Toys & Toxins: New Resource

Toys have many parents worried.. and for good reason. Some companies are arguing that it's okay for their toys to contain illegal levels of lead (like this RED blood-pressure cuff) as long it's not on the surface of the product. Relatedly, Fisher-Price (a Mattel company) refuses to pull lead tainted toys exceeding federal standards in states other than Illinois (from Consumer Reports blog).

Well, here's a little good news. Ecology Group, a Michigan environmental group is independently testing toys for 9 toxins that can be viewed through x-ray fluorescence. They report their findings in a great database at HealthyToys.org. I whiled away a couple hours cruising through this great site. You can even proposed more toys for them to test and subscribe to database updates.

I was relieved to see one of Ranger's favorite chewable baby toys get a pretty clean bill of health even though he quit chewing on it some time ago. And we crossed Wedgits off his Christmas list until they're PVC free.

Soaper-Star: Johnson's Easy-Rinse Foam Shampoo

Since Ranger was a wee thing we used Cetaphil's gentle skin cleaner to wash his hair & body. It rinsed remarkably well, wasn't drying to his skin, and didn't have any discernible fragrance (I find most perfumes cloying at best).

The conservationist/cheapskate in me is obsessed with foam soap pumps and their ability to dramatically extend soap use. So, I started looking for foam shampoo pumps to refill with regular products mixed with water. There are startlingly few shampoo foam pumps, but I finally found a few in the kids' aisle.

Johnson's Buddies Easy-Rinse Shampoo was on sale and I needed to make a $25 minimum to buy a turkey at disreputable prices, so into the cart the yellow bottle went.

The shampoo smells great, but isn't strongly scented. The foam keeps it from running into the little guy's eyes when lathering. The lather hangs atop his head until it's time to rinse (and allows for some fabulous fauxhawk styling). This product rinses easily and leaves hair clean, lightly scented, and manageable without stripping moisture. We've not yet managed to wash any of it into Ranger's eyes either (the foam is pretty easy to manipulate away from the eyes while rinsing).

Though Johnson's doesn't appear to currently offer refills of the shampoo, the pump seems refillable (1/3 shampoo and 2/3 water). It would be great if they would come out with a bulk sized refill bottle.

Don't buy a single bottle through Amazon- unless you can get free shipping. They're simply exorbitant once you factor in shipping costs.

Happy bathtime!

***As always, this is the independent opinion of the geek family at Baby Toolkit. We received no compensation for this review and have no undisclosed relationship with Johnson & Johnson.

The Best Gift Guide Ever

Don't miss AJ's inspired gift list at Thingamababy. It's the best you'll see online.

Under Our Tree

Jim and I spent many years trying to get family members to donate to our favorite organizations (like Heifer Project) rather than purchase holiday gifts for us. It's not that we didn't like gifts, but we didn't NEED anything and our house overflowed with stuff already.

For us, holidays are the best playing games and enjoying time with family and friends. We really hope that Ranger will also appreciate the community aspects of holidays more than the stuff or the volume of stuff.

So, we're trying to give each family member a personally significant, reasonably priced gift and not fall prey to the last minute "one more thing" add on gifts.

Here are a few of our 2007 choices:

For my dad, our geek grandpa: a Rhinoskin CASE for his techie cell phone/PDA (not the phone itself).

For Jim's dad, our fisherman grandpa: a personalized CASE (reading GrandpaJones) for his fishing rods.

For our 4-year old niece: a ceramic name necklace.

and for Jim's mom: a ceramic photo tile pendant with a favorite picture of Ranger.

Does your family have a holiday giving strategy? What gifts (or kinds of gifts) are you giving this year?