Safe Toys USAA blog from the people at Wee-Organics.com

Around the holidays, life seems to get more hectic than usual — especially if you have kids! While we all try to look for the most-well-made and safe products for our children, we shouldn’t lose sight of the everyday activities that may cause our little ones some harm.

AskFamilys.com just posted a great article to offer you some guidance when it comes to holiday safety: Pediatric ER doctors: “Bah Humbug!” to traditional holiday hazard message, by Joel Clingenpeel, MD – Child Safety House Calls. Have a read and start prepping now so you don’t have to add more stress to the holiday season!

Want a chance to win 4 products from Wee-Organics? Read the article 5 Baby Shower Gift Ideas & Organic Toy Giveaway and then leave a comment. By leaving a comment you’re entered for your chance to win! Thanks to lifetimemoms.com for featuring us!

According to Mridul Chadha’s article, U.S. Senate Climate Bill Reduces Funding for Forest Conservation and Reforestation, the U.S. is the  “second largest emitter of greenhouse gases and has one of the largest per capita emissions.” Yet, this month the U.S. Senate introduced a climate bill that reduces U.S. funding of forest conservation and reforestation efforts around the world. This reduction in funding means there is not enough money to develop affordable renewable energy technologies to improve efficiencies of the existing technologies or to provide consumers with subsidies to promote clean energy. It also means that the U.S. may not be able to achieve its carbon emissions reduction goal.

Wee-Organics believes in reforestation. That is why we only buy our wood from mills that harvest in sustainable Vermont forests and have reforestation programs.

Wee-Organics is offering children’s charities an opportunity to win $50 worth of Wee-Organics toys. Your charity must have a tax ID number for authentication and must cater to children. Here are the simple rules:

• Tell us about your charity and give us permission to blog about it
• Have the children you support submit something creative: writings, poems, artwork, photos, etc.
• Submit via email to weeorganics@gmail.com

WEE will select 2-3 winners of $50 worth of WEE toys!

This contest starts May 1 and ends on June 15. Winners will be posted by June 25 and toys shipped to you immediately.

All of the families we know have aches and pains. Some, of course, are much worse than others. So telling fun stories is just our way of perhaps brightening a day with something positive; not to always sound like life is perfect.

We had a magnificent Christening for our grandson, William Edward, this Sunday. Our grandson Colton and grandaughter Mae joined William’s brother, our other grandson, Spencer, at the alter. Spencer is three and Mae and Colton are 7 and 9. It was a truly wonderful site. When it was over Spencer began to cry and I asked him, “Why are you crying?” He said, “Because it is over Grampie.”

Colton and Mae looked at me for some words of wisdom and the only thing I could think of was the words of Dr Seuss: “Don’t cry because it is over, smile because it happened.” I’m really not sure if any of the kids got it until I explained it more to the older ones.

Spencer still cried.

Last week all full-size Simplicity Cribs with tubular metal mattress-support frames and Graco-branded drop-side cribs made by LaJobi were recalled. According to Consumer Reports Safety Blog, Simplicity and Graco-branded Cribs Recalled; one Death Involved, the Simplicity Cribs were recalled because the frames can bend or break away from the crib sides. In fact the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) received a report of a one-year-old Massachusetts boy, who suffocated after he became trapped between the mattress and the frame. They are urging parents and caregivers to remove Simplicity Cribs from their homes and are warning parents not to attempt to fix these cribs.

As simplicity has been out of business for a long time, the recall is being made by retailers that sold the cribs including Walmart, Target, Babies ‘R’ Us and several other retailers nationwide. Please see CPSC’s recall notice for model numbers.

Additionally, nine styles of Graco-branded drop-side cribs made by LaJobi were recalled because, as with many drop-side cribs, the hardware can break or fail, allowing the drop side to detach from the crib. LaJobi is offering crib owners a free retrofit kit that immobilizes the drop side. Please see CPSC’s recall notice for model numbers.

Sunday, May 9, is Mother’s Day; a day when moms across the country are appreciated for having one of the hardest jobs in the world. With only a few shopping days left, the crunch is on to find the perfect gift.

Regardless of age or income, most people enjoy showering moms with luxurious and thoughtful gifts on Mother’s Day.  What most people don’t think about however is that “like most holidays [Mother’s Day] can be very wasteful and unsustainable, ” according to www.greenertrends.com’s article, Green Tips For Mother’s Day.  Whether you’re a husband, parent, grandparent, sibling, child or best friend of a mom please read Green Tips for Mother’s Day to learn how to honor moms in a sustainable, environmentally friendly way.

Almost three years ago I gave birth to our first son, Spencer. An absolute blessing…a healthy and happy beautiful little boy.  We cherished and loved each and every moment, even those long nights when he cried and cried and there was nothing to do but hold him and hope he would peacefully fall asleep.  We still cherish and love each and every moment with our son and still  have those long nights but thankfully they are few and far between!

