All Natural Electrolyte Drink Recipes

My older son just broke his 7.5 year no-stomach-bug streak.  He's 7.5 years old, so we had a perfect record until now.  Very sad.  Truly.

We're on day two of the massive north-south ailment and the worst appears to be over, but he still has a fever and has been lethargic.  While he's been drinking regularly and well throughout, it's time for some electrolytes.  My very kind sister brought over some unflavored Pedialyte, which was immediately put to use.

As he polished it off, I had to ask, how could I make my own homemade version?  Because while Pedialyte is a great emergency resource, if I'm the sort of person who might try to make her own mascara, I'm likely to also make my own sick-day drink - or ice pops. 

e·lec·tro·lyte/iˈlektrəˌlīt/

Noun:

A liquid or gel that contains ions and can be decomposed by electrolysis, e.g., that present in a battery. The ionized or ionizable constituents of a living cell, blood, or other organic matter.

Rather than "regurgitate" everything I learned through my Googling, let me just give you a few good links for recipes (you might want to skip the Kool-Aid, though):

Natural Electrolyte Replacement Drink Recipes

Another Electrolyte Replacement Drink Recipe

Homemade Pedialyte Pops

Stay well!

New Water Bottle For Back To School

We take hydration very seriously here in Texas in the summertime, so my boys always carry an extra drink.

My boys are back at school, now, and brought with them new water bottles.

They love their new water bottles. They're from Klean Kanteen, hold 27 ounces and they're carrying them in these Built bright red neoprene insulated totes. I just pack the drink with ice in the morning and it stays cold for a few hours.

 

On the back of each carrier, I wrote a son's name with a black Sharpie so there's no confusion about which bottle belongs to which son.

I like knowing I'm keeping my boys safe and healthy, and they like how cool the bottles look.

The Importance Of Good Air Quality In Your Home, And How To Improve It

We live in northern Texas, as you may know.  It's part of Tornado Alley.  That's the popular expression for the area of the US that's most prone to tornadoes.  It stretches from Texas to Iowa.  It's frequently windy, it's sometimes scary, and it's always dusty. 

image courtesy of http://www.climateandweather.net

When we first moved into our house, there was a fine sheen of dust on every surface.  We'd clean and it'd be there again the next day.  So we changed the filthy air filters.  Within a week, dust was accumulating again.  After a while, I learned that there are certain times of year when the dust is worst, but that we'd typically have to change our air filters every two months.  Certain filters we'd have to change every month.

This is a drastic difference from my life back east, where air filters were such an afterthought that they'd often only be changed once a year.

Here's a photo of one month of summer dust (left) beside a fresh, clean filter:

What's my eco-point in all of this?  Shockingly, it's actually not the matter of how many filters get tossed into a landfill.  I'll address that in a future post.  It's the issue of respiratory health. 

Part of living green is doing whatever you can to keep your environment favorable for good health.  Keep your environment clean of allergens so you don't have to pop allergy pills, so that allergies don't turn into sinus infections requiring antibiotics.

Here are a few of the ways we optimize the air in our home:

• change air filters as often as necessary (ideally, have washable filters so you don't contribute so much to your landfill)
• vacuum and dust weekly  (don't forget those high-up places where dust piles up; don't forget to get under the furniture)
• if given a choice, hard wood or tile floors are easier to keep clean than carpets and don't trap dirt and allergens
• clean surfaces and hard floors with all natural products - check out my "homemade cleaners" tab for recipes
• wash bed linens weekly in hot water to kill dust mites; clean mattress pads often
• don't wear shoes in the home - park them just inside the the door to avoid tracking in allergens and toxins
• keep pets clean - each time they venture outdoors, they track allergens and toxins back into the home
• don't leave windows open on windy days

Do you have other tips for improving the air quality in your home?

Why Go PVC-Free And How To Do It

It's back-to-school time and I'm shopping for a backpack from my kindergartener.  Though he is dying to have a Ben 10 backpack, I've ruled it out because of the PVC.

PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, first gained popularity as a building material - in its hard form it is a cheaper alternative to wood, concrete and clay.  About 50% of the PVC produced in the world is used in construction.

But it can be made quite flexible with the addition of plasticizers, the most widely used being phthalates. In this form, it is used in clothing and upholstery.  Ever smelled that new shower curtain smell?  Smell that same smell on your child's Spider Man backpack, lunch bag or shiny rain coat? Ever seen bottles with #3 printed inside the recycling symbol? PVC.

