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I have debated on whether I wanted to post this or not. My theme has been back to school not hot green mom bloggers! Come on! I’m branding myself as a professional blogger and I’m also trying to spread the word about moms going green. What better way then to get on a hot blogger calendar? Only 12 women can be picked and shouldn’t one of them be sexy and sassy Green and Clean Mom? What are my chances of winning when 90% of my readers are females? Yeah, well I’ve come to terms with the unfairness of this but it is only going to have to make me work harder to get a green website on that damn calendar! So, put your sexuality aside and just vote for me because it’s voting for green being sexy and hot! It’s voting for moms being natural and who they are without the chemicals! Look, I personally think I’m sexy and hot but when you click yes to this I’m not necessarily saying you think this. I’m okay with that but out of 12 women bloggers online shouldn’t one be green? Shouldn’t one promote eco-savvy moms out there? YES! So vote for Green and Clean Mom people! Just keep scrolling down this poll until you see Green and Clean Mom. You only get one vote folks so make it count. Either way, this is fun so why not?

When children go back to school they’re exposed to more germs. That’s a fact. I taught for years and worked in child care settings and I know, children wipe their nose with their hands, they pick their boogers and then they touch stuff.  Some of them even put things in their mouths!

It’s gross.

It’s normal.

What’s a  mom to do when it comes to keeping the kids healthy? You can’t put your kid in a bubble and toxic wipes on every surface don’t work and aren’t good for the environment or your child. I’ve given some back to school tips for the teacher on how to have a non-toxic classroom but what about for the moms going green? How can moms keep their kids healthy through the school year? Are there natural alternatives to cold medicines and what vitamins are best?  First off, your child will most likely get sick. They’ll catch some virus and bug but it won’t be the end of the world. It’s actually good for their immunity.

Healthy Green Moms talks about some alternative solutions when your child has a cold. The saying, that your a cold lasts 14 days or two weeks, is pretty close to true.  This doesn’t mean you can ease the symptoms with chicken soup, tender loving care and cuddling and some homeopathic remedies to help the natural immune system!

I’m a believer in vitamin C regularly, a good diet, lots of fresh air and a great children’s vitamin. I think good old fashion hand washing and soap and water on surfaces regularly works wonders!  For alternatives to hand sanitizers and toxic surface wipes, For My Kids, is the way to go.  If you send your child to childcare or to school you can’t make sure they wash hands, don’t put things in their mouth and that the school regularly cleans the desks or surfaces. You can suggest it and talk with your child’s teacher and recommend some of my non-toxic classroom tips.

If your child does get ill and most likely they will, just know that it is normal. Wash your hands often to help avoid the cycle of illness.

1.  Help teach your child to sneeze into their arm, not their hand. This helps to avoid the spreading of germs.

2.  Don’t feel that rushing to the doctor to get an antibotic is the best bet, colds are viral so antibotics don’t help.  Help your child to get lots of rest.

3. The body needs to sleep and rest to repair itself. Let your child watch television in your bed or maybe spend some time reading in bed. Encourage lounging and resting until your child lets you know they’re ready for more activity.

4.  Help your child get plently of fluid to ease stuffiness and congestion, avoiding mucous producing products like milk and yogurt.

5.  Remember, a fever is the body’s way of fighting something. You know your child better than anyone so if the fever is low grade and they are acting fine, you might not need to do anything. If it is low grade and they are lethargic and not themselves a fever reducer, might be the answer. Kids Health has some basic guidelines for what a fever is and what they mean.  Personally, I try to avoid OTC medicines until I have to use them. If my child’s fever is high and they are acting miserable I might use and OTC product. I always wait to see before jumping the gun and giving them something they might not need. I’ve come to realize, the body, when let to work the way it is supposed to, is very powerful at healing itself.

Natural News gives some great suggestions on home remedies and using teas, ginger, zinc and other natural ingredients. I highly suggest checking this resource out.  For alternative homeopathic remedies I suggest Hyland’s, they’ve worked for me in the past and are very effective.

