As a parent, every day we make decisions about doing the“best” for our children.
When you have a baby, your world turns upside down – as you experience some amazing life changes! Not only do you have a little being that depends on you for all their needs – but a lot of decisions that may not have seemed so vital before!
A mother wants the best for her baby (wearing an Awamaki Knit Baby Rabbit Hat)
With parenthood comes a powerful responsibility too – to ensure that your baby gets the best start in life. There are a plethora of sometimes confusing choices too: Organic produce vs wholefoods, cloth nappies vs diapers, handmade toys – sometimes it’s hard to decide what is the best for our little precious people. I like it when I can find something that makes me feel confident that I am making a good, healthy decision.
The author’s daughter and her friends playing with handknitted toys from Casa de la Mujer Artesana
It makes sense to look for eco-friendly toys – that are handmade, coming from organic origins, and that have been carefully made by hand. Given the enormous amount of chemicals that exist around us, organic toys are also a sensible choice for our child’s health.
In my case, I know the indigenous artisans that make these handmade knittted toys, booties and beanies, and know what a positive impact these purchases make. I also know a little about the eco friendly alpaca industry. For example, alpaca fleece lacks allergens, whereas sheep wool is usually treated to remove lanolin. Alpacas eat in a low impact way – they snip off the grass as they eat it rather than pulling it out at the roots like other animals do!
Playing with felt farm animals from the Spectacled Bear Conservation Society
Our alpaca beanies and booties have been handed down now to other families, and I’m confident that they will be loved and passed on. My toddler wears a couple of different alpaca beanies and not only looks great in them, but they are gorgeous, soft and very warm.
The alpaca stuffed toys are well loved, cute and fund to play with. Better still they are of such high quality that they survived numerous washes and plenty of loving!
Awamaki Baby Bobble Hat and Casa de Mujer Artesana Black Sheep
Ariana Svenson, Threads of Peru CoFounder and Mother of 2
Thanks to Kasey Hill and family for the photos and a fun morning of play!
WHERE CAN I BUY THESE ECOFRIENDLY KIDS TOYS?
Shop the Threads of Peru store for our great selection of ecofriendly kids toys and alpaca beanies and baby booties