Although we hope that one day the Green Baby Guide will be chock-full of absolutely anything you’d ever want to know about raising an eco-baby, sometimes it’s good to branch out a bit.  We scoured the Internet for the best green baby blogs and found mothers and fathers discussing everything from the best organic products to musings on home schooling and breastfeeding.

Pirate Papa is “a journal of anarcho-green D(o).I(t).Y(ourself). Parenting.” It reminds me a lot of our site . . . except that we are not rock-n-roll pirates.  Or dads.

Soft Landing Baby Blog provides “Non-toxic baby gear news and reviews.” Need a BPA-free sippy cup?  Get recommendations here.

Organic Baby NZ has all you need to know about raising an organic baby in New Zealand.

Green and Clean Mom  and Eco-chick are each written by mothers aspiring to have a little fun with their eco-friendly lifestyle.  Both blogs were recently spotlighted by an article in the New York Times.

Green Boot Camp focuses on frugal solutions for a greener family lifestyle.  Each blog offers simple advice and small goals for eco-friendly changes.

The Cloth Diaper Blog is a great source for tips on cloth diapering. 

The Great Green Baby offers reviews of green baby products.

I read the Nature Moms (”a guide to natural family life”) blog all the time.  She reviews products and discusses parenting ideas, home schooling, and much more.

Read Mindful Momma’s ”adventures in living a green and healthy life.”  Check this site out for creative craft and other DIY ideas.

Natural Moms Talk Radio features commentary from Carrie, “a work-at-home, home-schooling mom of four who loves to discuss all aspects of pregnancy, natural birth and alternative birthing options, breastfeeding, alternative health, home schooling, nutrition and natural parenting topics.”

Sage and Sassy’s blog claims that it’s “not hippie . . . just hip!”

Zoë B Organic Weekly features “All the Latest Organic and Eco-friendly finds for Organic Moms and Kids.”

The Haute Nature blog is a great stop for eco-crafts, offering “Ecologically based creative ideas, art, and green products for your children, home, and lifestyle.”

Green Fertility contains a fascinating collection of articles about “saying NO to the pharma-medico-industrial-baby complex and discovering the possibilities afforded by focusing on wellness of self and earth.”

Read about a family who does its best to be green with a new baby at Mummy Musings.

The Eco Baby Blog discusses “eco-friendly family planning.”

The Green Mom is not updated very often but contains information of interest to environmentally-conscious mothers.

Tushbaby is for the stylish environmentalists among us.

Green Style Mom is another good choice for eco-moms who don’t want to compromise their sense of style.

The Crunchy Domestic Goddess not only has a great blog name-it also includes Haikus!

Jenny at Green-Mommy eats organically, lives green, and practices “gentle” parenting.

Kind of Crunchy Mama offers a refreshingly honest perspective on green parenting.  She had home births, practices extended breastfeeding, eats organic food . . . yet cleans with bleach and loves the Cake Mix Doctor!

Walking Upside Down is a New Zealand blogger who writes about everything from diapers to acupressure.

The following sites haven’t been updated in while, but they’re still out there on the Web to read:

Green Baby Blog

Ecobabe

Rocket Mom Blog

Are we missing a great green baby blog?  Please post a comment or email us with your favorite websites devoted to green parenting practices, and we’ll be happy to add them to our list.  We also plan to generate a list of the Web’s best diaper websites soon.  Happy surfing!

When I was pregnant, my hormones drove me into a state of hyper-nesting which I channeled into home remodeling, random organization projects and, of course, baby shopping.  I envisioned myself as a wild haired, sleep-deprived mom who was on the brink of a breakdown because she had never had the foresight to buy a ___________(fill in the blank).

Although I did become more disheveled and exhausted than I ever imagined in my first few weeks with my baby, I also learned that it really is possible to get along with a lot less than most registries suggest.   My best strategy for minimizing was finding items that served many purposes.  Below are my multipurpose favorites:

Nursing Tanks/Camisoles:  I purchased my tanks at Target and loved their versatility and comfort for over a year of nursing.  They worked as a part of my wardrobe, and always hid the flabbiest part of my new-mom belly.  Now I still use them as tank tops under sweaters or button downs. 