Back to school time means, healthy breakfasts are a must but there isn’t much time to make that happen. We’ve heard it over and over, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. This may be the case but I don’t believe every child or person is the “breakfast type”. Personally, I just want some coffee and maybe a piece of toast. I’m just not hungry or in the mood to eat in the morning. My husband loves breakfast food, my son nibbles and my daughter devourers her food and wants breakfast the minutes she wakes up.  Every person is different but that doesn’t change the fact that we all should eat something healthy to start our day.  With very little time in the morning how can parents have a healthy and nutritious meal and not rely on the frozen waffles and sugary cereal?

Here are my back to school, start the day off healthy tips:

1.  Make a breakfast casserole the night before and pop it in the oven.  I make quiches and call them breakfast pies, my son thinks he’s eating something special.   It is packed with protein and I’m controlling the ingredients (organic eggs, whole grain breads, organic milk, fresh broccoli, organic chicken or hormone free sausage).

2.  Smoothies! Smoothies! Smoothies! Here’s my favorite reciepe:

1 cup Stonyfield Organic Vanilla Yogurt

1 cup frozen strawberries or another berry of choice

1/2 cup orange juice

1 whole banana

2 tbs soy protein

Dribble of honey

Blend together with my magic bullet and serve with whole wheat toast. The kids love this!

3.  Breakfast pizza. It’s easy to make and doesn’t take too much time. Check out this great recipe I found from a home school website and remember, you control the ingredients so make it as healthy and natural as possible!

4.  Fruit Salad and cottage cheese. For my daughter this is a hit. Some pineapple or peaches along with cottage cheese and she is a happy camper.

5.  Oatmeal is a great breakfast if you add some fruit to the meal. This is probably one of my favorites warm and chunky. I love to have this on a cold morning. There are lots of options at health food stores and in the grocery aisle but don’t be fooled by the sugary ones. Remember, you are trying to get away from the sugar and carbs so the swirl of dinosaur eggs hidden in the instant oatmeal probably isn’t the healthiest choice.

6.  Breakfast wrap with whole wheat tortilla, shredded cheese, tofu and tomatoes. The children will love this wrap and it can be dipped in salsa for some extra flavor or scrambled eggs can be added instead of tofu.

7.  Organic vanilla yogurt with granola and fruit. My son is starting to like this but only if he sprinkles the granola on!

8.  If you make pancakes or french toast make them yourself. I add fresh fruit to my pancakes and use a whole wheat batter and add instant soy protein to the mix.  When I make french toast I use whole wheat organic bread and organic eggs and milk. I make several slices and freeze them to use other mornings. I pop in the toaster and my kids have french toast!

9.  Make nutritious muffins with an instant soy protein you can bake with and add veggies or fresh fruit. I like to use shredded zucchini, blueberries, apples chunks, and shredded carrots.  Check out a few of these great recipes: Ventures with Veggies:  Granola Muffins , Deceptively Delicious Muffins,

10.  For the mornings where everyone is running late and the alarm never went off, have some healthy breakfast bars on hand for the car. Be sure to include an organic milk box and a banana to round out the meal.

For some more great recipes, ideas and inspirations check out Healthy Breakfast Recipes for Kids.  The fruit pizza sounds divine!  Personally, using a great books like,  Organic Baby and Toddler Cookbook has helped guide me in using organic ingredients and incorporating more fruits and vegetables into my children’s diet. It’s for baby and toddlers but I still have a baby and so this helps me and it’s never to early to start!  The best thing to do is to plan ahead and have healthy foods on hand. If cereal is a child’s favorite look for some sugary alternatives and try to add fresh fruit to their bowl.  Make breakfast fun! Be goofy with your food and make faces like the picture! Sometimes we have to be clever to get our children to eat foods that are good for them. Set a good example and eat breakfast yourself, a healthy breakfast! Children are more likely to do as they see and if you’re eating your breakfast pizza, they might do the same!

