Mommy Goes Green

For months, my daughter has asked to paint her toenails because all her friends had theirs done – the peer pressure at age 3!  I’ve denied her because I didn’t want her fresh little feet getting a dose of chemically induced colors.  For her 3rd birthday, I succumbed to the pressure and we got pedicures together.  It was a really special time and one I totally look forward to again, especially now because we have PIGGY PAINT!

My girlfriends are so sweet – they know I’m getting all green and eco-friendly these days and have been blessing me (and my family) with some great green finds (more to come on that soon).  This particular girlfriend got my daughter Piggy Paint for her birthday and we are loving it!

Piggy Paint is designed especially for little girl’s toes – although it would work perfectly on any mama’s toes, too!  It’s free of all the yucky chemicals that other polishes have ( formaldehyde, tolulene, phthalates, etc.) and comes in a bunch of fun colors.  They also have a great polish remover and is acetone and solvent free.

Now you can feel good about painting your piggy’s toes – I do!  For you moms looking for better nail polish choices, check out this post about Nail Polish au Naturale.

Don’t forget to vote for Mommy Goes Green in The Bump Mommy Blog Awards – Favorite Eco-Friendly Blog!

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My daughter’s preschool class recently had a lice outbreak so it’s been on the top of my mind lately.  Luckily, only one child caught it but I was prepared with all of my natural treatment options, just in case.  I recently wrote about several natural lice treatment options and have come across another from Dr. Greene, a well known pediatrician and professor at Stanford.

Apply Cetaphil to wet hair and heat with a hair dryer to create a ‘shrink wrap’ film over the head.  Eight hours later, wash out the film with your regular shampoo.  This will remove the lice but not the eggs to repeat the process one time per week for 3 weeks to make sure you are able to get rid of all of them.

According to Dr. Greene, a 2004 study in the “Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics” noted that this treatment cured lice in 96% of children who used it.

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I went to a local spa wellness seminar and came away with some great DIY tips for body and face.  I tried out this sugar scrub recipe, all with ingredients out of your cupboard!  

• 1/2 c – brown sugar
• 1/2 c – raw sugar
• a couple shakes of cinnamon
• a couple drops of vanilla
• pour olive oil over the ingredients and mix until everything is wet

It smells so yummy – I used it all over my body and GENTLY on my face and they were heavenly soft all day!  This amount will last for months and would be a great gift idea, just put in some cute jars and label!

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Yet another reason to throw away your Johnson’s Baby Shampoo ( and a whole bunch of other conventional baby shampoo! ).  The Journal of the Dermatology Nurses’ Association has release research that a chemical preservative may cause increased rates of allergic contact dermatitis, an inflammation of the skin that varies from mild irritation to rashes and open sores.

According to the press release, the paper states that quaternium 15, a chemical preservative that kills bacteria by releasing formaldehyde, “is the most sensitizing formaldehyde-releasing preservative and has been repeatedly shown to be a strong allergen that can cause contact dermatitis.” Quaternium 15 — used in many baby products including Johnson’s Baby Shampoo, Mr. Bubble Bath and Huggies Baby Wash — is considered by the North American Contact Dermatitis Group to be among the most clinically significant contact allergens in children.

“Quaternium 15 is present in an alarmingly high number of baby products, making exposure and sensitization at an early age increasingly common,” said Sharon Jacob, M.D., co-author of the paper and physician at the Department of Medicine and Pediatrics at Rady Children’s Hospital. “This is a concern because repeated exposures to sensitizing chemicals, especially in early life, can cause a person to develop allergic reactions over time. Therefore, we advise parents to choose products without quaternium 15 and other formaldehyde-releasing preservatives whenever possible.”

If you need to find a safer shampoo for your kids, check out Aubrey Organics, California Baby, Earth Mama Angel Baby and TruKid.   We use TruKid products at home and I’m really happy with them.    SafeMama has compiled a fantastic detailed list of products that you can download for reference. You can find many of these products in the Mommy Goes Green SHOP.

Also, I noticed during my last visit to our local hospital that the newborns are washed in Johnson’s Baby Shampoo – I will definitely be welcoming our baby into the world with my own safer shampoo – so if you have a baby on the way, bring your own shampoo and body wash!

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For readers from Oregon …..

Spa Willamina, a Portland, Oregon spa, is hosting a FREE five week wellness series – I missed this week’s seminar but plan to attend some of the future classes.  Spa Willamina is owned by Willow Light, she has over 20 years experience in holistic health as a certified nutritionist, trained massage therapist, herbalist and a licensed senior Esthetician. In her practice she’s treated over 10,000 clients. Sunset Magazine recently called her spa, “the best in the west” and called Light the “all natural spa queen.”   Spa Willamina has amazing reviews and I can’t wait to see what all the fuss is about!

September 22nd: “Simple Solutions to Anti-Aging”

Light will offer food ideas to fight free radicals. She’ll offer rejuvenating home made facial and mask recipes, and discuss natural alternatives to cosmetic surgery.

September 29th: “Food for Good Health”

Light will offer insight as to how basic foods can heal and protect the body. She will let participants know how to find inexpensive organic products, and will offer easy-to-make healthy recipes.

October 6th: “Meditation for Relaxation and Manifestation”

Light will offer insight about what meditation can do for the mind and body to alleviate stress. She will offer a step by step guided meditation and visualization for novices.

October 13th: “Home Made Wellness Gifts; In time for the Holidays”

Using Light’s 20 year old recipes, she will show the participants how to make home made bath salts, body oils, body balms, and love potions for loved ones for the holidays.

Each class will begin promptly at 5:30pm and will run for approximately 45 minutes at Spa Willamina’s headquarters in NE Portland. The doors will be open at 5pm for wine, chocolate and conversation prior to the class. The class will be limited to 20 people. Pre-registration is required.  For more information about the speaker’s series, and to register for one or more of the classes, please call Spa Willamina at 503-287-2787.

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