My Advice On Green Toys

Sophie the Giraffe natural rubber teether toy

We half screwed up on the toy front, and if I could do it all over again, this is what I would do:

1. Look for toys that are made of organic cotton, other natural fibers, unfinished and unpainted wood, silicone, or natural rubber.

2. We skip most painted, finished, or shellacked wood toys.  In my opinion, these are just as bad as plastic.  That is, unless the language is present that makes me believe that the creators believe in some kind of natural, water-based, non-toxic paint and finish.

3. We avoid plastic of all kinds as much as possible.  Plastic is plastic, whether or not it is touted as "BPA free", "green", "recycled", etc. It is really cool that Green Toys is recycled and Green Sprouts is BPA free, but this stuff is still plastic!

4. We aren't going to be able to find everything made eco-friendly.  So, we either decide it is worth the exposure or that she doesn't need it. There are so many cute things that I wish were made with green baby in mind.  I wish, wish wish I could find some silicone teething keys.  We have a lot of teethers, but I think she would really like silicone keys.  I would also love to find a silicone or bamboo toddler spoon.

5. Eco wording is very important.   I keep seeing "green" toys made out of plastic.  I wish these toys had wording about how they were made out of bamboo with water/plant-based paints.  Then I would buy them.  And, I wish the painted wood toys talked about how the paint and finish was plant-based.  But alas, the only comments I see are "recycled", "BPA free" and "meets US safety standards."   Alas, they are painted with toxic chemicals, so we won't buy them.  I also don't buy things if I don't know what it is made out of, such as "plant-based bio resin".  WTF is that? 

6.  Keep an eye out early.  Making sure all of baby's toys are green takes a lot of time and effort.  And, you have to buy some things online, though I found that Buy Buy Baby has an awesome selection.  I thought we did pretty good, but we made some major mistakes.  I thought all cloth things were good (FALSE), and I thought it would be easy to find unfinished wood toys (FALSE).  I thought we could get buy with minimal toys, but she constantly needs something to play with.  And, what she likes changes all of the time.  We have a rotation of about 15 toys just for the day.

Miyim organic cotton stroller toy
(Lily's favorite thing on and off since 4 months)

7. Every baby will be interested in different toys at different periods. Her perceptions of the world around her change and she can interact with and perceive different toys in a way that is interesting to her.   We buy a toy that she doesn't know what to do with, and then two or three months later, it's her favorite thing.  That same toy, some of her play date friends have yet to find interest in, but other friends played with it months before her. 

8. She is going to want to play with what she wants to play with, regardless of whether or not it's made out of natural material.  This baby is always clamoring to get ahold of my car keys, the plastic remote, cardboard anything, and paper napkins.  When she goes through periods of super fussiness, we're inclined to let her play with the one yuck thing that makes her happy.

9. Play dates at other houses will most certainly include toys we wouldn't otherwise let her play with, and that's okay for us.  She gets to play with new things, and we get to see what kinds of things she might be currently interested in.

10. We have gone through several periods of "Oh WTF, we have nothing she wants to play with now, and she is bored to the bone!!!" So, I run to the store and pick up a few things. This panic often leads to a plastic toy purchase, even if I planned ahead with some new eco toys for just that occasion.  It takes 5 toys to find the one she wants to play with.

11. If we do by something plastic or non-eco painted wood, we opt for things that she can't put in her mouth very easily.  The heat of the inside of the mouth is more likely to cause the plastic to leech.  She can't really get the remote in her mouth. Or the plastic Gymboree balls we bought after she fell in love with them in class.  Or, this plastic take along car seat toy we just bought to make car rides a lot easier (less screaming baby, more happy drive).

plastic, but tied to car seat, so she can't get it in her mouth

12.  I wished we would have skipped fabric toys, unless they are organic.  I thought that fabric was better than plastic only to discover synthetic fabric is plastic.  Cloth anything really needs to be made with cotton or other natural fibers.  It doesn't have to be organic, but it sure as hell cannot be synthetic.

