irishmomusa

The reason for this blog post and sudden interest in reading Healthy Child Healthy World is because at Harry's One-Year checkup the Doctor pointed out that we needed to do routine blood test to check for lead in Harry's blood! My first thought was, how the hell would my baby have lead in his blood and if so, how did it get there! I thought I was doing my best as a mum to protect my son, feeding him all organic fruits and vegetables, antibiotic free chicken and beef, wild fish and to think that some toxins and chemicals out there might still be invading my baby was overwhelming. I immediately remembered meeting Christopher Gavigan, Co-founder of The Honest Company at an event in Chicago and listening to his pearls of wisdom. It was time to root out that book that I had started and read it. Here are a few take-away notes that I learned from it;

We all know that we need to child-proof our homes for safety, as in lock away plug sockets with covers, block the stairway with a gate of some sort and lock that dreaded under-the-sink cabinet but who knew that even still, our home poses such a threat to our little ones! Chemicals and toxins are making their way into their bodies as we go about our daily business of mundane household chores. As Gavin puts it correctly in his book, why lock away all those poisons under the sink and then think it's ok to spray them and use them on floors and surfaces where tiny hands and feet crawl and patter around! How illogical and silly are we!

Ok, so I guess you all know that childhood development is a delicate process but did you know that children between 1-5 years old eat three to four times more food per pound of body weight than the average adult! At the same time, their air intake is twice that of an adult so you don't have to be a mathematician or a rocket scientist to figure that children absorb more nutrients and consequently more toxins than we do. Therefore it is absolutely essential and our duty as adults to protect them from these contaminants

Another interesting fact I learned is that there are over 800 thousand synthetic chemicals registered for use today and several thousand are found in our every day environment. So on a given day we are inhaling a cocktail of chemicals before we even leave our house in the morning! And here was I thinking I was being good not consuming alcohol during the week to detoxify my body! Yikes! Also, in the U.S, The FDA approves all chemicals, deeming them innocent until proven guilty which differs to the EU which states that chemicals are guilty and must be proven harmless before they are allowed in use. No wonder so many cases of childhood cancer, allergies, autism and asthma are on the rise here in the U.S!

The good news is that small changes can yield huge payoffs! Start now, it's better late than never. I'm only doing it now after a year! Check out Healthychild.org to find more detailed tips but here are the few changes I am making.

1. I have ditched fragranced candles as fragrant and scented products are trojan horses for bringing in all kinds of chemicals to your home. I still love candles but burn fragrance-free ones. I noticed my husband, who suffers from allergies, is not sneezing as much!

2. I open windows daily to let fresh air in and never use air freshers. This is a big no no. Cheaper and easier than buying aerosol cans of spray!

3. Use baking soda, lemon and vinegar to clean just about everything, from counters to floors. I add some tea tree oil to add a nice and clean aroma. Tea tree oil also has antibacterial properties!

4. Switch to honest or seventh generation laundry detergent and dishwashing tablets.

5. For spills, wipe up instantly for more efficient results. Guide from Christopher's Book is as follows:

For fruit and wine sports: Blot with a towel and add cold water, continuing to blot, For red wine, use salt or club soda!

For Grease: Use boiling water followed by dry baking soda

For blood: Use cold water or hydrogen peroxide or try a paste of cornstarch or corn meal with water. Allow to dry and brush away.

For rust: Saturate with lemon juice and scrub with salt.

Other tips: For deodorizing microwave simply add slices of lemon in 8 inches of water in a microwavable vessel and turn on for 3 minutes.
For deodorizing fridge, cut half a lemon and stick it to the back.

Did you know that vinegar is a natural deodorizer so just place a small bowl of vinegar in a room to get rid of bad smells! It smells really bad a first but the smell dissipates.

More good news is with these new spray bottles of natural cleaning agents that you make, you can now safely give them to your toddler to help you do some housework! Harry helps me clean up the floor after spills and loves to wipe down the windows. A little bit of water and vinegar for mirrors and windows does a great job at shining them! Here is the Montessori teacher coming out in me!

Plants are key as well. Did you know that there are air purifying plants? As in ones that purify the indoor air more efficiently than others? Examples are; Spider plants, Mother-in-laws tongue, Peace Lily and Chinese Evergreen. They also help the children learn how to respect and care for their environment.

Another interesting, take home note was to banish antibacterials soap. It is bad to get rid of all the microbes and bacteria in a home. The proliferation of these antibacterials do us all more harm than good! A lot of bacteria is actually beneficial for our body's so killing them can weaken the immune system entirely. So let your kids crawl around on the floor and be kids and now you know that what they might pick up off a dirty floor might do them good and be much better for their bodies than the toxic chemicals used to wash away bacteria.

For Harry's toys, I use wooden as much as possible and with lead-free paint and I try to prevent him as much as possible from using my keys as a teether! Apparently most brass keys have high levels of lead in them

For dusting just use an old baby vest, forget the polish and if you want to use polish make sure it is toxic and chemical free! Easier still, just declutter your home and go minimalist. It's so en vogue these days anyway and then you have less to dust! Jonny is going mad with the amount of things I am selling on Craigslist! haha! I just tell him Less stuff=Less housework=Happy Wife =Happy Life!

Hope this blog post helped inspire you all at home to go and spring clean, declutter and rid your home of toxins! Whether you have children, or you don't, you deserve the best air quality. It's your basic human right! Have a great weekend!