By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor in Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World. My dearest friend lost her beloved companion today. Cella was an inspirational pet who was truly loved by  friends and family and the many strangers who admired her beauty and special spirit. As humans, in care of one [...]

By Lorri Ballance Laird, Writer and LuxEcoLiving Advocate Since 1978, lead paint has been banned in the United States.  But even today, in 2012, the dangers of lead poisoning remain a reality for many children, especially for those living in older housing.  Now, for the first time in twenty years, a federal panel has recommended [...]

An introduction by Nancy Chuda Founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEco Living and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World.
In the last two decades, Healthy Child Healthy World has sounded many alarms to awaken parents to the prevailing problems of chemicals in our environment. With an influx of untested chemicals in commerce, coupled by a regulatory system that is stymied by scientific knowledge, the time is now for a complete overhaul of the laws which permit the inhumane testing of chemicals in our air, water and food which affect our most vulnerable citizens. Children are suffering due to these exposures and their health and life expectancy is being altered by an inept system of governance which supplies the demand for agriculture and consumer products without oversight. Years ago, many of us testified in Congress to prevail upon

By Lacey Szczepanik, LuxEco Living Editorial Assistant
I have two beautiful pet babies; Diggs, my proud, empathetic and cautious boxer, and Mo, my silly, sleepy Staffordshire terrier. I take my role as their guardian very seriously. When my pet Diggs was two years old, he was diagnosed with mast cell tumors, a form of cancer prevalent among boxers. I was devastated. I went through all the stages of grief. Denial; “Excuse me Mrs. Veterinarian, my dog has a small ‘bump’ on his side. Bump. Not lump. Lumps are scary. This is simply a ‘bump’.” Anger… directed more at God than anyone in particular. I lost Diggs’ brother much too early in life and found it cruel to be faced with another premature goodbye. Bargaining. Depression; full on who-needs-food and why-would-I-get-out-of-my-pajamas-or-leave-the-house-when-I-could-sit here-and-stare-at-my-beautiful-dog kind of depression. And finally Acceptance, and by acceptance I mean he’s alive today and he’ll be alive tomorrow SO THERE. Maybe the anger and denial are still sprinkled on top of the acceptance. A shocking 20-25% of our furry four legged pets end up dying prematurely due to Cancer. (Perdue University Department of Veterinarian).

By Rachel Sarnoff, Interim Executive Director, Healthy Child Healthy World, Founder of EcoStiletto and LuxEco Living Advocate
Steep yourself in information about rates spiking to epidemic proportions in childhood autism, asthma, cancer and more, and you’re bound to become a maternal hypochondriac…..At this point, I must sound like a broken record. But believe me when I tell you that the more I learn about the connection between a child’s environment and his or her health, the more I understand how incredibly high the stakes have come to be.
This is about our children. It’s about their right to breathe. It’s about their right to live. It’s about doing everything that we can to prevent the nightmares that Nancy, Jim and Christine endured.
If this is what we’re fighting for, I’m all in.

By Bethany Colson, Managing Editor of LuxEcoLiving.com

According to the US government, One third of all children born in 2000 or later will suffer from diabetes at some point in their lives; many others will face chronic obesity-related health problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and asthma. A recent study put the health care costs of obesity-related diseases at $147 billion per year. With rates having tripled over the last three decades and with millions effected and the percentage of obese or overweight children at or above 30% in 30 states, the childhood obesity epidemic shows no slowing in site… YET.

Enter First Lady Michelle Obama.

The Goal: Through nutrition education, healthy food alternatives, physical fitness and a coordinated effort between public, private and non-private sector, the challenge of childhood obesity will be solved within a generation so that children born today will reach adulthood at a healthy weight.

…I Wish For Safe Toys Tonight! My last trip to Toys R’ Us was disturbing on several levels.  Not having kids of my own, I rarely go but it was Christmastime… the perfect opportunity to spoil my 5 year old niece. Toys R’ Us, like so many mass retailers, is a cacophony of noise and [...]

By: Mary Elizabeth Williams-Villano, LuxEco Editorial Assistant for Resplendent Repurposing series
If you have seniors on your gift list, you may be struggling with what to buy them. The best, and greenest answer may be: Nothing, as in no-thing.
It’s the old story: What to get the person who has everything? Most older people have more junk than they’ll ever need – and are trying to get rid of it. Very often they’re downscaling, going from a multi-bedroom house to a smaller one, an apartment or into assisted living. The last thing they want is one more dust-catcher. So don’t buy them any, unless they’ve specifically requested it. (Ever wonder what percentage of landfill contents are made up of unwanted gifts? I’ll bet the number is staggering.)

