4 Reasons Why You Absolutely Need to Start Investing in Organic Cotton Baby Clothes
1. Organic Cotton Is Safer For Babies
Conventional cotton is one of the most toxic crops on the planet. It is chock full of nasty chemicals and dyes that can absorb into baby’s skin, and the pesticides used to grow cotton pollute the groundwater and soil that is often shared with our food crops. A few chemicals include benzidine-based “azo dyes” (a dye that is thought to be cancer causing by some scientists), formaldehyde (yes that substance the frogs were kept in during your high school biology classes!), perfluorochemicals (under the right conditions, these can break down into a toxic blood contaminant called perfluorooctanoic acid), nonylphenol ethoxylates (they can act as hormone disrupters), and phthalates (children are at significantly higher risk than adults when it comes to phthalate exposure).
2. Organic Cotton is More Comfortable
Organic cotton isn’t subjected to the same chemical processing and dying that conventional cotton goes through so it retains more of its softness. Babies haven’t been exposed to weather, sun, and other elements that toughen skin, which is one of the reasons why their skin is extra soft and sensitive. Comfortable babies are happy babies, so the softer the fabric the better.
3. Organic Cotton Is Socially Conscious
You’ve probably heard about the chemicals used on conventional cotton, but did you also know thatthe conventional cotton industry is notorious for violating human rights? Yes, it’s really that bad. “There are roughly 40 million garment workers in the world today; many of whom do not share the same rights or protections that many people in the West do. They are some of the lowest paid workers in the world and roughly 85% of all garment workers are women. The human factor of the garment industry is too big to ignore; as we consistently see the exploitation of cheap labor and the violation of workers’, women’s, and human rights in many developing countries across the world” - The True Cost Movie.
4. Organic Cotton is Environmentally Conscious
Aside from human rights issues, did you know that we are filling landfills with fast fashion waste and polluting the environment with toxic chemicals? The fashion business is complicated, and involves lots of different companies for manufacturing, sourcing materials, and shipping. All this carries a massive carbon footprint. In addition to this, there are the harsh processes used in farming cotton and producing the toxic dyes used in most fast fashion clothing that are terrible for the environment.
Buying organic cotton clothing not only ensures the safety of your baby, but it also helps protect the world they’ll inherit. And it helps ensure the safety and well-being of the farmers and factory workers who made your baby’s clothing (which is often women with young children and babies of their own to care for).
Read more on the Kid Things Blog!
