reducing environmental toxins & allergens around the house

after eliminating all of the things my son was allergic to for almost 2 years, baseline continued to remain an elusive dream. i *knew* he wasn't allergic to the things he was eating still, because there were no direct cause and effect reactions happening when he ate the different things on our menu. conversely, if an accidental exposure to an allergen did occur, he would have an immediate and traceable reaction to that exposure.

he was finally sleeping through the night, which was a HUGE improvement, not crying and whining and scratching all day, not nursing for comfort as much... but he still just wasn't quite right. he had dark purple rings around his eyes, he had a very light rash with redness at the creases that i was barely keeping at bay with raw organic shea butter applied as needed and he was still clingier and fussier than my other children were at almost 2.

the answer finally hit me when a good friend convinced me to come and visit her and stay in her home, which is about 4 hours north of mine. i'd been so overwhelmed with the food allergy issues, i'd been afraid to accept her invitations before. i decided to go for it and packed enough of our food to last most of a week, though my stay there lasted 4 days.

within 24 hours of being there, my little guy cleared up completely. i got my first look at what he would be if he were 'normal'. his fair white skin glowed and shone like a pearl - it was completely unblemished by bumps or swellings or redness. the circles around his eyes were gone. he didn't scratch once. he wasn't camped out at my breast constantly - he ran and played and explored the new house.

we both keep our houses pretty clean and dust free, so i knew it wasn't a difference in dust mites. we have the same area rugs on wood floors almost exactly, so i knew it wasn't wool allergy. she does have well water and we have city... and we have a dog and they don't. so i now knew to suspect either the water or the dog. i can't even express what a relief it was to rule out our foods for sure. i lived (and still do!) in fear that he is going to become allergic to something we rely heavily on - like rice or tomatoes.

when i returned home, i took him in for an allergy test for dogs and it came back positive. he is also very allergic to cats and i had to find a loving new home for my kitty of 13 years because his reaction became so severe. however, we got the puppy after we knew elijah is pretty much allergic to everything and therefore chose a very low-allergen producing dog w/ very short hair that sheds minimally - a great dane. so i felt i could manage his exposure to the dog allergen.

i now slather him in raw organic shea butter immediately upon exiting the shower to seal and nourish his fragile skin. i clothe him in the longest layers weather permits as well as socks before letting him go out into the rest of the house. i vacuum the one common area rug we have and the dog's bed almost daily, sometimes twice daily if he is experiencing his minimal shedding. these final steps are what finally got us to baseline.

it got me thinking about how very allergic children can also be so sensitive to things in the environment and how we parents are left to sort it all out. in thinking about this, i realized i've had signals for a very long time now that some of my other children have chemical sensitivities and allergies, as well and have been automatically adjusting our habits and routines to accommodate these.

7 years ago, in july, my 2nd son turned one. shortly after his birthday, i was hanging cloth diapers on the clothesline and he clamored to join me outside. i only have 2 children who did not get my olive skin and darker hair. they are my 2nd and 5th, both born as white as pearls and with white blonde hair and sky blue eyes. (i think they got it from a recessive gene on my husband's side, he jokingly notes that the UPS man is blonde with blue eyes).

this was my first very fair baby and his first summer being mobile and wanting to come out into the strong sunlight. i practice elimination communication in a more laid back manner by leaving my children naked constantly as soon as they become mobile so we can both watch for cues to potty and if missed, they can see the cause and effect of going to the bathroom without a diaper distancing them from the process. so bo was naked this day. if it was my firstborn, jake, i would have simply brought him out naked for the 15 or 20 minutes it took for me to hang the laundry and not worried that his swarthy skin and darker hair couldn't handle it.

i decided this was the kind of baby and situation that sunscreen was made for. I've never used the stuff myself, but my husband does and bought some for babies when it was on sale at costco. i found it and slathered bo from head to toe in it. there was even a spray to protect baby heads and a stick that was much stronger protection for noses and cheeks. i used it all. i carried him out and stood him up against the picnic table as i returned to hanging diapers. within a few minutes, i heard him making a strange choking and gasping sound. i ran over to him, thinking he'd eaten something he found on the ground.

