It’s back-to-school time and EWG came out with their list of eco-friendly tips for buying products for your kids – including:

1) Look for pencils made from sustainable wood or recycled newspaper, without any paint or coatings

2) Look for hand soap and hand sanitizers without triclosan, triclocarbon or fragrance

3) Avoid buying polymer clay (the kind that stays soft at room temperature and hardens in the oven because it is made from PVC and has phthalates.

Check out the full list on the EWG and happy back to school!!

Did you ever notice that the greatest “make life easy” inventions seem to come from parents who have had to deal with some kind of frustration or inefficiency for long enough that they decide they can come up with an ingenious solution? Well I have found another one of these inventions. And, as I find with most of these types of things, it’s a “duh- why didn’t I think of that??” idea. This is specifically geared toward anyone who has to carry an Epi-Pen – a prescription injector that is for life-threatening allergies like food allergies or bee sting allergies. These injectors need to be on parents of children who suffer from the allergies at all times. A matter of 1-2 minutes can mean life or death (so keeping one “nearby, in the car for instance, can be a deadly mistake). The unfortunate thing is, they are awkward to carry, and you typically need to keep two on hand, making it doubly awkward.

But fine, no worries. You can pop them in your pocketbook (mom) or in your back pocket (dad) when going out. But what happens when the child gets older and needs to have them on hand but is going somewhere without his or her backpack? Or what if you are an adult who suffers from an allergy and you want to go out for a run, or do something where carrying a bag is not convenient? Since fanny-packs are long out of fashion, there have been few alternatives, other than carrying the “pens” in your hand.

So along comes a pair of ingenious moms. They, like me, became concerned about their nut-allergy kids as they got older and started going off on their own. A bike ride to a friend’s house, a trip into the town center for an ice cream, a soccer practice. What could they do to ensure that the Epi-Pens would be on hand? So they put their heads together and came up with a simple yet smart solution – called Take In Case. It’s a sleeve made of a stretchy material that has a little padding. The whole thing measures about 6 inches wide and 8 inches long, and it has two pockets that securely hold an Epi Pen each. VOILA! Now any child (recommended ages 10 and up) or adult can carry the Epi Pens on their arm or calf and keep their hands free.

We have been using this for a couple of weeks now and it has been great. My son is 10 years old but is, um, a little “slender” (ok – he’s as skinny as a rail) so it’s a little big for his arm, but he still puts it there anyway, and he actually doesn’t mind carrying it. Not bad!

Check out this site TakeInCase.com for a lot more information, and to find out how to order the case. From my perspective, it’s $25 well spent. And a portion of the sale goes to support food allergy research as well!

If you’re not already on Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution email, I highly recommend it. He doesn’t send out a zillion emails – just maybe one every week or two – but they are always interesting, helpful and thought provoking. Jamie’s “Food Revolution” is his effort to improve the health of children by encouraging them to eat healthier foods – and his first target has been improving the foods served in school cafeterias (an effort I fully support!). But he also looks to parents to get their children to eat better choices at home as well. And in this week’s email, he underscores the fact that one of the biggest sources of sugar in a child’s diet in the U.S. is from soda. We’ve heard that over and over in the news as well. However, he also reminds us that sugar is in many other drinks that are popular with kids. And some are even “healthy” options like juices.

So he created a handy “toolkit” using data from the Harvard School of Public Health’s The Nutrition Source (another great source for tips on healthy living and eating). Jamie’s toolkit is an easy to read chart that shows how much sugar is in 12 ounces of drinks like cranberry juice cocktail (12 teaspoons!!!), orange soda (11 teaspoons) and even orange juice (10 teaspoons). It’s pretty eye opening!

And if you want to get even more detailed, check out The Nutrition Source’s How Sweet Is It? chart. Oh boy. I always knew that 100% grape juice was sweet – but didn’t realize that it has 15 (!) teaspoons of sugar per 12 oz. glass! How about that tasty Odwalla Apple Raspberry drink? A whopping 14 teaspoons. I definitely recommend a quick browse of the chart – and possibly printing it out.

We are not big soda drinkers in our house – but my oldest son loves it as a treat. I told him about a “The Nanny” episode that I saw once where she made one of the children, who was addicted to soda, spoon 12 spoonfuls of sugar into a 12 oz. glass. It took up nearly half of the glass. She pointed out to him that he was drinking that, basically with water and colors and flavors, every time he had a soda. It was a pretty strong visual. And even just telling my son about it got the point across. If you want more visuals, check out this cool site, Sugar Stacks, that shows you exactly what the amount of sugar in drinks and food looks like by featuring photos of the food and drinks with stacks of sugar cubes next to them (the photo above is one of their photos).

