Children are the most precious asset in this world. They are vulnerable, and require your protection. As they grow up, some of these children will become scientists and come up with new discoveries and advancements. Others will become the doctors and nurses that will take care of you as you grow older. No matter what they grow up to do, they all deserve to be given the best start in life.
As a parent, you do everything you can to keep them safe and healthy. You install baby gates and monitors, make sure they eat their fruits and vegetables, and make sure they get enough sleep.
Many parents are aware of the necessity to reduce the number of chemicals that their children are exposed to. After all, children are more vulnerable to chemicals as their bodies and minds are still growing and developing, and they tend to spend more time on the floor crawling and putting their hands in their mouths.
You may have already taken some steps, such as including more organic foods into their diets. This is a great start, and in what follows, are a few more tips to reduce chemical exposure in your children.
1. Switch to non-toxic cleaning products –
Stop using harmful chemicals to wash your floor, clean your carpets and bathtubs, and even clean the dishes or your baby’s high chair. These chemicals will eventually make their way into your children’s bodies.
In addition, use safer laundry detergents, stain removers, and fabric softeners. Look for products that do not contain the known carcinogen, formaldehyde.
2. Do not clean toys with certain commercial disinfectant products –
Some companies advertise their cleaning agents and disinfectants by showing that they can be sprayed or wiped on children’s toys. This can be a sure way to increase your children’s exposure to chemicals, if there are harmful chemicals in the product. Instead, hand wash them with simple dish soap and water. If you feel the need to disinfect something, you can do this after cleaning with soap and water. There are some natural thyme disinfectants that have been proven to be powerful at killing germs.
3. Do not use tick and flea collars on your pets –
It is surprising that these collars are even still made. If they are made to keep ticks and fleas away, they are definitely laden with chemicals. So any contact your pet has with you, your children, and other surfaces in the house (such as your pillow), can mean contamination with chemicals.
4. Vacuum often
If you can afford it, it is better not to use carpet, and instead have wood or tile in place. This is because carpet tends to trap dust, which contains chemicals that are either in your home (such as fire retardants) or have been tracked in from the outside (such as pesticides from your lawn).
However, if you do have carpet, be sure to vacuum frequently and get into all the corners and along the baseboards too. Make sure that your vacuum has a HEPA filter as this will ensure that the dust stays in the vacuum rather than being recirculated into the air.