The countdown is on in households across the country…less than three weeks until school starts for 2016. In our household it’s three weeks until our daughter, Scarlett, starts Prep! What an emotional roller coaster ride it is for me right now. I swing from feeling excited for her and all the incredible learning she has ahead of her to a sense of grief that my baby will be away from me five days out of most weeks of the year. There’s also short bursts of elation at the thought of all I will be able to achieve within my business with so much more time on my hands. I have so many fantastic ideas for this year that I’m just itching to get started on once school is in!
When Scarlett started attending daycare several years ago, I devoted a great deal of time to researching toxin-free and environmentally friendly options for her when it came to the items she needed. As with most products on the market these days, there are hidden toxins in lots of kids’ products. So whether your child is starting or returning to daycare, Kindergarten or school, I’ve saved you the legwork and put together my favourite tips and products for a toxin-free, eco-friendly, Purely Thriving year for your little (or big) ones.
As I always say (to others and to myself)…”be kind to yourself”. If the information below is new to you and you feel overwhelmed by any of it, remember that we can’t DO better until we KNOW better. A great way to tackle overhauling the way we do things is to make a list and prioritise what is most important to you. Consider how easy each task is to implement from a physical, emotional and financial perspective when making your list and then simply get started. Small steps add up to long distances over time! Enjoy the rest of the school holidays with your children and hugs to all the parents sending their little ones off to daycare, Kindy or school for the first time this year…this Mum is going to need one on 28 January!
Lunch Boxes & Drink Bottles: Aren’t we spoilt for choice these days when it comes to lunch boxes? I remember most everyone at school when I was a kid had the same lunch box just in different colours. These days they come in all shapes and sizes, and materials. Our firm favourite is the PlanetBox Rover (we have the fairies design) which I purchased from one of my favourite eco-friendly stores Biome. The deal breaker for me with the PlanetBox is it’s eco-friendly and toxin-free stainless steel construction, which also guarantees many years of use compared to most of the plastic lunchboxes on the market (and thus justifies the heftier price tag). This bento style lunchbox also encourages a “litterless” lunch box making it more environmentally friendly and encouraging the user to pack homemade food rather than pre-packaged foods. We also have the Planetbox cooler bag to keep food fresh and at a safe temperature, and to store extra snacks in the outer pockets if needed. You can see the full range of lunchboxes on offer at Biome here.
We have been using stainless steel water bottles for several years now, filling them with the deliciously pure water from our zazen Alkaline Water Filter. You can read more about these awesome water filters and how to purchase one here. We love the Cheeki water bottles as a budget friendly option and have also enjoyed using the Ecococoon water bottles. I highly recommend investing in a good bottle brush like this one so you can give your water bottles a thorough clean to keep your drinking water safe and bacteria-free.
I personally choose not to use plastic lunchboxes or water bottles (even BPA-Free ones) for two reasons, the first being that minimising our plastic use helps to protect our beautiful Earth. Did you know that every piece of plastic ever made will be on this planet forever?? Most of it isn’t recycled either and a lot ends up in our oceans where it wreaks havoc with marine life and ends up in our food chain when fish ingest it.
The second reason I choose not to store our water (or most of our food where possible) in plastic is that chemicals in the plastic leach into the water (and food), particularly at very high or very low temperatures. Extensive research studies are now showing that even BPA-free plastics are not safe for our health and leach hormone-disrupting chemicals into the food or liquid stored within – you can read more about this topic here and here. More about the dangers of BPA here. Lunchbots and Kids Konserve make a great range of smaller stainless steel containers that you can use in your kids’ lunchboxes, and we love our Lunchbots Thermos for storing warming winter lunches. We also love the 4 My Earth range of food wraps as a safer, reusable and eco-friendly alternative to Glad Wrap.
Backpacks and Bags: There’s one particular toxic ingredient regularly used in children’s bags and backpacks that in my opinion should be avoided at all costs and that’s PVC (polyvinyl chloride). PVC has been shown to cause adverse health effects including cancer, birth defects, diabetes, learning and developmental delays, endometriosis, and immune system abnormalities. You can read more about the dangers of PVC here. Look for the number 3 within the recycle symbol on products to identify whether they contain PVC or often a label within the bag itself will list what it is made from. Many pencil cases are made from PVC too.
We don’t need to purchase a school bag for Scarlett this year as she needs to use the school’s specific bag, however, here’s some of my favourite non-toxic bags for children. Scarlett had this SkipHop backpack for Kindy which was excellent quality and still looks as new. All SkipHop bags are BPA-free and phthalate-free. Just be aware that they are a smaller size designed for children 3 years and up, so probably won’t be large enough as a school bag. The Apple and Mint Big Kid Backpack looks like a great size for a school bag and is listed as being designed for kids aged 5 to 10 years. All Apple and Mint bags are PVC/BPA/lead-free, non-toxic, earth-safe and reusable.
