Thinking about the environment means looking at what one spends money on when it comes to children. Diapers, clothing, bedding and also nursery furniture and all considerations of an eco-friendly upbringing. When one first starts looking at these things in detail, it can be surprising to find that there are a lot of potentially hazardous issues. This article is going to talk about nursery furniture and nursery materials and their potential hazard to the health of your baby and the environment and what to look for instead.

First of all when it comes to the nursery there are many things one wants to do with it; paint it, put in new flooring and clean it. Carpets, paint and cleaning products all can emit toxic fumes called volatile organic compounds of which some are carcinogenic and can irritate the lungs and thus one’s breathing. Children are much more susceptible to toxins then adults as their lungs are smaller and they also breathe much faster. Babies are even more susceptible especially as their lungs are much smaller and haven’t developed as far as a child’s or adult’s. Their immune and nervous system are only in the early stages of development. They also breathe faster. As a result they inhale more toxins than adults do and have much smaller bodies. This is also a caution for pregnant women, as inhalation of toxins can also affect the baby.

First of all one will want to paint the nursery and many people leave to the last minute. If you are going to paint the nursery it is best to do it as soon as you can and ventilate it well. If you are pregnant this is a job best left to someone else to be extra safe. When painting you need to give at least a month or so for the room to properly air before putting your baby in there. The longer you leave a room to dry and let the paint settle the better. It is also best to avoid conventional paint and look for eco friendly paints and ones low in VOCs. You could also try looking for milk or natural paints. There are also paints that are completely VOC free and thus do not emit any fumes. These are well worth looking for to be extra safe.

Besides paint there is also the floor to contend with. Carpet is far from ideal when it comes to toxins and being green. New carpet will emit VOCs and with its flame-resistant properties will also add more toxins into the mix. Carpets can also trap in dust, mold and pesticides and your baby will be crawling on it and be very close to it. Carpet is best avoided but there are some great alternative carpets such as cork or bamboo that you could use without the toxic issues. If you do not like the idea of a bamboo or cork carpet then wood flooring is the better option. You can also use natural rugs on the floor for particular areas to add some cosiness and make it softer for your moving baby.

Lastly there is the issue of furniture. Many people do not think that furniture could possibly admit toxins – I didn’t at one point. However if you are buying cheap MDF/chipboard style furniture, this type of furniture usually contains formaldehydes that can be hazardous to health. Avoid them at all costs and only go for furniture that is formaldehyde free or solid wood.

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One of the biggest problems the growing green movement faces can be found hidden in every baby’s diaper.  Eco friendly diapers are in short supply unlike that which they were intended to collect.  There currently aren’t enough landfills to deal with all the diapers out there.

Babies go through about 5,000 diapers during potty training and the EPA says that diapers account for  3.4 million tons of waste (roughly 2% for the US total) in landfills (1998 figures).  To qualify as eco friendly diapers it will be necessary to bypass the landfills as well as the harmful chemicals.

It may at first seem an easy, green choice to go with cloth diapers rather than disposable, but the diaper solution is not so cut and dried.  To make cloth your eco friendly diaper of choice you will need a few basic items.

First and foremost you will need a washer and dryer at your beck and call and the time to constantly wash the tainted offerings that your baby produces at a near prolific rate.  You will need to chose an eco friendly laundry soap and the style of cloth diaper that best suits your child.

This is by far the most preferable way to deal with the diaper issue, but not the solution for everyone.  City dwellers may look to a diaper service, but eco friendly diapers do not come from most pay services.  Due to excessive hot water use and necessity of chlorine bleach (to kill Staff and other infections common to babies), these services produce less than eco friendly results.

This takes us back to disposable diapers.  Conventional disposables (Pampers, Huggies) are also not eco friendly diapers.  Their manufacture involves chlorine (a volital organic compound VOC) and all use chemical gel cores that “lock in” a baby’s pee.  These chemical gels contain sodium polyacrylate known for respiratory and skin irritation problems (mind you in much higher doses than found in diapers).

These manufacturers would argue that the chemicals used are all within safe limits, but do you really want to swaddle your child in such potential problems?  Disposable, eco friendly diapers do exist, sort of and are are making strides towards even higher standards of green on a daily basis.

A well know manufacturer of many green products, Seventh Generation, makes a disposable eco friendly diaper or so they say.  The truth is a truly biodegradable diaper doesn’t really exist due to the quantity versus the available landfills.

But Seventh Generation is a very transparent company as far as their ingredients go and produces some of the best eco friendly products available.  They also claim that their eco friendly diapers use a “chemically inert”  gel and claim independent scientific research has shown it is “nontoxic, not carcinogenic, and nonirritating to the skin.”

Another company, Gdiapers, makes a similar product with the added advantage of making  their diapers flushable.  The flushable feature does eliminate the landfill problem (some statistics put a diapers landfill life around 500 years), but both of these so called eco friendly diapers use similar gel cores on which there is still not enough definitive research.

The winner, in this reviewers eyes, in the disposable eco friendly diaper contest is made by Tushies.  Assembled in the US, these are made of a cotton blend, chlorine free wood pulp and best of all, no chemical gels.  Not as widely available as the Seventh Generation product, this brand can be found in some health food stores and also online.

The final word on diapers is that “eco friendly diapers” is an still an oxymoron at this point.  Diaper services show facts that gel absorbents in disposables are harmful and disposables claim the chlorine used in diaper services is harmful. There is no definitive proof of either side being right.  The eco friendly diapers of the future will combine all the best features, flushability, no gel absorbents above all comfort and safety for your baby.