i found him hunkered over the bench, as red as a lobster from head to toe. he had thick ropes of clear mucous hanging down to his belly from his nose and foamy drool coming from his mouth and his lips were turning blue at the corners. he was gasping and wheezing and i could see his belly sucking in to expose his ribs as he labored to breathe. my first inane thought was, "how did he burn so red with all the sunscreen i put on him?!" and my second one right on the heels of that was, "he got stung by a bee, this is an anaphylactic reaction!"

i scooped him up and began to run with him into the house as i swept my hands and eyes all over his body for any signs of an insect or stinger. i could find none and began to panic as his lips got bluer and his eyes closed. my mind raced to recall everything he'd eaten, everything he'd come into contact with that could be doing this as i grabbed the phone and called the pediatrician's number and told the receptionist it was an emergency. even as i was waiting for the dr. to get on the phone, i realized the only thing new was the sunscreen. i ran for the bathroom, phone wedged between my ear and shoulder, baby in my arms.

at this point his body went limp and he burped and peed on me and i realized he'd lost consciousness. i jumped into the shower and turned it on full blast, dropping the phone by the drain. i began to rinse and scrub at bo frantically, pumping handfuls of baby soap to get all the sunscreen off. the water was cold and the vigorous rubbing seemed to revive him and bo woke up and began crying in big, whooping gasps.

it was my first terrifying experience with any kind of allergic reaction. when i took him in to the pediatrician and we went over it all, she said it was a rare anaphylactic reaction to something topical - some chemical or fragrance in the sunscreen. she advised me to avoid sunscreen completely for the boys until they were a few yrs older and then we would think about doing a test trial on his arm or something to see if he'd outgrown it.

i learned to put long light layers on bo and find the best lightweight, wide brimmed sun hats. he even swam and played in water in his sun hats and long sleeves and never had a sunburn. we had to limit our time at public water parks and pools because all the sunscreen in the water would make his eyes swell and his face go blotchy, but he never had another reaction like that first one again. (of course i realize now i also probably put way too much on, never having used it before). he is 8 now and won't wear the sun hats at pools anymore, so we've discovered pure zinc for his nose and ears and long-sleeved rash guards with board shorts for the rest of him. when jake was 3, we almost had a similar reaction when i was slathering him with mosquito repellant, but i saw his skin turning red as soon as i rubbed it on and swiftly got him into the shower to rinse it off.

these incidents showed me early on that the skin is the largest organ in the body and if you put harmful chemicals on it, they can swiftly start harming all the rest of the organs. i'd never really thought about things my children could touch -or that could touch them - harming them like this until i saw it firsthand.

here are some of the things i do to try to minimize the exposure my kids get to toxins and allergens in products around the house:

i use natural soaps to clean surfaces and linens and clothing whenever possible.

i love Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps for bathroom surfaces and tile and linoleum flooring. it's also great for occasional laundry use and washing animals, hair, hands and body. (be warned they contain real oils, however and the peppermint can be a bit zingy for sensitive parts and the almond could potentially trigger nut allergy). i use the aloe vera baby mild to wash our pets. i love the way the house smells after cleaning with the peppermint! the only thing better is when i combine it with lavender and eucalyptus for a vigorous scrubbing of the bathrooms after we've had a bug in the house. i don't use these soaps for wood floors or glass as they can leave a buildup due to the natural oils they contain.

i've also gradually eliminated almost all plastics from our kitchen as well as aluminum cookware and anything with teflon or other non-stick coatings. not only is there concern over the leaching that most plastics do, but i've learned that most are also made with corn. i use glass tupperware or stainless steel (like tiffins available in bento box sets). i use cast iron or ceramic cookware as well as stainless steel. the kids get stainless steel water bottles to drink from (that are uncoated - i was very concerned/upset to learn about the issues the SIGG bottles i'd been partial to before switching to Kleen Kanteens) and we all use glass or ceramic to drink form at the dinner table.

for laundry, i've had to get away form any commercially prepared detergents completely, elijah was allergic to something in them all. i now use soapnuts i get from NaturOli and am experimenting with all the different ways you can use the liquid soap you can make from them, too. i used to love cleaning with vinegar before the corn allergy - it's anibacterial, antimicrobial, germicidal and antiseptic. the liquid in soapnuts is a great replacement as it is a natural surfactant that leaves no residue, yet it leaves clothes incredibly soft and completely odorless. i order from this site because they send them in natural cotton bags instead of plastic bags other sites use that are made with corn.

