Here’s a green idea that works for me: I buy all of my child’s clothes at secondhand stores.  It seems like lately I keep hearing about expensive organic cotton onesies and bamboo socks.  While it’s great to support companies who use sustainable products, why not just buy clothes at a consignment shop?  I’ve found so many cute things—many of them from mainstream manufacturers like Old Navy, the Gap, and Gymboree–for much less than retail.  In fact, I have never paid more than eight dollars for an item of clothing.  (My limit used to be six dollars, but then I splurged on an adorable eight-dollar bunny sweater!)

Are you worried that pesticides and chemicals from non-organic clothing will irritate baby’s skin?  I have to say that I’m not, but another bonus of used clothing is that once it’s been washed several times, less pesticide and chemical residue remains on the fabric.

The Children’s Exchange in Portland, Oregon

I usually go to consignment shops for my baby clothing, as I appreciate the selection.  However, it’s much less expensive to buy kids’ clothes at thrift stores.  Garage sales supposedly boast even cheaper wares (I am not a garage saler myself!).  I’ve also heard of people scoring huge lots of clothes from eBay or Craigslist.  Lastly, don’t forget the best way to acquire used clothing: hand-me-downs!  Audrey is fortunate to have older cousins who pass on their outgrown garments.

I’d venture to say that acquiring secondhand clothes is better for the environment than buying new organic duds.  Whenever Audrey needs a wardrobe update, we walk on over to Portland’s The Children’s Exchange (pictured) and pick out whatever she needs.  I get to support a local company and dress my daughter in deceptively eco-friendly fashions.

Fill us in on your used clothing adventures or brag about a great deal by posting a comment!  And for more Works for Me Wednesday tips, head on over to Rocks in My Dryer. 

I will risk my green cred by admitting that I never got the hang of riding the bus with my daughter.  Before I had a baby of my own, I’d see parents wearing their babies in slings or pouches, hopping on and off the bus with ease.  During the ride, the babies would sleep or calmly stare out at the view.  Maybe it wasn’t as easy for these parents as it looked–I know it wasn’t that easy for me!  I tend to choose walking over bus-riding most days, so I hardly qualify as a baby-bus-riding expert, but here are some pros and cons involved in the different ways of traveling with your tot.

Wearing Your Baby.  The most common baby-toting method for bus-riding in my town is a sling or baby carrier.

• Pros: You can get on and off the bus with ease and have your hands free for taking out money, tickets, and transfers. Joy swears by the sling that she used for Roscoe during his first six months and found that when she wore it he would quickly slip into a temporary coma. Very convenient for public transport!
• Cons: Some babies (like mine) do not cooperate with slings. My daughter would cry and squirm until I took her out. Then I’d have no place to put her if I needed to get my money out. Also, if I was wearing my baby, I couldn’t carry much else, like groceries or library books. This was a problem if I was taking the bus to run errands.

Taking the Stroller.  In Portland, we have to fold up strollers before getting on buses, but we can wheel strollers directly on trains or streetcars.  If you are planning on buying a stroller to use on public transportation, figure out how it works in your city.  If you have to fold the stroller up and carry it on, you’ll want something that folds compactly.  Look for a model that’s light-weight and has a carrying strap.  I chose the Maclaren Triumph because it weighs just eleven pounds–about the lightest I could find at the time.

• Pros: Strollers are nice if you plan to walk long distances to or from your bus stop. My baby preferred sitting in a stroller to being worn for long walks.
• Cons: It can be unwieldy to take your baby out of the stroller, fold the stroller up with the baby tucked under your arm, then get everything and everyone onto the bus.

Using the Stroller + Sling Combo.  I’ve tried wearing my baby in the sling and taking the stroller along as a backup.

• Pros: It’s easier to deal with folding up the stroller and getting it on the bus if the baby is secure in a sling or pouch.
• Cons: You’re still dealing with the unwieldiness of the stroller. If your baby doesn’t feel like riding in the stroller that day, you’ve brought it along for nothing!

