5 choices I made as a new parent with eco-anxiety

I digress from the topic of food to discuss sustainability in my new arena: parenting. For those who don’t know, we welcomed a baby girl in June! I was one of those lucky people that always knew I wanted kids. I never had to grapple for years with the question, “to be or not to be a mother.” Yet, with the state of the world as it is, and the environment degenerating every moment, I did fret over the consequences of my decision. It seemed (well, frankly, it is) selfish to have children, and my husband and I have made thoughtful decisions to lessen the environmental impacts of our now-expanded household, however small these choices may seem. Perhaps by sharing these ideas, another parent is able to incorporate one or two sustainable changes in their own household. It’s not lost on me that some of these adjustments require a certain privilege, but others are actually more financially savvy. Even just one of these adjustments can reduce the eco-anxiety immeasurably.

Note: all opinions are my own - I do not have relationships with any of the companies mentioned in this article.

1. Cloth wipes

   Stay with me! My husband understandably vetoed cloth diapers (more on this next), we compromised on using cloth wipes. I promise, it’s really not as gross as it sounds. I purchased 85 flannel wipes that fit perfectly in her changing station. Then, I bought an aesthetically pleasing glass spray bottle that we keep filled with water. When the baby needs a change, we simply spray a wipe, clean her off, and throw the wipe in a washable wet bag. Every 4-5 days, we throw the bag inside out in our washing machine and run a hot/heavy cycle. The system is working great for us and we’ve saved money by not buying huge packs of disposable wipes every month. When we travel or if there is an extra-sticky mess, we’ll break out a disposable WaterWipe.

2. (More) sustainable disposable diapers

   When we made the aforementioned choice to go disposable, I did a lot of research on budget-friendly, clean-ingredient, sustainable diapers. The winner was Bambo Nature, a family-owned, Danish-made diaper brand. Their products are free of all known harmful chemicals, allergens, parabens, and dyes. The diapers have earned the highest levels of ecolabels in the world and the company, being Nordic, is acclaimed for its transparency with consumers. Of course, it’s not lost on me that they are shipped from outside of the U.S., but we’re happy with our choice. (By the way, they ship super quickly!) Our hope is that as our baby grows, we can add reusable overnight diapers to our routine. For now, with lots of #1 and #2 happening at any moment, we’re sticking with disposable.

3. Refillable, plant-based hand sanitizer

   My husband suffers from severe eczema on his hands, which had me worried ahead of baby’s arrival. The amount of handwashing with a newborn was sure to irritate his skin. By chance, I found Paume, a company that manufactures plant-based, antibacterial, moisturizing hand gel. It’s not a cheap product, but within one week of using their pump and refillable gel in the nursery, my husband made me buy another set for our main floor. We love this product. It’s effective, smells good, less wasteful than tiny plastic sanitizer bottles, and looks great in the house. Despite using it multiple times a day, we have yet to finish a bag, so it’s not as cost-ineffective as it seems.

4. Laundry tablets

   We’re not strangers to unscented, minimal-ingredient laundry detergent, but I recently switched to Blueland laundry tablets and they work so well. I was warned about the amount of laundry a newborn creates, but I didn’t quite get it until Baby had arrived. Wow, we do laundry all the time. Seriously, the spit up alone requires us to wash our own shirts constantly (it didn’t help that postpartum, I had the same 3 nursing shirts on rotation). One Blueland tablet, combined with Dirty Labs laundry booster powder, does the trick, even on our soiled cloth wipes.

5. Buying secondhand or open box

   My ecoanxiety was at an all-time high when it came to designing our nursery and buying all the stuff that comes along with a newborn. I wish the U.S. had a system like Parently, a Scandinavian company that allows you to rent baby gear until your child outgrows it. (If this exists, please let me know!) We’re trying to be minimalist, but even minimalists need strollers, cribs, bassinets, etc. To assuage my guilt, we tried our best to buy open box items from online retailers like Rebel, Stork Exchange, and GoodBuy Gear. For instance, our amazing UppaBaby Vista V3 stroller was significantly marked down since it was a returned item. Half the time, baby products are returned because people receive duplicates or change their minds, causing these items to go to landfills rather than another home. When we can’t buy open box, we thrift on Facebook Marketplace. Our high chair, Baby Bjorn carrier, and one of our pack-n-plays are all from Marketplace. Our wallets, and the planet, are thanking us.

Our changing station, featuring Paume hand gel, an organic changing pad, our dirty wipes bag, and sustainable textile wall decals from NulaLuna crafts.