You know the feeling you get when you listen to one of your favorite songs? Your mood lifts, your body relaxes, and you easily recall happy memories. When you think of it this way, the idea of music therapy makes perfect sense. It turns out, music can do much more for your health – especially when it…
Toddler
7 Mindful Exercises to Help Tweens Sleep
“If you can cultivate wholesome, mental states prior to sleep and allow them to continue right into sleep without getting distracted, then sleep itself becomes wholesome.” ~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Sleeping, Dreaming, and Dying Children who maintain a regular pattern of quality sleep are generally better able to cope with life’s challenges. They…
Natural Teething Remedies for Baby
The teething process can be a very painful stage for babies. Thankfully, there are some key symptoms to help spot teething, together with a number of simple, natural teething remedies and therapies that can soothe your baby’s discomfort.The moment your baby starts making a fuss or looking slightly pink around the cheeks, everyone assumes teething…
The 4 Biggest Benefits of Co-Sleeping
The term “co-sleeping” doesn’t only mean bed sharing. It can be any form of children sleeping in the same room as their parent. It’s commonly practiced in many cultures around the world – whether by necessity or choice. Many modern parents intend for their new baby to sleep in his own room, but it doesn’t…
Ignore vs. Intervene: Allowing Your Child to Experience Natural Consequences
In the realm of gentle discipline, allowing your child to experience natural consequences can be an effective strategy for shaping behavior and teaching cause and effect. Natural vs. logical consequences for kids Natural consequences and logical consequences are very similar. A natural consequence is the natural or inevitable result of a person’s action. Your child…
The Fall 2017 Issue of Green Child Magazine
If you’re looking forward to all the family fun autumn brings, you’ll love our Fall issue! Filled with ways to enjoy this vibrant time of year, we’ve got your seasonal activities covered sustainably. One of our favorite annual features – the Back to School Lunch & Gear Guide will help you get back into the…
Guided Relaxation: The Thankful Turtle
This issue’s guided imagery meditation is all about gratitude. Read this script in a relaxed voice, with joyful emphasis when needed. The more you use these scripts, the more easily your child will relax and be able to concentrate. These peaceful guided relaxation scripts are written by Mellisa Dormoy of ShambalaKids. Her guided relaxation audios help…
A Beginner’s Guide to Cloth Diapering
Considering cloth diapers? The great news is… modern cloth diapers and accessories are extremely versatile and much easier to use than you might think. While cloth diapers require a little more money up front than their disposable counterparts, they last through use by multiple babies. You can save them for your future children and/or even…
How Healthy Gut Bacteria Can Help Prevent Asthma and Allergies
More and more research is showing a very strong link between the “good bacteria” that live in your child’s gut and the development of allergies and asthma. So, what is the research on gut bacteria showing? “Good” gut bacteria play a key role not only in developing a healthy immune system in infants, but also…
Healthy Microbiome for Kids: How to Boost Your Child’s Gut Health
When you boost your child’s gut health by supporting the microbiome, you’re setting him or her up for a lifetime of wellness – plus fewer colds, less severe stomach bugs, and many more benefits as science shows how a healthy microbiome is crucial to overall wellness. Here, you’ll find tips for helping to balance your…
Car Seat Safety Checklist: How to Choose a Car Seat
Knowing how to choose a car seat and what to look for when buying it can be a nerve-wracking process for any new parent. Thankfully, with the right planning and guidance, choosing a car seat doesn’t have to be a struggle. A simple checklist can often be the simplest way to navigate important decision-making tasks,…
Car Seat Safety Checklist: How to Install a Car Seat
After nearly 20 years studying child passenger safety, I’ve had the opportunity to speak with countless parents, safety experts and industry professionals on this very topic. While working at Britax, I have used my knowledge of the space to help the company innovate and design some of the safest products on the market. Choose The…
From Ancient Times to Modern Parenting: The DIDYMOS Babywearing Legacy
Sometimes it’s tough being the first one in the neighborhood trying a new thing. While babywearing is far from new, its journey into the mainstream consciousness has been a slow one. Back in 1972, Erika Hoffmann knew this exact feeling. At a time when it was practically unheard of for children to sleep with their…
Roughhousing & Developmental Play
A kitten makes a sideways run to pounce on her unsuspecting sibling. Two puppies growl and nip each other, all the while thumping their tails with glee. Roughhousing comes naturally to young animals (even non-predatory animals), so it should be no surprise our kids have the same instincts. “Play fighting” can actually help kids learn…
Flexible LEGO® Compatible Tape is a Game Changer!
Few things capture the imagination of a child like the classic LEGO® brick. These open-ended toys stand the test of time, and now a new innovation is propelling the already endless options for creativity. Nimuno Loops is a flexible roll of building block “tape” that can be cut to any length and applied to nearly any…
Hiking with Little Kids: How to enjoy hiking without overdoing it
A family hike is a wonderful way to spend time together in nature and get some great exercise. If you’re nervous about hiking with little kids, here’s how to enjoy a great day without overdoing it. Hiking with little kids is the ultimate way to enjoy a free range summer. My niece and nephew are…
The Spring 2017 Issue of Green Child Magazine is Here!
The Spring 2017 issue of Green Child is here! You’ll find natural parenting advice for all ages & stages… from handling baby’s first fever to creating a safe environment for your preschooler’s roughhousing to helping set rules for your teen’s first cell phone. You’ll also find healthy recipes, a peek at our favorite books in…
Why & How to Embrace Minimalist Parenting
Could your family enjoy life more by doing less? Minimalist parenting challenges parents to cut through the clutter of more, and edit your activities and belongings down to what’s truly important. For many years, the parenting climate has been all about more. More expert advice, more gear, more competition, more fears about safety, and more choices to make…
Babywearing Basics: Everything You Need to Know About Carriers, Wraps, & Slings
Babywearing is a practice that goes back to the dawn of time because of how perfectly and wonderfully it works. Babywearing truly is simple and seamlessly compatible with this thing we call life. Wearing can offer newborns the constant warmth and security that they need; enable simple on-demand breastfeeding; give parents hands so they can care…
Coping With Colds: The Best Herbs For Cough, Congestion, And Infection
Dealing with a cold is terrible. But having a child come down with a cold? Any parent would happily take on the virus rather than put their kid through the breathless nights of hacking, sneezing, and stuffy noses. No, we can’t take up sneezing on their behalf, but herbs can be the next best thing. Use…
Children and Chickens: What Backyard Chickens Can Teach Kids
Children and chickens may not seem as natural a combination as a child and a puppy, but you may be surprised at the bonding experience your family can have with a flock of chickens. Keeping a small flock of chickens in the backyard is much more than a passing fad or trend and is slowly…
Nutritional Nuggets: Holidays Don’t Have to Equal Sweets
Question: Is there a way to stop the sweets – holidays association before it starts? My husband and I went off of sugar several years ago, and it’s been the best health decision we’ve ever made. Our son is almost 2, and we’d like to keep sugar from becoming a reward or celebratory association in…
Unleash Your Child’s Creative Genius By Nurturing These 6 Traits in Yourself
Is creativity an innate talent or a learned skill? Many people think creativity is something people are born with—either they have it or they don’t. That’s one myth about child rearing that needs to be debunked because, in fact, creativity can be learned. As a parent who wants to nurture their child’s ability to think…
Bringing Mindfulness to Story Time
Once during story time when my son was just four years old, he taught me a lesson that changed me forever. I was reading to him, as we did every day. It was a little more rushed than usual. I was tired and hungry, and we sat on the edge of the couch going through…