13. I wish we would have put away the stuffed animals that aren't made of natural fibers.  We don't have many organic stuffed animals.  We have a lot of ones that were synthetic that we just gave to her before we really thought that through.  We had thought that any fabric was better than plastic. 

14. We skip anything that has gel in it.  Like teethers with gel.   Those plastic containers can bust and that gel is not good for her.

15.  Check Etsy.com!  There are so many handmade options available.

Green Toys Wish List

(to be updated as I find more awesome toys!)

Infant
Chewbeads.com
Silicon teethers  
Miyim Winnie the Pooh (and friends)
Miyim Mickey Mouse (and friends)
Miyim Dr. Seuss toys
Miyim Lovie
Miyim rattle
Miyim stroller toys
Miyim finger puppets
Miyim musical toys
Play mat
Sophie the Giraffe
Apple Park soft blocks
Dandelion soft blocks
Dandelion crinkle bear
Dandelion squeaker duck
Green Sprouts wooden rattles
Wonderworld rolling tick tok
Wonderworld twisty toy
Under the Nile Owl
Dandelion Flower Book

Toddler
Wooden blocks
Imagination Kids
Bouncy ball
Miyim Pooh bowling set
Dandelion Little House Sorter

Preschooler
Other Miyim toys
Ikea kids kitchen set and stainless steel cookware 

Silicone Teethers

Silicone is different from plastic in that silicone is inert and does not leech.  Just scored at CVS where I found a cute silicone teether.   Previously had her playing with Lifefactory silicone teethers...

And, the banana toothbrush teether.

Wary of Green Sprouts

When looking for safe options for feeding and teething eco stuff, in both Whole Foods and on Amazon , Green Sprouts keeps coming up.  But, I won't buy most of this stuff.  While they do have a line of silicone products, and a few unfinished wooden rattles that I would buy, most of everything they offer is plastic.  The eco-friendly trend is to promote plastic products that are BPA and PVC free, but that doesn't make the plastic any more safe.  In an article posted by Time:

In a new study for the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers found that most plastic products leach endocrine-disrupting chemicals—and that was true even for products labeled “BPA-free.” Scientists led by George Bittner, a neurobiologist at the University of Texas, looked at 455 common plastic products and found that 70% tested positive for estrogenic activity. Once those products were subject to real-world conditions—microwaving or dishwashing—that proportion rose to 95%.

In talking about the same study, Discovery.com had some advice about how consumers should deal with plastics:

For now, it is literally impossible for consumers to know which plastics might contain hormone-disrupting chemicals, so the old advice holds: Avoid heating plastics, leaving them in the sun, putting hot materials in them or putting them through other stresses if you're planning to eat or drink their contents.

Perhaps the best thing consumers can do, Yaniger said, is to put the pressure on businesses, just like they did with BPA. Instead of BPA-free, his hope is for future labels to be marked EA-free to signal a lack of all kinds of estrogenic activity.

I agree that we don't know what these other chemicals in plastic will do to us.  And, we don't know what chemicals these manufacturers are using.  Regardless of the concerns about estrogenic properties, what else can the leeching these plastics do to our bodies?  Are we plastic repositories?  So, I choose to try to remove as much plastic from my life and home.  So, when folks, such as Green Sprouts, try to sell me some eco-friendly plastic over and over again, I don't buy it.    I especially don't buy it for my baby girl.

And, cornstarch isn't something I'm going to let my baby chew on either.  Corn is the #1 GMO food in the United States. So, unless it's organic, it's not going in baby girls' mouth.

We Wear Plastic

My goal, though it is an ever-evolving path, is to be the healthiest person that I can be, to live a life with as little sickness as possible, and to live as long as I can.  It is my belief that we cause most diseases through our choices in food and our exposure to toxins in our environment.  Unless we are careful consumers, society is set up to make it easy for us to fill our lives with products that speed up our demise.  It is impossible to lead a toxin-free life, but I believe that it's in our best interest to do whatever we can to minimize the toxins that we do come into contact with.

