You can also enter to win $US200 to spend at What Every Baby Needs. Fill out your information here. Refer a friend and you get another chance to win! Enter your info on their Facebook page and you’re entered again and with every purchase you have another chance to win. They will choose a winner on October 16.

And you can get this tee along with a bunch of other plays on the green theme (for comedic effect, naturally) from the new Small Plum line of organic bamboo tees and onesies. All 100 per cent organic, you can tell the world you’re practicing sustainable agriculture…er, parenting. Let your tot flash a “peas” sign, and go all natural.

The onesies are available in sizes 0 to 12 months and tees with the same cool sayings go from 12 to 24 months. They’re all $US25 from Small Plum. Spend $US50 or more and get free shipping!

These popular pencil cases are back in four fabulous new designs. They are Fair Trade products made with organic cotton and measure 21cmx13cm.

They cost around $22 AUD (plus shipping). Check them out!

These adorable finger puppets by Green Sprouts are made with 80% organic cotton,  20% polyester velour and 100% organic cotton filling. Choose from a six pack of farm animals or a six pack of jungle animals. My little girl loves finger puppets and I bet these would amuse her for hours!

Purchase Green Sprouts Organic Finger Puppets at Inhabitat for $US20.

Bebe Online are now stocking a range of soft organic toys by Dandelion.

With knots and tags for tugging, teething and touching, the Organic Bear Teething Blanket provides assurance that whatever baby is sucking on is natural and safe. It’s machine washable too, so you can keep blankie in pristine condition.

Pick it up for $AU24.95 at Bebe.

Natural childbirth … well, that’s a personal call. But keeping your newborn’s environment clean naturally is substantially easier choice; just pick up an Essentials Home Kit from Babyganics ($US20). Featuring all organic formulas, the grime fighter all-purpose cleaner, dish dazzler soap, air freshener and hand sanitiser are tough on dirt but gentle on even the tiniest new tenant.

I don’t buy organic, at least not as a rule. There are occasions — when there are no “non-organic” bananas left that aren’t browned and smushed and my daughter is begging for bananas — I might be convinced to make the buy. But our mattresses are not organic. Our clothes are, by and large, not organic. Needless to say, our milk is not organic. So an article on a mother fretting over just how organic the mattress her baby boy is sleeping on should have made me feel bad, right?

Not really. Because for all the maternal guilt I can muster over things I have and haven’t done for my daughter, I have enough other pressing things to worry about: The hole in the ozone layer. The mortgage. The reason the cat has started turning up her tail at the litter box instead of inside of it.

I’m also still grappling with the exact moment when “organic” became interchangeable with “good for us”. Arsenic, after all, is organic.

Dressing my daughter in one hundred percent cotton denim or mixing up a stir-fry of non-organic vegetables and run-of-the-mill brown rice doesn’t quite cut it according to the green-baby parenting books. But whoever said organic and green were the same thing?

Researchers in the Department of Rural Economy at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, found the greenhouse gas emitted when organic produce is transported from great distances mitigates the environmental benefits of growing the food organically. And organically fed cows, which produce organic beef and organic milk, emit the same methane gases as their antibiotic-treated counterparts, which in turn contribute to global warming (the EPA estimates all our livestock — organically-fed included — produce twenty percent of our nation’s methane emissions). So if I can’t buy organic for the environment, surely I’d do it for my child’s health, right?

Sure — if you could tell me that buying organic and only organic was the best thing for my daughter.

Except, no one can.

Not the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS). They oversee organic certification, but they’ve remained mum on putting their own seal of approval on the O word.

Not a lot of scientists either. They say it’s good for you — don’t get me wrong. But better for you than anything else could possibly be? Not yet.

A study by the Danish government’s International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems last summer found no differences in the nutrients present in the crops after harvest; nor was there any evidence that lab rats retained different levels of the nutrients depending on how the foodstuffs were grown. And no matter how many organic ingredients get piled into the mixing bowl, if you’re making a cake, you’re still not making health food.

It’s all compelling evidence. And yet, none of it represents the real reason I’m apathetic about organic. The truth? I can’t afford it.

What I can afford are cotton jeans that breathe versus polyblends that don’t. I can afford healthy foods for my daughter — the whole grains, the fresh vegetables straight from the farmers’ market in the summer and the supermarket in the winter. The more money I save by not buying organic, the more I have left to spend on broccoli and sweet peas — foods that actually fall on the Environmental Working Groups (EWG) list of the dozen “consistently clean” foods they say you can feel pretty safe purchasing, even when they’re not organic.

In case you haven’t heard, the economy is having a few problems at the moment. And considering the Organics Consumer Association itself puts the prices of organic products anywhere from fifty to one hundred percent higher than non-organics, I have had to make some tough choices along the way. As long as buying pesticide-free means making pre-school fees harder to pay this month, or my daughter needs a new pair of shoes, I’m okay with buying that non-organic bunch of bananas.

In honour of Earth Day, take a look at Ingrid & Isabel’s BellaBand Organic. BellaBand is made from organic cotton and packaged in recycled materials. Maybe one day, all packaging will be made from recycled materials!

Available in white, black and sand. Find out more about the BellaBand at Ingrid & Isabel.

I love organic baby products, especially the ones that will inevitably end up in the mouth. The only problem is that although I like the natural look, neutral browns and cream colors can be a bit boring. These brightly colored ring rattles prove that organic doesn’t have to be beige.

From Mary Meyer Stuffed Toys, these multi-colored rattles, $US12, with an elephant, frog or monkey on top are made with 100% certified organic cotton fabric and contain no harmful pesticides, toxic chemicals or dyes.

This 100% certified organic New Zealand cotton infant set is absolutely beautiful. It’s so soft and snuggly and exactly how I want to dress my new baby when I bring her home from the hospital. Set includes gown, hat and matching swaddling blanket. Blanket measures 28″ x 35″ which is an ideal size for swaddling.

Infant set is available in chocolate and cream stripes with an embroidered bee, sage and cream stripes with embroidered bee and pink and cream stripes with embroidered rose.

Find the Organic Cotton Baby Ensemble by Dimples at Elegant Roots for $US99. Complimentary eco-friendly gift wrap is included making this the perfect baby gift.