Green Parenting: It Doesn't Have to Be Nature Vs. Nurture

This was previously published on TheStreet.com.

I recently came across a great book called "Raising Baby Green," by San Francisco Bay Area pediatrician Dr. Alan Greene.

With a three-month-old at home and my closets and drawers full of organic cotton onesies, bleach-free diapers, nontoxic bottles and PVC -free toys, I was interested in what I could do to build an even greener nest.

Greene's book has lots of lists, resources and quick-information boxes that make it a handy reference.

But I must confess: Caring for a baby while maintaining a robust journalistic career has left me with precious little time to read the all of its 252-pages (plus appendices), much less do most of the stuff in it.

So I gave Dr. Greene a call and asked for advice on how a time- and cash-strapped parent (the only kind of parent these days) could focus his or her environmental efforts.

"It makes sense to start with the things that have the biggest health and environmental impact, and that comes down to what the baby eats, breathes and has on its skin," he says.

In that vein, he suggests keeping a critical eye on the products you put on your child's skin day-in and day-out, like diaper rash ointment, baby soap and sunscreen.

With all these products, he urges close label reading and relying on objective sources for guidance as to what is truly earth friendly and healthier for kids. A lot of products that claim to be "gentle" or specially formulated for baby's skin have parabens, petroleum derivatives or sodium laureth sulfate, ingredients that adults are increasingly wary of using for themselves, for reasons Treehugger explains well.

Aveeno, a brand owned by Johnson & Johnson (JNJ Quote) that cultivates an image of being gentle and natural, puts sodium laureth sulfate and a lot of other hard-to-pronounce ingredients in its "gentle cleansing" baby wash and shampoo.

Ironically, it has a warning on its label to keep it out of the reach of children. Meanwhile, Johnson's baby lotion, with "clinically proven mildness," contains parabens and several possible skin irritants.

The Environmental Working Group keeps a database of skin-care products rated on a scale of 0 to 10 for safety (0 being the most best). The Aveeno baby wash rates a 4, the Johnson's lotion a 6.

A quick search of the database though, shows that mainstream products aren't always less good. Triple Paste, the diaper rash cream recommended to me by every mom I know, is sold in mainstream pharmacies like Walgreen(WAG Quote) and rates a one from EWG. And not all the earth-friendly brands are obscure and hard to come by. Burt's Bees, the 24-year-old natural products company whose "Baby Bee" line garners ratings from two to four, sells at Target(TGT Quote).

When it comes to sunscreen, he recommends parents look for titanium dioxide or zinc oxide as the active ingredient and avoid products with "everything else." "You don't use so much sunscreen that the price difference is a lot." But it can make a difference in terms of what you get. At Drugstore.com(DSCM Quote), a sunscreen from California Baby that has titanium dioxide and rates a 1 from EWG is $15.50 while a baby sunscreen from Banana Boat costs $10, but rates a 7 from EWG and has those other active ingredients Green is wary of.