Having a Child is Chemical Warfare

First of all, sorry for the lack of updates. We don't have our camera right now (although a brand new one is on its way in the mail & probably arriving today!), and the blog is just so much more interesting with pictures. Maybe it's a blessing I don't have the camera, because Corbin has a huge chemical burn on his face from the "baby-safe" sunblock I used on him Friday. He's 5 months old, and apparently, if you use sunblock on babies under 6 months old, the chemical ratio is too high. Poor little guy has burn marks up and down his cheeks and everywhere else I applied the sunblock. He absorbed too many chemicals.

Ever since he was born, I have been bombarded with so much information about chemicals in this and that. Too much information! The first thing I was alerted to was all of our baby bath products. Too many chemicals, and one of the key ones being phlatates. This is also found in infant sunscreen! Phlatates can cause reproductive problems. I think I read about it possibly causing neurological problems as well.

Next, I heard about BPA in the baby bottles (and in many of our day-to-day plastics). BPA can cause schizophrenia, infertility, miscarriage, birth defects, cancer, diabetes, hyperactivty and obesity to name a few. Canada has already banned it from baby bottles, and Nalgene has decided to can all of their bpa-containing water bottles for safety reasons. Seems that some states (Minnesota & California) already are working on legislation to ban the bpa-containing baby bottles, too, so I wonder if the US is soon to follow Canada's lead?

Then I heard about dioxin and sodium polyacrylate in disposable diapers. Dioxin can ALSO cause cancer, liver damaage and birth defects. Sodium polyacrylate was banned from tampons in 1985 for being a leading cause of toxic shock syndrome. The chemicals in disposables have been suspected of causing asthma, which I have & wouldn't wish on anyone. I don't want to chance it.

We all have to die of something. And I realize that I can't live in a paranoid state. But sometimes it is just so scary that we have become so dependent on chemicals in our industrialized, convenience-craving society. Some knowledge is both a blessing and a curse. I feel like there is nothing I can do to reduce chemical exposure sometimes, and I feel like giving up on worrying about it. Then other times, like when I look at the chemical burns on my son's cheeks, I feel like I am not doing enough.