The thing about toxic exposure is this: Everybody’s bill comes due.
Whether it’s cancer at 50 from breathing in asbestos or a shortened attention span now, it’s nearly impossible to escape toxicity. Even if you never drink unfiltered water from the tap, grow all of your own food organically, and clean your home with homemade products (endocrine disruptors on the side, please.)
Infants are born with over 150 toxins in their umbilical cords — that’s just a representation of the toxins an adult woman is exposed to during nine months. Plus, that’s only what stuck. The body has natural detoxification pathways built into our biology.
The fact that 150 can remain and become imprinted into a fetus is… unsettling, certainly.
For conscious parents, the dilemma is enormous. Everywhere and everything can seem unsafe — and indeed, everywhere and everything present dangers.
However…
The body can handle some toxin exposure. The goal should always be to reduce your toxic burden; but stress can make the body’s system stronger. Ultimately, if you’re controlling what you can, and aware of the worst offenders, you needn’t panic if your child does something you’ve learned can be toxic.
When you know better, you do better — but nobody’s perfect.
It can help if you break down the areas you want to focus on the most.
Let’s talk about five common ways toxins can find their way into your kids’ bodies…
Food & Water
Proper hydration and leveraging of nutrition provide our bodies with the tools to perform every single biological function.
That includes sleeping, focusing, emotional regulation, coordination and stamina, and more.
And now more than ever before, we find ourselves surrounded less by food and more by food-like products.
Parents are often concerned about pesticides and herbicides, like glyphosate, which can largely be avoided by buying organic or growing your own vegetables.
But the toxins in the almost food we eat can also wreak havoc. Namely, processed sugar.
There are more than 50 names for processed sugar. There’s an epidemic of insulin resistance and pre-diabetes in this country, even in kids who aren’t overweight. That’s because processed sugar is everywhere, and it’s the most inflammatory food we can put into our bodies.
It’s in soup, deli meat, pasta, bread, sausage, bacon, etc.
Dyes, flavors, and preservatives also poison the brain and cause attention and behavioral problems.
Instead, look for unrefined coconut sugar, raw honey, and maple syrup — natural sweeteners.
Ultimately, the conscious parent’s job is to reframe “deprivation” thinking. You’re not keeping yummy treats from your kid by not letting them have processed sugar. You’re giving their body the fuel to have energy on the soccer field or the focus in music class.
And that’s how you can connect it for them as well!
Plastics
Speaking of polluting your food and water…
No microwaving plastic and no plastic water bottles. They’re not just horrendous for the environment — the microplastics leach into the water and your kids absorb them. It’s even worse when they’re heated — think about those TV dinners our parents fed us and the water bottles we drank from after they’d been sitting in the sun.
Stick to stainless steel water filters and steel canteens!
Household Cleaning Products
Endocrine disruptors are all throughout your house. They’re volatile organic compounds that change the production and distribution patterns of your hormones.
We have to think about what’s off-gassing from home renovations (when parts of the wall are exposed that aren’t normally), from the spray you use to wipe down your counters, the bleach in Lysol that causes respiratory irritations.
You don’t have to replace everything all at once, but we commit to buying cleaner cleaning products as we use up the ones we’ve got…
Our children won’t think twice about making those choices in the future.
Furniture
Furniture can shockingly contain a lot of toxic compounds, like formaldehyde — an off-gassing component in cupboards, anything with pressboards, etc. Flame retardants are in couches and often clothes. Too much build-up, and you start to see eczema, allergies, asthma…
When babies roll around on the ground, touching things like rugs and tabletops and then putting their hands in their mouths…
They’re absorbing all of those toxins. Especially because airborne toxins tend to rise and then fall back down — the heavier, the more likely.
Personal Care Products
This is such a tough one, but here’s the truth: even when you think you’ve gone the safe route — unscented, mostly water, etc. — you could be in trouble.
Since “fragrance” is considered a trade secret, companies don’t have to disclose what’s in them. You see fragrance in something? Put it back.
Unscented? Most chemicals in skincare products have a bad natural odor. MORE chemicals get added just to mask it.
The first ingredient listed in a product usually makes up around 70–90% of that product. So you might think seeing water as the first ingredient is a go — but think again. If it isn’t unpurified water, your skin is absorbing all of the heavy metals that didn’t get filtered out… in about 26 seconds.
Scary stuff.
What’s important to remember is that we’re never going to completely eliminate toxins. We can’t live in a bubble, and we shouldn’t want to.
Our bodies are built to be able to handle a little bit of stress — not necessarily the toxic load of today’s world, but we do have livers, kidneys, lungs, excretory patterns, and sweat to help us drain the toxic cup as we fill it.
So don’t expect yourself to be perfect! Toxins have a cumulative effect on the brain, the gut, the skin, and more.
Keep yourself healthy and limit exposure to ensure those detoxification pathways are clear! When you know better, you do better.
That’s why I’m so obsessed with filming docu-series… I’m always hearing from you guys about areas where you don’t know as much as you’d like, and as a parent, I remember feeling like what I didn’t know was going to get me into trouble.
My friend Nick Polizzi and I constructed our new docuseries — “Conscious Parenting” — with that in mind: Our best depends on how many resources are available to us.
We ended up creating the series we wished we’d had back when our babies were still in their early developmental phases.
And finally…
We’re premiering the very first episode — “What is Conscious Parenting?” — on TONIGHT 9pm Eastern.
It’s COMPLETELY free to watch! All you have to do is sign up to watch it, and we’ll send you every link you’ll need!
Keep yourself healthy and limit exposure to ensure those detoxification pathways are clear! When you know better, you do better.
That’s why I’m so obsessed with filming docu-series… I’m always hearing from you guys about areas where you don’t know as much as you’d like, and as a parent, I remember feeling like what I didn’t know was going to get me into trouble.
My friend Nick Polizzi and I constructed our new docuseries — “Conscious Parenting” — with that in mind: Our best depends on how many resources are available to us.
We ended up creating the series we wished we’d had back when our babies were still in their early developmental phases.
And finally…
We premiered the very first episode — “What is Conscious Parenting?” — last night at 9pm Eastern.
It’s still up, so don’t worry — you can catch it! The second episode comes on at 9pm.
It’s COMPLETELY free to watch! All you have to do is sign up to watch it, and we’ll send you every link you’ll need!