Confessions of an organic mom who is sometimes normal

The last month or so has been a bit rough for our family.  Beautiful Organic Boy #2 (BOB2) has been unwell, primarily with infected eczema, which means that none of us has been getting much sleep, and since he wasn't sleeping unless one of us was holding him, we weren't getting much else done either.  I have a few posts planned about the whole saga, and how to stay as natural & organic as possible while navigating the conventional medical paradigm, but for now I wanted to share some quick thoughts on my recent revelations.  I have so much more appreciation now for what life must be like for families with chronically unsettled/unwell babies, or people who are carers around the clock.  It's hard work and you have very little time to look after yourself, just getting a moment to brush your teeth or wash your hair is a challenge.  That's why I've taken to wearing outfits that can go from bed to school drop off and back to bed a few more times without having to be changed (just reapply a bit of organic deodorant).

It's also hard to take the time and have the mental clarity to research and purchase the safest products for your family while being a full time carer for someone who is unwell.  I have to confess that I've done the following things in the last few weeks that I never thought I would.  They probably seem pretty normal to some of you, but for me it was a real insight into what life is like for people who are really busy/stressed/over-worked etc.  I realize now how much my lovely organic lifestyle has been made possible because of having the luxury of time (by working part time from home) to research and procure the safest products (or find ways to consume less but that require more time/effort).

So here are my confessions:
1.  I bought a pack of Huggies diapers (actually my husband did) because it was too much trouble to find a shop with the eco-friendly ones in stock.
2.  We bought a clothes dryer, which is being delivered this week hopefully.
3.  I bought some beef that wasn't organic because I couldn't get to the organic butcher (and it was really yummy).
4.  I used some petroleum-based skin care products on my baby because he was reacting badly to all of the natural/organic ones :-(
5.  I drove places that I could have easily walked to because I was too tired/didn't have time/couldn't be bothered.

PS: I've also taken to peeing in the shower lately, as it saves time and it's hard to pee when you're always holding a sick baby.  But I don't have to add that to my list of confessions since I reckon it's pretty eco-friendly, saving water and all...

Why I love Miessence Organic Products - as recommended by the Good Guide

I am so excited about this Newsweek article on how to choose the greenest products listing Miessence as the best Shampoo and Toothpaste in the whole world (or at least of those brands available in the US).

The Newsweek article was actually about the Good Guide website that helps you choose products based on three criteria: health, environment and society. Not surprisingly, Miessence rated very well in every category that it has products, and was rated the #1 brand for shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, makeup, lip balm, diaper cream, air freshener, baby powder, skin care, hand dish-washing liquid, and many others too I'm sure.

Another reason to love them is that after being one of the first companies in Australia to go carbon neutral, Miessence is now carbon negative :-)

Interestingly, the Newsweek article mentioned the top brands for shampoo and toothpaste, but chose to focus on the top brands for Men's deodorant, as opposed to deodorant overall, thus cutting out all the top ranked products (which happened to be from natural/organic brands like Miessence, Burt's Bees, Aubrey Organics, Tom's, Weleda etc) in favor of the conventional brands such as Fa, AXE, Degree, Mitchum and Ban.

I can't help but wonder if any of those brands (or their parent companies, such as Henkel KGaA, Unilever, Revlon, and Kao) are regular advertisers with Newsweek... I can't get the US version of Newsweek in Australia, so perhaps some of my readers could have a look and let me know?

I'm curious...

I recently came across this article from Reuters which states that the average UK woman wears 515 chemicals a day. Whilst this is scary, it does not surprise me at all. What did surprise me however, was the bit where it says that:

"More than 70 percent of the women polled said they were not concerned about the number of chemicals they put on their skin and only one in 10 opted for chemical-free toiletries when shopping."

I'm curious... if you're one of the 70% who is not concerned about the chemicals you put on your skin, and you happen to be reading my blog, can you please leave a comment and let me know why you're not concerned? Is it because you've never really thought about it? Because you've always assumed that the government wouldn't let the products be sold if they weren't safe? Because you're not eating the products the chemicals won't be absorbed into your body? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

And if you are in the sub-category of people who are concerned about the chemicals you are putting on your skin, but you are still not opting for natural or organic toiletries then I'd also love to hear from you... is it too hard? Too expensive? Don't know where to find safe products? Don't know which products are safe?

