We just love the new "Skinny" range of baby toys from the Charlie Bears Little Organics range and we're confident that your baby or toddler will too!

All five friendly little Skinny characters are now in stock - choose from Jimmy Giraffe, Buffy Bunny, Milly Mouse, BoBo Bear and Pina Piglet.  Each of these toys are made with a thick short-pile, supersoft, organic cotton fleece, with the main seams edged with very soft tufted organic cotton fleece.  Whilst these little animals look rather rotund from the front, it's their slim (but still cuddly) side profile which gives these their "Skinny" name.  This clever consideration makes these toys a perfect size for babies and toddlers to cuddle, making it so much easier for little arms to reach comfortably round these sumptuously soft organic friends!

I've always been a bit of a killjoy when it comes to any of our children wanting their faces painted at parties or other events.  With all three of our children being particularly prone to eczema, I've always been concerned about the likely irritants in the paints, especially when used on the more delicate skin on the face.  I've also always hated how close to their eyes the designs often tend to go, particularly as my eldest wears contact lenses.  Equally though, I've always been conscious of the additional problem of how to effectively, yet gently, remove the often very stubborn face paint afterwards.  So in order to avoid my kids feeling left out when others are having their faces painted, I've tried to steer them towards having their hands, rather than their faces painted, but in a child's eyes, this is a rather feeble compromise! 

A few years ago, our eldest daughter wanted a birthday sleepover party with face painting and I thought I'd found the answer with Snazaroo face paints, which are water based, unperfumed and are described as non-toxic, hypoallergenic and "friendly to the most delicate skin" so I bought her a set.  This week, with Red Nose Day nearly here and all my children wanting to head off to school or nursery with painted red noses, I didn't think twice about buying an individual red Snazaroo paint for the children's red noses.  However, I left my local stockist empty-handed, because when I had a quick curious look at the ingredients, I was really disappointed to discover that they contain parabens. 

After searching on-line for paraben-free face paints, I was delighted to discover Grimas Pure face paints which are made in top quality cosmetic-grade colours.  The colours are rub-resistant, yet are easy to remove with tepid water and a skin wash.  To help keep them safe to use, their containers are marked with a use-by date and have a shelf-life of three years after opening.  They're unperfumed, paraben-free, gluten-free, non-toxic, water-based and are not tested on animals.  (Please note that these face paints do contain lanolin.)

Grimas's original range of face paints has now almost entirely been converted to Grimas Pure, but do just specify that you'd like only Grimas Pure kids' face paints when placing an order at UK-based www.grimasfacepaints.com, where you can also find some handy face painting tips. 

You can either buy individual paint colours from a wide range of colours, or there are choices of different paint palettes and paint kits, the latter of which contains application tools such as sponges and brushes and a face painting booklet with colour chart. 

My only disappointment is that I didn't discover Grimas Pure face paints quite in time for my order to reach me in time for this year's Red Nose Day!

Images courtesy of H&M

For anyone who's visiting this website, it's not going to be any surprise that we're passionate about the benefits of organic cotton, whether it's as the best choice of fabric for baby toys or whether it's for other organic cotton products which are outside of our particular speciality.

So many more people are now recognising organic cotton's attributes and in recent years there has been an explosion in the number of stockists of organic baby clothes, especially online. Increasingly too, there are stockist of organic clothing for adults, with influential fashion designers like Katherine Hamnett and Stella McCartney being well-known for their support and inclusion of organic fabrics in their collections.  There is, however, an age group which has been generally and sadly overlooked in terms of organic cotton clothing and that's over 5s to teenagers.  In the very few places online which offer organic clothing for older children and teens, the prices may well be prohibitively high or the limited choices might be emblazoned with an environmental message which, although a commendable cause, may exclude them from teenage appeal.

I was delighted a couple of years ago though to discover that high-street fashion retailer H&M had started to introduce organic cotton clothing (sometimes in a 50% mix with non-organic cotton) to their children's range.  I managed to buy a couple of lovely summery dresses for my eldest (then aged 10) and as her eczema is always especially bad in the summer, this really was a very welcome discovery.  H&M has gradually widened their range of organic cotton clothing within their adult and children's ranges, in many cases now with 100% organic cotton, rather than the 50/50 mix.  Although our local branch is quite small with rather limited choice, there now always seem to be organic cotton options for our 4 year old son and our 5 and 12 year old daughters.

In their children's range, H&M have wisely allocated organic cotton to staple wardrobe basics, such as boys' and girls' T-shirts and polo-necks in a range of colours, boys' shirts and now also girls' leggings.  If it wasn't enough good news that H&M have taken the environmental bull by the horns by introducing organic cotton within their adults' and children's ranges, the prices are fantastic too!  I recently bought some leggings and long-length T-shirts for my eldest daughter for just £2.99 each, which is just amazing value!  With prices this good on widely appealing items, I'm sure many of these have been snapped up by H&M's customers who wouldn't have actively chosen organic cotton.  (Incidentally, H&M explains on its Environment pages of its website that its suppliers' factories are regularly audited to ensure ethical and fair working conditions and pay are in place for the workers who make their clothing.) 

With the convenience of H&M stores being so accessible, their prices being so affordable and the right type of clothing being targeted for their organic cotton ranges, it's my view that H&M are doing a superlative job in making it really easy for us, as consumers, to choose organic.  Just look for their clothing with the green label attached which identifies their organic cotton items. 

I, for one, now make a point of shopping in H&M before looking in any other clothing retailer.  Even if an item I need isn't available in an organic option (yet), I'll still put H&M at the very top of my preferred retailer list, simply to support them as a company for their forward-thinking and to encourage their continually growing choices of organic cotton clothing!

As we're approaching the half-way point in the school holidays, anyone who's more organised than me, is likely to be thinking about buying new school uniform, if they haven't already.

If you're browsing this website, the chances are that you're either concerned about environmental issues, or you may have a child with eczema, allergies or very sensitive skin - or perhaps both.  You may not be aware though that amongst the growing choices of organic products now available, organic cotton school uniform is now an option.  

At the beginning of the last school year, I was delighted to find I could buy organic school shirts, skirt and trousers for my eldest daughter (who has always suffered badly with eczema) from Lint Kids.  I'd expected specialist organic cotton uniform to be really expensive but was pleasantly surprised to find the prices very reasonable (for example, a short-sleeved girl's shirt for a 3-4 year old will only set you back £6.99). Prices for organic cotton clothing are never going to be comparable with the supermarkets' cut-price, sweatshop-produced, mass-produced, polyester alternatives but, as is widely known nowadays, ethically the cost of cheap clothing goes far beyond the price we pay as consumers.

If you haven't considered organic school uniform before, I really do recommend it. Just don't be tempted to put any of it in the tumble dryer during the wetter winter months - it'll be considerably harder to iron. My daughters' organic school shirts just get softer and softer (rather than more bobbly and scratchy) and whiter, not greyer, the more they're washed.  As she has a younger sister, going organic offers even better value for money.  The quality of the uniform will certainly last until her little sister grows into it, doubling its use - and rather than it looking tatty with age as a synthetic version probably would, it'll all be lovely and soft.  

The only tricky bit is going to be keeping it all free from food and paint stains!

For organic cotton school uniform, visit Lint Kids at www.lint-kids.com. Long and short-sleeved school shirts are available in white and school skirts and trousers are available in navy, dark grey, black and brown.