Simply Carrying the Baby.  Last term I needed to take my toddler to work with me on Fridays.  This involved two one-hour bus trips, complete with stints of walking and transferring lines.  Because she was old enough to set down every once in a while, I decided to just carry her to the bus stop (or let her walk alongside me in her nonlinear fashion).

• Pros: No dealing with slings or strollers!
• Cons: It gets hard on the arms and back after awhile. If your child isn’t old enough to set down, you’ll have a hard time getting out your money and tickets.

Walking everywhere with my baby or taking her on public transportation works for me.  For more helpful Works for Me Wednesday links, head on over to Rocks in My Dryer.  How are you managing taking your little ones on public transportation?  Please leave a comment with your traveling tales, stroller or sling recommendations, or questions for other bus-riding parents.

I’ve managed to go my whole adult life without owning a car.  When I was pregnant, I wondered if I’d finally succumb to automobile ownership, but I’ve found I get along just fine.  In the first few weeks of parenthood, I plopped my daughter into a sling and stepped out the door. 

At three months, she took her very first stroller ride, and at almost two and a half years she still takes a spin in it almost every single day.  I have found the stroller indispensible for a car-free lifestyle–jaunts around town are entertaining for the baby, and the basket provides some storage space for books or groceries we pick up along the way.  We enjoy what I like to think of as a European way of life: Instead of driving to the store every week or every other week and filling up an entire cart full of groceries, I stop by every few days and pick up the items I need by foot.

My husband does have a car, but I have only driven it once, and that was to take him to the emergency room (long story).  He does commute to work by car, and I have to admit that I rely on his chauffeur services to run to the store for particularly heavy or unwieldy items.  Yes, I am grateful that I don’t need to walk down the streets with a 24-pack of Seventh Generation toilet paper or a ten-pound bag of flour!

In many ways I’ve had to revolve my life around not driving.  It’s no coincidence that we live within walking distance of shops, libraries, restaurants, and coffee shops.  It can definitely be inconvenient to rely on walking or bus-riding, especially with a fussy baby.  A few times a year the weather is bad enough to keep me stuck indoors all day long.  Also, my hour-long bus commute to work would take a mere twenty minutes by car.  This may seem like a waste of time, but I use the bus ride to read or grade papers.

Despite the inconveniences and drawbacks, I love remaining car-free.  I hate driving and am thrilled to live a life that doesn’t require getting behind the wheel.  We save thousands of dollars by not buying a second car, not to mention all the time and money we save on gas and maintenance.  My husband’s commute by car is terrible for the environment, and I rely on the bus to get to work two to four times a week, so we can’t claim to be carbon-neutral.  However, we are able to cut back on our combined carbon emissions by running most household errands on foot.  On those bad days when I’m standing in the rain with my toddler in one arm and a bag of groceries in the other, at least I have the solace of knowing I’m doing the planet a small favor!

Check back soon for my tips on taking babies on public transportation.  And for more Works for Me Wednesday ideas, go to Rocks in My Dryer.

Lately, Roscoe spends all of his time running around our house, hitting a ball with his “ockey tic”  (hockey stick).  He can’t go anywhere without it and even has it by his side when we lay him down at night.  It is his most cherished possession.  It also happens to be a wooden spoon. 

Roscoe also uses his “ockey tic” as a drumstick, a “scooper-dumper” (shovel), and a  cell phone when he can’t be reached on his land line.

A few weeks ago we went to grandma’s house, two hours away.  Roscoe spent the car ride talking on his phone and beating his drumstick along to the songs on the radio.  Upon his arrival we went down to the beach where he used his spoon to dig in the sand, ladle seawater into his mouth, and pack down the exterior of the sandcastle he then quickly destroyed.  One toy sustained all this activity for the entire day.

Before I had kids I heard people talking about how children tend to latch onto cardboard boxes and rubber bands as their preferred playthings, but I had no idea just how true it would become. 

Here are some other objects that Roscoe adores:

Real pans: Instead of playing in a toy kitchen, Roscoe bangs around with authentic culinary stuff while I cook dinner.  I think he likes the fact that actual pans are much louder than their plastic counterparts.

