Massive paranoia about flame retardants in baby gear and hubby is angry! HELP!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also most strollers are treated like Peg Perego. Bob is not but they are expensive. ALL infant carriers are treated but some are better than others. You can follow that research on my blog as my baby #2 is on the way and I am on the hunt for the safest one
And the treatments do NOT wash out FYI
You can buy used furniture, just make sure it is real wood and not particle board or MDF. We bought Million Dollar Baby as it was cheap and real pine. THe drawers were MDF on the bottom so we sealed them with Shellac
Lot's of companies like Fisher Price will give you incorrect info when asked. They are required by california law to meet certain standards. (Tech 117) so large companies comply with all of their products since they are not going to make different products for CA. If it has Polyurethane then you can be rest assured it is COATED in flame retardant regardless of what the company says. I have learned in my business if you contact these companies 10 times you will get 10 different answers depending on how you ask the question

Used furniture "airs out" even if it has MDF or particle board. If it is 30 year old furniture, you are OK. It's the new stuff that is bad. And Yes, Anything polyurthathane is bad.

[Anonymous]

Kids II is a terrible company who is fighting the banning of BPA in their products. I would not support ANYTHING from them. Fisher Price also uses dangerous chemicals in plastics and other items. The Summer Infant Nature's Purest is not treated and you can get it for about $60 (it is discontinued so you will have to go to a site for it) It is what I am planning on buying. I bought the Naturepedic as well but would probably buy a natural latex mattress if knew what I knew now. But I think it is fine. If you are really strapped financially you can buy a traditional mattress and get a Babesafe cover but they are supposed to be really noisy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think you are crazy at all! The chemicals they are using in the items you mentioned are the same toxic chemicals that were banned from children's clothing in the 1970's due to its toxicity. Here are some recommendations: Buy these on craigslist to save money

1. Baby bjorn travel crin (instead of a pack and play...al pack and plays are treated0
2. Baby bjorn bouncer (they have organic but their regular are not treated)
3. Swings are tough...I am looking into the Summer Infant natural one as I heard it is not treated but doubt that is the case
4. G Diapers hybrid diapers. They have a disposable insert and a cloth outside. They are biodegradable and no chlorine. Or use Earth's Best but these aren't great. The ones you have do have chlorine. Seventh generation actually DYES THEIR DIAPERS BROWN to give the appearance of more eco-friendly....I find it misleading and wrong.
5. The high chair just avoid the plastic ones with the padding. Buy a used wood one
6. Splurge on the organic cotton covered WOOL nursing pillow! The baby will spend TONS of time on this! Do not be fooled by "organic" by Sealy, Boppy, etc...they are organic cotton covers coated in flame retardant
Hope this helps!
5. We have a lost of all the other recommended items on our site http://www.organicbabyuniversity.com

Beware of the Baby Bjorn travel crib. I have seen reviews on Amazon that say it has a polyurathane mattress. I got an organic cotton wool, stuffed nursing pillow online:
http://www.theultimategreenstore.com/p-886-organic-cotton-wool-u-shaped-nursing-pillow.aspx

I have been using Bambo diapers, Broody Chick and I am going to try Earth's best too. I can't do the washable diapers b/c I don't have a laundry at my apartment.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the older furniture airing out...she is totally right! Just be careful about unknown finishes on the furniture...the baby WILL chew on them (: They say mattresses take about 7 years to air out so I certainly think most furniture would air out by that same amount of time if not less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids II is a terrible company who is fighting the banning of BPA in their products. I would not support ANYTHING from them. Fisher Price also uses dangerous chemicals in plastics and other items. The Summer Infant Nature's Purest is not treated and you can get it for about $60 (it is discontinued so you will have to go to a site for it) It is what I am planning on buying. I bought the Naturepedic as well but would probably buy a natural latex mattress if knew what I knew now. But I think it is fine. If you are really strapped financially you can buy a traditional mattress and get a Babesafe cover but they are supposed to be really noisy.

Isnt the Babysafe cover made of the same material that Naturepedic uses to cover their mattresses? I believe it is, but correct me if I am wrong. Fisher Price got in trouble recently for lead in their plastic kids products. I just read a news article about it.

So can anyone recommend a swing and bouncy seat that is OK? Natures Purest?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know if footies and onesies have flame retardants? Or is it just those polyester PJs???

