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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I have a question for you (I searched for an answer in your blog, but couldn't find it). What's the best solution to drinking filtered water on road trips and vacation? I hate buying bottled water, so I always fill up my reusable glass VOSS bottle at home before I go ... but that only lasts so long. Then I usually just end up drinking tap water (but I hate doing that too). Do you bring a Brita pitcher or filter with you, buy bottled water, or...? I'd really like to know what the best solution to this would be.

Thanks!

Kim

Interesting question. I never buy bottled water at home not only because of the environmental impact of all of those bottles but also because I've known for years what the Environmental Working Group confirmed a few weeks back - just because its in a bottle doesn't mean it's purer. In fact, the only thing you're guaranteed of when buying bottled water is getting ripped off. A lot of (expensive) bottled is actually the same old (free) tap water you're looking to avoid. Their recent investigation found bottled water contains disinfection byproducts, fertilizer residue, and ...

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One of my most frequent suggestions on how to reduce indoor air pollution, exposure to chemical residue, and general grime - take off your shoes before entering or just after entering your home - seems like a total no brainer. It's common sense that you shouldn't trudge through the New York City subway (as I do), then track in that truly grim dirt and grime to where your baby is crawling. It used to require some coercing of our friends when they came over back before we all had kids to get them to go shoeless in our home. But now everyone I know with kids takes off their shoes. So much so that our preschool teacher keeps having to remind parents to keep their children's shoes on when they arrive at school. These kids just aren't accustomed to wearing shoes inside.

But there's a population of greenies who hesitate re jumping on the shoe-off bandwagon: dog owners. Why bother taking off their shoes, they ask me, if their dogs are trekking in the same gunk they're supposed to be minimizing?

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I have long dreaded moving my daughter into a twin bed, and not for the regular reasons parents dread this inevitable transfer. I wasn't worried she wouldn't sleep as well as she did in a crib because, truth be told, she never slept in one but rather with us in our "family" bed. Instead, I was concerned about the piece of furniture itself. What sort of wood would it be made of? What about its stain or varnish? Would there be some unavoidable join glue or otherwise hidden part of formaldehyde-filled particleboard? What kind of chemicals would it release into her air as she dozed?

So ...

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Another reader in search of raw milk:

I read in your blog that you, too, cannot travel to far-away farms to purchase your products. You also said you are forbidden to give info on how you do purchase them. But, can you give a HINT??? I live on Long Island, these farms are 500 miles away, can't possibly travel weekly or even twice a month. I have an autoimmune disease, and heart disease, and I am a passionate raw milk advocate.

I get my raw milk from a collective ...

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This week a reader in New York City writes:

OK so we just moved into this apartment and there is a dry cleaner on the ground floor. The vents for the dry cleaners are right on the part of the sidewalk that we have to walk past to get to our entrance. So it's like being showered in dry cleaning chemical nastiness every time we walk by. The vents are about 6 feet off the ground so it's high for a stroller, but pregnant moms will have to soak it right in. My questions are: is this legal? (I called 311 and they are sending someone out to inspect it) and the other question is: how toxic is this to walk past at least twice a day? It can't be good.

I know how hard it is to find an apartment in New York City, but this doesn't sound like a great situation. The “chemical nastiness” you're inhaling is Tetrachloroethene (it also goes by tetrachloroethylene, perchloroethylene, PCE or, most commonly, PERC), and it's used to dry-clean clothes (as well as degrease metal parts). It's considered a probable carcinogen by ...

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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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For many renters, ensuring that your new apartment is painted with safe, zero-VOC paint before you move in is tricky. Landlords don’t want to spend the extra money, and you have no leg to stand on in terms of getting them to. As a renter myself, I worked out a deal with my landlord-to-be when we signed the lease that I would pay the difference between the paint they would have used on our apartment, and the more expensive no-VOC brand they agreed to paint with instead.

A Daily Green reader with a young child who just moved back to New York City sent us the following question:
 
I just moved into a new rental apartment that was freshly painted and it smells. What should I do to get rid of the VOC's and the smell? Should I run my HEPA filter? What are the dangers of VOC's? I've been keeping windows open as much as possible and it's just the doors that were really newly painted so I'm trying not to freak out completely!

I turn to the Green Depot’s in-house expert Paul Novak for all green home-related questions. I have spoken to Paul a number of times over the years, and he is always thoughtful and helpful. He points out that very few paints/sealants/coatings are truly 100% non-toxic, but he makes it is business to identify the least toxic options out there. 

For the reader’s smelly paint situation, Paul would say that she should first ...

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Like most parents these days, I'm very concerned about the toys I bring into my home, and even more concerned about the toys other people bring us as well-intentioned gifts. We don't actually have very many toys (less is more...) but I try to mainly buy wood, largely unpainted, and from small companies that disclose where they manufacture their goods. If I'm in the market for something only available from a new-to-us brand, I always research it on HealthyToys.org as well as Consumer Reports before I shop. And I never, ever go into a toy store with an I-want-it-all-now toddler. If I happen to have her with me when I'm toy shopping, I explain very carefully that we're only in there for something specific, usually a gift for someone else. But, as with all of my best laid plans, they're just plans. We live in the world. Not everything is controllable.

