Perhaps it used to be taboo to look a gift horse in the mouth, but the ways of the world are changing. Given all of the safety recalls (ahem, the lead and cadmium contamination), and the manufacturing hazards that have gone hand-in-hand with so many childrens’ toys on the market – research, education and a discerning eye are now necessary byproducts when it comes to purchasing childrens’ gifts.

Parents should not feel the least bit tacky about giving direction to friends and family who are buying birthday presents for their kids. But there’s a way you can do so with finesse. Here are several savvy approaches you can take to ensure your little one will receive a safe, green, non-toxic gift to commemorate her big day!

Most gift givers will be thrilled to have the guesswork taken out of their search for the perfect offering; especially if you’re known in your circle (like I am) for being a green consumer with discriminating taste.

If you want your child to open a good old fashioned present, try these routes for making sure what’s in the box is suitable:

• Email a wish list to friends and family that you know would like to buy your child a gift. This can be as simple as sending a link to an Amazon wish list you create for your child.
• Select a specific store and create an online registry of appropriate gifts through that store. As with any registry, include a wide range of offerings to accommodate every price point.

For monetary gifting:

• Open a 529 college savings account for your child, and ask people to invest in her future, as opposed to buying her a toy.
• If your child has a particular love of animals, trees, nature, the ocean etc., you may want to discuss with her the notion of having gift givers donate to a charity of her choosing which supports her favorite cause.

Intangible gifting:

• Ask revelers to contribute to an annual membership to your local zoo, science museum, children’s museum, or botanical gardens. Then you’ll have an entire year to reap the fun rewards of taking your child on many educational excursions.
• If your child is interested in taking music lessons, dance lessons, horseback riding lessons, etc., ask party goers to pitch in to teach her a skill she’ll enjoy learning.
• Does a certain friend or family member have a special gift they could share with your child? Can grandma teach her how to make her secret banana bread recipe? Can your best friend teach her how to knit? The gift of someone’s time and expertise will be a cherished addition to your child’s interior landscape!

Image:liz_noise

The post How to Request and Receive Safe Birthday Gifts for Your Kids appeared first on EcoSalon.

Granted, Apple’s iPhones boast some sustainable attributes: PVC-free handsets, headphones and USB cables, bromine-free printed circuit board, mercury-free LCD display, arsenic-free display glass, mostly recycled packaging, and a power adapter which outperforms the strictest global energy efficiency standards, you’d be hard pressed to find a die-hard environmentalist toting an iPhone around on their planet-saving endeavors. Calling Jane Goodall? (Alas! Even the famous conservationist sells a chimpanzee laden iPhone cover on her site!)

So, given our technologically inclined culture and need to stay connected via various electronic devices, it would be nearly impossible to go without. You can help assuage your gadget wielding guilt by outfitting your iPhone with an innovative new cover from bioserie that is made from plants!

Bioserie’s iPhone cover is made from a blend of biodegradable, bioplastic materials which are derived entirely from plants that are annually renewable and sustainably harvested. A minimum of 90 percent Ingeo biopolymer – which is made in the U.S. – comprises these covers, allowing you to disconnect your association with cases made from petrochemicals. Ingeo has the lowest carbon footprint of any commercially available plastic, releasing far less greenhouse gases into the atmosphere with its production (in comparison to oil based plastic), and it is industrially compostable.

Let’s talk design aesthetic details. Bioserie covers are available in the following hues: white, green, orange, red, lavender and black. They feature a textured surface which provides an ergonomic grip, and the cover is sturdy and supportive, to protect against scratches and impact. I use a Bioserie cover on my iPhone, in green of course, and my favorite feature is the four tiny ridges that discreetly jut out from the front of the cover to protect the screen from damage when it’s in a face down position. I also like that it is lightweight (weighing only 14 grams) so it doesn’t add bulkiness to my iPhone, and that it leaves all of the controls easily accessible.

Bioserie will be expanding their collection by launching iPhone 4 and iPad accessories in mid-August.

Bioserie iPhone 3G/3GS covers cost $34.95, and Bioserie also makes covers for the iPod Touch and the iPod Nano.

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The saying “there’s an app for everything” has become part of our cultural vernacular, and while some apps serve great purposes and provide handy information, the one I’m referring to in this post should have never been created, as it reduces parenting to dismissive gadgetry. Sadly, now you can use your iPhone to monitor your baby’s “cry-it-out” sessions. Adding insult to injury (such as the possible ensuing brain damage that the cry-it-out method may cause a child), the app bears the blasé title: “Ciao Baby.” How can any parent think it’s okay to give their baby the kiss off in such an insensitive manner?

