Safer swaps for baby: Part 1
Our world is pretty darn toxic. Industrial, agricultural, pharmaceutical chemicals and heavy metals are in everything. Your body is designed to get rid of these chemicals right? Yes! But when you are getting the additive effect of them from all areas of your life and over time, that’s when they cause problems.
There are many swaps you can make around your home to begin to decrease what we can control about our chemical exposure. There are definitely things that are out of our control, so let’s just focus on areas we can make changes.
As a pediatric occupational therapist, I see first hand the effects that increased chemicals in foods, products and the environment have on our children. Each year I marvel at how my phone rings more and more: attention issues, developmental delays, troubles learning, brain fog in kids of all ages. And that’s just the beginning of the list! While occupational therapy can help with these things, it’s not enough. Reducing the chemical stress on children’s systems can have a huge effect on the immune systems, brains and hormone systems of all children. What your child eats, drinks & what they put on their skin are three areas you can lighten your child’s chemical load with some safer product swaps.
Over 40 years of scientific studies link toxic chemicals to serious health problems. Some of these chemicals are getting into our bodies. As our skin is the largest organ we have, using products from companies that have higher safety standards than legally required can be one way to reduce the level of unsafe chemicals that get into our bodies from bath, beauty, cleaning and food and clothing products.
Infants are born with hundreds of chemicals already detectable in their cord blood at birth. While we can’t protect our little ones from every chemical, making little changes throughout the house and throughout each day’s routine can help reduce the burden on their body.
Chemicals in bath products, sunscreens, diaper creams etc. have been shown to lead to hormone disruption, health problems, attention issues and worse in our kids.
I feel strongly about eating foods & using products with fewer carcinogens and chemicals to reduce toxic burden on my body and the environment. Now that I have a child, I want her to have the best chance at optimal health as well. I also want this for all of my clients! I work with families to make clean swaps for foods and products. We also work on balance; learning which safer swaps are the most important to families and can make the most impact in “detoxing” their lives while minding their budget.
For years now, I've been making small goals to switch to safer products in my home; mostly ones that are Environmental Work Group (EWG) Verified. That means they have to go through rigorous testing and do not use certain chemicals, carcinogens, and hormone disruptors of concern. I try to use mostly EWG Verified products or products they have rated no higher than 1 (low hazard) vs. 7-10 (high hazard). You can download their app and type in/scan any product you are considering to see its rating.
Look for this green seal on product bottles/packaging or scan the product in the EWG app to see it’s rating. Try to stick to products that are verified with the seal or a low number on their 1-10 rating scale.
Beautycounter is my favorite EWG Verified brand. They are also a Certified B Corp like Patagonia, - meaning they voluntarily have higher standards of transparency/accountability and consider people and the planet along with profits. Beautycounter is disrupting the beauty industry by creating and distributing safer and also high performing products while also urging the government to pass laws to better regulate the beauty industry. I have used some Beautycounter for years, but switched completely to clean products during my pregnancy because I wanted to decrease the amount of toxins going into my largest organ and use safer products while I was growing a human. Beautycounter is a company which avoids over 1,500 concerning chemicals voluntarily. Most companies only have to avoid about 30 chemicals. I also now use many of their baby products for my daughter and am a consultant with this forward thinking company.
Years of research and testing on myself, my kid, my clothes and my home has helped create this list of safer swap CLEAN products that actually work and we love!
With my daughter, I hope to lead by example. I want to teach her about the value of cleaner living and spending money on the things you value most, and saving in other areas. We do this in our own home with different brands for safer swaps depending on our budget. You can see the wide variety of brands listed below at various price points.
Pro Tip: START with the items you use the most/everyday like body wash and shampoo. You will make a larger dent in your chemical load by swapping out the things you use the most, especially products that touch the skin. Every few months commit to researching and swapping out the next most used product for your child(ren).
Have a look at my recommendations for clean swaps in various popular categories like bath, food, cleaning products and more in Part 2 of this post!
P.S. I only link to products I love/use! I may earn a commission from some of the links above, which helps to run this website! Beaututycounter links are directed to one of my favorite consultants and she can help you with any questions you have!