Green Options

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There are certain microscopic bacteria that can pose special health risks to pregnant women and to their babies. Although most people can safely eat food containing a type of bacteria called Listeria, pregnant women are ten times more likely to get sick if they eat those same foods. And if they do get sick, the infection can be devastating for the baby. The tricky thing about Listeria is that, unlike many bacteria, they can thrive at refrigerator temperatures. To be sure, ensure your partner avoids the following:

• Soft cheeses such as Brie, Camembert, feta, and Mexican queso fresco, or any cheeses with blue veins. Most hard cheeses are fine, as are pasteurized cream cheese, cottage cheese, cheese spreads, sliced cheese and yogurt.

Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home is the new book that helps every parent “de-tox” their home and make a safer, greener environment for their children. It’s filled with simple steps and easy solutions you can implement in your home now. This guide covers all areas including indoors and outdoors, cleaning products, toys, and clothes, as well as cleaner air and water. There is even a chapter about […]

The “green” cleaning products on the market are great, but they can be pricey. You know you should mix all your own house cleaning solutions, but it can be a hassle, and who knows if you’re using the right ingredients in the proper amounts? Finally, we found an easy way to make all the healthy “green” home cleaning products you need, all in one handy kit.

With the Eco-Me Home Kit, you provide the […]

Michael Miller Fabrics is co-sponsoring a Baby Bootie contest with Craft Magazine. I would love to see a green crafter win this with organic or recycled materials.

I do suspect there’s some kind of craft hive mind episode going on here, because I’ve planned to write about their organic fabric line this week - and just last week, Autumn posted here at Crafting A Green World about recycled handmade shoes. I fully intend to investigate this set of coincidences, but first let’s talk about Michael Miller Organics.

Michael Miller Fabrics launched its organic line at the beginning of the year. The sneak peek on their blog last fall included a shot of the supercute booties shown here. That blog post gave a snapshot of some of the challenges facing folks who want to bring organic cotton to market:

Did you know that organic cotton has to be grown for at least three years without chemical pesticides, defoliants, or fertilizers? It costs more because organic farms are more labor and management intensive. They’re also usually smaller and do not receive federal subsidies like conventional farming.

In Kelly’s post on earth friendly stuffing yesterday, she mentioned online shop Near Sea Naturals. You may have seen their name pop up before in my profile of Mod Green Pod.

So I thought it was high time to give this online eco-shop their own day in the sun in our Fabulous Fabrics series. Their collection of cotton, wool, and hemp fabrics, yarns and knitting needles, and notions is sure to warm the heart of any green crafter. Since there’s so much to see on their site, I thought I’d take a moment and highlight a couple of the new fabrics they just added.

The White Sands Safari Interlock, pictured above, is 100% cotton and whitened with peroxide instead of chlorine bleach.

I’ve always been a big fan of silk, ever since I became a fiber artist in college. When I became a parent, I never came across this natural fiber in children’s clothing. Now that has changed! Born Silks offers 100% natural silk caps for newborns to toddler aged children.

Did you know that silk is a therapeutic fiber?  Natural silk is soothing, breathable, insulating, and hypoallergenic.  The insulating qualities of a silk baby cap protects the child’s ears from harmful noises, as well as keeps the baby warm in cool weather and cool in warm weather.  Sick contains a gum called sericin, which is a pure protein that treats and cools skin irritations.  I wonder if wearing a silk baby cap would help with cradle cap.

www.DrGreene.com

You know that it is wise to back up your computer’s hard drive; I recommend backing up your child’s food drive with a daily multivitamin/mineral supplement. This simple habit could improve your child’s health and even intelligence. I’ll explain briefly why I feel strongly about this:

For young babies, breast milk provides an ideal food.

The match between their complex nutritional needs and the milk that moms make is spectacular. In their dance of supply and demand, babies are designed with a drive to enjoy just the right amount and moms are designed to make just the right amount. Even so, I do suggest that many breastfed babies take 200 IU of vitamin D daily, as the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends – but not because of any lack in breast milk. We are built to get vitamin D from sun exposure. Because of the amount of time babies spend indoors, and the depleted-ozone-caused need for sunscreen when babies spend much time outdoors, many babies need an extra boost of this important vitamin, linked not just to building strong bones, but also to preventing breast cancer, colon cancer and Parkinson’s disease.

