Babies may be really tiny, but they do leave (indirectly though) a large carbon footprint behind them. All the non-biodegradable products used by their parents’ right from the day they are born makes our earth a little more inhabitable for the coming generations.

Environmental baby care is a way by which babies either leave behind bio-degradable waste or at least reduce the amount of non-biodegradable waste. Here are a few green ways of bringing up your baby:

• Feed you baby the natural way i.e. breastfeed your baby. Not only is it environment friendly, it also offers more nutrition and antibodies too your baby, ensuring that your baby’s growth is healthy and disease-free.
• Once you switch to solid food give your baby homemade food rather than packaged food. Storing this food in biodegradable containers is another way of greening your baby. The large trash that non-biodegradable baby food containers leave behind goes a long way, literally speaking, in disturbing the ecological balance of our planet.
• According to an estimate, a used diaper sitting in a landfill takes approximately 500 years to biodegrade. Instead of causing such environmental havoc, use reusable cloth nappies made of cotton. These are long lasting and can be used for more than one child.

A diaper manufacture has created a biodegradable, flushable, compostable diaper made of wood-pulp. These diapers will biodegrade in just 90 days. So look around in the market for such green options.

• Even mothers should wear cotton maternity briefs and washable breast pads instead of disposable ones to reduce trash.
• Another useful tip is to prepare a list of your baby’s needs and then instead of buying everything, you can borrow them from friends and relatives or get them second hand. Things like baby toys, baby bath accessories, baby dresses are used for a very small time and you can get them second hand in excellent condition.
• Also, rather than getting things that can be exclusively used by a boy or a girl like their bedding or bathing accessories etc buy things that both genders can use.

All you need is a little environmental consciousness right from the time your baby is born. Environmental baby care will ensure that your child and his\her generations live their future life on a clean and green earth.