for scrubbing toilets, baking soda and lemon juice works wonders & is also great for removing soap scum in showers. i also like method: home care and personal care products as they are toxicity free, biodegradable and not tested on animals. they also work great! i love their ylang-ylang daily shower spray for cutting through soap scum. a drawback to these products is that some of them may be too strongly fragranced for sensitive people. i tend to stick to the products that get rinsed away, so i don't have to worry about possible corn ingredients coming into direct contact with skin.

another thing i worry about is offgassing or outgassing. this is when you buy something new and it has that strong "new" smell for a while, like a vinyl shower curtain. what is actually going on is the chemicals it is made up of, are being released into the environment as it is opened up to the air. some of these chemicals can be very toxic or damaging to brain cells or developing respiratory organs - especially if outgassing happens in a closed space that gets hot. like a new car seat left in a car. studies with special chemical sensing equipment have recently revealed that there are clouds of chemicals outgassing around new car seats sitting in cars.

when i buy anything new that isn't made of completely natural materials for use with my children, i try to buy it in advance of needing it and let it 'air out' for a few weeks before bringing them into contact with it. for example, we bought a memory foam mattress topper for them to use as a nest to sleep on over the summer when they'd stay up all night watching movies. i put it in the basement, draped over the half wall for weeks before we actually brought it upstairs and let them use it.

when buying a new shower curtain liner, i do so in the warmer months and hang it on the clothesline outside for a few weeks, until the "new" smell is gone, before bringing it in.

luckily, my super sensitive allergy guy has had only hand -me -down car seats from his siblings to use. no new crib mattresses for my kids to possibly raise the risk of sids, as they all slept on our not-too- old to- be- germy and not- too- new to- be -chemical-y mattress beside us.

i only put clothing made from natural fibers on my allergy guy and i only use this soap for him: Vanicream Skin & Hair Care Products: Specially formulated for Skin Allergies and Sensitivities!

i have found nothing that heals and protects his skin as well as raw, organic shea butter. i used to buy it from this site: SensibilitySoaps - Nourish® but have since found it locally at a health food store for a much better price.

my policy has become to look for the most natural option available and if there isn't one, to let the item air out for a while after being opened before we use it. this feels like a middle-of-the-road solution we can all live with, as simply doing without some of these plastic and toxic items wouldn't be an option i'm prepared to work around.

precautions for going out

as you can imagine, we don't eat out very often. or do many things based around eating, like school picnics or birthday parties or holidays at other peoples' homes - or even going to friends' houses for dinner. not many people invite a family with 5 kids to dinner, anyway, so maybe this one isn't solely due to the food allergies ! ;-)

we've taken a lot of precautions to make our own home safe, like removing anything containing peanuts and the other most severe allergens.

~we also ask guests to wash hands and remove shoes upon entering.

~we ask service people coming to perform repairs/maintenance on household products to wash hands and remove shoes or wear those paper booties over their shoes.

~we have had bright stickers made and placed on the front glass door announcing that we have a child with life-threatening peanut allergy in the home and that we are a peanut free house as well as one requesting people to wash hands and remove shoes upon entry.

~we keep the sandbox tightly covered and the shed door always shut when not in use because we live on a park with a lot of squirrels & raccoons and neighbors leave out bowls of nuts and we are always finding peanuts in our yard and plants.

~i locate and identify these peanuts and explain the danger to all of our children, as well as any friends that might be over.

~we have no carpeting -to prevent trapping food and animal allergens.

~ we vacuum the one area rug daily and sweep several times daily.

~ we educate our children about signs of reactions and handling any foods or animals not from our own home.

~we always make sure to have an epi- pen close by.

however, we don't let this issue turn us into agoraphobes, either. we still go to the movies and out to eat at restaurants and other normal activities, we just have to plan for it and take some precautions. the movies, for example, are a big risk of a venture. elijah's corn allergy is very severe and even touching corn products breaks him out in a blistery rash. jovie's peanut allergy is life-threatening/anaphylactic, so she is also at risk in a movie theater, where she will be sitting in seats previous occupants were most likely eating peanut products in. here are some of the things we do to make the outing safe and still fun for all of

us:

~before leaving, we slather the 2 year old multiple allergy guy from head to toe in raw, organic shea butter. this acts both as a reparative cream for his fragile skin as well as a barrier to allergens he may come into physical contact with. i also swab & line his nostrils with this or aquaphor anytime before we take him to a public gathering place - as a barrier to allergens as well as germs, since there are no medications safe for him to take should he pick up a bug. ( i actually do it for all my kids every morning and night because i don't want any of them sick if i can help prevent it !)

