The Organic Baby Book: How to Plan and Raise a Healthy Child [Paperback]

"The ultimate guide for parents of youngish children. If you are lucky you can start with pre-conception and go through the breatsfeeding stage but you can always pick up later. The organic products guide is comprehensive, including as it does, baby foods, baby gear, family gear, household products and recommendations for a 'green home'. Highly recommended for organic families." --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

"A book for the seriously organically-minded-to-be. Go for it!!" --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

"The book is bouncing full of enthusiasm. It may be preaching to the converted, but it will bring them up to date with products available." --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

"For first-time parents it offers a useful antidote to the more conventional baby care bibles. It also has an excellent directory which will make shopping for organic products from bed linene to organic food supplies much easier." --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

The original edition of "The Organic Baby Book" was published in 1999 and introduced readers to the basics of going organic for conceiving and raising a healthy child, including reviews of all organic products for babies, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers and young families. This second edition is updated with many new products, home delivery companies and useful websites. It is divided into two sections: part one features general advice on going organic for a healthy baby and part two reviews over 750 organic and environmentally-friendly products, companies, relevant organizations, annual events, websites and useful resources for mother and baby. The first part includes th experiences of parents who have gone organic and reaped the rewards; how to "green" your house for your baby; and the vaccination versus healthy immune system debate. Part two reviews fresh organic wholefoods; organic cotton reusable nappies (from 22 companies); readymade babyfoods (14 brands); cot blankets; bras and nursing pads; baby clothing; bodycare (over 40 brands); food supplements; and bedding.

Tanyia Maxted-Frost was born in New Zealand, and has lived and worked in Australia, NZ and the UK. In 1983 she began her career in journalism, and the following year won the Young NZ Journalist of the Year Award. She moved into environmental journalism in Australia in 1989.

Arriving in the UK in 1996, Tanyia wrote a ground-breaking document, Focus on Organic Farming, for the National Farmers Union. In 1997 she co-founded the London Organic Food Forum, a group created to raise awareness of organic food and farming in the capital, and created and edited the Soil Association's monthly news service Organic Food News UK. In September of the same year, she co-organised 'The Future Agenda for Organic Trade', the UK's first international organic trade conference in Oxford, on behalf of the Soil Association and the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements.

A freelance journalist based in London, she writes feature articles on organic issues for consumer and trade publications, and is a regular columnist for Natural Parent and Organic Living magazines. She is married to an Englishman, and her first child, Tane, is now two years old. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Introduction

Babies are totally dependent on us from conception onwards, and as parents their health and wellbeing is our responsibility. The food and drink we give them, and the clothes, toiletries and household products we put on and around them, can be beneficial, benign, or harmful to their health in the short and long term-perhaps even fatal. When we have a baby, it may be the first time that we actually stop and seriously think about what we're eating and using in our homes. Naturally, we want to protect our children, and make sure they are as safe as possible.

The good news is that as we move into the new millennium there are now enough organic and environmentally friendly foods and products available in the UK to bring up babies safely and healthily, enabling parents to avoid exposing them to the many harmful toxins and undesirable additives commonly found in conventionally produced foods and goods. A comprehensive directory reviewing them all can be found in the second part of this book-and they are becoming more affordable all the time.

It is now possible to have a baby conceived by 'organic' parents, raised on 'organic' breastmilk and an organic wholefood diet, clothed in organic nappies and baby-gros, bathed in organic bodycare, and bedded in organic blankets on an organic mattress: a truly healthy, vital infant with a strong, unimpaired immune system able to withstand life's knocks-a baby given the best head start in life.

So 'organic' parenthood has finally arrived. It's an exciting time: by going organic as much as you can-and can reasonably afford-you and your baby are helping to pave the way to a brighter, healthier, less polluted future for us all.

I wrote this book because I wanted to share this good news with other like-minded parents, prospective parents, and pregnant mums. Our children have the right to eat nutritious food, free of artificial chemicals and genetically modified (GM) ingredients, and not to have their health compromised or damaged by these and other man-made toxins in everyday foods, household and consumer goods. It's our duty as parents to protect our own and other children from these very real dangers. We should all have the right to affordable, safe, wholesome food. That's why I wrote this book-while pregnant, breastfeeding and co-raising my own 'organic baby'.

I also wanted to support others working in this field: the people growing, making and selling organic foods and products, who do so out of their own strong beliefs, often with little remuneration; and the pioneering charities and organisations like the Foresight Association for the Promotion of Pre-conceptual Care and the Soil Association, who are doing so much to create a healthier nation, against all odds and with little money.

I sought, and have featured at some length, the opinions of leading and popular health experts. This is because I wanted to show you that such experts now recommend it as vital for your baby's health, and no longer simply just desirable. I also sought and have featured the experiences of many parents who have 'gone organic', to show you the difference it has made to them and their babies. I haven't included much of the standard pregnancy and babycare advice and information, as I found during my own pregnancy that there are already many excellent books which offer this.

Many of the statistics and facts used in the book are now widely accepted. They have been drawn from a wide range of reputable and well researched sources, including The Shopper's Guide to Organic Food by Lynda Brown, publications of the Pesticides Trust, Foresight and Sustain, the London Food Commission's Food Magazine, The True Cost of Food report by the Soil Association and Greenpeace, Our Stolen Future by Dr Theo Colborn, Patrick Holford's Optimum Nutrition book series, the WWF-UK report Chemical Trespass: A Toxic Legacy, and substantiated national media reports by leading food and health journalists. Many of these sources are among recommended publications listed in Part Two of the book.

Finally, I hope this book can be a catalyst for change and introduce many more parents to the 'wonderful world of organic', and support those already converting or converted as a useful reference. I believe that the vital choice we make to go organic for our babies' health will enrich our parenthood, as well as our children's health and lives. I know it has enriched mine. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.