Good Value
Quality, long-lasting, reusable and multi-use items are high on our list of criteria for products that meet our Good Value standard. Often times this will mean a product will help you save money over the long term, either by replacing use-and-toss items or by offering more than one use which extends the life of the product well into the future.

With reusable products, you have a larger expense up front, but you don’t have to pay much over time to maintain your cloth diapers, wipes, reusable gift wrapping, and other reusables. In the long run, you save a lot of money.

One thing you do need to be prepared for is laundry. It isn’t difficult, but you don’t want to lose your environmental gains through the way you launder. So, look for the same good value in laundry products that you do in your washable goods.

• Use low-impact, biodegradable laundry soap
• Soften clothes through the gentle impact of dryer balls rather than with chemicals
• Run full loads of laundry to take advantage of the importance of agitation action in cleaning
• Line dry outside when your weather permits and inside when it doesn’t

Good Value from bynaturea.ca

We offer long-lasting, reusable products in every category from cloth diapering to personal care to feeding to celebrations. We offer you hundreds of products that meet our Good Value standard.

Nellie’s Dryer Balls

Nellie’s Dryer Balls soften clothes naturally by soft impact that flexes the fibers of your clothes, towels, and diapers. You don’t need to even consider chemical fabric softeners or dryer sheets when you use dryer balls.

If you are scent sensitive, you can use dryer balls as is. If you like a subtle scent with your wash, put Nellie’s Dryer Balls Fragrance Sticks into the center of the dryerball. Available in either citrus or lavender. Scented with essential oils.

For the past month, we have been telling you more about our Safe Family Promise at bynature.ca. This post on Good Value wraps up our twelve high standards. To make it easy for you to identify products by their key attributes, look for our standards labels. Please tell us either here or on our Facebook page which standards are important to you and which products you would like to see us consider under each of those standards.

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Practical
We hold our products to the highest standards while also considering the convenience and functionality of each and every one. After much testing by the most worthy individuals (real parents!), these products get a thumbs-up for being the best of the best – practically speaking, of course.

Practical products at bynature.ca

We carry a variety of practical basics: nursing tops that make great everyday shirts, tote bags with compartments for both wet and dry, utensils that are made from easily renewable bamboo and packaged to carry easily, and—one of my all-time favorites—a stainless steel ice cube tray.

Reusable Tissues

What a concept! A tissue that you use, reuse, wash, and use again. You would think such a practical idea would be common practice. Well, it was, and it will be again.

Our reusable tissues are practical in several ways. They meet many of our Safe Family Promise standards. They replace a common, throwaway household item with a reusable version that works even better.

They are made with cotton that is certified organic and fair trade.

They come with a sturdy, water-resistant cardboard box that puts clean tissues at hand, ready to use, while there is a secret drawer hidden in the back where you can put the used tissues until you are ready to wash. The packaging is so logical that it was seamless to introduce my family to the concept and get them to use the little drawer.

We’ve noticed another bonus to using these tissues: when the children stuff them in their pockets and forget to check pockets before the wash, you don’t end up with little paper wads on all of the dark cloths. You just end up with a clean tissue, ready to reuse.

This month, we are telling you more about our Safe Family Promise at bynature.ca. To make it easy for you to identify products by their key attributes, look for our standards labels.

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Family Basic
Families quickly accumulate excess ‘stuff’ when a baby first appears on the scene. Apart from a lot of love, healthy food, appropriate clothing, and a safe place to sleep, there really isn’t all that much our little ones need (despite the many Must Have lists out there!). Spend your money wisely on products or playthings that have proven to be the most useful necessities, or have extended play value beyond the first few years. We have limited our Family Basics products to the 25 top picks among our staff, customers and experienced parents.

We’re surrounded by stuff and nonsense. When I think of the difference between the stuff I acquired for my first baby and the way I let go of stuff for my second, I see the gap between the sincere intention to be a good parent and enough experience to know that I could do it without props.

There are cool tools out there in parenting land, but everyone doesn’t need the same cool tools. Our needs vary, so our appropriate stuff levels vary. There are a few rules to keep in mind, though.

1. All of us can probably make do with less than we think we can.
2. Multi-function tools that we can grow into will serve us better and longer than single-function tools we can grow out of.
3. Reusable stuff is better than non-reusable stuff.
4. Just because materials are new and revolutionary doesn’t mean they are essential to a sustainable future.

Remember, the stuff that you bring into your family while your children are young is important not just for what it does now but for how it will influence the future. We create our children’s patterns of thinking and acting as we model life for them. If we want our children not to be consumed by marketing, it helps if we aren’t consumed ourselves. If we want our children to value people and relationships over stuff, it helps if we do.

