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

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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

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We were so excited to read about the Safe Toy bill passing in Senate last week – the new bill bans 6 phthalates, eliminates lead in toys for kids under 12, requires unbiased pre-market testing, and doubles the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s budget by 2014, among other things. Despite industry lobbyists’ protests, the House voted 423 to 1 and the Senate voted 89 to 3 – a definite step towards corporate accountability that will hopefully become more widespread in other industries.

But until all of those safer toys hit stores’ shelves, companies like Plan Toys, which we’ve written about in the past, provide educational, fun playthings free of preservatives, additives, or harmful paints. Plan Toys’ Dancing Alligator is a great option for toddlers – the pull toy helps develop gross motor skills, and the bright colors stimulate active minds. Click here to read more

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Not much feels better than realizing others appreciate what you do - which is why we were so psyched that CoolMomPicks gave us a shout out the other day. Thanks, CMP!

Cool Mom Picks is one of the coolest mommy-geared sites we’ve seen - it’s no forum for helicopter parents. The moms behind the site, Liz and Kristen, have struck the perfect chord with women who see their role as mother as part of who they are rather than their entire selves. CMP’s writers shows moms that their own individuality and motherhood are perfectly compatible concepts, sharing always-cool product and service picks selected from non-mainstream, independent, often eco-friendly designers and companies.

From face cream for moms to organic cotton crib bedding for kids to safer anti-bacterial soap for the whole family, Cool Mom Picks always hits the nail right on the head. And they do it all without trying to convince real mothers they can’t live without that ridiculously overpriced stroller that Kate Hudson has, because none of their picks are paid for by advertisers. Click here to read more

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