Navigating the world of baby consumer goods

This post is a test-run for an e‑mail, so com­ments (and ideas) wel­come… Apo­lo­gies if anyone finds this arrog­ant, obnox­ious, con­des­cend­ing or any other neg­at­ive emo­tion. I am *not* asking for gifts. If this is all too much, please feel free to ignore completely!

As I men­tioned recently, lovely people have star­ted to buy us baby gifts already. This is really touch­ing and delight­ful. (I have to post photos soon: my mother has knit­ted an ador­able purple outfit in bamboo yarn; my cousin bought a delight­ful book called the Wom­bat’s Diary which I saw at Heales­ville one day with goldfish42  and shoes_the_dog  and adored).

We’ve also had some people ask about what they should get, because we have a lot of restric­tions to deal with.

To make it really easy, here’s a list of what to avoid, in order of importance:

• No products made from or includ­ing wool, fur or feath­ers – Doug is aller­gic, sorry.
• No poly­es­ter or PVC or plastics con­tain­ing phthal­ates – Ros­anne is a big hippie and wor­ried about off-gass­ing and toxics.
• Try to avoid expens­ive, brand-new “designer” stuff – both of us are con­cerned about the envir­on­ment and over-con­sump­tion, and baby goods are often dis­posed of even more rap­idly than other types of items.
• Try to avoid el cheapo brand-new stuff – both of us are con­cerned about sweat-shop labour and our impact on others in this world.

What does that leave? That’s what most people are asking us. So here’s the next list, the list of ideal items, in order of priority:

• Nat­ural fibres (bamboo, silk for clothes, wood for toys)
• Second-hand
• and/or fair-trade, organic, recyclable
• New, but made by some small, local, crafty person
• Not too gender-specific

We’ve found a few places and have a few ideas about the sorts of things we’re look­ing for, if that helps. Here’s that list:

• Bamboo stuff: Sahara Bloom (I really liked the con­trast tab onesie in Sage); bamboo nap­pies, bamboo blankets and burp cloths; have also seen bamboo stuff in reg­u­lar baby shops.
• List of organic/ethical baby stuff in Australia
• Wooden toys and cloth (cotton) toys (check the stuff­ing isn’t poly­es­ter), second-hand ideally, but oth­er­wise: Fair­ground Child in North Carlton,Twinkle Tots in North­cote, Child Play in Clifton Hill… tons of other places.
• Second-hand baby books
• Hmmm… I wanted to pro­mote a friend’s site, babychangeling, but it appears she’s on hiatus. In par­tic­u­lar, I want the black onesie that says “sleep is for the weak”. Also, David and Liz, did you ever buy that “little anarch­ist” onesie I said I’d pay you back for? I don’t think I ever saw it… (ETA: Kim sent me the “sleep is for the weak” onesie!)
• Beads to dis­tract baby from grabbing our hair or glasses (almost all the ones I found online are plastic… but you could make some out of brightly col­oured glass beads and strong silk bead string – I saw some at the Glebe Fair last week­end, but they’re not on the web site). (ETA: Have bought beads and silk string and plan to make this myself)
• Eco-sling for car­ry­ing baby – although a friend said she’d give us a pat­tern to make one ourselves… (ETA: Have now been given two slings! Awesome.)
• Really don’t want to con­trib­ute to over-con­sump­tion? Buy us a gift cer­ti­fic­ate from a Nappie Wash Ser­vice. Although the prices start at 6 weeks’ worth, the gift cer­ti­fic­ates allow you to spe­cify whatever amount you’re com­fort­able with. (ETA: This Nappy Wash Ser­vice has closed down as have most others in Mel­bourne it seems. Are now doing our own nap­pies; buy us bamboo/organic cotton nap­pies instead from Sus­tain­able Hemp Products or your own source.)
• Eth­ical guide to baby access­ory companies
• I’ll add to this as I find more or think of more.