Toxin-Free Baby
In today’s world, you can’t avoid toxins. They are everywhere – in our food, water, clothes, air and in any kind of plastic or painted gadget. That can be an overwhelming thought for new parents-to-be, who want their forthcoming little one to be as healthy as possible.
But there are several actions you can take to keep your baby’s environment as free from toxins as possible. Here are a few of them:
1. Detoxify before getting pregnant.
Okay, it may be too late for your baby by the time you read this article (although, maybe just in time for the next one). But since a baby inherits a frightening percentage of toxins from his mother in utero, a woman planning to get pregnant would do well to get on a detox program a year before doing so.
Eat food as free from toxins as possible: organic produce, meat from pasture-raised animals. Do a liver cleanse. See an electro-dermal screener to make sure your body is not collecting heavy metals, and go through a cleanse if the heavy metal numbers are low. Use only chemical-free personal hygiene and cleaning products. Get a shower filter (see this page for my recommendations) and drink filtered water (we love our Berkey).
Keep your internal and external environments as toxin-free as possible, and your baby will not have as many toxins to inherit.
2. Use chemical-free personal care products on your baby.
Use chemical-free shampoos, washes and lotions when cleansing Baby, from companies such as California Baby. Choose alcohol free wipes for diaper changing times. Learn how to use essential oils and/or homeopathic medicines to reduce symptoms of illness instead of giving them drugs.
3. Use organic fabric wherever possible.
Organic cotton mattresses, even crib-sized, are cost-prohibitive for many people, but organic cotton mattress pads are not. Organic cotton diapers or chlorine-free disposables are both only slightly more expensive than their chemically-laden counterparts.
4. Use healthy furniture and floor coverings.
Wherever your baby sleeps, make sure the furniture is made of solid wood to avoid the offgassing of formeldahyde and other chemicals in pressed-wood dressers and cribs. At the very least, buy such furniture used so that any chemicals present will be a fraction of what they would be in new furniture.
Remove carpeting and replace it with a flooring that won’t offgas, such as cork or laminated wood (avoid tile – babies sometimes fall, and parents sometimes drop!). Use organic cotton or wool rugs to soften the floor.
Oh, and let’s not forget the walls: use low-VOC paints or milk paint, and get the painting done as early in the pregnancy as possible, and keep the windows open for a few days after painting.
5. Purchase wood and organic cotton toys.
Well-meaning relatives and friends will shower you with all kinds of toys made from all kinds of synthetic materials. If you can, for the baby shower specify that you only want toys made from sustainable materials. Express appreciation for those that don’t fit the bill, and give them away to the Goodwill on your next trip. Your baby does not need all those toys anyway.
For gift-giving holidays, purchase wooden toys (Whole Foods carries the Melissa and Doug brand) and dolls and stuffed animals made from organic cotton or other non-toxic fabric. Buy fair trade items if you can at all afford it (which you probably can, if you limit toy purchases).
Basically, if the mother is as toxin-free as possible when she conceives, and if the parents keep their house as chemical-free as possible, the baby will have a great head start on a reduced toxin, healthy life.