What is so bad about PVC?  It's toxic.  Pollution created by its production is spread into the air, land and water.   The additives mixed with PVC resins (such as the aforementioned phthalates, as well as stabilizers) can leach out of a PVC product during its useful life posing health hazards, including the development of reproductive problems in children. At the end of PVC's useful life, it then leaches toxins into landfills.   So, it's a problem from the moment it's created until, well, no one knows.

You don't want it on your child's backpack, food or drink, shower curtain, t-shirt (you know those big iron-on pictures?), rain coat, lunch bag or teething ring.

Below are a few guidelines for healthier choices. You can visit my store for more ideas.

Backpacks: choose hemp, organic cotton, or recycled materials
Lunch bags: choose BPA-free and PVC-free
Lunch containers, cups, bottles and reusable utensils: choose stainless steel, bamboo utensils, stainless steel straws, cotton napkins, BPA-free and PVC-free
Shower/Bath: choose cotton shower curtains and eco-friendly non-slip bath mats
Rainwear: go PVC-free

Other tips to reduce or eliminate toxins in the kitchen:

• Boot plastic and Teflon from your kitchen - use Pyrex or stainless steel for storage, glass pitchers for juice, stainless steel cooking utensils and cast iron cookware.  
• Don't use plastic in the microwave - ever.
• Don't put hot things in your plastic food mill or blender.

For more on eliminating toxins, visit my left sidebar.

Another Way to Get Your Kids to Eat Veggies: Juicing!

I am constantly trying new ways to get my kids to eat their vegetables (I've written a few posts on the subject: see here).  My older son is pretty good about it but my younger son is one tough customer.  Among other methods, I've tried:

• pureeing cooked carrots, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower and squash and hiding them in marinara (not all of them at once), mac and cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches or hamburgers
  
• adding spinach to fruit smoothies
• making cute faces with them (green bean as mouth, carrot as nose, zucchini slice as eyes)
• bribery (I'm not proud).  

But until recently, I hadn't tried juicing.  Juicing has many health benefits - I encourage you to read more about them here.  I was astonished at what I'd been missing by not incorporating this "delivery mode" into my diet.

So here is how it unfolded: I picked my older son up from school and told him about the exciting activity I had planned: he could make his own juice!  We could try all sorts of vegetables and fruits!  We could combine them and see how they tasted together!  (I used a lot of exclamation points in my pitch.)  He was very excited by the time we got home.  My two sons and I made our own fresh apple, pineapple, mandarin orange, carrot, spinach/carrot, and apple/orange juices.  It was really fun.  I had made fresh squeezed orange juice before but had no idea how great other fresh juices can taste.  Tonight, before dinner, my younger son asked for carrot juice.  Now that is success!

The juicer I bought is powerful, quiet and easy to clean.  It does not do as good a job with green leafies as a really high-end juicer, but it serves my needs quite well.  It's the Jack Lalanne PJP Power Juicer Pro Stainless-Steel Electric Juicer.

Swine Flu Has Visited My House

This has been a tough few months for the kids.  We've probably been through 4 different viruses since school started in August, despite being chronic hand washers, having a no-shoes policy in the house and disinfecting our hands whenever we enter our car after we've been out and about.  The kids collected the airborne viruses like magnets.  Thankfully, they never contracted any of the really ugly digestive-type illnesses, though (I chalk this up to the diligent hand washing).  We did get the seasonal flu shot but did not and will not get the Swine Flu vaccine because of concerns about its efficacy and the connection to Guillain-Barre Syndrome.

My five-year-old ran a fever a few weeks ago and the fever lasted for maybe a week, peaking one day at 106F.  He was lethargic and had a headache.  But we had him tested TWICE for Swine Flu and Strep and the tests were always negative.

So when he ran a slight fever over this past weekend and had a slight cough but was otherwise okay, I kept him home from school for the duration of the fever (as I always do) but otherwise didn't think much of it.  But on Friday, as I packed for our trip to LA, I decided he should get tested one more time.  The cough had really lingered and I wanted to be sure before I exposed hundreds of people to him.  Sure enough, SWINE FLU.  I was flabbergasted.  This was almost a non-event - I almost didn't even have him tested, and none of the rest of us got sick.

