Organic Panic — Why organic baby products don't automatically turn you into a 'perfect mum'

Friday 9th February 2007

I've just had a delivery. From Neal's Yard. For baby barrier cream (with organic sunflower oil and Roman chamomile, don't you know.) I ordered it in a panic on Saturday after reading a 'middle class paper' dismiss anything non-organic as cancer-causing. Half of me thought, 'oh bollocks to it, Sam'll be fine,' but then the guilt descends and suddenly I find myself ordering Moltex Eco nappies by the bucketload and spending almost £50 (£50???) on the Neal's Yard website. Opening the parcel made me feel despondent... yes, I now have the beautiful cobalt blue Neal's Yard jar sitting in pride of place on Sam's changing table like a shining beacon to perfect mums everywhere... but it doesn't hide from the fact that it's sitting next to a big ugly pink bottle of Johnson's baby cream, a shitty snotty muslin and a discarded baby wipe covered in something that can only be described as poo.