Bye, Bye Bulbs
Going Green Has Unexpected Benefit
Normally an incident of this nature would leave me saying some very colorful words under my breath as I frantically tried to clean up the mess, but considering it was a bottle of Seventh Generation All Purpose Cleaner that would not render my skin a burning peeling mess and half of our groceries ready for the garbage before they even made it into the car....I surprisingly had a smile on my face and the only negative thought I had was that I was bummed so much of the bottle was wasted, but accidents do happen and I would much rather it be one like this than something worse. Going green has long term benefits, but what happened today proved it has immediate benefits too...I have hopefully seriously lessened my chances of ever having to make a dreadful call to poison control...and now the kids can join in and help out with the house cleaning too!!!
Just unloaded the groceries and the bagger put my ginger in the same bag as my dishwasher detergent. Thankfully it was yet another non toxic Seventh Generation product and I can continue with my plans to make ginger soy chicken without worrying about poisoning my family.
Happy Tuesday!
Chemicals in Everyday Products
After a trip to the salon yesterday to fix a huge mistake I made trying to save some money by coloring my hair myself, I met an awesome hair stylist (Carlos Canales @ Hair for Me in Leesburg) who raised some interesting points that challenged me to think more about the products I use every day on myself and my kids. While I have been increasingly aware of and concerned with chemicals in the products I use, I never really did much about it….until now.
An article about the claim that the body absorbs 5lbs of make-up chemicals per year
Environmental Working Group -Ingredients in cosmetics and personal care products are not screened for safety.
EWGs Skin Deep Database of chemicals/toxicity levels of products
Printable safety guide to childrens personal care products
Twas the Night Before Christmas....
...and we all got sick! What's a holiday without an illness when you have a house full of kids? Marin got pneumonia, Conner had double ear infections and while his chest xray was neg for pneumonia, he was wheezing enough to necessitate nebulizer treatments for a week. The other two faired much better with just some congestion and coughing that didn't seem to slow them down.
Just as we were recovering from the sickie poos and Christmas chaos, Conner was well enough for his 1 year vaccinations. A week later he had a 102.5 fever, rash all over his body, and wouldn't eat a thing. At first I thought it might be roseola, but the rash and fever are not supposed to be present at the same time. Since the rash blanched (went away when applying pressure) the doc was not too concerned but wanted him to come in for a visit. If a rash does not blanch, then it could indicate a blood/skin infection that is more serious.
It seems he had a reaction to his chicken pox/MMR vaccine. According to the doc, it is quite common (especially a week following the shots) and believed that those who have a reaction like his are the ones who truly benefit from the protection. The real illness(es) would be quite devastating.
The reaction has almost completely cleared up and Conner is on to his next battle...teething. Hopefully some day soon he will be back to sleeping thru the night, I will go to bed before midnight, and wake up feeling refreshed without having to depend on the cup of joe I have grown so fond of and developed such an addiction for....a girl can dream. :)