So he had to stay home with his Dad and I went alone to LA.  He was devastated.

I just thought I'd share our experience so that folks might understand that not everyone ends up in the hospital, not everyone gets terribly ill from Swine Flu.  If you do not have underlying health problems, think HARD before you get the Swine Flu vaccine and all that comes with it.  Don't succumb to the hysteria.

Is Water Fluoridation Necessary, Or Even Good for Us?

Our family is very careful about what we put in our bodies.  We eat a largely organic diet and minimize our exposure to toxins. 

• I make my own all natural cleaning supplies.   
• We bathe our kids with all natural, organic shampoos and use only the safest sunscreen.  
• Our fruits and vegetables are mainly organic.  Our dairy is always organic.  Our meat and poultry is organic, or at the very least, vegetarian-fed and free of antibiotics and growth hormones.  Our organic diet allows us to avoid artificial colors and flavors, as well as high fructose corn syrup.
  
• We have all but eliminated plastic from our kitchen, cook with cast iron and store our food in Pyrex or stainless steel containers.  
• We don't drink bottled water because of chemicals that may leach out of the plastic bottles (and most of it is tap water anyway) and use stainless steel bottles when we're out and about.
  

But I'm becoming increasingly concerned that all of this effort is being offset by chemicals that may be lurking in our drinking water.  I've written about this before.  I thought I'd resolved my concerns and settled on drinking our tap water.  But I've been thinking more about the studies that point to the presence of sex hormones, mood stabilizers, anticonvulsants and antibiotics in municipal drinking water.  See this article, or this one or this one.  Is this why children are going through puberty earlier, has it contributed to health problems, is this one reason autism is on the rise?  Maybe what I'm doing now to protect my family isn't enough.  I haven't found any home kits that test for the presence of pharmaceuticals and my city doesn't test for them, so I have to go on faith that our tap water won't harm my family over time.  Hmm. Not feeling the faith.

Just about the only element of municipal drinking water that has kept us from installing a reverse-osmosis filter is fluoride.  But I wonder: is water fluoridation really necessary, or even good for us?  My kids get fluoride treatments from their dentist twice a year and I brush their teeth twice a day with fluoride toothpaste.  Do they really need it in their drinking water, too?

So I took the opportunity to ask the dentist today at my kids' semi-annual cleaning/checkup whether fluoridated water is necessary.  She said that having systemic fluoride (i.e., from drinking water) is important for developing teeth more than for the teeth that have already broken through (since these can be cleaned with fluoride toothpaste and given fluoride treatments).  So I asked her if she thought it would be okay if I started using reverse osmosis for our drinking water once the kids' adult teeth started coming in, and she said yes.

I'm still wondering about it, though.  How much damage might these chemicals do to my family in the three years until my younger child starts losing baby teeth? 

What would you do?

Will you get the swine flu vaccination? (originally posted 9/18/09, updated 10/2/09)

On the one hand, I've read that one of the vaccine's supposed ingredients, squalene (an element added to stimulate the immune response), may have been responsible for Gulf War Syndrome.  And there is worry of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a serious neurological disease that was associated with the swine flu immunization of 1976.

On the other hand, my children's pediatrician says the H1N1 vaccine is not much different from our annual flu vaccines (only the flu strain addressed by the vaccine is different) and we shouldn't be afraid of it.  And it will be available in a preservative-free formulation, which is the only one her office will carry.

At the risk of attracting the ire of anti-vaccine activists, I'll state that I've had my children vaccinated as scheduled (though I always requested and received the preservative-free formulation), including their annual flu shots.

I'm on the fence on this one, though.  Can someone help me untangle this debate?

Update 10/2/09:
NOT getting it.

What, If Any, Dietary Supplements Do You Give Your Kids?

I think we should all endeavor to get whatever vitamins and minerals we need from natural sources in our diet.  To that end, I consistently put healthy, well-balanced meals and snacks in front of my kids.  Without fail, even on birthdays (I know, I'm such a meanie), and they don't get dessert unless they do a decent job with "the good stuff."

But we all know you can't make a small child eat anything.  Despite efforts to hide the vegetables (in tomato sauce, grilled cheese sandwiches, mac and cheese, smoothies, muffins, etc.), they don't always eat everything on their plate, so I know they don't always get everything they need in order to maintain their health.  Last night I even tried to hide baby spinach on my kids' pizza by pureeing and sprinkling it under the cheese.  When my older son asked about it I told him it was "just spices" - but he was too smart for that ploy.

