Halle Berry keeps an eco-friendly nursery; Kate Hudson requested a unique eco-friendly baby shower gift; and Jessica Alba even went so far as to create an organic baby care line for her little ones! But you don’t have to be a celebrity mom to give your baby an eco-friendly start to life (not with all the bamboo baby options available!). Organic baby clothes and organic crib sheets offer smooth comfort and chemical-free options for moms and kids alike!
And once your baby is swaddled in a bamboo blanket or snuggled up in a bamboo onesie, keep protecting their delicate skin with bamboo diapers and baby wipes! Sonja Sheasley, a new mom in Cape Cod, is a mother who took matters into her own hands when she became dismayed by the chemicals in baby products. Experimenting with herbs and essential oils, she began making her own lotions, lip balms and even insect repellents. After turning her kitchen into a laboratory, she settled on making baby wipes her primary product. Sheasley studied up on the wet wipes available on the market and found they were full of harsh chemical preservatives and most are made from plastic.
“The more I thought about it,” Sheasley said, “the more I became propelled into the idea of mass producing baby wipes made from plant based material with a more natural solution.”
In 2009, she launched Bum Boosa (a play on the Latin word for bamboo) using the amazing sustainable and renewable bamboo plant for her material of choice! Explains Sheasley, “Bamboo makes a better choice for a fiber than tree pulp, as you can harvest bamboo in 2-4 years while trees take upwards to 30 years.”
Like other responsible vendors, Sheasley interviewed her suppliers intensely and worked with an organic chemist to help develop her wet wipe solution which includes pure grade essential oils.
She now has three products on the market: bamboo baby wipes, diaper rash ointment with bamboo powder, and the first 100% bamboo (tree-free) bathroom tissue. While it’s only local stores that carry Bum Boosa in stock, Sheasley has a large presence on the Internet and has even gone international with small distributors in Austalia, Canada, Columbia and the Cayman Islands.
Currently Bum Boosa manufactures a part of their line (the toilet paper to be specific) at an environmentally-friendly factory in China but the baby wipes and diaper ointment are produced domestically at facilities that operate on 100% renewable energy. In addition to the testing and certifications required to maintain their credibility as a green business, the company participates in global reforestation efforts through Trees for the Future, and are a certified B Corporation which is a new type of corporation that must meet certain social and environmental performance standards, as well as use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.
And like most small business owners, the dreaming and hard work paid off when a shipment arrived at her doorstep.
“I’ll never forget the day I received the first delivery,” Sheasley said, “it was really exciting to see my concept come to fruition.”
