Walmart Spreading the Flu: Sick Days = Demerit (and potential job loss)

Another reason to avoid Walmart! I know they are developing sustainability standards (that you have to pay thousands of dollars to have input on), but they are encouraging sick employees to work at their stores. And in doing so, spreading the flu to countless shoppers everyday.

According to Momsrising,

"The New York Times just reported that, "At Wal-Mart, when employees miss one or more days because of illness or other reasons, they generally get a demerit point. Once employees obtain four points over a six-month period, they begin receiving warnings that can lead to dismissal." 2 That's right, calling in sick gets you a demerit at Wal-Mart."

And we wonder why there are more emergency room visits and poor health outcomes in the United States. It is because people working close to the poverty level, in dead-end jobs like at Walmart, can't afford to take a sick day, and can't afford to lose their jobs. Then, they get seriously sick, and have to go to the ER and have worse outcomes than if they took the time to get healthy before the situation deteriorated.

I agree with Momsrising: "We think the real demerits should go to Wal-Mart for their sick days policy: It's bad for their employees, customers, and for public health."

Well said.

Let's give them a Dermerit for not taking care of their workers and public health. The signatures collected will be delivered to Walmart executives by Momrising.

A change in Walmart's policy could have a wide reaching effect. Again, from Momsrising:

"If we're serious about stopping the spread of the flu (and preventing all the costs associated with so many people getting sick), we need employers to step up and make sure their policies support employees making the right decision to stay home when they're sick. As one of the largest employers in the country, Wal-Mart's policies affect a large portion of our population. The way they handle the flu is has a huge impact on our nation's health and financial security."

Thanks to Momsrising for alerting me to this important public health issue. When you are sick, you shouldn't also have to worry about losing your job!

image: Ron Dauphin's on Flickr under Creative Commons

5 Ways to Raise a "Good Enough" Child

Here's a guest post by author Jan Denise. Enjoy!


How many times have you told your ebullient child he's too loud or too active? How often have you told your contemplative, cautious child not to be a scaredy-cat and so shy?


In subtle ways, you are giving your child, when is expressing his or her unique temperament, the message that he's not good enough. He will get the same messages at school, at church or temple, and from the media. By the time your child is an adult, he will have learned how not to follow the beat of his own drummer and how not to be himself. He will have learned exactly how to act in order to get the approval of others.

If you think that's not much a problem for a child, wait till she grows up and marries someone she thinks she should marry, works in a job she hates because it's expected of her, gets in debt buying a house or car that makes her seem more successful than she really is, or is on a perpetual diet and hates her body because women are supposed to be rail thin.

You can stop this negative conditioning! As a parent, you already instinctively know that your child is good enough. Your child was born good enough. Here are five ways to reinforce that positive message.

· Be there for him. Let your child have his true feelings--sadness or fear, for example. Show him with your support, reassurance, and presence that it's okay to have emotions, and that you'll stay with him through all those feelings, without judging.

· Teach her not to personalize rejection. If someone tells her she's ugly or too brainy, for example, remind her that someone else's words aren't the truth. The truth is that she's fine--just the way she is.

· Teach him not to worry what other people think. If he's afraid to take chorus at school for fear of being teased, or cuts class with his friends to be part of the "cool" crowd, help him understand that following others opinions won't help him be happy.

· Encourage her individuality. If your child wants to wear a pink tutu to church and it embarrasses you, consider the message you might be giving her about being an individual and expressing herself. Unless it's an act that could harm your child, try to allow her to be and do what she needs in order to fully explore who she is.

· Show him he is loved--unconditionally. Remind your child dozens of times a day, in gestures, words, and acts, that you love him just the way he is. A child who learns that he really is good enough will grow into a confident, healthy, fulfilled adult.



Jan Denise is a syndicated newspaper columnist, an empowerment guru, and author of the new book, Innately Good: Dispelling the Myth that You're Not (Health Communications, 2009). You can find out more about her and her teachings at www.innatelygood.com.

