Like many people of my generation, I didn’t grow up having sunscreen slathered on me every time I set foot outdoors. While I know the health benefits of wearing sunscreen today, that doesn’t mean I like applying it – to me or my infant daughter.

Many sunscreens feel greasy, tacky and oily after application. Put something on a squirmy infant or toddler that makes them slippery – and it’s a recipe for disaster! Other sunscreens are hard to apply evenly because the lotion isn’t smooth enough. And spray on sunscreen? They work great as long as you rub them in, but I’m always afraid of spraying it in my daughter’s eyes.

Then I discovered Earth Baby Sun n’ Fun Baby Sunscreen. Earth Baby’s sunscreen lotion goes on smooth, makes baby’s skin feel soft – not greasy – and provides SPF 30 sun protection for even the brightest days.

Earth Baby also works well as a moisturizer thanks to a special blend of:

• Cocoa butter

• Essential oils of chamomile, vanilla and honey

The Importance of Organics

When my daughter was first born, I went on an all-organic kick. But it didn’t last long and, last night, for instance, she sat munching on a French fry at Appleby’s. But I know it’s important to some moms to find all-organic products for their babies. For me, if I can find a superior product at a reasonable price and it is also organic, that’s a bonus. That is exactly the case with the Earth Baby line.

The Earth Baby line is not only certified 90% organic, it’s also phthalate- and paraben-free, pediatrician-recommended and made in the USA. Knowing the product is safe and also supports American industry means a lot to me.

Additionally, Earth Baby partnered with the Forest Stewardship Council and the Rainforest Alliance to use a certifiable 100% tree-free, recyclable FiberStone paper. The packaging contains no bleach and is produced using less energy and no water. It doesn’t get much greener than that.

Oleosome Technology

It’s easy to tell, from all the company is doing for the environment and the U.S. economy, that Earth Baby cares about its customers. The company is also on the cutting edge of technology. It uses proprietary, award-winning oleosome technology (winner of a Frost & Sulliven Technology Innovation of the Year Award) to deliver nutrients directly into the baby’s skin.

Oleosome technology, appearing more and more in high-end beauty products, uses Fresh Cells to deliver nutrients directly to the skin. Picture tiny bubbles within the products, filled with extracts of fruits and vegetables, that burst upon application, releasing healthy nutrients like beta-carotene, and E and C vitamins onto the skin. It’s never to early to start a health and beauty regime for baby, and Earth Baby makes it easy. You’ll find fresh fruit and vegetable extracts deliver through Oleospheres in all their products, including:

• Baby lotion

• Wipes

• Hair detangler

• Baby shampoo

• Bath gel

• Diaper rash cream

Disclaimer

I know this review sounds a bit like a paid ad, but let me assure you, it is not. Earth Baby, as part of a campaign to get their new products into the hands of influential mom bloggers, sent me a sample. I can see why they took that chance – the product really is that good. Now I’m wishing they had offered to send a year’s supply! I’m looking forward to checking out the other products.

Now that our son has begun to eat solid foods, I’d like to start making baby food for him myself. Not only is it more nutritious to make your own baby foods at home – especially with fresh, in season and organic produce– but it can also be less expensive. In our neighborhood grocery store, jars of baby food are sold for just under a dollar each; I can buy a half pound of apples for that price and make enough applesauce to not only feed him, but to freeze or can some as well. What’s more, by making the food myself, I know exactly what is going into it, and thus going into his little body.

Applesauce is a great first food for baby – the smooth consistency is easy for him or her to eat, and the sweet fruit is easy to digest. It’s also quite simple to prepare.

To make your own applesauce:

• peel and core apples

• chop into chunks

• steam the apples over medium heat for about five minutes, or until they are soft. (Using a steamer basket over a sauce pan)

• Set the cooking water aside and carefully remove the apples from heat

• Puree apples in a blender or in a bowl using an immersion blender until smooth

• Add as little of the cooking water as needed to obtain the desired consistency (smooth and thin for young babies, and slightly chunky for older babies; use your judgment and remember that it’s easier to add water and thin the mixture than to make it thicker)

The applesauce can be stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 days, or frozen for up to six months. Freeze the applesauce in ice cube trays, removing once they are frozen and placing in a zip top bag. Each cube measures out to be about one ounce.

