Ever wonder how parents of past decades managed to produce and raise healthy kids without all the educational products and expensive baby classes that parents today have access to?  Well, if you’re Pamela Paul, author of Parenting Inc., the problem is not how our parents raised us without all the professionalized parenting of today, but how today’s parents raise their children when the parents themselves are victims of major marketing traps.  In Salon.com’s article “The Parent Trap,” Paul gives an interview discussing Parenting Inc. and highlights the products and promotions that too many parents buy into.  Literally.

Among the parents traps are the $800 Bugaboo stroller, which Paul claims raised the bar for what parents are willing to spend on a cart in which they push their child around in.

Coming from an attachment parenting standpoint, wouldn’t it make more sense to purchase a baby carrier for less than $100?  An earth friendly bonus is that the same objective is met (baby is moved from point A to point B) but there is less plastic involved.

Other parenting traps include designer candies, interactive toys (Paul insists, “No, toys don’t need to be interactive.  Children need to interact with toys.“), expensive child classes for babies that are really child classes for parents (um, Gymboree anyone?), sleep trainers and doulas (although Paul doesn’t necessarily consider these professionals to be poor investments for parents to make), the baby proofing industry, Baby Einstein, and baby sign language (although I disagree with Paul.  Sign language has helped Annabelle overcome much frustration since she is able to communicate her needs as a pre or minimally verbal toddler).

For Paul, the greatest harm in all the parent marketing traps, is not the monetary cost, either.   It’s the values that the parents instill subconsciously in their children when they make huge investments in things, things, things.

Paul’s words of wisdom for avoiding entrapment: reuse, recycle, repurpose.

It makes sense.  Spend more time and less money to invest in your relationship with your child.  It’s the love that matters to them most in the long run.  Not all the fancy products, games, toys, gear, etc.

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Image courtesy of The Simple Living Network 

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My new favorite feature on Green Mamma is the Green Friend of the Week post. Inspiring green friends from previous weeks include Abbie and Allison  I am delighted when I discover another green friend because I feel as though I am rewarded when these inspirational and knowledgeable people teach me more about green parenting and environmentalism. This week we travel to Ansonia, Connecticut to meet Jen, a new mom to an adorable baby girl named Zoe.

When Jen and her husband started preparing to have a baby, Jen wanted to ensure that she would not only conceive healthfully and grow a healthy baby, but also that she might prevent future health problems that could crop up later in her child’s life, such as cancer and infertility.

Jen focused her pre-conception research on a class of chemicals called phthalates, which are used to bind chemicals in personal care products and are also used as a softener in plastics. According to the Portland Press Herald, “Phthalates too are linked to developmental problems, including premature breast development in girls and male genital defects.”

Jen considered the potential risks of phthlates and bisphenol-A, or BPA, to be reasons enough to avoid all products containing these dangerous chemicals. She explains, ” I was alarmed because these additives are endocrine disrupters and are known to mimic estrogen, which can cause reproductive problems in developing fetuses, infants and toddlers. I have since changed almost all of my beauty products, personal care products and household cleaners with natural or organic brands.”

Products that Jen recommends using while conceiving, pregnant, and for the care of oneself and one’s children include:

• Method
• Seventh Generation
• Burts Bees
• Aubry Organics
• Avalon Organics
• Jason Natural personal

And because she is a breastfeeding mother on the go (and who needs to pump), Jen prefers the following BPA-free bottles:

• Evenflo glass
• Playtex Disposables
• Born Free
• Medela

Jen works hard at being environmentally conscious. To cultivate a green lifestyle, she and her family:

• use reusable bags when shopping
• recycle
• buy local dairy products without the use of hormones and antibiotics
• buy free range, organic eggs and meats
• buy lots of fair trade items
• install energy efficiant bulbs throughout her new home

A true idealist and green minded mamma, Jen says, “I know that I could do much more but I am gradually making more and more changes to live a greener life.” Way to go Jen. Thank you for being our green friend this week and a green mamma to your adorable Zoe.

