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Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Top 5 Eco-Friendly Halloween Costumes for Little Ones

While the 5 years and under crowd may not be so set on dressing up for Halloween, it’s definitely fun for parents to snap a few photos and make a few memories of their little ones looking adorable as things like pumpkins and princesses. Of course, buying a tiny tot costume for just one night of use doesn’t make much environmental sense. Likewise, you don’t want to deviate from the eco-friendly baby clothing you normally choose for your youngster. Here are five costume ideas for babies and toddlers that are green, easy to assemble, and reusable throughout the year (in non-costume contexts). Get out that camera!

1. Little Lamb

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Cuddly creature costumes are always a favorite (bear, cat cow, etc.), and this version utilizes a snuggly Speesees Fair Trader organic sherpa cotton jacket—dyed with eco-friendly dyes—to transform a tyke into a little lamb. Pair the jacket with white Under the Nile Egyptian organic cotton romper pants to finish off the look; they’re eco-friendly and made under great green working conditions (all employees receive two organic meals during their workday). After Halloween, you’ll have one baby basic and one fun take on outerwear to use year round. Click here to read more

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Top Five Eco-Friendly Stuffed Toys

With new toy recalls hitting the news just about every day, deciding what to let your kids play with can be stressful. Plush toys, by nature, are fairly foolproof. You don’t have to worry about metal pieces that could contain lead, chunks of plastic that deplete our natural resources and leach toxic chemicals or wood that may come from endangered forests. If you do one better and choose organic cotton or recycled plush toys, you can be sure playtime will be safe and green. Add these five eco-friendly stuffed toys to your child’s menagerie.

Sckoon Organic Cotton Happy Lion Doll: Not only is this fun lion made of 100% certified organic cotton on the outside, but also it’s stuffed with organic cotton, too. And it’s dyed with safer, metal-free pigments. Babies and toddlers will love pulling on the lion’s mane.

Amigurumi Style Elephant Kit from Stich Paradise: If you’re up for a DIY project, you can let your kids fall in love with this endangered species. You’ll create the elephant, which is said to bring you good luck, in the Japanese style of crocheting called amigurumi using recycled, repurposed or reused materials.

Organic Cotton Puppy Dog: This sweet plush is velveteen soft, nearly as wonderful to pet as a real a real pup, but this dog’s coat is made from organic cotton. It gets its hint of color from low eco-impact dyes and natural cotton fill is found inside. Click here to read more

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Planet-Friendly Lessons from Pixies

How do you get little girls excited about exploring nature and caring for the outdoor world? If she’s a fan of fairies, speak to her passion for pixies. Start with a Planet Pixie Doll like Maia the Tree Pixie. She’s made from organic cotton fabric and gets her color from non-toxic, water-based dyes.

When girls “adopt” this pixie, they can learn all about her home, the Amazon rain forest. As her story goes, she lives in the trees there along with 30% of the world’s animal species. But deforestation is devastating her home and the animals’ homes.

While you can’t build this pixie a house in the Amazon, you can build her one in the backyard. So give your little one a book from the award-winning Fairy House series that has been to known to fill kids with wonder and make them eager to hit the backyard and build a house for their fairy friends. Click here to read more

Filed under: Babies & Kids — Tags: , , , , , , , Permalink

Julie @ 8:02 am on Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

Monday, July 27, 2009

Talk to the Animals

Dress-up and animals are probably two of just about every preschooler’s favorite things. Plan Toys, one of our favorite eco-minded green toy companies, has created something very special in their Dress Up Animals.

Each set comes with two animal-shaped naked figures along with fun fabric skins and head pieces to create a zebra, tiger, deer, leopard and everything in between. As kids mix and match pieces they’ll build skills in tying laces and buttoning buttons to secure the pieces. Plus, this set is small enough to toss in your purse so you can be ready to pull it out when boredom hits while traveling or visiting Grandma’s house.

From a green standpoint, Plan Toys creates all of it’s wooden play things using eco-friendly rubber wood that’s no longer able to provide rubber. Click here to read more

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Julie @ 9:43 am on Monday, July 27th, 2009

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

EcoLogo Taking on Toy Labeling

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Once news broke that some children’s toys were tainted with lead and phthalates (among other chemicals), everyone started paying a lot more attention to what toys were made of and that extra attention even resulted in more eco-friendly toys on the market today. But the green claims made by toy makers are still hard to verify and when it comes to choosing which toys are the safest—for your child and the environment—the best way to know is still to do plenty of independent research into the brands and the individual toy. With any luck, however, that will change soon thanks to the EcoLogo program, a green third-party certification organization that measures both American and Canadian products. EcoLogo has announced that they’re working on developing environmental standards that will allow them to verify whether a toy is as eco-friendly as it claims to be.

EcoLogo already certifies a range of products from pool chemicals to beauty products (you may remember us writing about them revising their personal care product standards to be stricter earlier this year) but they say that they see a need for regulation in the toy industry, where few companies are evaluating the products. Though the toy certification standards are already underway, it’ll be at least a year before EcoLogo is officially certifying toys. In the meantime they’ll be accepting everyone’s input, from toy manufacturers to nonprofit advocacy groups and even you, the parent, to determine what constitutes a green toy and what standards should be in place. Click here to read more

Filed under: Babies & Kids, Greentips & Greenews — Tags: , , , , , , Permalink

Chloe @ 7:56 am on Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

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