I realized with chagrin that I'd been focusing on things with cute or pretty graphics, rather than considering more important factors, like baby girl's comfort. No, I wouldn't dress her up in one of those stiff, scritchy floral numbers--like the ones my mom had recently bought for R with so much enthusiasm, I don't quite know how we're going to get out of that one. But, after one particular hot day recently, when the baby had sweat through her cotton onesie and became so soggy she got plastered to anything she came in contact with, I started wondering about alternate materials.
This wondering led me to bamboo. Although I'm not entirely convinced because I could only find the following info at various retail sites, it seems fabric made from bamboo has all kinds of good qualities: it's insulating, antibaterial, and wicks away moisture from the skin--better than cotton, supposedly. In addition, pesticides aren't necessary when growing bamboo, so you can feel a little better about the material being against your baby's skin or even in her mouth, as the case may be with a sleeve-sucking kid. However, the website SAF (safe alternatives for) Baby wrote:
We’ve heard about the toxic process of bamboo from plant to fiber which can be harmful on the environment. So, we searched for a company that offered a safer, non-toxic processing alternative.
SAF Baby then went on to recommend the company Bamboosa. By the time I found this article, however, I'd already ordered some baby clothes from Kicky Pants. I liked the clean simplicity of its organic Bamboo Basics line.
Although the Mother Earth and Baby site offers the best selection of colors at the lowest prices I could find--e.g., $15.30 for onesies--they only have sizes from 0 to 12 months. Wanting to stretch my dollar a little, I was looking for bigger sizes that would last us longer. Little Speckled Frog is offering 99-cent shipping until the end of May, and the prices aren't too bad, but their sizes and colors are limited. I finally settled on Amazon because they had a free-shipping deal, the size I wanted, as well as a very adorable pink romper that I--yes, I--needed my baby to wear (it's got these three rows of little ruffles on the butt...).
Well, the clothes arrived and I was immediately impressed by the very fine, smooth texture of the fabric. It's deliciously soft. There's also a stretchiness that makes it great for R, who is getting more active these days, rolling across the floor during her exploratory forays--and, today, doing this adorable inchworm-like forward scootch. Now, when I touch R's regular cotton onesies, they feel so rough and stiff in comparison!
As for all the other properties of bamboo cloth, those remain to be seen. But I think there might be several opportunities for Kicky Pants to be field-tested in the near future, as assorted relatives living in Singapore and Japan are demanding that we come and visit this summer. Tokyo in July...hmmm.