And Jamie Oliver’s point? Sugary drinks are OK for a treat, but stick to water for the bulk of your beverage consumption. No calories. No concerns. He even has some great ideas for flavoring your water and some fruit smoothie recipes as well. Fruit smoothies again can pack some serious natural sugar if you use too much juice or milk, or add additional sugar. But they are also a great way to start the day with protein and vitamins. And Jamie suggests throwing in a handful of nuts and/or natural oatmeal as well, both of which can slow down your body’s process of absorbing the sugar.

I have been on a smoothie kick for the past year and a half (ever since I got my Silver Bullet little blender – I love that thing!). Anyway – I do a quick smoothie in the morning with about 1/3 cup frozen blueberries (look for pesticide-free or washed frozen berries as they are often loaded with pesticides, unfortunately…), a little OJ, and about 1/3 cup fat free greek yogurt. I throw in a handful of oatmeal and some flax meal. I know – it sounds nasty that way but it’s surprisingly good and incredibly filling! And this summer I ventured into new territory at the suggestion of a friend who’s a nutritionist. I add a couple of leaves of kale into the mix. Granted you have to have a lot of berries to overpower the kale taste but it grinds up so small you really don’t even realize it’s there. And with kale being such a “super food” – it’s a pretty great way to start the day! (OK, I can hear collective groans from you all – but really, it’s way better than you’d think!)

Regardless of whether you want to do a deep dive into crazy smoothie world or not, the moral of this whole story is that you can easily cut out wasted calories by watching what you drink. Choose water, seltzer or sparkling water (try it with a splash of juice), tea & coffee (easy on the cream but it’s even ok to have a teaspoon of sugar in there) or other low-calorie, low-sugar drinks.  Save the other drinks for a treat. And keep an eye on what the kids drink – teaching them healthy habits at a young age will pay off for sure.

It was inevitable. Boys would get sucked into the beauty industry at some point. And it has happened. According to a recent New York Times article, boys from tweens through their 20’s are now targeted heavily by the manufacturers of grooming products like hair products, deodorants, body sprays, colognes, etc. All of these products with all of these scents. Not only are parents getting fed up with the clouds of fragrance trailing their sons (thankfully mine are still too young for this…) – but the kids are getting more than they bargained for.

As Stacy Malkan, the founder of Campaign for Safe Cosmetics says in her blog posting:

“The irony of this story, which the Times missed entirely, is that the ads promise virility and masculinity, yet the products may have the exact opposite effect on the bodies of developing boys. Most fragranced products contain diethyl phthalate, a chemical that has been linked to sperm damage and feminized genitals. Many of the products, from body spray to shampoo, also contain parabens, a chemical that acts like estrogen in the body.

In all, the 18 body-care products used by the above-mentioned teenagers contain roughly 200 synthetic chemicals that the boys are putting on their bodies each day before breakfast. This daily dose includes dozens of chemicals linked to cancer, skin problems, allergies and hormone disruption, according to an analysis of a typical suite of these products on the Skin Deep database.”

Boys have just as much to lose as girls through exposure to these unnecessary chemicals. Teach them at a young age to read labels and avoid the fragrances. Look for natural, essential oil-based products instead – they are out there, they’re just harder to find. Otherwise, the consequences can be serious. And really, they’ll be doing everyone else around them a favor anyway. Have you ever been around a teen doused in Axe. Iiiiicccccckkkkkk.

Yep – time for another completely random recipe blog posting. I’m posting this because these are on my mind – I have to make a new batch. For awhile I was really good about making these every couple of weeks so my kids had something healthy-ish for a snack in their lunchbag. But I started to slack off – now I’m hoping I’ll get back into it. I found these searching the web for a good granola bar recipe for my nut-allergic son. The thing is – granola bars can be a very handy snack. BUT I challenge you to find one that is nut safe. It’s unbelievable. And if when you do finally hunt one down, check out the ingredients and I’m sure you’ll find high fructose corn syrup. Crazy. So when I found this recipe I was excited – chewy, yummy (albeit a bit sweet) granola bars that lend themselves to be tweaked by adding whatever you want to them.

