Want to think outside of the plastic tray?  Take a look at these beautifully crafted high chairs that will grow right along with your baby.   For inspiration, most of these pieces come from Scandinavian companies that consider comfort, flexibility, and function.  This month we’re examining heirloom green products that will last for generations, and these high chairs have both the style and durability to easily fit in that category.

The Svan Convertible High Chair, crafted from Birchwood, will last your child from six months until adulthood.  It’s light, stable, and secure.  Your child can sit with the wooden tray or just pull up to the table with the other adults.  It doesn’t fold, but it is compact, light, and looks like real furniture instead of baby gear.

Designed with growth in mind, The Stokke Tripp Trapp Highchair is fully adjustable, and looks more like a child’s chair than a high chair.  It doesn’t have a tray, but it’s simple design allows for the child to pull up to the table and eat just like the grown ups.  The bottom step allows for older babies and toddlers to climb into their chairs themselves while babies can be strapped in with the harness.

The simply designed Keekaroo is very similar to the Stokke in design, but costs quite a bit less.  Although the base model doesn’t include a tray, you can order one separately.  The sturdy frame can accommodate up to 250 pounds, making it possible to use through the teenage years.

If you’re considering the long term function of all that baby gear, these chairs cost about as much or a bit more than a kitchen chair and will provide far more flexibility and resale value.  Do you have a favorite adjustable high chair that we failed to mention?  Do you own one of these?  Have you avoided high chairs altogether? If you’re looking for a wider range of product recommendations, check out our book, The Eco-nomical Baby Guide for an index of green products at every price point—plus tips on how to get the best deals on high quality used baby gear.

For the last year, I’ve been about four months pregnant–or so it would seem from my bulging belly.  Elastic waistbands have been my friends while my actual pre-baby clothes have been sitting up in the attic for years.  Although I’ve tried everything from exercise boot camps to Spark People, my body has stubbornly held those pounds and even added a few more.

I was almost resigned to accept my flabby-bellied fate until a friend of mine mentioned a diet she had just started.  It had no limitations, but required her to eat avocado, dark chocolate, nuts, olives, or olive oil at every meal.  Since those are some of my favorite foods, I checked out the book The Flat Belly Diet immediately from our local library.

Here’s the diet in a nutshell:  The yummy foods mentioned above are required because they’re high in mono-unsaturated fats (called MUFAS in the diet).  Those fats are known to help keep you full while eating less, thus slowly melting away belly fat.  You eat four 400 calorie meals during the day and always include a MUFA at each sitting.  This means pesto, peanut butter, dark chocolate chips, and guacamole are your mainstays.  Yahoo!

I have dropped ten pounds in a month on this delicious diet!  After feeling as though my scale may have been broken for all those months that the numbers didn’t budge, I’m now rejoicing that weight loss is not only possible, but fun!  The meals keep me satiated and I look forward to each one because the recipes are so delectable.  Since I’m breastfeeding, I do eat an extra spoonful of peanut butter here and there, and am constantly amazed to see the weight keep dropping off.

Although daily exercise is recommended, it’s not required.  I haven’t been able to get in my workouts most days, but am surprised just by how well the weight loss is working just based on eating habits.

Is the diet eco-friendly and budget friendly?  Yes!  Since it’s so full of nuts and seeds, it isn’t overly dependent on meats.  The meats it does recommend are organic and it has several vegetarian options.  It eliminates processed foods (which are both expensive and full of packaging) and focuses on whole foods that aren’t packed with artificial sweeteners or synthetic fiber.   There are also organic packaged foods that you can purchase such as Kashi frozen meals that will do the trick if you don’t have time to cook.  You’ll be surprised to see that the first few days of the diet require cornflakes, but don’t let that throw you off!  They tried to pick transitional foods that people would be comfortable with.

Plus The Flat Belly Diet was written by editors of Prevention magazine, so its focus is on healthy foods that pack nutritional benefits as well as taste.  I’m trying to hold back, but I feel so lucky to have discovered this diet finally.    I still have about five pounds to go before I can button up my old shorts, but it’s nice to know that success is within sight!

In a recent post many readers commented that their biggest shock with cloth diapers was the bulkiness. Since almost all baby clothes are designed for disposable clad bottoms, it can be sad to see some new baby garments go unused because of baby’s huge diaper bum.

Still, if you keep these tips in mind while buying those adorable little ensembles, your baby can pull off the bulky diaper bottom without a hitch!

1. For girls: Skirts and dresses are tremendously forgiving when it comes to sizable diapers. In the winter, you can use Babylegs instead of tights and keep those dresses on, but if she needs more warmth, or freedom to crawl, buy pants in sizes six months bigger than her age. Then roll up the pant legs and enjoy!  Note from Rebecca: For her skinny daughter, Audrey, pants were always too short, even with the huge diaper! In fact, Audrey has not been able to wear pants for 2 years, since she potty trained. She fits in size 24 month pants, but then they’d go up to her knees….  Still, for “thicker” babies, like my daughter, Jovi, buying bigger and rolling up the bottoms works just great.

