Eco-Friendly Nursery: How to Go Green

During pregnancy, moms spend so much time worrying about the foods they eat, the chemicals they're exposed to, and all the other little things that have a huge impact on the health of the child they're going to have. And during those months of pregnancy, we parents start to build a little safe haven in the world around us to cradle and comfort the baby we're having.

What most of us learn too late is that the furniture, carpeting, bedding, and even the toys we choose to fill our baby's nursery also has a huge impact on their health - not to mention the environment.

Because babies are growing so rapidly, their little bodies are more vulnerable to environmental pollutants than older children or even adults. Being the great parent that you are, you're going to want to learn how to make an eco-friendly nursery that benefits your child's health, development, and won't harm the world they're going to grow up in.

Don't worry - it's easier than you might think.

Start with Fresh Paint and Untreated Floors

It's easiest to do something right when you start from the barest surface available. In the case of a nursery, this means beginning with the walls and floors.

Begin with your flooring. If the nursery has wall-to-wall carpeting, you need to consider removing it. Carpet fibers trap mold, dust mites, and other allergens. They also tend to stain, wear out, and get replaced repeatedly, placing an additional strain on our already strained landfills.

The best floor for a nursery is hardwood. Not only is this easy to clean and virtually un-stainable, but it will last a lifetime. Natural stone tiles are also a great choice because they can easily be disinfected. Either way you go, the floors can be brightened and softened with area rugs made from organic cotton or untreated wool.

If you want to go the hardwood route, take a look at the puzzle floor. This floor is honestly easy to install yourself to save some cash, but the real selling point of it is that it is beyond perfect for a child's room. It looks - literally - like a puzzle of beautiful hardwood tiles.

Once your flooring debate has been solved - but before you install the new floor - take a careful look at the walls. If you paint the walls before you install new flooring, you'll save yourself a lot of frustration because any floor-level spills will be covered right up.

When you choose paint for your nursery walls, look for an environmentally friendly paint. These paints won't release poisonous gases called VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds), and are usually more rugged than other paints. You'll find familiar ingredients like beeswax and soy resins or buttermilk in this kind of paint. Check out the Real Milk Paint Company for paints made from milk, lime, clay and earth pigments to create a variety of 27 different colors.

Furnish with Natural Materials

When you think about it, there are only a few serious pieces of furniture that are necessary for a nursery. You will, of course, need some sort of bed and a dresser. A rocking chair or glider is always a nice touch as well. Further than that, though, most of the nursery furniture items you'll find cost a lot of money and won't grow with your child - which ends up being frustrating because they grow into new needs so quickly.

Try to think clean when you start furnishing your baby's nursery. Choose only the necessities, and if you decide you have to splurge on something that you know will only be around for a few months, you won't be attacked by guilt monkeys down the road.

As you seek out the right furniture, look specifically for pieces that will grow with your baby. Cribs that convert into a toddler and then single or twin-size bed as your baby grows are perfect. A dresser that contains several drawers and is the right height for holding a stack of diapers and bathing items for now and later on a big pile of stuffies is also a great grow-with-me idea. When you look for things like this, you're helping your wallet (read: saving money for school!) and you won't be throwing out a bunch of plastic things to pile up down at the dump.

Along a health and environmental pollutant path, avoid any furniture that is made with plywood, particle board, or medium density fiberboard (MDF). Not only do these wear out much more quickly, but they will start to release chemical fumes that you don't want around your baby. Just think about your sweet little baby standing in her pretty white crib, biting the bars (babies test the world through taste). That pretty white paint - or even the glossy "natural" finish - contains formaldehyde and pesticides.

Instead, look for furniture made from solid, untreated wood (the kind you need to wax), wicker, or rattan. At Pristine Planet you can comparison shop a ton of natural baby furniture selections.

Forget the Stain Treatments

Yes, babies stain things. In ways that, if you've never had a baby, will amaze. It's tempting to go for mattresses and pillows or bedding that contain stain and moisture resistant treatments for this very reason.

Forget them. Invest in some stain remover, and avoid cancer-causing treatments and retardants. Fire retardants like polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) have been shown to cause cancer, and many stain treatments are suspected of doing the same. Add to that the fact that most baby bedding is made from conventional cotton - one of the most heavily pesticide-sprayed crops in the world - and the nursery starts to look like a rather dangerous place.

Look for mattresses that are made with wool casings or organic cotton filling, and bedding that is organic cotton. Pillows that are stuffed with natural fillings like buckwheat hulls, untreated wool, or organic cotton are much less likely to cause allergies or irritate baby's sensitive skin, and they're proven to induce a much deeper, more healthy sleep.

Dream Soft Bedware, 2Modern's Cotton Monkey collection, and the Eco Bedroom will all get you going in style.