One of my favorite things to do on a summer weekend morning is take the kids to a farmer’s market.

I’m a city girl through and through, and had been doing most all of my shopping at SuperTarget and the like. The first time I tried a strawberry from a farmer’s market – Oh My Gosh! The difference between a strawberry picked and packed in a factory and trucked across the country, and a freshly picked strawberry is incredible.

Now I’m so excited for the local growing season to start and to be able to buy produce from the local farmer’s market. Prices for produce are comparable to grocery stores, with whatever is at the peak of the season being the best value.

Fresh produce is better for you too. The fresher it is, the most vitamins and nutrients it retains. If your child will only eat one bite of broccoli, they will get more nutrients if it’s a fresh floret. And they might be a little more enthusiastic about eating it, if they have fun picking it out at the farmer’s market.

Another benefit is less chemicals in your food. Family farms generally use less agricultural chemicals like insecticides and pesticides than large growers. Many farmers selling their produce at farmer’s markets are not organically certified, but are using organic methods. Farms have to use organic methods for several years before the food they grow can be certified organic produce, so it’s a great place to get nearly-organic produce for less-than-organic prices.

Supporting local farmers is also generally considered to be better for your local economy than shopping at the corporately owned supermarket. I’d rather spend my dollars and have them go to a family farm, instead of executives and shareholders.

My local market has a coffee stand, local musicians playing, and many of the vendors give out samples of produce, and cute little kids get the most!  All in all, it’s a fun morning out for all of us.

So are you planning to go to the farmer’s market this weekend? Here’s a challenge: get any of those fresh strawberries home. I bet they’ll all be eaten in the car before you know it.

I’m notoriously frugal, but I also care deeply about the things my kids are exposed to. I was brought up as a strict vegetarian and my parents were always very careful to make sure the foods I ate were as natural as possible, but back when I was a kid there wasn’t as great a prevalence of organic food and items readily available.

Now that I’m a mom I sometimes wonder if paying extra for organic items is worth the cost. Many times I have stood in front of something like strawberries and glanced back and forth between the regular and organic strawberries, wondering if I should pay extra for the organic ones or if it’s more important to save money.

I went to a reliable source to solve this dilemma. I chatted with Rod Olaes, Director of Marketing for EcoBaby, but perhaps more importantly, father to a four year old daughter. “Traditional clothing has a lot of synthetic materials in it and they use a lot of chemicals in the clothing to keep it the way it is.” He says that organic clothing gets softer with each wash and he doesn’t even have to use fabric softener anymore.

Organic clothing items have additional benefits beyond just how nice they feel. He says that children with eczema may soon find that their skin is not as irritated when wearing organic clothing instead of traditionally manufactured items. So not only are the clothes more comfortable to wear, but they are less irritating to the skin.

Sounds great, but what about the cost?

Organic clothing and other organic items usually cost more. Why? “Keep in mind that a lot of products that are organic are made in the U.S., and because the cost of labor is higher in the U.S. that’s something that we have to pay for as opposed to something that’s made overseas and that’s a lot cheaper.” Rod also emphasizes how important it is to support the local economy and think along the lines of environmental sustainability.

So the bottom line is this: Although I may have to pay extra for organic items, overall they are better for my babies and better for the environment. I don’t take much more convincing than that.

You can find out more about the items offered through Rod’s company at his blog. Be sure to also check out a really interesting website he gave me to look at: Pedoodles, a company that offers baby shoes made out of recycled materials. Now that’s cool.

My husband is adamant about not letting our daughter eat dairy. He has cited many studies showing the negative effects of dairy on the body, including being linked to allergies, and even cancer. He can get quite firm when it comes to dietary concerns for the household, while I’m more of a everything-in-moderation type of person. This means he doesn’t want our daughter drinking whole milk as pediatricians recommend for those transitioning from breast milk or formula.

