When you are trying to heal a child whose body has an amazingly high toxic load, it kind of has to be a two-pronged approach. First, unblock the body’s natural detoxification pathways. The body is an amazing organism. Fully expecting to be bombarded with toxic insults, it has a system for detoxing chemicals that didn’t even exist a generation ago. Detoxification pathways are a blog in themselves, so I will save that for another post. The second thing that needs to be done is to stop the flow of toxins into the child’s body. Sounds simple – just stop putting toxins into your kid. But wait – there are countless sources for toxins: food, air, water, soil, medicines, soaps, coatings on cloth for clothing and upholstery. Still, it shouldn’t be THAT hard – they must be clearly labeled, right? I mean, who would WANT to put an untested and potentially toxic chemical in something a child might use?
This is the part of the story where I end up wanting to punch something…..
If you hang out on FB much, you see pictures like this:
Or this:
You may think that the folks posting these images are alarmists, but there is truth behind these posts. There are ingredients in personal care items, household items, cleansers, lawn and garden care products that are cancer causing/neurotoxins/hormone disruptors or just plain not tested alone or along side other chemicals (the way they are mostly used). Basically, if it’s not food or a drug, very little is done to test the safety of the chemicals that go into the product.
Let’s just talk about personal care products for a moment. Other than food, these are the products that have the most access to our bodies. We don’t eat them, but they go on our skin. The skin is an awesome delivery system to the body, it is routinely used for the delivery of some drugs. (Think smoking cessation, birth control or pain relief). In this April 14th article, Think Those Chemicals Have Been Tested?, Ian Urbina lays the truth bare for us – industrial chemicals do not have to be tested for safety in order to be used. (Gasp!) The burden of safety falls to the EPA to review chemicals for safety. Laughably, under the Toxic Substances Control Act, Urbina illustrates the ultimate Catch 22, because “the EPA can’t even require testing to determine whether a risk exists without first showing a risk is likely”. Read that again. Yes, you read it correctly. That’s our government at work to protect us. In fact, the EPA has only successfully banned FIVE (out of over 85,000) chemicals, and those bans were typically for specific applications or uses, not outright bans. So when you hear about activists calling for Johnson & Johnson to remove a formaldehyde activator or carcinogen from their baby shampoo, don’t automatically poo-poo it as “granola mom hysteria.”
It’s real. Now that we’ve learned to read our food labels (we all know that “natural flavor” means MSG, correct? And that “malt” and “spelt” are a no-no for those avoiding gluten?), we need to read our personal care labels (realizing that not every ingredient has to be labeled for non-edibles).
Here are the main chemicals to be on the look out for in your cosmetics (bookmark this – I constantly have to read and re-read).
Here are the top chemicals to avoid in household cleaners. I really like “The Story of Stuff”– it’s a short, clever video showing how our economy has been influenced. The follow up “The Story of Cosmetics” was equally interesting. My two favorite points are: Not only are we, as consumers, being ‘polluted’, but the workers at the factories are being polluted, as is our environment. These companies are given a free pass to do this polluting. As citizens, it sometimes feels like we have so little say when we go up against a multi-million dollar company or even worse, a multi-billion dollar industry. But as CONSUMERS we do have more power. We can vote with our hard earned cash. Don’t buy that toxic crap. Recently, due to pressure by consumers, J&J has pledged to remove toxic chemicals in their Baby Shampoo – ingredients that were not even listed on the label. Freakin’ baby shampoo! SMH.
As I read more about these substances in everyday products in my household, we slowly made changes. SLOWLY. Seriously, does the thought of changing yet another thing in your life cause heart palpitations? Believe me, the time it takes to track down the products, go to a different store to get them, pay a little more, etc. can really blow your weekly schedule.
But we did it in baby steps. We identified a couple of products we thought we’d replace, and tried alternatives to be sure they would work for us. Then we bought – in bulk, to cut down the cost – less toxic sensitive-skin baby wash and shampoo. We replaced our moisturizer with pure almond oil and coconut oil (my new wrinkle cream).
Next we tackled the home cleaning products. Be forewarned that the “eco-friendly” cleaners are gearing their ingredients to be kind to the environment, not necessarily your body. So double check those ingredients against chemicals to avoid. With the change in my household cleaners, I think I’ve saved enough money to more than make up the difference in the personal care products. Homemade household cleaners are so inexpensive to make. I started with this guide. I bought a couple of squirt bottles, some essential oils, borax, baking soda and liquid castile soap. Except for the baking soda, I’ve had most of these supplies for over a year. How’s that for economical? For laundry, I use equal amounts of baking soda and vinegar for each large load. I never thought it would get my laundry clean, especially during the smelly summer months, but it does. Plus, my washing machine smells great, and that is no easy task. My machine is 40+ years old. The repair man begs me to let him know if I ever want to replace it because he will take it in a heartbeat. But it wasn’t smelling exactly…fresh. Once I started using the baking soda/vinegar laundry detergent, I never had that problem again. There are fancier laundry recipes – but…baby steps…I can only manage the simplicity of this detergent recipe right now.
There is NO WAY you can remove every toxic insult from your environment, but you can pick certain areas of your family’s life in which you can lessen the load. Whether it’s water filters, organic root vegetables, food made from scratch or any of the ideas discussed above, it really does come down to you doing what is best for your family in terms of what chemicals you want to be exposed to or protected from on a regular basis. The government really can’t or just won’t do it. It is either too complex a job to regulate all these chemicals or there are just too many competing interests. The era of Uncle Sam as a protector is over, and we all need to do what we need to do to keep our families safe.
And it all starts with a little reading.
~ Luv Bug
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Do you use the vinegar in the fabric softener compartment? I have a regular washer too and I put the vinegar there. I make my own laundry detergent with bar soap, borax and washing soda, but I’m now curious about the BS-only route. Does it ever stay on your clothes or does it dissolve?
