So for the first couple of years green birthday parties are pretty easy to pull off. They’re pretty much like any other gathering you would have only with a designated birthday dessert, which you can easily make as natural as you like. Once kiddos get into the ‘themed’ party age bracket where you’re inviting classmates and getting requests for Super Mario party supplies, things can get a little more complicated. How do you throw a great birthday party that’s all natural and low waste? Here are a few ideas for green birthday parties for kids.

1. Invitations
In these digital times everyone has email. There’s no need to waste paper or gas going to buy invitations when you can send out a fabulous e-vite for the party. Get creative with the graphics and specific with the details. This also lets the other parents easily respond to you with any dietary restrictions or other need-to-know issues with their kids.

2. Plates and Cups
Just like with other gatherings at you home, using your plates, utensils and glasses is far better than buying disposable ones. There are biodegradable options for cutlery and plates and cups too if you really can’t risk the breaking of your everyday kitchen set. You can even buy a back-up set of dishes and glasses from the thrift store to have for these kinds of occasions, so it doesn’t matter if they get broken and you can reuse them for parties for years or until they find their inevitable demise.

3. Decorations
If you do decide to get a few decorations, get the kinds that can be used again like a generic birthday banner and a festive tablecloth. There’s no need to buy a bunch of balloons and streamers that are just going to end up in the trash a day later. Natural flowers and bowls of fruit and other snacks are festive too if you put a little organization to it with risers and trays.

4. Food and Drinks
Try to get snacks that don’t have individual wrapping and drinks that are not in single serve containers. Pitchers, thermoses or water coolers can be filled and different colored rubber bands can be placed around each person’s glass to help people remember which one is theirs. Bite-sized fruit and nuts, carrots and celery and cheese and crackers are great to have out in place of chips and candy. Pick a main dish that is easy to prepare in bulk that meets dietary restrictions. Personal sized pizzas that the kids can top themselves is always a crowd pleaser and allows you to choose the nutrition level of all of the ingredients and select gluten free crusts and have cheese-less options as well.

These ideas should help you get started. What you want to do about wrapping paper and gift packaging is up to you. If you’re really against it, stipulate that in the e-vite. Don’t forget to take lots of picture and have a ton of fun!

My 10 month old and I enjoyed some quiet time together one evening last week.  I popped in the DVD that Laura Lacey Massage sent me for a review and laid my baby boy down on the bed after a bath.  I had already previewed the DVD, so I knew what to expect and had some nice organic Little Twig Baby Oil ready to use for his massage.  Laura suggests a non petroleum based oil for your baby’s massage.

The Baby Massage DVD was has a nice relaxing background music track to help create a relaxing atmosphere.  The DVD is very easy to follow along with, so I was excited to give it a try.  Baby massage was one of those things on my list of things to try, but I never did get around to it, so this was the perfect opportunity!   The DVD is ideally for babies up to 9 months, so at 10 months, my son was admittedly more squirmy than I can imagine a younger baby would be, but nonetheless I found a time when he was relatively calm to practice the massage.

I followed along the DVD starting with the legs and finishing with the head.  I almost enjoyed it as much as my baby boy did and would highly recommend it to someone looking to catch-up on a little mommy and baby bonding time.  It was especially nice for my son, being that he is baby #2 and doesn’t receive as much one-on-one attention as his big brother did.

One of the best sections of the DVD is the part on common baby ailments.  This includes colic, gastrointestinal issues, and teething.  I would have loved to have had a copy of this DVD when my son was a bit younger, so that I could have used this to soothe him.

I hope you’ll give baby massage a try.  I learned a lot and I look forward to putting my knowledge to use again.  I love how easy this DVD was to follow along with and I’m sure you and your baby will really enjoy this as well!

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In choosing a standard cleaner versus a green cleaner, sometimes it seems as if you have to make a sacrifice. Choose a green cleaner, and it seems to not be quite as effective and often cost more off the shelf. Choose a standard cleaner, and you confront the hazards of harsh chemicals in your home and the headaches that the cleaning agents and scents bring. How are you supposed to choose what’s best for your child with all these opposing benefits and risks?

There are a few things you should know.

First: standard cleaners with ammonia and chlorine are irritating to the lungs and can cause common ailments such as asthma. Many standard cleaners also contain ingredients that burn the skin, are flammable, and can cause severe tissue damage or death if swallowed (see previous link). Using these cleaners on a daily or weekly basis contaminates indoor air and can effect long term health with risks such as cancer and lung problems.

Second: you can make your own. Baking soda and vinegar do the trick. Little known fact? Vinegar is actually effective against germs because of its high acidity. Breathe easy; your child will be safe!

Third: if you decide to buy a green cleaner off the shelf, buyer beware. Check the label. Green cleaners should not have any petroleum based ingredients because they take a long time to break down in the environment. The cleaners that are truly green will have plant based ingredients that you can recognize, and won’t have ammonia or chlorine bleach.