I certainly have nothing against milk or dairy in general. Whole milk is the perfect next phase liquid for babies. They get the fat they need for their growing brain, plus calcium and other important vitamins. However, I want to respect my husband’s demand request so I started researching good alternatives for whole cow’s milk. Unfortunately, there isn’t really much out there. The top alternatives seem to be rice milk, soy milk, goat’s milk, none of which have the good high-fat content that is so beneficial for a growing baby and child.

I started to think that we’d have to go with whole cow’s milk after all. Then I started thinking: there’s got to be millions of kids out there whose parents are vegetarians and don’t give their kids milk. What do they do? I then realized that while whole cow’s milk is a convenient way to package the nutrients you should serve to your child, you can get all these nutrients from different foods. For example, we can take soy milk (which we already drink; we don’t consume cow’s milk) and feed her that while supplementing the fat that’s missing from other foods.

Avocados with it’s superior fat content is a good supplement to add to her diet. I can also give her bread drizzled with olive oil. I can put some sunflower seeds and other nuts through the food processor mix with sugar, a bit of oil or maybe soy milk and turn that into a paste for breads, or keep it dry an sprinkle it on cereals or just feed it to her as it is.

I think we’ve got a good game plan. For parents who are concerned only with what cows are fed (feeds with preservatives, etc.) and how that affecs the milk, you can also try USDA-approved Organic milk.

Wish us luck!

You don’t need me to tell you that babies need a lot of clothes. The average baby grows out of 4 or 5 complete wardrobe changes in their first year. I don’t have a linen cupboard, it’s full of boxes of my son’s baby clothes saved for potential baby number two.

Baby clothes and bedding are almost universally made from cotton. It’s soft, washes well, and it’s breathable, making it the ideal fabric for baby clothes.

It’s also one of the most chemically-dependant crops grown today. Tons of fertilizer, insecticides, and herbicides are used on every acre of cotton grown. To grow enough cotton for an average t-shirt, 1/3 of a pound of agricultural chemicals has to be applied to the soil and plants. For one t-shirt! There is something wrong when the amount of pesticides needed to make a garment, weigh more than the garment itself. And surely some of those chemicals are retained in the cotton fibres that will be worn next to baby’s skin?

It makes the case for organic baby clothes very compelling. As demand has increased, more cotton farms are going organic, and the price of organic clothes has fallen. I remember seeing organic t-shirts for $50 each at a baby boutique a couple of years ago. Today an organic baby t-shirt can be bought for under $10 so now most people can afford to make at least part of baby’s wardrobe organic.

Baby Soy, Sckoon, Speesees, Under the Nile, and many more independent companies, all make adorable baby clothes, sleepwear and sheets from organic cotton. Most of these companies also say that they pay a fair price for their cotton, and are against using sweatshops and other unfair labor practices.

Big brands like Gerber are making organic onesies and the like, and retailers like Gap, Target and Walmart are getting in on the act too. Makes me wonder, if I buy an organic cotton baby t-shirt at (notoriously un-eco-friendly) Walmart, does one cancel the other out?

Macy’s department store is going green for Earth Week. They are hoping to lead by example by lessening their impact on the environment and by offering products that are organic or more recycle-friendly.

They have a few different Eco-friendly giveaway’s and specials running this week so head over to Macy’s for more information.

Some mainstream retail chains have decided to do their part in joining in the green movement. Some new lines and promotions are being launched just in time for Earth Day (April 22).

Toys ?R Us has always claimed to be the ?world?s greatest toy store?. It?s a great place to find just about anything your kids see on commercials (and must have). It?s the place to go for well-known brands like Mattel, Hasbro, Parker Brothers, popular action figures, Barbies, character-themed toys (ie: Batman, Power Rangers, My little Pony, Bratz, etc.) and larger items such as bikes, ride-on toys and swing sets.

Most aisles are loaded with brightly colored, often plastic, toys. Just in time for Earth Day, though, the mega chain is launching their new non-toxic, organic line of toys. Many of the items are made of natural, recycled materials and are dye- and chemical-free. The line includes wooden and plush toys. This new line is also in response to the recent alarming recalls of unsafe toys made in China.

