You can eat local in November and December
Nov 6, 2007 Environment, Miscellaneous, Resources
Many people associate eating local produce with the summer months: the days are long, there are fresh fruits and veggies galore, and you can buy produce directly from farmers at your local farmers’ market, or at the very least at your local grocer, with little effort. However come fall, winter and spring, eating local increasingly becomes a challenge as farmers’ markets wrap up and many stores strip their shelves of local produce in favor of items imported from around the world. To help spread the word about local produce, Get Local BC has put together a seasonal produce chart (PDF) which lists what British Columbia produce is available during a given month. The following is the list of local produce available during November and December:
Apples, Beets, Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Chanterelles, Chard, Garlic, Honey, Kale, Kiwis, Lobster Mushrooms,Yellow Onions, Oilseeds, Parsnips, Pears, Potatoes, Shittake Mushrooms, Spinach, Sprouts, Truffles, Winter Squash, Red Fife Wheat, Cucumbers, Eggplant, Peppers, Tomatoes, Eggs, Dairy Products, Beef, Chicken, Turkey, Pork, Ostrich, Pacific Halibut, Pacific Cod, Dungeness Crab, Side Strip Shrimp, Spot Prawns, Pacific Sardines, Clams, Oysters, Mussels.
Finding local produce is not as hard as you may think: this Saturday marks the start of Vancouver’s Winter Farmers Market, which runs every second and fourth Saturday until the end of April at the Wise Hall (1882 Adanac Street at Victoria Drive). Maybe we’ll see you there!
Cloth Diapering – Why?
Nov 6, 2007 Environment, Family life, Gear, Less toxic, Resources
The number one reason why people don’t use cloth diaper is probably that they don’t know enough about them and they think they are awfully complicated to use… It sure is the first thing that came to my mind when I first considered diapers. I will address that concern later in the – How? sequel to this post, but I decided to start with the main reasons why people do use cloth diapers: money, environment and health.
Cloth diapers cost less than disposables. Sure, there is an initial investment involved, and it can seem quite costly if you purchase good quality diapers (which will pay off later, because if you buy cheap ones, you may not stick to it and they will have little resale value when you get sick of them). For instance, we bought about $600 worth of diapers when preparing for the arrival of our baby. You need to put the money upfront, but it’s nothing compared to the cost of disposables, especially if you plan on having more than one child. According to some sources, disposable diapers and wipes cost around $2000 over the life of one child. Of course, you have to factor laundry and reusable washcloths into the cloth diaper equation. The estimates I have seen added another $400 for laundry. You are still at about half the cost of disposables. That’s really straightforward! A diaper service is more expensive and can get close to the price of disposables, but most estimates still put them a bit cheaper. And there is a large market for second hand reusable diapers if your stash is still in good condition when you are done with diapering.
The number two reason, which was number one for us, is environmental factors. Some people disagree with that, saying that if you factor in the water needed for laundry, rinsing diapers or flushing diaper liners, the harsh soap and bleach needed, etc., cloth is not any better than disposables. But after doing a lot of research, I disagree. First, you don’t need bleach or harsh soap. We use an environmental, biodegradable, phosphate-free detergent, and very little of it, and our diapers are perfectly clean. Also, even if it is true that cloth diapers need quite a bit of water (although there are several ways to save on that front too), it is too easy to forget that water is also needed to manufacture disposable diapers. How much? Well, that’s the catch: the numbers most people use are provided by disposable diapers manufacturers, which are a doubtful source, to say the least. And you still need to factor in all the other resources needed to manufacture thousands of disposable diapers as opposed to only a few dozens of cloth ones (you can further reduce the impact of those by buying organic cotton or bamboo diapers). Finally, there is the issue of disposing of the diapers. They fill up the landfill, they pollute tremendously (it is actually illegal to dispose of human waste in garbage, but who actually washes poop off from disposables?), they don’t break down at all, and even so-called biodegradable disposables won’t actually degrade since they will be nicely packaged in plastic garbage bags and stuck in the middle of a landfill.
But even if cloth diapers were not actually better for the environment than disposable ones, there would still be the issue of health. Disposable diapers are full of toxic chemicals. Here is what the Less Toxic Guide has to say on the matter:
Harmful ingredients: dye, fragrance, plastic, toluene, xylene, ethylbenzene, dipentene
Disposable diapers consist of a plastic exterior, an inner super-absorbent layer treated with chemicals, and a liner. One commonly used absorbent chemical, sodium polyacrylate, can trigger allergic reactions. Disposable diapers may also contain dyes and dioxin, a carcinogenic by-product of the chlorine bleaching process.
