These people say it much better than I do. A must-read on the topic
of sugar and why we are trying to curb, delay, or prevent the
"addiction" for Eli.
http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/02/12/sugar-addiction?cmpid=foodinc-fb
As a family, we cut out processed food a long time ago (we do cheat
a couple times a year), and processed sugar a few years ago. Per
the suggestion of Eli's pediatrician, we are delaying starchy foods
such as potatoes and pasta for Eli, so that hopefully he won't
develop quite a sweet tooth as his daddy did. More on our
low-glycemic diet later. But for now this article will do.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Why we really need to move - secondhand and thirdhand smoking
Before last week, we had plenty of reasons to move. Our rent is
ridiculously high and will only go up more this year after the
construction completes next door, literally downstairs by our
window. We wanted a baby-friendly neighborhood that is safe, a
building that is relatively new so we'd have some form of
soundproof, and a doorman for the convenience and safety, so most
of our take home income went to rent. It is the sad reality of
living in New York City. We miss the outdoors, open sky and quaint
downtowns of small town America, so we have been plotting to move
which comes with a career change for a while. But this last week it
seems to have gained some urgency because of a new problem with our
apartment living - smoking neighbors.
It's no surprise that secondhand smoking is bad for everyone, especially babies. Quick links below if you really need the facts.
CDC
smokefree
A somewhat new concern is something called "third-hand smoke" which is residual particulates that contaminate surfaces after a cigarette has been extinguished. This is one of the reasons why homes and apartments will still smell like cigarette smoke even years after the smoker has left or quit smoking. The smell that permeates carpets, sofas, chairs, etc. It is suggested that children are especially at risk for this type of "smoke" since they tend to play on floors and their faces are typically right at couch-height especially when they're learning to walk.
Babies also come into contact with smoke residues in the car. Even if parents never light up in their car, residues on smoker's clothing and hair settles on the dashboard, seats and car seats. Particles can accumulate on smoker's clothes and skin. When you snuggle, or hug, babies come into contact with the toxins. A nursing mother's milk also might contain third-hand smoke residues.
What is third hand smoke
Dartmouth Research
Fantastic. Why am I freaking out a bit? Well, our apartment has smelled like pot for the last week, and this afternoon it got so bad that I had to open the window just so I could breathe.I wonder why Eli is coughing a bit today. Good thing we have an air purifier from a beloved aunt! We live in a smoke-free building, but people really don't care. I have filed multiple complaints with building management, and I hope they could put out enough warnings that people would stop. It is just a terrible thing when we try to protect Eli from harmful substances by removing them from his diet, his clothes, skincare products, etc., we end up exposing him to high levels of chemicals that are known to mess with the brain, even for adults. I may have to personally beg our neighbors to stop, especially knowing that it could even cause SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) by way of interfering with the breathing of infants.
In other news, even when we move out to a pristine country home free of smoke residue, I may still have to explain and politely ask smokers who want to hold and play with Eli to come back another time, showered and wearing clean clothes. Call me crazy. My father smoked, like all men in business did in his time, when I was younger, and I had a lot of respiratory problems and my eyes were sensitive to the smoke. Not a good time. He quit by the time I was 6. It was such a brave and amazing thing to do and I am so grateful for it. I hope I never have to subject Eli to that kind of discomfort and health risks.
I realize this blog is quickly reading like a over-protective maniac trying to put a child in a bubble. But is it really so awful? Young children are more at risk to environmental "poisons" due to their size and metabolism, lower ability to limit penetration of chemicals from blood to brain, and reduced ability to breakdown and eliminate chemicals from their organs. So, before they are out in the world exposing themselves to all things good and bad anyway, is it so wrong to try to minimize that negative effect in their first years? Comment, as you wish.
It's no surprise that secondhand smoking is bad for everyone, especially babies. Quick links below if you really need the facts.
CDC
smokefree
A somewhat new concern is something called "third-hand smoke" which is residual particulates that contaminate surfaces after a cigarette has been extinguished. This is one of the reasons why homes and apartments will still smell like cigarette smoke even years after the smoker has left or quit smoking. The smell that permeates carpets, sofas, chairs, etc. It is suggested that children are especially at risk for this type of "smoke" since they tend to play on floors and their faces are typically right at couch-height especially when they're learning to walk.
