Safer Teethers

Are there phthalates in your teething toys?? What are phthalates you ask? Diisononyl phthalates are chemicals which are used in the production of some toys in an effort to make them softer. After a number of studies using rats and mice (I’ll spare you the details…) found the substance to be potentially harmful, the government asked companies to voluntarily stop using them in the production of toys for children. Teethers came under scrutiny because of course they are mouthed by infants increasing the risk of ingestion of anything harmful leeching from the plastic!

There are a number of companies who took the challenge to make toys without this potentially harmful chemical. Those companies are…Arcotoys, The First Years, Chicco, Evenflo, Disney, Gerber, Hasbro, Little Tykes, Mattel, Safety First, Sassy, Shelcore Toys and Tyco Preschool.

**If the teething toys that you are currently using were purchased before 1999 you should toss them just to be on the safe side**

Skin Deep

Have you been to the Skin Deep website? Skin Deep is a safety guide (put out by the researchers at the Environmental Working Group) to the cosmetics and personal care products you use everyday. 

Skin Deep pairs ingredients in more than 25,000 products against 50 definitive toxicity and regulatory databases, making it the largest integrated data resource of its kind. Why did a small nonprofit take on such a big project? Because the FDA doesn’t require companies to test their own products for safety. Scary, huh?

It’s a real eye opener to type in the products you use each day and see what number (0-2 =low hazard, 3-6 = moderate hazard, 7-10 = high hazard) you get. Check it out. You may be putting more toxins on your families skin than you think …..

Have you heard about BabyLegs??

I first saw BabyLegs at some sort of baby expo I went to when I was pregnant. My sister and I fell in love with them immediately!  I bought 2 gender neutral pairs since I didn’t know that I was having a girl and my sister went to town on the girl colors since she knew she was having little girl #2. 

The women at the booth were super nice so it was easy to get sucked in. They described how BabyLegs could be used under skirts, as a second layer, or best of all… as a knee cover while the little ones are in the crawling stage. I think that’s actually what sold me. Makes sense, right? They won’t get caught on it AND it will protect their little knees. Sold. “How much for these 2?”

Spokesperson for Probiotics

I really should do commercials for probiotics…huge fan. There are 2 reasons why I started giving Madeleine probiotics. First, she had thrush when she was a few weeks old so I was concerned about the level of yeast in her system and second she had symptoms of colic.

Apparently there is a debate about whether colic is real or not. IF there is such a thing as colic, not being able to sleep flat is a symptom and probiotics have been shown to help. Madeleine slept exculsively in her swing (which my brother-in-law affectionately named “the magic bucket”) for the first 4 months of her little life. I was convinced that she wouldn’t be able to go off to college because she would still be sleeping in “the bucket” when she was 18.

I got a bottle of Baby Jarro-Dophilis and started giving it to her in expressed breast milk everyday. I saw huge improvements in the color of her diapers, less struggling when she soiled her diapers and after a few weeks she pulled her legs up less when she was laid flat. I really believe this product helped get my little one out of the swing.

Unfortunately I didn’t discover this product until after we had already spent weeks clearing up the thrush, but I figure it can’t hurt and it keeps me from worrying about yeast levels in her system. Even now that she is 6mos, I still give it to her every couple of days.

I’m in love with Method…

Seriously…I think I have issues. My obsession with non-toxic cleaning is a little over the top lately. Have you used the Method products? I haven’t tried ALL of them, but here are a few, which are at the top of my non-toxic list…..

-The eucalyptus mint bathroom wipes are flushable and fabulous. I love the scent and it great to be able to wipe off the toliet seat and then toss the dirty wipe right into the toilet.  

 -The mint scented window cleaner (I guess I like the mint, huh?)is another favorite. It’s not OVERly minty, it’s more like a light mint…okay, clearly this is hard to describe.

-The green tea foam handsoap smells awesome, plus…what’s not fun about foam soap?

-The dishwasher cubes (I prefer the grapefruit) work really well. I have tried other non-toxic dishwasher detergent and so far this is by far my favorite.

In addition to being pleased with the pleasant olfactory aspect of method products, I recently read that method is carbon neutral business. That’s HUGE. I say, hooray for them! Kind to the earth all around.  I wonder of Al Gore is using Method products?