By LIBBY QUAID, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Erin O'Neal has two daughters and a fridge stocked with
organic cheese, milk, fruits and vegetables in her Annapolis, Md., home.

She is among the increasing number of parents who buy organic to keep
their children's diets free of food grown with pesticides, hormones,
antibiotics or genetic engineering.

"The pesticide issue just scares me - it wigs me out to think about the
amount of chemicals that might be going into my kid," said O'Neal, 36.

Sales of organic baby food have jumped nearly 18 percent since last year
- double the overall growth of organic food sales, according to the
marketing information company ACNielsen.

As demand has risen, organic food for children has been popping up
outside natural food stores.

For example, Earth's Best baby food, a mainstay in Whole Foods and Wild
Oats markets, just reached a national distribution deal with Toys R Us
and Babies R Us. Gerber is selling organic baby food under its Tender
Harvest label. Stonyfield Farm's YoBaby yogurt can be found in
supermarkets across the country.

The concern about children is that they are more vulnerable to toxins in
their diets, said Alan Greene, a pediatrician in northern California. As
children grow rapidly, their brains and organs are forming and they eat
more for their size than do grown-ups, Greene said.

"Pound for pound, they get higher concentrations of pesticides than
adults do," said Greene, who promotes organic food in his books and on
his Web site, http://www.drgreene.com.

New government-funded research adds to the concern. A study of children
whose diets were changed from regular to organic found their pesticide
levels plunged almost immediately. The amount of pesticide detected in
the children remained imperceptible until their diets were switched back
to conventional food.

"We didn't expect that to drop in such dramatic fashion," said Emory
University's Chensheng Lu, who led the Environmental Protection
Agency-funded research. Lu's findings will be published in February in
the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

Scientists are still trying to figure out how pesticides affect
children, Lu said, but he notes that it took years to prove the health
hazards of lead.

The uncertainty is driving parents, especially new or expecting mothers,
to switch to organic food. Many are even making their own baby food from
organic ingredients.

"Maybe that has the reputation of being difficult, but it doesn't have
to be, and once you get into the habit of doing something regularly, it
gets to be easier," said Jody Villecco, a nutritionist for Whole Foods.

In a traveling lecture series for Whole Foods and Mothering magazine,
Villecco demonstrates by shaving a peeled banana with a knife to make
mush - "There, we just made baby food," she said. She recommends people
make baby food in big batches and freeze it in ice cube trays.

Eating organic is definitely not cheap. But Green and Lu said parents
have options if they can't afford the food or don't want to search for
it or make it: Buy fruits and vegetables known to have lower pesticide
residues.

The Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based advocacy group, has
produced a guide to the pesticide levels in fruits and vegetables
commonly sold in grocery stores, basing the findings on data from the
Agriculture Department and Food and Drug Administration.

The guide says the lowest pesticide levels are found in asparagus,
avocados, bananas, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet corn, kiwi, mangos,
onions, papaya, pineapples and sweet peas.

The highest pesticide levels, meanwhile, are found in apples, bell
peppers, celery, cherries, imported grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears,
potatoes, red raspberries, spinach and strawberries.

Beyond baby food, dairy and produce, snacks are also a rapidly growing
segment of organic food, according to the Organic Trade Association, an
industry group.

Snacks are a priority for Susan Guegan, 44, a mother of four boys in
Boulder, Colo. Guegan made their food from scratch when they were
babies. Now she buys organic versions of the cookies and hot dogs they
ask for.

"They love Oreos," she said. "They'll say, `Can we get this?' I'm like,
`Can you read me the ingredients?' They'll laugh and try to say some of
them. I'll say, `You can put that back.'"

___

On the Net:

Organic Trade Association: http://www.ota.com

Environmental Working Group guide:
http://www.foodnews.org/pdf/walletguide.pdf