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Moving my Green Mamma blog from one URL to another is almost as much work as literally packing up one’s boxes, getting a truck, and begging friends to help carry one box at a time from house to truck, and then finally arriving and unloading, trying to decide where to put everything. Fortunately, I am married to a wonderfully talented and self-proclaimed computer geek who has a knack for understanding all things technical and in a magical way, being able to talk to the devices that seem to freeze whenever I approach. So this week, I cannot help but be grateful for:

1. A technically gifted husband. Not only is he fantastically useful in the professional world of computer science, but he puts those C.S. degrees to work at home too. This week he pretty much built the Green Mamma web-site, he took apart my broken camera dock (which I am going to have to replace because it truly is broken), and he ran tests on my old, old, Dell laptop to find out how we can upgrade its memory and battery and thus avoid having to purchase a brand new and costly laptop.

2. My old, old, Dell laptop. Yes, my Inspiron is a senior citizen in the world of computer technology, but she is well cared for and in good shape so long as we replace her battery and juice up her memory. She’s been with me through graduate school, a pregnancy, and now almost a year and a half of serious correspondences with family and friends who just love to see and hear about my dear Annabelle. I couldn’t have done it without you old Dell.

3. Simply Slings. Thank you to Jennie Paige for contacting the folks at Ergo to replace my broken Ergo clip. I am looking forward to spring hiking with Annabelle and my husband, and of course, our beloved Ergo baby carrier. On Annabelle’s behalf, let me thank Ergo for giving her the means to nap while Mom and Dad drag her out on yet another walk.

4. Spring. I am loving the warm weather and cool breezes. The cherry blossoms in D.C. are at their peak boom, my neighbors are busy getting their gardens ready, and Annabelle and I are able to be outside for much of the day. It is such a relief to go outside for fresh air and not need a heavy winter coat.

5. Mommy Groups. I belong to D.C. mommy listserv that organizes clubs, playground meetups, and regular playgroups. Over the past months I have gotten well acquainted with the women and children who attend my mommy group. Annabelle looks forward to seeing familiar faces and sharing different toys with her playmates, and I benefit from listening to other mothers discuss their work as C.E.O.s of their households. One of the best parts about being with other mothers (and fathers too–there are several stay-at-home dads), is the laughter that fills the house when we all get together. If you are a stay-at-home, work-at-home, part-time working or full-time working parent, it is healthy and worthwhile to be with other parents. Sort of like morale for the most important of work: raising our families. Visit meetup.com for more information about parenting topics and groups who meet by common interest.

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Breastfeeding my toddler  helps me be a better mamma.   Let me explain.  Annabelle is 15 months.  She is a small bundle of energy that is just wheeling around trying to learn and do as much as she can before she ultimately poops out and needs a nap.  What this means for us as a nursing mother and child is that we both find ourselves exhausted and sometimes frazzled throughout the day, especially since we spend many a sleepless night due to teething.  When Annabelle signs “milk” or tugs at my shirt, I make myself stop what I’m doing and sit down to feed her.  I reconnect with my little girl and I slow down too.  My mind, which is often blazing ahead of me and firing off orders about what tasks need my attention, refocuses and calms itself in the present moment.  Breastfeeding is truly a gift to mother and child.

Over the last week though, I suddenly feel as though my toddler is nursing like a newborn.  I throw my hands up in disbelief because she actually wants to spend time with me over her dad (this has been a running joke in our house because Annabelle is definitely a daddy’s girl and will sometimes only search for me when she’s hungry).   But it goes beyond spending time together.  This week, Annabelle is clinging to me, nursing, nursing, nursing.

So of course I read up on nursing my toddler.  First, I highly recommend Mothering Your Nursing Toddler by Norma Jane Bumgarner.   In MYNT, parents read about handling social situations, marital relationships, managing a career, nighttime nursing, and weaning their breastfeeding toddler.  Chapters that helped my husband and I understand Annabelle’s nighttime behavior and frequent night waking were those about nighttime nursing and marriage.

On the web I found Kellymom.com’s article “How often do toddlers nurse?” to be pretty helpful too.  Kellymom explains the scenario I find myself in (toddler nursing with the frequency of a newborn); she writes:

“Some children nurse often (”like a newborn” is a frequent comment that you hear from the moms of 12-15 month olds), some nurse only once or twice a day, and some nurse a few times a day on some days and frequently on others.”

Prior to this week’s round the clock nursing, Annabelle nursed maybe four times a day, usually coinciding with naps and bedtime, though also for reassurance due to all the new experiences she finds herself in.    Then again, at nighttime I lose count of how frequently she nurses because I am usually sleeping when she latches on.   Of course, there are those sleepless and memorable nights too . . .