Babies also come into contact with smoke residues in the car. Even if parents never light up in their car, residues on smoker's clothing and hair settles on the dashboard, seats and car seats. Particles can accumulate on smoker's clothes and skin. When you snuggle, or hug, babies come into contact with the toxins. A nursing mother's milk also might contain third-hand smoke residues.
What is third hand smoke
Dartmouth Research
Fantastic. Why am I freaking out a bit? Well, our apartment has smelled like pot for the last week, and this afternoon it got so bad that I had to open the window just so I could breathe.I wonder why Eli is coughing a bit today. Good thing we have an air purifier from a beloved aunt! We live in a smoke-free building, but people really don't care. I have filed multiple complaints with building management, and I hope they could put out enough warnings that people would stop. It is just a terrible thing when we try to protect Eli from harmful substances by removing them from his diet, his clothes, skincare products, etc., we end up exposing him to high levels of chemicals that are known to mess with the brain, even for adults. I may have to personally beg our neighbors to stop, especially knowing that it could even cause SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) by way of interfering with the breathing of infants.
In other news, even when we move out to a pristine country home free of smoke residue, I may still have to explain and politely ask smokers who want to hold and play with Eli to come back another time, showered and wearing clean clothes. Call me crazy. My father smoked, like all men in business did in his time, when I was younger, and I had a lot of respiratory problems and my eyes were sensitive to the smoke. Not a good time. He quit by the time I was 6. It was such a brave and amazing thing to do and I am so grateful for it. I hope I never have to subject Eli to that kind of discomfort and health risks.
I realize this blog is quickly reading like a over-protective maniac trying to put a child in a bubble. But is it really so awful? Young children are more at risk to environmental "poisons" due to their size and metabolism, lower ability to limit penetration of chemicals from blood to brain, and reduced ability to breakdown and eliminate chemicals from their organs. So, before they are out in the world exposing themselves to all things good and bad anyway, is it so wrong to try to minimize that negative effect in their first years? Comment, as you wish.
Why we buy organic clothes for Eli, and not very often
You might want to think twice before buying that cute outfit for
your child/grandchild or that cute baby your friend just had. There
are so many harmful chemicals that are in the clothes of brands
that we love, and children are especially sensitive (well explained
in the report below), so shouldn't we be more concerned that there
are elevated levels of toxic chemicals, many of which act as
endocrine disruptors? UNEP and WHO studies have shown that they act
at very low levels, and are linked to many childhood and adult
diseases that are on the rise. All of that, on top of the
pesticides that are used in the production of cotton around the
world, and the permanent damage it is doing to the soil and water
of the our planet.
The first link here is the Greenpeace report that prompted the topic but you can also find more information below.
Greenpeace report
Ecowatch
Greenamerica
Why not sweatshops
So what to do, what to do.. I don't have the perfect answer because labeling is such an issue, and even eco-friendly materials like hemp or bamboo fabric could be treated with additional harmful chemicals in the softening process or coloring stage. I try to stick to organic cotton, organic wool, nontoxic dyes, and no additional weather-proofing features such as SPF,easy-clean or bug repellent. Polyester tends to be always treated with one or more of these bad chemicals, so I am going to do some further research into our favorite eco-friendly brands by directly contacting them (Nui Organics, Patagonia, Winterwater, Itsus Organic, Land of Looms, Sckoon, Kushies, Kate Quinn, Sage Creek,etc.), and update later with hopefully a list of non-toxic baby clothing brands, however short that might be.
Eli, in his organic Winter Water shirt we bought at $10 (70% off)
The question is always, but organic is so expensive. It's for hipsters, for people who can afford it. Well, I hear ya. We are living on a strict budget and aren't in any position to spend the average $30-$40 on a single onesie or pair of pants. But thank goodness for E-commerce and Flashsales! We routinely check online sales at Zulily, Ruelala, and alikes and can always find deals that are at least 40% off if not more. It doesn't make these premium products cheap, but by simply buying and using less, it ends up being okay. Imagine if the average household buys 10 outfits at $8 per piece, bear wit
h me here, if we bought 4 outfits at $20 per piece, it's the same amount of money spent. That's the idea and that's what we have been doing. We are also lucky that we get some handmedowns from friends who share our values, and have also had some success shopping second-hand at very affordable prices.