The Boppy/Sit-Up Supporter:  Boppies are easy to score as hand-me-downs or find at the occasional rummage sale, and their use extends for good six to nine months of baby’s first year.  In our early days we used our Boppy as a nursing cushion and also nestled baby into it when he absolutely would not sleep.  You are NOT supposed to do this because of smothering risk, but we kept him in the living room and watched him as he slept   It was the only way we could get our colicky son to sleep outside of our arms for about a month and we were happy to sit and watch him just to get a break.  As he got older, we used the Boppy to support him in his wobbly first experiences with sitting up. 

 The Storage Bin/Swimming Pool:  When Roscoe was just beginning to sit up securely, we used a storage tub to cool him off without too much room to topple over. While under close supervision, he enjoyed his mini-soak. We didn’t want to use a kiddy pool because of its enormous size and Roscoe’s unsteadiness when sitting up.  The bin was a great solution and didn’t cost a dime!  We just pulled out the Christmas ornaments and suddenly had ourselves a backyard pool.

Dresser/Changing Table:  We bought our nifty dresser/changing table in the “as is” section of Ikea for $150.  It was marked down because of a small, unnoticeable crack in the underside of the base.  Although Roscoe’s dresser is the second most expensive piece of furniture in our ultra-thrifty household, it was worth every cent. The flip-top changing table saves space and can be removed and converted to a simple dresser when Roscoe is older. 

Prefold-Cloth Diapers/Burp Rags/Re-usable Paper Towels:  Prefold diapers have more than earned their money back in the many ways we use them around the house.  The ones he has outgrown have been employed in our baby-proofing efforts, as burp rags, and for household spills.

While nesting may bring about crazy energy, sleep-deprivation inspires some funky creativity.  We were amazed by our ability to problem solve under our ever-changing circumstances in those early days.  Having more stuff wouldn’t have eliminated the stress, but being able to trust our intuition and use what we had minimized the baby gear in our house.  The state of my hair and my ability to get a good night’s sleep were another story. 

When you have a baby, you’re always hearing about the latest hidden dangers and toxins lurking in almost everything you own.  Since my baby was born, I’ve been learning more and more about harmful chemicals in plastics.  The most recent panic-inducing study, published in this month’s issue of Pediatrics, proves that using baby bath products increases the amount of phthalates in babies’ urine.  Phthalates, found in many plastics, can affect reproductive development and play a role in allergies, runny noses, eczema, and even the concentrations of your baby’s hormones.

Was I just awash in toxic chemicals?

Yikes!  This information is enough to cause even the most laid-back parent to freak out.  (MSN’s headline, “Babies Awash in Toxic Chemicals,” didn’t help.)  You may have been lathering the baby up with baby wash and sprinkling him with powder since day one.  Now what?  According to uwnews.org, “Parents who want to decrease their baby’s exposure to phthalates should limit the amount of baby care products used on the infant, and apply lotions or powders only if medically indicated.”  I have decided not to freak out over the possible phthalate exposure of the past–instead, I’ll just work on limiting possible future exposure.

Limiting Baby Care Products.  Most pediatricians recommend using just water to wash a baby.  The great thing about this advice is that it’s easy and actually cheaper than using all those creams, soaps, and potions.  It’s difficult to know which products contain phthalates and which do not–at this time, companies are not required to include this information on their labels.  Burt’s Bees is one known safe choice.  Mama Rose’s Naturals produces baby care products from organic ingredients and essential oils which can be ordered online.  Although I haven’t purchased many baby toiletries for my daughter,  I am happy to know that my Earth-saving parenting tip to bathe your baby less often has another advantage: I am limiting her exposure to toxins.

For parents, there is always going to be something to worry about.  Maybe next year a new study will reveal that phthalates aren’t as terrible as everyone suspected.  Still, I figure it’s not a bad idea to reduce the amount of phthalates swimming around in my daughter’s urine.  Not only am I protecting her health, I’m looking out for the wellbeing of our planet, which doesn’t need another chunk of plastic filling up a landfill–phthalates or no phthalates!