Only a few of our products are so necessary to parenting that we have called them Family Basics. These are the useful necessities with extended value.

Family Basics at bynature.ca

Our family basics fall into several categories: health with natural hand purifier by Clean George, creativity with non-toxic art supplies by Clementine Art Natural, household and personal cleaning with Bummas reusable wipes, and play with colorful playsilks.

Play cloths are the perfect toy, the kid example of multi-functional stuff that encourages a child’s creativity and resourcefulness. I have noticed this week that my children, on the edge of their teen years, are using several play cloths as rivers of water and lava around which they have built elaborate villages with other playcloths creating walls in their rooms. The same play cloths have been essential toys for my children since they were babies.

Our play cloths are 100% natural silk, in a dozen colors dyed with non-toxic dyed, and made responsibly in China.

For the past month, we have been telling you more about our Safe Family Promise at bynature.ca. To make it easy for you to identify products by their key attributes, look for our standards labels.

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Ethics
To recognize the companies that choose to go above and beyond, look for our Ethics standard. These companies exceed our safety and environmental standards, as well as commit to responsible, respectful fair labour, and human rights practices. These companies may also make an outstanding effort to give back to both local and extended communities. Their stories are nothing short of extraordinary.

Though we look at company practices for suppliers of all of the products we carry, we recognize with our Ethics label those who make a particular effort to meet very high standards. These companies look at the impacts of the products they make from the source through every stage until it reaches you, the end user.

We especially like supporting companies that make their own communities better places to live. We know that they are creating the real economies of sustainability for our children’s future.

Ethical products at bynature.ca

Many of the products that we carry are mother-made products that either started out at the kitchen table or, in some cases, still are made at the kitchen table. We have been happy to feature mother-made baby care and cosmetics, mother-made baby carriers, and mother-made cloth diapers. One of those companies that started out at the kitchen table is Bummis.

Bummis cloth diapers

Bummis is about more than just beautiful, functional, Canadian-made cloth diapering products. Bummis as a company considers the well being of their company, workers, suppliers, retailers, and community as part of their bottom line. “We believe that the way we do business matters,” they write, “and that business can be an important vehicle for social change.”

We live on a wonderful little cloth diapering planet here at Bummis that we and our employees have created. We have a lovely factory with lots of plants and natural light, and our offices are situated there as well. We also have two beautiful little stores in the Montreal area where we sell tons of cloth diapers, baby carriers and breastfeeding supplies. We all really enjoy working on our special little planet refuge at Bummis, and we have a great team – all of whom care passionately about what we do and how we do it.

This month, we are telling you more about our Safe Family Promise at bynature.ca. To make it easy for you to identify products by their key attributes, look for our standards labels.

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Educational
We offer a quality selection of educational toys to capture your child’s imagination and enhance intellectual growth. Our learning toys, puzzles or books encourage your child’s curiosity, discovery, and creativity. Equally important, our toy selection must also be non-toxic and safe for our children.

Every time we answer a child’s questions or feed her curiosity, we are taking an educational opportunity. Any time we encourage a child to be passive or follow a rigid path through a game, we are discouraging that curiosity that leads to discovery and real learning and development.

Children would probably tell you that they play for fun. Whether they realize it or not, they also play to learn. A toy doesn’t need to force a child into learning A Lesson. When we nurture curiosity, education comes naturally and without the explicit statement of what the lesson might be.

We like to leave open spaces for children’s own discovery and encourage children to make a toy of anything that strikes them as fun, even common household objects.

Educational Products at bynature.ca

Among our educational products for children are a variety of art supplies, building blocks, or—one of our favorites—kits that encourage children to make their own.

Farmer’s Market Cooperative Game

In the Farmer’s Market, vendors and customers are looking, buying and returning products. If some vendors don’t sell enough, they will leave. The players’ shared goal is to look out for everyone’s well being. This requires discussion, planning and decision making. There is both a basic game for younger children and an advanced game for older players.

Handmade in Canada for 2-6 players ages 6 to 12.

A review of Farmer’s Market from Arlene:

I wanted to take this time to tell you how much we have enjoyed your games! I love the fact that my kids can play (without me) and I know that they will have fun and enjoy each other. The best part is that they don’t get frustrated with each other!

This month, we are telling you more about our Safe Family Promise at bynature.ca. To make it easy for you to identify products by their key attributes, look for our standards labels.

