Dr. Robert Sears: Advice on creating an environmentally sound and healthy home for our children

Posted by Lisa Carey

During Dr. Sears visit to Houston to sign his book Happy Baby: The Organic Guide to Baby’s First 24 Months and attend the Houston HEB Healthy Baby and Child Expo, I had the opportunity to discuss with him several important green parenting issues. During the interview, Dr. Sears also shared with me his three ‘must-have’ tips for creating an environmentally sound and healthy home for our children.

I may have put Dr. Sears on the spot with my question, “What are the three ‘must-have’ products you recommend for creating an environmentally sound and healthy home for our children?” His response was, “Just three?” Unfortunately for me, the time set aside for the interview was coming to an end and I knew that within minutes he would be joining parents at the Expo, or I would have asked for more!

Dr. Sears recommends these three things to get you on your way to creating an eco-friendly healthy home for our children. Of course, all you have to do is get a copy of his book to find many more recommendations, and yes, even money saving coupons!
Creating an environmentally sound and healthy home: Cleaning green
Watching what you clean with is essential for creating an environmentally friendly home. The chemicals used in many cleaners in our home leave toxins in the air and on surfaces that are then spread to our hands and to our children as well as breathed in. Dr. Sears has many green cleaning recipes in his book, beginning with “baking soda and vinegar.” Greenjoyment also offers many cleaning green recipes for the whole house in our article, “Recipes for Whole House Cleaning Success: Natural and Environmentally Friendly.”
But you don’t have to make your own cleaning products, Dr. Sears states, “There are many green cleaning products out there, like Seventh Generation, that offer not only alternatives to cleaning, but are also manufactured in an environmentally friendly manner.”
Creating an environmentally sound and healthy home: Green Toys
Let’s face it; from the time our children can hold a toy, it goes to one place first, their mouths. Dr. Sears recommends finding green alternatives for every baby product that you can, from teething items to playtime toys. He says, “We need to minimize and eliminate whenever possible our children’s exposure to ‘bad toys’.” When you consider the many recalls on baby and children’s toys and gear, this is sound advice. How often have we read about a toy recall due to lead in the paint? He recommends unpainted wooden toys, and while his book Happy Baby offers a large selection of suggested toy manufacturers as alternatives, many of his recommendations in the book and in our discussion included those we have highlighted here on Greenjoyment in Green Toys? Find out what can be made with recycled plastic.

Creating an environmentally sound and healthy home for our children: Good night sleep tight
Dr. Sears recommends making sure everyone in your family gets not only a good night’s rest, but a green nights rest as well, starting with the baby furniture, crib, and mattress. Eco-friendly baby furniture and mattresses use more environmentally friendly manufacturing methods, sustainable “ingredients,” and are chemical free. With little ones biting down on side rails as well as spending up to 12 hours a day sleeping in a crib, it is important to make sure that they are sleeping healthy. Among the many manufacturers he recommends for environmentally sound baby furniture and crib products are IKEA, Eco-tots, Pacific Rim, Ecobaby, and Naturepedic.
Want to know how to get a good night’s sleep in your room and the big kid’s bedroom? Consider the recommendations made in Is Your Mattress “Just Right?” and Going Green with Your Bed Linens: It’s not just a color anymore!
Though not a product, the most important piece of advice Dr. Sears gave me about green parenting and creating an environmentally friendly home is this, “We need to teach our children about making environmentally sound decisions so that they will know it and do it in the future.” Is there a better way to create not only an environmentally sound home, but hopefully a world?

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