First it was the spaghetti.  Roscoe would pile heaps of noodles on his head at dinner and the make us laugh against our will as he peeked out from the pasta tendrils. Now Roscoe, always the entertainer, has come up with another coy little trick for mealtimes: spitting out food.  He pops it into his mouth, takes a few chews to savor the taste, and then just as happily lets it dribble down his chin while he goes for the next bite.  We can say our son is a comedian or a creative eater, but when dinnertime is over and the belly laughing is done, what are we supposed to do with all that food?

Families with dogs don’t ever have to ask themselves this question and probably also have much cleaner floors than we do.  Since the only thing resembling pets in our home are wilted houseplants, we depend on our compost bin to function as a food waste controller.  Rather than sending scraps to a landfill where they don’t have enough air to decompose properly, composting allows food to biodegrade and be reused as fertilizer. 

We keep a plastic container (purchased at a thrift store) on our countertop and dump in all the non-dairy, non-meat waste that ends up on Roscoe’s tray at each meal.  Then, we regularly head out to our Darth Vader-shaped compost bin and dump in the latest batch.

As our years of composting continue, we’ve learned just how many things can be tossed in, including tea bags, manure from vegetarian animals, wood ashes, paper napkins, fall leaves, and grass clippings. It confounds me that the bin never fills up, no matter how many overflowing containers of scraps we load into it. We even tossed our old bank statements and paperwork into the bin this year-good old Darth managed to quickly digest it, leaving plenty of room for Roscoe’s offerings. 

For those that haven’t started a compost bin yet, it’s far simpler than you might guess.  You can make your compost bin out of an old trash can and just a few other materials.  Check out this website for a video showing just how to create your bin and start composting. In warmer climates, like here in Oregon, the bin can go year round, but in more seasonal areas it’s best to start composting soon (early spring) and continue through the fall.  Compostguide.com has loads of inexpensive options for setting up your own bin plus tips for advanced composters on using worms or making “compost tea.”

In addition to composting, we’ve also tried some creative methods for cutting down on Roscoe’s food waste.  Instead of loading his tray up with too many choices, we fork over a few items at a time. This seems to cut down on the off-tray food dumping. Christina Katz, author of Writer Mama, recommends taking all those half eaten bananas (which we seem to accumulate on a daily basis) and other partially-nibbled fruits and tossing them into a Ziplock bag. She stores them in the freezer and when her kids long for a smoothie, she whips out the frozen fruit bag and dumps it into the blender.  Voila!  I suppose if I were organized enough and/or had more time, I could do the same thing with veggies and then blend them up for vitamin-packed soups and stews.  

At this point in our busy lives, the compost bin remains our standby for dealing with Roscoe’s food waste.  In the spring when we pull rich dirt out of the bin for use in our garden beds, we are glad that we trooped out into the rain all winter long to dump our potato peels and carrot tops.  The top quality soil from our compost is produced at no expense AND saves us money on our garbage bill by cutting down on our monthly pickups.  That dirt manages to help us grow organic tomatoes, basil and peppers for lovely summer meals that Roscoe will likely be putting on his head instead of into his mouth.  Those scraps will again end up in the mouth of dear old Darth, our family’s favorite compost bin. 

My daughter is attending her very first Valentine’s Day party today.  Ah–what is more romantic than a room full of toddlers exchanging cards and eating heart-shaped cookies?  The party hostess, Audrey’s daycare provider, gave us a list a couple weeks ago with the names of the children in attendance on Valentine’s Day.  Of course I immediately went to work making chocolate-covered cherries, composing personal poems for each child, and cutting out doilies and foil hearts.

All right, I didn’t really make candy or pen sonnets–how could I, when I left everything to the last possible moment?  I did manage to create my own last-minute Valentines rather than buying a box at the store.  A few days ago I saw a woman on television demonstrating how to make some easy eleventh-hour Valentines.  She threaded a tissue through a hole in a cut-out heart and wrote “Ah-cho-choose you” on the top.  I don’t know . . . unless I used 100% post-consumer recycled tissue, I just wouldn’t feel right about giving Audrey’s daycare friends this Valentine.  (Although, on second thought, who needs a tissue more than a little tyke in the dead of winter?)