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Positive Development
bynature.ca is fundamentally about healthy, positive childhood development – social, physical, emotional and intellectual. A large selection of our products, from breastfeeding products to baby carriers, infant toys to a child’s first baby doll, are specifically selected to support the bonding, learning and well-rounded development of our children.

As parents, we are creating social, physical, and psychological patterns for our children as they develop. They will certainly be themselves and go in their own directions as they grow up, but they often build on the patterns we create.

At bynature.ca, we are committed to the positive, gentle approach of attachment parenting. We freely give our children the support they need through each phase of development. Babies want to be close to us, so we wear our babies. Babies need nourishment and comfort, so we breastfeed. Babies need toys that give them space to let their imaginations soar during play, so we keep toys simple. We make sure that our products support these developmental needs.

As babies grow to be toddlers, preschoolers, and teenagers, they still need us, and, as attachment parents, we continue to give them the developmentally appropriate support they ask for even as they become healthy, independent adults on their own.

Positive Development Products at bynature.ca

Breastfeeding support supplies and baby carriers are two big categories of products for positive development, but we also carry many other products for bonding and learning. We have Little Soles soft baby shoes for developing feet. We have the natural rubber Tres Tria co-sleeping bolster to help parents keep the family bed safe. We have simple toys for open-ended play, and wooden teething rattles to satisfy babies’ desires to move and to chew.

Baby Bonding Dolls

Baby’s first toy needs to be small, non-toxic, and chewable. This simple, Waldorf-style bonding doll is 6″ tall with only the head stuffed. That is small enough and light enough for a baby to hold and cuddle.

The outside of the all-natural doll is soft, 100% cotton, and the head is stuffed with 100% wool. The doll comes in a variety of colors dyed with AZO-free fabric dyes. The doll is safe for a baby to suck and chew.

These certified fair trade dolls are handmade in India. Handwashable in cold water. Line dry or machine dry on cool, gentle cycle.

This month, we are telling you more about our Safe Family Promise at bynature.ca. To make it easy for you to identify products by their key attributes, look for our standards labels.

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Handmade
Products made by hand offer a quality, skill and craftsmanship that is absent in the world of large-scale manufacturing. Purchasing the handmade work of skilled artisans helps to grow and nourish the families and communities where these products are loving created, and ensures our ties to the local and human sources of our goods is never lost.

We are big supporters of handmade products for natural parenting. We love the beauty and imperfections of humans and their handmade goods over the rigid lines of machine-made goods. Handmade products often vary, and we like that variety and unpredictability.

We also support the place of artisans in their communities. We have followed closely the work of the Handmade Toy Alliance over the past two years as they have supported their members’ efforts to keep handmade children’s products legal and sustainable under U.S. law.

Handmade Products at bynature.ca

While a doll might be an iconic handmade product, we carry many other handmade products. We have handmade bath and body care from Lalabee Bathworks, aromatic play clay from Mama K’s, handmade board games, and more products for the whole family.

Handmade Rabbit from Recycled Wool

No two stuffed animals from Cate & Levi are alike. Every animal is made in their Toronto studio from reclaimed wool sweaters sourced as close as possible to home, so the colors and patterns vary.

This month, we are telling you more about our Safe Family Promise at bynature.ca. To make it easy for you to identify products by their key attributes, look for our standards labels.

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Sustainable
A healthy planet ensures the future health of our children. While every product we carry is non-toxic, many are also made in whole or in part with recycled (or recyclable) parts and/or components, derived from sustainably harvested forests and may be biodegradable. Most importantly, we prefer products that are reusable first, replacing use-and-toss items.

No greenwashing!

We look for products made with not just any natural materials but sustainable materials—resources that can be and will be replaced. The oil and gas used to make plastics and other petro-chemical products cannot and will not be replaced. We ask what kind of materials a product is made from and how that material is made. True sustainability also considers the long-term good of the community in which a product is made.

Just because a product claims to be green, doesn’t necessarily mean it meets your standard of sustainability. Opinions can differ when people make their own conscious choices because each of us has different values and priorities. By making our choices transparent, we hope that helps you make choices that work for your family

Sustainable products from bynature.ca

Look for children’s crayons made from soy wax, cloth diapers made from cotton or hemp and wool, and toys made from sustainably harvested wood.

Tegu Magnetic Wooden Blocks

At Tegu, the product followed the desire for a positive social impact. The founders did not start with the idea of wooden blocks. They started by looking for a business that would use an under-used local resource and that could create jobs in Honduras. The beautifully designed wooden blocks followed.

