How to have a green baby

Tips for a low-toxin pregnancy
• Avoid any renovation in your home that disturbs old lead-containing paint (generally painted before 1970).

• Reduce your exposure to aluminum by not using aluminum pots or cookware, and don't use deodorant or antiperspirant containing aluminum.

• Have any dental work done well in advance of pregnancy and look into the possibility of replacing any amalgam fillings you may have with non-amalgam alternatives.

• If you're decorating the new nursery, use plant-based paints with low fumes. Avoid using solvents and fume-emitting adhesives. Better still, talk someone else into doing the hard smelly work. Milk your "delicate" situation for all it's worth!

• Avoid hair-colouring products during pregnancy. Most have health warnings on them advising against use by pregnant women.

• Eat organic food wherever possible. At the very least buy organic broccoli and grapes in place of non-organic broccoli and grapes. Broccoli and grape crops tend to make high use of pesticides. They also have a large edible surface area, which increases the amount of pesticide residue you finally eat.

• Limit your consumption of tuna, fish that dwell on the sea floor and shellfish.

• Eat free-range, organic chicken and eggs. Non-organic chickens are often fed synthetic hormones and antibiotics to improve their growth and avoid diseases. Exposure to synthetic hormones can confuse the development of the reproductive organs, while the antibiotics in the chicken and eggs can depress both the mother's and child's immune systems.

• Use green cleaners.

• Quit smoking (if you are a smoker) and avoid smoky environments. Cigarette smoke is a cocktail of toxic, unhealthy chemicals that are particularly dangerous to both children and pregnant women. Smoking is linked with low-birth-weight babies and increases the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

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Excerpted from Greeniology: How to Live Well, Be Green and Make a Difference by Tanya Ha. Copyright 2005 by Tanya Ha. Excerpted with permission by Penguin. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced without permission in writing from the publisher.