organic parenting

Friends and family like to query The Organic Mom. Often. And good thing - their questions often spur me to find out tips and resources I'm glad to have at my fingertips for other families and myself.

For example, this question from a good friend/mom of two popped up in my inbox over the weekend:

We are in the market for some blackout shades (or just good, effective ones) for the children's room. I remember the ones I ordered in L.A. off-gassed so noxiously we had to send them back. Any recs? Xo

I set about poking around online and calling all of my go-to sources (including my co-author Deirdre, who made her own curtains out of dark velvet flannel with cotton lining). I remember the frantic emails from this friend about said stinky shades a few years ago when her older child was an infant. She - well meaning - bought blackout curtains to help her daughter sleep and wound up with some seriously smelly fumes. ...

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It's finally cold here in New York. Most heating systems aren't yet turned on so we've been traipsing around in sweaters and hats. Today, after a wind gust almost picked her up and blew her down the street, my daughter laughed and screamed, "I'm freezing!"

Season change is fun. It's also itchy. I have battled dry skin and eczema for years, especially on my hands. I used steroid creams to treat them before I knew better, and read enough to entice me to give them up just before I got pregnant. Phew. I even gave up peanuts while pregnant because some research (largely British) said it would reduce the likelihood a baby of a mom with eczema would (also) have allergies. I'd do anything not to pass this along to her. Well so far so good on food and seasonal allergies. But she currently has several patches of her very own eczema. Argh!

Since giving up the steroids, I have spent a lot of time testing and coming up with a list of products that work to quell the rash when it flares....

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I've been told over and over again - wrongly, I feel - that being an organic mom is only for the elite. I counteract this claim constantly, and have written here about being a frugal organic mom. The current economic situation has certainly meant I've been thinking more and more about living eco-cheaply. Still, for the most part, the audiences I've been speaking to lately haven't been requesting information on how to go green and save green at the same time.

This week, however, I'm going to talk to some pregnant teenagers, some of them homeless or formerly homeless. This is something I have wanted to do for a long time and I'm thrilled to have the opportunity. As I prepared for the talk, I went over my general talking points and was encouraged by how little editing I had to do. True to claim, most of my top ten (which is really a top umpteen) list can be done with very little cash. Some of my most important suggestions are even free -- taking off your shoes before or just after entering your home doesn't cost a cent and goes a long way towards minimizing chemical exposure indoors. Below are ten other areas I always talk about; none of these suggestions are more expensive than their conventional counterparts:

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