Non-Toxic Nursery??

BeesKneesMommy

I am setting up the nursery (not due till the end of June) and am now completely engulfed in researching non-toxic items for the nursery. I am shocked and appalled to find a lack of readily accessible, useful, reliable information regarding the subject. The info I did find was only after countless hours of research and I am still not completely satisfied. 

So far, these two links were the most helpful.

www.healthychild.com/protect-your-baby-from-toxic-exposures/baby-mattresses/

www.afreshsqueeze.com/chicago/articles/six-steps-toxin-free-baby-nursery

The crib mattresses are generally loaded with toxins that seep into the baby's skin and have been linked to SIDS. Although they have not conclusively proven this yet, the strong possibility that there is a link is very scary.

At any rate, I am wondering what resource sites other health conscious moms are using to help make their decisions on what to buy for the nursery as far as what materials creates a potentially hazardous environmental for our little ones.

 

 

TanyaKM

I haven't found any comprehensive resources on the web, but I loved The Complete Organic Pregnancy (I read it on my Kindle). Even though the title says pregnancy, the authors talk about baby products as well, including crib mattresses, cleaners, detergents, etc. 

amy21tom

TanyaKM:

I haven't found any comprehensive resources on the web, but I loved The Complete Organic Pregnancy (I read it on my Kindle). Even though the title says pregnancy, the authors talk about baby products as well, including crib mattresses, cleaners, detergents, etc. 

This! I have this book and love it. It even lists the safest paints to use (ones that are actually VOC free) and compares the different brands. It gets into furniture, computers...everything.

FYI-after doing reserach we decided on the Naturepedic mattress because it is actually organic and does not contain harmful gases

Something else to look into is the crib itself. Many contain harmful chemicals/gases in the finish on the wood (again the gas problem, as well as when older babies start teething/chewing on the crib)

smbaby

i've found these websites particularly helpful

https://www.lesstoxicguide.ca/index.asp?

https://www.ewg.org/skindeep/

but I totally agree that it takes a lot of research to find simple information-I felt very overwhelmed at first, researching each item i wanted for the baby.  for the big items, i had to contact individual companies and start a discussion of what exactly is in their products-it helps to have specific questions-ie: do you use flame retardants, on which part of the product and which ones? there aren't too many non-toxic nursery items available in the first place, so at least makes researching a little easier.  i love the argington company for my crib set-they were super forecoming and helpful in answering ALL my questions (and luckily fit in my budget).  i also found out a little known fact that ikea guarantees all their furniture is up to E1 formaldehyde emission standards (the most stringent in the world)-i contacted them to confirm.   finally, you can check if your product has a CA warning label for prop 65 (i know amazon and target.com lists the warning on additional info tab).  while it won't say what the possible carcinogen is, does it matter when comparing 2 products one with a warning label and one without??

TanyaKM

I 'like' the Environmental Working Group on Facebook, and they just posted about a new book:

Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis by Sandra Steingraber.

I don't know anything about it, but it comes highly recommended from EWG. I'm going to check it out!