Ever since I found out that I was pregnant with my Big Boy about four years ago, we’ve had a ban on conventional cleaning products in our household. At the time, I did some homework and found out how most common, popular household cleaning products and detergents were filled with toxic chemicals, VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and carcinogens.

In hindsight, I should have wondered at the smell, and the fact I always had a nasty headache after a cleaning stint. But in Canada, manfucturer’s are not required by law to list the ingredients on the label! (although some companies now voluntarily list ingredients). This, despite the fact that studies show some chemicals used in cleaning products increase your risk of cancer and asthma, headaches and skin irritations. Plus, this stuff is also often going down the drain into our water system.

If you are wondering about some of the cleaners under your sink, a good rule of thumb is, if the bottle has any poisonous or explosive symbols, there are some toxic chemicals in the product, and I’d avoid it. Another hint is if it says to use the product in a well-ventilated area. You know it must be bad!

Some chemicals to watch out for : toulene, benzene, xylene, methanol, ethylbenzene, and formaldehyde.

The good news is that there are now plenty of effective, safe, non-toxic cleaners on the market, in your local health food, or grocery store. I wrote about some of my favourites last week.

But I’ve started to experiment with making homemade cleaners and hope to eventually wean myself of most store-bought ones to save on packaging and to save money. Not long ago I bought a great book that is a great resource: Better Basics for the Home: Simple Solutions for Less Toxic Living. It is full of recipes for household cleaners, disinfectants, baby care, kids’ projects, art supplies, garden care etc.

Want to make your own exfoliating scrub, plant fertilizer, soap scum spray, antifreeze, or cradle cap cream for baby? This is your book. Over the next few months I’m going to have a crack at a few concoctions (I’ve already stocked up on washing soda, tea tree oil and Borax). I’ll let you know how it goes!

Over the past few years, we’ve tried to consume less in our household, in order to save money, divert waste from the landfill, and to do our tiny bit to help preserve the planet’s resources, but there are some things a family just can’t live without. So, we’ve tried to become more conscious consumers, and along the way have switched over to many organic, and more natural products in our household, from food to toothpaste to dishwashing liquid. Many of our customers at Kai Kids (our online store specializing in organic, eco-friendly products for babies, toddlers and preschoolers) are just starting out on their path to greener living, so I thought I’d write a series of posts about our family’s favourite earth-friendly products.

• I’m starting to experiment with making more of my own non-toxic cleaning supplies (watch for a post on that in the next few weeks), but for effective, fresh-smelling, and chemical-free household cleaning needs my favourite brand is Ecover. We’ve tried their dishwashing liquid, dishwasher powder, all purpose cleaner, and window cleaner, and I love them all, more than NatureClean or Citrasolve etc. They are a Belgian company, but now manufacture in the U.S., so although I wish their products were made here in Canada, at least they aren’t travelling to my local store all the way from Europe. My only gripe is that I can’t seem to find any of their products sold in bulk form, as I’d really like to reuse and refill my plastic bottles to save on money and packaging.
• for laundry detergent, we like Canadian-made Nature Clean’s liquid which we buy in bulk at Grassroots, which lucky for us, is in our neighbourhood. We also have recently tried Nellie’s Laundry Nuggets and Laundry Soap, also made in Canada. Both do a great job with no nasty chemical residues or perfumes, and no phosphates entering the water system! We may actually soon start carrying Nellie’s products in our eco-friendly online store !
• Merchants of Green Coffee: Peter has lately become a coffee fanatic (instead of opening Kai Kids, we almost went into the business of importing organic coffee beans!) and I must say, we now drink some pretty amazing Fair Trade, organic and shade-grown coffee chez nous. Peter roasts, grinds and brews our coffee so we rarely buy take-out coffee any more. We buy our beans from Toronto’s The Merchants of Green Coffee, who’ve been importing beans and supplying area restaurants and stores since 1994. Their vision is “To lead the evolution of the coffee industry to a sustainable state ‘from tree to cup’,” and their mantra is Fresh Coffee, Fair Trade, Green Business. We love their coffee, but we also like how they operate and what they stand for. In 1999 they established the Sustainable Coffee Program to pioneered sustainable coffee certification – it helps facilitate the production and sale of sustainable coffee – a direct link to farmers growing quality coffee. Sustainable coffee is defined as: purchased from the farmer at a fair price, grown organically in a biodiverse ecosystem, and processed with eco-friendly technologies and methods. You can buy green or roasted beans from them, roasters, visit their coffee shop, or take lessons on the Art of Roasting, or the Alchemy of Brewing!

