This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure page. Worstfeeding I suffered from cracked, bleeding, and excruciatingly sore nipples for the first two months of breastfeeding my first son (although for most women, the pain will be milder and will last just a few weeks). After hearing great things about lactation consultants, I paid a ridiculous Australian woman $250
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Safe Baby/Kid Shampoo Guide
1. Babo Botanicals / 2. Carina Organics / 3. Lafes Organic / 4. California Baby / 5. Earth Mama / 6. Beautycounter / 7. Made Of / 8. Poofy Organics Updated: November 2016 Hair washing was a pretty pointless exercise for Felix for the first several years of his life; he was bald until 2. Wolfie has a bit more hair, so we use a tiny dab of Farmaesthetics Fine Herbal Cleanser as a
Safe Diaper Wipes Guide
UPDATED: JUNE 2017 I didn’t intend to use non-toxic baby wipes at all, and assumed that in addition to exclusive cloth diaper usage, I’d be employing a washcloth and warm water at changing time. Um, yeah. As soon as I experienced the convenience of the disposable wipe, wringing out poopy rags was a thing of the past. Because of the frequency with which we use baby wipes, the fact that
Safe Diaper Rash Cream Guide
1. Green Goo / 2. Babo Botanicals / 3. Earth Mama / 4. California Baby / 5. Poofy Organics We were pretty lucky in the diaper rash department, but if your baby is afflicted, you’ll want to find an organic diaper cream without chemicals (common culprits are parabens and BHA). Do Cloth Diapers Prevent Diaper Rash? My hunch is that cloth diapers are less likely to cause diaper rash than
Best: Frozen Food
If you don't make homemade purees for your baby, store-bought, organic frozen baby food is the next best thing. Frozen baby food has a higher nutrient-content than shelf-stable food (such as purees in jars or pouches), and the flavor is generally superior as well. What Happened to All the Organic Frozen Baby Food? Despite the superiority of organic frozen baby food, there are no longer many
Good: Jarred Food
Predictably, I had big plans of feeding Felix only homemade food when it was time to start him on solids. We first tried when he was six months old, but Felix had no real interest in anything besides the ultimate good stuff, AKA breastmilk, until after his first birthday. I ended up throwing away a ton of homemade fruit and veggie purees that I'd whipped up in the Beaba. Pretty soon, I was
Non-toxic Air Freshener Guide
1. Aura Cacia / 2. Eco-Me / 3. Moso / 4. Christina Maser When I started dating Daylon, I loved that his bachelor pad always smelled so nice, thanks to a prominent Glade plug-in in his entryway. Once I learned about what was in that air freshener, I promptly unplugged it. This meant that our apartment began smelling like whatever we’d last cooked—wonderful on the rare occasion when I baked
What Non-toxic Products Maia Uses
One of the most frequent questions asked by readers and by clients is, "What products are actually in your bathroom?" Here's what I'm using at the moment: Shampoo: John Masters Organics Lavender Rosemary Shampoo. Conditioner: My husband's totally toxic Biolage detangler. I'm just being honest here. It smells really good, but once this bottle is gone he's promised we are switching
5 Tips for a Safer Prenatal Beauty Routine
I recently wrote the following guest blog post for a local parenting website. How do I know which skin- and hair-care products are truly safe to use while I am pregnant? Answer: As you probably suspect, many beauty products advertised as “natural” or "organic" contain lots of questionable chemicals in their ingredients lists. Sadly, this is even true for those products marketed specifically
Two Cool Things About White Sunblocks
Whenever possible, I keep Felix in the shade. When we switched from chemical sunscreens to mineral-based sunblocks, I hated the way we all looked like geishas. (Be suspicious if your "all natural" or mineral sunscreen does NOT leave a white sheen on your skin--it probably contains nanoparticles). Now I'm a convert, and when it comes to using a non-nano, all natural sunblock on Felix, there are two