Lily the Organic Princess: My Advice On Green Toys

Sophie the Giraffe natural rubber teether toy

We half screwed up on the toy front, and if I could do it all over again, this is what I would do:

1. Look for toys that are made of organic cotton, other natural fibers, unfinished and unpainted wood, silicone, or natural rubber.

2. We skip most painted, finished, or shellacked wood toys. In my opinion, these are just as bad as plastic. That is, unless the language is present that makes me believe that the creators believe in some kind of natural, water-based, non-toxic paint and finish.

3. We avoid plastic of all kinds as much as possible. Plastic is plastic, whether or not it is touted as "BPA free", "green", "recycled", etc. It is really cool that Green Toys is recycled and Green Sprouts is BPA free, but this stuff is still plastic!

4. We aren't going to be able to find everything made eco-friendly. So, we either decide it is worth the exposure or that she doesn't need it. There are so many cute things that I wish were made with green baby in mind. I wish, wish wish I could find some silicone teething keys. We have a lot of teethers, but I think she would really like silicone keys. I would also love to find a silicone or bamboo toddler spoon.

5. Eco wording is very important. I keep seeing "green" toys made out of plastic. I wish these toys had wording about how they were made out of bamboo with water/plant-based paints. Then I would buy them. And, I wish the painted wood toys talked about how the paint and finish was plant-based. But alas, the only comments I see are "recycled", "BPA free" and "meets US safety standards." Alas, they are painted with toxic chemicals, so we won't buy them. I also don't buy things if I don't know what it is made out of, such as "plant-based bio resin". WTF is that?

6. Keep an eye out early. Making sure all of baby's toys are green takes a lot of time and effort. And, you have to buy some things online, though I found that Buy Buy Baby has an awesome selection. I thought we did pretty good, but we made some major mistakes. I thought all cloth things were good (FALSE), and I thought it would be easy to find unfinished wood toys (FALSE). I thought we could get buy with minimal toys, but she constantly needs something to play with. And, what she likes changes all of the time. We have a rotation of about 15 toys just for the day.

Miyim organic cotton stroller toy
(Lily's favorite thing on and off since 4 months)

7. Every baby will be interested in different toys at different periods. Her perceptions of the world around her change and she can interact with and perceive different toys in a way that is interesting to her. We buy a toy that she doesn't know what to do with, and then two or three months later, it's her favorite thing. That same toy, some of her play date friends have yet to find interest in, but other friends played with it months before her.

8. She is going to want to play with what she wants to play with, regardless of whether or not it's made out of natural material. This baby is always clamoring to get ahold of my car keys, the plastic remote, cardboard anything, and paper napkins. When she goes through periods of super fussiness, we're inclined to let her play with the one yuck thing that makes her happy.

9. Play dates at other houses will most certainly include toys we wouldn't otherwise let her play with, and that's okay for us. She gets to play with new things, and we get to see what kinds of things she might be currently interested in.

10. We have gone through several periods of "Oh WTF, we have nothing she wants to play with now, and she is bored to the bone!!!" So, I run to the store and pick up a few things. This panic often leads to a plastic toy purchase, even if I planned ahead with some new eco toys for just that occasion. It takes 5 toys to find the one she wants to play with.

11. If we do by something plastic or non-eco painted wood, we opt for things that she can't put in her mouth very easily. The heat of the inside of the mouth is more likely to cause the plastic to leech. She can't really get the remote in her mouth. Or the plastic Gymboree balls we bought after she fell in love with them in class. Or, this plastic take along car seat toy we just bought to make car rides a lot easier (less screaming baby, more happy drive).

plastic, but tied to car seat, so she can't get it in her mouth

12. I wished we would have skipped fabric toys, unless they are organic. I thought that fabric was better than plastic only to discover synthetic fabric is plastic. Cloth anything really needs to be made with cotton or other natural fibers. It doesn't have to be organic, but it sure as hell cannot be synthetic.

13. I wish we would have put away the stuffed animals that aren't made of natural fibers. We don't have many organic stuffed animals. We have a lot of ones that were synthetic that we just gave to her before we really thought that through. We had thought that any fabric was better than plastic.

14. We skip anything that has gel in it. Like teethers with gel. Those plastic containers can bust and that gel is not good for her.

15. Check Etsy.com! There are so many handmade options available.

Green Toys Wish List

(to be updated as I find more awesome toys!)