Chemical Free Kids

Mother's are quickly befriended by the advertising world after giving birth, and usually at a time of great anxiety and vulnerability. Companies know it, and they depend on this very fact for sales and dollars.

I am very passionate about healthy environments for our children, and it cannot be overstated how many chemicals our babies are exposed to from the moment they leave our safe and chemical free wombs.


One of the first experiences of a newborn is a bath, and as I prepared my first born's plunge into the tub my horror was visible when a nurse drew the Johnson & Johnson's baby wash from the bath trolley. Here was my baby, perfect in all things that Nature provides, and she was about to dunk him into a chemical sess-pit! "No thanks!" I trilled as I pulled a gentle organic alternative from my bag.

Many of the leading brands of baby products contain chemicals known to cause allergies, hormone disruption, damage to the nervous system, and have been linked to cancer and Leukemia. A recent scientific review revealed that children are exposed to about 27 chemical ingredients on a daily basis that have never been assessed for safety. Not by industry, nor by  government.

Johnson & Johnson's have built their brand as a trusted family and baby friendly product, but are you aware that up until recently J&J used various chemicals scientifically proven to release dangerous Formeldehyde (carcinogen) in it's baby products? It is still being used in some countries in which the ban has not been enforced. America and Australia are among these.

If you want to avoid formaldehyde-releasing ingredients and 1,4-dioxane, you need to know what to look for as they're NOT listed on the label; at least not in those words.

Common ingredients likely to contaminate products with formaldehyde include:

• Quaternium-15
• DMDM hydantoin
• Imidazolidinyl urea
• Diazolidinyl urea

To avoid 1,4-dioxane, watch out for these ingredients, which create 1,4-dioxane as a byproduct:

• PEG-100 stearate
• Sodium laureth sulfate
• Sodium myreth sulfate
• Polyethylene
• Ceteareth-20

The truth is that we do not need these products, a baby really only needs clean filtered water and a little oil in it to bathe; and luckily there are many safe and chemical free baby shampoo's and body washes on the market now. Where possible look for certified organic products, and try to buy local. Allow your babies/children's skin to breathe and thrive without choking it with chemicals. We have enough chemical warfare in the world without soaking them in it every night aswell.


Some of this information is taken from Dr Mercola's article Do you know the chemicals in common baby products? www.mercola.com