybe 3-4 days? It was wonderful. BUT a self-managed elimination diet, esp for a lactating vegetarian with a stressful job is a big, inefficient, disruptive method to find out what’s bothering your baby’s skin.

FWIW, her allergies lessened as she grew older. She outgrew the wheat allergy by the time she was 2, the stone fruit allergy by 3-ish, and many tree nuts by 6. Her egg allergy was gone by 10. It’s a bit of a nuisance, but not awful. We are accustomed to carrying the epi pen and Benadryl around. It’s become much easier as she gets older and more responsible.

As a further note, I first had eliminated soy and dairy–common eczema triggers–but she wasn’t at all allergic to those things, so I had endured 2 weeks of hunger and frustration for nothing. It’s just not a productive way to find out what’s bothering the skin.

If your baby’s skin isn’t terrible and can be resolved by other measures, do them. If the eczema gets worse or really bothers him, take him to an allergist!

Good luck.

Don’t do it. Another eczema mom here. This is wacky advice from your ped, and was never suggested to me for my breastfed baby. We did aquaphor, oatmeal baths, and a couple dabs of topical steroid on a really bad patch. I don’t think the topical is as big a deal / absolute last resort in the way you and your ped are describing it.

I also think elimination is a bad idea beyond the disruption to your life. If your child is at risk for food allergies, some very limited exposure through breastmilk is probably a good thing, not bad! Similar to how allergists now recommending early and regular exposure to common allergens, rather than delaying exposure (which makes serious allergies more likely).

My daughter had food allergies and I just had baby #2. The current thinking is that eczema may contribute to development of food allergies. Does your ped have this backward?

According to our pediatric allergist, there was a recent study that suggested liberal topical application of aquaphor on newborns with older siblings with food allergies reduced the incidence of food allergies in the newborn. Our pediatric allergist advised that we slather our newborn with aquaphor to prevent eczema. I guess the theory is that the eczema may provide an entry point for food allergens, and maybe it’s not as good for the kiddo to be introduced to the allergen through the skin versus ingesting the allergen.

Responded above, but wanted to emphasize that the eczema isn’t terrible – he has one patch on his face right in front of his ear, and the rest are scattered on his arms/legs. It’s not disfiguring, and he isn’t scratching and he is generally a happy baby (doesn’t really cry unless he’s hungry or tired), so I don’t think it bothers him. I’d be open to formula feeding if we had too – I’m no breastfeeding extremist – but it seems like it would be even more of a hassle to introduce something new and figure out if he’s allergic to that, and breastfeeding is going well otherwise so I don’t want to give it up in the event that it’s not an allergy at all.

I will look into getting a second opinion; based on my ped’s reaction I didn’t think not treating it was even an option.

I need some words of encouragement. The ped just informed us that our 4 mo old son has eczema, and the most likely culprit is a food allergy. I exclusively breastfeed/pump, so the implication is that my diet is the source. The ped recommended an elimination diet, cutting out dairy, eggs, soy, and wheat. I’m a lifelong vegetarian and have no intention of changing that, so this pretty much cuts out major food groups for me; I could cut any one or two of those, but all of them is so, so hard. (please do not respond trying to convince me to start eating meat; I would switch to formula before I did that).

I realize the ped is trying to do what’s best for my child, but it upset me how casually she suggested this, and didn’t seem to be sensitive to how hard this is going to be for me – she was basically like “oh well you can eat beans and lentils and quinoa for protein.” I am a creative cook and think I can swing this for the two weeks it takes before we start re-introducing foods, but I’m really stressed about how hard this will make lunch meetings with clients, or the two weddings I have to go to next month, or just going out to dinner with friends. And of course I’m also upset that my child is going to have to deal with food allergies when he eventually starts eating.

Has anyone been through this? Any words of advice or encouragement?

I think we have just been hit HARD with the four month sleep regression (at 4.5 months). Got a total of 3 hours sleep last night, and ended up letting him sleep on my in the chair for the first time since like the first month. I am a walking zombie. He screamed everytime we put him down on his back, kept trying to roll to his front but then cried when he got there, yet passed out immediately as soon as we picked him up. We just traded off every few hours all night long. Resources? Commiseration? It gets better? How long does this last? We have had a slow descent into this – he was an amazing sleeper all through the night until about 2 weeks ago, then started kind of waking, to waking to eat, and now this.

Maternity swimwear PSA: At the pool this weekend I saw this very pregnant girl in the cutest bathing suit — I had to ask her where she got it…..this morning I went out and promptly purchased. I’m super excited since the maternity bathing suits made me want to cry…. it’s from Athleta not technically a maternity suit. It is called the “Languna Side Scrunch Tankini”. There’s a lot of fabric that might be annoying normally but works for the belly. Anyway I just had to share. She wore a regular bottom under the bump with it. Link to follow….

YMMV, but when my niece was 3, my sister had a big talk about the ‘pacifier fairy’ who could come take niece’s pacifiers and bring them to the new baby in the family (not a sibling). Niece seemed uninterested, until a week or two later, when she announced she was done with the pacifiers, the pacifier fairy was going to bring her x number of specific toys that night, and that was that. Emergency Target run to acquire said toys, and niece never looked back. I think the element of control there might have helped, since niece decided to give it up, rather than it being taken away.

Pep talk please — I have a daughter who turns 3 in August. She still relies heavily on a pacifier to fall asleep for naps and at night. She will cry in the middle of the night if she can’t find it, and needs me to come in and replace it.

I know I need to get rid of it — but how???? Cold turkey?? Am I doomed to terrible sleep indefinitely? She was a really bad sleeper, which is why we used it so heavily and haven’t taken it away yet. I think I’m really nervous in advance that this is going to cause a huge regression.

OMG, they sell a “business suit onesie.” My day is made.

I’m wearing the maternity version of these pants right now and have worn them about four times per week for the last 20ish weeks (OMG pregnancy is so long!). They look great and perfectly adequate for my one-step-below-a-suit office dress code. They look remarkably structured but have stretched with me nicely throughout this pregnancy.

The only part I can see appearing unprofessional is the stitching (obviously not slacks, but no one gets close enough to see the stitching). I haven’t seen the non-maternity version in person so I can’t comment on the pockets and waistband.