why soté baby exists

Dear Parent,

I started soté baby with a simple belief: nature should be the default for babies. Your baby's most-worn essential — the one thing on their skin, day and night — should come from plants, not from plastic.

I didn't come to this the usual way. I spent a decade in plastic recycling — I built a plant and collection system for plastic bags with my first company in one of the hardest places in the world to do it. I loved that work. But it taught me a humbling truth: we make far more plastic than any recycling system can ever catch. Only about 5% of what we throw away gets a second life.

Then, in 2024, researchers published something that stayed with me: plastics contain more than 16,000 known chemicals, and about a quarter of them are considered hazardous. Scientists are now finding microplastics nearly everywhere they look — including in the placenta, before a baby is even born.

I don't share that to frighten you. Most of us — myself included — simply never knew. And once I knew, I couldn't unknow it. I realized the most meaningful thing I could do wasn't recycling plastic at the end of its life, but quietly replacing it and toxic chemicals at the start — beginning with the one thing a baby wears around the clock.

So that's what soté baby is: a diaper made mostly from plants — 70%+ plant-based, including the absorbent core, an industry first — with every ingredient disclosed, honestly, including the parts that aren't natural yet. No fear, no greenwashing. Just a better option, and the full information to choose it.

One last thing: our name. soté comes from the old expression "salt of the earth" — the kind of person who is fundamentally good, honest, hardworking, and dependable. That's the standard we hold ourselves to. Nothing flashy, nothing hidden — just something you can count on, night after night.

You're doing a wonderful job. I hope soté baby makes one small corner of parenting feel lighter.

With care,

Mimi

founder, soté baby