Tis the season for packing lunches. I’ve gotten some emails asking for tips on how to pack a healthy school lunch and to “green” the lunch box. I have to say, when it comes to packing a healthy lunch I think parents have to keep in mind, the lunch room is competitive and there are lots of trades made. Yes, that means if you pack a banana it might get traded for something else, like an apple. Really, the scenario is more likely that if you pack your child a banana they most likely will find no child to trade with them. For you, this is good. For them, this is bad. I’ve seen what goes on in a lunch room and I wouldn’t want to humiliate my child and make them be “uncool”. So what you pack and how you pack it, it does effect your child. We can all tout the idea that we are teaching our children it is okay to be different and eat healthy and have a “green” lunch box but what about the child that is “in the moment”. They don’t have our adult self-esteem or confidence as they eat a sprout sandwich and munch on tofu sticks. Realize, I’m still an advocate for healthy options and lunches but I am realistic!

Here are my tips for greening the lunch box and having some still healthy but “cool” lunches”:

1. Sit down with your child and decide on some items that you both can agree on. You might want tofu but they might not eat it and just throw it in the garbage. How are you to know? Besides, that is a waste of money. By making a list of good foods that your child likes and will agree to eat you both win. Check out some holistic tips for packing a healthy lunch.

2. Decide where you will give in. If 90% of the lunch is organic, healthy and wholesome, will a chocolate pudding really hurt them? If they love chocolate chip cookies maybe make them at home on a Sunday with mom approved ingredients. Choose a sweet treat that they like and they are more likely to eat it then trade it. My son loves the Cliff Kid Twisted Ropes and I’m sure he would never trade this treat away. You can buy healthy lunch supplies but it’s important to look at tip number 1, will your child eat them.

3. If you know there are some treats or snacks that your child likes buy them in bulk. Save yourself money and time. I buy many of the Late July snack packs in bulk and it makes for an easy choice for me and the kids. They know they like them, I know they are healthy and they choose which kind they want that day. It makes things very simple.

4. Choose a lunch box that is eco-friendly. Meaning no plastic baggies! Laptop Lunch Bento boxes are BPA free, you don’t have to use any plastic bags and the system includes a recipe book. Another suggestion might be to try an eco-friendly lunch system from Nubius Organics. They offer a wide variety of lunch boxes and a wrap n’ mat for sandwiches. My only advise, make sure you teach your child not to throw any of the bento boxes away or the wrap n’ mats! Your child has to learn that these are reusable and that you are trying to cut down on waste in the landfill. You might have your mission and agenda but a child who is in a hurry to get to recess might not be so thoughtful. Be prepared to lose a few things if this is your first go around at ditching the plastic baggies.

5. Keep children hydrated. This is proven to help children learn better. I love it when schools allow for children to bring water to their desks. Thirsty children should be allowed to drink, it helps the brain. I suggest organic milk boxes for the lunch box but also include a reusable water bottle with cold water. Encourage your child to drink from this often throughout the day. I especially like the Foogo by Thermos.

6. Hot lunch is a great experience for children and many children enjoy the idea of joining their pals in the lunch line. It’s understandable but for a parent who worries about chicken nuggets full of hormones and greasy french fries and trans fat, the idea isn’t so wonderful. This is where I caution all going “green” parents and remind them of moderation. Our children cannot be shielded from bad food all the time and if we go over board, our children could revolt someday and only eat bad food. Teaching them about moderation and helping them learn to appreciate the healthy food and how fresh food tastes will go a long ways. The hope is for them to prefer that food. So should they be allowed to buy hot lunch? I say, yes. Let them choose a few days off the school menu and then make sure that their breakfast and lunch on these days are outstanding. Most school lunches are improving and if your school is not improving, do something about it.

7. Improve school lunches and vending machines. Not every parent can pack lunch and that is why there is hot lunches. Join the P.T.A. or P.T.O. and voice your concern. Too many children are overweight and obese that even if your child isn’t or you can pack a healthy lunch everyday, check out what Stonyfield Farms is doing to help make school menus and vending machines healthier and join the cause. Check out the Healthy School Nutrition Association and see what legislation is taking place and how you can help support the cause.