The tissue Valentine got me thinking: what natural objects could inspire a Valentine-appropriate pun?  I ventured outside where I found more dead leaves than I could ever need.  Affix a dead leaf to a paper heart and write “Don’t leave me,” over the top and you have a nice, albeit somewhat desperate, Valentine.  Maybe “I won’t leaf you,” would be a little more jovial.  The dead leaf creation could also function as an anti-Valentine: “Please leave” or “Leave me alone” or even “You’re dead to me” could be written on the card to ward off unwanted suitors.

I didn’t stop with dead leaves.  I soon found rocks (”You’re my rock” can be written right on any nicely-shaped stone with soy-based ink), sticks (”Let’s stick together”), and creeping thyme (”Let’s spend thyme together” or “You’re a creep,” depending on the recipient).  Portland also boasts many evergreen rhododendrons, but I couldn’t think of a clever pun to accompany it.  I’ll leave it in case anyone knows a youngster by the name of “Rhoda.”

For my daughter’s Valentines, I decided to “leave” the nature outdoors and “stick with” the more traditional paper-heart variety.  I cut hearts out of a maroon shopping bag and old magazines, glued them together, and voila:

Ever wonder how to recycle your children’s artwork (without literally throwing the masterpieces in the recycling bin)?  Even very young children can take a part in the creation of Valentine’s day decorations.  Joy saved some of her son Roscoe’s finger paintings and used them to generate some brilliantly colored hearts.

In a pinch, other ordinary objects can also function as Valentine card materials.  Photos, comics, personal ads, old calendar art, ribbons, fabric, sheet music, and even old Christmas cards can be refashioned as a heartfelt Valentine with a little glue and ingenuity.  By using materials I had around the house (or out on the ground), my eco-friendly Valentines won hearts and saved the planet in one fell swoop–with not a moment to spare.

Before having a baby, cleaning was easier than I ever realized.  I didn’t have to deal with the daily challenge of fingerprint smudges on windows or toys scattered across the carpet.  I don’t remember ever getting occasional dollops of mashed yams stuck to my socks when I traversed the kitchen floor.  Then again, life wasn’t nearly as interesting.

Nowadays, I spend much more time cleaning, but luckily I don’t spend much more money.  According to US Department of Labor Statistics, the average family shells out over $600 per year on household cleaning products.  Beyond the economic costs, many mainstream cleaners contain toxins that can harm the environment and negatively impact your family’s health. Our family spends less than fifty dollars a year by using our own cleaning solutions along with a few natural products.  It saves money, saves the planet, and keeps our house spick and span. 

Keeping the dirt out:

One big step we take towards cleanliness is making sure that our outside shoes never enter our home.  It keeps dirt and grime from being tracked into the floors that my toddler rolls around on.  We invest in slip-ons to simplify transitions in and out of the house and find that it’s worth the extra few seconds of hassle to limit our weekly cleaning efforts. 

Homemade cleaning solutions:

Oregon Environmental Council offers a printable fold-out card containing recipes for a window cleaner, a wood cleaner, an all-purpose cleaner and many others. All the recipes use simple household ingredients I mix up and store in reusable spray bottles.  They cost vastly less than their commercial counterparts and are much better for our household environment and the eco-systems downstream.  Vinegar, baking soda, and Borax are just a few of the inexpensive ingredients required to mix up some fabulous homemade cleansers. 

Chilling out on the dirt:

Somehow we got the message that being a good parent involves scrubbing the floor hourly and constantly washing our hands in foaming antibacterial soaps.  The truth is that being exposed to a little dirt can actually be advantageous.  Second and third children as well as children in daycare have much healthier immune systems than their more sheltered counterparts. Allergies have recently skyrocketed in developed countries, leading scientists to develop the “Hygiene Hypothesis.”  It’s based on research showing links between extremely clean environments and increased risks for allergies and asthma, possibly because more sterile environments create weaker immune systems.  So, before you feel compelled to clean every speck of dust off the floor, remember having a spotless house isn’t necessarily best for your child. What a relief!