So, I'm a believer in dietary supplements for my kids.  Here is what I give mine:

1. If you've followed this blog since its inception, you know I'm a big proponent of probiotics in our diet.  I've been giving my kids Country Life's Maxi Baby-Dophilus, a powdered probiotic that I put in their morning juice.  
2. I also give them Gummy Vites Multi-Vitamins and Gummy Calciums - these look exactly like gummy bears and my kids love them.
3. Lastly, I recently started giving my kids a liquid vitamin D3 supplement in their morning juice, after reading about how D3 deficiency makes a person more susceptible to swine flu.  In the age of sunscreen (my kids wear it frequently), unless they're getting enough D3 in their diet, they're not getting enough of it.  Since I'm leaning toward opting out of the H1N1 vaccine for my family (given all of the concern about what the vaccine itself might do to harm our health) I want to be sure we're doing what we can to help our bodies combat it.

Do you think I'm missing anything here?  What supplements, if any, do you give your kids?

Why Did God Make Germs?

My five year old has put forth an avalanche of questions in the past year. 

"What does Superman's cape do?" (it looks cool)
"Why do you and Daddy have to be alone sometimes?" (we like each other)
"Why do some animals eat plants and others eat meat?" (they eat what their teeth and stomachs can handle)
"Are you a safe driver?" (of course, but no one else on the road is)
"What's 10 minus 12?"  (-2  - he's fascinated by the notion that zero is not the smallest number)
"What's the biggest number?" (infinity - this thrills him, too)

And most recently, "why did God make germs?" 

I pondered my response, knowing the best answer probably wasn't "so that Mommy could see just how little sleep she could have without cracking up!" or "so that we could see just how many viruses the entire family could catch in the first month you are back at school!"

I paused, then replied, "no one really knows why God does things but I it seems to me that if we didn't get sick we might not appreciate it when we feel well.  Feeling well is a pretty terrific thing, don't you think?"  He did. 

He turned to the toddler and said, "you don't want to get sick do you?" Eyes wide, the toddler shook his head.  "So don't put your finger in your nose!"

That's my boy!
 

Mom, I Want A Snuggie!

It's become apparent that my five-year-old pays close attention to the advertisements during his daily allowance of TV.  He's informed me that there are diapers that stretch and move with your baby - "shouldn't we have those for my baby brother?"  Half of his birthday wish list was comprised of items "As Seen On TV" such as the Zero Gravity Micro Car and the RC Helicopter Apache.

It's one thing to try to convince kids they want to consume blue yogurt because there's a cool looking kid on a skate board on the container. Or hamburgers with 50 grams of fat to get a $0.05 lead-infused plastic toy that will break in the car on the way home from the fast food restaurant, causing endless tears.  Or collect fifty CARS movie cars, half of which are no longer made so you have to search for them on eBay - not that I would know anything about that! Or collect Bakugans (like any 5 year old can figure out that game!) or Transformers (when they can't even see the movie) or YUGIOh/Gundam/Pokemon whatever-the-heck cards and/or action figures.  I know my kids will ask for these and I will tell them to put them on their birthday/Christmas list, then I'll choose just a few items off of said list.

But the most recent addition to his wish list was a Snuggie.  A SNUGGIE!  "It's BIG, and it's a BLANKET, and it comes with these SLIPPER SOCKS, and it's BLUE and I want one, Mom!"

ENOUGH, television advertisers.  With all due respect to adults who choose to wear Snuggies, I will not have my child traipsing around in one.  Talk about a ticket to social ostracism.  Have you seen that family in the TV ad at the football game?  They look like a bunch of cult members waiting to catch a ride on Halley's comet!  Come on!  Growing up is hard enough without saddling a kid with that sort of baggage.

Sorry son, don't even bother putting it on the wish list.  Not. Gonna. Happen.

"We Will Miss You Juan" - How Do You Talk To A Child About Death?

Yesterday, as I drove to pick up my five-year-old from school, I saw a large electronic sign that had been parked by the side of the road to his school - the kind of sign the city uses to announce road work. It read, "WE WILL MISS YOU JUAN." I wondered who Juan might be and why the city was using its resources to post a message like that. Maybe someone special in the public works department?

