baby

 

I just … began my search for the healthier prenatal choice. I've read up a lot on the perfect prenatal by new chapter organics. Do you have any opinions on this? I noticed it contains lavender, which I've read can cause some female hormones to appear in male babies? Any other opinions on products for me?
 


Thanks, Staci

 

A perfect prenatal is a tall order! Overall -- organic or not -- you want to make sure you’re getting the maximum daily recommended dose of folic acid (important for helping prevent neural tube defects and spina bifida). Some “natural” (that’s in quotes because the claim natural is unregulated) brands also contain additional herbs and nutrients considered beneficial for pregnancy. These claims aren't exactly regulated either, so it's a good idea to go over the ingredient list of any vitamin you're taking with your OB/GYN or midwife.

Here’s a list from The Complete Organic Pregnancy of the vitamins and minerals your pre-natal should contain and the appropriate levels for an expecting mother:

 

 

• 4,000 and 5,000 IU (international units) of vitamin A
  
• 800 and 1,000 mcg (1 mg) of folic acid
  
• 400 IU of vitamin D
  
• 200 to 300 mg of calcium
  
• 70 mg of vitamin C
  
• 1.5 mg of thiamine
  
• 1.6 mg of riboflavin

  
• 2.6 mg of pyridoxine
  
• 17 mg of niacinamide
  
• 2.2 mcg of vitamin B-12
  
• 10 mg of vitamin E
  
• 15 mg of zinc
  
• 30 mg of iron
  

 

 

Unfortunately I found (and many, many other moms have found) most of them made me nauseated when I took them, which was tough at a time when I was already nauseated. I wound up trying many different kinds, and also only took them right before bed so I was either less nauseated or I slept through it.

The main difference between an organic and a conventional vitamin is ...

 

I rarely get the opportunity to answer Organic Mom questions for family members, but my daughter’s cousin is soon-to-be born so I have had the pleasure lately. It’s tough to try to list what is most important to least important if you know that someone is only going to heed a few suggestions at best. But I have been trying.

I tend to hit the buy-an-organic-crib-mattress-that-isn’t-wrapped-in-vinyl message pretty hard whenever someone asks what to do when setting up a nursery. And I mention that cribs should be hardwood, not particleboard, so it won’t have high levels of toxic formaldehyde. When I was setting up my daughter’s sleeping space, we absolutely bought a good mattress (from daxstores.com) and borrowed a crib from my Complete Organic Pregnancy co-author/friend Deirdre. The crib had belonged to her niece and I don’t think it was entirely hardwood but it had been around for a considerable period of time, and so I felt it was amply offgassed. We were very committed (before the baby was even born) to having a family bed so I knew she wouldn’t be spending as much time in the crib as most babies. As it turned out she never spent any time in it, but that’s a whole other post. The crib moved on nine months later when Deirdre’s first daughter was born, and we still have the mattress. Her stuffed animals sleep on it, on the floor next to her twin.

If I were to buy a crib, I would absolutely spend the cash to get something from Q Collection Junior, which is not only gorgeous but very safe. The company says they’re the world’s first indoor air quality certified cribs. They’re GreenGuard certified, made entirely in the USA, of FSC-certifiedhardwood (locally-sourced solid ash), with a mattress support of 100% recycled formaldehyde-free plywood, and coated with low VOC, water-based finish. We mention the grown up furniture in The Complete Organic Pregnancy. Since then, the co-founder/CEO, Jesse Johnson, has had a baby and, naturally, spawned a baby line.

Jesse emailed me a very interesting link the other day to a report from the California-based non-profit, Environment California, recently published about unhealthy formaldehyde levels in many cribs.

It’s a crucial read ...

The Independent newspaper reports on a new study that has found that mothers using cell phones can increase the risk of having kids with behavioral problems due to radiation exposure. While it's almost impossible to live without a cell these days (a huge ad for a cell phone company runs right alongside the online article), these findings may give pregnant women pause.

The study talked to the mothers of over 13,000 children in Denmark about their cell phone use during pregnancy, as well as their children’s use of them up to the age seven. It found that even using the handset as few as two or three times a day can raise the risk of their children having hyperactivity, as well as difficulty with conduct, emotions and relationships.

From the story:

"They found that mothers who did use the handsets were 54% more likely to have children with behavioral problems and that the likelihood increased with the amount of potential exposure to the radiation. And when the children also later used the phones they were, overall, 80% more likely to suffer from difficulties with behavior. They were 25% more at risk from emotional problems, 34% more likely to suffer from difficulties relating to their peers, 35% more likely to be hyperactive, and 49% more prone to problems with conduct."

Apparently the results of this study surprised one of its authors, Leeka Kheifets (who had previously expressed doubt about the risks of cell phones) which could possibly legitimize it some. In terms of my own life I'll do what I can to keep calls short the next time I'm pregnant ...