Replacing Bleach with Eco-friendly Products:

A few months ago a mainstream product advertised that it was “Cleaning the Planet” and featured moms whirling around sparkling bathrooms armed with bleach and a smile.  The truth is that regular chlorine bleach isn’t exactly friendly to your household environment or our planet’s eco-system.  Ecover and Seventh Generation have created a non-chlorine bleach that is more biodegradable and eco-friendlier than traditional solutions.   There are also bleach substitutes like Biokleen’s Bac-Out that can be used to remove stains and odors when laundering cloth diapers.

So You Want to Switch—What Do You Do With Your Non-Green Cleaners?

You have a few options. Of course you can slowly use them up, but if worry about your family’s health causes you to want an immediate transition, it’s best to drop off your cleaners at a hazardous waste facility.  Small amounts of cleaners can be flushed with a great deal of water, but larger amounts need to be dealt with by the experts.  For more information, check out this article on another of our favorite websites, grist.com.  

Greener cleaning has been one of the easiest ways for my family to save money, limit toxins in our home and support the health of the planet.  Once we made the decision to go green, our only problem was deciding how to use the few extra hundred dollars we found in our budget each year.  It’s a obstacle we’ve managed to easily overcome! 

According to Denise and Alan Field’s Baby Bargains, the average American spends $1800 outfitting a nursery—that includes a crib, mattress, dresser, rocker, bedding, and décor.  I managed to spend just $245.  How did I do it?  Well, I did get a lot of stuff for free, thanks to the generosity of friends and family.  I also simply avoided buying all of the nursery “must-haves” on the market, such as a rocker.  My daughter’s room may not look like something you’d find in the pages of Architectural Digest, but it has a certain cozy appeal to it.

Much of the eclectic charm comes from homemade creations.  My daughter received beautiful quilts and blankets from her grandmothers and great-grandmother.  They make great nursery decorations—I hung the quilt my cousin Lindsay made on the wall for all to admire.  My daughter will treasure all of these hand-sewn blankets as she grows up.  After all these years, I still have the baby blanket my grandma made for me when I was born.  Homemade items become keepsakes, making them greener than store-bought goods.

My friend Anne sewed much of the bedding and some matching decorations for her baby.  I was a bit less ambitious (and talented) with the sewing machine, but I did manage to turn one curtain into two curtains for the windows in my daughter’s room.  I even reused a curtain rod I happened to have in my basement. I made some storage boxes for my daughter’s toys and books by wrapping shoeboxes in used wrapping paper.  Surprisingly, she has not ripped these apart after almost a year of use.  I have to give myself eco-points for crafting these boxes out of foraged materials, but I am not sure I’ll win any design awards for these creations—nor have I created an heirloom Audrey will treasure forever.  Oh well.

I had better luck creating a mobile out of twigs, paper, buttons, and raffia:

Sometimes making your own nursery decorations can save money.  The curtains I sewed, mobile I constructed, and decorative boxes I made were free, since I already owned the materials.  Be careful, though—often making things can end up costing more than buying pre-made items.  This is great if you are a talented craftster like my sister-in-law, who knit a beautiful sweater for Audrey, but not-so-great if you buy expensive materials and don’t quite realize your artistic vision.

This brings me to the focal point of our homemade nursery: the one-of-a-kind, gender-neutral, subtly striped, waterproof changing pad.  My husband brought a sewing machine into our marriage.  I never knew what he did with it and never once saw him use it.  But days after our daughter’s birth, he hunkered over that machine with mounds of carefully-chosen fabric and foam from a sporting-goods store.  He worked for hours.  Yes, it cost more than a store-bought pad.  Yes, it took a lot of time and energy.  No, I guess it’s not a particularly “green” creation.  But every time our daughter wets and/or soils her diaper, she thinks of her dear old dad.

Originally I didn’t think organic baby food would be such a priority for me. No one in my very frugal extended family had considered purchasing organic food because of the extra expense. The turning point came when I read in Consumer Reports, the ultimate thrifty guide, that organic baby food was worth the extra cost not just for the sake of the environment, but for baby’s health.

