Protect Your Baby from Toxic Exposures

By Jane Sheppard

Keeping up with all the possible toxins around your baby can be confusing and frustrating, to say the least. It seems that everything - from toys and baby bottles to mattresses and household furnishings - contain potentially unsafe materials.

Today babies are exposed to thousands of different substances, most of which have never been tested for toxicity to infants and young children. Babies' small bodies are much more vulnerable to toxic chemicals than adults since their neurological, immunological, respiratory, and other biological systems are still developing, limiting their ability to detoxify and excrete the many different toxins entering their fragile systems. Chemical exposure during the critical period of brain development can be particularly problematic. Low-level chemical exposures during susceptible periods of development can cause more harm than high doses later in life.

EPA risk assessment methods show that children accumulate up to 50 percent of their lifetime cancer risk by their second birthday. The EPA has determined that up to age two, babies are, on average, ten times more vulnerable to carcinogenic chemicals than adults, and for some cancer-causing agents are up to 65 times more vulnerable.

In addition, babies' behavior makes it easier for them to accumulate more toxins. Babies love to put things in their mouths and crawl on the floor, so they can put more chemicals into their bodies from household dust, toys, etc.

The good news is that there is much that you can do to reduce or eliminate most of the major exposures. This report will help you to sort out the biggest and worst exposures and what to do about them. Fortunately, reliable information is now more accessible to parents and safe alternatives to the numerous toxic baby products are becoming more widely available. You can reduce or eliminate the worst exposures and give your baby a safer, more natural environment.

Although this report may be alarming, my intention is not to spread fear. It is to empower you to know there are choices. Fear is paralyzing; knowledge is power. As a new parent, you probably receive all kinds of well-meaning advice. The best advice of all is to gather as much information as you can, and then listen to what feels right to you. As mothers, we are given a great gift of natural instinct and inner wisdom to know what to do to protect our babies. As long as you have the intention of creating a healthy environment for your baby and are in tune with your intuition, you will know what's right for you and your baby. So relax and let go of the stress and worry. Just do the best you can with what feels right to you and the resources you have and then let it go and enjoy your baby. Excessive worry can also be toxic to your baby.  

At Healthy Child, we've been studying the issue of toxicity in baby products for over ten years. We have established an excellent and qualified advisory board of pediatric doctors and environmental scientists to help us provide reliable information. We'd like to share with you what we have learned and the safe, healthy alternatives that we have found.

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