In case you’re not familiar with what letting a baby “cry-it-out” means, it is a sleep-training concept that was introduced by pediatrician Richard Ferber, in which babies between four to six months old must learn to self-soothe in order to fall asleep. This often takes hours upon hours of screaming, crying and hysteria that sometimes culminates in vomiting and convulsions and may affect a child’s psyche by producing “lifelong emotional scars” and abandonment issues.

And “Ciao Baby” can help you achieve all of the above! Since the CIO method means that parents must put their baby in their crib awake, and then periodically check back in on them after certain increments of time, patting their back but not picking them up or – god forbid cuddling or holding them, the Ciao Baby app times and logs a baby’s outbursts and keeps track of the “time until next settle.” Wow.

Renown pediatrician Dr. Sears advises against letting a baby cry-it-out, imploring parents to “consider baby’s cry as signaling a need – communication rather than manipulation.” For those of you reading this who think their babies only had to cry-it-out for a week before getting the picture, Dr. Sears suggests that they simply became apathetic, they didn’t learn what you were trying to teach them. What a great first lesson to teach a child about life: fight for your needs, and then give up, knowing the one person who is supposed to care for you has turned his or her back on you.

I am certain that there are many parents out there who would staunchly support the CIO method, and have successfully and guiltlessly let their babies “cry-it-out,” achieving the end result of a baby who slept through the night at any early age and is perfectly well-adjusted. But as an advocate of attachment parenting, I deplore this practice with every fiber of my being. It is fundamentally wrong and unnatural to let your child suffer in order to achieve a convenient end for yourself. I’ve known parents who have shut their baby away in their crib so they could enjoy a movie, dinner or a glass of wine in the other room “in peace,” yet their child is screaming bloody murder within earshot and they are unfazed. And if you aren’t hard-wired to respond to your child when he is in need, why bother having a child in the first place?

Proponents (parents who use) the CIO method will argue that if it’s practiced responsibly and done correctly, that letting your baby wail their lungs out and go ignored is perfectly fine. But these are just excuses to make a parent feel better about not tending to their child’s primal need to be held and comforted. Or, these excuses resemble regurgitated theories from doctors and books that parents advise for information as they stray away from what feels right for them instinctively.

What would the world become if we simply said “ciao” to those in need and timed their cries for help on our iPhones? I shudder to think anyone is buying this app to help them better monitor their neglect.

The post “Cry-It-Out” iPhone App Makes Me Want to Weep appeared first on EcoSalon.

According to Waste-Free Lunches, “a school-age child using a disposable lunch generates 67 pounds of waste per school year. That equates to 18,760 pounds of lunch waste for just one average-size elementary school.” The good news is, parents can lessen their child’s daily impact on the earth by packing their lunch in a reusable lunch system comprised of non-toxic components containing no disposable materials. Here are three reusable, waste-free lunch kits that will make your kid’s meals away from home healthy – for their bodies and the planet.

1. Citizenpip

Seen at the top of this post, the “Soup to Nuts” reusable lunch kit from Citizenpip truly lives up to its name. Included in the kit are a reusable insulated lunch bag, available in a variety of kid-friendly designs, a stainless steel water bottle (which may double as an ice pack), a stainless steel insulated food jar, four BPA-free airtight food containers, a stainless steel fork and spoon set and five (one for each day of the school week) 100 percent cotton napkins. I really like this lunch kit for older children in elementary school, because it can hold a good amount of food, and it keeps food fresh, and saves it from getting squished! The insulated food jar also means you can pack healthy soups during the winter months.

Citizenpip also offers each piece in their collection a la carte. You can buy every component separately to create a personalized lunch system for your child.

Citizenpip Soup to Nuts Kit $69.00

2. Laptop Lunches

Laptop Lunches bento-box sets are my top pick for preschoolers and younger children. They are dainty in size and therefore easy for little hands to tote to and fro, but they pack quite a lot of perfectly sized portions when it comes to food organization. The system is free of phthalates, BPA and lead, and they are made in the USA.

Each lunch set has containers and two stainless steel utensils. The design of the lunch tray keeps foods separated, while delightfully presenting each course, making the meal appeal to the senses of small children who may be picky eaters. The Laptop Lunch site also features a photo gallery and menu library to offer suggestions of what to pack for lunches. Just looking at the meals makes me hungry!