Wal-Mart, never one of my favorite stores, has gained a bit of respect in my eyes, now that I?ve learned of their efforts to be environmentally friendly. On Saturday, April 19th, the chain will give away a million custom-made, reusable shopping bags, made from recycled materials. They normally sell these bags for $1. A recent ad they ran stated that plastic bags can take as long as 1,000 years to degrade: convincing evidence that we should all opt for fabric totes when we shop!

Wal-Mart recently published an insert in parenting magazines, listing several of their green, yet affordable products, including some for parents and babies. Their own brand of baby wipes, Parent?s Choice, are made with organic cotton and natural fibers, which make them gentler for baby and the environment. I was very surprised to learn that they are 100% biodegradable in 30 days. The store is even selling Horizon organic milk these days. A recent ad stated that this brand of milk is made with the help of 450 certified organic farms and that Horizon Organic is working with and helping even more farms to transition to organic methods.

Other earth-friendly, Fair Trade and certified organic items at Wal-Mart include coffee, cleaning products, some lines of clothing and some gardening/planting materials.

It?s still cool to support small, local businesses but now you can also do some good by shopping at mega-chains…go figure!

To take a peek at the new Toys ?R Us natural toy line, go to www.toysrus.com and click on ?natural toys?.

For more information on Wal-Mart?s green products, visit www.walmart.com/green.

Click here to get your free sample of 100% Organic Skin Care Products from Lavera.

-or-

Call 1.877.LAVERAS and ask for the samples that way, you can also get their free catalog.

Results of a year long study report that government promises to rid the United States? food supply of brain-damaging pesticides aren’t doing the job.

The study, which carefully monitored the diets of a group of children in a Washington State neighborhood, found that the urine and saliva of children eating a variety of conventional foods from area groceries contained biological markers of organophosphates, the family of pesticides spawned by the creation of nerve gas agents in World War II.

When the same children were fed organic fruits, vegetables and juices, traces of pesticides were not found.

“The transformation is extremely rapid,” said Chensheng Lu, the principal author of the study.

“Once you switch from conventional food to organic, the pesticides (malathion and chlorpyrifos) that we can measure in the urine disappears. The level returns immediately when you go back to the conventional diets,” said Lu, a professor at Emory University’s School of Public Health and a leading authority on pesticides and children.

Within eight to 36 hours of the children switching to organic food, the pesticides were no longer detected in the testing.

The study has not yet linked the pesticide levels to specific foods; however, other studies have shown that fruits and vegetables including peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, strawberries, nectarines, and cherries most frequently have detectable levels of pesticides, among others.

He points out that there is no certainty that the pesticides measured in this group of children would cause any adverse health outcomes. Lu says more research must be done to study what harm these pesticides may do to children, even at the low levels found on food.

While some parents might want to switch their children to an all organic diet due to these findings, Lu cautions not to be hasty.

“It is vital for children to consume significantly more fresh fruits and vegetables than is commonly the case today,” he says, citing such problems as juvenile diabetes and obesity.

“Nor is our purpose to promote the consumption of organic food, although our data clearly demonstrate that food grown organically contains far less pesticide residues.”

Lu says an all-organic diet is not necessary. Instead, he says that consumers ?should be encouraged to buy produce direct from the farmers they know. These need not be just organic farmers, but conventional growers who minimize their use of pesticides.?

In addition, understanding how fruits and vegetables grow can help in making smart choices. For example, organic strawberries are probably a wise choice because they are a tender-fleshed fruit that is grown close to the ground, so more pesticides are needed to fight insects and bugs from the soil. Apples and spinach are also smart to buy organic, he says.

Check out the Green Guide for the 10 most important foods to purchase organic.

The study was published online in Environmental Health Perspectives. Click here for the full report.

Since Mina was a few months old, and we moved from sponge baths to baths in the tub, I’ve noticed her skin would get dry quickly. On her 2 month well-baby checkup, my husband asked her pedia about the flaky skin (I had to work). Dr. J answered that it may be related to the rapidly cooling weather and dry air and recommended we reduce her bath times, and to moisturize.

We did as she recommended but soon after, I noticed that following a bath, patches of angry red skin would pop up and then dry, scaling afterwards. I reduced her baths to twice a week, and made sure to moisturize her with a hypo-allergenic lotion. The dryness became worse, so on her next well-baby checkup, I showed our pedia the patches of dry skin. The verdict was infant eczema.

