Panicking that I've lead poisoned my children

[ThePeachPoster]

I've been in a total spiral for days and need desperately to know if similar happened to others and what the outcome was.

We live in a 1950s property and have lived here for 7 years. My eldest was 18nmonths at the time and my youngest was born here.

In this time, their dad has done lots of renovations as he's in the trade. He's ripped out every piece of skirting and lots of architraves. There's also been lots of wear and tear to the existing doors and architraves which I didn't think much of since they are due for removal at some point.

I've just found out that every piece of woodwork in the house has lead paint under the top layer. I've done a lead test and there's lead showing every place there's a chip and there's at least 50 chips across the household doors and woodwork. Before this I had no idea I had to worry about lead paint - HOW did I not know??!?

I feel sick thinking about the lead dust that must have been flying around the house every time some woodwork was removed and everytime they've used the chipped doors.

I've done nothing but cry since I found out. I feel like I've ruined my children's lives and don't deserve them.

I've scheduled my girls in for a lead blood test with the GP who agreed it was needed. I'm beside myself waiting for the test and the results.

Everything on the internet suggests they are going to have high lead levels in their blood. I know I I can never undo whatever damage has been done to them since they were infants. Every time I think about it I feel physically ill. I'm considering immediately part exchanging and moving to a new home to get them out of his poisoned environment.

It's a 2 weeks wait for the blood test and I can't relax in my home at all. Please please please has anyone been through this? What happened? What were your child's blood results?

If your husband is in the trade, how did he not know this was an issue with a house from the 1950s?

There is absolutely nothing you can do but wait for the results. However, what is the plan for stripping all the lead paint and sorting the house? Without the kids there.

honestly you need to chill, lots of houses still have lead pipes, you don’t see kids dropping down dead all the time from lead poisoning, I know you are worried but you have taken steps to help your worries like the blood test, so try not to worry until there’s something to worry about!

Pipes have little relevance to paint.

Well they do, lead water pipes are toxic just like lead paint most homes b4 1970 have lead water pipes and people drink from them daily.

Oh trust me we've had exactly the same argument. He's a joiner and is around skirting and architraves all day but had no idea which has completely horrified me. I trusted that he would tell me when we needed to be cautious so didn't do any research. That will never happen again. It's all already been painted over with multiple layers to immediately stop anymore shedding. I've spent a minor fortune on a h class hoover that's coming tomorrow and I'm testing every single surface with lumetallix.

My dad chewed the (lead) paint off his toy cars when he was a toddler. He’s 84 now, so seems to have survived it.

Take a really deep breath. And then another one. Asking for other people's children's blood test results has no bearing on your situation. I understand the fear and the need to react - but you don't know what you are reacting to yet. You need to really take a step back until you know what you are dealing with, talking about part exchanging the house is really over the top. All you are doing is adding to your own anxiety right now.

Has he sanded down the paint? Chips of paint aren't as much of a problem. The wear and tear could be an issue, but you are talking tiny amounts.

If he hasn't actively sanded the paint, your exposure should be low.

May your results come back quickly and with low levels.

All I can think about is all the renovation works that took place in the 80s and 90s and I can guarantee that there was not much health or safety around then! But I totally relate to your anxiety, I would be feel exactly the same.

No, no sanding luckily. Just removal as whole pieces and wear and tear chipping.

The risk is much less as there was no sanding. Had your DH never heard of lead paint? Did he sand or remove any artex?

He thought it was only used externally 😭. We've never sanded anything in the house and I had absolutely everything tested for asbestos. Just not lead and I hate myself for not knowing to do that.

I think the advice is just to run the cold tap in the morning (Edwardian house here) for lead pipes ..don’t use water that’s been sitting in the pipes

This link might me too medical, but it does say that the levels will go down, especially if you eliminate further contamination. Do your children have any symptoms?
www.gov.uk/government/publications/lead-poisoning-advice-for-the-public-and-healthcare-professionals/lead-clinical-intervention

Was the building work recent? Otherwise it’s very unlikely to show up on a blood lead test if it was a while ago. I tested mine privately, but it had to be within a couple of weeks of the exposure for it to show up.

Removing the woodwork probably didn’t create too much dust - we removed ours and it wasn’t bad. The doors are probably alright too if there aren’t tight points where they rub against the frame. It’s the friction that causes the dust. Sash windows are the apparently the worst, as the scraping as they open releases paint dust. You can get dust sampling of your house to check for lead.

Otherwise while waiting for our tests to come back, I gave the kids extra dairy and also vitamins and iron, as it can help with lead

Your panicking will do your children more harm so pull yourself together and get help if this is the way you react to things, like all these regular panicked threads it is not normal and yes think how growing up with this would be for children?

The worst thing you can do now is google or ask people in a forum. Every reply and Google search is going to make you feel worse as no one will be able to give you the reassurance youre looking for.

Hopefully though, you can get support here for how you are feeling as I’m sure there are plenty of people here who can relate to that feeling of wishing you did something different and feeling terrified you have harmed your children. There’s no point in me telling you to try not to worry but I’m sure everything will feel brighter in a few weeks

Then I really think nobody has been poisoned.

I’m not being falsely reassuring- there’s a real risk from babies licking or eating lead paint and decorators sanding and kicking up a thick dust.

Just pulling wood out and dropping paint flakes sounds OK.

You have to ingest or breathe it in. I think your children’s lead levels will be fine unless they were eating the paint chips?