On the return trip with my son, a massive funeral procession passed us (strangely, the second I'd seen in two days). At the front were two motorcycle cops, followed by a fire engine, more police cars, city vehicles, and then maybe 200 more cars. The scene was so striking that I immediately knew this was someone very special. Everyone on both sides of the 4 lane road pulled over and respectfully waited as the procession went by. The casket was in the back of a pickup truck with four brawny men sitting on each side of it - pallbearers, I guessed. I'd never seen a casket transported like that.

My son asked why we had stopped and what was going on on the other side of the road. I could have glossed over it, but I thought I might be able to lightly delve into the topic (I have to at SOME point). A lump in my throat, I pointed to the motorcycle cops and the approaching fire engine with the long line of headlights following it and told him, "it's a funeral procession - the largest I've ever seen."

I went on, "when someone dies, everyone who loved that person comes together to celebrate the person and say goodbye - that's what a funeral is. When the funeral is over, everyone follows the casket to the cemetery. They say prayers and then put the casket in the ground. This must have been someone very special, loved by many many people."

"That's sad," my son said. "Yes, very sad," I said, "maybe it was a firefighter, since there's a fire engine at the front of the line. Maybe the firefighter died saving people."

I went on to explain that every living thing dies one day - bugs, flowers, animals and people too. "I don't want to die, Mom!" Gulp! I said, "no, no, humans live a very very long time, sometimes 100 years if they eat right, get rest, exercise and keep learning. You are only 5 years old - you could live another 95 years! That is a very long time. Don't you worry about that." I then talked a little about heaven, that people who die go there and are very happy there with God. Thankfully, he seemed satisfied. Treacherous waters safely navigated - for now.

Traffic began to move again and we approached the intersection where the electronic sign was still flashing. I said to my son, "you know, I think his name was Juan. There's a sign there saying WE WILL MISS YOU JUAN - I'll bet that is for him. Wow, he was really loved. I wish we knew him - he would have been a wonderful person to know."

"Mom, I'm glad we know his name now. I wanted to know his name."

"Mom, will I have so many people there?" "Of course," I said, "at least as many. You are a wonderful boy and you will be a wonderful man. Many many people will love you very much in your life, as much as we love you now."

"Mom, if I forget, will you tell me his name again?" My throat caught a bit, "of course."

When is the perfect time to discuss death with a child and how do you go about it? I guess it would not be great to discuss it for the first time right after someone close to the child dies. I hope I made the right decision.

Welcome Back to School - Here's Your Complimentary Virus!

School started August 17 for my five year old. His nose started mildly running on the 26th.

The toddler fell ill on the 27th and the evening of the 28th he was up all night (no joke). The nose bulb and nebulizer were back in business.

I took both kids to the doctor on the 28th. Verdict: the "welcome back to school!" virus. Ok, the doctor didn't call it this but the name seems appropriate.

The five year old's birthday party was yesterday. The two year old was too sick to go - good thing he's only two and didn't realize. His Dad stayed home with him while I ran the party.

By yesterday evening, I was sick, turning in at 8:30 pm. When the toddler woke up at 6:30 am this morning (full of beans), I asked my husband to take him so I could go back to bed. He woke me up at 10:30 am with a breakfast tray of organic pancakes, sliced bananas, fresh coffee and iced juice. I think I'll keep him! Though the family room looked like a tornado hit it when I came downstairs, the kitchen was immaculate, which more than compensates.

And now my husband is sick.

I'm hoping we're just getting all of this business out of the way early so we can have a nice healthy school year. Let's hold hands and chant together! "heal-thy school year!" "heal-thy school year!" "heal-thy school year!"

Delicious Kefir Smoothie

Many parents give their babies and children yogurt because it's a good source of calcium. But it's also a good source of beneficial intestinal bacteria, or "probiotics," which can help keep them well.

This "friendly" bacteria help to keep our digestive tract clean, improve our absorption of nutrients, decrease the risk of digestive cancer, boost our immune system, help protect us from "unfriendly" elements that can cause disease (e.g., E. coli, salmonella, Staph, Strep, yeast, fungi, viruses), reduce the risk of digestive illness such as crohn's disease and irritable bowel syndrome, and reduce gas production. That's a strong enough list to justify paying close attention to probiotics.

During vaginal birth, a baby's digestive tract is colonized by good bacteria that reside in the mother's birth canal. Breastfeeding then helps to further that colonization.