[Anonymous]

And here is a great article for all of the moms who don't think these chemicals are a big deal. The American Academy of Pediatrics released an urge for regulations of chemicals due to their harmful effects on children just this week.

http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/apr2511studies.htm

[Anonymous]

Babesafe is but I was recommending it since I think it is $60 if the $300 organic mattress is out of your price range.

Bouncy-Baby Bjorn
Swing-Natures Purest-there are others but they are hundreds of dollars

As far as the footsies and onsies it depends on the company. Generally the rule is if they are for children under 12 months and are fitted cotton they will not be treated. Poly and others may be treated or considered naturally fire retardant since they actually melt. Carter's does not use the fire retardants if you are not going the organic route however, I have seen the tag stating some Carter's outfits ARE flame retardant at Costco...not sure if Costco is requiring it or doing it or what?? After one year of age most are so you will have to start doing your homework with each individual company or stick to organic

[Anonymous]

And you may want to get an organic changing pad too...they are made with poly and are treated and your baby will spend a lot of time on that too

What would be really great is if they took all of these chemicals out of the products! You can go to momsrising.org to sign up to try to stop it. The idea that by coating everything in these chemicals we are protecting our children is wrong. Even the firefighters in CA have tried to stop these regulations requiring the chemicals because they don't keep the product from catching fire, they just slow it down by a few seconds. Ahd when it does ignite the smoke is MUCH more toxic. People die of smoke inhalation, not the flames. Fabrics like wool are naturally flame retardant so there are ways to be safe about fire AND protect our children from chemicals. Not to mention what these chemicals do to the environment during production as well as when you throw the items out

[Anonymous]

Also most strollers are treated like Peg Perego. Bob is not but they are expensive. ALL infant carriers are treated but some are better than others. You can follow that research on my blog as my baby #2 is on the way and I am on the hunt for the safest one
And the treatments do NOT wash out FYI
You can buy used furniture, just make sure it is real wood and not particle board or MDF. We bought Million Dollar Baby as it was cheap and real pine. THe drawers were MDF on the bottom so we sealed them with Shellac
Lot's of companies like Fisher Price will give you incorrect info when asked. They are required by california law to meet certain standards. (Tech 117) so large companies comply with all of their products since they are not going to make different products for CA. If it has Polyurethane then you can be rest assured it is COATED in flame retardant regardless of what the company says. I have learned in my business if you contact these companies 10 times you will get 10 different answers depending on how you ask the question.

It's so true about the companies. Sometimes I wonder how much people in customer service know or care to know. I have this MyBrestFreind nursing pillow, which I loved when I had my son. Just lately I realized that it may contain FRs, since it does have a tag with California law 117. So I decided to contact them about the issue. They wrote back saying that their pillows do not contain any fire retardants. The funny thing is, this pillow is completely made out of polyurethane foam, which is highly flammable and in no way can withstand California flammability law on its own. I wrote back to the company asking to clarify this aspect for me with their manufacturer. Honestly, I'm afraid they will not bother answering. If they do, I'll update my post. It's a really neat nursing pillow, but I probably will not be able to use it with my upcoming baby.

You know, there are a lot toxins out there, but what really annoys me with fire retardants, is that they are so unnecessary! Why, for crying out loud, nursing pillows need to fire retardant? I kind of feel that all those mega chemical companies trying to push laws, so more products would need to have fire retardants, and so they would have more sales. It's highly upsetting that they chose babies as one of their targets. From the info I found online, firemen themselves say that baby staff rarely involved in starting a fire, and if the fire is big enough, fire retardant staff burns as well as any other. Any toxins are annoying, but fire retardant issue simply seems overly obnoxious and forced on us with no good reason. Studies have showed, that such things as fire alarms, fire sprinklers, and self-extinguishing cigarettes do much better job at preventing fires than pounds of toxic fire retardants in our furniture or baby staff.

I currently live in San Diego, we do have strong fires here, so I should be pretty concerned about fire safety. However, people here get evacuated from neighborhoods way before fire gets to ones home. Besides, nobody in my family smokes, and we do have fire alarms, so I don't see the need to poison me and or my family with pounds of toxic FRs. When there are fires here, people are asked to put masks on or stay in doors, if possible, because outdoor air get so polluted with all toxic chemicals that burn with our homes. Fire retardants make firement work harder and more dangerous but in no way easier. The other ridiculous thing about FRs that they come in pounds, not trace amounts as pesticides in our food for example.

