Beding, sheets and pillow cases

As Christophe gets older I find the need to scrutinize more and more things we buy for him (and us for that matter). A few years ago if I needed new bed sheets I would have looked for 100% cotton sheets with a 200+ thread count in a color that matches the decor of the room they are for. (We currently have beige and red in our room bought under these guidelines almost 3 years ago now)

Today now that I am a more savvy stay at home mom I need to add a few more criteria to this list - so now we are looking for:

• 100% cotton
• 200+ thread count
• Neutral color
  
• Organic
• no flame retardants
• Fair trade (optional)

Now why you may say well here goes:

100% COTTON

We like cotton the best in our house: it's a natural fiber; it's soft; it's washer and dryer safe. Their are many other natural fibers out there such as silk and hemp. I find hemp is not that soft and well silk kills thousands of little worms to make your sheets and not the most practical to wash. There are also some not so natural but claiming to be natural fibers out their such as bamboo - for more info read this great article from Inhabitat.

250+THREAD COUNT

When you get sheets you want to make sure you get good quality sheets something that will last well this is where thread count (tc) comes in. Thread count refers to the number of threads, both vertical and horizontal, in a one-inch square of fabric. With my experience I find the more you have the stronger your fabric is and the softer the fabric is. This is not the only determining factor for these but a good guide. For example we got 400 tc once and really hated the sheets. So open the package and touch them first.

NEUTRAL COLOR

I used to buy sheets in some sort of fun color to match my room and often I would end up getting rid of them before they ripped whether because I got tired of them or I changed the decor and they did not match anymore. Now we only buy unbleached or natural sheets that way all our sheets match, you don't have to worry about matching pillowcases and so one. Also no matter the decor of your room the sheets will go with it. A plus to natural sheets is they give you that hotel feel when you slip into bed.

ORGANIC (or Unconventinaly grown)

For thousands of years cotton was grown organicly and then in the 1950s pestisides came along and revolutionised the cotton industry for the worst (according to me). Cotton became more plentiful and cheep while our enviroment and health was placed at risk. Pesticides have been linked to many health issues and enviromental issues. Some of these are: fertility problems; sensory, motor, mental and psychological effects; farmers or a gardener run a greater risk of developing neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s Disease; Effects on learning; links to cancer... All you have to do is google pestisdes and effects on your health and you will find thousands of articles.

You have to keep in mind that cotton is the most heavily sprayed crop on the planet; "twenty-five percent of all insecticide is applied to cotton. Two hundred chemicals might be applied to a single plant in one season in the United States. This translates to a third of a pound of chemicals per pound of cotton fiber. One and a quarter pounds of agricultural chemicals are used in California to produce the conventionally grown cotton in a single set of queen-sized sheets."1

Buying organic cotton products can have a large impact on the enviroment - for the positive.

NO FLAME RETARDANTS (PBDEs)

We cover everything that is man mad in flame retardants so it does not go poof if their is a fire. When the easiest solution is to surround yourself in natural fibers with no chemicals so they don't go poof if their is a fire. Flame retardants are bad when it comes to close contact with you; now don't get me wrong I think their are places where flame retardants are required but my bed sheets is not one of them.

Why are flame retardants bad? "Health Effects related to Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs): Brain and nervous system, Reproduction and fertility, Persistent and bioaccumulative, Neurotoxin; brain damage."2

FAIR TRADE

I put fair trade as optional because well, we all know fair trade is better because it garentees that the workers making our product are treated fairly and paid proper wadges. I would love to only buy items that are fair trade. However sometimes an item that meets all my other requirements will be $50 and an equivalant item that is fair trade will be $75. Most times we can justify paying more but sometimes we just can afford to do so.

The perfect sheets according to me that is...

So when we needed to get some bedding for Christophe both for his crib and now his toddler bed we looked arround at what was readily available here in Toronto that met our critarias and ended up on going with Coyuchi. These meet all of my critarias and I can get them at 2 stores that are within walking distance from my house: Kids on the Hip and Grassroots.

Depending on where you shop a fitted crib sheet will cost you about $45CND; a fitted twin sheet $80CND; and a fitted king sheet $105CND. These are well worth it we used our crib sheets for about a year and washed them once every 2 weeks and they still look like new.

1. Source Coyuchi
2. Source EWG

Toy Thursday - BPA

This week toxin is BPA.

Many of you already have swapped out all your plastic baby bottles for BPA free ones; but did you know many toys also contain BPA.

Lets first look at what is BPA. BPA is short for Bisphenol A; Bisphenol A is "a difunctional building block of several important polymers and polymer additives ... Suspected of being hazardous to humans since the 1930s."1

"More than 200 animal studies show that BPA is toxic at very low doses, while the Centers for Disease Control has found BPA in 95 percent of people tested at levels that raise health concerns. The peer—reviewed science suggests that BPA may be contributing to increases in many adverse health conditions in the human population including breast cancer, prostate cancer and insulin resistance."2

In Canada it's very hard to find a baby bottle made of BPA these days, but 1000's of toys that are made from plastics containing BPA line the shelves in our our toy stores. Most people think that you can only get BPA from food but that is not the case. "While most exposure is through diet, exposure can also occur through air and through skin absorption."1 And that would be whi I classify BPA toys as toxic.

Before you start betting yourself over for letting your child play with plastic, I will admit even Christophe has a few plastic toys, we have legos and this ball and tower thing that is made from plastic (they were both hand me downs); however the majority of his toys are BPA free.

How do you avoid BPA in toys:

1. Don't buy plastic toys
2. If you buy plastic make sure they are labeled BPA free
3. If no label exits, take the time to contact the manufacturer and ask them what kind of plastics are used in the manufacturing of the toy. You would be surprised how quick you are will get an answer.
4. Stay away from toys made from polycarbonate usually labeled as number 7.

BPA is not the only type of plastic that is toxic in future weeks we will look at phatale and PVC.

I think it is also worth mentioning other areas that you or your child can be exposed to BPA: Infant formula, canned food, fillings at the dentist, plastic dishes, glasses and cutlery, lunch boxes, water bottles, baby bottles, coffee mugs and bottles lined with plastic, food storage containers, and virtually anything made from plastic could be made from polycarbonate.

My recommendation from one mom to another is to avoid as much as possible BPA but if you can not afford to change everthing in your life the main items I would start with are: baby bottles, sippy cups, your childs dishes and bath toys.

If anyone needs ideas on BPA free items ask me I have tones of products I could recomend but that will be for another post.

1- Wikipidia
2- EWG

Take the time to watch

Thank you New Mommy Rant for sharing this with us. I might just be sensitive but this video made me shed some tears for our planet and our children; we really need to learn not to take the world as granted.



Video from: Momemtum Tides 2008