The wood for Tegu blocks is cut by “small-scale woodcutting cooperatives supported by international NGOs focused on sustainable forestry.” Tegu also supports local reforestation efforts. Sustainability is built into the Tegu business model.

Your child probably won’t care about all of this—yet. You child is more likely to be fascinated by the blocks snapping together with the help of magnets. Tegu gives a new twist to an old toy.

This month, we are telling you more about our Safe Family Promise at bynature.ca. To make it easy for you to identify products by their key attributes, look for our standards labels.

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Non-Toxic
Products for our infants, children and families should not contain toxic chemicals such as BPA, PVC (vinyl), phthalates, lead, cadmium or synthetic fragrances. The reality is, many products brought into our homes do contain toxins we can avoid. Our collection of healthier product alternatives are the safest and best product options we have found.

Avoid Common Toxics

It’s very important to us not to add to the chemical body burden of our children. Babies put everything in their mouths. They mouth toys and fists and books and toes for comfort and to get information. It’s very important that baby toys and baby feeding accessories not be made of materials or have surface treatments that could harm the babies.

It is becoming far too apparent over time that plastics touching food and drink—and not just those with BPA—may not be as safe as we have been told. Recently, it was found that most plastics leach hormone-like chemicals. Because cosmetics, such as lotions and diaper creams, can be absorbed through the skin, they also need close scrutiny for lurking toxics. We look very closely at a product before we carry it.

Though plastics are a big problem, particularly soft plastics, they aren’t the only toxic material commonly used in household products. Sometimes we find toxics added to products in an effort to make our lives less toxic, as in the case of our culture’s anti-microbial overkill.

As concern grows and research accumulates, our choices for less-toxic lives become more clear. In the meantime, we try to stay informed about developments and choose non-toxic products for you and your family. We favor natural materials, natural cleaning products, and natural healing products.

Non-toxic products at bynature.ca

With babies and children, it is especially important to make sure anything that might go in the mouth or on the skin is non-toxic. We carry a big variety non-toxic toys, such as those from HABA and Grimm; non-toxic cosmetics and skin care, such as those from Badger; and non-toxic feeding accessories, such as Kleen Kanteen water bottles.

Original Rubber Duck

The original rubber duck wasn’t made out of soft plastics, and it didn’t have that suspicious off-gassing smell of plastic toys.

This duck, the original natural rubber ducky, was and is made from the natural latex rubber of the common rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis). Rubber is sustainably harvested by tapping the sap, or milk, of the tree without the use of herbicides. The duck is handcrafted in Spain by a third-generation family business to EU safety standards. The duck is painted with non-toxic, certified lead-free paints.

This month, we are telling you more about our Safe Family Promise at bynature.ca. To make it easy for you to identify products by their key attributes, look for our standards labels.

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All Natural
To meet our All Natural standard, products must be 100% natural, made only from pure, natural materials such as cotton, wool, wood, silk or 100% natural ingredients. We only source products without harmful chemicals, formaldehyde finishes and other toxins, but the all-natural label goes a step beyond this ensuring you are purchasing products that contain no synthetic or made-made materials/ingredients.

While we only choose products without harmful chemicals and toxins, we want to recognize those products made only with 100% natural materials. We choose natural materials for a couple of very important reasons.

Natural Materials for Lower Environmental Impact

Natural materials generally don’t externalize costs as often happens with petrochemical-derived products. Those the oil and gas that make our laptop cases or laminated fabrics appear cheap but leave behind shocking social and environmental costs.

The Natural Aesthetic

As we raise our children, we create their context for understanding the world. At bynature.ca, we want to help you teach your children about living nature around them, about the vitality of living things. It makes sense that those who embrace and honor the natural patterns of attachment parenting would also embrace and honor the natural patterns of nature.

All Natural products at bynature.ca

Look for natural toys of wood, organic cotton, and natural rubber. Choose cloth diapering products of cotton and wool and plastic-free feeding and sleeping products. Find great products like the Tres Tria natural rubber booster pillow, 100% wool dryer balls, and an amber teething necklace.

100% Organic Cotton Prefold Diapers

Our Indian cotton prefolds are high quality, very absorbent, and extra soft. Many diapers have been bleached white, which damages the cotton and causes them to wear out sooner. Organic cotton is void of harmful chemicals in the field and in processing.

Prefold diapers are the original one-size diaper. Many of our customers use the one size from infant to potty training—then they continue to use the diapers as incredibly soft rags.

Organic cotton prefolds are the all natural diapering choice.

This month, we are telling you more about our Safe Family Promise at bynature.ca. To make it easy for you to identify products by their key attributes, look for our standards labels.

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