Stay tuned, as next week I’m going to write about our favourite toothpaste, soap, shampoo and chocolate! Please join in and comment to let us know about your family’s favourite green products, we’d love to hear from you.

My Big Boy is now 3.5 and this is the first year he seems really into Halloween – planning for it, creating a costume (he wants to be a pirate), decorating our house and yard, etc. ( I just don’t know what will happen with trick or treating, as he may not be so ready to abstain from sugary treats and as content to just walk around looking at the houses this year!)

Last week, he was very excited when a small pumpkin came in our organic fresh food box, so last night I tried a new recipe for a spicy pumpkin/coconut/chicken stew for dinner. He ate it all up with gusto, then this morning at breakfast he even told me how much he loved his dinner last night, which is ususual! I think it must have been the pumpking factor.

But all of this interest in and talk about Halloween has got me thinking about how to “do” Halloween this year in our household. Oh, we’ve got lots of decorations from previous years to work with, but I started thinking about treats – how to hand out something healthier at the door, that’s better for the neighbourhood kids, but still fun and tasty, and that doesn’t come with too much packaging!

So I set out to write a blog post on greening your family’s Halloween, when into my inbox came a newsletter from BabyOntheWay.ca with an amazing article on Keepin’ It Green This Halloween, by Sarah Simpson. I couldn’t have said it better myself, so if you are looking for some excellent, practical tips on how to have a healthy, planet-friendly Halloween, check it out!

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 go through a lot of milk in this family. I long for the day when we will all be drinking the same kind, but for now there is whole goat’s milk for little Garrett, 1 % organic milk for Kai and Peter and these days, due to trying to avoid dairy, almond milk for me. But although we buy organic milk, i always feel guilty about the bags they come in. But here in my Toronto neighbourhood, glass isn’t really an option. You can now get some organic milk in glass bottles, but the size is too small for our family and it isn’t always available. So for now, we depend on a family-size pack of milk in plastic bags. But recently i’ve found a way to reuse the bags to ease my guilt a little.

I just cut off the top, wash with soapy water, rinse and let them dry in our drying rack. And voila, i have great bags for storing leftovers or veggies for the fridge and freezer! It’s especially useful since we try not to bring in plastic bags to our house, and i no longer purchase sandwich bags etc. Plastic milk bags are quite strong and much easier to clean and dry than flimsy produce bags etc. I also keep a few in the bottom of my stroller so that if i stop at a grocery store or bulk food store so i can use them for any rice, quinoa, oatmeal or fresh vegetables that I purchase. And because they are so strong, you can use them again and again!

If any of you have green living or parenting tips you’d like to share with other readers, please comment here or send me an email at nancy@kaikids.com

One of our best-selling products at Kai Kids is the safe, simple, durable Klean Kanteen sippy. Our baby Garrett has had one since he was around 9 months old and it’s worked as a great alternative to the plastic sippys we used for Kai a few years ago (which i purged from our household last year). But, although we find it doesn’t leak easily, it does not come with a cover or lid.

The other day i was with my friend and now customer Deb, and noticed she had a cover on her son’s Klean Kanteen sippy. I looked closer and it was a very familiar shape. She figured out that the clear plastic cover from her old Avent baby bottles fits perfectly over the top! So now she doesn’t worry if it’s rolling around the bottom of her diaper bag.

I ran upstairs and found i still had some of the covers (all of our old Avent stuff was still buried in a cupboard) and it works perfectly! Many of our customers have asked when Klean Kanteen is going to make a lid and we don’t know if there is one in the works. But now, if you’ve got some old Avent baby bottles around the house, or if you can find some at a second-hand store, you have the perfect solution! And I always love recycling and finding a new purpose for old stuff. Better reused than in the landfill!