The vacuum cleaner: Roscoe has to be held by daddy while the two of them vacuum the floor together.  It’s always the highlight of his day.

Tape: He loves having scotch tape stuck onto his hand and then sticking it on the other hand for awhile.  This whole process is very entertaining and can last for at least ten minutes.

What weird objects do your children love to play with?  Maybe we can get a top ten list going once we get all your ideas!

Store-bought Play-doh, which consists of a mystery list of ingredients and comes in individual little plastic containers, is more expensive than homemade. It’s easy to make a non-toxic version with a few common pantry items. I like to leave it white instead of coloring it, but below you’ll find how to use natural ingredients to color your play dough. If you roll it out, cut it into shapes, and bake them like cookies, you can even paint your creations. Try a batch today and see what your youngster thinks.

Edible Play-dough

Two Play-dough recipes

I found these recipes here.

Rubbery Play-dough

2 cups baking soda
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup cornstarch

Mix with a fork until smooth. Boil over medium heat until thick. Spoon onto a plate or wax paper.

Nature’s Play-dough

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 cup water
2 tablespoon oil
2 tablespoon cream of tartar
beet, spinach, and carrot juice

Mix flour, salt and oil, and slowly add the water. Cook over medium heat, stirring until dough becomes stiff. Turn out onto wax paper and let cool. Knead the dough with your hands until of proper consistency. You can use the un-dyed version or divide it into balls and add a few drops of the vegetable juices to make green, pink, and orange.

Or maybe you’d like to try a scrumptious edible play-dough recipe. I’ve included a picture for inspiration. (Remember that eating it yourself is not required.)

For more Works for Me Wednesday ideas, check out Rocks in My Dryer.

One thing I wondered when I was pregnant was what everyone was carrying around in those huge diaper bags.  I observed moms and dads dragging around overstuffed bags bigger than the carry-on luggage I’d use for a weekend trip.  What the heck did they have in there–fully cooked meals, extra outfits, an entire package of diapers?  I didn’t get it.  And I must admit, I still don’t.  I’ve been a mother for over two years now and have never carried around a diaper bag. 

During my daughter’s first six months or so, I didn’t bring anything with me on outings I knew would last just an hour or two.  I mean, I seriously didn’t bring anything for the baby: not a diaper, a book, a toy.  If I was planning on being gone for longer, I would tuck a Zip-loc bag into my purse. The Zip-loc would contain one extra diaper, another Zip-loc for the wet diaper, and a little baggie with two or three wipes.

Now that my daughter is older, I have to be a little more prepared on outings.  I still use the same Zip-loc/diaper system, but I’ll also bring a small book, a little snack, and a cup.  This all fits in the bag I’d normally carry around–a regular bag, not a diaper bag.

I know diaper bags don’t have to be gigantic pink bags appliquéd with teddy bears and ducks.  Hey, there are even some stylish, eco-friendly bags out there, like this messenger bag (pictured) I found on Zoe B Organics.  I wanted to avoid an extra purchase, and I never minded being diaper-bag free.

But I still want to know: what do YOU keep in that jumbo diaper bag?!

Like some cloth diaper users, I assumed that disposables were the best option for nights, but felt conflicted about chucking them into the trash just to buy us a bit of rest.  I posted about the battle between my exhaustion and my eco-guilt here.

A few weeks ago Roscoe solved the problem himself by wetting through his disposables two nights in a row.  Erin, Wendy, and Alissa all submitted comments to my “Nighttime Diaper Dilemma” post that recommended using a pocket diaper with extra inserts.  In sleepy desperation we gave it a try.  The result was blissful slumber and a clear conscience!

Although I was originally a staunch supporter of prefolds with covers, I have come to love our pocket diapers for their convenience and aesthetic appeal. A pocket diaper consists of a diaper cover lined in a moisture wicking layer.  There is a pocket between the outer cover and the liner where you insert a long terry cloth pad to soak up moisture.  Since you insert the pads while you’re folding the laundry, it makes for a more convenient diaper change than prefolds. 

