Speechless...

Not much to say about it. This is exactly why I'm doing what I'm doing. Pass it on;)

A Wake-Up Story from Healthy Child Healthy World on Vimeo.

Lead Face

So I have turned into a super cyber geek mom. I have my lead-laden face cream to thank for it all. A few months ago my 6 month old was learning to kiss–a.k.a. licking my face. It got me thinking about what she was licking. So I checked to see if, and what, my face cream was rated at http://www.costmeticsdatabase.com and was horrified to learn that it was rated an 8 out of 10(10 being the worst or most toxic). It contained a rather high amount of lead so I immediately threw it out. I proceeded to gather a bunch of other personal care products from around my house to see where they rated on the database and was horrified to see most of their ratings as well. Baby wipes, shaving cream (A TEN!!!), shampoo, conditioner, diaper cream, mascara, all toxic. Most of my products were "only" in the mid range, which was not OK with me. The few products that were rated 7 or more out of ten got thrown out immediately. How dare cosmetic companies, and government-for that matter, allow these companies to sell these products? I started doing some research and discovered North American standards and European standards were very different. In fact some American companies manufacture two separate lines of cosmetics/personal care products. One line to be sold in Europe (without all the crap in it) and the other line to be sold in North America (full of cheap cancer causing crap). Don't even get me started on cleaning products (GET RID OF YOUR FABRIC SOFTENERS! http://www.ourlittleplace.com/fabric.html). Did you know that in order for Mr. Clean to disinfect (remover 99.9% of bacteria), you need to use it AT FULL STRENGTH and leave it on the surface for a MINIMUM of ten minutes?! Read the label? I don't remember ever using Mr. Clean without diluting it or leaving it anywhere for any period of time. Frustrating.

Anyway, eventually I found a line of skin care that originates from Europe (where they have some of the strictest guidelines) and are ECO-CERT certified. Eco cert is considered to be the most important organization in Europe in setting the criteria for natural and organic cosmetics. A min of 10% of the total ingredients must be certified organic. at least 95% of the ingredients must be of vegetable/plant origin and while the product may contain a max of 5% synthetic ingredients, none of these must be included on the negative list (no mineral oil and silicon, no synthetic emulsifiers like PEG, no viscosity controlling agents like carbomer, no preservatives such as formaldehyde releasers, parabens or phenoxyethanol, no synthetic perfumes or dyes, and no synthetic solvents like propylene glycol).

I haven’t found a comparable children’s line, however their shea butter works great on my baby’s bottom! Childhood cancer statistics are startling, and they are just going up. The amount of indoor toxins our children are exposed to (in our own homes http://www.chiro.org/LINKS/Environmental_Toxins.shtml) is alarming. If I can at least get rid of the toxins I apply to their skin and the ones they ingest, I am happy.

Hence I am now on facebook, twitter, yahoo, google, other people's blogs, my own blog, digg, and my own website! This past month I have been going pretty hard on the learning curve. Together, we can make a difference. Stop buying these products and start shopping smarter. We can prevent some infertility issues and some cancers (breast cancer and other cancers are thought to be linked directly to chemicals/toxins in personal care products that we use http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/5278.php ). We need to unite as mother's and say no to these companies who are using cheap but harmful ingredients in our products. If we're not buying them, they will hear our message.

HEY! Your kid just pooped on the floor--take him home!

It seems birthday season is upon us again. This time of year tends to be full of birthday parties and festivities. My son is turning four, so parents are starting to up the ante. Instead of the good old home party with a few games and some cake, we are venturing into the party that requires the booking of some fancy location where a party planner takes over and the parents can sit and "relax". We were at just that kind of birthday party this weekend. The indoor play gym we were at was enormous. Slides, tunnels, netting and tubes galore. The perfect place for children to be children. All was going relatively smoothly until one parent noticed a backlog at the slides. A child had vomited. Great. The parents were trying to clean up the mess without drawing too much attention to themselves. I don't think it occurred to them that vomit carries bacteria and spreads germs-so goes the circle of life. I could hear other parents saying things like "my child had a fever yesterday, but seems ok today..." or "Sally threw up three times yesterday, but she looks fine today". Seriously? I'll admit there have been times where my child was sick and I brought him out--to pick up a litre of milk or because I had to pay a bill on time but for the most part we are housebound for at least a few days. I would like to think that I have some sort of respect for other people and would like that respect in return. I don't want your germs, keep your kids at home if they are sick or have been sick in the past few days. How unfair to everyone else attending to be forced into a room with your sneezing, puking child. Read up on it, your child is contagious for a longer period than you might think. Believe it or not, the puking wasn't the worst of it on that fine day. After calling over a lady who worked at the play gym, and watching her 'disinfect' the puke site, we were drawn to another incident. All the commotion seemed to be coming from under the slides this time. Parents were running, children were screaming and crying. And a poor elderly man was scooping and smearing poop around, desperately trying to clean up his grandson's accident before he was found out. Guess what?! Poop news travels FAST! My friend, whose son was celebrating his birthday that day, approached the man and asked him what he was doing. When he refused to call over an employee of the play gym, my friend ran over to grab her again for another toxic clean up. My beef here isn't with the children, it's with the adults. The adults who are so desperate to get out of the house, they feel the need to drag their sick kids out in public. They claim silly things like their 3 year old would have been devastated if they had to miss the party--guess what? Your three year old will get over it. And your three year old probably wouldn't even remember there was a party. Your three year old needs to rest comfortably in their own home instead of puking or pooping in public and have kids running from them in terror. Grow up, adults! Have a little "poop" etiquette.

Toxins Impair Children's Neurological Development -- And A 10-Step Program To Stop It

It seems articles like these, warning us of potential hazards of some chemical are becoming more and more common. Don't eat mercury laden fish, stay away from BPA, parabens are toxic and phthalates cause cancer. When will it end? I am so sick of throwing away whatever chemically laden "item of the week" I have discovered is toxic to my family. Not to mention resting at the bottom of our lakes, rivers and oceans. Governement needs to "grow a pair" and just say no. Ban the phosphates turning our water systems into death traps for fish. No more chemicals used for cleaning in the homes (yes people, there are alternatives to chemicals that also remove 99.9% bacteria). We need to act now, not only for our own quality of lives and health, but for our babies who still have full lives to live. Have you ever read the instructions on the back of a Mr. Clean bottle?! To disinfect (kill 99.9% of bacteria) you must use it AT FULL STRENGTH and leave it on the surface for at least 10 minutes. I don't know about you, but I don't remember the last time I used Mr. Clean without diluting it, not to mention leaving on my floor for 10 minutes. Childhood cancer rates have sky rocketed over the past few years--it is no coincidence that we are also "discovering" all of these items/chemicals in our homes to be toxic. What are we waiting for?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Too much time on my hands.

So apparently I have too much time on my hands. Being a mother of two small children, starting a brand new biz and keeping a house relatively well run just isn't challenging enough-not to mention the fact that my poor dog hasn't been walked in a month. I'm on Facebook and am now hooked onto Twitter. I noticed quite quickly how many wonderful networks and awesome mompreneurs were out there. So many women, just like me, are running successful businesses from their homes and managing to network online--with complete strangers! This whole cyber-biz thing is new to me, and a little weird. But I must admit, I am hooked. I look up to these other women in awe-with their wonderfully written blogs, successful marketing strategies and plain old good will towards each other. I look forward to continuing to learn from and share with such a wonderful group of cyber friends!