Our doctor was more specific this time; Mina needed non-drying baby shampoo, and something fragrance free. Using Eucerin samples that my pedia gave us helped with the dryness and almost completely removed the scaly patches. Comparing this against the pricey French brand Mustela that we’d been putting on her skin, we were surprised that the hypo-allergenic Mustela actually had perfume in the ingredients. Since I know perfume can cause allergic reactions, I found the “hypoallergenic” label on this brand very misleading.

We parents just have to be so much more rigorous on the products we introduce to our baby. It’s not enough to go by labels, or to assume that the more expensive the product is, the better. For example, searching on the definition of hypoallergenic online resulted in a page that read:

“For the past four years, the Food and Drug Administration has been working to clear up this confusion of [hypoallergenic] claims by establishing testing requirements that would determine which products really are “hypoallergenic.” But late last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that FDA’s regulation defining “hypoallergenic” was invalid. This means there is now no regulation specifically defining or governing the use of the term “hypoallergenic” or similar claims.” (source: http://www.allergybuyersclub.com/hypoallergenic.html”)

Sometimes, I feel I can’t even rely on the Food and Drug Administration to help me make safe product decisions.

As always, I turned to other moms for advice. We’re now trying California Baby fragrance-free products to see if our daughter’s skin will fare better. It’s organic, and not tested on animal so we feel good using these. Reading the ingredients, I can pronounce and understand all of it, which is the main reason I opted to spring for the still pricey product.

We’ve already started using it, and I can definitely see a difference on my baby’s sensitive skin.

Good news organic consumers! Organic eggs are found to have lower Salmonella, a bacterium that causes food poisoning worldwide, compared to non-organic ones. Recent survey by the UK Soil Association as reported by Natural Choices showed that 23.4 % of farms with caged hens were positive for Salmonella compared to 4.4 % in organic birds and 6.5 % in free-range birds. The research also showed that the highest incidence of Salmonella occurred in the farms that grow 30,000 hens or more.

Non-organic chickens are normally housed in cramped ?battery cages? containing 4 to 5 hens. Organic chickens, on the other hand, are free-ranging and are allowed to go outdoors and express their natural behavior. Non-organic chickens are also cramped in windowless sheds of factory farms, thus, they are given lots of antibiotics to protect them from diseases but weaken their natural immune system. Their dependence on antibiotics may result in the development ?super bugs? that can be dangerous to humans. This research confirms the Soil Association?s view that intensive farming may have potential threat to human health.

There are now approximately 29 million egg-laying chickens in the UK and over 70% are kept in battery cages. Salmonella food poisoning can be avoided through proper cooking of eggs and meat. However, the incidence of this bug can be avoided by buying genuine free-range or organic eggs.

Source:

Natural choices.co.uk 1 February 2008

I’ve often wondered if there are recommendations for buying specific organic foods; if there are some things which contain more harmful ingredients than others.

I finally stumbled upon an article, just yesterday, which pointed out some foods which are definitely worth going green on, specifically for pregnant women. It’s probably a good idea to keep these in mind, however, for your entire family all of the time.

One of the biggest offenders is beef. A recent study showed a link between mothers who ate conventional beef more than once a day during pregnancy and low sperm counts in their adult sons. The men in this study were three times more likely to have consulted a fertility specialist.

Grass-fed, organically-raised cattle are leaner and healthier overall and their meat can have about five times the amount of brain-building omega-3 fatty acids of regular beef. The cost of organic meat, however, can be twice as much as regular. One way to deal with this cost increase is to serve smaller portions of beef- even treat it as a side-dish- and accommodate for this by serving larger portions of what would normally be side dishes, such as veggies and rice or other grains. You will be serving your family a healthier meal, in more ways than one, this way. Another option is simple: if you are normally big meat-eaters, cutting back to eating organic beef around three times a week will save money on your grocery bill and make for a healthier diet.

