Parent Diaries

With the festive season approaching, especially in India, finding the perfect gift with purpose and hope - can be a challenge. This year try an ancient dyeing technique with goodness for both user and creator, called Ayurvastra, a unique and thoughtful gift that combines tradition, sustainability, and health benefits? Ayurvastra, or Ayurvedic fabric, is infused with medicinal herbs and offers numerous healing properties. Here are some festive gifting ideas that will not only delight your loved ones but also promote their well-being, winning you the title of “The Most Thoughtful Gift of The Season!”. Ayurvastra Clothing Ayurvastra garments are made using natural dyes and herbs, offering health benefits and skin care. Consider shawls, scarves, and stoles for adults- perfect for winter. Onesies, jumpers, co-ord sets, vests etc are perfect for kids if made with pure wool, cotton or silk. Look for customized Ayurvastra pieces that cater to personal preferences and styles.   Ayurvastra Bed and Bath Essentials Ayurvedic fabric bed sheets, pillowcases and blankets promote restful sleep and skin health. Towels dyed with herbs can reduce itching, dry patches, acne and other skin related issues. These items are dyed with natural ingredients, ensuring a hypoallergenic and chemical-free experience. Ayurvastra Home Décor Choose from a range of eco-friendly home décor items like cushion covers, cot decorations, textile-based wall décor and curtains. These products are infused with healing herbs that purify the air and create a sense of calm in the environment. Perfect of kids’ room, reading/studying room, work place, sleep space or any other favorite corner of your place. Ayurvastra Baby Products Ayurvedic fabric is gentle on sensitive baby skin and free from harmful chemicals. Consider gifting baby clothes, cushions, blankets, nappies, swaddles and bibs or gift sets made from Ayurvastra. These products help protect babies from skin irritations and allergies boosting overall immunity and wellness. DIY Gift Wrapping Use fabric scraps to wrap your gifts, adding an extra layer of beauty, thoughtfulness and sustainability. Fabric wrapping can be reused, reducing waste and promoting eco-friendly practices. You can always add a personal touch by adding message notes, choosing fabrics that reflect the festive spirit and the recipient’s taste or have a memory of recipient attached to it.   Benefits of Gifting Ayurvastra: Health and Wellness: Ayurvastra promotes overall health through its natural and medicinal properties. Sustainability: Choosing Ayurvastra supports eco-friendly and sustainable practices. Cultural Significance: Ayurvastra gifts reflect a blend of tradition and modernity, making them meaningful and unique.     Conclusion This festive season, delight your loved ones with the gift of Ayurvastra. These products not only offer aesthetic appeal but also contribute to health and well-being. By choosing Ayurvedic fabric, you’re promoting green sustainable practices and preserving the rich heritage of natural ayurvedic healing. Make your celebrations special with thoughtful and beneficial gifts that your friends and family will cherish. Feel free to reach out if you need more ideas or assistance with Ayurvastra gifting!

