In the last year or so I've started trying to be more environmentally friendly. Switching to recycled paper towels, tissues, toilet paper; using environmentally friendly cleaning products and soaps; energy efficient appliances; and switching all our lights to CFL's are a few of the things we've done to do our part. We plan on continuing to do our part once baby arrives. Here are the Top 5 Ways we plan to raise a Green baby:
1. Breast Feeding - Not only is this the healthiest way to feed to our baby, but it's Green, too. Less trash, less water usage to clean bottles. Plus, after reading all the recent articles about BPAs in plastics and lining canned foods, it's BPA free (as long as what I eat is BPA free.) Not only is this environmentally friendly, but also friendly to our bank account and could save us anywhere from $1000-$4000 in the first year. As The Bloodhound Gang like to say "Hooray for Boobies!"
2. Plastics - Some of the most toxic chemicals, it seems, goes into plastics. I have no doubt the manufacturing of plastics is horrible on the environment, not to mention that every time you turn around there are new chemicals in the plastics that are hazardous to our health. BPA's today - who knows what tomorrow. In lieu of plastic bottles, we are going to go with glass bottles with silicone sleeves to prevent breakage. I've read good reviews about these sleeves from moms whose babies like to throw the bottles on their hardwood floors.
3. Crib Mattress - Warning: this one is going to be long - Nancy sent me the book 'Raising Baby Green' by Dr. Alan Greene. The section about mattresses I found to be rather disturbing. Here's what he has to say, "PVC, the surface material used in nearly all baby mattresses, is widely considered to be one of the most toxic and environmentally unfriendly plastics in use today." He goes on, "Phthlates, associated with asthma, reproductive effects, and cancer, make up 30 percent by weight of the PVC..." Then there are the flame retardants, "...a typical baby mattress is also treated with toxic fire-retardant chemicals such as antimony, arsenic, and phosphoruos. Various biocides are often added as well." He goes on to discuss the foam and the toxic chemicals in that, but you get the idea. The fact that conventional baby mattresses are so horrible, not only for the environment, but for our babies, is rather unfortunate. Hopefully more people will go the organic route and eventually we can find organic mattresses at competitive prices at our local Wal-Marts and Targets.
Because organic mattresses are somewhat pricey, we are going to our local second hand children's stores to buy our nursery furniture, which is also good for the environment. Reduce, recycle, reuse!
4. Skin Care - Pretty much just continuing what we've already started in using environmentally friendly shampoo, body wash, etc. Again this goes back to the manufacturing of chemicals. There are plenty of brands that are sold at Target or the grocery store, so these aren't as hard to find as they once were.
5. Diapers - We all know how horrible regular diapers are for the environment. They just sit in our landfills for hundreds of years taking up space. There are a few alternatives - cloth diapers and flushable diapers. The thought of cloth diapers just makes me think I'd be doing laundry every day. Instead I've found a diaper that has a cloth outer covering and flushable inner liner. After last year's debacle with our sewer line, I'm hesitant to throw anything other than toilet paper down the toilet. But that's okay, because these liners can be thrown away and they break down in 50-150 days. Yay! One thing about these flushable liners, though, is they don't hold as much, therefore at night, I will probably go the cloth diaper route and use a thicker liner specifically for overnight use.
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