Why we buy organic clothes for Eli, and not very often

You might want to think twice before buying that cute outfit for your child/grandchild or that cute baby your friend just had. There are so many harmful chemicals that are in the clothes of brands that we love, and children are especially sensitive (well explained in the report below), so shouldn't we be more concerned that there are elevated levels of toxic chemicals, many of which act as endocrine disruptors? UNEP and WHO studies have shown that they act at very low levels, and are linked to many childhood and adult diseases that are on the rise. All of that, on top of the pesticides that are used in the production of cotton around the world, and the permanent damage it is doing to the soil and water of the our planet.

The first link here is the Greenpeace report that prompted the topic but you can also find more information below.
Greenpeace report
Ecowatch
Greenamerica
Why not sweatshops

So what to do, what to do.. I don't have the perfect answer because labeling is such an issue, and even eco-friendly materials like hemp or bamboo fabric could be treated with additional harmful chemicals in the softening process or coloring stage. I try to stick to organic cotton, organic wool, nontoxic dyes, and no additional weather-proofing features such as SPF,easy-clean or bug repellent. Polyester tends to be always treated with one or more of these bad chemicals, so I am going to do some further research into our favorite eco-friendly brands by directly contacting them (Nui Organics, Patagonia, Winterwater, Itsus Organic, Land of Looms, Sckoon, Kushies, Kate Quinn, Sage Creek,etc.), and update later with hopefully a list of non-toxic baby clothing brands, however short that might be.
 

 Eli, in his organic Winter Water shirt we bought at $10 (70% off)

The question is always, but organic is so expensive. It's for hipsters, for people who can afford it. Well, I hear ya. We are living on a strict budget and aren't in any position to spend the average $30-$40 on a single onesie or pair of pants. But thank goodness for E-commerce and Flashsales! We routinely check online sales at Zulily, Ruelala, and alikes and can always find deals that are at least 40% off if not more. It doesn't make these premium products cheap, but by simply buying and using less, it ends up being okay. Imagine if the average household buys 10 outfits at $8 per piece, bear wit

h me here, if we bought 4 outfits at $20 per piece, it's the same amount of money spent. That's the idea and that's what we have been doing. We are also lucky that we get some handmedowns from friends who share our values, and have also had some success shopping second-hand at very affordable prices.

"But four outfits?" You asked. We do laundry almost everyday so that we can rotate fairly frequently amongst the few pieces that we trust are safe for Eli. Safe laundering is another huge issue to tackle, we will need an entire day for that, so another post. It really is simply the old way of living. People didn't always have as much as we do now. We didn't need (still don't) 20 outfits for a baby at any given time, but companies have made them so cheap and our houses have gotten so big that it isn't hard to have a lot of them, because boy it is convenient to not have to do laundry so often, to just simply throw them in a pile and have babies wear so many different outfits because it is fun. By making them cheap and making us want to buy more hence making more of the cheap products, they end up using or approve the usage of harmful chemicals to keep the costs down. I'm not against fun or convenience, but I am for keeping our earth as good as we can for our future generations, paying a fair wage to developing country workers, less consumerism and more quality/safe products, and supporting good businesses a.k.a voting with my wallet. Thankfully, the hubby has always been this way growing up (quality vs. quantity), so as a family we have embraced this lifestyle of "less is more, and probably better". It is a lot more work, but I believe it is good for the future world that Eli and his children are living in. What if Eli does not have children? Fair question, his nieces and nephews then. 

We have a difficult time with gifts since they come with love, so we end up having Eli wear them, telling him he is loved and this is a nice present, and putting them in the rotation once in a while with less frequency than the organic ones. I feel bad admitting this, I wish there were a better way, but this is what we thought would be the optimal solution to a much, much bigger problem.

It turns out writing blog posts with a baby, a job-searching husband who works on weekends and trying to cook from scratch for the family and the baby means I never get to finish a paragraph and ramble. Bear with me here. I am better than this. You will see.