That said, a lot of our clothes are made of plastic.  I don't want to wear plastic clothes.  I don't want my baby girl to wear plastic clothes.  I think I've lived in a bubble for a long time.  I don't think I realized what synthetic fabrics were.  They are plastic!  I don't want plastic touching my food, I don't want it in my baby's mouth, and I certainly don't want it up close and personal with the largest organ in our bodies.  In fact, I believe that it's things like this, things that we never give a second thought, that are causing more and more cases of cancer in the United States.  We don't eat the right foods, and this.  All of the things like this.  We wear plastic.

To exacerbate the issue, the plastic from washing these clothes is polluting the ocean.

I have bought a lot of cheap clothes for a very long time.  I don't think that our clothes need to be organic, but they certainly should be some kind of natural fiber, such as cotton, hemp, linen, cashmere, silk, or bamboo. One website recommends that we stay away from rayon, polyester, acrylic, acetate, triacetate, nylon, and anything static resistant, stain resistant, permanent press, wrinkle-free, stain proof or moth repellant. I am not going to throw out my whole wardrobe, but while shopping from here on out, I am going to limit my purchases to non-plastic clothing.

Non-Plastic Baby Dishes

We're getting closer to the start of solid foods, and I read somewhere that to distract baby from not yet participating in mealtime, we could start teaching her how to use a cup.  We have also been feeding her bits of slushy breastmilk or the fat from the top of the bottle with a silicone-tipped infant spoon.  She is very interested in chewing on the cup and the spoon, but only interested in the food when it goes into our mouths.  She almost grabbed a slice of bacon out of my hand and she tried to pull my coffee cup over to her mouth to try some this morning.

I realized last week that I hadn't addressed the question of what she is going to eat with. We are a minimal plastic house.  The plastic in our house basically consists of the packaging on our food, beauty products, and electronics.   We have a lot of glassware, but not much of anything we could give a hungry and learning baby.  I wound up purchasing the silicone cups and bowls above.

 When it comes to baby girl, I would prefer that she didn't put anything plastic in her mouth, which is easier said than done.  After I spent months trying to find the best high chair option with a wooden tray, because her food would obviously come into contact with the tray, I also bought a plain walker with a plastic tray.  The first thing she did was put her mouth on the plastic tray and start to suck on it.  In that moment, I knew that it was a loosing battle.  I'm not the kind of mom that freaks out if she ends up chewing on something plastic, but if we weren't paying attention, everything we brought into the house for the baby could easily be plastic.

It is my understanding that silicone is a good alternative to plastic, because it's inert and doesn't leech when changing temperatures.  Some plastics don't leech at room temperature, and my husband and I have differing opinions on their occasional use.  I suppose that we all teeter back and forth around what is the best course of action and the most convenient for our families.

Eating on the Job

Well, eating, like most everything these past six weeks, has been difficult.  And, eating at work has been even worse.  First of all, my body was demanding hot food.  Secondly, I refuse to let microwaves be a part of my regular routine.  And, of course, I'm now in need of hot, organic food, I can only eat about three things for a meal (fresh alfredo pasta, fresh burgers, and fresh pancakes), and I no longer live a five-minute walk from work.  Oh yeah, we're not lucky enough to have a full kitchen here.  That would be wonderful!

I've usually packed a pretty good lunch since I moved away from work and in with Sean (before he was baby daddy).  But, since the preggers stomach is so finicky, and the organic preggers worman so particular about her food, my lunch box has become a full-on paper grocery bag.  Let's peak into today's stash:

What we've got here is an organic baby romaine salad with lemon olive oil dressing, organic carrot slices, organic raspberries, organic bananas, a smoothie, a glass water bottle filled from home, and a mason jar of raspberry leaf tea.  We eat different lettuces at home, usually an herb salad or spring mix, but my stomach would only take romaine.  Most romaine salads have a lot of hearts, but the baby romaine salad we found was a better alternative, being dark green and purple.  Though these carrots are from a five-pound bag, I usually prefer to grab the ones from Whole Foods with the tops on and a little dirt still on them.  I believe that the more processed my food is before I buy it, the more potential that process has to remove nutrients from my food before I get it.  Baby daddy and Green Babies Sage Moms both say that banana's are safe when they aren't organic, and Sean goes further to say that organic bananas are a waste of money, because they don't require any pesticides to grow.  I still like to buy the organic ones, but I'll just grab whatever is ripest, because I want to actually eat them this week!

