My
parenting journey began unconventionally by planning a home birth, but I
followed the mainstream idea of what babies need: diapers, a crib, a stroller,
a car seat, and so forth. As someone who
lives a relatively minimalist life, I was troubled by the thought of adding all of
this child-related baggage to my clutter-free home. Over time, I realized that most baby gear is wasteful,
unnecessary clutter, especially in the first year. I know, you probably think I am nuts. "How can you live without a stroller?" "There is no way I am going to carry my baby
everywhere!" "And diapers? Come on, babies certainly need those!" "What about entertainment? My baby will get bored!" I admit that these ideas did not come
naturally to me; however, I learned from other parents with similar
interests. All parenting philosophies
aside, if your main goal is to minimize your environmental impact, the
following topics might interest you: elimination communication; breastfeeding
and baby-lead weaning; co-sleeping; and babywearing. Today, I write about the first two.
Elimination
Communication
The
guiding principle behind elimination
communication (EC) (also known as natural
infant hygiene, infant potty training, or gentle potty training) is that people are born with the instinct
to not soil themselves. Babies
communicate the need to eliminate just as they communicate other basic needs,
and as parents it is our job to understand when that need should be met. By exclusively diapering a child, the child learns
that caregivers will not meet this particular need and that the appropriate
place to eliminate is in his pants.
Imagine how confusing it must be after two or three years of eliminating
in your pants to learn that you are actually supposed to use a toilet! I won't go into the details about how to
establish this sort of relationship with your baby, there are plenty of
references out there that do a much better job than I ever could. But I will share my personal
experience.
While
I was pregnant, I thought I was doing my environmental due diligence by
committing to cloth diapers. Knowing
that I would save landfills from a large volume of solid waste while protecting
my baby's bottom from diaper rash made the additional laundry burden worth it. For five months, we happily cloth-diapered
our child until a friend and fellow new parent introduced us to the concept of elimination communication. From the day her son was born, she
started putting him on the potty. I
admit that I was skeptical at first, but after reading Diaper Free Baby, I knew that I had to at least try introducing my
infant to the potty. It wasn't long
before my daughter refused to poop in her pants, and what an exciting accomplishment
that was for us. At this point, I was
completely sold. Now our daughter is 16
months old, and while she still has accidents, she doesn't wear diapers during
the day and spends most of her time dry.
She directly communicates her elimination needs with either a hand signal
or words. Our experience has completely
changed my perspective and opinion on diapers, and we are fully committed to
respond to any future child's elimination needs in this way from birth.
Some
people would say that "elimination
communication" sounds wonderful, but isn't practical for a child with two
working parents. The beauty of EC is that it can be accomplished part time and with
zero stress. Anything that ends up in a
potty results in fewer diaper changes, and therefore less waste, so why not try
it?!
Breastfeeding
and Baby-led Weaning
Breastfeeding
is a sensitive and controversial topic for many women. Personally, I never questioned whether or not
I wanted to breastfeed. And while my
breastfeeding relationship was easily established with my baby, I have met
numerous women who have struggled for weeks, even months to exclusively
breastfeed their babies. I have also
known women who, despite their best efforts, were unable to maintain breastfeeding
for physical or psychological reasons beyond their control. Breastfeeding is certainly not something
women can take for granted, but even if it takes blood, sweat, tears, and a lot
of time, the benefits to both mom and baby are well worth it.
Well
that's great, but my main point is to minimize "stuff consumption." Obviously, if a baby receives his meals
exclusively from mom, infant formula and the waste associated with it is
completely unnecessary. If mom stays at home,
the need to bottle-feed is also unnecessary.
However, many moms work in which case bottles and breast pump supplies
are probably necessary. In the end
breastfeeding can still lead to waste, but less so than formula-feeding.
Breastfeeding
is probably the obvious environmentally-friendly choice to many people, but
what about the weaning process? When I
was pregnant, I had every intention making my own pureed baby food. It could be organic, I could make my own
concoctions suited to my baby's tastes, I would save money, AND I would
contribute less waste by not buying packaged baby food! This sounded like a great plan until I learned
about baby-led weaning (BLW) which makes it even easier to avoid packaged baby
food. It's quite simple: let your child
feed himself. This means that the child
eats finger foods rather than purees.
For us this means our child generally eats what we prepare for ourselves. Honestly, BLW probably lengthens the path to
weaning, so you have to be willing to commit to an extended breastfeeding
relationship with your child. As a mom
who has been breastfeeding for 16 months, I know that it isn't always
easy. However, I didn't go into
parenting thinking it would be easy, and I know she won't be breastfeeding
forever.
Come back tomorrow to read part 2 of Crystal's guest blog!
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| Crystal, a nuclear engineer, and her organic baby. |
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| Brian, Crystal's husband, also a nuclear engineer, with his organic baby. |