Laptop Lunch Set $24.00

3. Kids Konserve

High schoolers may be more comfortable bringing a sack-style lunch to the cafeteria table, as opposed to a lunch box. Kids Konserve‘s signature waste-free lunch kit will have their peers green with envy. Also BPA-, lead-, and phthalate-free, this lunch kit includes a recycled cotton sack, a stainless steel beverage bottle, a cloth napkin, two stainless steel food containers and a food cozy.

Kids Konserve also offers a variety of food storage and packing options so kids can pick and choose the best components to meet their mealtime needs.

Kids Konserve Waste-free Lunch Kits are on sale for $30.00.

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Junk food has always gotten a bad rap as one of the core culprits of America’s obesity epidemic – and rightly so. Chef Jamie Oliver recently shined a spotlight on the issue of fattening and unhealthy foods being served in school lunches with his show, Food Revolution. And now, a high school principal in Appleton, Wisconsin is blaming her students’ poor diets for crime and vandalism on campus, and claims that modifying the school’s nutrition standards resulted in changes in student behavior, concentration and energy levels, while ushering in a crime-free era. Is this simply a coincidence and more than we can swallow, or is the proof in the banished pudding?

Principal LuAnn Coenen asserts that once junk food was eradicated from the school menu, i.e: fruits and vegetables usurped hamburgers and fries, candy was banned from school grounds, soda pop laden vending machines were replaced with water coolers, (for an entire list of the board’s nutrition standards, click here), “students were calm, socially engaged, and focused on their schoolwork,” problems were minimal and police no longer needed to patrol the hallways.

Could a change of menu contribute to such a weighty outcome? It’s my belief that food is the body’s fuel, and whatever we put in it is how we will in turn operate, be it at a high level of performance, or sputtering down the highway of life, and there’s no doubt we’ve all witnessed in our children and in ourselves what a sugar or caffeine high, followed by an inevitable crash and burn can do to our body and our psyche.

It’s a fundamental fact that diet and nutrition supply the body with energy, and affect the brain’s processes, so what can it possibly hurt to enlist schools to change their menus with the hope of seeing their students attain better grades and a more even-keeled and overall peaceful environment? Processed junk food is so much less expensive and easily attainable, which is why we need case studies like this to pave the way for higher nutrition standards to infiltrate schools, in place of metal detectors and anti-bullying seminars.

Of course, there are many other contributing factors to school violence and disorderly conduct, but why not give ‘peas’ a chance to make a difference? The WELL Said blog takes another look into this simple menu change and ensuing positive effects. Blogger Christina asks: “Is there so little interest in dietary solutions because there is no money to be made by the pharmaceutical companies that tout their behavior-modifying drugs to our children? Could it be that once again special interests are blocking the path to the truth? Could it be that we should be looking to a high school in Wisconsin for the recipe (pun intended) to reduce violent behavior and create emotional well-being?”

All food for thought.

SOURCE
Image: ericnvntr

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You’d be hard pressed to find a more eager and enthusiastic sous chef than your young child. Kids are fascinated by what goes on in the kitchen: the stirring, the blending, the flipping, the sauteing. Cooking is a delightful bombardment of the senses, and children want to soak it all up. There are many fun, safe ways to involve kids in meal prep, which will educate and inspire, and enhance their appreciation for food. Here are five ways you can turn your little dumpling into a foodie!

1. Take Your Child To The Farmer’s Market

Frequent your local farmer’s market with your kids in tow, so they can learn where fresh, healthy food comes from (not the supermarket shelf), and so they may put a face on the farmers who grow the fruits and vegetables that comprise their meals. Giving kids the gift of this ‘farm to table’ awareness will make them more mindful and appreciative of their meals.

2. Grow a Garden

Re-visit our post on how very green your child’s thumb is when it comes to gardening. Plant a garden together, even if it means just one pot growing one vegetable, or a windowsill herb garden. When a child sees that her handiwork and tending can produce something that may proudly go into a home cooked meal, she will beam with pride.

3. Enlist Your Child’s Help in the Kitchen

Obviously, this tip requires common sense. You don’t want your toddler, or even an older child wielding knives on the cutting board, but there are countless, safe kitchen tasks you may assign to your pint-sized sous chef. Make sure to present the task with a lot of enthusiasm (especially for older kids, who may not be keen on helping out). Young children can tear lettuce for the salad, help rinse berries, stir batter, and older kids can crack eggs, read recipe instructions aloud, and grate cheese. Even just inviting your children to watch meal prep will be beneficial to their overall understanding.

