What do you think?
Rate this book
Organic Baby: Simple Steps for Healthy Living
Record numbers of parents are choosing organic foods and non-toxic products that are healthier for their children and gentler on the planetto the tune of $50 billion dollars spent worldwide last year. Now it's easier than ever to create an eco-friendly environment for little ones without sacrificing comfort and style. Author of The Healthy Home Workbook , interior designer and new mother Kimberly Rider offers parents dozens of solutions that fit their priorities and their lifestyleand their budget. From cribs to bubble bath to baby's first foods, Rider highlights health concerns, navigates the range of available products, and guides the way to safe and appealing choices. Colorful photos, smart tips and guidelines, and tabbed sections make this an inspirational and practical handbook. In Organic Baby , Mother Nature truly knows best.
- GenresParentingNonfiction
176 pages, Hardcover
First published March 8, 2007
2 people are currently reading
13 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 16, 2012
i can't believe i haven't reviewed this yet! this book was absurd. it's really pretty to look like & will give you all kinds of weird aspirational consumer fantasies about cleaning your house with vinegar & always being ready to get your clean, happy baby up for a nap while wearing a spotless organic cotton tank top & your hair up in a perfect chignon, but it can also easily give you a complex about how everything your baby comes into contact with will kill it, or at the very least, lower its IQ & disrupt its hormones.
full disclosure: i already clean my house with vinegar & wear my hair in a chignon everyday.
moving on. hands down my favorite part of this book was the part where the author asks, completely seriously, if the reader has a game plan for the inevitable day when their toddler goes tearing off in the direction of a play structure made of pressure-treated wood. not, like, the local sewage treatment plant or a pile of dog doo on the sidewalk or an exciting bin full of medical waste. a play structure made of pressure-treated wood! if you're anything like me, this is truly the stuff nightmares are made of.
she doesn't explain why pressure-treated wood is so bad. i had to google it. apparently it can contain trace amounts of arsenic. & you know, kids, especially little kid, love to put their mouths on stuff. so in a worst-case scenario, little junior might ingest tiny amounts of arsenic! while that's not something any parent is especially excited about, i read flowers in the attic & it taught me that you have to eat a decent amount of arsenic before you die. & i'm sure that all the play structures were made of pressure-treated wood (or perhaps just medical waste & dog shit) when i was a child, & yet, here i sit, reasonably unscathed.
there are undoubtedly better books about natural/organic parenting out there, books that provide more information, resources, suggestions for further reading, etc. & for all the ballyhoo about how important it is to only dress your infant in the most fair-trade of organic bamboo onesies, there's a lot of crap this book didn't question at all. it lists a crib as a baby essential. i think not! but like i said, it's pretty to look at, so if you really want to look at cute babies playing with blocks crafted from sustainably harvested wood, it probably wouldn't kill you to check this book out of the library.
full disclosure: i already clean my house with vinegar & wear my hair in a chignon everyday.
moving on. hands down my favorite part of this book was the part where the author asks, completely seriously, if the reader has a game plan for the inevitable day when their toddler goes tearing off in the direction of a play structure made of pressure-treated wood. not, like, the local sewage treatment plant or a pile of dog doo on the sidewalk or an exciting bin full of medical waste. a play structure made of pressure-treated wood! if you're anything like me, this is truly the stuff nightmares are made of.
she doesn't explain why pressure-treated wood is so bad. i had to google it. apparently it can contain trace amounts of arsenic. & you know, kids, especially little kid, love to put their mouths on stuff. so in a worst-case scenario, little junior might ingest tiny amounts of arsenic! while that's not something any parent is especially excited about, i read flowers in the attic & it taught me that you have to eat a decent amount of arsenic before you die. & i'm sure that all the play structures were made of pressure-treated wood (or perhaps just medical waste & dog shit) when i was a child, & yet, here i sit, reasonably unscathed.
there are undoubtedly better books about natural/organic parenting out there, books that provide more information, resources, suggestions for further reading, etc. & for all the ballyhoo about how important it is to only dress your infant in the most fair-trade of organic bamboo onesies, there's a lot of crap this book didn't question at all. it lists a crib as a baby essential. i think not! but like i said, it's pretty to look at, so if you really want to look at cute babies playing with blocks crafted from sustainably harvested wood, it probably wouldn't kill you to check this book out of the library.
August 11, 2008
Beautifully laid out with lots of up to date information on what's safe and what's not in terms of toxicity in today's material world. However, after reading this book, prepare to become a "toxic freak"...
January 17, 2019
I'm glad I found this at a used book store and didn't pay full price for it.
November 22, 2012
I guess I'm more interested in sustainability than the organic movement specifically but this book brings up some good points about plastics and toxins in everyday items like fabrics, furniture, and other things one finds in the home. A nice resource if you'd like to learn more about raising baby in a truly nontoxic environment and have the resources and personal energy to do so. My husband and I managed to survive infancy in the 80s so I suspect any efforts we make for our children will go far in making a healthier environment than we had.
January 28, 2008
Not as helpful as I had hoped. But I had also done quite a bit of research on the topics touched on, so there was not much new information here for me. Some of the recipes were helpful.
August 26, 2008
This is a great book for learning the basics about organics and babies. It is more of a coffee table book than a text book, but none the less it has good overall information.
December 22, 2008
Managed to freak me out about chemicals in all sorts of things around our house, but I didn't find it all that helpful in specific ways to avoid them.
November 20, 2008
pretty and useful.
April 9, 2008
A must read in preparing to bring baby home.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews