Smart Mama's Green Guide by Jennifer Taggart

When I finally signed up for Twitter last year, one of the first people I followed was Jennifer Taggart (@thesmartmama). I always enjoyed seeing her tweets about green products and tips, so I was really excited to review her book Smart Mama's Green Guide: Simple Steps to Reduce Your Child's Toxic Chemical Exposure (ARV $14.99, Center Street).

Parents often feel overwhelmed and defenseless against a never-ending recall list of toys and baby products. Deciphering unpronounceable chemicals they encounter every day can be daunting if not impossible. With environmental exposures being closely linked to 70 percent of birth defects, new parents faced with the overwhelming responsibility for their babies' health frequently turn to organic products. But they quickly find they don't have the time to practice a completely green or natural lifestyle. THE SMART MAMA'S GREEN GUIDE delivers the information busy parents want and the tools to make informed, individual choices without the demand to go all-out green. Packed with practical tips on eliminating or reducing the hidden dangers of toxic chemicals that lurk everywhere, this book will empower readers to control what comes into their homes and make informed decisions instead of relying on government regulation of harmful chemicals.

Smart Mama’s Green Guide was a very informative and detailed reference. I felt like the book went into more detail than other “green” books, which I thought was really great. She discusses toxic chemicals in depth, revealing a lot of facts and scary statistics. Overall she provides a lot of useful information that I found very practical. For instance, the section on mold discussed not only the potential causes and dangers, but there was a table on how to clean mold depending on the object or surface the mold is found on. I found this table to be really handy, especially since in Hawaii mold is a common problem in many households because of our constant high humidity.

Since I'm currently nursing, the section I found most interesting focused on chemicals in breastmilk. Taggart doesn’t discourage breastfeeding—she highly encourages it, but she does inform you about the potential for breastmilk to contain certain chemicals. She discusses common contaminants, the sources, and the potential risks, and offers “Smart Mama’s Simple Steps to Reduce Exposure” to certain chemicals.

Taggart offers many “Simple Steps to Reduce Exposure” on a variety of topics, from furniture to food, and kitchenware to personal care products.

There are also handy charts throughout the book, including some on common household toxic chemicals, recipes for cleaners, and more.

I admit that the book did get me a bit more paranoid, especially with the Smart Mama Scary Facts and Warnings, but after reading the book, I did feel a lot more informed.

It can be hard and expensive to go green, and we can't completely eliminate our exposure to toxins--it's everywhere in our environment. But there are steps we can take and ways to reduce our exposure to certain chemicals. I’ve been on my own “green journey” for the past two years now, and I still have a lot to learn. Although I use a lot of green products, not everything we use is organic, nor everything we eat and drink. Thankfully, Smart Mama’s Green Guide offers many practical tips and ideas to help create a greener environment for ourselves and our children, and with each green step that I take I know that I'm becoming an even "smarter mama!"

Shop: To purchase Smart Mama’s Green Guide, click here to find a retailer near you.

Win: Five lucky winners will receive a copy of Smart Mama’s Green Guide!

***THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED***

Congratulations to Saving in Style, Mishia, Peggy, Donna M. Clark, ColleenMarie82!

• To enter, view Smart Mama’s Green Guide in the OpenReader below, browse through the Table of Contents and comment on which chapter you think you’d refer to the most (please include the chapter title, not just chapter 1, 2, 3, etc.).
• You’ll get one extra entry each if you do any of the following (be sure to leave a comment for each “entry”):
  1)Blog about this giveaway and link back to Sage and Savvy and Smart Mama's Green Guide
  2)Subscribe to my feed
  3)Add my button to your sidebar
  4)Follow me on Twitter (leave your Twitter name in your comment)
• The deadline for entries is July 25, 2009, 11:59pm HST.
• If you submitted an eligible entry and it is chosen by random.org as the winner, you will be notified via email on July 26, 2009(make sure your email address is in your profile or comment) and will have 3 days to accept.
• Valid for US and Canada addresses only.
  Good luck!
  
  
  

  

  
  
  

Thank you to Hachette Book Group for providing the product(s) for review and/or giveaway.

12:30 AM Posted in: books,giveaways,hachette book group,Jennifer Taggart,reviews,Smart Mama's Green Guide
Gem is a Hawaii Mom Blogger who posts reviews and giveaways, and blogs about life in Hawaii as a mom of 3 boys, including one with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. She loves to travel, bake, and eat anything with chocolate.