Going Nontoxic: Baby Edition!

For the last 3 years, I’ve taken a deep dive into nontoxic living. I began by ditching and switching the conventional products under my sink and then the products I used on my skin. However, NOTHING prepared me for the shock I felt as I was shopping the baby aisle while pregnant. As I began reading the labels and checking resources such as EWG, I was extremely disappointed. Unfortunately, many baby products are completely green-washed—marketed as “gentle and pure.”

To my surprise, there are still many baby products that contain ingredients that can irritate the skin and cause hormonal disruption such as “fragrance.” There are even more baby products out there with dirtier ingredients—synthetics, fillers, mineral oil, and petrolatum which are thought to be possible carcinogens and risk contamination.

There is nothing “gentle” about that!

The good news is that you can start now.

Once you know better it’s one step closer to doing better. Making these changes can be done with one trip to a box store like Target! And what mama doesn’t like a nice target run? There are also many other brands online to get you started. Swapping out your baby care products for safer options can make all the difference for your little ones.

Here are a few nontoxic brands listed—although I always advise you to read the ingredients of each product instead of relying on a brand’s reputation. TIP: always go for the “Fragrance-Free” options!

• Seedlings
• Pipette
• Earth Mama
• Hello Bello
• Puracy
• Babo Botanicals
• Honest Baby
• Alaffia
• Made Of

With that said, just because something isn’t marketed for babies doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use it. We put so much thought into thinking of protecting our littles, but we neglect our own bodies in the process. A perfect example is laundry detergent. I personally don’t use a baby detergent, because the baby detergent options I’ve seen are definitely not something I feel safe using on my little one. Instead, I use a clean, non-toxic detergent for our whole family. Why? Because if brands have specific product lines marketed to babies because they are “gentle,” what does that tell you about the ingredients in their other products? At what point do we, as a society, decide that we no longer are concerned with these ingredients and begin to lather on the chemicals?

The reality is:

Products either contain harsh chemicals or not.
Either expose risks to your health or not.
Are either safe for baby and you… or not.

Familiarize yourself with ingredients and it will help you feel empowered to make a decision for yourself and your littles when it comes to going nontoxic and buying a new product! Here are my favorite resources when making educated decisions:

• EWG: Environmental Working Group (EWG)
• Yuka: Yuka the app
• Think Dirty: Think Dirty the app