~i do the same for my peanut allergy 4 year old, just in case she touched a smear of peanut butter somewhere and then rubbed her nose. every little bit of barrier could only help in a case like that!

~i make sure she has her epi- pen on her at all times when we step outside the house - she has several cute little purses she carries it in and is well-educated and trained about not playing with it or showing it to other children. i carry the 2 year old's epi-pen in my bag.

~ i always try to nurse them before we leave the house. human milk has many properties that are extremely beneficial to a child with food allergies, including lysozymes that reduce swelling and redness, should an accidental ingestion of an allergen occur. it makes me feel better to know they have a belly full of breastmilk to help heal them should something harmful find its way in there next!

~ i make everyone go to the bathroom before we leave the house, to lessen the odds that we have to touch more surfaces & door handles at the theater by using theirs.

~ we bring a blanket to lay across 2 seats in the theater, for the 2 allergy kids & myself to sit on and avoid direct contact with the seats.

~ we bring our own snacks to eat. if the older boys want popcorn, we separate them from sitting near the allergy kids by a parent. we've never had a problem bringing our own food, when we show the note from our dr. specifying the multiple food allergies and stating that elijah can only eat foods prepared at home.

~while there, i absolutely accommodate any requests to nurse - feeding at the breast is the one place i can be certain they are 100% safe and getting nothing harmful. also, if a very minor contact w/ an allergen occurred, breastfeeding can be just what the doctor ordered to soothe mild irritation and prevent a wailing, itchy toddler from ruining a movie for everyone else.

~we don't normally use the stroller at this age for outings where we won't be walking much, but it's perfect to put the allergy kids in and keep them from touching door handles and other people and items around a theater. we wheel them to the theater and then fold it up and put them on our laps or the blanketed seats - and then use it again to wheel them out and keep them isolated from touching everything.

~ we make sure to have the other kids wash hands when exiting the movie. if the allergy kids have to go to the bathroom, we either carry them or play a game called 'hands in your pockets' to make sure they don't touch any door handles. while in the bathroom, i remind them constantly not to touch their faces. we wash hands and get them back into the stroller.

~when we get to the van, we wipe hands again with wet wipes.

~when we get home, everyone that ate popcorn/chocolate has to change clothes.

we do pretty much the same when going out to a restaurant, except we don't usually bring the big double stroller in, just hold their hands and/or carry them.

~i call ahead and speak to a manager to make sure they will be okay with us bringing our own food for the 2 of us that can't have even a trace of corn.

~i usually bring some leftovers, warmed up in a thermos for us - like a soup or stew or spaghetti.

~ if it's a special occasion and the rest of the family is going to have dessert, i bring us some store-bought coconut milk ice cream and ask the server to put it in the freezer until they bring dessert for the rest of our table - or i make cookies and bring those in a tiffin or brown paper bag.

~ i always specify that i'd like our food left in the containers it is brought in and try to keep them with me as much as possible, to cut down on the risk of cross-contamination.

~ we bring our own high chair cover, so the little guy isn't directly touching the surface of the high chair.

~ i wipe off the table in front of my allergy kids myself when we're seated, with wet wipes i bring.

going out to eat is actually still quite enjoyable and much less risky than going to the movies for us - restaurants these days are very accommodating to food allergies and when we'd venture out before the corn allergy, they'd bend over backwards to find us things we could eat and even make things not on the menu!

going to places with lots of other kids like chuck e. cheese or public pools/beaches can be a bit harder. we have to really keep an eye out for kids wanting to share food with ours, kids with pb&j hands touching my allergy kids' faces... and my kids touching them. just yesterday at the chiropractor's office, my 2 year old was in love with a toddling 1 year old and kept petting, stroking and kissing him - it was all i could do to get him to at least stop kissing the baby. in a perfect world, i'd love to ask the mother if i could wipe her baby down with wet wipes and let mine continue mauling him. here are some of the things i do instead:

~ i buy allergy awareness clothing for them. a shirt that says, 'i have food allergies' or 'no peanuts, please!' really goes a long way toward not offending other parents when you fend off a friendly hug from their child. it's also always quite a kick in the pants when that parent informs you that *their* child has food allergies and they were worried about *yours*, too ! i've made a couple of good friends this way.