Before Spencer’s birth my mother hosted a beautiful shower for me in which I received almost everything I would need as a new mom.  The only thing that seemed to be missing was a teething ring that was not made in China.  I searched high and low all over the Internet (and world) for an organic teething ring for my precious little boy.  Of course I had time…I started my search when my son was approximately 3 months old and finally identified and purchased one three months later from Germany.  My father, a successful entrepreneur, was shocked that an organic teether was not easily located here in the US. How could that be? And so he set out to change all that.

Baby Will with Wee-Organics Teether

He began searching factories in Vermont, specifics in regard to organic and sustainable wood, toys, etc. and in July of 2009 started Wee-Organics!  My dad is one of those hard working men who knows (from experience) that nothing comes easy.  He’s been working at product development, marketing and sales his whole life and although he has had his share of hard knocks he has taught us to believe in ourselves and get back on our feet no matter how difficult the challenge.  He is by far the most driven, caring and loving businessman I have ever met.  One who taught me that everyone…everyone no matter title, gender, age, etc., everyone deserves to be treated fairly and with respect.  He also taught me to be thoughtful when developing product – to research, test and make the very best product out there.  These are the qualities my Dad brings to every product he designs, manufactures and markets.  He loves his grandchildren with all of his heart (and we’ve just added grandchild #4 “baby Will” to the family) and these are the products he has made “with his love” for them…and for you!  I am so very proud of my Dad…

Over the past decade or so, many people have gone organic to protect themselves and the environment from the toxic pesticides in non-organic foods and personal care items.  Unfortunately, many consumers have been misled by companies hoping to cash in at the expense of those hoping to live healthier lives.  This problem is amplified when it comes to personal-care items (such as baby care products, bath, shower, shampoos and soaps, deodorants, antiperspirants, cosmetics, skin lotions, and sun care products).  This is because the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Organic Standards Board don’t hold personal-care items to the same organic standards as food.  According to Consumer Reports article, Consumers Union Urges FTC to Stop Deceptive Organic Labeling of Personal Care Products, “For many years, makers of widely used cosmetics and other personal care products have taken advantage of a loophole in labeling rules that allows them to use the term ‘organic’ on their product labels when in fact they do not have to meet the same government standards that are required for other organic labels on foods, dairy products, meats, and beverages.”
That is why this March Consumers Union (CU) and the Organic Consumers Association (OCU) petitioned the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to put an end to misleading practices of several “organic” personal care brands that do not comply with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program.  Until more is done at the government level, we must all be extra vigilant to protect ourselves and our families from companies who use misleading labeling practices.  Please read, Consumers Reports article, Why Some Organic Products Fall Short to learn how to determine if a product is really organic.

In the aftermath of the murder of Ashleigh Hall (a 17-year-old U.K. girl who was duped by a man who posed as a teenager on Facebook), and the suicide of Pheobe Prince after being subjected to relentless cyber-bullying, Facebook has overhauled its Safety Center.  The new Safety Center provides information for teens, parents, law enforcement officials, educators and general users to help protect themselves against sex offenders, scammers, bullies and other delinquents. Still some believe that Facebook needs to do more to keep its users safe.

This Monday, Jim Gamble, the head of Britain’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center (CEOP) met with Facebook executives in Washington to convince them to embed a “panic button” on every page to enable users to report disturbing contacts with a single click. Currently, Facebook has a “report abuse” button at the bottom left corner of each profile.

However, according to Vicki Barker’s article, Child Safety Group Fights For Facebook ‘Panic Button’, “Facebook . . . says it has experimented with a panic button similar to what the British child protection agency advocates, and found that reports of abuse did not rise but fell.” In fact, “Facebook says its existing monitoring system is constantly reviewed;” and “Incidents of bullying or approaches by pedophiles are extremely rare.” While Facebook has agreed to place a panic button on a page it had already set up for reporting abuse, the CEOP believes it is only effective if it is on every page.

In contrast, Larry Magid, author of Facebook rejects suggested ‘Panic Button’ for pages, questions the necessity and usefulness of putting a panic button on every page. According to Magid, “The number of young people who have been harmed by a stranger they met online is extremely low and, even in those few tragic cases, the victim has always willingly met up with the abuser. The Hall case is evidence of this as she clearly never suspected she was in any danger and therefore would not have used the panic button.

But what about Phoebe Prince and others subjected to the same kind of cyber-bulling? Magid believes that most cases of Internet “abuse” have more to do with problems in relationships than with crimes and are not issues for law enforcement. I have to respectfully disagree. Maybe if Prince had the ability to push a panic button, Facebook could have at least stopped her abusers from bullying her online. Now we will never know.

However, it does seem clear that a “panic button” alone is not going to stop abusers from using the Internet for their own twisted pleasure. Rather, a panic button in conjunction with appropriate supervision and education that teaches children and adults how to protect themselves from online abusers is likely to be the most beneficial for all social media users.