It wasn’t blisteringly hot today, but after lunch with some friends the under-seven crew stripped down to play in the tiny plastic pool on our back deck. It’s the hard plastic variety, which is supposed to be a little bit better than the flexible, and I’ve been impressed by its entertainment mileage. There’s no shade until the afternoon so I was slathering up my fair-skinned girls with EWG-approved Badger sunscreen (rated number 1 out of 910 commonly available products) when my friend Julie told me about how her daughter got badly burned while wearing a coat of it lakeside in Vermont. She showed me the remains of her chest burn, which made me shudder and run for the Coppertone. My sister and both of my parents have had skin cancer and we’ve been told that it’s probably a when not an if for the rest of us, so I’m paranoid about preventing early sun damage.

Badger is a physical barrier sunscreen as opposed to a chemical sunscreen, which means it literally covers the skin with a film of zinc oxide that reflects or scatters the UV light. It’s the healthier option (no fragrances, preservatives or dyes), but probably requires more vigilance because it’s only water resistant for 40 minutes. (Chemical sunscreens absorb rays before they can do damage and require a couple of different active chemical ingredients to absorb both UVA and UVB rays.)

Covering every inch of my daughters every 40 minutes sometimes makes me want to stay inside and watch Teletubbies, but a recent article from the Children’s Environmental Health Network has found yet again that indoor air is usually worse than outdoor, and that the exposure to chemicals inside can cause asthma, allergies and illness.

So cover up and get outside. One easy shortcut are swim shirts and pants with lots of coverage from companies like iPlay.

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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 ...

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I have been faithfully reading your advice on making my house greener and improving my children's lives but I have come to two road blocks.
The first is we are renovating our kitchen but did not order green choices. I looked up plants to put in my house to get rid of the air pollutants but have found that all are toxic to animals and children which does not work for me since I have 2 cats and two young children. What would you suggest I do?
Second, while packing up everything in my cabinets I came to realize that under my kitchen sink I had about 20 bottles of harmful cleaning supplies. I no longer want these in my house but I don't know what to do with them. I can't just throw them away into a landfill and I don't want to continue using them in my house.
Again what do you suggest I do?

In terms of your kitchen renovation, if it’s still ongoing I wonder if there’s any place you could decamp to until it’s complete? Plants can certainly help with airborne toxins, but a safer solution would be to remove yourselves (or at least your small children) and stay with family or friends until they’ve had time to settle and off-gas.

I’m not sure exactly which toxic plants you bought, or if there’s any chance the store would exchange them for non-toxic versions, but we include the following list of indoor plants that are safe for both animals and children in our book. They help filter the air by converting carbon dioxide to oxygen and, apparently, even remove some of the chemicals.

Aleo vera – formaldehyde
elephant ear philodendron – formaldehyde
English ivy – benzene
ficus – formaldehyde
golden pothos – carbon monoxide, benzene, formaldehyde
peace lily – benzene, trichloroethylene
spider plant – carbon monoxide

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Oh the countless emails I get asking about silver. It seems mother-in-laws like to break out their darling sons' cups/spoons/teething rings and pop them into the next generation’s mouths. Come to think of it, all grandparents like to do this – my own mother unearthed similar heirlooms for my daughter. The silver isn’t the issue, it’s the noxious silver polish used to clean the antiques off before proffering them that the moms are writing about. They’re right to ask.

Here are two silver queries I’ve gotten recently:

I had a question I was hoping you could answer. Is there a safe way to polish silver? Those nasty chemicals seem bad enough for polishing jewelry (I wear gloves when I do it) but horrifying when you think about polishing silverware you eat with or teething rattles and such. My answer has been to just leave those things tarnished, but I was wondering if there was another way?

Thanks,

Susan

and

My mother-in-law uses silver baby cups that belonged to my husband since I told her she can't use plastic -- and as we speak I am watching her polish a cup that we will be using later today -- thoughts?

Best,

Aliza

Thankfully there’s a seriously simple, eons less toxic, and readily available solution ...

