When you’re doing everything you can to eliminate chemicals in your 1-year-old’s environment ^[1], getting gifts can sometimes cause a bit of a conundrum. Take the pajamas my mother-in-law sent us this week, which were treated with fire retardants.

I’ve read about the danger of fire retardants and how they are often added to synthetic baby sleepwear ^[2] to meet U.S. regulations for fire safety. I know this federal law is meant to protect children, but it’s actually more comforting to me that these flame-resistant chemicals are banned in Europe. I don’t have to worry about finding them in any pajamas I buy here. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to find the footy PJs we like in Swedish stores, so I tend to shop in the U.S. for them. My mother-in-law knew we were entering a bit of a crisis with our daughter’s everything’s-too-small-now pajama selection, and generously took it upon herself to send us a few.

They just arrived with proud declarations of their chemical treatment. Ugh. Now what?

After thanking her for thinking of us, my options were:

A. Use the enclosed return envelope to send ’em back to the store.
B. Decide that option A is a little extreme and vow to throw them in the wash over and over until hopefully all the evilness is washed out. (Some sites state that the chemical is gone after 50 washes.)
C. Try to relax. It’s just a couple of pajamas.

I decided to do a little more research and go for a fourth option: email the company and find out exactly what they use to treat their products before choosing A, B or C. I’m still waiting for an answer.

It’s not easy being a parent in a chemical-laden world. Am I being too uptight about all of this, or do you struggle with these dilemmas as well?