Bringing Up Baby

New moms and dads are often astonished at how much “stuff” tiny babies seem to need, and how many decisions they have to make, and how difficult it is to make the right choices. Wanting only the best for their kids, they find themselves entangled in long-running and passionate debates—reusable diapers versus disposables, plastic versus glass nursing bottles, and breast milk versus infant formula, to name only a few. The $7 billion industry in the US comes out with scores of new products each year, adding to the already existing confusion.

Kylie Cho, a local mom who sells baby products in her Pasadena store, Currant Baby and Mommy, believes that feedback from moms and dads who want only the best for their babies seems to have influenced the current trends in the baby product industry.

The burgeoning industry today features an increasing number of products that are greener, more practical, safer, stylish and specialized. Dual strollers that can be used by an infant and a toddler, for instance, have become exceedingly popular for parents who find it a huge help in caring for both children.

Cho is a strong advocate for safe baby products, and takes great comfort and pride in the fact that she can check and monitor closely the safety factor in her own store.   She avoids baby products made of plastic containing BPA or Bisphenol A which some authorities believe may have negative effects on the health of children. Instead she opts for BPA-free bottles that now come in bright and happy colors. She also opts for clothes made of organic materials such as toxin-free cotton, which benefits both the child who wears the garment and workers in cotton mills.  This is entirely in keeping with the growing awareness of people on environmental issues. Cho believes that “It’s all part of this awareness, of wanting to contribute to keeping the planet alive, that is influencing the baby product industry.“

Cho said the industry now provides parents with more choices when it comes to style. Many brands offer “adult colors” and “retro fashion” instead of the traditional baby pink and baby blue.  In really high end baby products, fashions for moms trickle down to the kids.

For most other people, comfort is more important. “I’m not focused on high-end products as much as just good products. There are some stores that are very high-end driven and it really attracts the high-end customers, but my focus is to bring in things for the store that are convenient and relatively economical.”

Cho says there are new inventions coming out almost every day that are mommy- or daddy-owned. There are many parents who wish they had something for the baby, and when they can’t find it in stores, they make it themselves, like the muslin wrap called Swaddle. But, she says, you really have to feel and touch this product to see what it’s really like and how it works.

“My  goal in my store is to have a sample of all my products,” Cho said. “So you can actually sit there and buckle up a car seat or wrap your baby in this ‘crazy’ wrap.”

Practical and safe and stylish baby products are the latest industry trends.  If parents had their say, they should have been, from the very beginning—not as trends but as constants in our search for the perfect products for our perfect babies.

Currant Baby is located in the Paseo Colorado at 289 East Green Street, Suite A-110, Pasadena.  Call (626) 577-7005 or visit www.currantbaby.com