Kidbean.com founder Melissa Zenz says she hopes the new site will attract non-vegan and vegan parents alike because of the site's quality products, hard to find items and relatively low prices.

"We hope to expand beyond this (vegan) niche," says Zenz, who opened the site with her husband, Jeff Corpening, just one month ago.

Zenz says parents of children with autism, allergies and plastic sensitivities have found many useful products on Kidbean.com, including unfinished wooden toys. While not intentionally seeking out toys suitable for autistic or allergy-prone children, Zenz says she is pleased that Kidbean.com is becoming a useful resource for families concerned with those health issues as well.

"Luckily, the products go hand-in-hand," she says. Bringing vegan, eco-friendly and fair labor products for children and their parents into the mainstream is one of Zenz's many goals for Kidbean.com.

"We want to make compassionate consumerism affordable," says Zenz, who founded Envegan, Inc. in 2001 selling vegan items out of her home to friends, which led to Kidbean.com. She also hopes to open a traditional store in her hometown of Pompano Beach, Fla., to accompany the online store.

Already, the site attracts an average of 50 customers daily in search of everything from Haba wooden toys to baby slings, Egyptian-made Under The Nile organic bedding and homeopathic remedies. Approximately one-third of Kidbean.com's products (about 250 items) are currently posted on the site; others will be added to the online displays in the upcoming months. Meanwhile, customers can email Zenz directly to ask about availability of items they do not see. Within two year, Zenz hopes to double Kidbean.com's products to bring 1,400 vegan-friendly choices, on a comprehensive, department-store style website to parents.

With so many products and more than 40 suppliers, Zenz's warehouse - a storeroom in her home - is packed with products that meet her picky standards, the same standards that she applies to everything she buys for her home and her two young children.

"We're real perfectionists when it comes to our children's products, and we're always trying to find products that are eco-friendly," Zenz says.

To that end, she requires suppliers to fill out a form indicating that their products comply with her all-vegan standards, which sometimes makes for a long search for certain products.

"It's amazingly hard to find natural fiber, fair labor kids shoes," Zenz says.

After a long search, however, she did find them and will have vegan shoes for children on Kidbean.com within the year. Other upcoming items include children's furniture, vitamins, more arts and crafts supplies and adult clothing.

Zenz and her husband have been "living the vegan lifestyle" as she describes it since her daughter was born in 1999. Living vegan is more than just not eating animal products, Zenz says, but also about weighing lifestyle choices against the effect they will have on animals and the environment. She says the greatest difficulty in being a vegan parent is "being different."

But the joys far outweigh the challenges.

"The most rewarding thing is knowing that we're making a difference … it started with just two of us, and now there are four of us," she says, of her vegan family. "It's a huge thing that one person can do."

Kidbean.com plans to donate 10 percent of its profits each year to local charities in money or products. For more information go to www.kidbean.com, or email Zenz at service@kidbean.com.