Entries By Alexandra Zissu

I’m not immune to the allure of celebrity. And I see how it sells green books. The ones with famous people attached to them absolutely have better Amazon ranks than those that don’t. Odd but undeniable.

So it’s only natural that I wish one of the bumps People, Us Weekly, and others are constantly writing about would suddenly start carrying around a dog-eared copy of The Complete Organic Pregnancy and telling the stalking paparazzi and all reporters they speak to just how important having an organic pregnancy is.

I see pictures of Jennifer Garner pushing a cart full of loaded cloth bags outside of a Whole Foods and wonder (longingly) if she’s the one to be our poster bump girl. I think she’s a much, much more likely candidate than Ashley Simpson. And I harbor a certain fantasy that perhaps (I hope) Jessica Alba read the book. I’ve SEEN several reports saying she has greened her recently born babe. InStyle wrote that she has an eco-nursery filled with organic cotton onesies and did eco-friendly renovations. It’s funny how taken the tabloids are with pregnancy. I get it -- I’m quite taken myself.

Wouldn’t it be great if the celebrity offspring on BabyRazzi.com were instead constantly covered on EcoRazzi.com? (haven’t yet surfed here? I warn you, it’s addictive.) And the outfits various supermarket checkout magazines are constantly highlighting on young Suri, Violet, and Shiloh? What if they were all organic cotton, fair trade, thrift store finds, or even hand-me-downs? That would make me so happy. And the bottle all of these same rags are constantly debating if Suri should still be carrying around at her age? What if it were glass? Not even BPA-free plastic but regular old totally inert and easy to recycle glass. That would really be something. ...

And now, a little how-to information on buying, wearing, and washing cloth diapers at home. But first, a giant disclaimer: Cloth diapering is like a language, and I'm not fluent. I'm going to provide you with the websites that can help you become fluent ...

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 ...

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.

Yes, I'm writing about toys again. And I'll probably do it again and again until there are better regulations or until so many items are tested by legit third party organizations that it becomes crystal clear what parents can feel comfortable buying and bringing home.

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. ...

First - love, love, love the book. I am writing because in my quest to become more organic and healthy, I can't help but want to pass this info on to others. How do you do it without driving people crazy?? My husband and roommate (I'm in my last semester of college - a "returning" student - Interior Design) roll their eyes, poke fun, or get plain annoyed at me bringing up something regarding the book, or the Daily Green, or whatever I've recently discovered about everything we talk about. But I can literally say something about almost everything we discuss! We talked about buying a house, dinner, where to go eat, etc. Plus I e-mailed some info. to some friends with kids to make sure they're not using toxic bottles!! I'm sure in time I'll become a "go-to" person regarding all of this, but did you guys run into any of these problems? ...

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. ...

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. ...

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