Greening Your Baby

Everyone wants what is best for their kids. No one wakes up in the morning thinking, ‘Gee, how can I squash my kid’s imagination today?’ or ‘How can I expose her to more chemicals in our home?’ If the things I talk about aren’t for you, no problem. I trust every parent to make the best choices for their family, as I hope other parents trust me to make mine. The following are some other things baby related that we do in our home:

In the nursery:
I read a great article about a year ago talking through the various options people can choose to go ‘green’ for their baby. The author stated at the end, if you do nothing else, at the very least get an organic mattress. That stuck, and a few months later we had our first organic baby mattress. Go and google them. I’ll wait. …. Sticker shock? Yeah, I’ll say. They are expensive. And there’s no 5$ organic baby mattress you’ll find on Craigslist.com. As I attempt to also be frugal, the price was initially a huge stumbling block in my mind. Not only was I questioning whether it was necessary, but also if I could even manage to make the right decision seeing as how I wouldn’t be able to just buy another one should I not like the first. I’m all about doing it right the first time as much as possible! So what did I do? Well I googled the heck out of
‘baby organic mattress’ until I felt comfortable with the whys and the whats. Summed up:

Why did I buy an organic mattress? Because I never knew all of the chemicals I was exposing my sweet baby to. And it just makes sense considering the amount of time they spend sleeping. On a scale of 1 to 10 for things that may actually make a huge difference in my child’s health early on, this one is pretty far up there.

What did I buy?
http://www.daxstores.com/baby-cribs--mattresses-and-bedding-organic-baby-crib-mattresses.html
I purchased our mattress from Dax stores. They are out of Nebraska, which is fairly close to us. Free shipping over 100$ was a nice thing, too! I also purchased a wool protector/puddle pad and organic fitted sheet. I have been happy with everything I’ve gotten from them to date.
Of course if you do get the organic mattress, it makes sense to get the organic bedding as well. Personally, I say skip everything but the crib skirt, fitted sheets and blanket for swaddling. For a baby, you don’t need the crib bumper, duvet cover, decorative pillows, etc. Which by the time you’ve purchased all the extra stuff it’d cost the same as getting organic bedding anyway.

In the playroom:
After all of the problems with toys made in China, I decided to phase out our plastic toys. Thankfully there was a great response to the China issue and more non-plastic, non-toxic toys became readily available everywhere! We have several Melissa and Doug items, although I’m not so thrilled with how the color rubs off of their toys(like a crayon, know what I mean?) Speaking of crayons, M & D have some awesome toddler crayons I highly recommend! From Amazon.com I found play kitchen dishes made out of recycled milk jugs, how cool is that? Made from recycled materials, non-toxic and food safe! (See http://www.greentoys.com/) We also got into many hand made items. Our play kitchen food is all hand knit from wool yarn and stuffed with clean wool. We have hand-dyed play silks for imaginative play (great for peekaboo, dolly blankets, capes, whatever. Kids like the texture of the silk). Wooden blocks, cars, kids’ table and chairs, dolly bed, etc. We have 7 plastic toys left. Yep, 7. A few old little tykes things, ride on toy, kiddie laptop and bilibo. (Granted, not counting the outside toys)
Some things can cost a lot. But if you’re smart they don’t have to. Our kids’ table and chairs I posted a ‘wanted’ on Craig list and scored an Amish made set that should outlast any and all kids. Same goes for the toddler rocking chair. Our Melissa and Doug were bought through Amazon.com, though we now have a local store that carries a nice selection! For the handmade items, they were purchased through Hyenacart.com and Etsy.com. Fair Trade Family did almost all of my play food and they are on Hyenacart. Tell Tiffany I sent you! The one thing I saved up for and splurged on was Nina’s Santa present, a handmade doll done in the Waldorf style From HillCountry Dollmaker (also on Hyencart.com). It was fun getting to customize the doll just the way I wanted, down to her blue eyes and blonde baby pigtail hair!

(I will add pictures soon.)

There are many other areas to consider like skin care and clothing. I won't get into them as these things I think are easy to find now at your neighborhood Target/Walmart/Whatever. I would also like to get into organic food, but I’ll save that for another day, another post. In the meantime, here are a few things to read. Google up a storm!

http://greenliving.about.com/od/greenfamily/tp/Green-Baby.htm
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,314741,00.html
http://www.baboobaby.com/