I come by this naturally...

My crunchy tendencies are starting to make themselves known.

I come by them naturally. For goodness sake, my parents live in a house made of tires filled with rammed earth and tin cans. What could be more crunchy than that? Plus, I was born and raised in Colorado, need I say more?

Enough of the rationalizing, let me get to my point. My brother was here for a visit early this year. While here, he saw us heating a "cocoa coffee" for Ryan in the microwave. (Cocoa Coffee is warmed milk with a little ovaltine or nestle quick mixed in.) Ryan has been drinking this most mornings for a couple years now and since he started this at a young age cocoa coffee's were served in a sippy cup. For whatever reason, we never got out of the habit. Moving on, I remember hearing a couple years ago that you shouldn't heat plastic in the microwave, but I guess I'd conveniently forgotten. My brother, made mention of that little fact and also let me know that plastics with the numbers of 3,6 and 7 have been found to leach toxins and shouldn't be used with food at all. At the time Makenna had just been born, it was all I could do to keep my head above water. I heard what he said, but didn't make many changes, other than not heating plastic in the microwave. Fast forward a few months, and I have a bit more time on my hands. I start to research. The more I research, the more concerned I become about exposure to some plastics. Studies are showing that exposure to #7 plastic can cause reproductive, neurological and developmental issues. The more I read the more freaked out I get and more things I begin to throw away! My husband thinks I may have jumped off the deep end, but is trying to be supportive as he watches the plastic plates, bowls and cups hit the box marked good will. Spatulas, air tight containers, and silverware didn't even make it to the box...they hit the trash or were reused for things not food related. My collection of baby bottles will be thrown out, which hurts since I have a bunch. It seems as though each time I turn around, I find something else that needs to go. This morning as I packed Ryan's lunch, I looked at the little container of applesauce I was about to throw in, guess what, it's in #7 plastic. He got a banana instead. For those with baby's that are eating stage 1 baby food, the G.erber stuff is packaged in #7. I could go on, but I'll stop now. If anyone wants some links to studies or plastic info, I'd be happy to send you some or just Goo.gle Bisphenol A or BPA's. I'm trying not to think about the fact that Ryan's exposure has been huge over the last couple years between bottles, dishes and food packaging.

Freak out number one concluded, now on to number two.

This isn't so much of a freak out, just a consideration. While pregnant I researched diapers other than disposable. Knowing myself and my husband, I wasn't sure that cloth diapers would work for us but I found something called the g diaper. It's a cloth outer with a disposable inner panel that you can flush! They are barely more expensive than P.ampers and I loved the fact that you can flush the inner panel and not add to our ever growing landfills. Many eye rolls later, I decided not to pursue this option. Fast forward a few months and I've bought a starter pack of G Diapers and am trying them out as we speak. The liner flushes fine, no toilet clogs so far, and they seem to do a good job at keeping M's skin dry. I don't think we'll use them all the time, but maybe just during the day when we're home. Every little bit helps, right?

Ok, I'm done with my public service announcements for today. Are you rolling your eyes at me or about to run to your kitchen and see how many things you use on a daily basis that are in #7 plastic?