As a new parent, you may be mesmerized by all the cute baby things out there. If you find yourself trying to find a balance between parenthood and sustainability, be comforted by the fact that you are not the first to have to deal with this. While you may be navigating a new journey, you can still find a way to balance both supporting your newborn child and an environmentally conscious lifestyle with these tips.

Make Your Own

If you have a sewing machine or needle and thread handy, you can make your own clothing and accessories for your little one. Not only can you be conscious of your environmental impact by not outsourcing this work to potentially harmful companies, but you can also only make what you need. Whether you buy new, durable materials like fleece fabric or if you repurpose clothing or blankets that you no longer use, making your own can help you be greener.

Repurpose Old Clothing

For any of us who have raised children, we know how quickly our little ones sprout up. It can feel like they are going through new clothing daily. Consider how you can alter and reuse their own clothes for other purposes to avoid increasing your waste. Whether you make them a small quilt from your favorite designs on their onesies, create toys for them or the family pet or alter their outfits to be small hats or hair accessories, there are endless options. If their clothing is not in the finest condition, you can always just sew another burp cloth or rag. You may be surprised by the number of additional uses your children’s old items may have.

Community Swap or Hand Me Downs

Other parents around you are likely managing the same situation. While this is a community issue, you can also address this with the community response. Whether you hand down clothes to a specific family, friend or neighbor or set a time and location for a community swap of items. Don’t forget that you can always donate clothing to populations in need or shelters, and this can be particularly useful following a community swap for anything leftover that is in good shape. Not only can you give these clothing and accessory items a second life, but you can also reduce waste and unnecessary shopping.

Knowing the Difference

In the parenting community, making smarter choices for our communities, children and the planet are all hot topics. While these have gained traction, not all of us can recognize the differences between products that are organic, natural or green. While many times, we lump these ideas together, not all of these have the same effect on our planet and its future. Particularly, organic products, while they can be safer options for our children, some are incredibly harmful to the planet. It is important that if we want to make smarter choices for our children and the environment, that we fully understand what these terms mean.

Sustainable Shopping

While baby clothing and accessories can be some of the cutest and most enticing products, if we want to support a more environmentally conscious lifestyle, we do need to apply this to shopping. You can still purchase adorable and useful products if you shop sustainable brands, purchase secondhand and mindfully select your fabric choices. If you follow these principles, you can help support the future and health of our planet which will help your baby. Additionally, it is important to keep in mind that while you will certainly need backup outfits, particularly for days where your little one will have blowouts, you do not necessarily need to buy every single precocious product or outfit.

Baby clothing and accessories are items that many parents find themselves spending countless funds on. While you will need supplies for your little one, you don’t want to go overboard. It may seem like just another item, but unhealthy spending, mindless shopping and unnecessary waste can all be detrimental to the future of the planet that they need to grow up in. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to live both a more intentional, more environmentally conscious and socially responsible existence for you and your entire family.