As if I wasn’t already convinced, last Wednesday’s issue of The Seattle Intelligencer drove the point home with an article entitled “Harmful pesticides found in everyday food products”.  The article describes a recent scientific study of 21 children between the ages of 3-11.  Researchers kept careful records of their dietary habits and found that those who ate mainstream produce showed signs of organophosphates in their urine and saliva samples. These findings are a bit upsetting considering that organophosphastes were developed from nerve gas during World War II. During the winter months, the detected pesticide levels were higher in the children, which most likely showed that they were eating more imported fruits and vegetables.  Now, before you get too worried, doctors aren’t sure what effects, if any, organophosphates have on children.  Still, it feels pretty great not to take the risk.  

When I first did research about pesticides, I was shocked to find that the foods with some of the highest levels of pesticide residues are family favorites such as apples and peaches. I wasn’t sure I could afford to buy only organic foods, so I focused on buying organic for the foods with the highest pesticide residue.  The environmental working group has developed a printable wallet-sized card that lists the top 43 fruits and veggies with the highest pesticide load.  If you simply can’t afford to buy organic, Tiny Footprints, the website of the Oregon Environmental Council, recommends cleansing produce by mixing one teaspoon of dish soap into a gallon of warm water.  Then thoroughly wash and rinse before consumption.  The  photo below shows one of the fruits with the sixth highest pesticide residue: the humble strawberry.

Once I had procured my produce, I was off to become a baby food Betty Crocker (organic-style).  I bought a fifteen dollar baby food grinder when Roscoe started on solids, thinking that it was the only method for mashing his food.  It very quickly ended up in the back of the cupboard when I realized that our blender and some ice cube trays were all we really needed.  I peeled and boiled or steamed the food, tossed it in the blender with some extra water and poured it into ice cube trays.  Then I dumped the frozen cubes into Zip lock bags for storage with labels and dates. Mainly I did large batches at once—which was quite convenient but sometimes backfired when Roscoe decided that he hated my four large Ziplock bags full of sweet potato puree.  You can find some simple directions for home blended baby food on Wholesome Baby Food’s website.  Here Roscoe has decided to use his dinner as a facial treatment rather than an actual meal. 

In the beginning, I was determined to make every drop of baby food myself. When I complained to my daycare provider about exhaustion and the stress of preparing Roscoe’s food, pumping breast milk, and writing lesson plans, she suggested a revolutionary idea: buying a little sanity in the form of prepared baby food. In the end I made some of Roscoe’s meals myself but also found deals on prepared organic foods.

The best discovery I made on prepared food for Roscoe came outside of the baby food aisle.  I bought large jars of organic applesauce and boxes of frozen organic pureed squash that worked great as baby food.  I also used cans of organic pumpkin and as my son grew, I used cans of organic beans and as finger foods.  Here Roscoe considers the complex flavors of pureed squash. 

Earth’s Best was our standby in jarred baby food and teething biscuits. Roscoe always loved their food (much better than anything that emerged from my blender) and we appreciated the fact that their whole line of baby foods are certified organic.  By buying large boxes of several dozen jars of Earth’s Best at Costco, the cost was just a few pennies more per jar than standard baby food.

When Roscoe started to be able to feed himself, we discovered Healthy Times puffs.  They are wheat-free, dairy-free, and soy-free but Roscoe never seemed to notice that they were missing anything.  They had much less packaging than mainstream puffs and were very fairly priced. Healthy Times was started by a mom over twenty years ago who was looking for organic, healthy alternatives and now has a whole line of foods including jarred baby foods and teething biscuits.

Annie’s Homegrown is more of a kids brand than a baby food label, but we’ve started Roscoe on the bunny crackers and would love for him to grow up with the brand name.  Annie’s has been around for a decade and were far ahead of the mainstream organic food movement.  They offer crackers, cereal and even organic macaroni and cheese that are appealing to children and much more nourishing than the mainstream alternatives.

The lesson that parenting seems to teach over and over again is, “be flexible.”  If you’re planning on making every drop of baby food from scratch, be open the fact that exhaustion may occasionally trump your plans.  Or, if you think it’s utterly impossible to make your own baby food, give it a whirl and see what you think.  The decision to feed our son organic food has raised my family’s awareness about the quality of our produce and the contents of our fridge are now reflecting our move toward organic foods.  We have the youngest member of our family to thank for propelling us much further on our green journey.