Fourth: There’s one more thing to think about: recycling. If a cleaner is truly green, the packaging should be recycled or at the very least recyclable. Method, which makes eco hand soaps and dish soaps, makes their plastic from ocean plastic – that trash that floats around the Pacific! Then, the packaging can be recycled through TerraCycle’s Brigade collection program. Dropps, which makes eco laundry detergent, also recycles their packaging with TerraCycle. Both of these companies make sure their product is entirely green – not just the ingredients.

Green cleaners are just as effective as standard cleaners, and not as harsh. Dangerous chemicals and harmful side effects don’t necessarily mean the product is better With kids and pets, the less chemicals, the better. You won’t need to worry about little hands finding the bottles under the kitchen sink or in a cleaning cabinet. Not to mention that without the danger of harsh ingredients burning the skin or eyes, the kids can learn to help you clean!

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Creative Commons photo by D Sharon Pruitt

My daughter just turned five a few months ago. Before her birthday party, she asked me, “Mom, can we go to McDonald’s for my birthday?” I was horrified. I personally have never taken her to McDonald’s, but I have a sneaking suspicion that one of her friends’ moms has. Needless to say, I had to explain to my daughter that her birthday party would not be able to take place at McDonald’s. However, I promised her that we would have just as much fun at our house.

Helping my child develop environmentally friendly habits is very important to me. So, I try to make sure that all of her birthday parties are as green as possible, from the cake I make to the Super Mario party supplies I buy. Going green when you throw your child a party doesn’t mean having less fun. Here are five simple tips to help you throw a super fun, eco-friendly birthday party for your child.

1. Send party invitations via email to save paper.

2. Ditch the paper plates. Ask the children at the party to rinse of their plates. Even if they’r super young, they can handle this task as long as you have a stool that helps them reach the sink. Young kids actually have a lot of fun helping out with chores. Don’t be surprised if they want to play a little with the dish soap as they’re washing off their plates.

3. If the weather permits, hold most of the party outside. If everyone’s outside for the majority of the party, you’ll be able to conserve water and energy resources inside. Kids absolutely love playing outside anyway.

4. Make all of the food for party at home. This will eliminate packaging and utensil waste. Everything you buy from a store or restaurant will come in a package. Some of it will come in a plastic bag and include plastic utensils. There’s no need to bring all of this home and have to throw some of it away (if it’s made of Styrofoam, for instance).

5. Instead of asking for individual gifts, request that guests donate $5 or $10 to a gift fund. You can use the gift money from guests to buy your child one, big present. This will eliminate all the wrapping paper and ribbon that is usually associated with children’s birthday parties. You can, of course, recycle the wrapping paper that is used to wrap the one, big present.

So, follow the tips above, and have a very green and fun party with your little one!

My big boy turned 3 on December 8th!   I can’t believe we have a 3-year old.  To celebrate we invited all of our friends and family to a local high school where we brought a rented toddler moon bounce for all to enjoy.  It was the same thing we did for his 2nd birthday and it was such a hit that we did it again!  What a fun, easy party for everyone.  I made some little snacks and pita wedge sandwiches, and chocolate cupcakes.  I asked for no gifts, so we received gifts from about 50% of the guests (people don’t listen )

My son had a fun party to remember and it wore him and all the other kiddos out!  What more could a 3-year old ask for?

Imagine yourself as an adult in distress, calling for help, only to have people walking by completely ignoring you. How would this make you feel? You can imagine if this happened to you repetitively you could develop anxiety, severe problems with stress, depression and any other countless types of emotional problems.

This analogy makes it easy to realize how this could happen to a baby who is left to “cry-it-out”. This article:
http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/crying-dangerous-kids-one-expert-says-222400379.html discusses why it is more of a convenient option for parents these days, but is more than just a few days of torture for your baby. This method of sleep training could leave your child with long-term emotional problems.

When it comes to night time, we’d all like to have an easier time and get a good night’s sleep. Think about how many books are written about getting your baby to sleep. It can be a tough transition in life, but giving just a few years of your time to hold and soothe your babies at night may be the answer to having an emotionally stable and very secure child.

The solution is going to be different for all parents, but for me I have found bed-sharing to be the easiest transition. My baby goes to bed with us, and when he wakes at night and needs to feed his food is right there next to him. With my first son I did not discover bed-sharing until later, so I was up and down several times at night when he woke because I could not stand to just let him cry.

What methods have you found that have worked at night? What can you suggest to other parents struggling with night time routines?

As a busy mom, and I am a very busy mom, it is hard to focus on how to feed your children healthy food.  I know I am constantly rushing around and trying eat meals between the madness.  I do have rules when it comes to eating.  Even if we are in a rush, we don’t do processed food.  Sometimes, however, it is hard to get my 3 year old to eat, he’s just not a big eater!  He’ll eat some of the most healthy foods (he loves beans and chickpeas), but when it comes to quantity it’s just hard to get him motivated to eat and finish a meal.

Well, now, thanks to a friend of mine, who invented “A Beary Balanced Belly” it makes eating and planning healthy meals easier on the whole family.  The concept is fun for children and also a great guide for mom and dad to figure out what their child needs to eat.  ”A Beary Balanced Belly” was created by a mom who was looking for ways to feed her children healthier meals and to be sure that they had a balanced diet.  The focus is on six (6) nutrition groups, rather than a food triangle of sorts.

