A new parent is always going to be concerned about anything that their precious new bundle of joy comes into contact with. Are chemicals going to harm his delicate skin? Are cosmetic hygiene products going to cause her to have a reaction? Is anything remotely carcinogenic or unsafe for the baby? And of course the perennial question: is the baby product environment friendly as well? Here are some areas where you can go green while buying products for your little one.
1. Cloth Diapers
Though disposables are undeniably more convenient, consider these facts: the average baby will use up about 5,000 diapers. The average disposable diaper reaches you after using up a lot of resources in terms of the raw materials used, water and electricity consumed for manufacture, packaging, transportation, and so on.
Disposable diapers are not recyclable and are destined only for the landfill, taking hundreds of years to biodegrade. There is also the fact that several chemicals go into the manufacturing of disposable diapers. Do you really want that touching your baby’s skin?
2. Unscented, Chemical Free Baby Wipes
It is always a good idea to keep baby’s skin protected from chemicals because the delicate skin doesn’t yet have the defense mechanisms needed against them and could break out. And why do baby wipes need to have chorine, alcohol or other chemicals; or even fragrance come to that? The fragrance itself is usually a cocktail of many different chemicals that are best kept away from your baby as well as the environment.
3. BPA Free Plastic
Feeding bottles, teethers and a lot of other plastic items come into contact with baby. You need to make sure that any plastic item you buy for baby is BPA free (or free of the toxic chemical Bisphenol A. it is banned in baby bottles but you should be careful about the chemical being present in other items as well.
4. Chemical Free Baby Liquid Laundry Soap
Some of the major contributions that we make to land and water pollution is through the cleaning materials that we use, which are chock a block will chemicals. Instead use Phosphate-free, chlorine-free, enzyme-free, dye-free, and petroleum ingredient free washing liquid that uses natural essential oils instead.
5. Organic Baby Bedding
Remember your baby is going to be sleeping for most of the time in the first few months and you want to be careful about the kind of bedding you buy. Organic bedding made from natural fabrics grown without the help of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, treated minimally with dyes and other chemicals is therefore a good idea.
A good rule of thumb to follow with baby products is to buy items that have the least number of unpronounceable ingredients, and which are chemical free as far as possible. These are likely to be good for baby as well as the environment.
