New Program Supports Parents Who Want to Raise Children in An Eco-Healthy Way

Typography
Parents who want to raise their children in an eco-healthy way now have access to a new set of resources, thanks to the Tiny Footprints program announced today by the Oregon Environmental Council (OEC).

PORTLAND, Oregon — Parents who want to raise their children in an eco-healthy way now have access to a new set of resources, thanks to the Tiny Footprints program announced today by the Oregon Environmental Council (OEC). The Tiny Footprints program includes the new Tiny Footprints website www.tinyfootprints.org, and the nation's first eco-healthy Tiny Footprints Baby Shower Kit.


"The goal of the Tiny Footprints program is to support the growing community of parents who want to raise their children in a way that means making choices that are good for both their family's health and the environment," explains Sarah Doll, director of the Tiny Footprints program at OEC. "Being eco-healthy is especially important around children because they are particularly vulnerable to environmental health threats, such as pesticides. When parents create eco-healthy environments, they help maximize their children's potential to succeed."


The Tiny Footprints website includes resources and on-line conversations about expecting, adventuring with baby, green products and services, nutrition, eco-healthy homes, as well as tips on how to build an eco-healthy community of one's own. Parents and caregivers can add comments about their own personal experiences to share with others.


The Tiny Footprints Baby Shower Kit offers expectant parents fun and engaging ideas to get family and friends involved in welcoming their newest loved one into an environmentally healthy home. The baby shower kit is the first to be offered anywhere that focuses specifically on eco-healthy lifestyle choices. It is full of helpful and healthful recommendations on everything from selecting baby toys to suggestions on what types of foods to serve at the shower. The shower kit makes a great gift for an expectant mom. Priced at just $10, each kit comes complete with attractively printed shopping tips and information cards that fit easily into a handbag or large coat pocket. An electronic version of the baby shower kit is also available on-line at no charge on the Tiny Footprints Website.


The Tiny Footprints program offers tips about simple, easy-to-make choices that can make a big difference in and around the nursery. For example, Tiny Footprints shopping tips for a healthy home include such easy-to-make choices as:


-- Look for "mild," "biodegradable" soaps, lotions, cleaners and detergents.
-- Buy organic and locally grown products as much as possible.
-- Purchase natural fiber products for bedding, mattresses, carpets, rugs and furnishings; and
-- Buy low-VOC paints and finishes.


"The Tiny Footprints program helps me feel empowered to make positive choices and helps me stay connected to other parents who share my interest in maintaining a healthy home for my baby," said Lori Guidone, an expectant mother living in Portland. "These resources will help me create the least-toxic and most environmentally healthy home that I can for my newborn."


A number of organizations are supporting the Tiny Footprints program with financial contributions and donations of products and services. Founding program sponsors include the Beldon Foundation, the Kellogg Foundation, Metro Parent Magazine, NW Natural, Blue Canoe, Celilo Group Media, New Leaf Paper, Organic Valley, Wild Oats Markets, and Yolo Colorhouse.


Many other groups are helping to distribute information about the Tiny Footprints program to expectant and new parents, including midwives and doulas, birthing centers, and social service organizations throughout the Pacific Northwest.


About OEC: Founded in 1968, The Oregon Environmental Council is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization with more than 2,000 members throughout the state. We bring Oregonians together for a healthy environment. Via programs such as the Bottle Bill, curbside recycling and the creation of local watershed councils, OEC has played a leadership role in helping Oregonians be part of the solution to environmental problems. Our current programs focus on protecting kids' health from toxic pollution, cleaning up Oregon's rivers, and protecting our climate by curbing vehicle pollution. For more information about OEC and its programs, please visit http://www.oeconline.org.


Source: Business Wire, Oregon Environmental Council