As I’ve been shopping for the baby and the nursery, I am constantly hit over the head with words like “organic”, “green” and “natural.” And as much as I want to do what’s best for my baby, I have to wonder, am I going to make myself crazy in the process?
As far as my own approach to organic, after reading a particularly unsettling article with claims that there are some “not so good for you” ingredients in my formerly beloved face wash that shall remain unnamed, I’ve recently switched all of my facial cleaning products to Burt’s Bees because they are 99% natural and do not include sulfates, parabens, phthalates or petrochemicals- which are, apparently, not so good for you.
That’s one point for the baby and one for me!
I also buy mostly organic produce and mostly organic foods in general (and feel that these dietary changes I made while trying to get pregnant helped me get there). But I must confess that I’m definitely not saying no to M&M’s and other sweet and/or fattening food cravings right now.
1/2 point me, 1/2 point baby?
But I don’t wear organic clothes…
o points for me?
So do my baby’s clothes need to be organic? Need to be made from soy? Need to be natural? I can tell you that when I feel the organic onesies that currently hang in the nursery closet and then feel the regular cotton, the organic clothes are definitely much softer. But are they better for baby? Or the environment? Or both? And if I start buying organic now, do I have to continue for the rest of his or her life? I’m not sure I’m ready to make that kind of commitment when I can’t even decide what type of diapers I’m going to use.
I recently read an article about Tiffani Amber Thiessen and her beautiful eco-friendly nursery. (Before that, I hadn’t even considered the option of eco-friendly nursery furniture.) She even went so far as to install recycled floors! As much as I champion her for that, I can already tell you that we won’t be replacing our floors anytime soon…
And can we talk about the cost for a moment? You’re definitely paying for your eco-friendliness!
So what’s the answer? Go green or go home? Or can you pick and choose because some is better than none?
Lisa – Love this post, I vacillate over this topic all the time. I’m with you, I made the switch to mostly organic foods/produce/meats when I was trying to get pregnant with my daugher. I’m close with the skin care products, but even then I wonder if we don’t switch one bad ingredient for another. At the end of the day they have to preserve the product somehow, do they remove all the parabens and replace it with another preservative that might not be so great either? And how much of the whole “natural” thing is just marketing? (I say this but I’m a total sucker for their marketing anyways.)
My husband was teasing me the other night because the shampoo/body wash I use for our daughter’s baths was “70% Organic.” What does that even mean anyhow? And then I made us use the Chlorine Free/Natural diapers…Let’s just say there’s a lot of eye-rolling by my husband in our house…
Heather- I wonder about how much is marketing too- because some products in the grocery store that say “organic” aren’t….
And I totally understand the eye-rolling!
Yet another stellar post! I shared this blog on Facebook – you should add a “like” button to your blogposts.