I used to think that when breast feeding was over, so was the age of perfect foods. Now I understand that children are perfectly designed to thrive on a balanced variety of whole foods: fresh fruits, various veggies, whole grains, beans, nuts, and lean sources of protein and calcium. They are even designed to enjoy just the right amounts of these ideal foods, as long as their food drives aren’t tricked by empty calories, added fats, sweetened drinks, etc. Children should be able to get all of the vitamins, minerals, and other micronutrients they need for optimum development by eating the right combinations and right amounts of healthful foods.

We all know buying fresh is best, but when it comes to shopping for fresh produce, it is not always easiest. In fact, it is a little tricky and can be time consuming. Here are a few of our secrets to shopping smart for the fresh stuff in the produce aisle.

Buy produce that is in season: Foods that are in season are at the peak of freshness, flavor and affordability. If you don’t know if an item is in season, ask the producer manager.

Buy locally grown produce: Even the big grocery stores buy local produce, and you can also buy local produce at the farmer’s market or straight from the farm. Depending on where you live, transportation from the farm to the market takes quite a long time and often does the most damage to produce.

A few months back, a friend of my cousin started a unique online boutique for little ones called Divas and Drooligans. This site features many goods that are made by mommies in both the USA and Canada.

Divas and Drooligans makes every effort to maximize the exposure of mommy-made brands because providing moms the opportunity to bring their work to a national market while still being lovingly available to their own children is a wonderful thing!

Thanks to yours truly, Divas and Drooligans is now featuring some organic items and plans to expand this line. The organic cotton hooded towel and wash cloth gift set is made by Generation Baby in Canada. This gift set is thick, soft, and luxurious! There are many reasons to chose organic cotton for your baby.

Exercise is a green approach to health care. Yes, a green pregnancy means making the most of what you take into your body, through what you eat, drink, and breathe, and also absorb through your skin, hair, and nails. But how you move your body is another powerful green way to make a difference.

There are many benefits of exercise during pregnancy, including improved physical conditioning, strength, flexibility, and stamina. It builds endurance for labor and delivery and a quicker postnatal recovery. By exercising regularly, you may be able to reduce some of the common discomforts of pregnancy such as backache, swelling, and constipation. Most of all, you feel great about yourself when you exercise.

How Exercise Can Help More Than Medication

Let’s take a look at the effects of exercise versus medications for two of the most important complications of pregnancy.

Gestational Diabetes

As many as one in eight women will develop gestational diabetes sometime during their pregnancies, increasing health risks for themselves and their babies. Researchers at the University of Southern California School of Medicine studied a group of women who had already developed gestational diabetes and who had fasting blood glucose levels high enough to require insulin. Half of the women in the study received the recommended insulin. The other half got personal trainers instead. The trainers supervised the women while they did simple twenty-minute stints on exercise bikes. The results were startling: moderate aerobic exercise was equally effective to insulin! Blood glucose levels were statistically the same in both groups.

Does you baby deserve luxuriously soft clothing? Of course he or she does! BabyBam Collection offers organic cotton and bamboo products for infants with little environmental impact. Seriously, I have never felt anything as soft as the fabric used by BabyBam Collection!

Bamboo is the perfect fiber for babies. It is naturally hypo-allergenic, anti-bacterial, and thermal regulating. Babies have a harder time adjusting to temperature changes than adults.

According to the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford, “A baby’s body surface is about three times greater than an adult’s, compared to the weight of his/her body. Babies can lose heat rapidly, as much as four times more quickly than adults.” Bamboo fabric offers babies some protection, as it wicks away moisture and helps regulate an infant’s body temperature.

BabyBam Collection’s line of infant clothes is made from 70% Bamboo/30% Organic Cotton. No bleach or dye is used on the fabric, except for the silkscreen on the front, as well as the “tagless” silkscreen label, which is made with a low-impact dye. Of course, the company has values, which is one reason why I love eco-friendly businesses: