organic

 

There is no melancholy quite like the ache of when summer turns to fall. So. Depressing. Thankfully, this is exactly when my CSA farmer hosts a yearly farm visit. I have been a member of Stoneledge Farm in South Cairo, New York for eight years now, but (no) thanks to work, countless weddings, births, and infants (in that order), I haven't been able to make an autumn pilgrimage in seven or eight years (parenthood makes memory foggy). My daughter has had so much fun picking up our weekly veggie and fruit deliveries at the local Y this year that I was determined to show her where, exactly, her food comes from. So I cleared the calendar. And we went. My fingers are still stained with dirt and raspberry juice as I type. I didn't want to miss the opportunity to write happy -- for the first time in a long time I'm feeling elated. 

It's not an easy time to be an organic mom (or anyone else for that matter). In this pre-election frenzy, I find myself worrying about the fate of the earth my daughter has inherited more than ever. If certain people get in office, what will her future look like? There's so much focus on motherhood and babies suddenly but will she even have the luxury of having her own baby? What will the world be like then? Usually I curb these fears by throwing myself further and further into the green movement, research, and trying to educate and indoctrinate as many people as I can.

Attempting to live green can be a Wild West experience. But my food has never felt questionable. For almost a decade now during growing season (mid-June to Thanksgiving), my weekly CSA deliveries of fresh, local, seasonal, sustainable, organic produce have truly been the highlight of my life. As odd as this sounds, I feel honored by the bounty, proud to be a part of a farm, delighted to have this access. Knowing where my food comes from and who grows it in this day and age has always felt like a miracle. Sacred and necessary. ...

This week I’d like to ask readers for some help. If you’re interested enough in organic pregnancy to read this blog, I’m wondering what questions or concerns you might have that aren’t being answered here. Or, if you don’t have specific questions, what topics you’re interested in that I haven’t yet discussed.

Lexy and I have a top ten list we use as a first line of defense for a healthy pregnancy, but I’d love to know what worries you after the baby is born as well. Are some subjects too hard to get a straight answer about (flame retardants in pajamas, how safe are cell phones, how to see through greenwashing, wooden toys, paper or plastic), so that you end up just avoiding them?

What does this list leave out? What befuddles you? Is it how to find good foods, how to know what foods are good? Is it how to figure out what lotions or clothes are ok, is it finding out which specific retail locations or brands can be trusted? Is it determining which are the really scary things, and which are hype?

If you have questions can you write them to me as comments here, and if you see questions you can answer please do as well.

Thank you.

I tasted a yogurt in Vermont last week that was so good I’m pretty sure my eyes snapped shut while eating it. It was Organic Maple Yogurt (made with Jersey cow whole milk and maple syrup) from Butterworks Farm, a 25 year-old Vermont dairy up near the Canadian border. I’ve never cared much for yogurt, but I got back to New York and couldn’t stop thinking about it, or stop my mouth from watering every time I did. I still have to struggle to eat better so that my daughters will one day do it reflexively, but yogurt's always been an off-putting food to me, I think partly because of it's virtuous reputation. I'm always thrilled when I come across a food where the organic version crushes the conventional version I grew up eating, so I started hunting around for it. I've been feeding my daughters yogurt since they were born, but I was looking forward to feed something I actually like. ...

Every green blog/site/publication seems to have sunblock suggestions up now. Makes sense – it's summer. But the frustrating thing is that they're all over the map. Sure, there is some overlap. But it's hard for a parent to know what to use or whom to trust.

People who trust me have been emailing me of late to question my sunscreen recommendations. I have used and suggested others use Dr. Hauschka and Lavera for several years now. Including on this site. But the Environmental Working Group (whom I trust) put out a new sun care ranking system that deems both of these less safe than certain creams containing chemicals I don't and won't put on my family's skin. Dr. Hauschka is BDIH-certified natural (this is a very strict German cosmetic standard) and is what I use daily, and on my daughter daily. But on the EWG ranking, it gets a whopping 7 hazard rating for the children and sensitive skin SPF 20 cream!? Lavera (also BDIH), which is harder to find near where I live (it’s often sold out), comes in at a 2 rating for the baby and children SPF 30, and the same whopping 7 rating for its two other sprays. Nevertheless, I do still use Lavera when I can find it.

