From the group that brings us the always-popular Cinco de Mayo celebration in May comes the first annual Around the World Children’s Fair on Saturday …

Del Alma (Durango Educational Alliance for Multicultural Achievement) will host its first annual Around the World Children’s Fair from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the La Plata County Fairgrounds Extension Building. The event includes cultural activities, games, food and entertainment. Entertainment will include Native American drumming, Mexican Folklorico Dancers, Celtic music and stories from famed storyteller Sari Ross.

To learn more about Del Alma, go to http://www.delalma.net/

I love this piece about bedtime — one of the most hotly debated topics is the whole realm of parenting. I find expert advice on getting your child to sleep so patronizing and contradictory that I’ve given up on it. None of it ever felt right. And the subtext is always, “If this isn’t working for you, it’s because you’re not doing it right.” But this New York Times’ opinion article by author Siri Hustvedt makes an eloquent argument for parents’ intuition over developmental dogma.

Every child is different in terms of temperament and learning, and every parent responds to a particular child, not some generalized infant or youngster. And much of that response is not intellectual but deeply felt.

I have an especially hard time turning a deaf ear to my children’s night-time cries because I still remember so vividly my own night-time trials. Each year of my development brought a new insomnia-inducing bogeyman. Spiders became monsters became vampires became murderous home invaders. I’d lay awake for hours as big-kid pride eventually crumbled before sleepless desperation and I’d slink into my parents room, falling finally into dreamless sleep on the floor beside their bed.

It’s easy as adults to forget how long it took us to banish the spector of the supernatural from the winding path between conscious reality and subconscious irrationality. Now we just lie awake fretting about the bills and the busy day ahead. But I was reminded recently how close the dark side of darkness yet lies, even for adults. In the middle of the night, I was woken from a deep sleep by what sounded like a child (definitely not one of mine) calling plaintively for his mother. But the quality of the voice, which was coming from just outside my bedroom window, was ethereal, otherworldly and — gulp – unhuman. My heart pounded and my brain raced to make sense of what had no logical explanation. I was in the process of shaking my husband awake when the source of the sound finally computed: it was the amorous articulations of two cats copulating (which is as god-awful a sound as was ever vocalized). I snuggled back down to sleep relieved that reality as I knew it had not been inverted but still a tad relieved not to be alone. My parents’ floor was a little far away, after all.

Just got this press release from the train folks. Sounds like a pretty good deal …

The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad announces its Kids Ride Free offer on selected weekends this summer. Passengers will receive one free child Standard-Class ticket with the purchase of an adult Standard-Class ticket.

This special offer is valid June 12 – August 8, 2010 on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, with the exception of July 4 and is for the 9:45 am train. The offer is good for Standard-Class tickets only and is not valid for special events or with the use of a season pass. Bus fares are not included and are an additional fee. Standard-Class tickets are $81* for adults (ages 12 and over) and $49* for children (ages 4-11).

 Seating for this offer is limited; early reservations are recommended. Please call 888-872-4607 for reservations. More information about this offer, schedules, packages, and events is available online at www.durangotrain.com. *Fares subject to a 4% Historic Preservation Fee.

Sorry if I’m sounding like a broken record on this issue of toxins in our environment, but here’s a great article on the subject that appeared in today’s newspaper. I wrote an article two years ago for the paper on the same subject. Researching it was truly an eye-opener. I found there is very little regulation of the chemicals that go into personal care products. You can’t assume that just because it’s on the shelves or marketed as natural or formulated for babies that it’s safe. Lotions were the most consternating to me. Almost all of them have chemicals. But a blurb I read from a Spanish fashion model in a magazine gave me the perfect solution: olive oil. Now it’s my moisturizer of choice for myself and my children. It absorbs quite quickly, is inexpensive and is so pure you can eat it!

The cost of beauty: Most personal-care products are toxic

by Nancy Utter

Is beauty only skin deep? Maybe, but the creams, lotions and shampoos we put on our skin daily go deeper than the skin and into our bloodstream and organs.

The toxicity of body-care products is an important health issue. There is a cumulative, toxic effect from products most of us use every day.

