5 Ways to be an Eco-Friendly Parent

Parenting is hard. Parenting while also trying to care about the environment? Even harder. I have five simple life-hacks to not only be more eco-friendly while rocking parenthood, but also make this whole journey just a little bit easier.

1. DIY Baby Food

Making your own baby food is extremely easy and very rewarding. It only takes a few minutes to whip up delicious and nutritious purées for a fraction of a cost of buying them. Not sure where to start? Pinterest has a ton of fantastic, simple recipes to follow along with, and many of them even come with age guides. Like this one here.

There's no need to purchase any sort of fancy blenders like the overpriced Baby Bullet. Any regular blender will do just fine. As for little baby food jars, just save up your jam and salsa jars and you'll be good to go. Besides, your baby will only be eating purées for a few months before switching to finger foods. No need to break the bank.

One thing I do recommend purchasing are reusable food pouches. These things rock! They keep all of the air out of the food, so your avocado and banana purées won't turn brown. They're perfect for on-the-go, or for older kids who want to feed themselves. I still feed my three-year-old a purée of baked apple, spinach, avocado, and pineapple to make sure he gets his servings fruits and veggies in.

2. Ditch the Paper Towels

Paper towels totally unnecessary. There's no need for them in dealing with anything parenting related. The only thing I'd consider using paper towels for is cleaning up pet messes. So, if you're a pet parent, keep on truckin'. But for those of you who have human children or will soon, paper towels are not a necessity.

Quitting paper towels will save the average family $1,000 in just five years (source). It all adds up. And even though they biodegrade, they're not good for the environment. It takes seventeen trees and 20,000 galons of water to make one ton of paper towels (source).

Instead, purchase some small baby facecloths. They don't need to be fancy, or expensive. Heck, take one of the hundred swaddling cloths you were gifted when your kid was born and cut that thing up to use as paper towels. I use baby clothsfor small messes, and larger sack towels for the bigger messes. It's handy to wipe the kids face with the baby cloth and then quickly wipe down their chair and the table before tossing it into the bin to be washed. And those sack towels are ultra absorbent, perfect for future potty-training messes.

3. Stop Over-Cleaning

Research shows that dirt is good for your kids, and you should totally let them get absolutely filthy and play in the mud (source). If you've ever put a baby outside you'll notice them trying to eat dirt. If it's your own backyard, and it's not where your pets do their business, then it's probably fine and may even help build their gut biome (source).

And while you're at it, may as well get a dog. Pets are good for kids and help improve their immune systems (source) and also reduce their risk of developing allergies (source).

Now, in the age of Covid, disinfecting is just par for the course. Good news is that the daily disinfecting requirements won't harm your kids' immune systems (source). That being said, you don't need to be running through your house disinfecting absolutely everything all the time. You should be social distancing (right?), which means that the germs in your home are good germs. They can stay.

Also, it turns out that we're probably not even disinfecting things properly in the first place (source). Did you know that there's several steps to disinfecting? Me, either.

So, stop cleaning so much. The germs in your house and in your backyard are probably good for you, so you can just sit back and relax and let those kiddos get a little dirty.

4. Used Baby Clothes

I know it's tempting to buy a bunch of fancy brand-new clothes when you find out you're expecting, especially if you find out the sex early. I'm telling you, it's completely unnecessary. Babies do not need new clothes. If you want to pick out one or two new outfits for pictures and special occasions, go for it, but don't break the bank.

I guarantee your kid won't know the difference between used clothes and new clothes. And, they're probably going to ruin them anyway (see photo above).

When looking for used clothes, you can post on social media asking if anyone has anything they want to give away. Tons of parents have bags of clothes they don't want to keep anymore, and will gladly let you take them off their hands.

Or, you can go to a thrift store. There's also plenty of buy-and-sell children's clothes places, like Once Upon A Child. You can get ten outfits used for the price of one new!

Don't just stop at clothes, though. I've found baby carrier, baby swings, high chairs, play yards, bassinettes, and all sort of other kids furniture for a steal of a deal for sale online. Everything is washable, I promise!

5. Cloth Diaper

So far, you might be nodding along like "yeah. I can do this. I can implement that!" and now you're all like, "HOLD THE PHONE. No way I'm using cloth diapers! That is just nasty!" Hear me out.

Cloth diapers have come a long way from when your grandma was using them. Heck, she probably made them herself, used safety pins to keep them together, scrubbed them clean by hand and then hung them over the fireplace to dry. Our grandmas were tough mofos.

These days, cloth diapers are easy. Dare I say, easier than disposables? Well, not quite. But easy enough that you should consider them for the sake of our planet, and for your wallet.

Cloth diapers are cheaper in the long run than disposables, they're easy to wash, are better for the environment, and are totally cute, too.

Read my other article on why cloth diapers rock here!

And there you have it! Five ways to be a totally kick-ass eco-friendly parent, without working too hard to do it.

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