"But four outfits?" You asked. We do laundry almost everyday so that we can rotate fairly frequently amongst the few pieces that we trust are safe for Eli. Safe laundering is another huge issue to tackle, we will need an entire day for that, so another post. It really is simply the old way of living. People didn't always have as much as we do now. We didn't need (still don't) 20 outfits for a baby at any given time, but companies have made them so cheap and our houses have gotten so big that it isn't hard to have a lot of them, because boy it is convenient to not have to do laundry so often, to just simply throw them in a pile and have babies wear so many different outfits because it is fun. By making them cheap and making us want to buy more hence making more of the cheap products, they end up using or approve the usage of harmful chemicals to keep the costs down. I'm not against fun or convenience, but I am for keeping our earth as good as we can for our future generations, paying a fair wage to developing country workers, less consumerism and more quality/safe products, and supporting good businesses a.k.a voting with my wallet. Thankfully, the hubby has always been this way growing up (quality vs. quantity), so as a family we have embraced this lifestyle of "less is more, and probably better". It is a lot more work, but I believe it is good for the future world that Eli and his children are living in. What if Eli does not have children? Fair question, his nieces and nephews then.
We have a difficult time with gifts since they come with love, so we end up having Eli wear them, telling him he is loved and this is a nice present, and putting them in the rotation once in a while with less frequency than the organic ones. I feel bad admitting this, I wish there were a better way, but this is what we thought would be the optimal solution to a much, much bigger problem.
It turns out writing blog posts with a baby, a job-searching husband who works on weekends and trying to cook from scratch for the family and the baby means I never get to finish a paragraph and ramble. Bear with me here. I am better than this. You will see.
The first link here is the Greenpeace report that prompted the topic but you can also find more information below.
Greenpeace report
Ecowatch
Greenamerica
Why not sweatshops
So what to do, what to do.. I don't have the perfect answer because labeling is such an issue, and even eco-friendly materials like hemp or bamboo fabric could be treated with additional harmful chemicals in the softening process or coloring stage. I try to stick to organic cotton, organic wool, nontoxic dyes, and no additional weather-proofing features such as SPF,easy-clean or bug repellent. Polyester tends to be always treated with one or more of these bad chemicals, so I am going to do some further research into our favorite eco-friendly brands by directly contacting them (Nui Organics, Patagonia, Winterwater, Itsus Organic, Land of Looms, Sckoon, Kushies, Kate Quinn, Sage Creek,etc.), and update later with hopefully a list of non-toxic baby clothing brands, however short that might be.
Eli, in his organic Winter Water shirt we bought at $10 (70% off)
The question is always, but organic is so expensive. It's for hipsters, for people who can afford it. Well, I hear ya. We are living on a strict budget and aren't in any position to spend the average $30-$40 on a single onesie or pair of pants. But thank goodness for E-commerce and Flashsales! We routinely check online sales at Zulily, Ruelala, and alikes and can always find deals that are at least 40% off if not more. It doesn't make these premium products cheap, but by simply buying and using less, it ends up being okay. Imagine if the average household buys 10 outfits at $8 per piece, bear wit
h me here, if we bought 4 outfits at $20 per piece, it's the same amount of money spent. That's the idea and that's what we have been doing. We are also lucky that we get some handmedowns from friends who share our values, and have also had some success shopping second-hand at very affordable prices.
"But four outfits?" You asked. We do laundry almost everyday so that we can rotate fairly frequently amongst the few pieces that we trust are safe for Eli. Safe laundering is another huge issue to tackle, we will need an entire day for that, so another post. It really is simply the old way of living. People didn't always have as much as we do now. We didn't need (still don't) 20 outfits for a baby at any given time, but companies have made them so cheap and our houses have gotten so big that it isn't hard to have a lot of them, because boy it is convenient to not have to do laundry so often, to just simply throw them in a pile and have babies wear so many different outfits because it is fun. By making them cheap and making us want to buy more hence making more of the cheap products, they end up using or approve the usage of harmful chemicals to keep the costs down. I'm not against fun or convenience, but I am for keeping our earth as good as we can for our future generations, paying a fair wage to developing country workers, less consumerism and more quality/safe products, and supporting good businesses a.k.a voting with my wallet. Thankfully, the hubby has always been this way growing up (quality vs. quantity), so as a family we have embraced this lifestyle of "less is more, and probably better". It is a lot more work, but I believe it is good for the future world that Eli and his children are living in. What if Eli does not have children? Fair question, his nieces and nephews then.
