Toxins in your baby’s shampoo with cancer-causing chemicals (carcinogens), how about your facial products, are you pregnant and eating off of plates washed in substances that could be potentially harmful to your fetus, washing your child with chemicals that could be causing eczema or bringing on allergies, are you putting lead on your lips….?

According to EWG, Environmental Working Group, “everyday children are now being exposed to an average of 27% personal care products” that have NOT been found safe for developing bodies which may lead to diseases later, or rather sooner, in life. Our children’s little immature organs, which are less capable of fending off these toxins, are being polluted and affected with outcomes that we have yet to foresee.

We know everyone gets advice from feeding to baby proofing but so many are still unaware of the toxic chemicals they are using, daily, that are NOT safe and the chronic diseases that could develop. Diseases such as asthma, ADHD, cancer, liver toxicity, brain tumors, and nervous system disorders.

There are products as harmful as formaldehyde in popular baby products such as Johnson and Johnson, Baby Magic, Sesame Street, Huggies and Grins & Giggles. Yes, the companies are aware of this. Some of them are willing to stop producing their products with such toxins but in the years to come. Well, I don’t know about you but that leaves distrust for me with those companies, and I don’t want to wait years to use products free of cancer-causing chemicals for my son. Therefore, we have gone through all products in our wisemommies’ homes to check for the harmful toxins, listed below.

** Important to know:

1. You can’t trust products that say “all natural”, use the following list as a constant reference and start by going through all your used products, today.
2. Unfortunately, some harmful chemicals are exempt from labeling laws because they are considered contaminants not ingredients. That means that you will need to look for ingredients which could contain other names, which I’ve also listed below.

The following are the top toxins to avoid in all your personal care products.

1. Phthalates: dibutylphthalate (hormone disrupters, male genital abnormalities, liver/kidney lesions, childhood asthma/allegies)
2. Formaldehyde preservatives: quaternium-15, DMDM hydantoin, imidazolidinyl urea and diazolidinyl urea
3. 1,4-dioxane: ethylene oxide, ethoxylation, PEG-100 stearate, sodium laureth sulfate, polyethylene and ceteareth-20; chemicals with “eth” in the name
4. Parabens (estrogen mimickers)
5. Petroleum by-products: mineral oil, petrolatum, liquid paraffin, toluene, xylene (often contaminated by 1-4dioxane and other cancer-causing impurities and can be found in many products including soaps/shampoos)
6. Triclosan: (hormone disruption) usually found in anti-bacterial soaps
7. Lead & Mercury (brain function) (most of us know since we’ve been hearing these two words for a long time now…still double check your lipsticks, ear, and eye drops)
8. Fragrance: methyl cellosolve, methoxyethanol (skin irritant, neurotoxin, developmental toxicant and possible DNA mutations): If an ingredient has just “fragrance” listed, this can include any toxic chemical and trigger allergies. Try to use products which list each fragrance ingredient so you can see exactly what ingredient it is.
9. Nanoparticles (untested ingredients that can penetrate cell walls and are highly reactive: found in lotions, moisturizers, make-up, sunscreen and more) …I did a small search on this website and even found some “organic baby skin products” containing nano “material” http://www.nanotechproject.org/

I use the EWG’s Skin Deep database to search for all my household products or to find baby products that don’t contain toxic chemicals. www.safecosmetics.org/skindeep

This post has been written with the hopes that you will make better informed, “healthier living” decisions by becoming aware of the chemicals in your products and to choose products without toxic chemicals.