A study conducted by Anderson Laboratories in 1999 and published in the Archives of Environmental Health found that disposable diapers release volatile organic chemicals (VOCs), including toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene and dipentene. All of these VOCs have been shown to have toxic health effects, such as cancer and brain damage, with long-term or high level exposure.
The researchers also discovered that mice exposed to the chemicals released by disposable diapers were more likely to experience irritated airways than mice exposed to emissions from cloth diapers. These effects were increased during repeat exposures. The authors suggested that disposable diapers may cause “asthma-like” reactions and urged more study into a possible link between diaper emissions and asthma.
That almost says it all… Except for the issue of heat: disposables tend to heat up the skin more because they breath less, which is bad especially for little boys whose fertility can suffer.
On top of those three main reasons, there are a few bonus ones. For instance, cloth diapers (at least good quality ones) work better. In 3 months now, I have never had a leak, whereas people using disposables complain about them all the time. They also look better, at least in my opinion, and they seem more comfortable for the baby (would you prefer paper or cloth underwear?). They seem to make potty-training easier, as the toddler can feel the wetness better than in disposables. Finally, cloth diapered babies seem to have less rashes… Maybe because you tend to change cloth diapers more often – disposables should be changed just as often, but since they absorb so much, people are less likely to.
Are there downsides to cloth diapers? Sure: you have to wash them, but it’s not as complicated as people think. You have to bring them back if you use them while you’re away from home. And they are more bulky, giving your baby a bigger bum. That actually scared me a bit; I thought I would hate it. But I got used to it really fast, and I just use larger clothes to accommodate the diapers. Et voilà! As a convert who initially had absolutely no intention of using cloth diapers and who had never met anyone who did before I got pregnant, I have to say that I love my bamboo diapers, I have not used a single disposable diaper since I left the hospital with my son, and I have absolutely no regret.
Stay tuned for the sequel…
The No-Cry Sleep Solution
Nov 1, 2007 Family life, Resources
Now that is a book that I can recommend! Elizabeth Pantley’s The No-Cry Sleep Solution, Gentle Ways to Help your Baby Sleep through the Night (en français, Un sommeil paisible et sans pleurs) gives realistic tips to parents who want to help their baby sleep better. Her book applies to every situation and gives specific ideas for parents depending on wether they are breast-feeding or bottle-feeding, whether they co-sleep or put their baby to sleep in their own crib, without passing judgment on the sleeping arrangement people chose or trying to convince them to do differently. The author, a mother of four, obviously knows very well what she’s talking about. She draws from her own experience with different children as well as on research and on testimonies from other parents.
This book is very well written and fun to read. The author has a lot of humor. But most of all, I love how she writes for real people living real lives, without making you feel like you have to be perfect or else you won’t succeed and you will screw up your entire child’s life! For instance, in one chapter, she explains how you should not let your child sleep in your arms since they will make it a habit and want to sleep nowhere else. Then when you flip the page over, the author revises her tips, recognizing that having your baby sleep in your arms is one of the greatest joys of parenting and that even she wouldn’t be able to do without if she was to have another child. So she simply suggest weighing the pros and cons and trying to put your sleeping baby down some of the times, while enjoying them with all of your heart when you decide to indulge in this treat.
I found her honesty and her approach irresistible, and having just discovered that she has written several other books on parenting, I will definitely try to put my hands on them!
The Baby Whisperer
Oct 20, 2007 Family life, Resources
There are tons of baby books on the market, and one that was recommended to us before Elliot’s birth was Secrets of the Baby Whisperer (en français, Les secrets d’une charmeuse de bébés). I started reading it and it made me feel uneasy for a few reasons, the main one being that the author is against feeding on demand. Feeding your baby whenever they seem hungry, whether they have had their last feeding 1 or 3 hours ago, is what most experts now recommend, and from everything I have read it is the best way to succeed in breastfeeding, as it helps build and maintain the mother’s milk supply. According to Jack Newman, Toronto pediatrician and North America’s foremost expert on breast-feeding, a lot of successful breast-feeding moms run into problems when they start trying to put their baby on a schedule. The Baby Whisperer, however, pretends that feeding on demand makes for demanding babies and that you should instead put babies on a routine (but not a schedule, as she carefully points out) of eating, followed by activity and sleep, repeated about every 3 hours. After reading her take on that I stopped reading her book.
