Cleaning Products

I read a heartbreaking interview with John Travolta after his son Jett passed away.  In it he talked about how he believed that his obsession with cleaning and how using so many cleaning products around his son when he was a baby may have caused his seizure disorder.  That really impacted me.  Could cleaning products really harm my baby?  You never see that on all those commercials.  Well, the answer is yes it's possible.

If you start to think about all the chemicals in cleaning products and how delicate a young baby's system is, the two just don't mix.

My husband is in baseball and when my daughter was 6 months old we had to head to NY for baseball season.  We were going to be living in a hotel for the entire season which meant housekeeping everyday.  Prior to arriving I sent instructions for the hotel: NO CLEANING CHEMICALS, NO FEBREZE to be used in my room at all.  This was not something I would compromise on.  I even offered to clean the room myself.  The hotel agreed that the housekeepers would use vinegar and water only and no Febreze.

The third day we were there I had gone out and when I arrived back at the room the stench of Febreze hit us as we walked into the room and I freaked out!  The house keepers were down the hall and I let them have it.  I was devastated.  The front desk apologized and they aired out my room and it never happened again.  From that point on though there was a sign on our door that read "No Chemicals or Febreze" just in case.

I had read the warnings associated with the chemicals in cleaners and also how bad Febreze and air fresheners in general are.  I really do not need my house to smell like a cool ocean breeze.  I need my child to be healthy.

Prior to having a baby I did the same thing everyone else does, you buy what you see on tv.  You buy this and that to make it quick and easy to clean.  Well quick and easy can also be dangerous and deadly.  Not only do those chemicals linger in the air for your child to breathe, but they also can linger on the surface for your child to ingest.  Think about your little one crawling on the newly wet-jetted floor and then putting their hands in their mouth.  Do you really know if that product is safe??

What about if by chance you child gets ahold of that product and ingests it.  What then?

I started using a couple items from a product line called Baby Ganics.  They are NON-TOXIC and I love them.  For the most part though I reverted back to what my Grandmother did, use vinegar and baking soda.  She used to say that there wasn't anything that vinegar and baking soda couldn't do.  As a kid you are like "Whatever", but after having my daughter is was time to give it a shot.

I use vinegar for everything.  It cleans mirrors beautifully, pour some in the toilet and add some baking soda and man does that clean it, in the shower that same mix seriously cleans tile and hard water spots on shower doors, in the kitchen it is amazing and doesn't scratch surfaces and there is so much more.  If you don't like the smell, which goes away, add a little lemon juice. Don't even get me started on how much I save in products.  I have a gallon jug of vinegar and 13lbs of baking soda in the cabinet right now and I can clean this house for a LONG time.

The best part is that it is truly is safe.  I can clean the house and not be afraid that one of those items is going to potentially harm my daughter.  I might have to put a little "elbow grease" (my Dad used to say as a kid) in it, but really it's not that hard.

I love being able to know that the two ingredients I am using are non-toxic and my daughter can be around me while I use them.

For good ideas on using vinegar go to www.vinegartips.com and for baking soda, armandhammer.com actually has a categorized list of uses.

Till next blog....