When we found out about the toxic issues of the majority of retail products used around the home we took quite dramatic action. As a couple, new parents of our first child, we decided to clear our home completely of all products which might contain potentially harmful ingredients. We threw out two garbage bags worth of products from our laundry, kitchen, bathroom and personal care (makeup, perfumes etc). We went from one end of the house to the other and pretty much threw everything out, the weekend we were shown that there was an alternative.
We changed brands to a safe product line (with strong scientific backing, clinical trials and large body of supporting evidence). With several decades of experience in Universities, I was convinced of the value of this information and product line, given its backing by a company representing several prominent US Universities.
I can give you countless testimonies of how this decision changed our life for the better, but I recently shared one with a colleague and thought it was worth adding here.
When our second son was 11 months old, crawling and getting into everything he could, I had a product encounter that could have been extremely serious if we had not been using safe products.
I was in the kitchen unstacking the dishwasher and he crawled in and started playing at my feet while I worked. This wasn't unusual, but I didn't even think of the danger until I saw him reach out and swipe a chubby fistful of dishwasher powder residue off the powder dispenser and shove it in his mouth.
Knowing how caustic dishwasher powder is, I grabbed him and wiped his mouth out as best I could with a wet cloth while my husband called the poison information line. We didn't know how much he might have swallowed. The person who responded to our call said that dishwasher powder was likely to cause bad burns to the mouth and throat and that we needed to watch him very carefully over the next quarter of an hour.
Although I knew we were using products that are publicly acclaimed as the "safest on the planet", dishwasher powder is dishwasher powder. It was an anxious time.
I am pleased to say that there were no burns, no adverse affects from him putting the undissolved powder into his mouth.
Is Dishwasher detergent really that harmful? Should we have been as concerned as the Poisons Information line thought? Decide for yourself. Here is an extract from the book "Let's stop destroying our children" by Shirley Camper Soman:
When Peter Schwab of Seattle, Wash., was one year old he crawled over to the dishwasher to watch his mother unloading it. Suddenly, he put his finger into the detergent dispensing cup and ate a fingerful of wet, but undissolved, Electrosol. In minutes his face was red and blistered, and the inside of his mouth and his tongue were burned white. Because of a series of lucky circumstances Peter was in a hospital within minutes and recovered in a few days. Not so the little girl across the hall in the hospital who (according to Peter's mother) ate some Finish dishwashing compound and required 7 operations to reopen her scarred esophagus. Or the 18-month-old boy who had to eat and breathe through tubes for five months and endured 30 operations. Finish is what destroyed his throat too"
If this happened to your child, would you rather be using safe products, as we were?
Be well! And have peace of mind.
Deidre.
