alternatives

This week a reader asked about finding non toxic balls:



Hi,

I was hoping to find some help. My very young boy (14 months) is stealing balls from other kids in the playground. Time to get him one I guess. Not in my wildest dreams did I imagine that this might be an impossible task. He still likes to chew on everything. A ball for a child, you'd have thought someone would be making a big bouncy ball intended for young children that actually wasn't full of chemicals that could harm them.

So I thought I had found one at least five times only to discover that either the product was no longer available, or "green" by heresay only -- but nasty when tested, or even better ... good for the environment, but not for the baby. Sigh.

Please do you have any recommendations for me. Not interested in Crocodile Creek, or the Fair Trade Sports Ball.

I would have thought a big inflatable bouncy rubber ball, or even a leather one using leather cured in less toxic way would be best. Not sure if they exist.

Don't care what it looks like.

Thank you for your time, I really appreciate it. I have officially given up. ...

It’s been a hot, moist summer here in NYC, and I ended up recycling my PEVA shower curtain and replacing it with a polyester one a few weeks ago because I couldn’t wash the mold out of the bottom of it. A soon-to-be-pregnant reader on the hunt for a safer shower curtain wrote to us wondering about a new shower curtain material she keeps seeing, PEVA:

In our quest to get pregnant this summer, my husband and I (ok, mostly me) have become more and more conscientious about the toxins, etc. around us - thanks largely to your book and blogs! While on the lookout for vinyl, I’ve recently noticed some products (shower curtains, lined baby bibs) labeled 100% PEVA. What is PEVA, and is it a safe alternative to PVC? I’m sure organic cotton is the best choice for many of these types of products, but when my options are vinyl, PEVA, or polyester, what’s a girl to do?

My organic babe is no longer the only child on her father's side of the family. She's now, at the ripe age of two and a half, the oldest cousin. Her new playmate arrived late last week and we spent the weekend visiting and cooing over him. She's quite smitten.

His parents, like most new parents, are becoming more and more interested in all things green. I have tried not to butt in too much, or be too obnoxious with unsolicited advice (there's nothing worse) but rather to remain available as a resource should they want to come to me. I admit that I have failed on a few occasions. Like the time I offered my services in response to a baby shower registry list they emailed around. They were quite lovely about it though, and their nursery now contains an organic crib mattress so it was a win-win situation for the baby. And it was great to be with them on site this weekend, talking about the specifics of organic versus natural chicken as we looked in their freezer, and chatting about how best to sterilize the glass canning jars they'll use to store pumped breastmilk.

I did mouth off uninvited once over the course of the weekend. I saw a big thing of Roundup in their foyer and spoke before I thought. I don't even know if it belonged to them (their building has two apartments). I thought better after I blurted out that they needed to find a better product. But no one seemed to mind. Click here for more information on why not to use Roundup:

I fled sweaty Brooklyn for the New Jersey countryside last weekend and returned home Sunday night with fresh farm peaches and a hand-me-down car seat from my friend and host. I love free stuff and have to admit I probably wasn’t going to dig too deeply to find out how safe the inherited model was, but then I checked my email and saw that the trusty Ecology Center had just released their second annual car seat toxicity ranking. I went to Healthy Car.org and searched the convertible Britax car seat by model (Marathon Tan Swirl) and was psyched to find it got a pretty low rating for toxicity (0.6). (A very similar seat, the Britax Marathon Onyx, did much worse with a 4.4.)

The non-profit Ecology Center (out of Ann Arbor) is very invested in the struggle for clean air, safe water, healthy communities, and environmental justice, and has included more than 200 of the most popular 2008- 2009 cars and over 60 car seats in their study. The database is exhaustive and easy to peruse, with lists of chemicals, numerical ratings, photos, and explanations of health concerns. The average American spends more than 1.5 hours in cars (gas prices have only reduced driving under 1 percent nationally), so it’s smart to seriously consider the polluted air inside – particularly for kids and their still-developing systems.

I just got caught driving behind four massive trucks delivering pool water on the way to catch a train and it got me thinking about processed water and cooling off. It seems like there are so many invisible and odorless chemicals to be on the lookout for these days that super obvious ones like chlorine can get overlooked. It’s been used to clean up the water we drink, swim in and bathe in for so long because it’s cheap and very effective. But, whenever possible, it should be removed to avoid the trihalomethanes (THM) that are formed when it reacts with naturally occurring organic material in water -- and that are also suspected carcinogens.

At home, most of the chlorine in tap water is removable with a carbon carafe pitcher, and it’s of course very easy to replace conventional cleaners that contain it with greener versions, but swimming pools pose a bigger challenge. If you swim in a public pool you don’t have much control over exposure other than to steer clear of unventilated indoor ones (chlorine gases hover above the water and can damage lungs and cause asthma). If you’re thinking about putting in your own pool there are a number of companies inventing creative ways to sanitize water without chemicals. For $5,500 TechnoPure uses a low voltage DC current into a stream of water; DEL Ozone injects ozone gas into the water as it recirculates.