The Environmental Working Group Reports: Toxins in School Cleaners Make Kids Sick

The Environmental Working Group has done it again. They have another report out about a subject near and dear to my heart-- the greening of schools.

When I first start teaching, the cleaners made my lungs hurt. You could feel it in your nasal passages, literally burning your cilia. And just imagine what is was doing to those young, developing bodies.

Now, I am in a school with a strong green awareness. We use the green cleaners, and it has taken a few years for the full conversion. There is still lots to do, of course, because we all know public schools are not made of money, and there are old carpets, vinyl floors, and old, worn out building parts that cause air quality problems. But at least there is an effort, a strong effort to make our school the greenest it can be with what we have.

It is worth the fight. According to EWG, "Ordinary school cleaning supplies can expose children to multiple chemicals linked to asthma, cancer, and other documented health problems and to hundreds of other air contaminants that have never been tested for safety, a study by the Environmental Working Group shows. Laboratory tests done for EWG found that a typical assortment of cleaning products released 457 distinct chemicals into the air."

Chemicals such as chloroform, benzene, and formaldehyde. Not good for anyone, especially our most vulnerable, where they go everyday. To find out what brands test for what dangerous chemicals, click here.

To find out ways to help your school green the air, check this out. This link included tips for how to communicate with schools.

There is also this fantastic list of tips for how to clean your home without harmful chemicals.

For more information, check out the full report and the frequently asked questions. Thanks again, EWG! You've helped us parents learn another way to lessen our kids' exposures to toxic chemicals. All children (and everyone else in schools!) will benefit from this. No child in our nation's public schools should be at a greater risk for cancer or asthma from toxic cleaners.

New Posts on MightyNest: Consumer Reports Finds Unsafe Levels of BPA in Canned Goods, and Angel Baby Lotion Saves the Day

I've been busy over at MightyNest. First, I wrote about Earth Mama Angel Baby's Angel Baby Lotion, which is currently saving me from a screaming 2 year old who depises cream on her red, itchy, rough skin. Earth Mama Angel Baby is a great mama owned company that makes only safe, harsh chemical free products for babies and children.

Next up I wrote about the recent report from the Consumer's Union and published in Consumer Reports about the unsafe levels of BPA in canned goods. They are calling on the FDA to finally ban this harmful chemical from food and drink containers.

A Must Read: The Body Toxic: How the Hazardous Chemistry of Everyday Things Threatens Our Health and Well-Being by Nena Baker

I have been reading this book for months. Literally. The Body Toxic is PACKED with the whole story of the troublesome chemicals I have been so interested in for many years. When I became a parent, this focus on harmful chemicals became even stronger, and manifested into this blog and various levels of activism.

Why it took me so long to complete The Body Toxic is because in every chapter, I underlined, wrote notes, circled and interacted with the text constantly (I'm a teacher, too!). It was just so damn interesting, informative and shocking to hear the history of each chemical: its science, its harm, its PR spin, and its lack of regulation. This book is a stunning work and a resource I will return to again and again.

The book is broken into chapters of high interest to a green parent wanting to learn more. First, Nena delivers an overview of the chemical stew in all of us: our body burden. This chapter outlines how bio monitoring, or calculating the amounts of chemicals in one's body, is revealing the heavy toxic load in many people, across ages, geographic regions and backgrounds. The author also looks into her own family for clues as how these chemicals might have caused or worsened cancer.

Next, Nena takes on the history of specific chemicals, and how it is that we ended up with 80,000 chemicals, untested for safety, in our everyday products. Nuggets like, "The EPA has not attempted to ban a chemical since 1989," when there is copious amounts of research that many are currently causing damage to our children, shock and surprise the reader. It almost feels like science fiction: but the scary part is its truth.