I chewed loads of lead paint off my crib as a teething baby and I breathed in all those leaded petrol fumes my entire childhood. I know, not ideal but everyone pre1975 walking around has survived a certain amount of low level lead
poisoning. Just like everyone who was fed formula pre 2011 likely got BPA poisoning from the plastic baby bottles. There is always something they later find out was a bit poisonous for us. So try not to panic. We are a sturdy species and your kids will be fine.

Once the lead exposure stops, the body can eliminate the lead on its own. If lead is very high the doctor can prescribe chelation medication that will quickly get the lead processed out the body. So even if worst case, they can get the lead gone. Stay strong

I agree with this. You seem to have an unrealistic obsession with trying to make your environment totally risk free.
Just look around the area where you live. Quite probably 75%+ of the local inhabitants will have been brought up in older houses. They are not all dribbling idiots from lead poisoning!
Even if you part exchange for a new build, there could be lead contamination in the soil from historic pollution from lead petrol or previous industry.Even houses built on farmland can have soil contamination for pesticide residues.
You can't live in a bubble. You need to get your head around accepting normal risk and precautions without constantly testing everything or it will affect your relationship with your family.It's highly likely their blood samples will be fine as they showed no symptoms.

I think you really need to get some help

Are you the same poster that is obsessed with asbestos too? If so you need help with your anxiety as that will be far more harmful to your kids.

OP it’s a really scary rabbit hole to go down especially because so much of the information online is from the US.

The scale of the problem in the US is very different because so many of their buildings are timber clad externally, the lead paint on the buildings gets sanded off, poisons the land around the buildings and often gets into the air circulation systems that lots of their houses have.

It’s great that you DH didn’t do any sanding. It’s fine dust from sanding that hugely increases the risk.

Remember that everyone’s exposure to lead is far lower now than it was a few decades ago before they took the lead out of petrol. Day to day exposure to lead was significantly higher during the 20th century than it is today.

I had the same worries. We live in a 1930s house and have done a lot of renovation to it. I vaguely knew about lead paint but assumed the layers of that would be so far underneath more recent paint it would be fine. We weren't sanding a lot, just painting over, but we did sand some. Then one day I realised about the stair paint. The manky stair carpet we'd ripped up on first arriving was probably the first time the stairs had been without carpet, and the paint down the sides would be original from when a runner was in place. The test sticks I got glowed brilliantly with lead. I was scared because my toddler had climbed all up and down many times, licking his hands and everything as toddlers do. However, it was all ok. We painted over it with the right stuff asap. He had a blood test a few weeks later and lead level was so low it was unreadable. So all fine! Hopefully yours will be too.

Please, please try not to blame yourself! ❤️ The UK government have neglected this as an issue for far too long and NOBODY talks about it. It's an absolute scandal that nothing is done to raise awareness or to protect us from historic lead.

Flippant comments from older generations saying "well I ate lead soldiers as a child and it never did me any harm" are unhelpful, as are the comments on here telling you to "pull yourself together".

I'm in the exact same situation as you. We bought a 1930s semi detached, and moved in a month before our baby girl was born. We paid for the most expensive survey we could get... not once was lead paint mentioned as a hazard. Inevitable decorating needed doing. It was only when we ripped up the carpet on the stairs and I saw some nasty looking old paint on the original wood that it dawned on me "what if this is lead based?". We tested it with a swab and sure enough it was lead. I knew lead was obviously poisonous, but like everyone else, I assumed it was just a case of it being deadly in large amounts, I had no idea about it being a neurotoxin. It was only when I looked up about lead exposure and breastfeeding that I found out about it being especially hazardous for unborn babies and young children (again, WHY THE HELL is this not mentioned in antenatal classes or midwife appointments?! Especially with how old our housing stock is in the UK!). By the time I realised this, I was in total and utter despair because we had already sanded and painted almost all the rooms in the house completely unaware of the potential risks of lead.

Just like you, I spiralled and looked in to all the terrifying research about it causing behavioural problems and reduced intelligence in children. I know how all consuming it is, and I felt like we'd unwittingly doomed our child's future chances by moving into this old property. However, this is where I hope I can give you some comfort... I basically had to beg the doctor for a lead blood test because I was terrified that my baby could be being poisoned through my breast milk if it was contaminated with lead. I had to formula feed her for 10 days which was a nightmare as she was used to breastfeeding while I waited for the results. My results came back and the levels of lead in my blood were basically undetectable! (Unfortunately we will all have some small level of lead in our bones and blood from environmental exposure, whether you live in an old house or not). So that was a huge relief and I could breastfeed again. My gorgeous little girl is eight months old now, is absolutely thriving, and meeting all the milestones she should be! I still can't relax a hundred percent in my house and there are times when my anxiety massively spikes and I wish we didn't live here, but we only just moved this year so we're kind of stuck here for a while. 👍

Just remember, nobody warned us about this: not our government; not our midwives; not our doctors; not our parents. You are not to blame.

You're a fantastic mother because you care! I hope the results of your blood test come back quickly with good news for you and your family. ❤️

Your response is so lovely - thank you. I keep having the same thought over and over - WHY has no one mentioned this. We even had home midwife visits and nothing was ever mentioned. Why is this not mentioned at antenatal appointments or NCT classes or by our bloody parents! It's absolutely horrifying.

I grew up in the States and knowing they would have been tested as babies if we'd lived there feels worse somehow.

I've already decided that if their tests are high I can't stay in this house. I resonate so much with how you say you feel about not feeling completely safe. I don't know if I can ever feel completely safe here again.

I'm so glad you're ok and your baby is ok. My girls are thriving by all accounts including excelling in school and yet this doesn't bring my comfort. Like you I wonder if I've permanently affected and changed the people they were supposed to be.