 

I’m not a morning person. Never have been. My daughter is a terrible/odd sleeper but the upshot to her late nights is that she wakes up late (for a kid), too. If I had to do morning duty, her schedule makes it possible even for me. But I’m actually not "on" in the mornings as I tend to do most of my writing late at night or in the morning before her father goes to work. All of this preamble is getting to a story, I swear. I happened to wake up with her one morning over the long weekend so her father could have a much deserved sleep-in. I do like the opportunity to be in charge of her breakfast and we have fun things we make together just-us-two on these rare mornings. We especially like to make buckwheat pancakes that I load with all sorts of goodies (flaxseed oil, wheat germ, organic eggs, blueberries etc.) and make them even more special by dotting the resulting misshapen things with (the most miniscule amount of) maple syrup that comes from someone near our CSA farm.

Lately, the kid wakes up most mornings requesting yogurt before she even says good morning. This is what she asked me for. She has always been on the tiny side – weight and otherwise – for her age so long ago when we were a bit concerned about this, we gave her packaged baby yogurt. I went back and forth on the decision to do this for a while – I’m not someone who willingly gives the kid sugar and baby yogurts are oddly loaded with the stuff. But she wasn’t eating plain whole fat yogurt, even with organic fruit preserves stirred into it, so I gave in. I wanted her to have the extra calories and fat. Sadly these things are a bit addictive and we’ve never been able to wean her off of them. So I’ve accepted them in our life, especially as I'm not doing breakfast and don't have to witness her devouring them daily. I'm rarely an out-of-sight-out-of-mind mom, so this is a big concession. 

So, on this morning, I gave her her yogurt, which she ate in 3 seconds flat. Then she requested another one. I declined, distracted her with some fresh-from-the-farmers-market (unsprayed!) strawberries and went into the kitchen to start the pancake process. I rinsed out the yogurt cup and absent-mindedly looked at the bottom of it before tossing it into the recycling bin.

To my shock and horror there was a number 6 on the bottom of it!!!!!!!!!! Aaaaaaack! 

For those of you who don’t follow plastic numbers, 6 is polystyrene. Styrene is a possible endocrine distrupter/carcinogen. (For information about what each of those recycling code numbers means, see this decoder from The Daily Green.) It’s a plastic we tell readers to avoid entirely in The Complete Organic Pregnancy. It’s something I go out of my way to avoid. I had never looked at the bottom of the babe’s yogurt cups because it never occurred to me that Stonyfield, the environmentally-concerned company that makes her organic baby yogurt, a company so concerned with recycling that they give their old cups to another company to turn into toothbrushes, razors and the like (Recycline.com), would ever in a zillion years use plastic No. 6. Needless to say I was seriously pissed off.  ...

Like most moms in this day and age, I belong to a local parenting message board. I had some misgivings before I got involved, as I am not much of a joiner, truth be told. I never, for example, belonged to a sorority or anything along those lines in college. But when my daughter started showing signs of really wanting to hang with people her own age at around 8 months, I did it for her. Factor it in along with the other surprises of motherhood; I’m really glad I joined. Reading the daily posts is like my own version of parenting reality television, and my daughter – and I – have made some good friends, too.

I’ve also found it to be a very interesting barometer of just how green the average parent is. Since I got on the message board over a year and a half ago, organic parenting issues have been slowly but steadily popping up. At first, a green topic would come up every few months – a query about water testing here, about safer paints for nurseries there. Then it sped up – did anyone know anything about organic crib mattresses? What else could breastmilk be stored in besides plastic bags? Obviously the lead paint in toy scares and BPA in baby bottles media blitz helped propel environmental health issues into most parents’ minds, whether they self identify as green or not. And I’ve seen on the board that these two things (lead and hormone disrupters), while nothing new, are new to these families and have really opened up their minds. Parents who formerly dismissed the idea of organic parenting are now emailing me on and off the board, coming up to me in the playground and at playgroups, asking all manner of really good, thoughtful questions. When I realized I was spending an hour or more a day responding to my neighbors’ questions, I knew it was time to offer to host a local “eco night.”

I do these – sometimes with Deirdre – fairly often. A group will come and ask me or us to talk about the top ten things pregnant moms or families can do to green their surroundings. But I haven’t done one for a group of people I know. So this will be a unique experience for me, one I’m really looking forward to. And it will have a New York focus, as we’re all New Yorkers – also something I haven’t yet done. I’m modifying my top ten list (ok I’m now at eleven) to make it city and even neighborhood-centric. The owner of a local kid’s hair cutting store/boutique called Doodle Doo’s (she just so happens to be my across the hall neighbor) has agreed to let us use her space after hours. Shortly after I posted the eco night offer, over 50 people signed up!