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A critical hurdle was just cleared in California where the threat of raw milk becoming illegal (as it already is in many states) was looming. The Assembly Health Committee voted unanimously for SB 201, the Fresh Raw Milk Act of 2008. They are also close to passing legislation that will codify making it safe and legal, hopefully to be used as a template in other states.

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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! ...

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I’m trying to think of inventive ways to make teeth brushing fun for my daughter (who at this point just wants to suck down the toothpaste) because I worry about her genetic inheritance in the teeth department. At one point in my life I probably had 25 silver fillings in my mouth. I remember when my old roommate had her amalgam fillings replaced-- she said she felt much “lighter” after, but I’ve never had the money or motivation to electively remove the mercury from my system. (In the left hand corner of my mouth, where my lips meet, there’s some purple-colored residual mercury under the skin. Pretty gross.)

Sweden, Switzerland, Norway and Japan have all banned amalgam in fillings (composed of 40% mercury and a 60% silver, tin, copper, and zinc combo), but it’s still anything goes here. Lots of dentists have upgraded to resin composites or porcelain (only a couple of my silver-topped teeth remain), but amalgam’s cheaper and easier to deal with, and the American Dental Association (ADA) has always maintained that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with chomping on a neural toxin for years and years anway.

That is, until now.

Last week the Food and Drug Administration changed the language on its website from worry-free to more cautious, apparently because of this lawsuit. ...

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I’m taking a break from blogging about potty training (!) to answer reader questions. 
 
Hi,
 
Know anything about nylon rugs? I am trying to buy a rug for my son’s room and not spend too much, seems there are many nylon ones. Are they safe? I thought you'd probably know...
 
thanks,
 
Gillian
 
 
I do know! But before I tell you I’d like to start by saying that my approach to anything I’m bringing into my home is to first decide if I really need it. Whatever you bring into the home has the potential to also drag in unwanted chemicals, so this is a first step I force myself to take whenever I get a shopping urge. This is a legitimate question when it comes to rugs.

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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 ...

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One of my best friends recently told me to read The Untold Story of Milk by Ron Schmid (#13,355 on Amazon) and see if I could get my hands on some raw milk. She’s the only person in the world who drinks and loves whole milk as much as I do (pretty much our favorite part of college was the all-you-can-drink milk spigot in the dining hall), so I got the book and starting looking looking for some milk to taste. She lives in California where it’s legal to buy and sell, but I live in Brooklyn (where it’s not) so I drove to the closest place to legally get it (Walter Stewart’s Market in New Canaan, Connecticut) and bought two half gallons. They both cost around five dollars – one from Deerfield Farm, and the other from Sankow's Beaver Brook Farm.

I’ve always wondered why I like milk so much and lately my brother mentioned a theory that people crave what their bodies are allergic to. This made some sense to me because I have psoriasis, but to give up milk (which all psoriasis diets demand) is unfathomable. Milk makes me feel full and satisfied the way nothing else can. I’ve also heard anecdotal stories, like the lead of this Salon story about raw milk, about how it can solve skin issues and jump start your immune system into working the way it was meant to.

There’s a chapter in Schmid’s book (he’s a naturopathic physician) about something called "the milk cure" which uses raw milk medicinally, and about how what pasteurized milk exacerbates, raw milk heals. There was a big fuss at the turn of the 20th century over the pasteurized versus raw milk debate. Physicians who prescribed milk therapeutically were horrified at the idea of raw milk not being available anymore and so they formed an organization of doctors who pushed for what they called "Certified Milk." But ultimately because big business was behind pasteurization, they lost. For the best explanation of the traditional versus industrialized milk story read this essay by Lori Lipinski. The bottom line is that pasteurization (a process of heat treating milk to kill bacteria developed by Louis Pasteur for preserving beer and wine, not milk) not only kills friendly bacteria but also destroys the nutrient content of the milk. From Lipinski: “Pasteurized milk has up to a 66 percent loss of vitamins A, D and E. Vitamin C loss usually exceeds 50 percent. Heat affects water soluble vitamins and can make them 38 percent to 80 percent less effective. Vitamins B6 and B12 are completely destroyed during pasteurization. Pasteurization also destroys beneficial enzymes, antibodies and hormones. Pasteurization destroys lipase (an enzyme that breaks down fat), which impairs fat metabolism and the ability to properly absorb fat soluble vitamins A and D. (The dairy industry is aware of the diminished vitamin D content in commercial milk, so they fortify it with a form of this vitamin.”)