By Lorri Ballance Laird, LuxEco Advocate
Laurie David is on a quest. But it may not be the one you are most familiar with. David, who was a producer of “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore’s famous movie warning us of the impending perils of global warming, has taken her activist mentality and brought it to the family dinner table.

With her new book, The Family Dinner (Great Ways to Connect with Your Kids, One Meal At A Time) (recipes by Kirsten Uhrenholdt), David is out to share her formula for creating great family memories one healthy dinner at a time.

By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant

“Isn’t it wonderful that none of us need wait a moment before starting to change the world,” Penelope Jagessar Chaffer quoted from the Diary of Anne Frank after Nancy Chuda (Healthy Child Healthy World and LuxEco co-founder) presented her with the HCHW Moms-on-a-Mission honor for inspiration Wednesday night. Penelope is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and the first black female director to receive a BAFTA award nomination. Above all, however, she is a mother, proven by her dedication to complete her most recent documentary, Toxic Baby, despite the adversity that arose in the process. In accord with Anne Frank’s legacy, she waited not a moment before embarking on her five-year journey to make this film and thus start to change the world, one mother at a time.

By Dr. Harvey Karp, Pediatrician and Child Development Specialist and Creator of “The Happiest Baby on the Block” and “The Happiest Toddler on the Block” book and DVD series and LuxEco Advocate

Recently, I was reading through Lisa Belkin’s column, Motherlode, in the New York Times and came across a blog called “Too Much Crying?” It was a guest post from a mother named Lee, who shared her exhausting and demoralizing battle with her infant’s colic, or persistent crying. After reading her heartfelt story and those expressed by other parents who commented afterward, I had to jump in and offer some support.

By Robyn O’Brien, Founder of Allergy Kids Foundation and LuxEco Advocate
Now, I’m not sure where you stand on this whole food thing. But if you’re anything like me, you probably don’t want someone telling you what to eat. So when friends first started trying to educate me about terms like organic, local, natural and grass fed, I have to admit, I tuned out (and probably rolled my eyes). Because the reality is that food is never just food. Food is comfort.
Food is family. It is security. It is politics. And it is loaded.

By Florence “Flip” Ross, LuxEco Advocate
One day at work, I happened to mention that I found these hills so pleasant to look at every time I passed them, and I wondered how they had developed there in the midst of all the flatness, which looked like God had ironed the land. Everyone laughed and said: “Don’t you know what those hills are?

By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” In the 1970s, several senators began to recognize a literal truth behind this Chinese proverb. They realized the importance of teaching the man how to provide his own food source. When the government grasped the self-sufficiency and power of being able to fish, or in this case garden, they began granting $100,000 per year to gardening programs. This evolved to $100,000 to each of 20 metro areas around the United States, one of them being Los Angeles.

By Christopher Gavigan, CEO and Executive Director of Healthy Child Healthy World and LuxEco Advocate Interview Conducted By Nancy Chuda, Founder of LuxEco Living and Healthy Child Healthy World Nancy Chuda: How has fatherhood changed your life? Christopher Gavigan: It’s life’s single greatest wake-up call.  There is a thrust of enormous responsibility and an instinctual drive [...]

By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant

Imagine if the very thing you used and depended on to protect you from skin cancer was capable of exacerbating the growth of epidermal lesions and tumors. Well that’s what the Environmental Working Group claims may be the case. A recent study shows that retinyl palmitate, a synthetic form of vitamin A, is carcinogenic on skin exposed to the sun.

By Nancy Chuda, Founder of LuxEcoLiving.com Tonight, Jim and I were guests on “Toxic Childood” a CNN special report hosted by Sanja Gupta MD. For the past fifteen years, we have been writing a book which we feel, when published, will promote greater environmental health reforms for children. The Flower That Shattered The Stone, is [...]

By: Emily Lynne Ion via Heathy Child Healthy World on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 Today, the Healthy Child family is mourning the loss of an inspirational pioneer and beloved member of the community, Dr. Stanley Greenspan. Dr. Greenspan, the creator of the DIR model and Floortime therapy for autism, passed away yesterday after a long [...]

Happy Mother’s Day By Bernadette Bowman, Comedienne and LuxEco Advocate who writes the LIFE GOES RETROGRADE series. Have you ever noticed that the funniest people are the ones who don’t KNOW they’re funny?  Seriously. Since this is the weekend we celebrate Mother’s Day, I can’t think of a better way to salute my own mother, [...]