As parents, well-wishers or guardians, we strive to provide the best for our children, ensuring they are comfortable, happy, and healthy. One area where we can significantly impact their well-being is the environment they grow up in through the choices we make regarding their clothing. With the rise of natural and organic kids clothes and sustainable ethical fashion practices, it's easier than ever to ensure your child's wardrobe is both eco-friendly, kind on the sensitive skin of the child and stylish. Here’s how you can make your kids' clothing cycle sustainable in five easy steps:   Choose Natural or Organic Kids Clothes Organic kids clothes are made from natural fibers like cotton, linen, bamboo and wool, grown without the use of harmful pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. It is also believed that by avoiding toxic prints, dye and trims on the garment, we can choose the most original and harmless version of clothing that is truly organic. This makes them safer for your child's sensitive skin and better for the environment. Organic clothing brands often adhere to ethical manufacturing processes, correct processing of waste, ensuring fair wages and safe working conditions for their workers. Bonus: Organic fibers are often more durable, leading to longer-lasting clothing.     Explore Ayurvastra for Your Kids Ayurvastra, a traditional Indian practice, involves infusing natural fabrics with medicinal herbs. These clothes are believed to promote health and well-being, offering therapeutic benefits such as improved skin health, detoxify the body and enhance relaxation. Ayurvastra can be a unique, trustworthy and beneficial addition to your child's wardrobe, combining traditional wisdom with modern sustainability. Bonus: The use of natural dyes and herbs minimizes environmental impact. Both solid waste and liquid waste of the dyeing processes can be returned back to earth. Each garment is unique, offering a personalized touch to your child's wardrobe.     Buy Sustainable Kids Clothes Sustainable kids clothes are designed with a focus on minimizing environmental impact throughout their lifecycle—from production to disposal. Look for brands that use recycled or recyclable materials, practice ethical labor standards, and implement eco-friendly manufacturing and disposal processes. Bonus: Using materials like recycled polyester reduces waste and conserves resources while can also lead to disposal of microplastics into the water bodies. Reduced water usage, low-impact dyes, and renewable energy sources though surely minimize environmental footprints drastically.   Opt for Comfortable Clothes for Babies Comfort is key when dressing your little ones. Choose soft, breathable fabrics that keep your baby comfortable throughout the day above every trend, brand and style. Natural fibers like cotton, bamboo, silk, wool, hemp and linen are ideal as they are gentle on the skin and allow for better air circulation. Bonus Tip: Look for clothes made from cotton or bamboo for extra softness. Ensure the clothes are not too tight and have enough room for movement. Opt for reusable cotton nappies over conventional diapers as much as possible to avoid rashes and irritation. Leave your baby enough time to go commando!   What to Do with Old Clothes As children grow quickly, they may outgrow their clothes before the cloth itself wears out. Here are some sustainable ways to repurpose old clothes for a kinder better world: Donate: Give gently used clothes to local charities, shelters, people or families in need. Recycle: Many organizations, brands and industries accept old clothes for recycling, turning them into new fabrics or products. Repurpose: Get creative by turning old clothes into new items like quilts, stuffed toys, a keepsake, bags, pouches, cleaning rags and much more! Swap: Organize or participate in clothing swaps with other parents to refresh your child's wardrobe without buying new items. Sell: You can also consider selling gently used clothes online or at consignment shops to give them a second life. The concept is called thrifting: if you start searching for #thriftindia on Instagram, you will see 475k posts (as of December 18, 2021), and the number is increasing by the day. This only goes to show the rise of thrift culture in India and the world that is leading to consumers making more sustainable choices.    Conclusion Making your kids' clothing cycle sustainable is not only beneficial for the environment but also for your child's health and comfort. It is what will make the world a better plae to live in for the future generations. By choosing organic or natural kids clothes, exploring Ayurvastra, opting for sustainable brands and practises, and getting enthusiastic to repurpose old clothes by creative means, one can contribute to a greener, healthier society and world.