Great Post! We have been taking our own babysteps at our house due to our daugther’s severe chemical sensitivities (and suspected mitochondrial disease)….
Here are 3 recipes we have shared as gifts with friends to help everyone’s switch to safer a little easier-
All purpose cleaner-
http://babyfoodsteps.wordpress.com/2010/12/26/merry-christmas-2010/
hand soap-
http://babyfoodsteps.wordpress.com/2011/12/24/merry-christmas-2011/
air freshners/deoderizers-
http://babyfoodsteps.wordpress.com/2012/12/24/merry-christmas-2012/
just curious if anyone else has a child whose behavior is affected by chemicals in “common” household and cosmetic products?
http://babyfoodsteps.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/a-is-for-alcohol/
Awesome awesome links!! Thank you!! xxoo
A good number of the moms I know have kids that react to cleansers, perfume, food additives, etc. My son’s school is doing some “remodeling” and I’m seeing some behaviors pop up that I used to associate with chemical exposure. I”m sure some nasty stuff is airborne right now. Time to drop off our HEPA filter for the classroom!!!
Here is some other research I have done on what I call- MITOXINS…. (food colors, dry cleaning chemicals, pesticides, tylen ol, etc.
http://babyfoodsteps.wordpress.com/2013/04/13/autism-prevention-part-2-mitochondrial-toxin-exposure/
what type of HEPA filtration system do you use?? we are looking into one of those!
Great article, thank you! Quick question: Could you please give me the amounts of vinegar and baking soda to use for a large load of laundry?
Also, I am in the midst of reading the TMR book, and have been spreading the word about it 🙂
Keep up the great work all you TMR moms and 1 dad!
I usually do all my loads as large loads – don’t want to waste any time…ya know? So I do 1 cup Baking Soda and 1 cup vinegar. Let the water run some, mix it around so the BS doesn’t clump and then dump in the clothes and go on your merry way. I have a regular washing machine so I don’t know how this works with High Effeciency Machines…will have to research that…
Thanks for spreading the word. Word of mouth is what the revolution is all about…
Thank you! We are assaulted by toxins everyday through what we ingest, what we inhale and what we absorb. My son was a sponge as his detox pathways were blocked. All of that typical American lifestyle crap he came into contact with stayed in his body until we got smart and reduced the exposures and supported the body to work the way it was designed to work. It’s always going to be a work in progress but you’ve nailed it Luv Bug that it’s small steps over the long run. Keep. Moving. Forward.
chugga chugga…
That was a great article and I almost felt like I was the one writing it! I have went through that whole cycle. But, even after being soooo careful with my child to avoid these toxins, all I had to do was send him to school! Unfortunately, my son was just diagnosed with a heavy chemical load. (Note – my son doesn’t have autism but I am an avid reader of all the TMR articles because I want to keep it that way.) Turns out that the classroom was being sprayed with Lysol, everyday, to clean the mats that the kids took their rest time on. Granted, the teachers are fantastic and were trying to do the best they could to keep our children from getting sick, but they honestly didn’t know the dangers. I have since talked with them and they are no longer spraying the Lysol. I felt pretty good being able to educate them on this topic.
One more thing that I still need to do, to protect my child from toxins, is to find pajamas that aren’t covered in flame retardant chemicals. I typically buy used pajamas since they have been washed multiple times. I think I just need to start sewing my own…which isn’t so simple either. Not because of the sewing, but trying to find good material!
Thanks for the wonderful post and keep up the great work!!
For pajamas – we use long johns and t-shirts in the winter and shorts and t-shirts in the summer. Long John underwear are tight, warm and generally not laden with fire retardant chemicals.
Kay- I saw your post last night when I was getting this blog ready and thought the timing was good. I would look up the ingrediants in the products the school is using, then look for any safety studies, etc. If there are no safety studies – that is pretty damning too. You can use vinegar and water – 1:1 ratio on the mats to kill germs too.
We’ve educated the school about pesticide and herbicide use at the school. My son is in an out of district placement. They are easier to change. But if they are spraying for bugs every month – I don’t care if the kids are laying on a mat or a mattress…they are on the floor with those freaking chemicals. ARGH!!!!!!!!
For jammies here – for my son, I will splurge on some organic jams b/c he can wear them for two years at least. For my daughter – I go with clothes for bed. We call them jammies and they are designated for bed. regular clothes are typically not treated with flame retardant.
I spend a lot of time sewing too – my posture and eyesight are a testament to that. I am the fastest, crappiest seamstress you will ever meet. But I get the job done. LOL.
Keep the faith~~
LuvBug
No kidding – that blog was PERFECT timing! I’m so happy with the school I’m sending my son to. They are very understanding. I do have some printed material for the teacher to review. BTW, I didn’t think about the bug spraying…hmmm, I’ll have to find out about that.
I too make all my own cleaning supplies. Although, I have been using GSE (Grapefruit Seed Extract) and water. And as for the sewing….my eyesight is definitely not the same as my younger years. I’m actually thinking about buying a sewing machine that has an automatic threader!
Thanks again for your post – You all are the best!!!
Thank you once again for a well written article. I do get accused of being an alarmist and a tree hugger at times but I keep pressing forward. It’s gut wrenching to watch your child, who is not even 2 years old, suffer with every breath. You are absolutely correct in saying that the era of Uncle Sam as protector is over. There is too much money to be made and we are the guinea pigs. I’m happy to say that my family’s efforts have paid off because today is my son’s 14th birthday and he is healthy and strong. It was no small feat. Thank you for all the research you do and for consistently putting out useful information.
Yay for Healthy 14 year olds!!!!! Good work momma!!
~LuvBug