I mean I try to buy organic food, and I don't like conventional farming. However, here at least I can see why we came to it. It was an agricultural revolution, and helped us to have more affordable food in big quantities (that's why there is so many of us on this Earth ), but at least I see why our ancestors wanted to do it. Besides, back than they didn't know about all the harm that toxins bring. It's still an issue and needs to addressed. Farming needs to rebuilt itself according to new knowledge we now posses, but it will not be a quick change since not everybody can afford organic food, and switching from conventional to organic farming is not an easy road for a farmer. Fire retardants is totally different issue, however, there is really no need in them as studies show, and yet pounds of them are being forced on consumers without any choice. Unlike in agriculture, change in this toxic issue could happen very quickly if California law would change! That's why this issue is the most interesting for me at the moment. If we could push politicians to change this outdated law, we could drastically cut on toxins in our homes within a few years! I really hope the Consumer Choice Fire Safety Act proposed by senator Leno will come through. That would finally give us a choice whether we want fire retardant staff in our houses or not. I keep my fingers crossed!

[Anonymous]

don't worry, that person who said you need help is odd. Environmental issues and chemicals in children's toys and clothes is a real issue we all need to address. I am glad to see that there are intelligent people on this board who are aware of this issue and concerned about it.

Thank you! I'm not too upset with those moms, since after rereading my initial post I realized I did come across a bit too strong. I was in a hurry when I wrote it and didn't pay much attention to grammar or braking ideas into paragraphs. I just was trying to get as many tips as I could from the top of my head. Plus I tried to connect with the mom who started this thread on emotional level, showing that I understand and share her feelings. I wanted to also show that I'm trying to make positive steps without putting a strain on my marriage or kids, but it didn't come through quite as I intended. I guess that's a lesson to me to never write in a hurry . Oh, it was funny that I wrote that I'll try to vacuum and dust as often as possible. Currently, I'm vacuuming once a week on a good week. Now, since I'm learning more and more, I'm trying to build it to vacuum recommended twice a week, or even three times if I feel exceptionally energetic . So really, it's not like I'm vacuuming 3 times a day . And all the tips I wrote, it's not like I did all that in one week, it was a slow two year process. That's why it's true that it's hard to know a person from only one blog post.

Once thing I learned in US, that I have to be an advocate for my children safety and health. Health and environment are not the strongest points in our political system. It's also important to be a conscious consumer and ask manufacturers questions. The more of us will be doing it, the more clearly they will be getting the message, which will push them to be on our side when it comes to legislative process.

Oh, by the way, I take my toddler to two classes a week and also a playgroup. That's besides all the trips to zoo, parks, libraries, and playgrounds. He also traveled with us abroad already a couple of times. I do live a balanced life, but since I'm a stay at home mom at the moment, I don't see the reason why I shouldn't learn to be an advocate for my kids and the environment, since this topic is so interesting to me. Anyways, I'm not upset with moms who replied to my post negatively, perhaps they were just genuinely concerned, that's good too. I love all the posts after that. I'm glad to see that quite a few moms out there see the big picture and need for change. It's not always easy to see woods beyond the trees. Our lives are so busy, so it's hard to keep up with every issue that goes on in this world. It's just that a stay at home mom is my work at the moment, therefore I'm trying to educated myself on many issues that comes with parenting.

Applause to all the moms who are already doing a great job on improving the environment for their kids. And I'll keep my fingers crossed that more and more moms will eventually join this inevitable wagon sooner than later.

[Anonymous]

I am the OP and I am happy to see that others are aware of the flame retardant issue along with other chemicals in baby gear. I have a question -- how do you know if baby PJs or clothes have been treated with a flame retardant? I have tons of footies and onesies that are 100% cotton. But they don't say anything about flame retardants -- are all clothes treated with it unless they are organic?

