opt organic? and a my natural baby boutique giveaway!

I want Carter to turn out - I dunno - perfect?

A huge part of being a new mom is choosing which advice you're going take and to weave into your priorities. Put them to sleep on their backs. Have a ceiling fan on over the crib. Sanitize surfaces. Read books. Avoid TV. Try not to give them medications. Buy organic products.

Lovely advice, but nobody ever offers the second half of their sentence. You know, that because part. Please, people of harping, tell me what happens if I faux pas it up?

At risk of sounding completely naive - honestly, the organic thing didn't have me sold. I don't eat/wear/live organic, and look at me, I'm doing just fine. Won't Carter be just as fine?

But it's organic! Yes, nature-person, it is. Please pass the cheap cheerios.

There was a lot I didn't know.

From the second they're conceived until age three, babies' brains and bodies grow super fast. Obviously. Since they're so small, they absorb more pesticides per pound of body weight than adults do. The toxins stay in their systems longer and have an impact on their growth.

Toxins can play into so many different products - plastic bottles, toys, soaps, food, milk and clothes.

I get the food and bottles part, we slop them to our mouths and practically inject toxins into our bloodstreams. (If you're Carter, you're also into avid soap consumption.) But clothes? Paranoid much? How could non-organic clothes really hurt anyone?

Our bodies actually absorb what touches our skin, and guess what? A baby's skin is a lot thinner than ours.

Cotton crops are a crazy toxin offender; they're heavily ridden with insecticides that cause cancer. To put it more simply scarily: A study found that children whose parents used pesticides in their personal gardens were seven times more likely to have leukemia than other children.

Let's finish that blank-slated sentence. Opt organic because Carter will be at a lower risk for cancer, disease and his flawless growth won't be stunted. --- Well ok then.

Now that I'm feeling a little less blonde and fairly freaked out, I give. I'll opt for some safe, scratchy, earthy, organic clothing. But I couldn't believe my fingers when Carter got his first two organic T-shirts the other day from My Natural Baby Boutique. The organic cotton is surprisingly so much softer and thicker than any shirt I've ever come across.

Holding Carter felt like grabbing a brand new, snuggly teddy bear right off a toy store shelf. And it figures. Organic cotton is treated less, so the fibers aren't weak and broken down.

My Natural Baby Boutique is excited to offer one lucky Bumble reader $20 toward your baby's much-deserved organic collection!

There are two ways you can enter (leave a comment for each):

♥ Go to My Natural Baby Boutique's page, come back & leave a comment telling me what you'd get if you won. (My favs are the As We Grow T-shirts!)

♥ Go to My Natural Baby Boutique's Facebook page, like it, comment saying Bringing up Bumble sent you. Come back here and tell me you did it.

You can enter once a day, just say Enter me again.

The winner will be picked on Saturday, April 23.

Good luck!

Awesome coincidence.

Voting for us is ALSO toxin-free!