Last week Peter and I were working our Kai Kids booth at the Children’s Trunk Show. We always enjoy meeting our customers and talking to other parents about products, kids, and things we go through as parents!  I was chatting with a customer about using reusable wipes for diaper changes at home, and how we soak and launder them ( I blogged about this back in the summer). She was asking what we soak them with in the diaper pail, and i was telling her about non-toxic bleach, or hydrogen peroxide. I told her that we also use it to clean and disinfect toys, and she said: you should blog about that too!

Hydrogen peroxide is also known as oxygenated bleach, and it is one of the most environmentally safe chemicals on the market. It works by releasing oxygen to perform the bleaching process, and then converting to simply H2O (water and oxygen) once the process is complete. It is biodegradable.  

Now, you don’t want to go disinfecting crazy, as germs are good for kids and babies to help build up their immune systems. But there are some things, that you just want to feel are squeaky clean.  So,  if you haven’t already tried it, hydrogen peroxide is great around the home - use it on grungy compost bins, mold on the shower curtain, sanitizing cutting boards after chopping up raw chicken, cleaning the toilet bowl,and, it’s gentle enough that you can also use it on your baby’s toys - especially after she’s had a bad cold or virus and you don’t want a repeat!

Simply buy a bottle of 3% hydrogen peroxide from the drug store, grocery store or natural food store. You can also find natural baby disinfectant in some baby stores that sell cloth diapers, but it is usally triple the price. We found a much cheaper alternative: in our house we use the All Natural Liquid Bleach by Nature Clean - it just contains water and 5% hydrogen peroxide. When you are disinfecting toys, just pour a1/4 cup or so  in a bucket and fill the bucket with warm water and clean away!  Or mix some with water in an empty spray bottle.

If you want more specifics on strengths and how much to dilute for various cleaning tasks, there is an excellent web siteI found all about Using Hydrogen Peroxide.

For the past year or so many of us have read or heard about the dangers of the chemical Bisphenol A, used to make hard polycarbonate plastic. Today a new study piles on even more evidence that BPA should be banned.

Just after we launched our online store Kai Kids last November (fully stocked with glass and BPA-free plastic baby bottles and sippy cups!) studies about BPA leaching from containers, baby and water bottles and chew toys hit the mainstream press. Parents everywhere –those who could afford it, that is — started tossing common brands of sippy cups and plastic baby bottles and searching for safter, less toxic alternatives.

The word last fall was that BPA can be a hormone disrupter. Animal studies had shown links between chronic, low doses of BPA to obesity, diabetes, thyroid disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer, reduced sperm count in men and other illnesses, and that the most dangerious periods of exposure were in the womb, during infancy and early childhood.

Today comes news from the respected Journal of the American Medical Association that people with higher levels of Bisphenol A in their bodies also have higher rates of heart disease, diabetes and liver abnormalities!

The team of British and American scientists compared the health status of 1,455 men and women with the level of BPA in their urine. Participants with the highest levels were nearly three times more likely to have cardiovascular disease than those with the lowest levels, and 2.4 times more likely to have diabetes. Higher BPA levels were also associated with abnormal concentrations of three liver enzymes.

So, if you still haven’t gone through your family’s plastic paraphenalia to weed out items made with BPA and other dangerous chemicals (usually clear, hard plastics and anything with the # numbers 3, 6 and 7), now is a great time to get the job done!

Our house is still not a completely plastic-free zone, but we’ve tried to wean ourselves of our plastic addiction by searching out safer, old-school alternatives: stainless steel and bamboo baby utensils (my Little Guy’s fave is my dad’s silver babyspoon engraved with Grandpa’s name Bruce), ceramic bowls and plates, Klean Kanteen water bottles, BornFree BPA-free baby bottles, Pyrex and stainless steel food containers, plus we wash and reuse any plastic bag or ziploc baggie that is still lurking in our cupboards and drawers.

It takes a little effort, and in many cases, more money, but in the end, you are investing in products that are usually more durable and often also recyclable, plus you can’t put a price on your childrens’ health and wellbeing!

This morning I was lucky to be be interviewed for an article for iparenting.com! The reporter was asking me for tips on green living with your family, especially for easy ways to go green without spending a lot of money. Unfortunately, although prices are starting to come down, eating organic, buying organic clothing and natural skincare etc. still does cost more than conventional goods, mostly due to the high production costs of organic farming, sourcing natural ingredients and materials, and ensuring fair labour practises.

