What are you giving for Halloween this year? There are options outside of the traditional candy wrapper and sometimes kids actually prefer them. Our readers have shared time and again that children love having choices. Some of my favorite ideas are simple and time tested. A bowl of pennies, Halloween stickers, and Halloween pencils is a fun alternative to pure sugar and kids get the chance to choose a few of their favorites. You can even…

One of my very first posts on the Green Baby Guide was Baby Rules I Violate in order to Save the Planet. I confessed to very infrequent baby-bathing. Now my daughter is five, and we’re proud to say we’ve kept up with this filthy, earth-friendly practice. My daughter has never been very messy–she doesn’t roll around in mud or fling food all over the place when she eats. A rare moment of cleanliness Also, we’re lazy…

Mine isn’t. In fact, I’m completely plastic-dependent. A few nights a week, we tuck sandwiches and fruit into tiny plastic lunch containers to be toted off to four different locations the following day. And we stow leftovers in plastic, glass or ceramic bowls with tight fitting lids. The good news is that I’ve barely used the roll of plastic wrap that has buried in the bottom drawer for the last six years. We steer clear of sandwich bags an…

If you read my post on the history of American potty training, you know that infant potty training was the norm until the 1980′s when disposables gained a growing market share and experts re-thought toilet training norms from decades past.  In fact, I can’t help but mention that in the 1950′s and 1960′s, 95% of all toddlers were toilet trained by 18 months! Today, most of the mainstream training pants come in size 2T and…

A mom I know wanted to supplement a bit with formula during her first days of breastfeeding. Our local hospital informed her that they will provide pasteurized breast milk from a milk bank, but won’t give families formula. She was a bit shocked and horrified by the thought of feeding her newborn breast milk from other women. We live in a pretty breastfeeding friendly town, so it didn’t seem like a big deal to me, but I wasn’…

Remember last April when I asked if we could survive on a $33 a week food budget? Well, for the month of May, I vowed to do just that. Read about it here on xoJane: Real Life Hunger Games: I fed three people for the cost of an iPhone family plan….

As soon as my daughter turned one, I wanted to introduce her to whole milk.  Like many other parents, I wanted her to have hormone-free milk, so that meant paying more and buying organic.  Right?  I like to save money, but organic milk costs a lot more than conventional milk–sometimes up to twice as much.  There was also something else I wondered about: all the organic milk I found on the shelves came from other states–some as far as…

Help! How do I get my almost five-year-old to stop wasting food? I hate wasting food, but my daughter never finishes anything we give her. She might eat two pieces of toast one morning, then one bite of toast (or spoonful of oatmeal, or nibble of apple. . .) the next day. My picky eater / food waster What do I do with the bits and pieces of food she leaves behind? I can save them for later, but she rarely finishes up reheated scraps. I could s…

It’s official.  I’m hungry every fifteen minutes.  It’s tough to always grab healthy foods on the go, especially with pregnancy cravings haunting me when I’m at my hungriest.  Do you have any ideas for snacks that I may not have thought of yet?  I eat lots of nuts and some cheese, but I’m still famished much of the time.  Thanks for sharing your insights!…

We love gathering up green parent advice and are already thankful for the tips we got from last week’s post on potty training.  This week, we turn to cloth diaper users for their experiential wisdom. What are your favorite brands/styles of cloth diapers?  We’re especially interested in which diapers have provided the least leakage and the best fit, but we’d also like to hear about brands that turned out to be total duds. Thanks for sharin…