The best advise I can give to any parent wanting to help their children eat healthy and to “green” their lunch box and habits, get the child involved. When children are part of the solution they are more likely to like what is in their lunch and eat it. Children are capable of understanding why you aren’t using plastic baggies and perhaps they can be motivated or inspired to green their lunch room, depending on the age. There are lots of resources for getting your children involved in going “green” at school. If your child has the interest then seize the moment and check out some of these additional resources:

Green School Initative

NRDC The Green Squad

Kids Be Green

Aren’t we all? Maybe we do this or that, just trying to be a little more green and eco-savvy. No easy feat on top of having to pay bills, do the laundry, drive the kids here, buy this, potty train, cook, pack lunches and yes, shower and brush our teeth.  Getting tips and support from other moms sure does help. It also makes me feel like I’m not the only one. Hence, Green and Clean Mom Community.

I started this community of moms so that moms like myself could connect, share, support, gab, make new friends, learn new tips and best of all be themselves. I’d love for this online community of moms to grow large and be a form of revenue but mostly I want it to be personal and real. I want for moms to comment regularly, visit often and actually enjoy the forum. I see some groups with hundreds upon hundreds of members but they don’t actually have a “community”.   That is my goal, a community of green moms. Moms being eco-moms but best of all being themselves.

With that being said, I was having a hard time actually communicating with all the new members and reaching out to welcome them. It was actually the one reservation I had about starting this online community. I had a vision but as a one woman show, the vision was getting blurry and so I asked for help. I put it out there to the community members that this green mama was needing some administrative help to run the forum. Vague job description and terrible pay…nothing. Yeah, I know. I feel bad but there is no money to be paid, yet.  If advertisers would come knocking down my door or the grant I applied for would come through, I would happily share revenue. It’s just not there.  If you want to sponsor this online community of moms going green that are loyal and visitors and participants, hello…let me know!

Here is where “Trying to Be Greener” comes in, Kirstin. A fabulous mommy of a 7 month old baby girl who is literally, Trying to Be Greener and blogging about it. I think her personal blog is really genuine and it actually reminds me of when I began blogging in September of 2007. My favorite post is about dryer sheets and her frustration, it’s a great mom view.  She’s active everyday on at the community and posts on some great topics, green wood stain, toxic free liquid detergent and more. This mom is what the community is all about, try to be green and interacting with other moms doing the same. Kirstin gets no pay (yet) and no benefits (so to speak). Yet she graciously volunteered to help administer the website. In my book, she is a green angel.  Publicly, I want to thank her because she is what is helping to hold the community together. Welcoming new members, managing featured posts and basically helping me run the show. The least I can do is send some traffic, maybe some companies wanting a review and some link love her way!

I’m clapping right now so please join me. Maybe she’ll hear this.

Green and Clean Mom the Community is really trying to step it up. We are featuring five weekly members, we are seeking out members that want to contribute on a weekly basis and post some unique content. The aim is get a few new posts on the main page each day. Meaning fresh content for the members!  There are lots of forums out there and evey other person or site is starting a ning group and trying to get members, I know. I’m part of a dozen! So why join and participate in the Green and Clean Mom Community? I can’t answer that for you but I’m pretty sure if you give it a whirl you’ll be glad you did.

As consumers we sometimes lose. We buy what is cheaper, what is convenient and what we have access to. Sometimes this means we settle and lose. This doesn’t have to be the case if we join forces and say, “No more!” Just because companies take the cheaper route to make more money doesn’t mean we have to accept it and have unhealthy food and packaging.  What’s one little mommy blogger or mommy to do?

I’m rolling my eyes at my own sentence.

Let me help make this simple for you, join The Consumer Union, a non-profit organization to fight for us consumers. It helps us take the guess work out of what to do.  You can choose what campaigns to support and advocate for. They give you information on what is being done, tracking of the issues, when new issues arrive and what you can do as a consumer. It’s refreshing to see it all organized and laid out. It gives me hope.