2. For boys: Overalls handily accommodate cloth diaper bulk. Buy them in bigger sizes and they’ll also be able to be rolled up. With my son, we bought larger sizes from the time that he reached about one year of age. Then a year later, when he was potty trained and wearing just underwear, he still fit in the same clothes! It actually saved us money to have used cloth because we were able to stretch his wardrobe out for a full year.

3. For everyone: Buy larger onesies or footie pajamas.  Or skip the onesies and just buy shirts without the snaps at the crotch so that you don’t have to worry about whether they’ll fit baby’s bottom half.  You can also buy extenders to make the onesies fit over bulky diapers.

Other ideas? Have you had trouble with your child’s diaper clad bum in regular sized clothing? What were your solutions?

Have pureed yams forever ruined your baby’s pinstriped pajamas? No worries! With a little persistence, ingenuity, (and possibly vinegar) the garment might just be restored to its original brilliance.

Of course with all of the below stains, the best option is to quickly wet and pre-treat the item so that the stain doesn’t have a chance to dry. If it is dried without your knowing, you can still give the following remedies a try!

Try these simple tricks for specific stains:

• Berries: Boil water, stretch the garment tight over a pan, exposing the stain. Then pour the very hot water down over the stain. If that doesn’t work try mixing vinegar and toothpaste to remove the stain.
• Blood: First soak the clothing in cold salt water and then rub with detergent. If that doesn’t work try applying dish soap, letting it sit for a bit, rinsing thoroughly and letting it dry in the sun.
• Feces: Wash and then let the stain be naturally bleached out by sunlight. If that doesn’t do the trick, try Nature’s Miracle Stain Remover.  There’s no need to use bleach with cloth diapers!
• Grass: First work in some rubbing alcohol and then allow it to dry. Afterwards treat it with detergent and rinse with cold water. If none of those things work, try Bac-Out or Nature’s Miracle Stain Remover.
• Mustard: Mix rubbing alcohol with dish soap and rub into the stain.
• Tomato Sauce: Rub dish soap or dishwasher detergent into the stain and then run cold ice over the stain. Repeat multiple times until the stain works itself out. (I have to share that I managed to cover myself in spaghetti sauce at a lovely restaurant while dining without my children. After many applications of dish soap and ice, the stains came out completely even though they were dried into my clothes.)

What are your favorite stain removal tricks? Do you have any recipes for a homemade stain pre-treatment? Are there stain removal victories you’d like to share?

Perhaps your tot delicately handles a spoon and carefully feeds herself without incident.  More likely, she flings food upon herself, onlookers, and any furniture in the surrounding area.

Between the feedings, the occasional blowouts, and playtime, stains can creep into clothing on a daily basis.  Often in the hectic pace of laundry, those garments get washed and dried, setting the stains and ruining the clothes.  Ugh! The angst of seeing that large brown blotch on your baby’s favorite sundress or the huge grass stains on his beloved khaki shorts.

So how can you prevent such a fate from befalling your baby’s wardrobe?  Line dry her clothing!  It will also prevent shrinking, save you money on utilities, and lower your carbon footprint.

In addition, be sure to keep a stain pre-treater right next to the laundry basket.  There are wonderful green options such as Bi-O-Kleen’s Bac-Out, a Stain and Odor Eliminator—which also happens to be great as a cleaning booster for laundering diapers.  Ecover Stain Remover is an easy option as is Nature’s Miracle Stain Remover.

Of course, there are several natural ways to get stains out of clothes once they seem to be set in.  Stay tuned for some great homemade remedies in the next post!

I’ve never lived somewhere with air conditioning. That’s not exactly eco-boasting, as I’ve also never lived somewhere with unbearable humidity. Here in Portland, the thermostat soars past 100 degrees almost every summer, but I’m able to keep things cool—or at least stave off heat stroke—using some passive cooling techniques. Last summer my indoor temperatures reached 93 degrees, which was a bit uncomfortable, but I lived to tell about it. The worst part was having to stay indoors, as it was hotter outside than in!

This summer on the east coast, they’ve been suffering through record-breaking highs. This NY Times article highlights some of the ways city folk have battled the heat wave—such as wearing “dirt-colored clothing” to avoid doing laundry in a sweltering basement.

If you don’t have air conditioning, the planet thanks you. But how are you coping without the canned air? And how do you keep baby cool when even the nights don’t bring in a cool breeze? Here are our not-very-original tips for keeping baby cool in the hot sun. What are yours?

