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Archive for August, 2009

Organic Schmorganic? Think Again. The Chemicals in Crib Mattresses Could be Causing any Number of Serious Conditions

Monday, August 24th, 2009

 

I recently read a forum post where someone asked for other forum members’ opinions on whether or not she should spend the extra money on an organic crib mattress. She could get a regular polyurethane foam mattress for $50. One of the forum members responded with ‘organic schmorganic,’ and followed that with the idea that regular mattresses were good enough for her, her parents and her grandparents, so they’re good enough for our kids today. True? I’m afraid not.

 

What’s different about this generation? According to a growing number of physicians, health professionals, public safety officials and environmental advocacy groups, children today are exposed to so many chemicals overall, they really are in danger. In fact, many have attributed the alarming rise in allergies, autism, ‘learning disorders’ and developmental disabilities to exposure to toxins.

 

Healthy Children are Toxin-Free

Healthy Children are Toxin-Free

The Center for Children’s Health and the Environment at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York said “Today, children are exposed to thousands of substances in the environment, most of which have never been tested for toxicity to children. The implications of this massive experiment in exposure are unknown. Environmental toxicants are suspected to be correlated with many disorders that, until recently, have been assumed to be genetic in origin… attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder, and autism are among the disorders that may be linked to environmental toxicants.”

 

Similar statements have been issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Environmental Working Group (EWG), and many others. You can find out more in Five Problems with Crib Mattresses, which also covers a lot of ground on the problem in general, not just with crib mattresses.

 

Organic schmorganic? I don’t think so. Nearly one in ten children is being diagnosed with ADHD alone (with one third of them taking drugs in an attempt to control it), and about one in 150 kids have autism. These conditions were barely heard of 20 years ago.

 

Find out more about how toxins are affecting your kids, and you, and get them off to a healthy start with a crib mattress (best is one that also converts to a toddler bed mattress) that is not made with any of the chemicals suspected to be causing these problems.

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Is a Latex Crib Mattress Really Safe for My Baby?

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
Can a latex crib mattress harm your baby?

Can a latex crib mattress harm your baby?

 

When you consider that a baby spends 12 to 14 hours a day sleeping, it’s a wonder that the use of latex in crib mattresses hasn’t been restricted. Here’s a brief summary of what the experts have to say:

 

 A study, one of many, conducted on over 1,000 health care workers found that nearly 22% had symptoms related to wearing latex gloves. Most of the problems were skin related, but some had asthma and cold symptoms like sneezing, itchy eyes, nose, ears, and throat, runny noses, nasal congestion, or worse. Some reactions have been so severe that health care workers have had to change professions, and some have been fatal.

 

 More than 10 years ago (in September, 1997), the FDA issued a ruling stating that the labeling of medical devices containing natural rubber latex (if the device is likely to come in contact with humans) must state, in bold print: “Caution: This Product Contains Natural Rubber Latex Which May Cause Allergic Reactions.” At the same time, they also said those products could not be labeled as “hypoallergenic.”

 

 According to the U.S. Department of Labor, an estimated 10% of health care workers are sensitive to latex – although, as above, some studies indicate that number could be more than double.

 

 The American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology calls latex allergy a serious health risk. Find out more about latex allergy on their site.

 

Is there any reason to think the risk may be less for babies? Hardly; a body still in development is even more susceptible than when fully grown.

 

Unless you’re going to test a baby for latex allergy, which, even if you wanted to, is a little hard to do before the baby is put into his crib for the first time, you don’t know whether your baby is going to react to it or not. Nor is there any way to know if a sensitivity will develop over time – also common.

 

At Naturepedic, we make our crib mattresses without latex foam. And we also don’t use any materials like coir (crushed coconut husks) that traditionally require a significant amount of latex to hold it together. If you’re looking for something 100% latex-free, you’ve found it.

 

Gloria
The Naturepedic Blog Maven

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Could Your Baby Be Allergic to the Wool in Crib Mattresses?

Monday, August 17th, 2009

As more and more people become aware of the dangers of chemicals and the public demands safer products, more mattress companies are coming out with an ‘organic’ crib mattress line. Many of these products contain some organic materials, but still have other toxic materials in them. Some, for example, contain organic cotton but combine it with polyurethane foam, PVC/vinyl and other toxic materials. So, as I’ve mentioned in earlier blogs, you have to make sure you really do your research. But, beyond that, is the problem of allergies and sensitivities.

 

Could your baby be sensitive to wool?

Could your baby be sensitive to wool?

Wool, for example, a common ingredient in natural or organic crib mattresses, is one of the biggest offenders.

 

Some experts say that a ‘true’ allergy to wool – an immune system reaction that can result in rashes, swelling of the airways and eyes, asthma, and a lot more – is pretty rare. But sensitivity to wool is much more common, and often the symptoms are similar.

 

A study done on over 2,000 wool textile workers showed that 9% of the workers had persistent cough and phlegm, 31% were wheezing, 10% experienced breathlessness, 18% had persistent cold symptoms, 10% had persistent conjunctivitis, about 2% had persistent chills, 2% had 10 or more nosebleeds a year, and 5% had one or more chest illnesses per year. They aren’t necessarily allergic to wool, they’re just sensitive to the wool dust.

 

Wool also harbors dust-mites and other potential allergens like cat dander. In fact, if you have cats and wear wool sweaters, you’re exposed to 10 times the amount of cat dander than if you were wearing nothing at all – according to a study mentioned in about.com.

