Category — Green Bedroom

Two months ago, we spent a pretty penny on some organic mattresses for our sons. The cost of these mattresses sincerely offended my frugal sensibilities, but I spent it anyway.  Why? Well, after a fair amount of Google research, I concluded that the place where my children rest their heads for 10-12 hours a day should be as safe and healthy as possible.

Earlier this month, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) published the first-ever study on the levels of fire retardants found in children and their mothers. This is the same group, by the way, that had previously reported on fire retardant chemicals being found in household dust, breast milk and even umbilical cord blood. It was their studies that pushed me over the organic mattress edge. So while I was dismayed to read their most recent findings, I was also a little relieved that I had stood firm on the mattresses.

Here’s what EWG’s newest study discovered: Toddlers and preschoolers have 3 times as many fire retardant chemicals in their blood stream as their mothers do. The study found 11 different chemicals in these kids’ blood.  Eesh.

Now obviously chemicals in our kids’ blood stream doesn’t sound good. But is it really that bad? Let’s take a look. [Read more →]

My boys are five and three years old.  Until two months ago, neither had ever had a “proper” bed.  When our big one finally agreed to sleep in a bed other than ours, we put him in an old futon. Our littlest one slept in a hand-me down crib and then a hand-me down toddler bed, but mostly he slept in our bed.

We just moved, and we wanted to splurge for real beds for the boys. We decided on bunk beds, which are currently separated into two beds since our five-year isn’t quite ready to sleep on top. As we were placing the order for the beds, we were all set to order the inexpensive foam mattresses.

Then I remembered reading a discussion on an online message board about the danger of fire retardants in mattresses. So I started googling.  After a few hours, I had convinced not only myself, but also my husband, that we needed to get organic mattresses for the boys. [Read more →]