In what I found the most interesting, Nena then explores each chemical's story. There are chapters on: Atrazine (weed killer), phthalates, brominated flame retardants, BPA, and perfluorinated chemicals (ie: teflon and Gore-Tex). These are all chemicals I have written about many times here on Non-Toxic Kids, and I was eager to learn more about them. I enjoyed hearing about the scientists, often meligned by big companies and corporations, who are courageously proving harm from these chemicals in study after study. They've faced endless scrutiny and mud-slinging from companies only interested in protecting their bottom lines. Scientists such as Tyrone Hayes, Dr. Fred vom Saal, and Scott Maybury, in my mind, are the true heroes of this book.

A chapter on new policies gives us an overview of what needs to happen to make chemicals safer for all of us, what we can do, and what is happening. Once you read about the REACH program in the European Union, you will see where we need to go. Manufacturers need to be the ones to prove the safety of their chemicals (and have this testing be independent), not the government. This new model would put the onus back on the ones making and selling the product, where it should be.

Nena goes on to tell us what she does to limit toxic chemical exposure in her life. This is a simple but powerful list. And it gave me yet another reason to vacuum more (and to invest in a HEPA vacuum cleaner). The epilogue lists organizations that "get it", where you can go for more information.

This is a monumental work. Nena has taken super complex chemical histories, science, research and data and boiled it down in a way that even tired parents can understand. I applaud this work: it is important, timely and incredibly thorough. This should be a wake up call to all of us. The time is now to act to protect families from dangerous chemicals in all of us. We can't shop our way out of this. No matter how much organic produce we eat, safer toys we select, or toxins we limit, these chemicals are getting into us. Nena shines a light on this, and shows us how it happened. Now it is up to us to change it.

You can buy this book on Amazon here, or better yet, visit your local, independent bookstore instead.

New Post on MightyNest: Baby Einstein Videos: Not so Brainy After All (Refunds and Deceptive Advertising)

Did you see this in the news last week? Here's a post about the recent news of refunds for Baby Einstein DVDs. The link for information about how to get a refund is in the post, as well as some of the educational claims (which are completely untrue) that Baby Einstein has been making for years. Thanks to the Campaign for a Commerical Free Childhood for their work on this issue.

Charlie Hope: I'm Me! A collection of songs for children

What a cool name. I mean, really. Charlie Hope.

I was luckily the recipient of a new CD from Charlie Hope, called I'm Me! A collection of songs for children. Oh, and it's so sweet. This is a lovely, folky CD with a plenty of catchy, funny and poignant songs for kids.

This is a perfect morning CD, when you are up early with a little one, not quite ready for something loud and too bouncy, or a deep voice. Charlie's CD is now right next to Elizabeth Mitchell's Little Bird in my book, both lyrical and sweet for the child and grown up-- and perfect with strong coffee to get up to speed with your energetic toddler (where do they get that energy in the morning?) I loathe comparisons, but it also reminded me of a children's version of the 10,000 maniacs.

The opening track is good fun right away, with animal sounds that your child will want to repeat and join in. And it's message about being who you are is perfect. In fact, the whole CD is participatory and empowering in its message. Truly.

For those having another baby, the lovely New Baby song shares the joys of being a big brother or sister. I found myself singing this song while at school teaching and then thinking: yikes! My students might think I'm pregnant (I'm so totally not). The song is just THAT catchy. My little girls love saying, "Wait, wait, wait, frogs don't eat edamame!" in the frog song, and all the other wrong food items, too. I adore the ode to naps, called Naptime, since neither of my little people take one anymore (heavy sigh). Zoom, Zoom, Train Song, and Fire Truck invite dancing and singing without being loud and crazy. My girls love these songs.

This is a beautiful CD for children and obnoxious children's music weary parents. Charlie's CD also is labeled with "Made with certified green components" printed with vegetable inks, and the package is made with 100 green practices board with a minimum of 10 percent recycled content. Righteous!

You can listen to the whole CD here, and buy it at our good friend Craftsbury Kids.

AND- I've got one to giveaway. Just leave a comment below by Novemeber 5th, and add your email address (of the spam free variety: at for @, dot for .). Extra entries (and hoorays!) for tweets, links on FB, follows on Twitter, linking on websites and blogs.