Going Green

Yesterday evening as we finished up our bath, pjs, story and bedtime routine I felt relief and pride knowing I had just tucked our two squeaky clean gems in for the night. We made it through another day of spills, tantrums, giggles, lessons, ups and downs without any major incidents. Everyone was sent off to dreamland in one piece again tonight. As I curled up on the couch with my mobile tablet in hand prepared for an evening's worth of reviews, research and writing I came across an article that will forever change my family's life:



"Johnson & Johnson Baby Shampoo Still Contains Cancer-Causing Chemicals: Report"
(Read the full article here)

Visions of my little ones playing in a tub full of bubbles and suds just moments earlier made my heart jump. These sweet images now made me nauseaus thinking they may have been soaking in toxins and poison. Okay, okay...I consider myself a pretty rational person so I brushed away these scary thoughts and decided it best that I get all the facts before jumping to conclusions.

In a nutshell, J&J isn't purposely pouring poison into the bottles of their well known yellow baby wash. The poisons aren't actual ingredients but rather an offset or byproduct from the manufacturing stage. You can find a list here of ingredients to look for on your labels at home: http://cancer.about.com/od/cancerfactsandstatistics/a/baby_products.htm
It also discusses the frequency of using these products in relation to the probability of them having long term negative effects on your child. Keep in mind these shampoos, washes, etc are still approved by the FDA and they don't seem to have plans of pulling them from shelves any time soon. J&J notes they are gradually reducing known possible carcinogens in their products and they do have natural options available but it will take time to overhaul the rest of their line. Johnson's isn't the only company to list these concerning ingredients on their labels. A few others were Aveeno, L'Oreal, Huggies and so on....

Needless to say this was enough to put a little scare into me. I fully admit I ran upstairs to check the myriad of J&J products lining our bathroom counter and tub. I found several that listed these "no-no" add ins. Right to the garbage... Of course what you choose to expose your child to and how great a risk you are willing to take based on the evidence of several studies is completely and totally every parent's personal and private decision and right. I can only tell you that in our home we have decided maybe its time for a change.

Which leads me to greener living...

We've decided to make small changes as a whole to begin our new path to a healthier, safer and greener future. For starters we have decided on, what we consider, safer alternatives to more popular baby products for our family. I have found two really nice options among the various others you can find (some more affordable than others...) Live Clean is a Canadian based company with amazing and affordable products for the whole family. Best of all you can find it at most major retailers. I also found a Swedish based company, Arbonne. Another option which is sold through independent consultants or online. I found loads of other companies that looked to have wonderful products too but I have yet to try them.

Next we've decided to try our hand at homemade baby wipes. Cheaper and more natural these wipes can save us oodles of money and I feel confident knowing what I am putting on baby's skin is safe because I made them! (check the My DIY section for recipe!)


Finally, we plan to reduce our waste and negative environmental impact by using organic or homemade cleaning products, reducing energy consumption, cutting down on fuel driven transportation and re-evaluate our "need" for all the lastest and greatest flashy extras.

Green? I think its a color that looks good on our family!