I spend so much time preaching to the converted, I'd love to engage with people who aren't necessarily looking for the certified organic logo on everything they buy. What do you care about? What's important to you? What would you like to know more about?

how to get pregnant

For us getting pregnant was a journey that started two years before our son was born, when I bought the book The Natural Way to Better Babies: Preconception Health Care for Prospective Parents by Francesca Naish and Janette Roberts. The book was also published in America as Healthy Parents, Better Babies: A Couple's Guide to Natural Preconception Health Care. Around the same time, my Mother-in-law gave me a copy of The Chemical Maze, which is published in the USA as Eat Safe: The Truth about Additives from Aspartame to Xanthan Gum. Together these two books changed my life more than any others. I already thought I was being pretty green and healthy with my lifestyle choices, but this was my wake up call that a lot of products I was using in my house and on my body were not safe for me or the planet, especially not if I wanted to conceive and give birth to a healthy baby.

When I actually started reading all the ingredients (or tracking down the ingredients when they weren't listed) I found that I had to get rid of about 90% of what I was using. It took me a whole year to find effective replacements for all the synthetic chemicals in my life... I threw out mountains of personal care products and had to find a safe way to dispose of most of my cleaning products. It was during this year that I tried everything on offer in every health shop in Melbourne (not a cheap exercise). I found a few brands that stood up to my new criteria, ie nothing toxic. This is harder than you might think. Most of the products that claimed to be "green", "natural" or "organic" were mostly the same old chemicals dressed up with a couple of new ingredients, ie greenwashing. I had to educate myself as a consumer, and learn how to read a label and de-code all the ingredient names. I checked everything against the Chemical Maze (you can download a free excerpt of it here).

I was not being crazy, I was just a bit ahead of my time. Since then (five years ago) there have been many more books and articles published on how chemicals can decrease our fertility and increase our chances of health problems after exposure in the womb. Just this week Newsweek published an article on how exposure to chemicals (including BPA) as babies can make us fat later in life. And Gabriela Rosa has written books like The Awful Truth About Cleaning Products And Fertility Revealed and Protecting Your Fertility.

The concept of pre-conception health care has become so mainstream in the last five years that now even major pharmaceutical companies such as Bayer, which makes Elevit and Menevit, has published a booklet on how to boost your fertility. Amazingly, they have included a paragraph on "going natural" which states that naturopathy, acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicines, homeopathy, and hypnotherapy have all had reported successes in helping couples get pregnant. I can vouch for that, we did everything (except the hypnotherapy, but we used that for childbirth!) and we got pregnant the first time we tried, but of course that was after four months of detoxing, and a whole year of research and preparation before that. Normally I wouldn't recommend trying so many different tactics, but there's no harm done here (except for the cost) because all of these things (especially the detox) will help your general health and wellbeing, even if you could have gotten pregnant without doing it all.

The other things which have become more mainstream (and are recommended by Bayer) are to stop not just smoking, but to also give up alcohol and caffeine before you start trying. They point out that high caffeine intake can stop a fertilized egg implanting. It's not just women who have to cut out the bad stuff, it goes for men too, caffeine can increase sperm DNA damage and smoking and alcohol also reduce sperm quality. This is not some crazy health-nut idea, this is a major multi-national pharmaceutical company telling you this: if you're thinking about getting pregnant, or having trouble getting pregnant, then try cutting out alcohol, cigarettes and caffeine. I would add to that to replace all of your household and personal products with safe, natural, certified organic versions, such as miessence and Seventh Generation. It also helps to eat fresh, local, organic whole foods, sleep well, get plenty of exercise, fresh air and good sleep. Stress can actually play as big a part in (not) getting pregnant as anything else I've mentioned. So make some big changes, but try not to stress about them :-) Your body, your baby and the planet will thank you!

pink for boys and blue for girls?

All that talk about saving money on kids clothes by buying them second hand went out the window last week when I drove across town (at least I carpooled with a fellow Mom) to visit the bi-annual PureBaby Warehouse sale. This is a Melbourne institution that sees posh Mums from all over town converging on a seedy alley-way in Collingwood and jostling with their designer prams for first place in line to grab up organic cotton baby clothes at target prices. It's the last day today, so if you live in Melbourne, and have a baby, or are planning a baby, or know anyone having a baby (they make great gifts) I'd head over to 135 Cromwell St, Collingwood before 5pm today (Sunday).

