New parents have plenty to worry about in the first few years. Figuring out how to financially provide for a new family, the warnings and cautions from doctors and all the other mothers and fathers who know exactly how you should raise your child. It can get overwhelming to figure out what is and is not safe for your child. You should always check with manufacturers to make sure your baby furniture and equipment is not on a recall list, and this also applies to baby clothing. Children clothing can contain formaldehyde, pesticides and synthetic materials that cause allergies in young children. Purchasing only organic made clothing is the best way to keep toxins away from your infant. Unfortunately, organic clothing is expensive so is not an option for everyone.
If buying organic clothing for your infant is out of reach, there are still a few things that you can do to protect your child. Instead of immediately stacking new baby clothing into a drawer, make sure you wash it! Just one wash will help rinse out some environmental toxins. Manufacturers use sprays and starch to give clothes a crisp look in the stores, but these clothes are not ready to be worn! Not washing the clothes before putting them on your child exposes them to the pesticides used in growing cotton, chemicals used in the manufacturing process and anything the clothing came into contact with before you brought it home. Think about the machines that created the clothing, all the people who touched it, even the dyes in the pretty paper it was wrapped in. Babies immune systems are just not ready to deal with that much when they are newborns! Using a dye and deodorant free soap to wash your baby clothes before you dress your child in them will help minimize their exposure.