Yes, lots of companies are out there working on non-chlorine solutions for your pool, but the majority of people reading this are probably thinking about pools on a much smaller scale. This year I was unsuccessful finding a vinyl-free wading pool for my daughters to cool off in (if you’ve know of one do tell), and so I bought a hard plastic one at my local hardware store for $12.99 instead. The current thinking is that a soft vinyl PVC wading pool is likely to have more phthalates than a hard one, and thus the worse of two evils.

I’d love to hear about more creative solutions to trapping water to cool ourselves down. I just read some great comments from people in the south reminiscing about cooling off in whiskey barrels and the corrugated metal washing tubs of their childhoods on Grist. And since my older daughter loves to squeeze herself into small boxes and laundry baskets it made me realize she’d probably prefer cooling off in a small tub than in the one I bought her anyway.

If you have any other great ways to bring down your body temp please post. My husband and I are thinking about using an air conditioner for the first time this summer because we have small children who busily move their bodies around all day long, but we still haven’t installed it. Our secret to cooling down is to take an ice cold shower before bed and then stand in front of our commercial roll-around fan (used to cool an entire pharmacy in the Bronx forty years ago) until we have goosebumps. It takes some deep breaths to deal with standing in front of it at first, but it brings down your core temperature enough for sleep, a necessity with the 100 degrees in Brooklyn today.

Warm weather means warm-weather gear. I’m currently fielding questions about and eyeing the least toxic/most natural alternatives for everything from beach toys to charcoal to bug sprays to weatherproof outdoor furniture. One thing I’m currently having some trouble finding the right alternative for is shoes, specifically shoes that can go from sidewalk into playground sprinkler to beach and back to sidewalk. I want them to hold up in water and I don’t want them to degrade when sun/sea/sand particles start to beat them up so that they’ll be leaching whatever material or dyes they’re made of onto (blistered, sometimes scraped) little baby toes.

There’s one big contender in this category and it’s one most parents seem to choose. When the weather heats up, all little feet seem to be sporting Crocs. But what are these colorful cushy things made of? Good question. The company didn’t email me back with an answer when I inquired. Which is never a good sign. Maybe my credentials aren’t fancy enough to write back to? Maybe they’re made from something they’d rather not share?

In the absence of direct response, I resorted to research. Their site says: “Think Crocs are made of rubber? Your friend is adamant they're plastic? You're both wrong. Crocs are made of PCCR, a closed-cell material that virtually eliminates odour. No one will clear a room with smelly feet if they are wearing a pair of Crocs. The material also discourages sweating, making Crocs even more comfortable.” A quick Google reveals nothing, as PCCR is some sort of “proprietary” blend Crocs makes, likely a petroleum-derived foam. ...

Springtime is ant season in Brooklyn and I'm dreading their arrival any day now. I've heard about trails of cayenne and citrus vinaigrettes that are supposed to get rid of them, but in my years in New York I've never seen a healthy approach work. It's hard to convince a landlord to spend the money on a non-toxic pest control, so this time last year we took the advice of an entomologist friend and defeated a major ant infestation without the use of any products containing organophosphates (which could interfere with the nervous system of a growing baby, infant or child, as well as cause headaches, depression and fatigue). ...

Earth Day has morphed into Earth Month. Hallmark must be taking note. Some might be disturbed by the surreal commercialism. If it motivates anyone down a greener path, I’m all for it. One thing that has been thrilling me about all of the press releases I’ve been getting (via email – no wasted paper) is how much of it is related to kids. I greened myself when I was pregnant so my daughter would have a pure place to grow, but also so as not to contribute any more toxins/chemicals/what-have-you into this world she was about to inherit. The whole 7th generation concept (I’m not referring to the cleaning products but rather what they’re named after) didn’t quite hit home the same way until I had children. I now can imagine how wonderful it will be to have grandchildren and really wonder what their world will be like. ...

Someone forwarded me an Environmental Working Group blog post about a new study wherein the CDC found toxic sunscreen chemical in 97% of Americans.
And. I. Stopped. In. My. Tracks. Jaw. Open. (Again.)
How many chemicals floating around in our bodies that aren't supposed to be in our bodies is it going to take to get some regulation? Come on people!
The chemical in question here is oxybenzone....

Today I'm airing my dirty laundry. Pun intended. I have been asked over and over and over again what kind of diapers I use. It's time to answer. This will be a two part response (or maybe more, who knows). I'm starting with disposable because – drum roll please – that's what I use.
Yup: I. Use. Disposable. Diapers. Why? Well ...

I have a zillion green resolutions of my own I could share here but far more interesting, I think, is to do a little predicting (and fantasizing) about what might come to pass during 2008 in the world of green/organic parenting. 2007, as we all know too well, was the year of the toxic toy and the chemically-tainted bottle. In other words, it was the year parents who don’t necessarily self-identify as green or organic got a serious wake up call. The way many of these parents approached their environment has forever been changed. Case in point: In the past few weeks on my local parenting message board there have been posts from totally mainstream moms and dads asking about the environmental health/safety of conventional crib mattresses, lead-tainted Christmas light wires, and how best to mask poopy diaper stench. ...

Six great sites to help you and your baby go green.

Hyperactivity and food additives are linked.

If you must, go formaldehyde, toluene and DBP-free. (Otherwise, it's all in there.)