The only downside is that you have to wash the entire diaper every time.  With prefolds you can often just rinse the cover so that it can be used again.  Since we’re trying to lighten the laundry loads we do around here, we use prefolds during the day and save our pocket diapers for nighttime use.

We use three main brands of pocket diapers, all of which I love for varying reasons.

Fuzzibunz: These are legendary among cloth diaper users and have gained increasing popularity in recent years.  My favorite features of Fuzzibunz diapers are their snaps.  Roscoe can’t pull them open himself and they adjust for a variety of waist sizes.  These are a hot item at resale shops and can earn up to half their retail price when sold used.

Happy Heiny’s:  This innovative diaper design adjusts with snaps in the front so that it fits baby for a variety of ages.  You can use the same diaper for babies from eight to thirty pounds and the Velcro is tough enough to prevent my son from being able to take off his own diaper. Happy Heiny’s pocket diaper in cow print is beyond cute!

Bum Genius:  These diapers also adjust for babies from 8-30 pounds and use Velcro for the waistband.  They are great quality and would have a high resale value. They come with two inserts: one for daytime and thicker one for nighttime use.

There are many, many more pocket diapers out there but these three are the only ones I’ve tried so far.  I’ve been impressed with their effectiveness, but mainly I’m just happy to be getting a bit more sleep and feeling a bit less guilt.  We’d love to hear about your nighttime cloth diaper victories!

The “Dirty Duds Bag” by Bumkins was an impulse purchase for me.  I was tired of packing plastic sacks into Roscoe’s daycare bag and relieved to see that someone else had thought of an easy solution.  After I bought it I almost headed back to the store.  $12.95 for a bag that I could easily sew myself?  (If I had a sewing machine and any extra time.) Plastic is free!  Still, it seemed unsanitary to recycle plastic bags after they had been filled with Roscoe’s poopy diapers and I didn’t want to take the time to wash them out and wait for them to dry. 

I’ve actually found our wet bag to be incredibly helpful.  We rinse it out in Roscoe’s leftover bathwater each night, hang it up in the bathroom and find that its extremely lightweight, waterproof fabric is dry by morning.  It never smells and its fun print is easy to find in the depths of his diaper bag.  The bag can hold about ten cloth large cloth diapers, which is just right for our needs. 

The only complaint we have about our “Dirty Duds Bag” is that the drawstring doesn’t close as tightly as I’d like.  I’m not sure if this is unique to the bag we have or if it’s a design flaw.  We end up cinching it as tightly as it will go and then wrapping the string around the top to ensure that it stays completely shut.

Rebecca came up with a thriftier solution by using a dry bag that she found at REI for less than ten dollars.  Her bag is waterproof, holds over a weekend’s worth of diapers, and closes shut by rolling the top over and clasping it with a buckle. She takes this bag to her daycare and even on weekend trips, easily storing her daughter’s diapers without stinking up the car.  The dry bags at my small, local REI were all around $30, but you can find the cheaper versions at larger stores or online.  If you can, check out fabulous used outdoor gear shops like Next Adventure in Portland, Oregon, to find pre-owned dry bags.

Whatever solution you choose, don’t do what I’ve done on more than one occasion.  It’s no fun discovering that you’ve forgotten to empty the bag the night before, leaving the diapers to “ripen” overnight.  Pew!  Please let us know what eco-friendly solutions you’ve found for storing soiled cloth diapers on the go. 

Because I have a small house and harbor illusions of leading a “minimalist lifestyle,” I wanted to limit the amount of baby gear I bought. When I was pregnant, I kept wondering if I really needed all this stuff: a wipes warmer, a bouncy seat, a swing, a white noise machine, a mobile, an arsenal of how-to-raise-your-baby books, a travel crib, a baby monitor? (The list goes on, but you get the point.) How was I supposed to know? Every time I’d consider not getting something, the consumerist girl scout in me would decide that I just wouldn’t be prepared without it.