Later, a child's diet comes into play. Yogurt (not frozen yogurt!), kefir and cottage cheese are great sources of probiotics. If they won't eat these foods, you can also buy powdered probiotics to put in your child's food or drinks (such as MAXI Baby-Dophilus, which I sometimes put in my kids' drinks).

Antibiotics, taken during severe bacterial illness, kill the bad and the good bacteria. It's especially important to rebuild the good bacteria that is killed off, so push the yogurt during illness.

Kefir Smoothie
One of my new favorite ways of getting probiotics into my kids (and myself) is by making kefir smoothies. For years, I'd walked right past kefir in the health food stores, thinking it was "hippie food." After I started buying "drinkable" yogurt for my kids, I decided to take a chance on kefir. WOW! Delicious.

Here's my recipe:

Place in your food processor:
8 oz lowfat vanilla organic kefir
4 oz organic apple, cranberry or orange juice
8 oz crushed ice
1 cup of frozen or fresh fruit (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries)
1 small banana

Blend until smooth. If it is too thick, add more juice until it reaches your preferred consistency.

We devour these!

Fighting My Child's Eczema

From the day my first child was born we have battled his eczema. It's not severe but it is persistent. I can't say I was surprised since I've got a number of family members with allergies, asthma and eczema. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

He was sensitive to dairy as a tiny baby but outgrew it by the time he celebrated his first birthday.

That's when we discovered the massive egg allergy. It was not respiratory in nature but the first time I gave him scrambled eggs after he turned one was quite scary (his whole body turned red and his face and ears swelled -- see photo at left). I became very skilled at baking without eggs. By the time he was two and a half he had outgrown that sensitivity. Whew!

All along the way, I've been trying to untangle the mystery of the occasional tiny patches of eczema that crop up on his arms, lower back and lower legs.

At various times I've kept a log of his diet, done some elimination diet testing, carefully reviewed what environmental allergens he's encountered. I know that some of it is hereditary, some of it is seasonal (it gets worse in the winter when the air is dry) and some of it is food-related (he doesn't handle artificial colors well).

His eczema isn't bad enough for me to put him through exhaustive (and painful) tests right now. He can decide about that for himself when he is older. For now, I just find that keeping on top of it is vitally important - dry patches that are left unaddressed quickly worsen.

I think some of my preventive measures have helped. In the winter, we use a humidifier in his bedroom. All year round, we try to eat as organically as possible. I also take precautions to keep contact allergens to a minimum:

• changing our sheets and air filters frequently and vacuuming all of our carpets weekly to reduce dust mites
• not wearing shoes inside the house so we don't track in pollen and dirt
• not having pets
• using biodegradable, unscented, dye-free laundry detergent
• using organic shampoo (Jason Natural Kids Shampoo or California Baby Shampoo) and Aquaphor Healing Ointment (especially after bath!) rather than complicated skin lotions
• using non-toxic household cleaners
• using good sunscreen (click here for a website that rates the safety and efficacy of sunscreens and other personal products)
  
• using hydrocortisone cream (1%) sparingly
• rinsing off chlorine right after swimming

Please leave a comment to share what methods you use to battle eczema!

Worries About Unregulated Contaminants in Tap Water

My brother forwarded to me today a Chicago Tribune article about Chicago water. It mentioned that traces of pharmaceuticals and other unregulated substances were found in treated Lake Michigan water in the last year. It's worth a read, especially because Chicago is probably not the only city with this problem - concerns about other cities' drinking water have also been written about by other publications.

This Spring, I read the report my city posted for 2008 and saw that it was testing for some unregulated contaminants. It said, "the purpose of unregulated contaminant monitoring is to assist EPA in determining the occurrence of unregulated contaminants in drinking water and whether future regulation is warranted." None of the eight items my city tested reported at the high end of the "Range of Detects".

For more information on ground water and drinking water, visit the EPA's website.

If you have seen your city water's test results, had your own tap water tested (none of the kits I've seen mention testing for pharmaceuticals, but I have seen pesticides listed) and remain uncomfortable about its quality, you still have other options aside from buying bottled water.

