To be pregnant for the first time is to be the world&#;s most anxious, needy, and ignorant consumer all at once. Good luck buying a pile of stuff whose uses are still hypothetical to you! What, for instance, is the best sleep sack? When I was four months pregnant and still barely aware of the existence of sleep sacks, a mom giving recommendations handed me one made of bamboo. &#;Feel&#;soooo soft,&#; she said. I reached out to caress, and it really was soooo soft. This was my introduction to the cult of bamboo.
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Over the next several months, gifts of bamboo clothing from more experienced parent friends started to arrive, and I became indoctrinated in its superiority. Bamboo is breathable, I was told, smooth, and so stretchy that it grows with your kid. I heard of moms who exclusively dressed their babies in bamboo. One night after my baby was born, while high on hormones and low on sleep, I wanted to splurge on something nice. Add to cart: $33 for a pair of bamboo pajamas in the color &#;blush.&#; Yes, this was more than I&#;ve spent on my own adult pajamas. But these were bamboo.
Thirty-three dollars, I would later learn, is a relatively, uhh, reasonable price to pay for bamboo baby clothes? The Instagram brands that popularized bamboo for babies have also perfected the art of scarcity-induced demand: Every so often, they drop limited-edition prints that can sell out in minutes. So intense is the competition that moms resell them on Facebook for three, five, even 10 times the retail price; one confessed to reselling a $98 blanket for $1,000.
This all seemed a bit much to me, but let she whose baby is without bamboo cast the first stone. Imagine my surprise, though, when I committed the act of serious investigative journalism that is reading a clothing label. The &#;magical,&#; &#;buttery soft&#; bamboo fabric that so many moms have been obsessing over? It&#;s rayon. Yes, rayon, the material best known as what cheap blouses are made of. Rebranded as &#;bamboo,&#; rayon has taken on an improbable second life as the stuff of premium, collectible baby clothes.
There is nothing particularly special about rayon made from bamboo. &#;Bamboo rayon is just rayon,&#; Ajoy Sarkar, a textiles expert at the Fashion Institute of Technology, told me. And there is no reason this material should inspire so much hoopla. &#;The world is insane,&#; said Preeti Gopinath, a textiles expert at the Parsons School of Design, not at all suppressing a laugh when I told her about the hype over bamboo for babies.
And what exactly is rayon? It is neither natural like cotton nor synthetic like polyester. Rayon is in-between, a semisynthetic material made of the cellulose extracted from plants. A century ago, manufacturers used wood as feedstock, but these days they also use bamboo. The basic process used to make most rayon is still the same: The plant material is treated with lye and a chemical called carbon disulfide, which turns any cellulose into a viscous syrup that can be extruded into long, thin strands. Carbon disulfide is especially toxic, known to cause dizziness, vision problems, even psychosis in workers without proper protection (but it shouldn&#;t remain in the finished product). This entire process of turning bamboo into rayon is energy and chemical intensive, which makes sense. When I see hard stalks of bamboo, I don&#;t immediately think soft or silky. Bamboo might sound natural, says Maxine Bédat, the founder and director of the sustainable-fashion think tank New Standard Institute, but the fabric is highly processed. The end product is the same regardless of starting material. But no one is out there hawking expensive &#;wood chip&#; baby clothing.
These days, manufacturers can make rayon exceptionally soft by finely tuning the way the cellulose fibers are extruded. This feat of engineering turns wood or bamboo into fabric that does, in fact, feel nice enough to lay against baby skin. Some moms seek out the softness of bamboo specifically to keep their babies&#; eczema at bay. (Cotton and rayon are both recommended for eczema.) The material is also absorbent and cool, particularly comfortable for warm weather. But rayon is a &#;weak fiber,&#; Sarkar told me. When rubbed together, the fibers tend to break and curl&#;a.k.a. pilling&#;which explains why bamboo baby clothes come with unrealistically fussy laundry instructions: line dry, lay flat to dry. Who has time when your newborn is pooping on three outfits a day? I tossed it all in the dryer, and sure enough, the bamboo clothing started to pill.
I did, however, continue marveling at the stretch in the bamboo&#;sorry, I mean rayon&#;pajamas. I found myself reaching for them over cotton ones because they were simply easier to stuff my baby&#;s ever-chunkier thighs into. But rayon isn&#;t inherently that stretchy, Gopinath told me. The stretch in &#;bamboo&#; baby clothes comes from the 3 to 5 percent of spandex blended into their fabric; 100 percent cotton clothes obviously contain no spandex. &#;Manufactured rayon is very cheap&#;&#;usually cheaper than cotton&#;&#;so you can add a little bit of spandex and it will still be cheaper than a cotton-spandex blend,&#; Sarkar said. This is not what I wanted to hear after spending $33 on already pilling baby pajamas.
The cost of fabric is, of course, only a small fraction of the price of any garment. When we&#;re paying for bamboo, we&#;re not just paying for the bamboo. We&#;re paying for exclusivity. We&#;re paying for the feeling that we&#;ve made the right choice for our helpless little babies. We&#;re paying for the softness of fabric against sensitive baby skin, even if that means clothing so delicate, it can&#;t go through standard wash and dry cycles. We&#;re paying for breathability that keeps babies warm but not too warm, which is a risk factor for the terrifying prospect of SIDS. The stakes can feel very high, and we&#;re trying our best. Is our best really rayon? Hmm, sounds better to call it bamboo.
