Perfect Pregnancy20 Tips to Protect Your Baby For Life

Until I had my third baby, I did not know that there could be dangerous chemicals in food and cleaners — even the soap that I’d used with the first two!

With research, I learned things like taking off your shoes prevents 85% of dirt — including things like lead and pesticides — from entering your home.

Source: WebMD

As I shared this information, my friends and family were not convinced. We grew up with chemicals and we’re okay, they said.

But are we? Here are a few things you should know about being pregnant today – and what

you can do to protect your baby for life.

1. Infants are now born with 200+ industrial chemicals in their blood. Scary, but true.

Source: Centers for Disease Control

2. There are 80,000+ industrial chemicals approved for use in our household products and none have been tested for children’s safety.

Source: Environmental Working Group

3. One of the most dangerous classes of these chemicals are pesticides. 80% of our exposure occurs indoors through pest eradication products like these…

Source: Environmental Protection Agency

4. …but also through food. Today, an apple can

contain as many as 56 different pesticides.

Source: Environmental Working Group

5. Pesticides have been linked to autism, asthma and pediatric cancer.

Source: Centers for Disease Control

6. Today, autism affects 1 in 88 children — that’s a 600% increase over the past 20 years.

Source: Centers for Disease Control

7. Asthma affects 9 million kids — especially black and Latinos, who are 60% more at risk than whites — a 200% increase in 20 years.

Source: Centers for Disease Control

8. With rates up 30% in 30 years, pediatric cancer is now the leading disease killer of children. It’s more lethal than asthma, diabetes, AIDS, cystic fibrosis and birth defects combined.

Source: National Cancer Institute

9. In pregnancy, the dangers of common pesticide exposure are equal to those of smoking: low birth weight and early labor.

Source: National Institutes of Health

10. At the supermarket, natural and healthy don’t mean much: Only USDA Certified Organic is regulated by the government not to contain pesticides or chemicals like rBGH, banned in Europe because of cancer links.

Source: Prevent Cancer

11. Yes, organic food can be expensive: A gallon of milk is about $2 more.

Source: Consumerist

12. But eliminating chemicals from your home can actually save you money. Instead of costly commercial cleaning products, try vinegar for windows, olive oil for wood and baking soda for scrubbing.

13. Warm water and soap work as well or better than expensive antibacterials, which depend on pesticides like triclosan to kill germs.

Source: New York Times

Source: EWG

14. When it comes to food, simply avoid the Dirty Dozen toreduce your family’s pesticide exposure by 80%.

Source: Healthy Child Healthy World

15. Toxic chemicals like dioxin are stored in animal fat and can be passed to your baby in pregnancy or through breast milk. Eat less meat and if you do: Choose organic, trim away the skin and broil to reduce fat consumption.

Source: Seafood Watch

16. Found in many fish, mercury is a neurotoxin that can be passed to your baby in the same way. If you eat fish, choose low on the food chain such as salmon, tilapia or mackerel.

Source: ABC News

18. Decorating? A recent study found air inside a new nursery 300 times more polluted than outside: Choose no-VOC paints, eliminate carpets and select hand-me-down and/or formaldehyde-free furniture for your baby.

Source: Chicago Tribune

19. Foam in mattresses, car seats, strollers and pillows can contain carcinogenic flame retardants. Look for flame-retardant free foam and avoid baby sleepwear and bedding treated with flame retardants, indicated by tags like this.

Source: Environmental Science & Technology

17. Whatever you buy, just say no to the receipt (and wash your hands after shopping). A recent study found hormone-disrupting BPS — an alternative to BPA, recently banned from baby bottles — coat 100% of cash receipts in the U.S.

20. Since you’ve already got the pregnancy glow, now might be a good time to look for safer beauty products — especially hair dye and nail polish. Search your products on the Skin Deep Database and switch out the worst offenders.

Concerned? It can be tempting to bury your head in the

sand like an ostrich — I know I did, for a while.

But small shifts can make a huge difference: After just one day of eating organic food, we can eliminate most pesticides from our bodies.

Source: National Institutes of Health

And making these changes are so important — even for those of us who don’t have children. Kids are only 30% of our population, but they’re 100% of our future!

Inspired? Thank you for every step you take

to create a better future — for all of us.

www.MommyGreenest.com