But there is a lot you can do for your family’s health and the planet’s, that doesn’t cost a fortune. I find myself doing so many things that my grandmother did: reusing plastic bags, using a reusable shopping bag, cleaning with lemon and vinegar and baking soda, trying to make food from scratch instead of relying on heavily-processed convenience food.

Since we had our Big Boy three-and-a-half years ago, I realized that I’ve found many ways to go green and save money in our household, which leaves a bit of extra to spend on what i think is really important: buying organic apples, potatoes and red peppers (to avoid the dirty dozen fruits and vegetables most heavily laden with pesticides), hormone-free meats, organic milk, and chemical-free natural skincare products.

So here’s my green tip for this week: reusable baby wipes for diaper changes. Since Big Boy was born I have tried to avoid conventional disposable baby wipes - they are wasteful and full of alcohol and chemicals that aren’t good for the environment or a baby’s sensitive bottom.

At Kai Kids, we sell some wonderful organic cotton flannel Bum Wipes made by a mompreneur I know in Thunder Bay. Or you can just use old facecloths. I’ve used the same batch of about 15 cloths for almost four years now - with many messy, dirty diaper changes, believe me - and they are still good to go with no stains! At diaper change time, I just fill a small plastic bowl with warm water, soak the cloth, wring it out and wipe. I don’t use any soap.

Then i toss the cloth into a diaper pail with some water and a little non-toxic natural bleach (made from hydrogen peroxide) or you can use some white vinegar). Every two days i wash them in hot water. And voila, four years and two baby boys later, my two have never had many diaper rashes and think of all of the money I’ve saved, not to mention needless paper products diverted from the landfill!

Now, I must confess, that when i’m out and about, in my diaper bag i do carry a small pack of disposable wipes from 7th Generation. But i use them sparingly. If you want to be really virtuous, you can put a damp cloth in a ziploc bag for diaper changes on the go. Another great product to have in your diaper bag is Kai Kids’ all-natural Organic Diaper Spray - just a little on a cloth or your baby’s bum will help get things clean and fresh and it’s very moisturizing as well.

If you have any tips on green parenting I’d love to hear them so please share them here or email me at nancy@kaikids.com

We are currently looking for two things to use on our own boys and add to our store at Kai Kids: a natural, baby-safe bug spray, and a chemical-free, effective sunscreen. We have a few we are looking at, but I thought I’d ask if any of you readers and customers have a favourite that you would like to recommend?

We look first for a non-toxic, natural product, and we favour those made in Canada if possible. Plus, we are careful to only stock products that have been manufactured in a sweatshop-free environment. If it’s biodegradable, then even better!

We would love to hear your suggestions, either here on our blog, or via email at info@kaikids.com

Get ready for summer!

As if parents don’t have enough to worry about already what with toxic baby bottles and lead in toys, this week it was reported that many common brands of baby shampoo, powder, creams and lotions contain high levels of dangerous pthalates, a chemical used to stabilize fragrance and soften plastic.

It’s the same chemical found in many plastic and vinyl baby teethers and bibs, which is why at Kai Kids we only sell organic cotton teething toys and bibs.

A study in the February issue of the journal Pediatrics revealed high concentrations of these hormone-disrupting chemicals in the urine of the babies studied between 2000 and 2005. All had detectable amounts of at least one type of phthalate, and more than 80% had seven or more types. The babies in the study had more than four times the amount in their urine than babies whose parents did not use the products.

More than half the mothers in the study reported using baby shampoos on their infants within 24 hours of the urine tests, and about one-third had used lotion, and 14% used baby powder.

The more the mothers used the various products, the higher the levels found in their babies’ urine, leading researchers to suspect that the skin absorbs and transfers the chemicals into babies’ bodies. The highest levels were found in babies under eight months old.

Exposure to pthalates could reduce testosterone and alter reproductive organs. Very scary. And Canadian and U.S. manufacturers aren’t currently required to list pthalate contents on their packaging!

When you are shopping, look for products labeled “phthalate-free,” or check labels for common phthalates, including DEP and DEHP. I recommend Earth-Friendly Baby, a natural, organic, chemical-free baby skincare line from Australia that we recently started to carry at Kai Kids. No pthalates and a label that lists all of the ingredients!

When we had Kai three years ago, I had read about pthalates and tried to find natural babycare

products that didn’t contain them. But it was only recently that I weaned myself off of lotions and my favourite perfume, which are both full of the toxic chemical. But happily, it’s now easy to find safe, nice-smelling alternatives for the whole family.

-N