Bringing another human being into the world is a huge commitment and a unique opportunity. Your eco-habits displayed from birth can serve as a template for a lower impact life. To rock the green cradle, waddle over to Planet Green's "How to Go Green: Babies."
Top Tips for Greening Your Baby
Diaper Dilemma: As you read this, some 95% of babies in America are doing their baby thing while wearing disposable diapers. This results in 18 billion dirty diapers tossed out each year –comprising 5% of landfill waste. Of course, washing cloth diapers takes water, energy, chemicals, and time. If only we could have diaper-free babies.
Breastfeeding: There's no controversy: breastfeeding is the way to go. But this doesn't mean all is green. New mothers can opt for re-usable organic cotton instead of disposable breast pads, and locally produced olive oil or organic lanolin works fine as nipple cream. If and when bottle-feeding becomes a factor, pumping your own is the first choice followed by a fair-trade organic infant formula.
Green Surroundings: Every step of the way—food, toys, clothes, furniture, cleaners, and more—provides an opportunity to introduce healthier, greener options into your child's life. Again, this not only lessens the massive carbon footprint of a new human being but it also has the potential to shape that new human being's future choices.
Did You Know?
* The average baby uses 6000 diapers before potty training
* 49 million disposable diapers are used per day in the United States
* It takes petroleum-based disposable diapers 200 to 500 years to decompose
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Related: Raising Green Kids
very nicely written...
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