By Laure Latham
When it comes to bedding and clothing, most of us look for design and comfort rather than fair trade and eco-friendliness. Prices are definitely a factor, as well as design and availability. However an increasing demand is democratizing the market.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, “by the age of two, most children have spent more time asleep than awake and overall, a child will spend 40 percent of his or her childhood asleep.” So choosing the right type of bedding is an investment for your child’s long-term health.
Bedding
The Bad News
Nearly all baby mattresses use PVC (polyvinyl chloride) as their surface material, yet it’s known to be one of the most toxic plastics in use today (see page “PVC: The Poison Plastic”). To make PVC pliable, manufacturers often use phthalates, chemicals associated with “a number of harmful effects including changes in hormone levels, birth defects of the penis and testicles, lower sperm counts and, later in life, reproductive cancer” says Sarah Janssen of the National Resources Defense Council.
Brain development problems are linked to some fire-retardant chemicals used on mattresses known as PBDEs or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (see page “About PBDE Flame Retardants”). California banned pentaBDE in 2006, but there are still millions of mattresses containing pentaBDE in use.
Finally, check out the filling in your mattresses. It could very well be polyurethane in the form of flexible foam and may cause various types of irritations (eyes, nose, throat, skin, lungs) and allergies (skin, lungs). (see page “Health effects”).
What You Can Do — Expensive and Inexpensive
Options
On that basis, green mattresses become a lot more attractive than conventional ones. That is, if you can afford them. It would be unrealistic to assume that all parents are going to splurge on organic. When Wal-Mart's crib mattresses start at $50, environment and health have to be pretty high on someone’s priority list (not to mention the wallet) to buy an organic crib mattress starting at $250. The same goes for twin bed mattresses. The organic variety starts at $600, roughly twice as much as cheap conventional ones. What then?
“One approach might be to use organic mattress pads or sheets, duvet covers and bedding to reduce contact with the 'toxic' mattresses,” says Dr. Peter P. Lee of Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco Medical Center. “However, it would be unclear how much it would affect what gets released in the indoor air from the “toxic” mattress. Perhaps the use of air-purifiers may help limit the airborne exposure (though ozone-generating purifiers are not recommended. There are some less expensive latex foam or wool mattresses out there in the market.”
As far as pillows, Dr. Lee recommends:
- down over polyester fill or memory foam (made from petroleum-based foams) or
- hypoallergenic down or foam for people allergic to down
Ditto for mattress or pillow covers. Prefer cotton or wool to vinyl (PVC) or polyester material.
If you still plan to go ahead on green, Dr. Alan Greene, author of “Raising Baby Green, The Earth-Friendly Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Baby Care” (Jossey-Bass, 2008), recommends the following:
- organic wool (naturally resistant to dust mites and mold),
- organic cotton (not treated with pesticides)
- chemical-free waterproof agents and flame retardants, and
- the mattresses meet or exceed federal requirements for firmness.
Vickie Leonard, nurse at the California Childcare Health Program insists that mattresses be certified “Safe” by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, to reduce risks of SIDS.
Online organic bedding resources include:
Clothes
Beyond bedding, parents still need to dress up junior. Similar concerns arise around chemicals used by the garment industry to produce mass-scale clothes.
The Environmental Illness Resource recommends practical low-cost alternatives to reduce exposure to chemicals in clothing and bedding:
- Steer clear of purchasing products with chemical finishes such as permanent press, wrinkle-resistant, antistatic, water- or stain-repellent.
- Avoid fabrics that have been treated with formaldehyde-based resins that can cause allergic skin reactions.
- All new clothing and bedding should be washed and dried three times prior to your child wearing it for the first time.
- Use fragrance-free laundry detergent. Avoid the use of fabric softeners, antistatic products, chlorine bleach and stain-removing products as they often contain fragrance and toxic substances that can irritate children's skin, eyes, nose and throat.
- Avoid "dry clean only" products, as they may contain residual toxic chemicals that can pollute the air for up to a week after they are brought home. If you have to dry clean a product, remove the item from the plastic covering immediately and let the fabric air out (preferably outside your home) for a few days.
Organic Options
The other solution, of course, is to travel the organic route. Organic cotton is very soft and is the best choice for children.
It used to be that organic cotton meant white, plain and, frankly, boring. Blame it on the dyes that still hadn’t found their way into eco-friendliness, but now “organic dyes are colorfast and there’s a wider range of designs to choose from,” says Annie Dean, executive director of operations and buyer for DayOne Center in San Francisco.
Here is a selection of organic apparel, most of these companies also promoting fair trade:
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Sage Creek makes adorable certified organic kimonos for young children from infancy through toddler years.
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Under The Nile is famous for its Egyptian-grown organic cotton toys and apparel, including blankets at competitive prices with sleek designs.
- San Francisco-based Speesees is another fashionable addition to fair-trade organic apparel companies, offering lovely short- or long-sleeved onesies, kimonos, yoga pants and bodysuits in attractive colors, with animal or plant graphics.
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Sckoon Organics makes funky and bold infant to toddler clothes, including their Japanese-inspired Zen & Kabuki line that would make even grown-ups dream of having the same stuff in bigger sizes.
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Beba Bean has developed a line of 100% bamboo jersey sleeping sacques, swaddling blankets and hats for infants.
Organic clothing is nowhere near mainstream, but when big player Target launches an eco-apparel line, it’s a market sign. On your favorite distributors’ shelves, you will soon find natural fibers like organic cotton next to hemp and bamboo.
Because it grows very fast without pesticides or fertilizers and is therefore sustainable, bamboo is widely viewed as the upcoming generation of fibers. However, bamboo processing uses heavy chemicals to break down the fibers and soften them, thereby fueling a controversy that bamboo may not be so green after all. Some manufacturers strive to get certification for their practices and their products (See article “Green clothes: How green is my bamboo tee-shirt?”). What next? “A lot of companies are looking for soy fabric for next year,” says Ms. Dean.
Even Shoes Can Be Clean & Green
On the shoe front, exciting ventures bring creativity to little feet, as showed to us by Cara Vidano of Natural Resources (www.naturalresources-sf.com), the Mission-based parenting store:
- New Zealand-based Kina (www.kinacollection.com) makes soft baby booties with the skin of lambs who died of natural causes and which would otherwise go to waste. With a lambswool inner and elastic opening, those are great booties for the budding walker.
- Created by a local mom, Scooter Bees (www.scooterbees.com) are baby booties made of post-consumer and post-industrial polyester, lined with bamboo velours (anti-fungal and anti-bacterial) and whose soles are biodegradable.
- Soft Star Shoes (www.softstarshoes.com), an Oregon-based venture, manufactures soft sole moccasins that come in leather (natural lambskin) or vegan-friendly (micro-suede or non-leather) materials. Soft Star Shoes makes their soft moccasins from infancy through adulthood. Hurray for thinking about sizes beyond preschool.
Now that you’ve got the rundown on green, the choice is yours. Every little bit helps.
About Laure Latham:
Feature writer, aspiring children’s book author, Laure Latham is the editor of the Golden Gate Mother’s Group newsletter. She has also published historical architecture articles for San Francisco Heritage and is a docent for school groups at the Haas Lilienthal House Museum. For more about her, visit her blog
http://frog-mom.blogspot.com
. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband and their two daughters.