So, how does it taste? ...

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My apologies for writing about toilet training twice in a row but as I mentioned, it’s all potty all the time around here. While visiting grandparents in upstate New York this past weekend, we had a portable seat with us. Mere moments after arriving, my daughter let us know that there was no way she was going to use the portable seat, that she much preferred – and required – a real little potty. It’s amazing how demanding someone so small can be. We tend to spend a fair amount of time upstate during the summer, and she’s not the only grandchild who visits, so it felt like a wise idea to buy the house a potty.

My parents’ home isn’t located near a wealth of stores and so, on a swelteringly hot day (why so boiling so early in June? scary!) I found myself in exactly the sort of monstrously huge big box store I avoid as if it were my religion. I’m talking a Kids 'R' Us. The offgassing plastic toy chemicals hit us like an anvil when we walked in. But I digress. I’m not-so-secretly fascinated by the shocking amount of crap in these kinds of stores -- does any kid actually need or ask for a fake Barbie laptop? -- but also amazed by how quickly even the most suspicious consumer (ahem) can be drawn in. Life would be so much easier if only I were allowed to just go ahead and buy everything in this store, I found myself thinking after 3 minutes of inhaling the fumes. Imagine the luxury of not knowing or not bothering to read labels!? ... Need a stepstool? Get a stepstool! No research, no looking for unpainted hard wood versions. Oh, the simplicity!

Back to reality ...

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I just got caught driving behind four massive trucks delivering pool water on the way to catch a train and it got me thinking about processed water and cooling off. It seems like there are so many invisible and odorless chemicals to be on the lookout for these days that super obvious ones like chlorine can get overlooked. It’s been used to clean up the water we drink, swim in and bathe in for so long because it’s cheap and very effective. But, whenever possible, it should be removed to avoid the trihalomethanes (THM) that are formed when it reacts with naturally occurring organic material in water -- and that are also suspected carcinogens.

At home, most of the chlorine in tap water is removable with a carbon carafe pitcher, and it’s of course very easy to replace conventional cleaners that contain it with greener versions, but swimming pools pose a bigger challenge. If you swim in a public pool you don’t have much control over exposure other than to steer clear of unventilated indoor ones (chlorine gases hover above the water and can damage lungs and cause asthma). If you’re thinking about putting in your own pool there are a number of companies inventing creative ways to sanitize water without chemicals. For $5,500 TechnoPure uses a low voltage DC current into a stream of water; DEL Ozone injects ozone gas into the water as it recirculates.

Yes, lots of companies are out there working on non-chlorine solutions for your pool, but the majority of people reading this are probably thinking about pools on a much smaller scale. This year I was unsuccessful finding a vinyl-free wading pool for my daughters to cool off in (if you’ve know of one do tell), and so I bought a hard plastic one at my local hardware store for $12.99 instead. The current thinking is that a soft vinyl PVC wading pool is likely to have more phthalates than a hard one, and thus the worse of two evils.

I’d love to hear about more creative solutions to trapping water to cool ourselves down. I just read some great comments from people in the south reminiscing about cooling off in whiskey barrels and the corrugated metal washing tubs of their childhoods on Grist. And since my older daughter loves to squeeze herself into small boxes and laundry baskets it made me realize she’d probably prefer cooling off in a small tub than in the one I bought her anyway.

If you have any other great ways to bring down your body temp please post. My husband and I are thinking about using an air conditioner for the first time this summer because we have small children who busily move their bodies around all day long, but we still haven’t installed it. Our secret to cooling down is to take an ice cold shower before bed and then stand in front of our commercial roll-around fan (used to cool an entire pharmacy in the Bronx forty years ago) until we have goosebumps. It takes some deep breaths to deal with standing in front of it at first, but it brings down your core temperature enough for sleep, a necessity with the 100 degrees in Brooklyn today.

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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. ...

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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. ...

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