Another food I read about surprised me. I always thought of tofu as a healthy, vegetarian alternative to meat; a low-fat, inexpensive source of protein. Dr. Alan Greene, author of Raising Baby Green: The Earth-friendly Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth and Baby Care, recommends only buying and eating organic tofu. This is because 80% of today’s soybean crops are genetically modified, which means that it’s been altered in a lab to make it more weed- or bug-resistant. While it is unclear just what effects these added pesticides have on humans, it’s better to avoid the potential risks.

Another biggie is milk. Definitely go organic when you are pregnant because you are required to consume so much calcium at this time (the same applies to kids over age 1). By drinking organic milk, you are avoiding harsh agricultural chemicals and many environmental toxins are stored in the fat which is in many dairy products. A less expensive option: buy milk that’s growth-hormone-free (rBVH-free or rBST-free).

One food you don’t have to worry about going organic with is eggs. Egg-laying hens aren’t given growth hormones, nor are they likely to be exposed to antibiotics. Chickens raised for food, however, are treated with these harmful ingredients.

Good news for fruit lovers and organic consumers. More benefits from organic kiwifruit have been identified.

Organic kiwifruit are found to be much healthier than the non-organic ones. This is according to a study by UC Davis scientists which showed that organically grown kiwifruit contains higher polyphenols, the same healthy compounds found in red wine and colored berries. They also have higher anti-oxidants, vitamin C and important minerals compared with their non-organic counterparts. It seems that organic kiwifruits produce these antioxidants and polyphenols to endure stress and protect themselves from insect pests. Certified organic food is growing approximately 19% every year and is considered the fastest-growing sector of the global food industry.

Source:

Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 2007, Volume 87, Issue 7 , Pages 1228 – 1236

It?s great to be a woman of the 21st century. Not only do we enjoy the benefits of a freer society than that of our grandmothers, but we also enjoy the fruits of research on environmentally-friendly and organic sanitary products. Today?s woman has more choices on how to go organic, natural, and pro-environment. How do the following strike you?

1. Organic, all-natural disposable cotton pads and tampons
2. Reusable cotton cloth pads
3. Menstrual cups

Be freed from the guilt of clogging rivers and landfills with potentially toxic waste materials (tampons and napkins). Be free from the worry of Toxic Shock Syndrome from synthetic fibers. Feel stress-free of carcinogens lurking in every possible chemically-laden feminine hygiene product. The above products are not promises; they?re real and can be had. This is the perfect time to be a woman. I wouldn?t mind using menstrual cups and reusable cotton cloth pads one bit. If my grandmother had my choices, she would have won more than just a bronze medal for swimming at the 1936 Olympics. I kid you not!

Read more about it here.

A Dutch study published in the British Journal of Nutrition has shown that where pregnant women consumed organic dairy products instead of the non-organic version there was significant reduction in the occurrence of eczema (36%) and of wheezing (11%) in their children by the age of 24 months.

This is part of an ongoing study called the Koala Birth Cohort Study which is comparing the benefits of a consumption of organic products with non-organic.

Organic Dairy Lowers the Risk of Eczema in Early Childhood

Organic Milk Reduces Eczema

Buy Organic Online: The Top Websites

For those of you that love to drink lemonade here is one more reason to drink up – organic style. A new study researching lemonade made from organic lemons compared to non-organic lemons has found that organic lemonade offers ten times the amount of bioflavonoid antioxidants then their non-organic counterpart.

The study, conducted by Washington State University with support from The Organic Center, proves that organic citrus items, like lemons, limes, and grapefruits offer higher antioxidant support then non-organic. The study is one more positive step for antioxidants and the benefits that our bodies receive and also places a large importance on going organic.

And with the growing amount of positive reports over the past few years of antioxidants and their importance in support of a healthy body from smoother skin, a healthy heart, to all-around general better health, consumers continuously want to learn about how they can improve their health.

Bioflavonoids are offered in many forms – Quercetin, Hesperidin, Rutin, and Citrus – and most support health through strengthening our capillaries and connective tissue. The following is a small list of other support functions offered:

• Anti-inflammatory
• Antihistaminic
• Antiviral agent

Read the study here.

Sources:
Study: Organic lemonade has 10x more antioxidants than regular, Environmental News Network
Bioflavonoid Uses and Information, NutraSanus