The European Union passed legislation that bans BPA in baby bottles by March 2011. Looks like the American Chemistry Council, which has treated the EU's reluctance to ban BPA as proof of its safety, is going to need another argument. But they won't anytime soon, because they had just helped defeat a similar U.S. ban (again) before the EU vote.

USA Today has a great article about Jennifer Taggart's work to identify products that exceed CPSIA limits for potentially harmful chemicals. They even made a mention of another Jennifer...

Pediatrician Dr. Alan Greene is encouraging parents to rethink starting children on rice cereal.

That news may soon come in handy to ZRecs contributor Adrienne (she of the in-depth stroller and car seat reviews), who with her husband Jim welcomed a "beta release" of their third child into the world last night, born prematurely at 34 weeks but doing well in the NICU. Congratulations and our protective thoughts are with you, Jim and Adrienne!

If you'd like to make salt dough ornaments this holiday season, you can learn everything you need to know from the time we made salt dough Halloween ornaments.

I read Dawn Rouse's refreshingly frank post about talking to her daughter about her family and suicide with great interest. You hear all the time about talking to your kids about drugs, sex, strangers, online safety, but you never hear about talking to your children about depression or suicide. In order to destigmatize depression and suicide we need to talk about it, teach our children how to understand and process depression and suicide. Dawn gives a good start to the conversation.

I'm not sure why I've been thinking about the Pacifier Fairy; maybe because with the holiday season upon us, even more families than ours indulge in fantasy and myth-making as preparations are made for a jolly old soul's annual visit. If you haven't read this post about collaborative storytelling in our family of non-denominational fantasists, you're in for a treat!

I just discovered the fantastic reviews that a friend writes for Texas Public Radio. He's written an extensive review of the new The Fantasia Anthology Disney recently released.

If you're interested in a cute illustrated alphabet book featuring Star Wars characters, today (Monday) is your last chance to lay claim to one. Unfortuately for the dad purportedly planning to fund his child's college education with the sales, he'll likely be getting a quick education in copyrights and the Lucasfilm empire soon. (And of course, you could always buy the licensed Star Wars ABC" title="Star Wars ABC">Star Wars ABC book instead...)

Speaking of books, I love these tiny photo books. I've been trying to get our photos in order and I think Z would really enjoy a series of tiny books about her life.

Hope everyone is having a lovely December. We'll post soon about some of our presents for Z that have been coming in, and which we are surreptitiously playing with without her knowledge!

SkipHop has a new wooden balance bike that offers three stages - a trike and two balance bike heights. Interesting design and concept. [Via]

Over at The Tranquil Parent we turned up non-slip bath mats that are PVC-free, phthalate-free, and latex-free, and shared a photo-based coloring book that would make an easy project and a great gift for kids.

The Washington Post reports on advances in stem cell research that could lead to the ability to regrow tooth tissues - spelling an end to dentures, fillings, and more for the next generation. (You, however, may be out of luck.)

Polliwogged readers are discussing bath toys babies can't drink out of.

The New Yorker offers a history of breast vs. bottle with a couple of interesting takeaway points - one being that breast pumps are an "easy" solution to the problem of the gap between U.S. mothers' time at home with baby and the additional months an infant can benefit from breastfeeding. (Longer maternity leaves and on-site infant child care are the other, more difficult, but ultimately more socially effective solutions.)

If you live in a frozen place, could you please do this and report back to us? Frozen soap bubbles are amazing. [Via]

Gardenaut can help you make your home a little more lively with a forced winter bulb, and also shared a great video about finding wild foods in urban settings.

The New York Times' Well blog has republished a list of 11 healthy foods you could benefit from but probably aren't. Pick one or two and give them a boost in your diet - many of them are quite yummy!

We don't regularly post product recalls, but how can we resist? I Heart Guts has recalled their Plush Uterus because the ovaries can detach, posing a choking hazard to children as well as to any adults with an interest in consuming plush ovaries. No injuries reported.

A phthalates ban stronger than the CPSIA's federal one just took effect in California, and everyone agrees it will stand. Meanwhile, Jennifer Taggart has more sobering analysis of the CPSIA, this time regarding the resale of items - toys, clothing, and so on - and how the lack of clarity in the new regs might send a lot of great and/or usable stuff to the landfills. Angie Wynne, frugality queen at Baby Cheapskate and the founder of Freepeats, a swapping service for kid gear, has also written about this here and here. This piece of legislation just gets better by the day.

Amy at Crunchy Domestic Goddess rounds up stories of extended breastfeeding. Z's among them (going through the motions at four and a half).

Emily at Polliwogged managed to survive her encounter with a Kuster K2 high chair. The K2 was not so lucky.

Over at The Tranquil Parent, Mika shared some tips from a year of cloth diapering, and readers quickly started talking shop. Meanwhile, Savannah had some tips for how you could productively use 20-minute blocks to work towards your personal goals.

