When shopping for your family, you should consider that per pound of body weight, babies consume about 60 times more fruits and vegetables than adults. This fact combined with undeveloped digestive and immune systems, put young children at the greatest health risk for pesticide residues. To minimize the effects, you might consider buying organic for those foods that your children eat regularly.

Produce: Pesticides levels vary in produce. Here is a list of common fruits and veggies that are high in pesticide residues*. Because of the naturally high levels, you might consider buying organic for these foods:

Apples
Bell peppers
Celery
Cherries
Grapes (imported)
Nectarines
Peaches
Pears
Potatoes
Red Raspberries
Spinach
Strawberries

On the flip side, these fruits and veggies are commonly found to have the lowest levels of pesticide residues*

Asparagus
Avocados
Bananas
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Corn (sweet)
Kiwi
Mangos
Onions
Papayas
Pineapples
Peas (sweet)
*Source: The Environmental Workers Union

The key when encouraging your child to become more environmentally friendly is to make it fun and interesting. If you are creative then they will get involved and are more likely to remember what you have said! The earlier you start the better so take a look at the tips outlined below for a few ideas!

• Invent games! Children love to play games and can relate to them so hiding a message in the game is a great way to get the green message through. For example, you could play I-Spy with green items within the house or paint wildlife… anything that you can think of to get the ball rolling!

• Encourage them to decorate their own rooms with old furniture! They can paint it and alter it themselves as long as they use green items only.

• When you are eliminating things you no longer need and organizing the stuff you have, send them on a treasure hunt. Encourage them to figure out which toys they don’t want any more so other boys and girls can have them, nothing goes to waste.

• Get them to help in your vegetable patch! Give them a patch of their own to nurture so that they can watch the plants grow and feel proud of themselves.

• Involve them in household recycling. It gives them a little responsibility and teaches them about recycling at the same time.

• Buy your children a bike from an early age and take them to the local shops on it regularly. This is much better than driving there and will be fun for them as well.

• Join a local environmental group with your children. There are community groups that are designed for parents and small children and they are of real value when encouraging your children to go green.

• Get creative! Encourage your children to make toys and games from recycled materials and birthday cards for family members from old cards that you have previously received.

All of these activities will engage your children and allow them to see that being environmentally friendly is actually a lot of fun. They will soon be environmental converts for life!

Homemade green baby lotion is kind to the skin and cheap to make as well because it only requires a few household ingredients. It is free of toxins and chemicals as it is 100% completely natural and extremely kind to baby’s soft skin! There are several recipes floating around out there to choose from, but here are just two of the best and most effective ones to try.

1. The Honey Milk Baby Lotion – Now we all know that honey is good for the skin and can leave it smooth and soothe irritated areas, which is why it is perfect for a baby over 12 months of age. It’s not recommended for  babies younger than 12 months because they can be susceptible to potentially harmful bacteria’s found in honey which can lead to Infant Botulism. For a lotion that you can refrigerate and use for up to a week, you will need ½ cup of honey and ½ cup of cream or milk (with the former being a better option). Poor the honey into the milk in a saucepan over a medium heat and stir until the two are completely blended. Allow the mixture to stand for five minutes before placing in a glass jar with a lid and refrigerating. When completely cool, it will be ready to use!
2. The Lavender Baby Lotion – Again, this one will soothe irritated skin, but it will also protect the skin against further wetness and hold moisture in the skin. Mix 225g of petroleum jelly with nine teaspoons of olive oil, thirty drops of lavender oil and the same amount of chamomile. You do not have to heat this at all, but simply mix it in a bowl. You may want to use a fork to mix because it does take some blending but always needs mixing by hand to ensure all ingredients are thoroughly blended. Again, refrigerate for a few hours and then use on your child. It will keep for up to two weeks so be sure to store it properly in the fridge.

Both of these homemade baby lotion recipes will help to keep diaper rash at bay and bring it under control. Both recipes are cheap convenient and extremely green so you have nothing to lose by trying them!

The majority of them are harmful to the environment and can be harmful to your children, especially newborn babies. This is not just some scary story to try to encourage you to buy another product. A truth is that your current cleaning products are no more effective than homemade products that can be made in just a few moments with natural ingredients. In fact, those natural ingredients are often to be found in your home anyway. Lemon juice is a prime example.

You can protect your children and the environment by using the following recipes and tips to create your own cleaning solutions and save money at the same time!

• For an all-purpose cleaner, mix 125mls of pure soap with four litres of boiling water and stir well. Add 60mls of lemon juice to the solution and stir. Use the solution while it is still warm for an intensive clean. You can then bottle what is left over and use it as a spray.

• Baking soda is effective for cleaning carpets and scouring surfaces. To clean carpets, simply sprinkle baking soda over the area that you want to clean and leave it for an hour or so before vacuuming it up. This will bring any dirt and stain right out. For scouring, mix baking soda with an equal amount of pure soap and use a scrubbing brush. Baking soda is extremely effective for all sorts of household cleaning chores. It works as an oven cleaner and a bathroom cleaner when used with a damp sponge. It’s the one item that you must have at home for a cleaning solution!

• If you want to freshen the air in your home and introduce nice smells then adorn your home with plants. All air fresheners have a chemical component that coats you nasal passages instead of removing the existing smells. Plants do exactly the opposite and enhance your home as a result!

• Use vinegar to clean your windows. You literally only need a little vinegar to polish up the glass and remove lingering dirt. Vinegar also works to cut through greasy pots and pans and remove lingering stains on carpets. Lemon juice also works for these purposes but vinegar is slightly more efficient.

So there you have it! You can clean your home from top to bottom with household natural products and protect your children from the harmful effects of various chemicals at the same time, not to mention that you will save an awful lot of money this way!

Most babies will have their first meconium bowel movement within 24 hours of birth, and may have several before the poop changes to a yellow color. The meconium is sticky and tar like and will generally come out in large amounts, larger than the bowel movements will be after the baby gets rid of the meconium. Unlike later bowel movements, the meconium is normally scentless, making the stickiness be the biggest obstacle for new parents.

Sometimes however a baby will pass his first meconium while still in the womb, before the mother-to-be’s water breaks. If this happens the amniotic fluid will be tinted green. In many cases of hospital births where the baby has passed meconium before birth, a special NICU team will be called when the baby is delivered in case there was ingestion of the meconium into the baby’s lungs.

If a newborn does swallow some meconium it can lead to Meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS). While it is estimated that 5%-20% of newborns pass meconium in utero, only 5%-10% of those cases result in MAS. The newborn passing meconium prior to delivery occurs most often in postdate births. It can also be caused by fetal stress during the pregnancy or during labor and delivery.

If the meconium is ingested into the baby’s lungs, three things can occur to the baby; however it does not always happen. Only a third of infants who ingest meconium need breathing assistance. The things that may occur include:

• blockage of airways
• lower gas exchange in lungs
• inflamed airways leading to pneumonia

While it is almost impossible to prevent your baby from passing meconium in utero, it should be comforting to know that it is a common occurrence that most doctors and midwives know of and can properly react too during your labor and the birth of your baby.