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Stonyfield Yogurt Uses Suspect Plastic

 

Girl Eating Yogurt

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.  ...



13 First Steps To De-Toxify Your Home for Baby

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) ...



Notes from a Plastic Bag-Free Life

Of course I happened to make this snack on the first truly gorgeous day of spring and we were late to the playground where our friends were waiting for us to romp. I needed to take this snack with me, and I needed to do it quickly. This is the part in the story where almost every other mom in America reaches for their trusty kazillion quart Ziploc bag, stuffs it, and heads easily out the door. As much as I envy these ladies their Ziploc (so simple! so large! so easy!), it should come as no surprise to you, my dear readers, that I have almost no plastic bags in my house. ...



Finding Organic, Whole Wheat Pastas

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 ...



Safe Alternatives to Baby Lotions and Wipes

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." ...

Many Toxic Toys Still for Sale This Holiday

A new report exposes deeper problems. Learn how to avoid toxic toys.




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Two down-to-earth experts answer your questions about raising children toxin-free... read more.
about the authors
Alexandra Zissu

Alexandra Zissu

Alexandra Zissu is a co-author of The Complete Organic Pregnancy... read full bio.
Deirdre Dolan

Deirdre Dolan

Deirdre Dolan is a co-author of The Complete Organic Pregnancy... read full bio.
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