~ i also put bright red rubber bracelets on them when we go out that announce food allergies.

~ i always have natural, gentle wet wipes with me and once i've had a chance to explain the food allergy severity and ask the parents, i ask that the child who wants to play with mine have their hands and face wiped if there was any chance they've eaten peanuts recently. most parents are great about understanding!

~ i always bring allergy-friendly 'yummy earth' brand suckers for my kids to share and hand out to anyone whose feelings might have gotten hurt by a refusal of a hug or a treat. so instead of just not being able to share or accept an offered treat, we have a safe option everyone can enjoy.

as for places like chuck e/ cheese, that's just not an option with this many allergies that are this severe. it would be a complete nightmare to even try, so we don't. i try to be realistic about what i can handle, and chuck e. cheese isn't it!

for activities like dance class or gymnastics, i contact the facility before we start and explain the situation.

~i ask if i can post a note informing other parents of the life-threatening peanut allergy and requesting them to refrain from eating or providing peanut-containing snacks in common areas.

~ it further asks that parents of children attending a class with my daughter have their child(ren) wash their hands before beginning that class.

~ i also always send her in with her epi-pen and make sure i use the trainer with her instructors before she starts a class.

most facilities have been awesome about letting me post the note and have even stopped carrying items with peanuts as an ingredient in their vending machines because of my daughter's allergy.

there's not much i can do about my son's multiple allergies, as they are not life-threatening like hers are and are also mostly a problem if he actually ingests the food. he does break out in a rash from contact with many of his allergens, but again - that's not as concerning as what happens to her - she could go into anaphylactic shock if she touches peanut proteins and then rubs her face. so for him the precautions i take include:

~slathering him in raw, organic shea butter before we leave the house.

~dressing him in long, light layers. for example, when he was in gymnastics, i put a long-sleeved, snug onesie on him with leggings over it and soft slipper-type shoes (like moss feet or bobux) on his feet.

~always making sure the instructors are aware of his allergies and know how to use an epi-pen and keep one in the same room he's in at all times.

and my best tip for being out of the house is that i don't let them out of my sight. it's simply too risky when they're this young and people might not know how to deal with an allergic reaction - or even that one is occurring. at 2, my son is not old enough to recognize that hives on his face mean he's having a food reaction that could turn anaphylactic. he will simply cry and ask to nurse. the first sign that my daughter has had peanut protein come into contact with a mucous membrane on her face is vomiting. most people around her would deal with the vomiting and then when her airway began to close up, they might think she's choking and try to do the heimlich or swat her back, when what she really needs is an injection from her epi-pen. i'm always very careful to tell the instructors and teachers of their activities exactly what a reaction might look like - and i make sure i'm always right in the building. until your kids are old enough to advocate for and protect themselves, you've got to do it for them when it comes to food allergies.

tip for preventing illness & allergy

it has been nagging at me that i forgot to post this tip in another post . in addition to providing the vitamin d in cod liver oil and other natural supplements to my kids to support their immune systems and help reduce the chances and severity of their allergies and illnesses - and breastfeeding as long as they want to - i have one other quick tip.

i also coat their noses w/ a lubricating barrier each night and every morning. more often if they are getting a runny nose. my 3rd son - jonah- used to get horrible bloody noses. if he got one in his sleep, it looked like he'd been murdered in his bed. he's also the one that got such severe sinus infections, he's scarred his sinus cavities. he used to be 'that kid' that walked around w/ snot like applesauce hanging out of his nose all winter.

i started spraying out his nose w/ a pure saline spray (my kids hate the neti pot) 3 x's daily and then coating it inside both nostrils w/ aquaphor on a q-tip after every saline rinse. the bloody noses stopped and the runny noses barely last 2 days now, whereas they used to never end. i read that this can also provide a barrier to prevent airborne allergens (or ones on probing fingers!) from lining and entering the mucous membrane, so i began doing it for all my kids. it also helps keep their noses from drying out in our harsh dry winters. if you like to avoid any traces of petroleum in your products, raw organic shea butter works almost as well, tho it gets a bit more of an oily texture as it warms up and doesn't 'stick' quite as well!

and the last best reason for doing this is they don't make boogers anymore! i haven't seen a booger in almost 2 years since i started doing this ! can you imagine having 5 kids and never seeing one rooting around in their nose anymore?! i never woulda thought it possible!