Mama Roo, a stay at home parent and environmental businesswoman who sells eco-friendly products like baby slings and all natural children’s clothing, promotes breastfeeding as part of instinctive family bonding.  Of breastfeeding her son, she writes:

“Breastfeeding for me, is the most fulfilling part of early motherhood . . . (and) Breastfeeding became a time for me to relax, hold my son, examine his features, brush my hand against his cheek.  It gave me a time to loose myself in his eyes, let the cares of the world fall away, and fall in love with my new little creation.” 

I couldn’t describe my feelings about breastfeeding Annabelle any better.  Still, even though I accept and value  my toddler’s nursing behavior, I was curious as to what was causing the increased breastfeeding.  At Mothering Magazine’s on-line natural family living commune, several mothers offered support to the mom of a sixteen month old, who like Annabelle, is nursing around the clock.  The answer, hands down, at Mothering’s on-line forum: a growth spurt!   I am a little bit surprised that I hadn’t considered that Annabelle is still growing.  I mean, she is, basically, a baby on wheels, as Norma Jane Bumgarner puts it.   Just like a newborn, my fifteen month old is working hard to gain weight and grow, grow, grow!   I did notice that her 18 month pants are finally at her ankles.

Of course, Annabelle might also be nursing constantly because she is teething, she is getting over a nasty stomach virus, and she also could simply be craving her mamma’s love and encouragement as she learns about this big old world.   Whatever her reasons are for breastfeeding all the time, I know one thing: I am happy to be there for her and nurse her whenever and however she needs me to.

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Have you signed up for Earth Hour 2008? Tomorrow night at 8 p.m., join the Earth Hour 2008 campaign and turn off your lights for one hour. In 2008, Earthhour.org hopes for a global effect–people across the world taking one small step towards reducing global warming:

Earth Hour will be taking place in over 20 cities around the world, and the list keeps growing. We always hoped that Earth Hour would grow into a global campaign. To start this process we focused on one of Australia’s, and the world’s iconic cities. Thanks to the success of Earth Hour in 2007 we’ve now asked other cities, both in Australia and abroad, to join us in supporting Earth Hour.

Tomorrow night, Green Mamma and the fam will be camping out with soy candles and no lights on (even our lamps with EFLs will be shut off). What will we do during our Earth Hour? For one thing, we’ll be joining over 270,000 other Earth Hour folks in making a difference in the efforts to protect our planet’s climate.

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At last, my love has come along,
My lonely days are over,
And life is like a song . . .

Maybe Etta James didn’t have high efficiency appliances in mind when she belted out her famous “At Last,” but oh boy, that’s what my heart was singing when the Sears truck arrived at my house. For two weeks now, I have rekindled a lost romance with my laundry.

And my high efficiency washer and dryer couldn’t have come at a better time. Last weekend Annabelle showed signs of yet another stomach virus, bleching the contents of her stomach all over me, my shirt and pants, and then of course, repeating the process, oh, about ten times. Needless to say but I’ll say it anyway, this stomach virus was creating a mess of laundry, and I was the champion green mamma who set out to conquer it.

After two days of a vomiting and diarrhea plagued child fighting her way to healthiness, my husband and I naively thought we were in the clear. But our recovering sick one made other messes. We are a co-sleeping family, a family of sleepers, who sometimes sleep, sometimes not (though probably more often than more conventional sleeping arrangements), and who sometimes awaken to a bed that needs a change of sheets.

But life is like a song with our new in-house high efficiency washer and dryer. I walk downstairs, load the washer, pour in a small, concentrated, and ecofriendly dose of high efficiency laundry detergent by Sun & Earth, press the “go” button, and voila, my dirty laundry gets clean the green way.

Now I want to share my dirty laundry with the whole world. Really. I do. I wish I could post the smell of my sheets here at Green Mamma. They smell that good and yes, it does feel good on my eco-conscience.

Thank you Sears. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Oh, and if you haven’t taken Sierra Club’s Green Laundry quiz, click here.

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Greenovate, a new Discovery Home Channel T.V. Series, documents how regular people make ecological choices to update and remodel their homes.  Episodes follow one household of greenovators as they take on home projects and go green.