I should have given up on it completely, but a friend told me she had really liked the book so a few weeks after Elliot’s birth I started reading it again. It made me so upset! I suddenly felt like a terrible mother who did pretty much everything wrong. I started panicking when Elliot had a bad night, thinking it must be because I didn’t put him to bed sleepy, but awake, like the author recommends. I was unable to do it back then, but now, he can fall asleep by himself at night, and it happened naturally when he reached 7 weeks. Elliot is also feeding on demand, but he’s gaining well and he’s happy and healthy. So maybe I’m not doing that bad after all. But with every chapter I read, I started second-guessing myself until I finally realized that I was being silly and came back to my senses.
I’m sure that this book contains some good advice that can work for a lot of people, or else she wouldn’t have sold that many. But the author presents it that way: sure you can do things your own way and not listen to me, but sooner or later you will find yourself overwhelmed and need my help to fix the damage you did. So when I tried to follow her advice and found myself unable to do it, I felt (unnecessarily) guilty and useless. The future will tell if I should have tried harder, but for now I’ll stick to my ways and to books to have a philosophy similar to mine. And I’ll look at Elliot’s smile and pat myself in the back a few times. He’s all right. I’m all right. It’s all good!
I’m sorry, why is there lead in my dinnerware?
Sep 14, 2007 Environment, Less toxic, Resources
I guess it should have come as no surprise that my dishes have a lead glaze, after all if corporations are willing to sell baby items that contain Bisphenol A (BPA), and kids toys and lunch boxes that contain lead, then they would certainly have no qualms about poisoning me.
Luckily the FDA has our back! The FDA only allows a little bit a lead in dinnerware, after all what could possibly be wrong with small amounts of lead leaching off of a product? Well, what if you used that product every day, several times a day for years? What if that product leached more lead when it came in contact with something acidic or was heated or had something stored in it? What if that product leached lead into things that you and your kids ingested? Would that small amount of lead that the FDA allows still be acceptable to you?
Californians didn’t think so, and so in 1986 California voters approved the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act or Proposition 65 which provided consumers with warning labels on tableware and other products that exceed their new tough toxin standards. Standards that are between 5 and 13 times tougher than the FDA’s standards.
Not only have some manufacturers begun making dishware that meets or exceeds the standards put forth by Proposition 65, but other manufacturers are have gone a step further and completely removed lead from their products. Which begs the question: if some manufacturers can make lead-free products, why can’t they all? I wonder how fast manufacturers would switch to lead-free glazes if consumers started demanding it?
So who are these manufacturers that meet the Proposition 65 standards or produce completely lead-free dinnerware? Well I don’t know yet, for reasons beyond me they they don’t really advertise that they are less-toxic. I have contacted the following manufacturers about whether any of their dinnerware patterns are lead free:
- Corelle
- Mikasa
- Lenox
- Homer Laughlin China Co.
- Dansk
- Dudson
- Pfaltzgraff
We will see who responds. In the meantime, Environmental Defense provides and a Dish Owner’s Guide for people who are concerned about their existing dinnerware, a Dish Buyer’s Guide for people who are looking to purchase new dinnerware and of course information about the Health Impacts of Lead for people who don’t want to be able to sleep at night.
Update: Find out which manufacturers claim to be lead-free! Checkout the follow up post: There is no more lead in MY dinnerware… I think…
Above All, Be Kind
Aug 1, 2007 Family life, Resources
Ever since we’ve know we were going to have a baby, Zakary and I have been questioning ourselves about the values we wanted to pass onto our child and about the changes we would have to make in our lives in order to do that. It has been a hard path to follow already, and it hasn’t even really started yet. But as hard as it can be, in this world of consumerism, advertisement and disposable crap, to find good resources on how to live a more healthy life and offer our children the same, I found one book that deserves a special mention.
It is called Above All, Be Kind; Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times (Zoe Weil, New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, BC, Canada, 2003). The author, who specializes in humane education, gives tips on how to instill reverence, respect and responsibility in your children. She doesn’t give specific solutions (although she does suggest an array of books and Internet resources that can do that), but she gives tools to help parents assess their everyday decisions and adjust their own behaviour in order to become a good role model for their children.
The book focuses a lot on environmental issues and on how exposing children to nature is the straightest path to making them good citizens of the world. Therefore, I believe it deserves a special place on the nightstand of anyone who wants to remain wild in the city…