Even if you don't live in Melbourne, you can be sure to look out for ebay being flooded with reasonably priced purebaby goodies over the next few weeks and months. I don't have any financial interest in purebaby (I wish I did!), I'm just an addict. Half my son's wardrobe is from purebaby, (although I'm struggling now since they only make clothes up to size 2, but they do make pjs in bigger sizes), sourced only from the warehouse sales (I would never pay retail), and it's one of the main sources of my gifts for friends who have babies (along with the miessence certified organic baby care range). I stock up once or twice a year, with an adequate supply of pink, blue and gender neutral colors so that I'm prepared for the multitude of babies being born amongst my cohort.

Did you know that it wasn't until the 1950s that pink became associated with girls, and blue for boys?

"There has been a great diversity of opinion on the subject, but the generally accepted rule is pink for the boy and blue for the girl. The reason is that pink being a more decided and stronger color is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl." [Ladies Home Journal, June, 1918]

This time I even bought a few (gender neutral) newborn outfits for the baby we're planning for next year (more on that soon!).

quicky on organic cotton, safe bath products and preconception detox

ok, so the results of my poll were a three-way tie, so I'll do a quicky on all three... more to come when I have time (when will that be???).

Organic Cotton: good for you, good for the environment, good for the workers in the cotton fields... it's softer... what more do you need to know???? Baby clothes, blankets, towels, wash cloths, bedding, stuffed animals, furniture, tampons, you name it, you can find an organic cotton version of it... for example, I just searched for organic cotton on Amazon and found everything from organic cotton broccoli (seriously, I've attached a picture in case you don't believe me), to organic cotton gloves.

Regarding safe bath products for baby... the safest product is water, and most babies don't need anything else for the first year... even then they really don't need much. If you absolutely must use a shampoo or bubble bath, then I recommend miessence desert flower shampoo and sunflower body wash (doubles as a bubble bath). Yes, I sell them, and I hate recommending things I sell, lest you think I am being biased, but I really, honestly, cannot think of anything else to recommend, that I would be willing to use on my son (besides just plain water).

Finally, and I am running out of steam here... pre-conception detox is a vital way to ensure that your health (and your partner's health) is in optimal condition to conceive, and that you give your baby the best start in life. It involves changing your diet (cutting out sugar, caffeine, alcohol, dairy, wheat etc) cleaning out your home environment (cleaning products, personal care products etc) and removing sources of stress and anxiety in your life. A fantastic book on this is called Natural Way to Better Babies it's also published as "Healthy Parents, Better Babies". A great starting point. More on this later, I promise!

I don't shower every day, and I wash my hair even less!

I can't remember the last time I had a shower... maybe it was Monday (today is Thursday). I am definitely due for one, and I'm going to have one shortly, but I doubt if I'll wash my hair... since I have discovered the best thing for my hair is something that has been sitting in my shower for years... Dr Bronner's Baby Mild certified organic liquid soap. I never would have thought to wash my hair with it, and have been busy washing my hair with the organic shampoo that I sell on my site (which is great, but costs $20/bottle), until my mom recently mentioned that she had started using dr bronners on her hair when she ran out of shampoo, and found that it worked better than shampoo, and she didn't need conditioner. Since hearing that I've tried it myself, and I've found that not only does it work better than shampoo, but I can wash my hair even less frequently, which is great, because I have lots of better ways to spend my time than washing my hair!

While I do love having a nice long, hot shower, there are a number of environmental reasons why this is not good, especially since I live in Australia, where we are in the middle of a drought, so I don't like wasting water. I find that the longer I have been using natural, organic personal care products, the less I have to shower. I think that the build-up of petrochemicals and other nasties in the lotions and potions I was using was part of what made me feel "dirty" every day. Now that I use minimal products (all organic) I feel cleaner longer. That being said, it really is time to take a shower!

my old mantra - buy less, spend more

Thanks to my Mom for forwarding an article in The Age (my local paper, which she reads online from the other side of the world) titled "A new mantra - buy less, spend more". This is actually my old mantra... my new mantra is don't buy; borrow, freecycle, buy second hand, buy local, buy organic, etc.

The article talks about how some people are buying less things, but spending more money on experiences and quality items (how I used to be before I quit my job) and others are buying as little as possible, basically just food, toiletries and medicines... this is the direction I'm heading in... I am only buying new clothes for me and my family if they are made from organic cotton or bamboo, and mostly buying second hand clothes and using hand-me-downs. I do spend a lot of money on organic food and organic personal care and health products, but I figure all the money I save on not buying other things helps me to afford more organic things that are actually going into and on my body and my family's bodies. This also means that we are healthier and don't have to spend money on medicine! I'm still spending money supporting and enjoying the arts, and helping charities, and on things like education, travel, and books, but I'm traveling less and using the library more!

More on all this soon...