 

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 was giving an eco-parenting talk last week when a pregnant-with-her-second-child mom asked me if it were true that all chicken is bathed in chlorine as part of its slaughterhouse processing. I was grossed out, appalled, and stumped. I wasn’t, however, surprised. Conventional meat is about as grim and questionable as it gets. The slaughterhouses must have some serious gunk in need of disinfecting, especially as it is done in (potentially cross contaminating) bulk. I haven’t personally used chlorine bleach in years and years and clearly would not want the food I feed my family to be dunked in it.

When I got home, I immediately started researching her query. I personally get chicken from three places: my local farmers market, a pastured meat and poultry CSA I belong to, and a butcher shop near my parents’ place in upstate New York called Fleisher's. I have never smelled anything even remotely chlorine-y about any of these birds. But apparently a lot of people have smelled the chemical on theirs.

My first mode of action was to email my CSA contact to find out what they do to “clean” poultry, and to see if they could help get me up to date on what USDA organic regulations are when it comes to chlorine (I highly doubted they permit such a caustic chemical). Then I started reading everything I could about chlorinated chickens. I had given the mom who asked my email address and she forwarded me some links. One article she sent from Britain’s Daily Mail lamenting a possible lift of a ban against US chicken pointed out that it “would have to be labeled as 'treated with antimicrobial substances' or 'decontaminated by chemicals'.” Would that we had such labels here! ...

We’re potty training for real in my household. It started ages ago. The kid’s paternal grandmother is originally from Finland and claims to have gotten her first son (the babe’s uncle) trained at twelve months. As with most grandparent claims (AKA family myths) this isn’t entirely true. No matter. 
 


Starting sometime around twelve months we took a little potty brought to us as a gift from a trip to Helsinki and put it with her toys. All of her favorite stuffed animals would sit on it and she became so interested in what they were doing there (and what we, her parents, were doing on the big girl/boy potty) that she managed to produce some, um, items in the potty at around 15 months. We have plenty of pictures of the rare events but she clearly had no concept of when she had to go, or muscle control, until recently (she’s now 2 years 4 months). This coupled with a very crucial factor -- desire/willingness -- has lead to serious training. She’s still in a diaper for naps (we learned this the hard way when an underweared stroller nap was sadly interrupted forty minutes in by a relaxed bladder) and overnight. The amount of potty talk (and potty related books and progress update phone calls to grandparents and rewards for "producing") is staggering. Thankfully both of her parents have puerile senses of humor and find scatological things amusing. It’s been a hilarious process and as I type this, we’re concluding our first week where she spent most if not all of the days outside in the real world (as opposed to in our apartment) in big girl underwear. She’s thrilled and proud and so are we.

She’s a "holder,” as opposed to someone who has to "go" all of the time, which has made this process, arguably still in its infancy, much easier than I expected. What hasn’t been easy? Finding said big girl underwear. It’s pretty simple these days to find the green parenting items I want and need at stores around me. Even in New York City, I do have to go out of my way for certain toys or creams or glass canning jars but eventually I locate what I’m looking for. So when my daughter announced last week that she was done with diapers, I was shocked to discover that it’s impossible to find tiny, all cotton (preferably organic and lacking marketing/ads for Disney characters) undies in downtown Manhattan. ...

A friend of mind just called to tell me that she happily, but unexpectedly, just found out she’s nearly three months pregnant. She wanted advice on how to get organic immediately because even if she hasn’t been all that organic up until now, she’d prefer to hedge the bets of her unborn child. In this column we talk about lots of specific organic parenting ideas, but I told her that the following eight things will cover the big picture and if she does them she’ll be able to catch up quick.

1. Food

Start eating whole foods (as close to how it came out of the earth as possible), paying attention to which items are more and less toxic. Meat is high on the food chain and therefore more toxic; vegetables are lower. For information on joining a community supported farm check out Local Harvest. Avoid packaged foods and try to eat a varied diet that includes plenty of protein, calcium, whole grains and folic acid. (Take a daily vitamin with folic acid as well to be sure you’re meeting the requirement.)

