When it comes to diaper options, I do have to admit that I was a reluctant adopter of the more eco-friendly and budget friendly cloth diapers. In fact, I didn’t use it for my firstborn, relying quite heavily on disposable diapers when I had him 6 years ago. Today, with an almost 1-year old boy following me around all day, I’m really glad that I finally did try cloth diapers.

So what are the perks of choosing cloth diapers over disposable?

• Waste reduction – Obviously, one of the main draws of using cloth diapers is the amount of waste you avoid piling on mother Earth. Looking back at how much disposable diapers I went through with my firstborn makes me cringe.
• Savings – The first time you go out to buy your stock of cloth diapers will probably make it seem more expensive than using disposable diapers. However, depending on the brand of cloth diapers you use (and there are plenty of brands out there!) and the number of diapers and inserts you buy, you’ll be reaping the financial reward in saving within a few months. And since a lot of cloth diapers are adjustable and will last for more than a year, just imagine how much money you’ll save!
• Fashion – Disposable diapers may have cute little drawings on them, but if you want a fashionable looking diaper, then it’s cloth diapers you should use. I admit to feeling like buying more cloth diapers than needed whenever I see a new design come out.
• Performance – The main reason why I was so slow to adopt cloth diapers was that I had misgivings about how well they work. I just didn’t believe that my baby’s little but would stay dry with it. Well it does. And if you use 2 to 3 inserts instead of just one like I do, you can even go all night without changing your baby’s cloth diaper.
• Organic Choices – You will also find many organic baby cloth diapers. Even if you do not use cloth diapers made from organic material, you only need take a look at the materials used for disposable diapers and feel happy and proud for reducing the amount of toxins that touch your baby’s skin each time you use cloth diapers instead.

Photo via Caleb’s Closet Eco Store Facebook Page

In the news again were some chilling findings that a slew of everyday bath products made for kids had dangerous levels of carcinogens. Like any Mother, my reaction is deep resentment and anger for these big companies that let things like this happen for years, and how lethal ingredients like formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane is found in every day items we put on our bodies. Both substances are known to cause cancer, so when you think about it, it somewhat explains why so many people in the world today have the terrible disease.

What I find especially disturbing is that in the list are brands that most families like mine have trusted for years, believing they were safe for our children. Products like Johnson’s Baby Shampoo, which my husband still loves! The group who uncovered the dirty facts were non-profit Campaign For Safe Cosmetics, and here’s some of what they said:

” Despite marketing claims like “gentle” and “pure,” dozens of top-selling children’s bath products are contaminated with the cancer-causing chemicals formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane, according to the March 2009 Campaign for Safe Cosmetics report, “No More Toxic Tub.”

This study is the first to document the widespread presence of both formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane in bath products for children, including baby shampoos, bubble baths and baby lotions. Many products tested contained both chemicals.
The chemicals were not disclosed on product labels because they’re contaminants, not ingredients, and therefore are exempt from labeling laws.

Formaldehyde contaminates personal care products when common preservatives release formaldehyde over time in the container. Common ingredients likely to contaminate products with formaldehyde include quaternium-15, DMDM hydantoin, imidazolidinyl urea and diazolidinyl urea.

1,4-dioxane is a byproduct of a chemical processing technique called ethoxylation, in which cosmetic ingredients are processed with ethylene oxide. Manufacturers can easily remove the toxic byproduct, but are not required by law to do so. Common ingredients likely to be contaminated with 1,4-dioxane include PEG-100 stearate, sodium laureth sulfate, polyethylene and ceteareth-20.

The key bit there I think is: “Manufacturers can easily remove the toxic byproduct, but are not required by law to do so.” So when the group conducted the study, they found that there were still large amounts of the toxins which meant that the companies didn’t bother to remove the poisonous byproducts. WHY?

Around the world, several countries have already taken measures to ensure that their baby products are safe, like in China, where they are being removed from supermarket shelves and undergoing more testing. Japan and Sweden have already banned formaldehyde from personal care products.

Aside from 1,4-dioxane and formaldehyde, watch out for these baddies too:

peg-100 stearate, sodium laureth sulfate, polyethylene and ceteareth-20, quaternium-15, DMDM hydantoin, imidazolidinyl urea, diazolidinyl urea and sodium hydroxymethoylglycinate.

For the full list of tested products as well as more information, check out the article here.

