I always start the year off with various goals. I don’t make resolutions because they seem too…final. You either make it or you don’t. There is no room for wiggling, messing up, and rethinking. Sometimes goals don’t come at the start of the year either…sometimes they pop up at a random moment causing you to rethink previous actions.
The current goal I’m working on is a result of The Spouse and his choice of reading material when he was on “The Throne” yesterday. We all have various products in our home, but how often do we read the labels on these products? I know there are those who read every single label of every single item they buy…we aren’t them. Yesterday The Spouse grabbed the lotion product we use for T.B.M. and proceeded to read the ingredients. After exiting “The Throne” he comes into the living room with the item in his hand and asked “How many letters are in the alphabet?” General Disarray gave him the answer at which point The Spouse looks down at the bottle and states “This has a word with 28 letters…and the word has “TH” twice…I can’t even pronounce this! This can’t be good!” At which point he sat down at his computer and started typing in the unbelievably long word. If you are wondering what this word is and what we found you can click HERE.
After our little discovery I thought for a bit about the products we use. They are great, but there have to be better *safer* alternatives out there. Now there are some I may never part with, my automatic liquid hand soap dispenser comes to mind, but there are some that need to be tossed. I already don’t use harsh chemicals to clean. They give me horrible headaches which usually lead to nausea and vomiting *what more proof does one need that something is bad for their home then that right?*. If I can get away with hot water and elbow grease I’m a happy woman *cue steam mop*. Kids can’t be cleaned with a steam mop though, so that leads me to my question:
What products do you *those who are into green, organic, natural products* use for your children and yourself?
What am I looking to replace?
Body wash *the boys both suffer from eczema (which is not a result of what we currently use, this we know for sure) so we already use things for sensitive skin that are dye and fragrance free*
Lotion *their skin dries out VERY quickly so whatever we use has to LAST!*
Sunscreen
Toothpaste *I’m not sure if I would give up the current mouth related products we use, but I would like to investigate what others are using*
Hair Care Products *we already use natural products *aside from shampoo/conditioner*, so I’m curious to see what else is out there other than what I can find at our base exchange*.
I haven’t found one site that has a comparison list of products, so if you all know of a site that would be of use to me please pass it on as well. My goal is to remove the unnecessary, unhealthy products from our home by the end of the summer. It’s a short term goal that I think is doable especially, with the help of my wonderful readers. :)
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This work by Rayven Holmes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
4 comments:
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I like Burt's Bees shampoo/body wash for Bub - they have it in the baby section of the PX/BX....but it's pricey (about $8 a bottle) so watch websites like Burt's Bees site and Amazon and Vitamin Shoppe for deals/coupons/Ebates.
Badger makes a good sunscreen and a good bug spray. Also Kiss My Face, which is available at Vitamin Shoppe at a good price (VS pays into Ebates so they are my first shot for anything and I've never had a problem with them shipping here).
Toothpaste: I use Arm & Hammer baking soda toothpaste and I also have used Tom's of Maine.... the kids use Tom's of Maine's kids line which is a fave of mine.
Shampoo - I haven't tried this yet, but do a search on "no shampoo method" and you'll get a bunch of info on how to do hair cleansing with apple cider vinegar *I think that's it, I know it's not regular white vinegar* and something else.
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Just stumbled upon this blog and post... have you seen EWG's Skin Deep database before? I choose all our care products based on their ratings/my own judgement. http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/
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I would suggest the EWG site that Kate Smith suggested as well. That is the best resource I found when we first started examining this issue years ago.
Our whole family uses California Baby Body wash. I buy the it in bulk online when it goes on sale, usually on Drugstore.com. We use Badger sunscreen. It is very safe and works great. I wait for that to go on sale and buy 2 or 3 tubes to last us the summer. I use Young Living Thieves toothpaste, and hubby uses the Natural Dentist fluoride-free toothpaste. We use Aubrey Organics shampoo. We don't use lotion daily, but I love the SkinFree skin care line. I use Jojoba oil on my face. I also love Norwex pure Shea Butter. A little goes a long way, so it lasts quite a while for us. We use Desert Essence Tea Tree Castille soap diluted 1 part soap to 4-6 parts water in a foam pump for hand soap. And Norwex for cleaning...it uses water only with the Norwex Antibac Envirocloth, NO cleaners are necessary. The Norwex Antibac Body Cloth eliminates the need for make-up removers/face wash. It's awesome!!! Those are probably our top "faves"...
Most "natural" and "organic" products that you find on store shelves may be safer, but they're still not safe enough for my standards. That's where the EWG site comes in handy. You can see the ingredients, what their safety rating is and why and decide for yourself how concerned you are about it.
That's cool that you use Accountabilty Kids, too! It still hasn't arrived in the mail yet, which is a bummer because the boys are eager to get started!
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March 3, 2011 at 1:41 AM
A great web site that has things they use that are natural is www.welltellme.com it does not have a list of items but you can search on there for natural ways to replace what you are doing now, Like natural hair care
I enjoy making my own lotion with coconut oil but you will have to order since I have not found a local place that sells it. good luck!