Archive for April, 2008

Will there be organics when I get there?

I am in the middle of packing for a trip to a mini-family reunion in Denver. Packing for the twins is turning out to be quite the feat. In particular, the food issue is what worries me. I feed the girls mostly organic foods and don’t know whether Denver, CO will be a bounty of organic baby food. I think we are a bit spoiled living here on the “wetcoast”. It seems there is a much higher interest in organic foods, a healthier lifestyle. I think that any traveler coming here wouldn’t have a difficult time finding organic produce and baby food.

So here I stand before a mountain of glass jars wondering three questions (perhaps someone out there can help me with these):
1) Will the twins melt if I feed them non-organic baby food made in the USA?
2) Will glass jars explode in the suitcase since the cargo hold of the plane is not pressurized?
3) Am I a paranoid freak?

Anyway, for now I will pack the jars and cross my fingers that they will not explode. I know too much about agricultural practices in conventional agriculture to leave them behind…

Cloth or disposable?

As an agrologist that works for an environmental NGO, I have lost much sleep over the whole cloth versus disposable diaper debate. We are all familiar with the arguments of less garbage in the landfill versus energy consumption from constantly running washing machines and dryers. I was also concerned about releasing chemicals into the environment cleaning cloth diapers and found that a number of diaper services out there are still using bleach. Not to mention that cotton is often grown in a less-than-sustainable and pesticide/herbicide-ridden environment. What was a girl to do?!?!?

Well… I thought the problem was solved for me when I found out I was having twins. What a great excuse. No time for anything, let alone a shower for myself, so disposables it was!! Now that the girls are 10 months and their demands are a little more manageable, the burden of the cloth debate began to consume me once again. We were throwing out an entire garbage can of dirty diapers every week. Every Friday when I put the garbage out, I felt horrible. Every time I did laundry on my brand new, high efficiency, water saving, beautiful washing machine and dryer (my new best friends) I thought about it.

I CAVED. I now belong to the cloth club. 3 days into it and I am pleasantly surprised. I haven’t even had to do laundry yet. I found a cloth diaper that is made from organic cotton and fits so well that it hasn’t been an overwhelming change at all. I searched high and low for good, easy-to-use, organic cotton diapers and I found them! Sckoon cloth diapers are fantastic! Even better is their breathable diaper cover (a must have as I quickly learned).

Lesson here, if you are grappling with this one, give them a try. I bought 2 and tried them a couple times. I also cheat a bit and use disposables at night and first thing in the morning for after the girls have their morning coffee (if you know what I mean hahahaha)…

My answer to the cloth versus disposable debate… be a fence-sitter like me USE BOTH!