You really know something is wrong with the environment when things affect you first hand. Take the latest news about the rapid bee decline seen in the world today. Scary, yes. But even scarier when you try to buy honey from your local bee keepers, and they say that sorry, there just isn’t any.

Actually, it was my Mother who went to the local bee farm over the weekend to buy the delicious virgin honey that she has been buying for years. Well, last Sunday the bee keeper bleakly told her that there simply wasn’t any. The bees just didn’t make them. Were they leaving? or worse, were they dying? Are the culprits really pesticides?

So if the bees were indeed dying out, wouldn’t it mean that we wouldn’t have so many of the fresh produce we enjoy today? Like apples? And worse, if there weren’t bees pollinating our plants, how would nature survive?

Entomology professor at the University of Massachusetts, Dr. John Burand recently had a lecture called “Colony Collapse Disorder in Honey Bees: The Tip of the Iceberg.” in which he explains the dire facts:

So what is Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)? A beekeeper in Pennsylvania first reported CCD in 2006. The symptoms include fewer or no adult bees, but the hive has plenty of larvae and honey. Surviving bees do not want to touch the food, though, nor do predators that would normally gorge on an empty hive. Historically there have been many large die-outs, but the extent of commercial migration of bees to pollinate different crops has spread the disease all around the country, with more than 30 states reporting heavy losses; some experts predict one-third of all honey bees have died since 2006. Some commercial operations have even lost all of their bees.

There’s no easy answer to what causes CCD, but Professor Burand suggested four main areas that are probably factors. First, stress on the bees from migration and other factors weakens the bees’ immune systems. Secondly, parasitic mites, which live off of, and eventually kill, the bees are a major factor, though these pests are nothing new. Next, pesticides on crops and in people’ yards harm the bees. Finally, these factors all lead to pathogens, like bacteria, fungi and viruses, killing off bees that would otherwise be able to fight off these diseases.

So is there any thing we can do to help these poor bees? Yes. Support organic farming. Buy organic. Its that simple.

For more information on the plight of bees today, check out these links:

Bee Crisis Hits Apple festival

French Blame Pesticide For Bee Decline

Mass Loss of Bees Threatens Our Ecosystem

Perhaps the first and easiest step you can take in going green at home is to eat organic food. Depending on where you live, finding organic produce is not that difficult, and in major cities around the world, the choices for organic food are astounding!

But first, lets get our facts straight.  What exactly is organic food?

“Organic means that it’s grown without the use of herbicides, pesticides. It’s not genetically modified; it’s not irradiated….Organic farming protects the planet, so it’s a win-win. It’s healthier for us, and it’s healthier for the planet.”

Says Sophie Ulanio, green guru and writer of Gorgeously Green.  So how to start? Sophie says that you should start with what you use the most, or who in the family needs it most.  In our case, we have an 8 month-old-baby, and since he started eating solids at 6 months, its been organic vegetables and cereal all the way.  Since I already buy all our vegetables at our local organic market, getting organic baby food ready was easy, almost as easy as buying the jars from Earth’s Best, which I also do.

My two other kids also enjoy Earth Best’s other products, namely the Sesame Street line (no surprise here), which includes biscuits, juice and even frozen waffles. There’s a whole slew of products out there for the kids.  Organic milk and yogurt should be at the top of your list, then the vegetables and fruit (although you can use a natural fruit and veggie wash for non-organic produce), then eggs, meat and poultry. My kids, who are pasta snobs, have even found an organic brand which they love – Garofalo, which is made in Italy.

It may cost a little more, but if you take the time to read the packaging and compare them to the other packaged kids products at the supermarket (with all the rubbish they add in), you’ll be convinced.

Welcome to Yurto, the blog about eco-friendly living in the home. Inspired by the yurt, an ancient circular dwelling place built in tune with nature, we hope to explore the ways we can all make a change for the better in the world that we live in – beginning from our homes.

Why is it so important to go green? Al Gore, who woke up the world with his now-famous documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, puts it succinctly:

“…Some of the leading scientists are now saying we may have as little as 10 years before we cross a kind of point of no return, beyond which it’s much more difficult to save the habitability of the planet in the future…”

10 years??? Now that’s a scary thought.  If you have children like me, that’s enough reason to stop procrastinating and do something about NOW.

So from plastic to canvas, wasting to conserving,  lets find ways to care for the earth while we can and live healthier, happier lives.