4. Consider Building or Buying Your Child a Miniature Play Kitchen

If child demonstrates a keen interest in cooking, outfit her with a play kitchen so she can pretend to bake and cook til her heart’s content. My three year-old daughter is obsessed with play food and baking, and we must stir, bake and eat at least a hundred play cookies, cakes and cupcakes a day in our household. It’s also fun to reuse empty cake mix boxes, etc., by giving them to your child for use in her own kitchen. We also spend time learning all of the different types of kitchen tools and utensils: wisks, measuring cups and spoons, etc.

5. Do Meal Planning Together

Give older children a sense of responsibility and independence by asking their opinion on what would make good, healthy meals for the week. Write the grocery list together and shop for all of the required ingredients as a family if possible. Family meal time is a sacred time to connect and regroup, and doing so over an agreed upon meal everyone will like will equate to mutual enjoyment, camaraderie and teamwork.

Images: Beth Shea

The post How to Get Your Kids Excited About Food Appreciation & Meal Prep appeared first on EcoSalon.

In the U.S alone, 18 billion pounds of dirty diapers are sent to landfills on a weekly basis, and each diaper takes up to 500 years to biodegrade. In an effort to minimize the impact that disposable diaper products make on the environment, diaper companies are trying to create greener products that biodegrade more quickly, and that don’t contain harsh chemicals that leach into the earth.

We recently told you about baby wipes options that will help reduce your child’s bumprint, and in this post we’re taking a look at two hybrid diapering systems that are a cross between cloth and disposable diapers. These systems are an answer to the cloth diaper vs. disposable diaper debate, which is rife with questions.

The vast majority of parents want to stick with the convenience of disposables, while a growing number of eco-conscious consumers want to minimize their crappy contributions to the demise of the planet by opting for cloth diapers. (But some environmentalists blast the use of water to launder said cloth diapers). gDiapers and Charlie Banana are two diaper companies that are trying to find a happy medium: cloth diapers with the convenience of disposable diapers. Each diapering system features a disposable insert that is 100 percent biodegradable, and is designed to use in tandem with a cloth diaper.

gDiapers

gDiapers pioneered the hybrid diaper effort with their “no landfill required” tagline and their innovative design in which parents can “flush” the soiled insert component of their baby’s diapers. (But it’s important to note that some plumbing systems can’t tolerate the dissolve and flush aspect of the flushable inserts, and could cause damage). gRefills simply slide into the outer gPants diaper covers. The gRefills are made of sustainably farmed wood fluff pulp, with sodium polyacrylate (SAP) for absorbency, and cellulose rayon. They are plastic-free, biodegradable, and they contain no elemental chlorine or perfumes. Additionally, the wet (not poopy) gRefills inserts may be composted or simply tossed out after waste is flushed, where they will break down in 50-150 days.

If you’d like to make your diapering regimen an even deeper shade of green, gDiapers also offers gCloth inserts which are made of two layers of soft 100 percent polyester microfleece, and are washable, reusable, and require no folding since they are specially designed to fit right into the gPants.

This video demonstrates how quickly gDiapers biodegradable inserts dissolve into the earth, in comparison to their disposable counterparts.

gDiapers “New Baby Bundle” starter kit is $149.99

Poised to make their debut on the diapering scene, Charlie Banana boasts a 2-in-1 reusable diaper that also offers the option of choosing between a reusable or a disposable insert, secured inside a cloth diaper cover. When I asked a representative for Charlie Banana about the flushable aspect of their 100 percent biodegradable disposable inserts, here is the reply she gave:

“Charlie Banana recommends the biodegradable insert (made of wood pulp) be thrown in the trash. They recommend you shake the solid first and then trash it. You do have the option of flushing it, but they recommend you tear the insert into a few pieces and then flush… however flushing it may do more harm to the pipe/plumbing and the sewer plant than it does good.”

Charlie Banana cloth diaper covers come in a wide range of colors and prints which may be seen here. The collection is expected to hit the market next month. For up to date news on their launch and availability, check the Charlie Banana website.

Charlie Banana also donates one percent of all sales worldwide to Operation Smile, so you can feel good knowing that you’re not only helping to lessen your diapering impact on the planet, you’re also contributing to another worthy cause!

The post Cloth and Biodegradable Hybrid Diapers Crop Up to Take Care of the Dirty Work appeared first on EcoSalon.