The toxicity of body-care products is an important health issue. There is a cumulative, toxic effect from products most of us use every day.

Your skin is like a sponge and will absorb what you put on it. Substances absorbed from the skin go into the bloodstream, which carries them throughout the body. Most toothpaste, skin lotions, sunscreens, shampoos, conditioners, soaps and cosmetics contain toxic substances you do not want in your body. All of these products also end up in our waterways to affect us a second time when we use the water. Any plants or animals that come into contact with the water also are affected.

The following three chemicals are so common in body-care products that you will have to work hard to find products without them. This list is a small sample, and there are many more. Resources that can help you find safe personal-care products are listed at the end of this column.

Oxbenzone – This chemical is found in sunscreens, lip balms, lipstick, facial moisturizers, conditioners, anti-aging creams and fragrances. It is called a “penetration enhancer” because it helps other chemicals enter into the skin. It has been linked to allergies, hormone disruption, cell damage and low birth weights in babies exposed in utero.

Parabens – They’re found in shampoo, moisturizers, shaving gels, toothpaste, personal lubricants, topical pharmaceuticals and tanning sprays. Parabens are preservatives that have anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. Parabens have been classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as having estrogenic activity in the human body. They belong to a dangerous class of chemicals called endocrine disruptors. Parabens have hormone-like effects in body tissues.

Most of the products that contain parabens end up going down the drain and into our rivers and oceans where they affect the reproductive systems of every being they come into contact with. The EPA has stated that “continual introduction of parabens into sewage-treatment systems and directly into recreational waters from the skin is a serious risk to aquatic organisms.”

Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) – This detergent is found in almost all beauty-care products, including shampoo, soap, toothpaste, hair coloring, tooth-whitening products, foundation, body washes and most cleansers. SLS has been proven to cause canker sores and dry mouth. It is an irritant and drying agent that builds up in heart, liver, lung and brain tissue from skin exposure.

There are some great resources you can use to assess the toxicity of products you are using and to find products that are safe. The Environmental Working Group (www.ewg.org) has a site called Skin Deep (www.cosmetics database.com) that rates many body-care products according to their toxicity levels. It is information you can use to choose safe body-care products. Using safe products will protect your health and nourish your body and the environment.

drnancy@durangonaturalmedicine.comNancy Utter is a naturopathic doctor who completed a five-year training program at Bastyr University in Seattle. She works in Durango with people of all ages and varying illnesses. Green Medicine appears the second Monday of each month.

I mentioned I’ve been thinking about addiction lately and here are some further ruminations. Recently on The New York Times’ Motherlode blog there was a post about colleges calling underage students’ parents when they’ve been caught drinking. It made me think about another article I recently read in the New Yorker about anthropologists’ take on drinking.

That article, “Drinking Games” by Malcolm Gladwell, explored the differences among cultures in how people drink and even how they act when under the influence. The interesting and unexpected conclusion is that there is a great deal of variation among cultures in this regard. This seems counterintuitive because we’ve been taught to think of alcohol as a drug with predictable effects that correlate to the quantity consumed. But what if the way we drink and how we act is just as much a product of socialization and acculturation? What impact does that have for social policy? For parents wishing to teach their children responsible drinking habits?

It seems to me there is something problematic in the approach of expecting youth not to drink until full adulthood. Under this scheme — presuming everyone actually adhered to it — parents would essentially have nothing to do with educating their offspring about alcohol because their kids would already be on their own when the behavior begins. We all know that this is not how it occurs in reality. Instead kids drink on the sly, amid their peers in a milieu that emphasizes inebriation.

Still, I am not sure what a better alternative approach is and am conflicted on how I will handle it when my children reach that age. But I think the “no alcohol until 21″ approach is ineffective and counterproductive. I’ll come right out and say that I think the drinking age should be lower and the driving age should be higher. In the end, we accept that it is our responsibility as parents to teach our children how to lead a healthy lifestyle and if we omit to teach them about responsible drinking then essentially we’re leaving the job up to somebody else. I think colleges are right to call students’ parents over alcohol violations but the intent should be education and not punishment.