My fruit smoothie is a blend of fresh-squeezed organic orange juice, organic raspberries, organice strawberries, and a banana.  My friend, Norma, dropped off some raspberry tea for this preggers girl, which I had just been reading about in Wise Woman's Herbal for the Childbearing Years, is good for strengthening the uterus before and during pregnancy.  So, I brew it before work to ensure that I will drink it!  The water at home has an Aquasana water filter.  I was an avid Brita user, but Sean did the research long before I arrived on scene, and he chose this one because it's the only one that filters out unnecessary chemicals, like fluoride.

You'll notice that my water bottle is glass (a VOSS water bottle you can pick up at Whole Foods), as is the mason jar and my salad container.  We try to minimize the plastic in our lives.  It's hard to do, because plastic is so convenient and cheap.  I don't have a good glass container for my smoothie yet, but I just started carting those into work yesterday.  Prior to that, I was drinking it in a glass on the way to work.  I just really don't trust plastic to not leech junk into my food, even though some plastics are better than others.  Stainless steel leeches a little bit, and it's certainly better than plastic.  The only thing that doesn't leech into your food is glass and silicone.

In my next blog post, I'm going to talk about the yummy places that I've been able to get hot food without a microwave while at work.

Natural Makeup Switch

It's been about two weeks since I've last worn deodorant.  Some of my friends who are reading this blog gave great feedback that I still haven't had to try.  Some of my favorite suggestions were the lavender-scented natural wipes for when you start to smell during the day, trying out the crystal deodorant as a better alternative to Tom's of Main, or using using a splash of tea tree oil for it's antiseptic properties.

This next round of organic changes in my routine also started with a page in Green Babies Sage Moms by Lynda Fassa, who went on a roll about parabens and phalates in cosmetics, and recommended that pregnant readers switch to something more natural.  She highly recommended the Dr. Hauschka line, which they sell at Whole Foods, but it is SO expensive.  And, I don't think that I cared for the mascara when I tried it a few years ago.  I had already gone out and bought a cheaper set of natural makeup at Whole Foods, and I was happy to find that Fassa also listed Zuzu Luxe as a safe bet.  I just picked up the basics, which for me includes foundation, blush, mascara, and eye shadow.  I'll swear off eye liner for awhile to save a few bucks.

What could be lurking in everything from plastic and nail polish to fragrances, cosmetics, lotions, and hairsprays are dangerous substances called phalates.  Phalates have been linked to birth defects, and they aren't always listed in the ingredients.  Especially if it's part of a "fragrance," companies aren't required by the FDA to reveal their ingredients.  I've included some links below to more information. According to Divine Caroline, skin care lines such as Burts Bees and Kiss My Face are phalate-free.  I love Burts Bees!  I have used their tinted lip balm instead of lipstick for years.

Another set of chemicals to watch out for is used as a preservative in cosmetics, such as makeup and deodorant, which are ingredients that end in "paraben".  This includes methylparaben, propylparaben, and butylparaben, which are the most common parabens according to the FDA. The issue with parabens is that they mimic estrogen.The Breast Cancer Fund even lists parabens as a contributor to breast cancer:

Measurable concentrations of six different parabens have been identified in biopsy samples from breast tumors (Darbre, 2004). The particular parabens were found in relative concentrations that closely parallel their use in the synthesis of cosmetic products (Rastogi, 1995). Parabens have also been found in almost all urine samples examined from a demographically diverse sample of U.S. adults (Ye, 2006a).