The fact that my daughter has fallen madly in love with Calico Critters falls squarely in this realm. ...

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Some green-leaning parents who are concerned about effects of vaccines, but convinced enough of their safety by current science that they do not want to forgo them altogether, take other, much less drastic measures. They stretch the timeline of when the shots are given, so their children are a bit older for the brunt of them. And they split up the MMR (measles mumps and rubella) vaccine into three single-dose shots instead of giving all three at once.

But on parenting boards across the internet, there has been a bit of a panic lately as families who have gone the split-them-up route are finding themselves two/thirds done with no sign of the third dose available anytime soon. In the New York area, I'm hearing, the rubella component is on backorder at many pediatricians' offices and in neighboring pharmacies known previously to carry it. This comes at a time when schools are asking for forms proving students are up to date with their vaccinations. This creates quite a conundrum.

Parents are now facing the possibility of having to give their child the combined shot they worked to avoid, on top of the two individual dose shots they've already administered, in order to be up to date....

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This week a reader asked about finding non toxic balls:



Hi,

I was hoping to find some help. My very young boy (14 months) is stealing balls from other kids in the playground. Time to get him one I guess. Not in my wildest dreams did I imagine that this might be an impossible task. He still likes to chew on everything. A ball for a child, you'd have thought someone would be making a big bouncy ball intended for young children that actually wasn't full of chemicals that could harm them.

So I thought I had found one at least five times only to discover that either the product was no longer available, or "green" by heresay only -- but nasty when tested, or even better ... good for the environment, but not for the baby. Sigh.

Please do you have any recommendations for me. Not interested in Crocodile Creek, or the Fair Trade Sports Ball.

I would have thought a big inflatable bouncy rubber ball, or even a leather one using leather cured in less toxic way would be best. Not sure if they exist.

Don't care what it looks like.

Thank you for your time, I really appreciate it. I have officially given up. ...

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When I was growing up, my mother was always after family members to turn off lights in rooms they weren't using. It's a common sense policy I'm pleased she nagged into me; now it's second nature. Last week I was having (Irving Farm) coffee with a green leaning architect, Julie Torres Moskowitz , who contributed an essay about building a nontoxic nursery to The Complete Organic Pregnancy at one of my favorite green leaning local spots, The City Bakery. As we caught each other up on our latest projects, and chatted about the overabundance of greenwashing, especially in the building supply arena, a bakery worker with a tray full of votive candles walked around the space, placing one on every table. It was seriously odd - not only have I never seen candles at The City Bakery, it was 10:30 in the morning. We half-joked about the economy being so bad that they had to resort to flames instead of electricity. Our conversation shifted for a while, and I forgot about the candles until suddenly the lights went out and the candle-toting server wooshed by lighting wicks. ...

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The cool weather is coming and my mother asked me the other day if she could buy my girls some winter pajamas. This was obviously a great offer, but the pajama question is complicated, and as I started in on my spiel I could practically see the wind coming out of her sails. Okay, so maybe it’s not that complicated, but there are a couple of things to consider when dressing little ones for bed.

In 1971 the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) standardized children’s sleepwear specifying that garments exposed to an open flame for 3 seconds must self extinguish. You might remember a stifling pair of polyester pajamas from your youth; polyester was a popular bedtime fabric because of its inherent flame resistance -- most polyesters anyway, including modacrylic (Verel, SEF, Kanecaron); matrix (Cordelan); and vinyon (Leavil). Flame retardants are woven into the fabric during manufacture and become part of the fabric’s molecular composition. The resulting polymers are very stable, so you’re not compromising your child’s health, just their comfort. (There is an environmental negative in that polyester is made from non-renewable petrochemicals however.)

Cotton clothes treated with chemical fire retardants were approved by the CPSC, but untreated cotton ...

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When my daughter was very young, I didn't let her in the sandbox at our closest local playground. Sometimes she would come home from a grandparent-initiated visit to said playground with telltale grains in her shoes and I'd try to grin and bear it. (My own mother would get an earful!) But my gut feeling was the thing was a cesspool of germs, roundworm eggs, pesticide and car-exhaust residue, lead dust, general city filth, old Band-Aids, rat shit, and worse. Why oh why would I willingly allow my kid to dig into that, then stick her filthy little adorable fingers in her mouth!? I get that sand play can help intellectual development, but, um, I'm pretty good about making up for what she might lose out on in the sand. I remember an article in The New Yorker that came out right when I was in the not-allowed-in-the-box phase that helped put me off. I cringe when I see very young children in the sandbox, or kids romping around in there with their shoes off - who knows what sharp matter is buried in there?

As my daughter has gotten older, it has been harder to keep her out of the sandpit. Especially if we're on a playdate and her friends are hopping in. The powers that be recently put new sand in my local box and so that made me feel better for about 24 full hours. In general, I still avoid it like the plague (maybe there's plague in there?) without really resisting it out loud for fear she will (oppositionally) fall madly in love with it. But from time to time she goes in. So when someone asked me recently if sandboxes are safe, I relished the opportunity to research my gut feeling.

Turns out I'm in good company when it comes to telling parents to keep the kids out of the box. ...

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