Wooden toys have made a comeback in a big way as they are better than plastic ones for the environment and your child’s safety. Wooden toys are well-made on the whole, rarely come with pieces that could easily be broken by a child and even adults would find them difficult to break. This means that on the whole, they’re a much safer go-to for a child’s toy, especially if the little one is under the age of five years. By purchasing a wooden toy that’s sustainably made, you’re playing a small part in reducing the amount of plastic waste. So why not reduce, reuse and recycle? Wooden toys are a great way to do your bit for the environment, without even having to do much at all. Many wooden toys can be bought second hand and sanitized, so you’re reusing materials, and then when the toy has had its day - often a few generations down the line - they can be recycled easily as they’re made from natural materials.  Plastic toys, even if they’re made from durable material, have the potential to shatter or if they have a mechanical element, to malfunction - just have a look at all the toys from the 90s that never made it! Whereas wooden toys can withstand children’s energetic playing, however it happens, as they’re quite simply made from stronger materials.     Much like how wooden toys can help children develop their educational skills, they can also help them to fire up their creative thinking and playing habits. Whether it’s a wooden horse and they’re imagining galloping through the forest, aka the back garden, or they’re playing architect extraordinaire with a range of colorful building blocks, simple wooden toys help to fire up kids’ imagination and get them thinking outside the box. Even just stacking blocks one on top of the other can help children to develop their motor skills as they begin to find out how gravity and other forces work against them. This is especially great for children that have just turned one and over. Although you may find some plastic toys to be cheap, they often don’t last long. Wooden toys are relatively cheap compared to more complicated alternatives, and the product you’ll receive is good value because they’re hard wearing – even with the handling that some babies will put them through – meaning that their value is increased over the long lifetime of the product. Playing with plastic toys that light up, talk or play music can entertain your child while you are busy. But these types of toys may not help in their development. Children need to be curious and interact with real things. Children develop their brains by interacting with and exploring objects around them. The combination of a few chemicals found in PVC plastics is what makes plastic toys dangerous for kids and babies. The biggest health risk with these toxins is that they can leach out from the product, especially when babies put the toys in their mouths. Even worse, there are items in the market like teething rings, bath toys, and squeeze toys made using toxic chemicals. Some of the toxic additives used in plastic toys are: Phthalates Phthalates are commonly used in plastic toys to give a soft and squishy feel. These chemicals are endocrine disruptors and can cause an imbalance in hormones. Phthalates not only upset the body’s hormonal balance, but they are also known to stimulate the growth of cancers. Cadmium Cadmium is another common chemical found in plastic toys. It is used as a plastic stabilizer which is said to affect normal brain growth and can cause kidney damage. Lead Lead is used in plastic toys to make it more durable. It is also sometimes used in paint solutions. Lead is known to affect the nervous system and has been linked to hearing loss, decreased IQ and ADHD. Many Chinese toy products have been known to contain lead. If the toy is exposed to high heat, the lead may leach out in the form of dust, which may then be inhaled or ingested by your child. BPA (Bisphenol A) BPA (Bisphenol A) is found in plastic toys, sippy cups, plastic bottles, and canned food lining. BPA is considered more of a danger when children put plastic products in their mouths, so the main concern with BPA has been on food and drink products. If your child is continuously chewing on toys, it is best to avoid plastic toys for that stage.   Researchers with NYU Grossman School of Medicine found that some 1-year-olds have up to 20 times more microplastics in their bodies than adults. Furthermore, some of the newborns' stool also contained microplastics.   “If you really look at a 1-year-old baby’s lifestyle, they use lots of plastic materials, such as toys. They put everything in their mouths. Toys are one of the most important sources of microplastic exposure," explains Kurunthachalam Kannan, PhD, a professor in the department of pediatrics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.   Toys, however, are not the only form of microplastic exposure. The small plastic pieces, which can be about the size of a teaspoon, are found in everything from clothing to furniture and vehicle tires to shampoo bottles.   Protecting Little Ones It can take a lot of time and expense to purchase items that can minimize kids' exposure to plastics. "The most important thing you can do is try to limit how much plastic you bring into your home. That’s a tall order. It's hard to avoid," Lewis acknowledges. Polyester, nylon, and synthetic fibers contain plastic. Try to wear clothing items that you have that aren't made of plastic, like cotton and linen. Avoid microwaving plastic bowls or cups. The heat can release harmful chemicals from the plastic into your food and drinks. Using microwave-safe porcelain or other microwave-safe materials is a better option. Use containers for food that aren’t made of plastic. Grabbing a glass bowl for your baby's food can help limit exposure to plastics. Ultimately, the risks associated with microplastics make the effort to limit them worth it. “Parents should do whatever they can to reduce exposure of their baby to plastics,” Dr. Kannan concludes.