Stationery: Steer clear of scented stationary items like pens and erasers if you’re looking to reduce your child’s toxic load. These stationery items will all contain phthalates which are potent endocrine (hormonal system) disruptors that have been associated with an increased risk of adverse health conditions including cancer, with birth defects, lowered IQ, behavioural problems, type 2 diabetes and obesity. Those rolls of plastic contact for covering books also contain a range of harmful chemicals including PVC, so a safer option is to use some nice thick printed paper for covering school books. If you’re looking to use the pre-made book covers that slide over the books, I recommend EZ Covers which are made from a food grade plastic (so BPA and PVC-free) and are made in New Zealand (rather than in China like most of the covers on the market). EZ Covers are recyclable and so durable that they can be used over and over again.
Essential Oils: Of course doTERRA’s essential oils will feature regularly in our toolkit of natural solutions for supporting Scarlett at school. I see the Balance grounding blend being used daily before school to provide support with any anxious feelings (applied topically to wrists and chest) and possibly the InTune focus blend to help with focus and concentration if needed. We’ll be applying the On Guard protective blend (diluted with a carrier oil) to soles of feet at bedtime anytime she is need of its powerful immune support, and this will be done every night all through Autumn and Winter to guard against the seasonal bugs around during this period of the year.
We’ll be starting our early school mornings on the right foot with an uplifting and invigorating diffuser blend like Wild Orange and Peppermint, Lemongrass and Peppermint, or the Citrus Bliss invigorating blend. I’ve heard that kids in Prep are usually exhausted at the end of each school day but we’ll still be using essential oils in our nightly routine to calm the nervous system and promote a restful sleep. Some of our bedtime favourites are Lavender, Vetiver, Juniper Berry, Cedarwood or the Lavender Peace calming blend.
You’ll find lots more information here on how you can use doTERRA’s essential oils to support your family’s physical and emotional health, and how to purchase them at 25%+ below retail prices. As always, I’m here to answer any questions you may have and help you work out the best option for you to get started, so reach out via email at info@purelythriving.com.au if you have any questions.
doTERRA has extended the incredibly generous FREE Frankicense promotion until 15 January 2015, so there’s still another week to take advantage of the biggest freebie of the year! Simply place an order of 200PV or more and receive a FREE bottle of Frankincense essential oil valued at over $114 retail! Frankincense essential oil is one of my absolute favourite essential oils with so many powerful therapeutic properties from supporting immunity to rejuvenating skin to calming the central nervous system and more.
Sunscreen: There are concerns about the health effects of chemicals in sunscreens, including the dangers of nano-particles. This is quite a complex topic and not one I’m going to get into but if you’d like to learn more Sarah Wilson does a great job of summarising the current issues in this blog post. Some brands of natural sunscreen that we like to use are Soleo and Wotnot. You can search the EWG’s Skin Deep Database for the ingredients in your sunscreen to check their safety, though this site does list mostly U.S. sunscreens if you are searching the brand rather than each individual ingredient.
Insect Repellent: For an awesome effective natural insect repellent recipe and more information on why it’s best to avoid commercial repellents, check out my blog post here. If making your own seems too daunting, then my next pick would be the Bug Another natural insect repellent. I have heard good reviews of Vanilla Mozi, though this one does come with a pretty hefty price tag compared to either making your own using my recipe (cost is around $6 a bottle) or buying the Bug Another spray.
Antibacterial Hand Gels: The nasties in those antibacterial hand gels that everyone seems obsessed with these days make for a whole blog post on it’s own and they are heavily used in most daycare centres, Kindergartens and schools! There are some very concerning ingredients in these products such as Triclosan and parabens. You can read more about the dangerous ingredients in (and environmental effects of) antibacterial hand gels here and here. The most common time for applying these toxic gels to hands is often before eating food, so not only are these toxins entering the body via absorption through the skin, they are also being ingested when you eat your food. Countless research studies have shown that these antibacterial hand gels are no more effective than using conventional soap and water! So encouraging your kids to regularly and thoroughly wash their hands at school is a far safer option, however, if you’d like a natural alternative for those times when hand washing isn’t possible you can make your own antibacterial hand gel. To do this I simply combine natural aloe vera gel (be sure to check the ingredients for added nasties) with doTERRA’s On Guard protective blend and I carry this in my handbag in a Press Pump Dropper Bottle from Glass Bottles Direct. Learn more about how you can use doTERRA’s Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade essential oils to support your family’s physical and emotional health naturally and how to purchase them at wholesale prices here.
So there you have it…lots of ideas for minimising the toxic load on our precious children’s bodies throughout the school year. Wishing you and your family are a happy, healthy, inspiring and Purely Thriving school year for 2016!
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