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This is the third in a series to look at American children's education and its relationship to your family's health and the green movement.
Beyond the obvious, and VERY important choices, like recycled content paper and refillable pens, your kids will need certain - ahem - polite additions to their backpacks, especially if they are the sporty types.
I mean cosmetics like deodorants, toothpastes and for pubescent girls, feminine products.
You can go green with those too. In fact, they may have a bigger effect on your kids health and wellness than anything besides food.
Here's a quick look at some of my favorites:
Deodorant
You really want to steer your kids toward a deodorant, not an antiperspirant, which often uses aluminum to swell sweat glands shut, trapping the very toxins your body is working so hard to push out.
Weleda is my fav and the Sage smells manly enough for the teen guys
Toothpaste
Everybody wants sparkly white teeth and fresh breath, but we seem to be in the habit of brushing our teeth with things that contain artificial sweeteners that we otherwise wouldn’t let pass out lips. Add to that some 'antibacterial' agents in certain conventional brands that contain Triclosan - an actual pesticide - uh uh - go natural baby, opt for my fav Desert Essence, or the Natural Dentist. Toms of Maine is clean and available practically everywhere too.
Natural Feminine Care
As you may know, I've spent the better part of my adult life promoting organic cotton, (if you wonder why that matters so much, check out this video from Environmental Justice). Friends in the industry agree that soon everything will be organic cotton and you won't have to look around. In the meantime, I can't think of any more important personal use for organic cotton than for women's feminine care. Organic Essentials has everything you and your daughters need without any of the very toxic pesticides.
And if you want to see more, check out my recent video blog exploring these and other items for teens and tweens.
Lynda Fassa is Planet Green's babies and family expert. She's the founder of Green Babies organic cotton baby clothes and the author of Green Babies, Sage Moms: The Ultimate Guide to Raising Your Organic Baby, and the forthcoming Green Kids, Sage Families: The Ultimate Guide to Raising Your Organic Family, both from Penguin NAL. Read her previous posts here. Green Babies is a registered trademark of Green Babies Inc.
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