My friend is a lot like me, and I thought, "What would I want for my baby shower?" I quickly realized that articles I've read about toxic ingredients in food, BPA in baby bottles, pesticides being found in breast milk, etc.-- all that stuff had stayed filed away in my brain. I realized I would want the gifts my friend's give me to enable me to take good care of my baby, and to do that in as safe a way as possible. I just feel like babies and kids nowadays are exposed to a lot more dangerous chemicals than I was as a child, and a lot more early!
What tripped the whole machine in motion, was seeing a gorgeous, wooden baby rattle on etsy.com. Handmade, dyed with fruit juices, and treated with beeswax and flax seed oil. Incredible. I would feel safe letting my teething baby chomp on this!
And so, off I went, to research products for this big gift project. My main reference site was Skin Deep's Cosmetics Database, which rates commercial products on a scale of 0 to 9, with 9 being the worst for you, by looking at whether or not it contains harmful ingredients (i.e. ingredients which are known to be cancer-causing, or cause neurological and/or reproductive damage), and if so, in what concentration. My goal was to put together a basket of baby products that all scored 0 or 1, to give the mamma-to-be another option besides the normal Baby Magic that we all grew up with (which, btw, scores a 6 in the database!)
Some of the products with the best scores were harder to find. I was glad I had the time to deal with orders that were canceled due to no stock. I also had time to shop around for price. And, even though these particular products were obviously not rated by Skin Deep, I was able to find homemade products on etsy which contained the same ingredients as some of the best-scoring items on Skin Deep.
Here is the result:
Here is what the basket contained:
Aveeno Baby Soothing Bath Treatments (available at Target and lots of places)
Dr. Bronner's Castile Liquid Soap - Baby Mild
Poofy Organics Baby Poof Baby Lotion score: 0 And it actually has an expiration date! (UPDATE: Now that the baby is here, mama swears by this lotion to soothe her brand-new baby's peely skin.)
All Natural Creations Baby Bottom Salve score: 0 And cheap! I ordered two. ;)
Baby Powder from Rainwater Botanicals Talcum powder is really bad for baby's developing lungs!
Kiddopotamous Organic Cotton Swaddler (from Target)
Organic Cotton Crib Sheets (from Amazon)
Organic Cotton Receiving Blanket from Lovely Lou Organics
Pacifier Clips (3) from Bare Bebe (Gorgeous! And packaged so prettily!)
Book: "Organic Baby: Simple Steps For Healthy Living" (I found it, randomly, at Tuesday Morning! Bought one for myself, too.)
For the house:
Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds Liquid Soap
Seventh Generation All-Purpose Cleaner, Free & Clear
All Free detergent (there was a definite consensus among the natural mommy blogs that this detergent was by far the best!)
For Mama:
Earth Mama Angel Baby Bottom Balm (I thought I was buying the kind for baby! Oops! Oh, well.)
Pregnancy Tea and Sitz Bath from Flying Bird Botanicals (UPDATE: The mama was amazed at the pregnancy tea. It had ALL of the herbs that her doula had recommended to her to help with the pregnancy.) (UPDATE: Now that the baby is here, mama told me that the sitz bath was just the thing to soothe her new baby and her own body, in the bath together.)
And the wood rattle, of course. :)
