Why Organic Baby Clothes Are Best For Your Baby
Cotton grown without the use of pesticides and chemicals is used for organic baby clothes.
Particularly those who suffer from eczema, like my youngest daughter, I believe that organic cotton is best for clothing for environmental and humanitarian reasons and I also believe organic cotton clothing is best for a childs sensitive skin.
Pesticides used on non-organic cotton account for 16% of the globe’s pesticides due to the fact that it uses more chemicals per unit area than all other crops. (“Picking Cotton Carefully, Institute of Science in Society, March 2007).
These harmful chemicals cause water and air pollution, polluting the land, killing plants and animals, and causing illness and even death for farmers and workers.
The World Health Organisation estimates that 20,000 deaths occur in developing countries each year from poisoning by agricultural pesticides used on crops, many of which, due to their relative toxicity, can be attributed to cotton. In the year 2000 alone, twenty-four people, including eleven children under the age of 10, died from cotton pesticide poisoning in Benin, West Africa.
Growing organic cotton without chemicals means that not only is it safer for the farmers and workers who grow and harvest the crops but the land is not damaged by over use of chemicals and the farming is more sustainable in the long term.
Organic farming uses crop rotation on the farmland and natural fertilisers instead of chemicals and artificial fertilizers. Biological pest control (using one species to eat the species destroying the crop), is used instead of harmful chemical alternatives.
Often purchased either directly from the farmer or from a local co-operative, organic cotton is more environmentally-friendly than the alternative, resulting in a larger income for the farmers who farm this crop.
150g of fertilisers and pesticides are used to grow enough cotton for only one T-shirt; that’s about a cup’s worth.
Not only are there environmental and health benefits of choosing organic cotton, but one should also note how much better it feels next to your skin. The quality comes from the longer cotton fibres, which are much softer. You can feel the quality and luxury in the long cotton fibres.
