Practically Green Book Launch Party Day #3: Healthy Earth, Healthy Family
So many people I’ve met say that having children was the catalyst for their desire to live a greener and healthier life. That’s certainly true in my case, and is the very reason why I started this blog and wrote my book!
When your primary focus is on nurturing and protecting your little one, it can come as a bit of a jolt to learn that a lot of products designed specifically for babies can be harmful to their health. Things like soaps, lotions and even baby bottles can contain chemicals that are linked with some pretty scary health problems. And to make matters worse, a child’s body doesn’t detoxify as readily as an adults so the same chemicals can have a stronger impact.
Many of the same ingredients that can cause human harm, wreak havoc on the environment after they swirl down the drain or end up in a landfill somewhere. I find that protecting the earth goes hand in hand with protecting my children because I want to make sure the planet is a better place for my kids to live. That’s why I strive to buy safe, natural products for my family…or to make my own.
Practically Green has a whole chapter on Natural Body Care, not only to help you cull through the slew of information out there on toxic chemicals but also to point you in the right direction for purchasing safer products and show you how to make your own, homemade body care products (like the Chocolate Facial Mask I just posted about the other day!)
Here’s another sneak peek from the book. Homemade, reusable baby wipes:
And now for the giveaways….
Earth Mama Angel Baby had donated a $25 e-gift certificate to one of today’s readers. In case you didn’t know, all EMAB body care products are rated ‘zero’ on the Skin Deep Cosmetic Database, making them completely safe to use on your baby. My personal favorite is the Angel Baby Lotion- it smells like a dreamsicle!
I’ve also got a copy of The Mom’s Guide to Growing Your Family Green by Terra Wellington to give away. I reviewed this book awhile back and it’s a keeper! Lots of helpful information specifically geared toward growing families.
For a chance to win, please share a practically green tip that answers the question – What have you done to grow your family green? The giveaway will run today only, through midnight central time on Wednesday, November 18th. (only one entry per person and you must have a US shipping address.)
Good luck!
Christy is the lucky winner of the $25 e-certificate to Earth Mama Angel Baby and Katie won the book!!
Your site really makes me think! I love learning all of these wonderful tips and how-to’s for greener living for my family and the world! Other than the recycling, turning down the water heater temperature, taking shorter showers, and adjusting the thermostat higher/
lower depending on the season, we have started growing our own organic garden! We also grow loofahs for bathing with. Many thanks, Cindi
I always strive to share my respect for nature and its precious resources with my kids. They know not to waste water or electricity, for example. They are very mindful of turning off lights when they leave a room (and we don’t use lights during the day unless the weather is bad and there isn’t enough daylight). For water, they don’t let it run and only turn on the “cold” water faucet for quick use (brushing their teeth, washing their hands, etc.) so that we don’t engage the water heater unnecessarily. They know that by the time the water would come out warm, they would already be done using it. We flush toilets less (only when necessary 😉 and they understand why I’ve put bricks or filled water bottles in the toilet tanks. We recycle, compost and grew a small container garden this summer, among many other practices in our daily green lifestyle.
One of our latest green stints was the birthday party we threw for my 8 yr-old daughter. We hired a naturalist to take us (kids and parents too!) on a tour of wild edibles and medicinal plants in a local park. It was very educational and entertaining. We gave out clay pots and organic mint plants, among other eco-friendly items as favors (no plastic trinkets or baggies). We got a lot of great feedback for this party and I’m hoping to do it again for my younger daughters.
Thanks for the chance to win!
with my 3rd baby (born when my then youngest was 6), we use 7th generation diapers. it was a good compromise because my husband was not willing to do cloth, but he did not mind paying a little extra for them. We shop secondhand and make excellent use of hand-me-downs.
When I think about it we do a number of things to reduce waste: recycle, compost food waste, cloth diaper, cloth wipe, make our own bread, yogurt, icecream, sourcream, and we make a lot from scratch in general which reduces how much we bring home in the first place.
We’re always making progress. Moved from 7th gen diapers to cloth diapers when the kids were 9 months old. Ditto disposable (7th gen) wipes to cloth wipes…and just plain water! My kids have known the difference between “trash garbage” and “recycling” and “compost garbage” since they could say (rudimentary versions) of those words!
I’ve got a stck of shirts that don’t fit me after having my first daughter and will be making a few of them into pants this weekend and I have my eye on others for summer dresses for her.
With my first baby, I became more conscious of toxics in our environment. Thus, I bought cloth diapers and used cloth wipes (still do!). Your recipe is similar to mine but I add a few drops of essential oils like tea tree oil for it’s anti-bacterial effect and lavender for it’s scent. This, I mix into a squeeze bottle and when it’s time to change a diaper, I squeeze the formula into a washcloth, using only what I need. =)
My family uses recyclable bags instead of plastic bags for everything!I have a bunch by the door and in my stroller so we always have some on hand when we are out!
zmama09 at yahoodot com
Well since the birth of my son we have changed a LOT of things to be a little greener, including eating a lot more organic and whole foods and trying to use less disposable items (bags, food items, etc).
The area I have grown the “greenest” has definitely been in cleaning & personal use products. When I was pregnant with my 2nd child, my eyes were opened to the chemicals & toxins in most mainstream products. Add to that my son has mild eczema, and my awareness as increased even more! Thank you for your wonderful site and suggestions… I look forward to learning so much more!
These look great! Can’t wait to start using some of my own.
I’ve spent a lot of my time of this, my first pregnancy, working to eliminate disposable items and toxic chemicals around the house. We’re getting all cloth and as much organic diapers as we can manage – and I made 50some baby wipes out of leftover fabric I had. I also replaced our napkins with cloth and continue to try to minimize our use of paper towels. I also clean most everything with some combination of warm water/vinegar/baking soda and sometimes an oxygen “bleach”.
I use baking soda for my kids’ shampoo lately and made a huge effort to use less sunscreen this summer and use coconut oil instead when I could. I also use mostly cloth napkins and rags instead of disposables!
My family has really started eating more vegetarian when I’m around. We eat good amount of organic food and little dairy products. We buy less frozen food because none of the trash can be recycled. We shop from the local food market because they have bulk bins and fresh local produce.
What have I done to grow my family green? We use re-usable cloth bags for shopping, my daughter uses a basket to carry her lunch with cloth napkin and placemat, she carries her foods in plastic or glass containers that we can wash and reuse, we avoid buying individually wrapped products for my daughters lunch (too much waste), conserve water by turning it off while showering and soaping up or while brushing our teeth & washing our hands, no bottled waters, we use stainless steel water bottles we can refill, brita water filter so we can drink tap water instead of buying it, we drive a biodiesal vehicle (fuel made from recycled vegetable oil), use natural cleaning and beauty products, we have taught our daughter to be very conscious of taking care of the earth, picking up litter…and the list goes on and will continue to grow…Thanks for sharing your knowledge and awareness with us and helping me to continue to grow in this area…
We did the extreme to grow our family green – we sold our large house that was on less than a quarter-acre (and the house took up most of the lot!) and downsized to a home half it’s size on 4 acres, with the goal of going “back to basics” and growing our own food among other things!
http://bringingbasicsback.blogspot.com