 

We also wonder how wool is cleaned. It may be ‘organic,’ but how do they get all the dirt, sweat, grease, waste products, fleas, etc. etc. out of the wool? We don’t know. We’ve asked a few manufacturers and, frankly, they just don’t seem to want to tell us.

 

Your baby not might be allergic to wool at all, and may not be or become sensitive to it. But, from our viewpoint, it’s better to be safe than sorry – which is why we don’t use wool in our crib mattresses.

 

Gloria
The Naturepedic Blog Maven

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Why We Use Organic Cotton in Our Crib Mattresses

Friday, August 7th, 2009
Why We Use Organic Cotton in Crib Mattresses

Why We Use Organic Cotton in Crib Mattresses

We use organic cotton in all our crib mattresses because we want babies and kids to sleep on something that is safe and healthy. No synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or other chemicals – nothing harmful whatsoever. But it’s not only babies who are affected by these toxins.

 

My father, for example, just turned 81 and was diagnosed with cancer a couple of years ago. He’s on chemo and responding quite well.

 

The type of cancer he has is called multiple myeloma. It starts in the blood cells and collects in the marrow and other parts of the bone. Like other cancers, it can kill you. But many people with multiple myeloma live for a long time – although the condition generally roller-coasters between long periods of apparent remission and acute episodes.

 

What’s different about multiple myeloma is that it is acknowledged as being related to pesticide and herbicide exposure. As with all cancers, there are several other risk factors but, according to The Collaborative on Health and the Environment, pesticides and herbicides are high on the list of those stemming from the environment.

 

The Collaborative for Health and the Environment

The Collaborative for Health and the Environment

The Collaborative on Health and the Environment, by the way, is a very useful resource. It’s a network of 3000 individuals and organizations in 45 countries, including representation in 48 U.S. states, which has as its mission to “advance knowledge and effective action to address growing concerns about the links between human health and environmental factors.” Check out their database for information on the strength of the evidence connecting multiple myeloma, pesticides and herbicides, as well as links between other diseases and their environmental risk factors.

 

My father has lived for years in a community that controls pests and weeds. I am inundated with mosquitoes, for example, but have never once seen a mosquito at my father’s house, even though he lives right on a canal which should be a strong breeding ground. Nor do I ever see a weed in my father’s lawn. His community is regularly sprayed.

 

If just a few years of living in that kind of environment can contribute to a healthy adult getting cancer, imagine what your baby is up against.

 

At Naturepedic, we help you avoid the sometimes disastrous effects of pesticide and herbicide exposure by using organic cotton in our crib mattresses and other products. But we also hope to influence the use of toxins overall. If we can accomplish that, more babies and children will be safe, and more grandparents will be around to see them grow up.

 

Gloria
The Naturepedic Blog Maven

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Does the Label on Your Adult or Crib Mattress Really Tell You Everything?

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

 

A friend of mine recently bought a bed at a store (which shall remain nameless) that, for some reason, I associate with products that are somewhat natural if not actually organic. She bought a mattress with a cotton cover – it may even have been unbleached, it looked like it – along with a natural wood bed, and a platform of wooden slats on which the mattress rests. Sounds pretty natural to me, as it did to her.

 

She got it home and had been happily sleeping on it for a while when she told me about it. Of course, we got into a discussion about the materials used to make mattresses. She told me hers was safe – cotton cover and all. Then I told her to check the label. She said she checked it when she bought it but didn’t have it any longer because it was on the packaging. I told her to check the label that is attached to the bottom of the mattress; the one that says it’s against the law to remove. She’d never thought of checking THAT label and, even though she’d seen them, she had always assumed that those labels contained the same information that was on the packaging.

 

So, she checked it and, sure enough, the mattress contained polyurethane foam. Wow!! Was she disappointed. She felt cheated – she put out the time and energy to get a good natural product, or so she thought, and it turned out she was sleeping on the equivalent of solid gasoline, with tons of chemicals in it to make it less flammable, and breathing it all in every night.

 

She’s taking it back. She doesn’t want to breathe that stuff.

 

But she learned a good lesson from it – reading the packaging isn’t enough. You have to read the real label. In fact, I would advise you go a little further and even check for GREENGUARD certification. We have it on all our crib mattresses, and the larger mattresses as well. If you still have questions about materials used, call the manufacturer. A good one will tell you exactly what’s in their products. Like we do.

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Back to School Supplies without PVC?

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

 

You’ve been working hard to keep your child healthy – maybe they’ve even slept on a Naturepedic organic cotton crib mattress! Now it’s time for school, and you’re faced with PVC-laden school supplies. Everything from pretty pink backpacks with images of their favorite characters to Spidey lunchboxes and modeling clay. Chances are they’re made with PVC or PVC/vinyl – one of the very things you’ve been trying to avoid!

 

PVC-Free School Supplies

To help you keep up all the good work you’ve been doing to keep your kids safe, the Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ) has just released a new handy wallet guide (although you have to fold it quite a bit to fit it into your wallet) listing the types of back-to-school supplies that are likely to contain PVC.

 

What are your alternatives? The CHEJ took things a step further and also made us a great list of PVC-free school supplies. It contains just about everything – pens and pencils, binders, lunch bags, food wraps, and a lot more. Even cell phones, computer monitors, rain gear and sneakers.

 

The CHEJ is also a great resource for information on PVC and other toxins that may be harming our environment and our health. Check them out.

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