Healthy Child Healthy World
I am very interested in green living for me and for my family. Do we do everything that we should? No. Could we do more? Absolutely. But I think that living with good intent is admirable and one shouldn’t be faulted for falling short while making their best effort.
I was excited when I received the new book Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home written by Christopher Gavin, CEO of the organization of the same name. This is a “go-to” guide for modern parents struggling to raise healthy children in a climate of BPA, phlalates, parabens, asthma, allergies, lead, and the list goes on. With all of the things that we have recently been told we should shield our children from, it’s a wonder that we haven’t been told to raise our kids in a bubble (but would we be able to purchase a large enough plastic bubble that didn’t contain BPA or PVC?).
With chapters on preparing a nursery, cleaning, food, beauty products, toys, gardening and yards, air and water, pets, and home improvement, you will surely find answers to any questions you may have about the threat du jour.
I appreciate this book because it is an affirmation of some of the choices that I have made for our family (e.g., choosing not to eat meat, using safer cleaning products, gardening organically). But it also identifies areas where we as a family can improve. I don’t suggest implementing all the changes at once and some of the suggestions may be out of reach (monetarily or practically) for some families. But maybe you could choose one or two areas to work on at a time. And when that becomes routine, move on to the next. Some things will be easy such as reading labels and not buying products with certain ingredients, buying locally grown organic produce at the weekly Farmer’s Market, or mowing your grass at 3 inches.
And if I have learned one thing in life, you can’t look back and feel guilty about choices you made in the past. You can only look to the future and do what you can with what you know now.
Enough of my preaching! Back to the book…
The book includes anecdotes from celebrities you know (“Parentblogs”), expert opinions, a detailed index (to lookup the threat du jour), and a great resources section (“Healthier, Nontoxic, Greener, Sustainable, Efficient, Safer, Cleaner Products, Services, and Informational Resources”). It is truly a primer for today’s parents on making healthy choices for their families, which will in turn benefit the earth.
I was impressed to see Earthbound Farm’s commitment to encouraging parents to read this book (from Earthbound Farm).
Earthbound Farm strongly believes this new book is essential reading for all parents and families. To create awareness of the book, on its website, Earthbound Farm has created an online quiz about keeping children safe from chemicals. For every quiz that’s completed correctly, Earthbound Farm will donate $1 to Healthy Child Healthy World – Earthbound Farm’s goal is to raise and donate $20,000. Those who complete the survey correctly will also receive Earthbound Farm coupons and their new Pocket Guide to Choosing Organic.
Healthy Child Healthy World is available online, in bookstores, and if you really want to be environmental, at your local library. Though I really think this is a great reference to keep on the bookshelf. Now go take the quiz at Earthbound Farm and then look at Healthy Child’s great website.