The bamboo brands aren&#;t exactly keeping their use of rayon a deep secret. It&#;s right there on the clothing labels and on websites touting the superiority of bamboo. But you also wouldn&#;t necessarily know from a casual perusal of their marketing copy, especially when they use the more obscure name of &#;viscose.&#; (Viscose is technically just one kind of rayon, but it&#;s by far the most common, so the terms are used more or less interchangeably.) You would think bamboo is luxe, exclusive, and so natural. Outside of the world of baby clothes, the Federal Trade Commission last year fined Kohl&#;s and Walmart $2.5 million and $3 million, respectively, over their &#;bogus marketing&#; of so-called bamboo sheets, towels, and rugs. It&#;s just rayon, the FTC contended, and they had to call it such.
So, if you&#;re looking, I have some used rayon baby clothes to sell you.
We&#;re lovers of bamboo clothing in this family. It&#;s perfect to layer in the winter, the ideal light fabric in the summer, and when my son developed eczema, it became the only fabric we wanted on his body.
I also bought us a family set of bamboo PJs for Christmas, then another set, because they were so comfortable. They&#;ve became all my partner and I wear around the house, too.
But who makes the best bamboo baby clothes? These are the best brands we&#;ve tried firsthand:
Bamboo started as a sustainable textile in ancient Asia. Though there&#;s a harsh chemical process involved to create bamboo viscose, bamboo doesn&#;t require pesticides to grow &#; and it grows quickly.
Today bamboo baby clothes are all the rage, utilizing this powerful plant to create stylish and comfortable baby clothes. Each brand, it seems, has a different mix and fabric, but the running theme is soft clothes that are antibacterial in nature, usually without flame retardants that are present in many other baby clothes, and stretchy, too! Also? Most of them feature double zippers. Once you&#;ve gone zipper, you&#;ll never go snaps. Trust me.
They can be on the more expensive and for baby clothes, usually running around $36 for a onesie, but I have found that they have great resale value and I can usually end up paying about &#;half price&#; by selling them when I&#;m done. Here are my favorite brands:
Bums & Roses has some of the best patterns in the bamboo baby clothing world. While they may not have the fold-over hands and feet feature on their larger sizes, they have some seriously unique and artsy patterns I haven&#;t seen the other companies attempt.
They also make dresses, tutus, jogger sets, and short sleeved rompers that I love. They have a somewhat looser fit, and we&#;ve been able to use the same romper on my son for 6 months. I can&#;t say the same for some of our other favorite brands. Read my full Bums & Roses review here.
Pros: Although some of the patterns are more cookie cutter, they have some edgy ones, including skulls and black. And while I am usually not a fan of bright, loud patterns, I&#;m ready to forget all about that for this lion onesie alone. They also offer lots of sales and discounts. Use the code BUY2GET1 for a 3-for-2 deal.
Cons: I haven&#;t found any obvious ones yet. Perhaps the only annoying thing is patterns aren&#;t often available for long, but if you really love a print, they often have it available in other styles.
Basically Soho is a new mom-founded bamboo clothing company that gifted us a few sets to try for my toddler. They offer something a little different with their matching clothing and book line, and all of their collections are vacation-inspired. My son is wearing the Amalfi collection lemons and Miami collection cabana in the photos above. Read my full Basically Soho review.
Pros: These designs are refreshingly different to any of the others I&#;ve found. I personally looove the lemons and stripes featured above. They also have some room to grow, which I like. Use the code PARENTHOOD for 15% off.
Cons: As it&#;s a newer company there aren&#;t as many styles as other brands on this list, but they do have sibling matching and crib sheet options.
Little Sleepies are our other favorite. They come in a wide range of patterns and a few solid colors, and feature fold-over hands and feet in all of their infant onesies, which is a big reason why we use them. They keep my son from doing major damage if he&#;s itchy while he sleeps, which has given us peace of mind. They start at $34.
Pros: The fold-over hands and feet on more than just newborn sizes is rare, and much appreciated. They also fit for much longer than Kyte baby. Our exceptionally large baby still could wear his 3-6 month little zippies at 11 months old! I also LOVE their family matching sets!
Cons: They look like PJs. I usually want to change my son into another brand if we&#;re going out and about, but at home (which is where we usually are, let&#;s be honest) we all rock them all the time. Read my full Little Sleepies review for more.
Kyte Baby&#;s got to be the most famous company to make bamboo clothing, and was created by a mom whose baby also struggled with eczema. Their garments are made from 97% bamboo rayon and 3% spandex, providing exceptional softness and breathability. Onesies start at $36. I&#;m also partial to their sleep sacks (we have 2 for summer and 2 for winter) and sheets!
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Kyte baby was the brand we had the most of over the year that my son was a baby. I just loved their solids and neutrals, and found they held their resale value exceptionally well.
