Article by Bridgette Barrett

Though they may be small, babies and children cost their parents a vast amount of money – on average, over £180,000 on each child until the age of 18. About £1,500 is spent before a child is born, with companies specifically targeting parents-to-be. However, many of the products aimed at babies can have a negative impact on the environment. For example, disposable nappies, plastic toys and mass-produced clothes can all have detrimental effects on the environment as a result of their production and/or disposal. By shopping around and planning your purchases, it is possible to choose products for your babies and children that are both eco-friendly, high quality and in the long run may save you money.

Eco-friendly parenting means choosing products that are longer-lasting, recyclable (or already recycled), and are produced from sustainable and renewable sources. Although this may seem hard at first, there are many sources of information out there to help you, including websites like The Green Parent and many forums such as on the Bounty website .

So how can you adopt eco-friendly parenting? Reusable nappies are increasingly popular, with over 15% of parents now using them. There are many fantastic sites selling and giving advice on reusable nappies, such as Plushpants, Totsbots and Lollipop. Not only are there many wonderful designs to choose from, but using reusable nappies will save you on average £500 per child, and you won’t be adding to the one million tonnes of nappy waste put into landfill each year.

Buying organic, fair trade or second hand clothing is also eco-friendly. Retailers such as Green Baby and Arabella Miller sell a lovely range of clothes. Although they can be a little more expensive in the short-term, fair-trade and organic clothing is made from higher quality materials, so is likely to last longer and can be passed on to other children. They also contain no chemicals and are less likely to cause skin irritations.

The food which you buy for your children can also have an impact on the environment. Buying organic, Fairtrade, unprocessed and ideally local food, perhaps from your nearest farmers market, can reduce your food miles and support your local community. In today’s difficult economic climate, many families have also started to grow their own vegetables. It’s amazing what you can grow even in the smallest space, reducing cost and ensuring you know exactly where your food has come from. For advice on growing your own food, there are many sites you can visit: one of the best is Garden Organic.

Another of the main expenses for children is their toys. Here at Great Green Toys we aim to provide affordable, quality toys that are also eco-friendly. The toys are all made from sustainable resources and there is also a selection of Fair-trade toys. We believe that our toys are made to withstand the bumps and crashes that they will endure. This means that rather being broken within a couple of days – as many plastic toys are – our toys will give your children pleasure for many years.

Eco-parenting choices may seem difficult at first, particularly when money is tight. With careful planning though, you’ll soon see that by making the environmentally-friendly choices, you can get better food, toys, and clothes for your family, and may even save money in the long run.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 16th, 2008 at 3:37 pm and is filed under Enviroment, Toys. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.