This week I visited a real life greenovator, Anna (pictured above in her newly remodeled kitchen with her beautiful daughter Molly), who chose cork flooring for its sustainability as a resource and because it is soft underfoot.  Molly also reused old cabinetry from the kitchen in her laundry and mudroom, which not only is great for the environment but also allows for ample storage and organization.

Do you have a greenovating story to share?  Please do!  Leave a comment or e-mail me at GreenMamaDC@gmail.com.

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Yeah, you read right.  According to Yahoo’s Tech blog (via Computerworld), the U.S. Post Office is running a “Mail Back” program in ten cities, including Green Mama’s home city Washington, D.C.  Yahoo Tech explains:

“So here’s the deal: Just bring your old gadgets (handhelds, cell phones, MP3 players, and even inkjet cartridges - no 20″ CRTs or dead dot-matrix printers, unfortunately) to one of 1,500 participating post offices, seal them in preprinted, postage-paid envelopes (you can take as many envelopes as you want), and drop them in the mail.”

Your recycled technology is mailed to Clover Technologies Group,  who is partnering with the Post Office and who is promising to recycle, resell, or remanufacture all parts of your gadget so that nothing ends up in a landfill.

Oh, and if you didn’t catch it in the title, this program is free!  Check with your local post office to participate.

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Are you a baby wearer?  With the ever growing popularity of commercial carriers like Baby Bjorn, I see parents everywhere who are wearing their newborn, infant, and toddlers.  Since the first weeks of Annabelle’s life, I have worn her on my body.  I walked, swayed, danced, and sang to her in those early weeks as we spent time getting to know each other.  Eventually Annabelle’s growth and my desire to learn more about baby carriers brought me to a Babywearer’s meeting where I tried a wide range of baby carriers to see what we liked.

My first baby carrier was a Baby Bjorn, and while I enjoyed it for the first two months, once Annabelle reached ten pounds and the Bjorn straps dug into my shoulders, I needed more support.  I purchased a Mei Tai, which involved a bit of tying and balancing, which was certainly doable but awkward for an amateur baby wearer like I was.  Next I ordered an Ergo which has been my absolute favorite baby carrier.  My husband adores the Ergo too and even asks to wear it (and of course Annabelle too) when we go hiking or are traveling.

This week, Dr. Sears includes a great article about babywearing while traveling.   Dr. Sears discusses the practical advantages of babywearing during the multitude of scenarios that arise when we are traveling with our children.   Click here to read more.
My favorite baby wearing supplier is Jennie Paige, a work at home mom who owns Simply Slings.   Recently when my Ergo broke, Jennie was fast to respond and help me with replacing the broken part.  Left is a picture of me with Annabelle in our Ergo.

Baby wearing is not only a practical choice for travel and for getting to know your new baby, but baby wearing can be a wonderful activity that allows parents to continue with their day to day chores and adventures and offers babies and toddlers the opportunity to observe the world from their parents’ perspective.   Another bonus: Annabelle falls asleep more easily in our Ergo than she does in our strollers.  To learn more about baby wearing click here.  If you have baby wearing stories to share, please do!

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BPA-free bottles and cups are an obsession of mine.  Click here to read my review of sippy cups and here to read the latest Healthy Child Healthy World article about the effects of polycarbonate in our children’s bottles and cups.  From the article:

“While manufacturers argue that the exposures are too small to have any health impacts (their same old song and dance), studies are piling up linking BPA to breast cancer, testicular cancer, diabetes, hyperactivity, obesity, low sperm counts, miscarriage and a host of other reproductive failures in laboratory animals. It is also linked with immune system alterations, early puberty, developmental problems, insulin resistance, increased risk of type II diabetes, and hypertension.”

Also, as an update to my post last week about Nuby sippy cups by Luvncare, I received the following response from their daily supervisor of consumer relations Rebecca Jones:

With regards to your query, most of our products are made from polypropylene, which does not contain Bisphenol-A (BPA) and has a recycling code of # 5.  For those made of polycarbonate, the recycling code is #7.   Please note that while the polycarbonate products do contain Bisphenol-A, it is less than 20ppb (parts per billion), which has been determined by the FDA to be safe for human use.

Ms. Jones attached a list of Nuby products and whether or not they are BPA-free, but if you read closely, products with the #5 recycling code are BPA-free while those with the #7 recycling code are not.

My search for the perfect sippy cup continues but right now, Born Free is looking pretty good.

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