Pros: I love the classy look of Kyte baby. It&#;s a rarity with baby clothes to find solid colors and more subdued hues and I, for one, greatly prefer them. The onesies are slim fit and in colors and patterns that are not overly busy or bright. This is the one I buy the most of and what we brought my son home from the hospital in.
Cons: Since they are slim fit, I find my son grows out of them much more quickly. They can also be a bit see-through. Shipping can also take a while. Read my full Kyte Baby review for more.
I initially tried Raising Mama after the founder (a mama herself) reached out and offered to send a couple my way. I reach for these often, as they&#;re just as soft as you&#;d expect bamboo to be, and I love the patterns. You&#;ll notice something a bit different with these &#; they each have a mantra on them and while I wasn&#;t sure about that at first, looking down at your little one during a difficult moment and seeing something positive reminding you of how well you&#;re doing, even when it doesn&#;t feel like it, is honestly nice.
Pros: I love every pattern they have. They also donate $1 for each PJ sold to Postpartum Support International, as well as providing resources for moms right on their website. As someone who suffered through postpartum depression, I appreciate that!
Cons: As a relatively new company, they don&#;t have as many patterns and sizes (yet), but I understand more are in the works!
You can get 15% off with the code KRISTIN15.
I became aware of this company when a friend sent us a swaddle from them, and I loved the pattern of it. It led me to buy three bamboo onesies from Coco Moon on Black Friday and love them all. They also feature double zippers, are soft, and a bit looser than the style of Kyte Baby or Little Sleepies.
Pros: I like that these are looser. They also fit for longer than Kyte Baby and aren&#;t too bright. The Aloha butt onesie is our favorite, although the shark tooth featured above is a close second.
Cons: Not as big of a selection as their competitors, and the styles they have are all Hawaii, ocean, or nautical themed and are often on white backgrounds, which can be a bad move for baby clothes.
Posh Peanut offers several styles of bamboo baby clothes as well as adult and mommy and me options. They mostly look like PJs to me (I prefer more of a solid color, Kyte Baby style) but they do have some cute patterns as well as a Lisa Frank collection that, if I had a girl, I&#;d be all over. Prices average $40/garment.
Pros: Lots of patterns and cuts to choose from, plus you can match your LO.
Cons: They&#;re more expensive than the other options on this list and I don&#;t feel it&#;s worth the extra price (unless it&#;s Lisa Frank, obv).
Kickee Pants are the OGs in the bamboo pajama world and they make undies and pants for parents, too. They have fun patterns like the old Game Boy remote and Rubik&#;s cubes. Even though they have the double zips that the other bands have on the baby rompers, I love that some of them also have the snap butts. It&#;s cute and nostalgic at the same time. They start at $34.50
Pros: Fun patterns to choose from and like the other brands on this list, free of flame-retardant chemicals. Their younger baby onesies have a looser fit and for those 9 months+ it&#;s a more slim fit.
Cons: They do run a bit on the small and tight side, so keep that in mind and size up.
Like many of the brands on this list, Birdie Bean is mom-founded and offers a wide range of colors and patterns. Some of these even have a cartoon feel, and I love the details they&#;ll add, like dino spikes on the hood of one of their dinosaur onesies. It&#;s an extra I haven&#;t seen on other brands and it left me with no choice but to buy it.
Pros: Cute little extras on both boys and girls styles that aren&#;t common on other brands. Some of the patterns are fun to look at or just plain silly.
Cons: Most of the patterns are quite bright and loud, and most of them don&#;t have the cute little added features like the dinosaur hood. I noticed this one pilled a bit more quickly than the other brands I have as well.
Sweet Bamboo is a notable brand known for their eco-friendly approach, softness, and stylish designs in the world of bamboo baby clothes. Their garments are made from a blend of bamboo viscose, organic cotton, and spandex, ensuring comfort and hypoallergenic properties.
Pros: Sweet Bamboo offers a range of trendy options and fashion-forward designs that aren&#;t as bright and loud as other brands.
Cons: They&#;re also more expensive than some of the others on this list starting at $38. Although I love the feminine patterns, I&#;m not as into the boy ones (with classic trucks and airplanes, but I&#;ll dress my baby in flowers and rainbows too!)
For the first six months of my son&#;s life, we used Kyte Baby almost exclusively, with Little Sleepies each night. We even brought him home from the hospital in a Kyte Baby onesie, and after feeling how soft the fabric was, it was all I wanted to dress him in.
However as he got a bit older, I fell in love with the bold patterns of Bums & Roses, and they&#;re our favorite bamboo toddler clothes as well since the joggers have such fun patterns. We&#;ve branched out with fabrics now that he&#;s a toddler as well, but we always go with Little Sleepies at night with a Kyte Baby sleep sack on his Kyte Baby sheets.
It may pill a bit more easily than cotton, but I am so glad that we can give him bamboo clothing to wear that I know from firsthand experience (by wearing the adult versions) is absolutely the comfiest material on this planet.
Coterie for reducing diaper rash
Artipoppe for soft baby carriers
Solly Baby for their super comfy fabrics
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