 Of course, the FDA doesn't think that parabens pose a considerable health risk, but the "FDA is aware that estrogenic activity in the body is associated with certain forms of breast cancer."  And, the FDA says that it doesn't know what effect phalates have on humans.  But, I don't trust the same agency that regulates food and allows chemical pesticides, genetically modified organisms, and other chemicals that they allow to be called "food" into our food supply to make sure that I stay out of chemical harm's way.  I believe that when we replace natural ingredients with chemicals (usually for cost-cutting measures) that we're poisoning ourselves.

I also don't believe that I'm making these changes just for the baby.  The baby is encouraging me make general organic choices that for one reason or another (including laziness, cost, availability, quality, or effectiveness).

Phalates:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phthalate
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/07/news/la-heb-phthalates-20110907
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1253722/
http://www.webmd.com/baby/features/revamp-your-pregnancy-beauty-regimen
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/11/swan_phthalates_study.html
http://www.ewg.org/node/26957
http://www.divinecaroline.com/112925/44788-beauty-products-avoid-pregnancy
http://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/productandingredientsafety/selectedcosmeticingredients/ucm128250.htm

Parabens:
http://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/productandingredientsafety/selectedcosmeticingredients/ucm128042.htm
http://www.breastcancerfund.org/clear-science/chemicals-glossary/parabens.html
http://www.ewg.org/chemindex/term/563

The Beginning

I am a 29 year-old broadcast technician that works in live television news by day and organizes Pagan community by night.  Baby Daddy (my husband Sean) and I met when he walked into my apartment in September of 2009 to take a class that I was offering on Wicca.  Eventually, we became best friends and realized we were in love with each other.  We started dating in November of 2011, just a few months before we found out about our little bun in the oven!

On January 31, 2012, my moon time (Pagan for menstrual cycle) was well over a week late, so I took a pregnancy test.  It came out negative.  That Saturday, February 4th, my moon time still hadn't started, so I took another pregnancy test, which came out positive!  That night, I took a 2nd test, which also came out positive.  And, then on the following Tuesday, I took another test, which also came out positive.  I was pregnant! 

What makes my husband and I different from a lot of people is that we believe that the U.S. food system and U.S. medical systems are not set up to naturally provide the proper care and nutrition that humans need for optimum health and livelihood.  We believe that good health starts with the things we put into our bodies and getting enough exercise.  Most of the foods made available are not made with real food, and in fact, they contain chemicals that are harmful to humans, cause cancers, and result in diseases and early death.  They do this because it is cheaper than making real food, and this chemical-laden food contains (poisonous) preservatives that help it last longer on the store shelf. Our water supply is purposefully poisoned with fluoride under the guise that it's good for our teeth, but it's not.  It's a waste product of industry that is cheaply disposed of in our water supply.  The U.S. has an infatuation with plastic, which leeches poisonous chemicals into our water and food.  Hospitals treat symptoms and don't look for the cause of illnesses, so they are typically only good for emergency medicine.  Doctors prescribe an ungodly amount of pharmaceuticals for little good reason, which are just chemicals that scientists say they think will treat a set of symptoms.  Those drugs come with their own list of side effects that are often worse than the symptoms they are trying to treat, and they don't actually fix the cause of those symptoms.  It is up to people to be educated and informed about the world around them.  We have to be constantly aware of what we put into our bodies.

It is every parents' wish that their newborn baby is as healthy as possible.  Sean and I think that our bun in the oven ended up with a super set of parents who are committed to optimum health in our family. Right now, everything that I do or eat affects our little one.  I am trying to give him/her the best nutrition that I can.  I think the body  makes that a little hard, because I can only eat about five foods right now without wanting to throw up.  But, my body is trying to give him/her a lot of good fat so that will grow a big baby brain!  I don't like taking supplements, because they're not real food, but Babby Daddy talked me into finding a whole food, organic prenatal vitamin.  I think that I did all right: