Tips on Staying Sustainable With a Newborn Baby
Modern parents want to know the best ways to live eco-friendly while building their families. Many might pick to shop from ethically sourced businesses, while others migrate toward using sustainable, non-toxic baby products, such as bamboo baby wipes. Parents have many ways to live sustainably with a newborn. Here are some tips every new parent needs on staying sustainable with a newborn baby.
Buy From Thrift Stores
Buying from a thrift store is the most innovative way to maintain your eco-friendly lifestyle. Unlike fast fashion, thrift stores take in gently used clothes families can buy to save money, reuse fashion from yesterday, and give the apparel a second chance.
Avoiding the boutiques is hard, but limiting your shopping to thrift stores will give you the same adorable wardrobe as the department stores. You can find the latest styles in discount stores and get them at a better value, and you’ll save the clothes from ending up in the landfill.
Make Your Own Baby Food
After your baby’s phased out of infant formula or breast milk, they’re ready to try mashed foods. However, knowing which foods to buy is tricky. Many foods today contain chemicals and additives that make the foods potentially harmful and addicting to eat. The substances used ruin the foods’ nutritional value and potentially contaminate them.
Besides reading your food label, the essential thing to do is make your own baby food. It’s not too difficult to do; you can easily use a food processor or blender to puree vegetables and fruit. Breaking down foods is the best way to become sustainable and ensure your child gets their recommended daily nutrition.
You can also try the BLW method once you’ve consulted with your pediatrician, this is great because you don’t have to cook separately for your baby. Baby-Led Weaning (BLW) is a feeding approach that involves introducing solid foods to infants by allowing them to self-feed, rather than spoon-feeding them purees. The benefits of BLW include promoting healthy eating habits and self-regulation, reducing picky eating, increasing food acceptance and variety, enhancing fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination, and promoting family meals and socialization.
Focus on Making the Nursery Eco-Friendly
The bedroom is the first place your baby’s going to grow up in, so ensuring they have non-toxic furniture to sleep in and use is essential. You’re going to find various resources telling you how to create a sustainable nursery, and many will give great advice, but they might miss one thing, which is to read labels.
Label reading tells you the product’s origin as well as what types of chemicals manufacturers use in the production process. Avoid labels that mention VOCs and laundry lists of chemical names too difficult to pronounce; listing too many ingredients is a sign that these brands may not be as eco-friendly as they claim. Make sure to do your research on brands before creating the nursery.
Spend More Time Outside
One of the best tips for creating an eco-friendly lifestyle with your baby is to spend more time outside. If the goal is to better care for the environment, why spend the majority of your time indoors? Get out and explore the world with your infant—take them to the zoo, on nature hikes, and anywhere else that limits screen time and develops an early eco-friendly mindset.
It’s essential to develop an eco-friendly mindset early with your infant. Start by making the nursery eco-friendly, then go from there. You’ll begin to see your new sustainable lifestyle develop before your eyes.
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