Products to avoid

[ChaCha]

I've always thought of the food intake but not this..what do you think? Do you really think that the chemicals in our toiletries and our perfumes are that harmful?
Kind of wish i'd been more informed from early on...

productstoavoid

Blooming heck Chacha!!

Couldn't read the list without my head hurting and trying to remember when I'd read anything more challenging than Harry Potter!!

Seriously though, I think there are chemicals which are harmful to us and our babies...but I think it's very unlikely that we could ingest enough to cause a problem. As long as we don't use anything to excess, use rubber gloves etc the risks would be low to none....

Are you bored today by any chance, love??

I agree with Rodeo. They're just trying to scare you into buying their products.

I find the more I buy products from the likes of Neways, (which claims to make products without 'harmful' chemicals) the less tolerant I am of the normal supermarket stuff.

I actually find the perfume in ordinary shampoos overbearing and very synthetic. It stings my eyes and throat.

I did read in Neways literature that many every day products were passed for safety in the fifties when it was thought the skin was a barrier. We now know it to be a membrane.

Since having kids I've been more careful about the products I use (in particular I wouldn't use toothpaste with sodium laurel sulphate) ... But I'm not as strict as I used to be.

These days I tend to go by my nose and how something feels. I still buy almost all of my cleaning stuff, soap, shampoo, toothpaste etc from health food shops and read the labels.

These threads do seem to crop up alot don't they. Any product containing any of these things listed must have been tested in order for it to be OK to sell. Yes if you ingest large quantities of any of them, you might not be too well but in the quantities used in the various formulations I'm sure they are all fine.

Of course the company is going to try & get you thinking - it wants you to buy their stuff instead.

Perhaps I'm particularly sensitive. I used to have asthma and eczema so I cleaned up my act in terms of diet, environment and products. I'm much better now.

But I can really smell something nasty in most shampoo bottles.

Do you think you could name some of the products that you DO use on your babies/young ones that you find are safe and free from 'whatever chemicals' that could be harmful?
It would be interesting to devise some sort of list.
I've hard of using olive oil for example, cotton wool instead of wipes and so on..

Spidermama, I would agree that if I or my children had asthma or excema or other allergies. I would be more careful with which products I chose.

But I think the risks from pregnant mothers using shampoos, ect. on the unborn baby are extremely low.

Athough saying that I did read the other day about boys being born with genital deformities, which is on the increase and is due to increasing chemical levels in parents bodies, I think that was down to chemicals ingested through the food chain, such as pesticides and antibiotics during farming, and other cr*p that is put in our foods.

Chacha, I used cotton wool and water for my babe's bots for the first 4 months or so. When things got a bit smellier I used to add a couple of drops of tea tree oil to the water I soaked the cotton wool in. Didn't use wipes, but found if I did use a friends wipe, it would give both of them nappy rash.

Newborn babies don't really get smelly (apart from the milky/cheesy folds in their necks!) so I just usually used to bath them in just water, used to use Infacare in the bath every so often for that 'baby smell' but I think that was for my benefit rather that baby's!!

Use reausable nappies too - but there's a whole MN section on that!!!

I use Green People or Neways toothpaste. I love Neils Yard stuff but it's expensive.
The soap I buy is supposed to be made from olive oil and lavender, but I've no idea how they make it into a green cake of soap.
For talc you can use cornflour.
I use essential oils.

something else to avoid

What I really need is a herbal first aid kit. EG calendula (for cuts), Tea Tree, for anti bacterial.

I need more inspiration though.

Sorry chacha,

meant to read 'Used reuseable nappies too' not 'use them'!!!!

Not trying to push you into something, honest!!

To make soap, you need sodium hydroxide - also known as caustic ! Its a corrosive or irritant chemical depending on its concentration.

I'm not trying to put you off by the way - just pointing out what can be in 'natural' products

Seems like they are trying to scare us into using their products and i am a little concerened that it is only chemical substances they are warning you about. There are many naturally found substances that should not be used durring pregnancy. We all know about not using clary sage till before the birth as it is a uternie relaxant but so are some of the other essential oils.

TBH, i think most of this on the website is "scaremongering", they sell the products that they claim to be safer so are oviously trying to make you think the worst of general brands of soaps etc so that your'll buy theirs. I agree with whizzz on this.

notice the wording they use on their website-very clever eg.

PVP/VA Copolymer ? This is a petroleum-derived chemical used primarily in hairsprays and other cosmetics. Since the particles may contribute to foreign bodies in the lungs of sensitive persons, it is considered toxic

Stearalkonium Chloride ? This chemical was developed by the fabric industry as a softener, and it is cheaper and easier to use in hair conditioning formulas than proteins or herbal components. It can cause allergic reactions.

Synthetic Colors ? Synthetic colors are used to make cosmetics "pretty" and, along with hair dyes, should be avoided as they are believed to be cancer-causing agents. They appear on labels as FD&C or D&C, followed by a color and a number; e.g., FD&C Red No. 6 / D&C Green No. 6.

who says??