non-toxic baby products

i've got chemical sensitivities. i know this sounds like some Bay Area hippy psychosomatic thing, but ever since i was a kid, i would always get unexplained rashes and all my blood tests come out with elevated levels of eocinophils (white blood cells; in other words, my immune system is constantly on the offense). the worst outbreak was after we painted the house in the late 80s and i swolled up. not just my skin, but also my lips & eyeballs to the point we called poison control who were absolutely useless by the way. bathing in baking soda only addressed the symptoms. if you have ever had swollen fish eyeballs you understand that this is not some crazy imaginary thing i made up in my head. my immune system just doesn't handle very well the thousands of toxic chemicals that have become increasingly present in our society & environment. ever since then, i've been sensitive to chemical vapors including most synthetic perfumes/fragrances, deodorizers, etc. and i became more sensitive under the stress & duress of grad school.

so upside is we try to be as ecologically responsible and non-toxic as possible on a very tight budget. when we remodelled our fixer upper, we went as non-toxic as we could afford--non-formaldehyde treated lumber, non-off-gassing insulation, milk paint (and when that didn't work out b/c of the vinyl joint compound, non-VOC paint). i also went on a gluten/wheat-free and dairy-free diet the year before I got pregnant. it was really hard, but i'm lucky to be living in the epicenter of all things hippy and natural and near a gluten-free bakery. my allergies almost completely went away. of course, i fell off the wagon but i keep meaning to purge wheat & dairy yet again.

it's not always affordable to buy non-chemically treated organic products though so a neat trick that i recently learned

• vinegar vinegar vinegar! strips away toxic chemicals!
  
• carpet cleaner-mix mild soap (castile or natural soap) with vinegar
  
• baby products-(tip is from Organic Grace) wash all new baby products with a cup to a cup and a half of vinegar. This removes a good amount of the toxic flame retardent chemicals that most baby products are coated in. You can remove padding from car seats, swings etc. Wash new non-organic clothing with it. Use a drop of lavender essential oil in the wash to make it smell nice and soothe baby.

And of course, good ole consumer products which I've thoroughly researched on EWG and a few other online sites. This is not exhaustive because I tend to buy the least toxic one and once I find one that is adequate to my purpose, not experiment with others, new or emerging. I suppose if I was a paid blogger/reviewer I would try and be more comprehensive.

• Earth Mama Angel Baby Bottom Balm has the best diaper rash/first aid balm. Cleared up VL's milk allergy bottom rashes.
  
• I use EMAB baby soap/shampoo which is a castile soap. Castile soaps tend not to strip so it feels a little tacky on her hair. While VL doesn't have the (luxuriant) thickness of my hair, she definitely has my hair waviness plus. So it's better not to use stripping shampoos on her. But I don't like the feel of castile soap on hair. I've switched to using my organic Aubrey Island Natural shampoo and conditioner (a must for her curls!) on her which has fantastic results on her hair, but of course it's not baby soap so if it gets in her eyes, she cries. I've switched to using natural handmilled bar soap and Dr. Bronner's Baby Mild. It's way less expensive than EMAB castile soap. But I've got to find a toddler-friendly, wave-friendly conditioner.
  
• Gaia Natural Baby Conditioning Detangler-everyone I know loves California Baby, and while it's better than Johnson & Johnson by farI'm still a little horrified that it contains antimicrobial ingredients polyaminopropyl biguanide. I had to buy Gaia products from Canada when I first got it around a year ago. It's available on a major monopoly webstore now which if you are going to buy from it at least find an affiliated charity/non-profit that will get a minuscule percentage of the sale. [It looks like California Baby reformulated without anti-microbials. We're giving it a try now. We picked it up at Tarzhay]
  
• Nature's Baby Ah-choo Chest Balm for colds. Total late night anxious parent saver.
  
• Weleda Sunscreen Spf 18 This German homeopathic brand is nice though EWG supposedly docks them for their use of fragrance that is essential oil-based and therefore not toxic petro-based. Germans have a thing with purity (and yes, that is a major historical/cultural generalization but I'm anthropologically minded so get over it) so I tend to "trust" their products more; they make the best non-toxic toys and were the original innovators of the baby wrap sling in the 70s. I don't know enough about the chemistry of fragrance to know if it is truly toxic or not, but though the smell is assertive, it doesn't irritate me. You really have to have yellow-undertones for this sunscreen. Some folks have said it leaves them pasty. It comes out of the tube creamy yellow already. I like it though I haven't refilled because it is expensive and hard to find. I did find that the Pharmaca in Rockridge has it.
  
• TruKid Face stick SPF 30-great for when you are in a hurry. You have to rub it in pretty good. The mom who owns this has her HQ in West Oakland and is happy to have pick up orders which mean no shipping & handling charges and sometimes, ahem, tax discount. She gave me free lotion (too strong smelling and kid-fruity for me) and samples! VL associates facestick sunscreen with facepainting. She says "con mèo|cat" and meows everytime we put it on her.
  
• Loving Naturals Sunscreen SPF 30-we used this in Hawaii, intermittently. We liked it well enough though once your hands get greasy, the cheap sticker label ink rubs entirely off which is slightly annoying to have questionable ink flakes all over your body and then a now unlabelled white bottle. Like most mineral-based sunscreens, it starts off purply tinted and then is supposed to absorb.
• I just got Badger sunscreen SPF 30 and Facestick. They have the lowest toxic rating on EWG. I love their balms which contain only natural pronounceable ingredients from plants. Like LN above, you got to rub it in very well. Not waterproof and you must reapply frequently. T & I got a mild burn from 5 hours of Tahoe sun and a single application.
  
• We've mostly used reusable flannel wipes for VL along with butt/diaper spray (punkin butt has their in house brand and there's also another one which name I forget), but now that she is a messy toddler, we occasionally indulge in the ubiquitous disposable baby wipes. I hated how soapy Earth's Best is, so we found this European brand Nature Babycare. It claims to be biodegradable and it actually works great for gentle cleaning. It doesn't sting either. Our local Farmer Joe's has it, but only the scented one. I prefer the unscented which I got bulk offa the monopoly capitalist named above (affiliated non-profit link)