I prefer to talk to no more than 15 people at a time because everyone has so many questions and I like to be able to at least try to answer all of them. So I’m now doing three eco nights, all with local parents, some of them the mothers of my daughter’s friends. The first one will be this week. Depending on how it goes, I may open this up to the public and offer eco nights once a month to anyone who wants to come. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. The Internet is wonderful and enables me to interact with parents far and wide, but I’m really excited for the opportunity to talk with people in person about their concerns. I’m hoping to be asked questions that will challenge me and force me to do more research. And to motivate people to go greener.

Here’s what I’ll be touching on (in no order, though I do tend to begin with cleaning products as switching over is such a quick and easy way to drastically reduce indoor air pollution) ...

Recently my co-blogger Lexy Zissu wrote about how she came to the decision to use gel-free disposable diapers. She followed up with a post aboutcloth diapers. Like many New Yorkers, she lives in an apartment without a washer/dryer and instead of swaddling her daughter in chlorine-heavy diaper-serviced cloth, she uses gel-free disposables [her post includes a variety of options but she prefers Tushies. I also used Tushies on my daughters until I moved into an apartment with laundry and was able to finally make the exciting move to cloth. Understanding the cloth diaper world required some trial and error, so to save you some of that expense here’s the skinny on what works best for me.

As Lexy mentioned, there are tons of Websites and online forums discussing cloth diapering, but they can be time consuming and confusing. I was at the Green Expo in New York a few weeks ago and booth after booth displayed soft, touchable, lovingly designed cloth diapers. I held their downy cotton between my fingers and was psyched I’d be buying some soon, but my car’s meter was about to run out and I knew it would take more than ten minutes to figure out what to get. If so many companies now make these beautiful diapers and so many women buy them, I knew they had to have simplified the process, I just needed to figure out how.

Turns out it’s not that confusing. Just avoid fitted diapers. They’re made of lovely fabrics that are often too gorgeous to ignore (Bamboozle, Little Beetle, Happy Hempy, but they’re useless without a diaper cover, an added step that hides their beauty anyway. Also, if it’s not you who will be changing all these diapers you want to try and make it as easy as possible on the people who are – babysitters, grandparents, husbands, etc. I put my 5 month-old in a Little Beetle fitted diaper and she leaked through to the mattress. When I tried it again with the diaper cover I found that the diaper was just too soaked. It can’t be comfortable or conducive to sleep, and since she’s prone to diaper rash I knew this would eventually lead to trouble.

So, here’s what I do recommend ...

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....

I think bad habits often begin as a way to avoid misery, so as relieved as I was to see her brighten up, I sensed a looming battle with pasta. There’s nothing wrong with pasta, but it’s refined and processed and not packed with nutrition. I investigated what’s out there in organic and whole wheat, and found there a number of alternatives that stick to her gut the way she clearly craves.

They include ...

I am a germ freak, but these chemicals worry me more than microorganisms. I try to think about the hygiene hypothesis – that exposure to germs helps build a healthy immune system – when something dirty bothers me. Of course when my itty bitty vulnerable newborn arrived in the world, the hand gel offerings grew a zillion-fold. Every person who came to meet her popped a bottle of the stuff out of their bags, slathered it all over their hands, then reached for her. I was horrified. This was in my apartment, mind you. They could have walked two inches to the bathroom and used soap and warm water to greater – and much safer – effect. But Americans like their products....

Phthalates (a group of synthetic chemicals that act as a softening agent) have been getting more bad press lately. A recent article in the February issue of Pediatrics about how infants are exposed to phthalates in baby lotions, cream and wipes got me thinking. I’m moving to an apartment with a bigger kitchen in a few weeks and I’ll be able to set up a changing area close to the kitchen sink so that I can hold my daughters under the faucet instead of using wipes. A French pediatrician in lower Manhattan named Michel Cohen recommends this to all his new moms, and a friend of mine said it’s worked for her. "He calls it 'ze waterfall,'" she said. "It gets them way cleaner than wipes, and cuts down on diaper rash." ...

Phthalates are one of the most common pollutants out there and the more press they get the more paranoid I’m starting to feel about what they may or may not being doing to my young daughters. I can take some measures to keep them away from my 15 month-old – no rubber duckies in our tub – but after hearing about a recent study it’s actually the daughter who’s breastfeeding I’m really starting to worry about. ...

We’ve been getting some thought-provoking e-mails lately. Sometimes we pick the questions to turn them into posts, and sometimes we just write back and forth with our readers. I recently got the following e-mail about traveling with kids while still trying to maintain an organic diet. I immediately responded. When I got an e-mail back, I felt this was definitely a topic to open up to a broader audience. ...

For parents, 2007 has been the Year of the Recall.