I like the idea of cleaner eating. I like the idea of choosing products and food that I know aren’t full of junk. In reality it is a lot harder to execute when buying for my family. After having a daughter with asthma and eczema I was determined to find ways to help her without being tied to medication. We went on a journey and discovered that we could make a difference for both with the products we were using and the food we were buying.
As a busy working mom, I had to make this process simple. I found companies who could take the effort out of the process. Here are two that have made a big difference in our home.
Young Living – Young Living is pretty well known for essential oils, but they also offer a ton of other products if you aren’t into oils. We have switched most of our products to Young Living and it has changed our lives. I know that sounds dramatic, but when you’ve been dealing with a girl who won’t go to sleep because she is always itchy, it is an amazing transformation to find products that solve her problem! We just have sensitive skin in our house so I use their makeup products (no more rashes!) with great results and we use the Genesis Lotion (No more eczema!), Laundry Detergent (No more itchy skin!) and Toothpaste (No more canker sores!). Oils helped us wean our daughter off her asthma medication as well (with drs approval!).
Grove Collaborative – Grove Collaborative is a company that looks into products and companies and then offers them on their Website for a lower price. They have to meet specific standards for non-toxicity, efficacy, and sustainability and also be cruelty-free. The environment is also important to them so they have developed products that help that as well.
I personally have the VIP account, which is $19.99 a year and gives you free shipping. However, you don’t have to do the VIP membership. It is a free service and shipping is always only $2.99 no matter how large your order is. If you just want to order every so often, shipping isn’t very expensive and you don’t have to get a subscription, which I always love! There are so many subscriptions these days.
Grove has a lot of products that I love and I am able to order those regularly. The prices are cheaper than the regular store for me so it’s a good deal.
Along with finding companies that offer products that work for our family, there are two apps that helped me look up and understand better the products we are using.
Think Dirty® is a mobile app that allows consumers to learn about potentially toxic ingredients in everyday cosmetics and personal care products via a quick search or barcode scan. Currently, the daily growing database has more than 80,000 products available. Think Dirty® also generates a score on the Dirty Meter™ for each product. This score is produced by consolidating information from multiple resources, such as government lists of prohibited chemicals, peer-reviewed journals, non-profit health organizations’ reports, and regulatory agencies’ guidelines.
I love that the Environmental Working Group offers guides for shopping. In the summer they do the research on sunscreen, they have a new pesticides guide and even more. They have a robust Website and app to help you make better choices for your family. It’s interesting because I felt like I was using clean products, but when I actually looked at this resource I realized they weren’t rated as high as I thought. Using this helped me identify which products in my home I wanted to focus on switching out to try help my daughter. It worked! It helped us narrow it down and we were able to get rid of products causing issues in our home.
While these are a few of the sources we used to help our family, I know there are many others out there. How do you choose products for your family? Would love to hear what you’ve learned in your own journey!
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