2. Water

Test the tap water at home for contaminants and deal with it – a Brita-style carbon carafe pitcher will take care of most issues. Stop drinking bottled water and carry your beverages in something safer like glass or stainless steel – there are great water bottles at SIGGand Klean Kanteen – to avoid chemical-leaching plastic, as well as help save some earth.

3. Air

You can’t always control what you’re breathing – the carpet at the bank or toxic bathroom cleaners at work – but wherever possible (in the car, at work, at home) open the windows and keep your environment as well-ventilated as possible. ...

A few posts ago, I mused about environmental health questions to ask schools before enrolling your children in them. I had been spurred to think about this by my 2-year-old, who will enter a lovely co-op nursery school (for a whopping 1.5 hours a day, 2 days a week with me or her dad in tow) this fall.

A week or so after we got our acceptance letter for preschool (anyone else think this whole process is a bit theater of the absurd?), I got a press release announcing the first green preschool in New York City: LePetitParadisPreschool.com. It also happens to be a French immersion program. Obviously the green part enticed me (good paints and toys, low flow toilets, organic snacks), and I just so happen to have majored in French in college, so I called the founder up to talk about it. I wound up writing about the school in New York Magazine, where I’m the kids editor. The short article immediately got picked up by media gossip sites like Gawker.com and people had a field day with the concept in comments.

A sample: “The phrase 'organic pre-school' brings to mind a collective of three year-olds who decided, unbidden, to band together and pre-school themselves. Which would probably be every bit as effective as mung bean puree and compact florescent Barbies at preventing these poor kids from a future of sucking at life.” ...

I'm still a newbie at being the mom on Mother’s Day, even though my cat has given me lovely cards dictated to her father for years now. My daughter is now two and the past two Mother’s Days I have spent at my mom’s weekend house. I figured my bringing her granddaughter to her was a lovely action. And I’ve also gotten some action(s): I’ve been allowed to sleep in, I’ve been woken up with fresh-picked lilies of the valley, I’ve been taken out to lunch, I’ve been given an extra afternoon or two to sneak off to a long yoga class. And really, these little luxuries are all I’ll ever want.

Still, if suddenly I morphed (back) into a big consumer, I do have a Top 10 (ok, Top 11) wish list ...

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 ...

Those two diaper posts I recently wrote brought up – in comments and via email – the question of expense. Parents wrote in to say it's not a financial option for them to buy the gel-free disposables I use, or lay out the cash needed to get a home-cloth operation going. This is a reoccurring theme, I have found, across the board when people are talking about making organic/eco/green changes. The expense complaint can be - and has been - made to me about organic food, green cleaning products, organic cotton clothing, no-VOC paints, recycled unbleached paper products (toilet paper, paper towels etc.) and more. You name it, people argue it's too pricey. My response across the board is ...

Our readers are always asking for great one-stop online keep-toxins-away-from-our-growing-kids resources. Oh how we understand the impulse behind the question. The whole concept of The Complete Organic Pregnancy came about when Deirdre asked me how I planned to make the rest of my (then hypothetical) pregnancy as pure as the organic food I was eating. I didn't have an answer for her. So we both started researching – and found there was no single go-to source. So we turned our findings into the book.

Since then, many really great internet resources have been born. (You're reading one now!) Two of my go-to sources have recently spawned consumer-friendly sites that I feel are more than worth a mention here.

I've gotten numerous requests over the years practically begging to know about safe hair dyes. We wrote about dye in The Complete Organic Pregnancy, as most pregnant woman are cautioned by regular old obstetricians with no interest in (or knowledge of) environmental health concerns to avoid it for the first trimester (and sometimes beyond). We clearly don't think this advice goes far enough. But it's a general rule of thumb for good reason. And the people asking me how to dye their hair are asking because they know studies have linked conventional hair dye to many types of cancer (see below). ...

My daughter is about to turn two and I don’t give her vitamins. I try to rely on feeding her a varied, excellent organic/local whole foods diet to get in her what she needs. But sometimes she is picky and weeks go by when I’m thinking she hasn’t had enough protein or orange vegetables or leafy greens. Or I look at her winter-pale face and wonder about her vitamin D level. ...