The most popular choices appear to be:

• Reverse Osmosis - draws water through a very fine membrane. Very thorough but expensive relative to other options. Removes fluoride, too, so take this into account if you have kids.
• Activated Carbon - removes impurities as water passes through the filter. Inexpensive, lots of kinds available, easty to install, slow, not as thorough as RO.
• Distillation - water is purified through evaporation and condensation. Effectively removes many contaminants from water but it does not filter out contaminants that boil at a lower temperature than water (and, hence, go up in the vapor along with the water).
  
• Ultraviolet Light - living organisms in the water are killed by ultraviolet light. It does not filter out other contaminants.

Live Green - Wash Your Hands!

Over 4th of July weekend, we traveled to visit relatives in another state. Before boarding the airplane, I visited the ladies room. As I stepped forward to wash my hands, I saw two ladies leave their stalls and walk directly out of the restroom without washing up. Cue the gag reflex. I did not need to see that just as I was about to be trapped on an airplane for 3 hours with 75 other potential non-handwashers.

I will admit it. I am a bit of a germophobe. I have always been that person with a bottle of hand sanitizer on her desk. I do not like shaking hands. Traveling by air or train is not fun for me. Taking a cruise is completely out of the question. But let me ask this question: why would you allow yourself to get sick when you could easily prevent most illness by washing your hands? Seriously.

I started teaching my kids good hygiene right from the start - a bath every night, teeth brushed twice a day, hands washed at all critical junctures of the day, sneezing and coughing into a tissue or your sleeve rather than your hand or straight into the room, don't put your fingers in any bodily orifice. I also set a good example for them by taking proper care of myself, too.

Wait, do I need to elaborate on when to wash your hands? Hmm. Oh right - the airport restroom - guess I do! Wash your hands after using the restroom, before eating, before preparing food (and after handling any raw poultry, meat, fish or eggs), after changing a diaper, before and after caring for someone who is sick, after taking out the garbage, after sneezing or coughing into your hands, after cleaning the litter box, when you come into your home, etc., etc. Think about this - did you handle money or a menu and then eat with your hands? Do you know how many people have touched that money or menu, and how many of them wash up after using the restroom? Carry a small bottle of hand sanitizer.

While the kids are little, I also do two more things to keep us from bringing illness into the house: we don't wear shoes indoors (the kids still roll around on the ground) and we use hand sanitizer as soon as we enter the car after we've been out and about. We leave the playground at the playground, the grocery store at the grocery store, the school at the school, the zoo at the zoo. If they catch something airborne, that's just the way it goes. But we do our best not to catch the really nasty stuff that winds up on our hands.

What is green about all of this? Not having to see the doctor quite as much, consuming fewer antibiotics, not creating a ripple effect of illness. But here is one more green tip about handwashing: ditch the antibacterial soap. It contributes to the rise of drug-resistant bacteria. It also typically contains triclosan, which is absorbed into the skin and is a known endocrine disruptor. Triclosan also reacts with chlorine in tap water to create chloroform, which is toxic to the environment. Just use regular soap and thoroughly lather up for 15-20 seconds each time.

(My friend Rich will think it's funny that I'm writing this - the germophobe in me was all about the anti-bacterial this and that years ago, and he scoffed at it. You were right, Rich!)

Kids Meals without a Side of Plastic

I have almost completely eradicated plastic from my kitchen (except for a few sippies my kids just can't yet part with). Those of you who have small children know this is not easy to do since small children have a tendency to break things. So what do I serve my kids' meals on that won't break? Stainless Steel!

My little ones eat every meal on stainless steel army surplus mess trays - they won't break if dropped, won't trap bacteria, you can cut food up on them, you can put warm items on them without worry of melting plastic, they are dishwasher safe, and they have lots of compartments so I don't hear the "MOMMY! My peas are touching my pasta!!" (accompanied by the theatrical "slump over and die" mime). They take mealtime drinks out of stainless cups and eat with child-sized stainless flatware. On the go, they typically drink from stainless steel sippies and lunch/snack is packed in stainless containers.

Tap Water

We read our city's water report, then had our tap water tested and determined it was safe to drink, though a bit hard. So we stopped buying bottled water and started drinking from the tap. To improve the taste, we filter the tap water with a Brita filter insert fitted to a glass pitcher (I've yet to find a glass Brita pitcher in the US).

I highly recommend doing this. Knowing your drinking water is safe from major contaminants gives tremendous peace of mind and allows you to eliminate bottled water, which can be expensive and carries its own health risks (chemicals leaching from the plastic containers).

We bought our kit from National Testing Laboratories.

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