We have a difficult time with gifts since they come with love, so we end up having Eli wear them, telling him he is loved and this is a nice present, and putting them in the rotation once in a while with less frequency than the organic ones. I feel bad admitting this, I wish there were a better way, but this is what we thought would be the optimal solution to a much, much bigger problem.
It turns out writing blog posts with a baby, a job-searching husband who works on weekends and trying to cook from scratch for the family and the baby means I never get to finish a paragraph and ramble. Bear with me here. I am better than this. You will see.
Eli's World
I decided to finally start a blog about Eli's world. We as a family
do not believe in sharing a lot of our pictures for the world to see,
especially children's pictures (I'm sure I will end up explaining
here at some point), so there may not be an abundance of baby
pictures and videos that you would expect from a "baby" blog. I
mostly just want to record things that I find about the world Eli
is growing up in, knowledge that empowers me to be a better
consumer and parent, and a better way of living that is hopefully a
little less toxic, a little less consumerist (which really is the
reason so much toxic is used to make the things we never needed
until now). Call it back to nature, sustainable, green, tree
hugger, crunchy, granola, organic, toxin-free, clean-living,
whatever you would like. I believe one day we could all agree that
for a couple of generations, chemical companies have basically run
our lives and ruined our planet without our consent (or the
planet's consent for that matter), and by educating ourselves and
getting back to the more natural ways, we could all be healthier,
happier, and better to the mother earth, who has been nothing but
kind to us. I'm not opposed to technological advances and the
science of chemistry, which happened to be my favorite subject in
school, I am just opposed to the wide-spread use of proven harmful
ones that are unnecessary or not essential, think anti-foaming
agents in French Fries, or artificial fragrances in basically
everything else.
I'm not as studious as some and usually do not have the patience to put together beautiful charts and graphs like I should/know how to do thanks to my training as an economist/banker/data analyzer, but I will at least hopefully get the sources linked up so you can see where I am getting my information and make the decisions for yourselves. There are people whose jobs are doing exactly that, combing through research and getting the information out there in an easy-to-digest form (seriously, who has the time to read about real issues any more), so I will leave it up to them to do what they do best. I hope this place, if nobody cares to come or keep coming, at least will be my own source of reference when I need to know just what exactly that toxic chemical is called in that particular (fill in the blank) that we use/eat everyday.
Ultimately, I hope the blog Eli's world can indeed make the slightest difference at least to those of you invited to read it, so that your world and Eli's world will be a better world. I may eventually turn into a more public advocate for a lot of the issues discussed here, but for now I just thought I'd share my thoughts and learning with friends and family. It's that seventh generation idea, and in addition to the concerns for the environment, it's also concern for the communities we impact outside of the US because of our modern lifestyles.But I know this isn't the first thing on everyone's mind, and that's totally understandable. I hope at least for your own sake, assuming you'd want to share a healthy, happy, long life with Eli, you would hear me out and maybe walk away with a few things that will make a little difference. I hope Eli's world is a better world than mine, and I hope we can all work together to contribute to that change, one little step at a time.
With love, in Long Island City, New York.
Me and 28-day-old Eli
I'm not as studious as some and usually do not have the patience to put together beautiful charts and graphs like I should/know how to do thanks to my training as an economist/banker/data analyzer, but I will at least hopefully get the sources linked up so you can see where I am getting my information and make the decisions for yourselves. There are people whose jobs are doing exactly that, combing through research and getting the information out there in an easy-to-digest form (seriously, who has the time to read about real issues any more), so I will leave it up to them to do what they do best. I hope this place, if nobody cares to come or keep coming, at least will be my own source of reference when I need to know just what exactly that toxic chemical is called in that particular (fill in the blank) that we use/eat everyday.
Ultimately, I hope the blog Eli's world can indeed make the slightest difference at least to those of you invited to read it, so that your world and Eli's world will be a better world. I may eventually turn into a more public advocate for a lot of the issues discussed here, but for now I just thought I'd share my thoughts and learning with friends and family. It's that seventh generation idea, and in addition to the concerns for the environment, it's also concern for the communities we impact outside of the US because of our modern lifestyles.But I know this isn't the first thing on everyone's mind, and that's totally understandable. I hope at least for your own sake, assuming you'd want to share a healthy, happy, long life with Eli, you would hear me out and maybe walk away with a few things that will make a little difference. I hope Eli's world is a better world than mine, and I hope we can all work together to contribute to that change, one little step at a time.
With love, in Long Island City, New York.
Me and 28-day-old Eli
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