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Who’s Behind The Soft Landing?
My name is Alicia Voorhies and I’m a recently retired RN with a specialty in developmental disabilities, autism spectrum, seizure and behavioral disorders. I worked for most of my nursing career as Director of Nursing for a local non-profit organization, caring for people with developmental disabilities in a home-based setting. While I loved my job and the amazing people, I began to suffer from that old familiar burn out, so I decided to take a nice long sabbatical to spend time with my Knight in Shining Armor and three fantastic kidlets. The down time gave me the time and energy I needed to begin pursuing my long-time passion for alternative health, and quickly turned into a full-time pursuit of all things less toxic.
How It All Began
It all started when my sister, Joanie, moved to South Carolina for a short work stint. She called me one morning after taking her son to the new doctor for a check-up, where she had been told to immediately throw out all clear, hard plastic bottles. She was beginning to worry that she was dealing with a doctor who was off his rocker, so she turned to me, the medical research geek for help :)
I set out that day to prove him wrong, but in the end, hundreds of medical studies would only prove him right. The more studies I poured over, the more I began to see a pattern of chemicals leaching from plastic to cause endocrine disruption – especially in children. I was shocked, to say the least, and dumped my pre-conceived ideas concerning plastic baby bottles.
Our Mission
As I began looking for safer options, I realized how limited the information was and how few options were available. A growing awareness of environmental toxins quickly became a mission to care for my own children and newborn nephews. Before long, a highly motivated search team grew from my concerned family members. Now, my three sisters, our Mom and I work together to find the best alternative eating gear for our children and yours.
The Soft Landing Store is the first of its kind, offering over 45 brands of 100% BPA, PVC and Phthalate-free products in one convenient place. Our goal is to take the headache out of making the switch to safer eating gear for busy parents.
We created The Soft Landing Blog as a way to share our years of research with other concerned parents. You’ll find eating gear reviews based on our own personal experience, updates on current toxic plastic research and quick reference shopping guides. Our product research has been cited by ABC News, Newsweek, the New York Times, the Kansas City Star and health-conscious websites such as National Geographic’s The Green Guide, Enviroblog and Healthy Child Healthy World.
Contact Us:
We enjoy talking with our readers and would be happy to answer your questions!
We'd love to hear from you!
Email anytime: info@thesoftlanding.com
Call toll free (within the U.S.) Monday - Friday 9am - 4pm CST: 888.280.6621
International Customers call our office Monday - Friday 9am - 4pm CST: 00 1 913 948 1415
Press Inquiries: laura@thesoftlanding.com
>> CURIOUS about why we sell products made in China? Read more about that below.
Items available at The Soft Landing not made in China:
Why Do We Sell Products Made in China - a Change in Paradigm
Over time, and through years of product research, we've come to feel that the problem with product safety really has less to do with where the product is manufactured, and more to do with the company developing and producing the product. The U.S. has fallen asleep at the wheel in regards to looking at our own chemical policies. We're the ones producing the $6 billion in BPA and providing for use in China.
After speaking at length with concerned customers, we believe there is a misconception that all products made in China are toxic. Having said that, it is not our first choice to sell products made outside the U.S., but many manufacturers have no choice because of production costs. For example, the creators of the Safe Sippy searched endlessly to find an American based company. They repeatedly came away unsuccessful, with outrageous quotes for one lonely sippy cup, making it completely cost-prohibitive. So many companies are forced to choose manufacturing plants in other countries. In our view, the real question is whether the company has made a commitment to ensuring high quality and appropriate working conditions in factories or not.
We make each decision to offer a product based on our knowledge of an individual company. If we made a blanket decision not to carry products made in China, we would not be able to offer any stainless steel options, nor at least 80% of all baby/children's eating gear. We would not be able to offer well-known, high quality products by upstanding companies like Klean Kanteen, Think Sport or Kid Basix. At this point in time, there is not a SINGLE stainless steel bottle or sippy cup made in the U.S. or Canada.
HealthyToys.org offers a great explanation of their findings when testing products made in both China and the U.S. in their FAQ:
Are toys made in the USA safer than those made in other countries?
The Center for Environmental Health (CEH) also discusses the issue clearly in their FAQ regarding Lead in Baby Bibs:
My baby’s bib (or toy, etc.) was made in China. Is it safe?
The fact that your item was made in China does not make it unsafe. We’ve found many lead-free toys, bibs, and other items that were made in China. We’ve also found lead-contaminated products that were made in the United States. The only way to know if your items are contaminated with lead is to test them.
Why are there so many dangerous Chinese products? What can we do about this?
Huge retailers in our country are always cutting costs. They insist that their foreign and American manufacturers make products as cheaply as possible. This economic pressure favors dangerously cheap production at the expense of consumer safety. Retailers will tell you that they are simply responding to pressure from the American consumer who demands low prices. There are many things you can do about this: support small local businesses, write to the big retailers and urge them to protect consumer health, write to the Consumer Product Safety Commission and urge it to live up to its name. You can also support organizations like Center for Environmental Health.