Don’t be fooled by the appropriately aged thirty-year-old model strutting her pregnant belly in the new Forever 21 ad campaign to launch their ‘Love 21‘ maternity line. Although the company’s reps claim, “Forever 21 did not create, design or distribute Love 21 Maternity to target or appeal specifically to pregnant teens. Any relationship between teen pregnancy rates and the locations of our stores is unintentional,” it can’t be pure coincidence that the collection will only be launched in five states, with the highest pregnancy rates: Texas, Utah, Alaska, Arizona and California. Whom do they think they’re kidding?

Clearly, the ‘Forever 21’ name implies that their apparel is targeted for twenty-somethings, but the chain’s demographic is largely comprised of teenage shoppers looking to buy the latest trends at a dirt-cheap price. The company says they are trying to expand their demographic and appeal to a wider variety of ages by introducing a maternity line. But, all of the items in the Love 21 collection have a price point of $20 or less, and they make maternity clothing available to teens in a familiar setting in which they’ll be comfortable making purchases to befit their burgeoning bellies.

Of course, we can’t blame the easy access to maternity clothing for teen pregnancy, but is it responsible marketing to showcase trendy, affordable maternity apparel and accessories, romanticizing it by making it look super chic on a hot model, in a setting known for catering to young girls and teens? Or, is it opportunistic, especially given that the line is debuting in states known for their high rates of teen pregnancy?

We can’t truly believe that this fact is “pure coincidence” as senior marketing manager of Forever 21 stores, Linda Chang suggests – especially in this economy, where marketers are trying everything they can to target buyers and succeed at making big bucks.

Further, do we really need a practically disposable line of maternity clothing to crop up in any venue? Why must Forever 21 add to their already superfluous one-time-wear line of poor quality apparel? The ‘Love 21’ line is being touted as cheap and for temporary (nine month) use only. There are so many greener ways to dress stylishly during the nine months of pregnancy. Even if appropriately aged pregnant women are the ones who end up purchasing this line, no one will benefit, especially not the planet.

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Still “ooohing and ahhing” over the Honeydumplings newborn gift set we recently featured? Well, new and expecting parents and their sweet little bambinos are in luck! We’re giving one reader the chance to win this luxurious gift set from Honeydumplings. Complete with a padded bamboo/organic cotton baby hat which features a removable pillow insert to cushion a newborn’s delicate and developing noggin, and a soft and soothing organic cotton security blanket, this gender-neutral, vanilla-hued gift set will welcome baby to the world in style and grace.

Honeydumplings‘ mission is to create sleep accessories that provide the ultimate in comfort for babies and children. They use all natural and organic materials in their collection and they stick to basic, comforting hues that induce peace and tranquility in a child’s setting, giving them the ability to self-soothe. In a world filled with baby gear designed to excite and stimulate, Honeydumplings wares are a refreshing departure that help evoke the calm environment newborns so crave.

If you’d like to win this adorable, heirloom quality hat and security blanket for the new baby in your life, leave a comment on this post! Can’t wait to swaddle your bundle in green bliss? Visit Honeydumplings and order up the gift set now!

For complete giveaway rules go here, and you’ll find FTC guidelines here. Good luck!

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Inhale, exhale, because you’ve done the right thing by toting your reusable shopping bags on all of your grocery shopping trips. But if you’re anything like me, or 97 percent of the people who participated in a recent research study conducted by the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University, you’ve never washed your reusable bags, and there’s a good chance they’re contaminated with E. coli or other bacteria.

Before reading about this study’s findings, it hadn’t dawned on me that I needed to launder my reusable bags on a weekly basis, as researchers suggest. In hindsight, it seems obvious. I type this as my reusable sidekicks air dry after their inaugural wash. And I’m sure you’ll want to be near your washing machine after learning the following facts.

Researchers note, “Our findings suggest a serious threat to public health, especially from coliform bacteria including E. coli, which were detected in half of the bags sampled, bacteria levels found in reusable bags were significant enough to cause a wide range of serious health problems and even death. They are a particular danger for young children, who are especially vulnerable to food-borne illnesses.”

The good news is, a thorough washing will kill nearly all of the bacteria that accumulates in reusable shopping bags. Other tips that bring-your-own-bags consumers may benefit from in the quest to keep it clean:

• Separate raw foods from other food products when packing bags.
• Specify reusable bags for individual purposes to avoid cross-contamination. I.e: have a set for groceries only, a set for library books, a set for gym gear, etc.
• “Do not store meat or produce in the trunk of your car, because higher temperatures promote the growth of bacteria, which can contaminate reusable bags.”

Image: tyger_lyllie

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