Nut-Safe Granola Bars

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 3/4 c packed brown suagr
• 1/2 c wheat germ
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 c flour (I use white whole wheat)
• 1/2 c raisins (or dried cranberries)
• 1/2 c chocolate chips
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 c honey (or blue agave syrup)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 c canola oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• Tweaks I’ve made: add some cheerios or rice krispies, add 1/4 c ground flax seed, throw in a few tablespoons of cocoa to make them “chocolate”, add other chopped/dried fruit, add some sunflower seeds for extra protein (or of course nuts if you don’t have nut allergies to worry about!). You might need to adjust the flour/oat/oil combination if you add too much of these things. Also – you can reduce the sugar a bit and it will be OK.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9×13 inch baking dish well with oil spray like Pam.
2. In a large bowl, mix together oats, brown sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, flour, raisins and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in the honey, egg, oil and vanilla. Mix well using your hands. Pat this mixture evenly and firmly into the prepared pan. Make sure it’s packed in well so it’s not too crumbly.
3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven until the bars begin to turn golden brown at the edges. Do no over cook them or they will be crunchy instead of chewy! Cool for 5 minutes, then cut into bars while still warm. That’s VERY important – don’t let the bars cool or they will be too hard to cut.
4. I wrap these individually in plastic wrap then keep them in a big zip top bag. They keep for a couple of weeks this way, surprisingly!

I hope you try this. And it’s not just for kids – it’s better for you than many of the “power bars” and will give you some good energy!

In the news last week was an announcement from the FDA that they acknowledge that the chemical bisphenol A (or BPA) causes “some concern” and they are going to investigate it further. According to an article in the Boston Globe, while the FDA did say that there is not yet any evidence to further regulate the use of BPA , the Department of Health and Human Services did suggest that people throw away scratched plastic cups and baby bottles with BPA to avoid the ingestion of small amounts of the chemical that can seep out into drinks. It looks like the governmental agencies are showing potential to give this the attention it deserves.

The Health and Human Services has a great posting on their website at :http://www.hhs.gov/safety/bpa/. They give some good explanations of what is being investigated further, and they also list other helpful suggestions – in addition to the one above – to avoid exposing your children to BPA. One interesting fact is that powdered infant formula is generally free of BPA, it’s the liquid version that can be contaminated.

The only tip they offer that I disagree with is the one that says it is generally OK for infants to suck on soft plastic toys. They may be safe from BPA but they are often packed with phthalates (a whole different concern) – so always find out as much as you can about the safety of plastic toys before you allow your infant to suck on them. Wish I’d know about all of this before I had kids. Ugh. It’s scary to think about all that they may have been exposed to!

Today two friends forwarded me this link from an Op-Ed columnist in the NYT (thanks Melissa and David!). It’s right up my alley – and I thought it would be good to share.

Nicholas Kristoff’s column poses the very interesting questions: “What if breast cancer in the United States has less to do with insurance or mammograms and more to do with contaminants in our water or air — or in certain plastic containers in our kitchens? What if the surge in asthma and childhood leukemia reflect, in part, the poisons we impose upon ourselves?”

Giving the health care system an overhaul does sound like a good time to deeply evaluate our society’s exposure to chemicals and investigate all possible connections to health issues that are nearing epidemic levels – like breast cancer, asthma and food allergies, to name only a few. It’s time we give these issues the attention they deserve, and that we stop succumbing to the pressures of the incredibly powerful and even more dangerous chemical companies.

I’ll admit it. I’m a bit of a freak when it comes to things like stomach flu and seasonal flu. I get very anxious when I hear either of those is going around. Swine flu? Even worse. So I do carry antibacterial gel in my purse and in the car. But to be honest – I use those only when absolutely necessary. And we use natural soaps and dishwashing liquids around the house – not the anti-bacterial kinds. Here’s one word why: Triclosan.

Triclosan is not really something you want to be exposing yourself (or your family) to if you don’t have to. According to EWG.org triclosan has been linked to liver and inhalation toxicity, and low levels of triclosan may disrupt thyroid function. Further, there is really no reason to buy anti-bacterial soaps and dishwashing liquids. Studies have shown that washing hands with regular soap and water is as effective at killing germs as using anti-bacterial products. Moreover, since 2000, the American Medical Association has been recommending that households avoid use of anti-bacterial products as it can contribute to the development of drug resistent bacteria.

