How to Preserve Special Baby Keepsakes

Bronze baby shoes are the most common keepsake.

Preserving a baby's keepsakes is important to parents, especially first-time parents. They want to keep things in good condition as memories for later in life--like when the baby becomes a difficult teenager or gets a girlfriend and you want to show off how cute your "little man" looked in the bathtub. Depending on the keepsake items that you are preserving, this can be fairly easy or difficult--it all depends on the treasured items you are preserving and the materials that you use to do it.

Instructions

1. 

   Special items to keep are different for everyone.

   Select the items that you want to preserve. There are many items that you may consider special keepsakes that you want to keep forever. Some of the most common of these items usually are baby teeth, hair from your baby's first first haircut, hand and foot prints, and baby shoes.

2. 

   These teeth will fall out and you may want to keep some.

   Preserve your child's baby teeth by washing them off in a soapy water solution to clean off any blood that may be on the tooth. Once that is done, soak the baby tooth in rubbing alcohol over night. This will preserve the tooth so that you can keep it for years to come. If you are placing it in a baby book, put it in a plastic bag so that you do not damage the tooth by taping or gluing it down.

3. 

   Tiny hand prints are often preserved in cement as well.

   Press your baby's hands or feet into soft molding clay to get impressions of their tiny digits. Fingers and toes do not stay this small forever and a special kit to create impressions of these small appendages helps preserve the memories. Most craft stores sell these kits for approximately $20.

4. 

   Bronzing baby shoes is the most common keepsake.

   Send your baby's first pair of shoes in to a shoe bronzing company. They will dip their first pair of shoes in a copper coating to preserve their tiny shoes so that you can keep them forever. Most companies will even do other baby items such as pacifiers, or bottles. They will undergo a process of metal casting so that your baby item, whether it be shoes, pacifiers or bottles, will be preserved for many years to come.

Tips & Warnings

• Baby hair is another special item that is often preserved as a keepsake--there is nothing special to do to locks of hair; keep it in a plastic bag and add it to the scrapbook.

References

• T Fairy: Facts About Baby Teeth
• Casting Keepsakes: Clay Handprint & Footprint Impression Keepsake Kits
• Kinder Shoe: Baby Bronzing Shoes