After fretting over each purchase or non-purchase for a good three or four months, I had a breakthrough: Yes, I can live without (fill in baby doodad of choice here). And if I can’t, I can always get it later. That’s right! Contrary to popular belief and the aforementioned girl scout motto, you do not need to “be prepared” for every possible baby emergency. Not sure you need a bouncy seat? Don’t get one until you do. You may find, as I did, that you can indeed live without it.

Every parent’s list will be different, but here’s a list of gizmos I never had. My daughter is over two now and hasn’t suffered from deprivation. (She can always sort it out later in therapy, if need be!)

Bouncy seat. My baby slept in a Moses basket for the first six months of her life, so if I needed to set her down, I put her in there.

Baby monitors. Because our house is so small, there is no way I wouldn’t hear her if she cried.

Wipe warmers. We use cloth wipes dampened with a squirt of water from a squeeze bottle. Our baby never seemed to care that the wipes weren’t warm.

Swing. We actually broke down and bought a swing after a week or two of sleepless nights (and days). Unfortunately, the swing didn’t help at all, so it went right back to the store. Joy and her husband made the same sleep-deprived decision, with the same result!

Exersaucer. I knew I didn’t want this huge plastic contraption in my house . . . so I didn’t get one.

Glider. First of all, I find this piece of furniture hideously ugly. Second, I have at least two chairs with a rocking motion. I never missed having a gliding rocking chair.

You may be tempted to register for as much as possible so generous friends and family can pay for it. Remember you can always ask for gift cards if you find the need to stock up later. I didn’t feel like I was scrimping by not buying every item on the Babies-R-Us registry list-I felt resourceful, and my house remained blissfully clutter-free.

When my belly was bulging with baby, I imagined my newborn gulping breast milk from the clearest, most rigid plastic bottles that I chose, thinking that the ones that appeared closest to glass would certainly be the safest.  Months later as I read through the latest research, I was surprised to find out that my instincts were wrong. 

In fact, the rigid plastics used to make some baby bottles and almost all Nalgene bottles have the highest risks of leaching toxins.  (Nalgene will be pulling their BPA-laden bottles soon.)  On Friday, Canada’s health and environmental ministries announced that it will ban the use of bisphenol-a (BPA) in plastic products because of health concerns.  Read here for further details on Canada’s landmark decision. 

Since BPA actually mimics hormones, its use has been linked to possible neural and other health disorders.  The risk goes up if the plastic is repeatedly being exposed to very hot water.  Luckily we don’t have a dishwasher (never thought I would say that!) but we were repeatedly putting hot milk into the bottle and washing it in scalding water.   

After trying more flexible plastic bottles that are supposedly safer, I became concerned when they began to cloud.  Since clouding can be another indication of leaching, I finally switched to a Born Free glass bottle. 

It took awhile for my son to adapt to the new nipple shape, but he now loves it.  The cost is a bit more than other options (around $16.00 each) and the manufacturer recommends replacing the nipple every three months. Since a two pack of nipples cost around $7.00 each, I have to admit that I haven’t been able to bring my frugal self to make the investment in regular replacements.  Roscoe just has a small bottle once a day before bed, so I think he’ll be fine.   (One side-note: Many people wean babies from bottles altogether at one year.  We’re still breastfeeding here and doing a bit of bottle feeding.)

There are, thankfully, far more plastic and glass options out there now than I ever realized that are all BPA, PVC, and Phthalate free. This link has a wonderful array of mainstream and niche brand bottles that are safe for baby with links to the companies’ websites.  Our favorite source for the latest on other non-toxic baby products such as sippy cups and pacifiers is The Soft Landing Blog. 

Ironically, now that I’ve finally figured out a solution to our bottle-feeding woes, I’m about to start weaning.  Knowing what I know now, I would have bought the glass bottles in the first place and avoided several unnecessary purchases. What BPA-free bottles do you use, where did you find them, and how do you like them?  Thanks for filling us in on the best bottles for green babies.  For more tips from Rocks in My Dryer’s Works for Me Wednesday blog carnival, click here.