Resources

Houston Resources

The MotherHood Center – classes for mom & kids
Mint Baby – high end chilldren’t boutique
Bebe Verde – green baby boutiqe
A Woman’s Work – great boutique, also offers classes
The BIRTH Fair – informative, fun event
Central City Co-op Farmers Market - Saturdays on Richmond between Kirby and Buffalo – delicious fresh veggies, fruit, breads, cheeses, local orchids, overall a fun weekend thing to do

Jacksonville, FL Resources

M Body Yoga – the BEST yoga studio, fantastic yoga classes, as well as prenatal yoga workshops
Dunn Wellness – great place to go pre-conception, while pregnant, with your children – they do chiropractic work, acupuncture, massage, pilates, they have a master herbalist, great informative lectures – they are such wonderful people there.
Tru Fit – the best personal training gym I have every found – and I have triend MANY out – Noah is fantastic, motivating, positive, and inspires you to achieve your goals – pre-pregnancy, during, or post to get you back into shape.
Lulu Boutique – at St. John’s Town Center between Total Wine & Publix – very knowledgeable staff, the owner Kacey is a great girl, she carries a great selection of items

South Florida Resources

Amazing Births – Boca Raton – has a wellness clinic, pre-natal massage and yoga, acupuncture, classes, and lots more
Meetup.com – a great resource to find mommy and me groups in your area
Genius Jones – Boca Raton + 2 in Miami – fantastic children’s boutique, has great modern baby items

National

Whole Foods Market – great organic foods for baby and the whole family, BPA free bottles, organic toys, organic clothes, etc.
Giggle.com – have great standards for eco-friendly items, they are very selective
Diapers.com – get your diapers shipped to you in 1-2 days, free shipping – how great is that? AND now they’re not only diapers, do your baby shower shopping here, they carry so many different brands and almost every kind of baby items, and they’re expanding every day.
BabyCenter.com – great resource for articles on every topics related to pregnancy & baby
Mothering Magazine – a great magazine for the organic, natural mom
Kiwi Magazine – a great magazine for the eco-friendly mom

Green Baby Shower

There are so many great, easy ways I have seen people do green baby showers. When I threw a shower recently for someone, I made sure we used all glass plates and drinking glasses, to reduce paper waste, yes it was a little more work later on, but it was a lot less wastage.

I made a note on the invitation to please bring organic/green gifts as possible, and something home made or recycled would also be treasured.

If a mom’s philosophy is to surround herself with only organic, natural, or eco-friendly – it’s not difficult nowadays to give her a gift that has those traits – from Babies R Us or Buy Buy Baby, to Whole Foods, to Target, or to any local children’s boutique – you will find a great eco-friendly item for mom or baby.

Some great online places to shop for this:
www.SamaBaby.com – Gift Basket section – (of course!)
www.Giggle.com
www.Diapers.com

Other ideas?
Invitations – do an evite instead, or send an invitation made of recycled paper
Food – serve mostly/all organic foods and beverages – this can be bought at Whole Foods Market, or your local grocery store has many offerings. You can even get organic wine!
Decorations – use all decorations that the mom can use afterwards, hang pacifiers from the chandelier, hang onesies on a clothesline, make a sign that can go in the nursery afterwards to welcome baby
Activities – do activities that use items that mom will be able to use afterwards – everyone paint on a onesie for mom, guess what was on the tray – show a tray of small baby items for 30 seconds – then make everyone recall what was on there
Favors – use a favor that everyone can use, not some trinket that will go in the garbage, my sister-in-law did wine stoppers with a beautiful star on top that I use all the time.

Why Green Children’s Clothes?

I get questions all the time. What is organic? What is organic cotton? Why is it beneficial? I usually whip out the statistics.

It takes a third of a point of chemicals to make one t-shirt! Cotton is the most pesticide heavy crop in the world – that means a large majority of the chemicals we use in the world are used to grow cotton!

But here’s the bottom line:

1. It’s good for the environment – if you don’t pour pesticides, fertilizers, insecticides, etc. into the land,, then our rivers, communities, oceans won’t be polluted with it. How can you eat organic and expect that to be possible if the farm next door is being polluted with harmful chemicals? You must support organics all the way around – to protect the environment, and get the healthy planet we want.
2. It’s good for your child. An organic cotton garment is grown without the use of the harmful chemicals I mentioned above, but it’s also not bleached, not doused in chemicals and softeners, and then toxic dyes. We know that any skin care product we use soaks right into the skin, doesn’t it make sense that a fabric rubbing against all day also has some impact?

Specifically for kids with allergies or eczema, we have seen a great response. Moms of children who have these issues call all the time because their doctor recommended they switch their baby to organic cotton.

Testimonials:

1. A mom came up to me at a trade show and said her daughter had hives sleeping in regular children’s pajamas, with all their fire retardant chemicals, but since she was in our organic cotton garments she’s been fine.
2. Another mom, Amy, whose son has asthma said she put her son in our romper, and he breathed better. So she keeps him dressed in Sama Baby.
3. One mom bought a children’s cap on our website, and we were surprised someone would buy an $8 hat and pay $5 for shipping, we called and she said her son had really bad eczema on his head and she should try switching him to organic cotton, and she wanted to buy ours but she could only afford the hat. So we sent her a onesie as well, cause we thought her son should have the whole outfit. :o)
4. I’ve had a number of moms who have told me our towel is the absolute softest and isn’t hard like other baby towels out there on the market.
5. I’ve also had moms tell me Sama Baby gets softer every time you wash it, and their child always says they want to wear the “elephant shirt” – from our Elephant Collection

Shivani’s Favorites:

For mom-to-be:
Earth Mama Angel Baby
Bella Mama
Erbaviva

For nursery:
Non-VOC paint for the walls
Furniture – any brand that uses sustainable wood, non-VOC paint, etc.
Carpets – organic cotton
Towels, Burp Cloths, Blankets – organic cotton
Diapers – chlorine free (sold at Target & many other places), or cloth
Skin Care – organic, natural, chemical free – Epicuren is great, so is Erbaviva
Everything in this room should be bought eco-friendly or non-toxic if possible. Furniture, floors, walls, decorations, cleaners, limit the electronics, everything.

Feeding:
BPA free bottles – Born Free + Green to Grow are both great
Natursutten – natural rubber pacifier
Boppy – organic cotton

Gear:
Orbit stroller + carseat – also comes in eco-friendly fabrics
Baby Bjorn – comes in eco-friendly version now
Sling – there are so many great ones out there, check out MamaKanga.com, they have a number of options there

There are so many other fantastic products I’ve found, I’ll post them soon.