Polyester is not breathable. I don’t know about you, but whenever I have slept in a polyester duvet I have not been able to maintain a comfortable temperature. I seem to sweat even though I feel cold most of the night! It does not make for a good night’s sleep. The majority of baby sleeping bags on the market are made from polyester, even the ones which claim to be ‘organic cotton’ will almost always have polyester inside. Using a cotton duvet cover with a polyester duvet makes no difference to the discomfort of the night, and baby sleeping bags are no different.
Couple this with one of the biggest and most elusive hopes of a new parent: a good night’s sleep. Polyester baby sleeping bags just don’t make sense to me. How do we expect our babies to sleep well if we wrap them up in plastic for bedtime? So, what were the alternatives available to new parents? If you wanted to go down the sleeping bag route, which is recommended by most of the safer sleep organizations, the only available options on the market a few years ago were cotton with a polyester fill, or merino wool sleeping bags. I tried both for my new baby, and was far from satisfied with either. They didn’t allow for temperature control and with all the different togs needed for different seasons, the environmental impact of all of this polyester, ultimately destined for the land-fill, did not sit well with me.
The polyester-fill sleeping bags were very restrictive as they were only suitable for a 2-3 degree temperature change, so it was a constant guessing game of how hot our baby’s bedroom would be that night. We often got it wrong and I would see the temperature creeping up on the monitor and we would then worry about overheating – a very dangerous issue for a small baby. On cold nights we would go in and check on him and his hands would feel freezing cold to the touch – these bags were just not doing the job.
The merino wool sleeping bags were better, they allowed for a much bigger change in room temperature and did keep my baby slightly more comfortable, but he would still get cold on cooler evenings and I found it very impractical to wash. Plus, it gave off a horrid wet wool smell whenever there were any nappy leakages or little milk spillages. On top of this, wool is not recommended for babies with sensitive skin or eczema.
PURE EARTH COLLECTION ORGANIC BABY SLEEPING BAGS WERE BORN
Parents needed a more practical and more sustainable solution. We needed something our babies could sleep in all year round, whatever the temperature. Something which could be easily washed and dried. With a bit of research, I found out that bamboo was one of the leading fabrics for temperature regulation, and it was also hypoallergenic and naturally antibacterial too. Ideal for babies! So Pure Earth Collection started designing a special type of bamboo wadding which would be stable enough to be inside the baby sleeping bags, machine washable, and just the right thickness for all occasions.
