eco-lifestyles.org

  • Increase font size
  • Default font size
  • Decrease font size
Home Web Links Babies: Tips on Creating a Safe Home for Your Baby
Weblinks

A selection of links that are all related to raising a green baby.  We've combed the web for great articles on raising your newborn in a happy and healthy environment.  Topics include painting the nursery, diapers, home made baby food, earth-friendly baby clothes.
Display # 
# Web Link Hits
1   Link   Elements of a Green Baby Nursery
The most important aspect of green design for a newborn's environment is to reduce exposure to toxic chemicals as much as possible. A nontoxic nursery is especially important because newborns spend most of their life in the nursery--an average of 16 to 17 hours a day.

Article by: Debra Lynn Dadd
September 4, 2009 		50
2   Link   Your Guide To Green Living: Baby's Room
Your Guide To Green Living offers thought provoking suggestion form painting your baby's room with low-VOC (volatile organic compounds) or zero VOC paints, to perhaps not painting at all and using wall decals and photos. It also focuses your attention to bedding, furniture, flooring, cleaning products. It has many good external links like to the National Lead Information Center Hotline (www.epa.gov/lead/pubs/nlic.htm), the national Capital Poison Center (www.poison.org) and more helpful resources. 		63
3   Link   Better Basics for Your Baby's Room
Because babies are small and their immune, hormonal and nervous systems are still developing, environmental pollutants affect them more than they might an adult. And if you're pregnant, you should not sand, paint or apply finishes, because exposures to chemicals can affect the fetus.

The article recommends products for a baby's or child's room. Whether you check out or buy the products is up to you (always be a good consumer and make sure who you are buying from), but the information leading up to the recommendations are good.

For example:

"Most conventional mattresses are made from polyurethane foam, nylon, polyester and vinyl—all derived from petroleum—and are treated with anti-microbial and fire-, wetness- and stain-retarding chemicals, including polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PDBEs). These chemicals, which Europe has already banned two varieties of, accumulate in breast milk and in fat, and have been shown to inhibit brain development in animals. As alternatives, there are crib mattresses made with organic cotton, wool padding and natural rubber and without chemical treatments that can irritate skin or offgas into the air. Natural mattresses cost between $200 and $600, from www.nontoxic.com,www.abundantearth.com,and www.ecochoices.com."

Article written by Tracy Tullis
April 16, 2006 		58
4   Link   Green Kids are Happy Healthy Kids
Low Impact Living's Bi-Weekly Newsletter offers tips and advice from cloth vs disposable diapers to, carpeting (they suggest removing all the carpeting, to painting, to discussion of toys and organic cotton. This site, in addition to giving you tips, lets you know the issues (bacteria, pesticides, chemicals, fumes) you need to keep in mind as you prepare a room for your baby.

Low Impact Living, Inc. takes no responsibility for individual results, nor for service providers or products listed on their website. 		184
5   Link   US EPA: Information for Homeowners Working at Home
Information for Homeowners Working at Home is a pdf article available on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's website. Many sites about greening your baby's nursery link to this pdf on the EPA site.

A paragraph on the EPA site that links to it states the following:

"If you are a homeowner performing renovation, repair, or painting work in your own home, EPA's RRP rule does not cover your project. However, you have the ultimate responsibility for the safety of your family or children in your care. If you are living in a pre-1978 home and planning to do painting or repairs, please read a copy of EPA's Renovate Right: Important Lead Hazard Information for Families, Child Care Providers, and Schools (PDF) lead hazard information pamphlet (20 pp). You may also want to call the National Lead Information Center at 1-800-424-LEAD and ask for more information on how to work safely in a home with lead-based paint." 		46
6   Link   Childproofing a Baby's Room or Nursery
Although not specifically a green related article, Don Vandervort's Hometips.com website, gives good tips on the basic you should be aware of when baby proofing the nursery. 		253

Ponderings

"What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth.
This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth.
All things are connected like the blood that unites us all.
Man does not weave this web of life. He is merely a strand of it.
Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."
Chief Seattle (1786-1866)