Babies get through a lot of clothes, as Dominic Utton and partner Heidi have discovered – and ethical ones can be pricey. Thank goodness for friends…
Heidi and I had a clear out of Eithne’s wardrobe the other day. We got all her clothes and laid them in piles on the nursery floor. We assessed what she’d be wearing ‘this season’, what could be packed away, what should be recycled or given to charity shops, and what new clothes were needed.
It took all afternoon. And it’s a job we’ve had to do several times since she was born. Our daughter, at 18 months, gets through an awful lot of clobber. And if keeping up with her sartorial demands requires a pretty high degree of organisation, it can also mean struggling to keep a rein on the cost – both financial and ethical.
Clothes maketh the man, that’s what they say. And if you’ve ever found yourself in the children’s section of any shop, you’ll know that clothes seemeth to maketh the baby too.
Baby gear is big business. And getting your newborn the latest threads would appear to be essential for mums and dads eager to keep up with their fellow new parents. Sure the togs look good – but they come at a price too. And doing the right thing ethically and eschewing the High Street for smaller brands making organic or fair trade clothes can make things even harder. Admittedly, the tiny organic cotton hoodies sold by the likes of The Organic Baby Company are totally gorgeous – but at over £25 a go, they’d have to be. And they’ll soon be too small… Eithne’s first pair of jeans cost about the same as my last pair. And whereas mine are three years old and still going strong, hers lasted a month. Nothing to do with quality or craftsmanship – the problem was after six wears we could no longer squeeze her into them. Admittedly she did look cute – but not that cute. “We may as well dress her in ten pound notes,” was Heidi’s comment. “And then burn them afterwards.”
The fact is, clothing a baby is an expensive and frankly rather pointless business: for the first year of her life Eithne was capable of going through five or six costume changes a day. Vests, babygrows, romper suits, T-shirts, dresses, shorts, and, yes, jeans, would be struggled into and then cast aside as each fell victim to incidents and accidents with food/sick/leaking nappies; or the kind of inexplicable stains only babies seem able to produce. We soon learned to stop buying her such pricey outfits. Which is not to say she doesn’t still look good. And that, in a funny way, is down to other parents being unable to resist those same extravagances.
Part of what is so lovely about where we live is the community spirit between the new mums and dads. I’ve mentioned before the unofficial toy recycling, as parents swap forgotten favourites and any new arrival ends up on the receiving end of countless rattles, books and Teletubbies. The same is true of clothes. Eithne has been the lucky beneficiary of several enormous bags of practically pristine outfits from neighbours with little girls a year or two older than her. She’s got drawers full of lovely clothes – admittedly a season or three out of date, but hey, in the baby world that’s what passes for retro-chic. It’s a winner for everyone. Our baby is kitted out for another few months without us breaking the bank, unwanted clutter is unloaded by mums and dads desperate for the space, and any ethical concerns about throwing away perfectly good stuff are neatly bypassed too. And, of course, as Eithne grows up, the clothes are duly passed on again.
Those not as fortunate with their neighbours needn’t despair either. The National Childbirth Trust (NCT) hold regular ‘nearly new’ sales up and down the country, in which hardly-worn threads are sold at ridiculous prices – with a cut going to the NCT and the rest to the parents who donated the items. And when I say ridiculous prices, I do mean ridiculous. The brandname jeans that Eithne’s wearing right now, as I type this, sitting on the floor beside me immersed in The Hungry Caterpillar, came from the last NCT sale. And the price? £1.50.
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