For me, I’m choosing Not in My Food to help petition and urge the FDA to do more to protect us consumers from pesticides in our food and deadly unsafe contamination. They work for greener choices, safer labels and tracking of where our food comes from.

Another campaign I’m all for is Not in my cart to help keep our kids toys safe. The campaign has already been successful in helping to pass safer toy regulations and maybe reducing toy recalls.  Proving that consumers do have a voice and can make a difference.

There is nothing like getting dirty and finding things in nature. Children learn when they see, do, touch, and experience. To be a green mom, I have to let my kids just get dirty. They have to dig for worms, feel the soil, sometimes taste it and figure out what those worms are doing. It means scrubbing finger nails and taking long baths to soak but it helps the children understand for themselves what a worm is, how nature works and exactly what it feels like to figure something out. From all of my children’s exploring they have figured out, without me teaching them, that worms like dark, moist places to live. They know where the slugs are and which rocks to turn over. I did not teach them any of this but through exploration they have learned.

This has also taught my children empathy. They realize that worms are used for fishing or that birds eat them and they handle them gently. They want to know what worms eat and this led us to the discussion of composting and how soil breaks down. I found a neat power point presentation that helped teach my son about composting and then we took a trip to the library. He has now started asking us if we can make a compost bin and what are some ways that we can compost at home. One thing has led to another and now I am learning more about composting so maybe as a family we can begin using a compost bin or building one of our own.

I’ve discovered a few helpful books: Compost By Gosh by Michelle Portman and Worms Eat My Garbage by Mary Appelhof. These books are for me to figure out what I’m doing but my son has been looking at Wiggling Worms at Work by Wendy Pfeffer and the book A Handful of Dirt. We have a lot to learn but together we are discovering how to be more earth friendly. We can start big and make our own as the power point show us or we can just start with a small kitchen composting bin and work up from there. Either way, it is fun to learn about. Something as simple as digging for worms one day has ended in book buying and library trips to learn more! To be a green mom and raise your kids green you don’t have to just care about BPA Free Sippy cups or organic food. There are lots of ways to be an eco-mom and help your children learn about the environment! My advise, get dirty and go from there!

Alright moms, there’s nothing I hate more than big money winning when it comes to our children and their safety but that is exactly what is about to happen. I’ve written about BPA dangers here and here and here and given you facts that there is just cause to rid BPA from plastics and to choose alternatives.  I don’t live in California but if I did, I’d be all over this! If you live in California do something. If you don’t live in California you can still do something. Mommy bloggers are powerful and we have ways to reach hundreds and thousands of California moms, so lets do it. Just copy and paste the text below and post about this today!  There is no time to spare. Come on moms, lets stand up to the chemical industry and stand up for our children and their health and safety!

The California state Assembly is voting on two monumental bills in the next 24 hours. SB 1713 would ban bisphenol A (BPA), a hormone disruptor, from baby bottles, sippy cups, and infant formula. SB 1313 would ban cancer-causing PFCs (Teflon chemicals) from food products

California could pave the way for the nation. But we’re up against a powerful and well-funded enemy — the chemical industry. Right now, the industry’s minions are calling California households, advertising in our newspapers, and lobbying our assembly members.

TAKE ACTION: http://ewg.org/SafeCA

It’s up to us to stop them. They may have money, but we have numbers. Our assembly members need to hear from us today.

I just called my assembly member and asked them to vote YES on SB 1713 and SB 1313. You can, too.

TAKE ACTION: http://ewg.org/SafeCA

BPA is linked to cancer and early puberty. Canada is moving rapidly to ban it, but there are no federal standards in the U.S. PFCs are linked to cancer, too.

If we don’t stand up to the chemical industry, no one will. Tell your assembly member to support safe baby bottles, sippy cups, canned food, and food packaging — and not to cave to industry pressure.

Time is running out — don’t wait to make your voice heard. Stand up for children’s safety today.

TAKE ACTION: http://ewg.org/SafeCA