All pretty good reasons to avoid the ingredient, even for germophobes like me. But there’s even one last reason. Triclosan is not eliminated in the waste water treatment systems, so it ends up in our water systems – which can impact aquatic life as well.

So be sure to read labels as this flu season starts. It’s not just in anti-bacterial products. You can find it in all kinds of personal care products including toothpaste! Try to avoid triclosan whenever possible. And check out this quick fact sheet from EWG.org for more information.

Today we let our 9-year-old ride his bike to the library by himself. Actually, I rode with him there to show him where to cross, where to be extra careful etc. since he’d never gone by himself before. I have to admit I was a wreck – I realized that I told him to cross the street at a spot that had good visibility on the way TO the libary, but on the way HOME it was terrible. Would he figure it out? Would he be smart and safe? What if he wasn’t paying attention and he got hit by a car? I started imagining the worst.

Now some people may be thinking – what’s the big deal? And really, that’s how I was raised – I walked to school starting in Kindergarten. I took the subway in the suburbs with a friend to the Mall in 3rd grade, and all the way to downtown Boston in 5th grade. But I know that there will be far more people reading this that will disapprove. People say things are different now. There are more people in the world and the world is more dangerous. But really – is it that bad?

We have become a society obsessed with protecting our children. We don’t let them go off to college without calling them 5 times a day on their cellphone. Our kids are carted from one organized activity to another starting at a young age and we are hovering all the way through high school and beyond. Mom or Dad seems to be there always. We worry if we drop them off and leave Little League practice. What happens if Johnny gets hit with the ball after I leave? What if Susie twists her ankle? What if my child walks to school and someone abducts her? We judge parents who aren’t as “careful” as we are.

All this makes me wonder. What are we teaching our children? To be scared and worry about everything? To only feel safe if they are with Mom or Dad? Shouldn’t we be teaching them to be confident and secure? Shouldn’t we teach them tools and strategies so they can do things and make smart decisions and figure things out on their own? That’s certainly the kind of person I want my boys to be when they grow up.

It just so happens that today, when my son earned another notch on his belt of independence, there was a very interesting article by Joanna Weiss in the Boston Globe. In it, she says she insisted that her 5-year-old not wait for her on the front porch while she ran into her suburban home to grab something she forgot. She wanted her daughter to come in – “just in case”. Then she started thinking about it.

To get perspective, she talked to Lenore Skenazy. Lenore is the woman who recently caused so much controversy by writing about letting her 9-year-old son take the subway in NYC. She is now expanding her cause by writing and speaking about Free Range Kids. She believes that we are doing more harm than good by being helicopter parents. Turns out, statistically speaking, you would need to leave your child waiting on the front porch for 750 THOUSAND YEARS before she would be abducted. Really. So I say – let’s let the leash loose on our kids just a bit. I’m not saying we should let them do whatever they want and go all over the place by themselves. I’m saying teach them responsibility and good decision making and let them test out their independence as they grow.

The look on my son’s face when he came home – safely! – today was priceless. He was trying to be very cool and nonchalant – but he was bursting with pride. I knew immediately that we’d made the right decision. Later, I asked him about crossing the street at that bad spot I was worried about. He said he had to wait a long time until it was safe, but he could see the cars before they disappeared behind the bushes so he knew when it would be OK to cross. Good decision.

This morning on NPR there was a report that indicated that it isn’t just toys from China that you have to worry about. Let’s all groan together. I found this report to be truly eye-opening. A Michigan non-profit group called The Ecology Center, tested about 1500 toys including stuffed animals, books, games, action figures and other products. The scary part – they found that nearly 1/3 of the products (about 500 of them) have “significant levels of lead, arsenic and other chemicals. The results showed no consistent correlation between the presence of toxic chemicals in toys and where they were made or how much they cost.” YIPES!
The worst offenders? Cheap jewelry, bath toys and infant books.

Lead was one of biggest issues. Yes, toys made in China were more likely to have lead than toys made elsewhere. But not by much! 21% of toys (1 in 5) made in China were found to have high or moderate levels of lead. But 16% (nearly 1 in 6!) made elsewhere were also found to have unacceptable levels of lead. Of toys made in the US – 35% had some detectable level of lead!

What can you do? First – be very (very) selective about the toys you buy this holiday season. But be also glad that stricter regulations will come into effect next year.

To check out the NPR report click here