Interest rates are great, house prices are low, and the market is packed with great deals. So how can you find a cost-friendly, eco-friendly home without breaking the bank?

Consider purchasing a home with an attached apartment. I know this may not seem green or cost effective, but it is both!

If you keep your square footage relatively low, the attached apartment will improve the urban density in your home. A huge portion of your carbon footprint is just the square footage you occupy in your living space. Here’s an example: Our home is about 1,000 square feet with an additional 300+ square feet in a studio apartment. Since we add another person to our living space with that apartment, each of the five people living on the property occupies less than three hundred square feet apiece. That’s not bad considering that the average family of four lives in a home over 2,000 square feet.

In addition, the apartment rental price generates more than half of our monthly mortgage payment. In fact, we have never in all of our lives, paid so little for housing, even during our years in a tiny five hundred square foot university apartment.

We also get tax benefits which help us write off the depreciation of the rental unit, making the rental income come with a very small tax burden.

Does this sound super fantastic, but a little scary when you think about becoming a landlord? The great news is that several communities have a rental owner association that can help get you started with forms and workshops. It’s really quite worth the trouble.

In our case, we remodeled a very strange three hundred square foot addition that wasn’t complete when we moved in. In the last six years the apartment has paid back all the remodeling costs and now generates income. Between tenants we sometimes keep the rental open in the summer to use as a guest house for visiting family members.

Another thing to think about is that as our fixed mortgage eventually gets paid off, rents can keep going up. Theoretically we could stay in our house until we pay off the mortgage, and then charge whatever the going rental rates are. In 20 years we would be making money instead of spending money on living expenses.  So even though our house is very small and we all share one bathroom, I am grateful that it is so very eco-nomical!

It’s official.  We’re done procreating around here.  Sad, but also relieved to be moving into a more sleep-filled future, we rounded up the baby gear (which was all handed down to us or purchased used) and gave it to a pregnant friend.

And here’s the bonus—my friend had read our book, The Eco-nomical Baby Guide, and heeded its wisdom completely!  She and her husband have made it known that they’re open to all used gear and have been loaded up with hand me downs from family and friends.

Their nursery is almost complete and the only thing they have bought thus far is the paint.  The crib, the dresser, cloth diapers, changing table, car seat, clothes and much more have all been given to them.  When they shared what they read in the book about buying used instead of spending thousands on baby’s first year alone, they became heroes in their social circles.  Baby rearing families all proclaimed that they wished they would have bought less paraphernalia and acquired more of it used.

Yahoo!  I do wish all newly pregnant families could read The Eco-nomical Baby Guide just to consider it before the baby buying pressure reaches its full potential.  We gave a book to a friend when she was five months pregnant.  She thanked us profusely a week later, but also bemoaned the fact that she had bought so much already and now regrets it.  No worries!  I just hope she kept the receipts!

How are we spending all that baby money we saved now?  I’m staying home this year with our kids, we’re sending our son to preschool, and we’re going on trips to build relationships with family.  That’s so much more valuable to us than piles of new plastic stuff! (And far more earth friendly).  How are you using the money you’ve saved on baby gear?  How are you helping to get the world out to pregnant friends about buying less, buying used, and buying green?

This post is a part of the illuminating “Why don’t you” series. No judgment! We’re just curious.

Back in the early days of the Green Baby Guide, I wrote a whole post about living without paper towels—even if you have a baby to clean up after. Really, I just can’t see paying money when there is a free alternative: rags. This is why I don’t buy paper napkins, either. They really add almost nothing to a load of laundry, so I don’t count the water and energy used to wash them.

If you use them, try recycled paper towels!

However, I know many eco-conscious people do use paper towels. If they’re made from recycled materials and home composted, they don’t do much damage at all. But still . . . why don’t you give up paper towels?

Many of you are schlepping your babes around this summer in nearly unbearable heat and humidity.  I am humbled and amazed by your braveness!  During our trip to Maryland, we all sort of stumbled from one ice cream stand to the next, swimming through the thick air in between.  I marveled at the women who were wearing babies and voluntarily walking outside during the day.

Most of the parks and sidewalks were totally empty as desperate herds of people flocked to the vast sanctuary of air conditioning called “the mall.”  I imagine it would be tough just using your Maya Wrap or an Ergo Carrier indoors all summer, but I bet some of you brave families manage to wear baby despite the heat.

Do high temperatures get in the way of baby wearing for you in the summer?  Are you lucky enough to live in Oregon or Alaska?  (I shall never again complain about the weather here after visiting the East Coast in late July!)  Have you found any cooler baby wearing devices?  Or do you just settle baby into the stroller?

Of course, in many hot climates in Asia, Latin America and Africa, baby wearing has been the rage for hundreds of years, so perhaps we should just buck up and strap baby onto our backs!