Cathy at Chief Family Officer writes about getting a letter from the World's Smallest Postal Service. You can send one for $8 - a great gift for all suckers for small things.

The Environmental Working Group has published a list of the compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs that contain the lowest quantities of mercury (via Eco Child's Play). Not up on the mercury issue with CFL bulbs? Check out the Tranquil Parent post about cleaning up after a broken CFL bulb, or disposing of a spent one.) I'd love to see this EWG list cross-referenced with a good list of the CFL bulbs that offer the best lighting experience - some of them are just so cruddy - so we could find out which ones were best for the planet and decent for home lighting.

Consumerist got bought by Consumers Union. Hot damn! Hopefully the combination will impose the greatest strengths of each on the other in addition to providing multiple takes on issues of shared concern.

Trouble getting your parents to stop spoiling your kids? Try this reflective essay from Mothering.com about how emphasizing gifts affects grandparent-grandchild relationships - it's a good one.

Punnybop has two recommendations of books linked in some way to music - one through a well-known ballet, the other for its utility as a go-to songbook for parents. On The Tranquil Parent, Annie wrote about three of the last year's best books about food and our relationship to it.

Evenflo has recalled nearly 100,000 Majestic high chairs for choking and fall hazards. 140 structural failures dumped at least 47 infants on the floor, leading to bumps and bruises and even some broken bones. The company has received reports of over 1,000 plastic screw caps and/or screws falling off the high chairs, sometimes ending up in kids' mouths. If you have one of these, make sure you check your inventory number against this CPSC release.

Eco Child's Play can help parents get together an eco-friendly puberty kit for young women.

Wired for Noise's open, thoughtful post about raising children without religion was a remarkable bit of blogging, not least of which because it led to an extensive chain of comments that never lost their civility. Great stuff.

Leigh at Polliwogged has two great, medication-free suggestions for helping a congested baby get some relief.

Want to garden next year? In addition to subscribing to Gardenaut, take a look at this article from U.S. News about how much you could grow in a small space, and this post from The Simple Dollar about planning for your next year's garden.

Financially-strapped parents are foregoing daycare. Yep, the alternative is as bad as it sounds.

Elise at The Tranquil Parent had an interesting post this week about helping kids learn to turn off the lights.

We wrote about the Santa gift program run by the U.S. post office recently on The Tranquil Parent. The New York Times reported that a scare last week triggered the shut-down of the program, but they were able to reopen it with new privacy controls. The article sounds a mournful tone, but the changes sound good to us.

Polliwogged has a quick review of a great, simple infant sling, and found a link to instructions for making homemade diaper cream.

We love, love, love the easy, quirky homemade trophies on My Paper Crane as a form of creative reuse. Can't wait to do this!

Did you know that "Satisfaction guaranteed" is actually enforceable? Slate explains the law and the limits.

Looking for simple ways to celebrate tonight's winter solstice with your child? We discuss a family solstice celebration on Gardenaut, and have a review up on Punnybop of three much-loved children's books about the solstice, and another book to celebrate the sun.

We discovered (through a blog, but we can't find it again now...) some intriguing stainless steel sippys made by Bilt, a company known for adult water bottles. There are a few on Amazon.com for $17, sold through Kangaroodle; Organically Hatched also carries them, currently priced at $16. We'll ask Bilt for one to review on Z Recommends, and add it to the ZRecs Guide.

Let's Explore has instructions for a great homemade game that mixes up and simplifies puzzle play for four-year-olds. The best thing about it? It's made out of Christmas cards. Of course, you can make it out of anything...

The Tranquil Parent has simple ways to get your child a letter from Santa for way less effort and expense than you think, as well as how you may be able to help needy families through your local post office.

Eco Child's Play has a good list of green/eco Twitterers to follow, if you're Twitterfied.

We've always loved everything about Lush bath products, for adults and for kids, except one thing. But Treehugger reported last week that the company is now dropping SLS (sodium lauryl sulfate) from most of its products. Awesome. If you don't know why that's great, the post will explain that, too. (SLS is one of the ingredients tracked in our ZRecs Guide to Safer Children's Products.)

Polliwogged's Sara speaks from experience about preparing for life with multiples, offering recommendations for a book, a blog, and an organization that can help make a challenge more manageable.

Green Daily showcases an interesting array of plastic-free play food from Etsy, including some made out of materials we hadn't even considered.

Herbivoracious shares a recipe for spicy chocolate pudding cake from a great-sounding book, Dessert Express, which features 100 recipes for delectable desserts you can make in under 30 minutes.

Looking for more actions you can take to help save handmade companies and their products, in addition to the five steps we suggested? Cool Mom Picks has published a Save Handmade resource guide with some additional action items and links to good information.