The six nutrition groups are written on fun magnetic cards with pictures of  the types of food and a good list of ten (10) options to choose from.  These six groups include protein, iron, vitamin A, vitamin C, fiber, and calcium.   The fun part for children comes into play by using each of the cards to cover up the large magnetic picture of the bear.  I put this on my fridge, down low, so that my 3 year old can reach it.  At the beginning of each day we cover the bear with the 6 magnetic nutrition group cards.  As we go through the day and eat our meals we remove the cards on the bear to reveal his picture.  At the end of the day we should have eaten something from each card and will have a “Beary Balanced Belly”.   My son gets to put a card with his name on it on the bear’s belly to show that he’s eaten all of his food for the day!

This system has proven to be very effective for my three year old.  He is surprisingly really into the reward of getting to remove a magnet from the bear after each meal, so it definitely fits its intended purpose.  The 6 cards not only help to get your child to eat healthy, whole foods, but they also help with meal planning.  After lunch we take a look at the cards remaining covering up the bear and can round out the day with a meal planned from the remaining cards for that day.  This has proven to be helpful overall because when we generally have a similar breakfast and lunch each day I know ahead of time what cards will be left and what food we should eat to balance out our meals for the day.  It takes the guess work out of feeding my children and also makes it fun and rewarding for them to eat.

My son especially loves to eat his broccoli now that it is right there on the ‘fiber’ card for the day!

For newbies: “Green Moms Weekly” will be a question posted each week here at Happy Green Babies that will require each participant to write a blog post responding to the question of the week.

Our question this week is:

“What is it about the ‘cry-it-out-method’ that draws parents to want to try this with their children? Why is it controversial and what other methods are out there for putting your babies to bed?”

Each blogger that would like to participate in this carnival will write  a post on the current topic and will link up their post below my post for that week.  I will have my post up on Monday.  You can link up anytime throughout the week.

The rules of the blog carnival are:

• I will announce the topic every weekend for the following week.
• Write your post at your convenience, mine will be up on Monday with a linky.
• Be sure to leave a comment on the carnival page!
• Come over and enter your permalink through Linky. Please include blurb at the beginning of your post such as “this post is part of the Green Moms Weekly Blog Carnival” and grab my blog carnival button to link back to my post.

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.happygreenbabies.com/green-favorites/green-moms-weekly-blog-carnival/" title="Green Moms Weekly"><img src="http://www.happygreenbabies.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/carnival-button125.gif" alt="Green Moms Weekly" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

The Goals:

As I was searching through my blog categories, I realized that I have not at all touched on the topic of pregnancy.  Such an obvious topic, with a blog dedicated to babies, but yet I haven’t talked about it at all!  The truth is, during my second pregnancy, I did not blog at all and a lot of that had to do with my first trimester experience.

With my first pregnancy, I felt great.  I wasn’t sick at all during my first trimester, so it breezed right on through.  Well, you know they say each pregnancy is different.  At 5 weeks pregnant with baby #2 I was feeling great, still running and exercising, eating whatever I wanted.  At week 6, everything changed!  I was so sick I could not get out of bed some days.  I was having to pull over the car every morning on the way to work because I had to throw up.

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One of the worst offenders was my prenatal vitamin.  I would take this vitamin on the way to work and inevitably throw it up.  The best trick I learned was to take my vitamin later in the day, at a time when I wasn’t feeling so nauseous.  Even now, postpartum, taking it on an empty stomach just doesn’t sit right with me.

So what did I do to cope through all of the new hormones that were taking over my body?  I have to be honest, it wasn’t easy!  We were living with my in-laws at the time, so it was nice to have others around to occupy my 18 month old.  I rested a lot.  Anytime I could lay down, I did.

My husband was very understanding, I told him it was like having a non-stop hangover for 12 weeks, so he could get the picture!  He brought me fresh ginger tea to help with the nausea.   He cooked the meals so I didn’t have to be standing up right for long periods of times, nor did I have to deal with food odors that were making me feel even worse.

I found great comfort in some of the teas from Earth Mama Angel Baby, one of my favorite shops!  They also make a cool “Happy Mama” Spray that helps to ease morning sickness and overcome that nausea you feel from other odd smells.

Another important thing to do during the first trimester is to get outside and get some fresh air.  I know that I personally had a hard time doing this and was not able to exercise like I did through my first pregnancy, but when I felt up to it a simple walk outside would help me feel much better.

Whatever your natural remedies, remember to continue to eat healthy, bulk up on the protein intake and avoid processed foods that will make you feel more sick than you already do!  Avoid relying on over-the-counter drugs to help you feel better.  If you do get a cold or the flu during the first trimester, talk to your doctor or midwife about some homeopathic options that will put you on the mend.  For example, I had the flu and my midwife suggested Oscillococcinum.

Remember, each pregnancy is different and it will be a trial and error to see what helps you get through the first trimester.  What has helped you get through the first trimester? 

See what other green moms are saying: Carrie at Natural Moms Talk Radio