It seems that only children sleepwear is required to be flame retardant. All sleepwear either flame retardant or has a big tag that states this PJs are not flame retardant and therefore need to be snag fit. I usually look for tags that have that statement, since it's definitely means that fire retardants were not used. Other children clothes is not treated with FRs. Often you can see a tag on baby clothes that it's not intended for sleep, which also means it was not treated with flame retardant. I dressed my son both in hand-me-downs and gifts, and organic clothes that I got for him. Unfortunately back then I didn't know about FRs, so some sleeping blankets he slept in were fire retardants. With my upcoming daughter, I plan on getting organic sleeping blankets and PJs. Some of her clothes will be hand-me-downs, but if I buy anything, I try to keep it organic, at least till she is a bit older.

Interesting thing about organic clothes. It may be made out of organic cotton, but processed with toxic chemicals and dyes. So not all organic clothes are created "organic." So now if I buy organic, I usually try to see if it states something like "it was processed without harmful chemicals or dyes." Oh, another day, I've read that in order to ease weaving cotton in cloth, fibers sometimes are treated with polyvinyl alcohol... Also many 100% organic clothes are treated with formaldehyde and other staff, since it prepares clothe to dyeing process and helps colors not to fade fast. So yep, the more you dig, the more in owe you feel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
It seems that only children sleepwear is required to be flame retardant. All sleepwear either flame retardant or has a big tag that states this PJs are not flame retardant and therefore need to be snag fit. I usually look for tags that have that statement, since it's definitely means that fire retardants were not used. Other children clothes is not treated with FRs. Often you can see a tag on baby clothes that it's not intended for sleep, which also means it was not treated with flame retardant. I dressed my son both in hand-me-downs and gifts, and organic clothes that I got for him. Unfortunately back then I didn't know about FRs, so some sleeping blankets he slept in were fire retardants. With my upcoming daughter, I plan on getting organic sleeping blankets and PJs. Some of her clothes will be hand-me-downs, but if I buy anything, I try to keep it organic, at least till she is a bit older.

Interesting thing about organic clothes. It may be made out of organic cotton, but processed with toxic chemicals and dyes. So not all organic clothes are created "organic." So now if I buy organic, I usually try to see if it states something like "it was processed without harmful chemicals or dyes." Oh, another day, I've read that in order to ease weaving cotton in cloth, fibers sometimes are treated with polyvinyl alcohol... Also many 100% organic clothes are treated with formaldehyde and other staff, since it prepares clothe to dyeing process and helps colors not to fade fast. So yep, the more you dig, the more in owe you feel.

How about baby clothes -- like just onesies and footies? I guess they are not technically PJs. They just say 100% cotton on them. I am guessing they are fine. I am the same as you, I have tons of hand me down clothes, and anything I buy new is organic. I also tend to put organic onesies under my baby's clothes.

All u can do is your best and buy organic and hope it's ok. But I agree, the more you dig, the more disturbing it is.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Plus I tried to connect with the mom who started this thread on emotional level, showing that I understand and share her feelings. I wanted to also show that I'm trying to make positive steps without putting a strain on my marriage or kids, but it didn't come through quite as I intended.

Once thing I learned in US, that I have to be an advocate for my children safety and health. Health and environment are not the strongest points in our political system. It's also important to be a conscious consumer and ask manufacturers questions. The more of us will be doing it, the more clearly they will be getting the message, which will push them to be on our side when it comes to legislative process.

He also traveled with us abroad already a couple of times. I do live a balanced life, but since I'm a stay at home mom at the moment, I don't see the reason why I shouldn't learn to be an advocate for my kids and the environment, since this topic is so interesting to me.

Applause to all the moms who are already doing a great job on improving the environment for their kids. And I'll keep my fingers crossed that more and more moms will eventually join this inevitable wagon sooner than later.

I am the OP! thank you!! I am so glad to see there are people out there who care about consumer safety and the planet and care about their kids' health. I always wonder how baby consumer safety is handled in other countries. I feel like in Scandinavia and Europe there are tougher regulations, although I am not 100% sure. Esp Scandinavians have the utmost respect for the environment.

I always vote for politicians who support consumer safety and environmental regulation.

[Anonymous]

In answer to the question about the My Breast Friend ...they do treat their pillows with FR. It is hit and miss with customer service. There have been MANY times I have been told there is no FR in a product and contact again to be sure and then am told there is.....if they say it is not then ask"how do you meet the CA 117 standards then?" If it is poly foam and has to meet ANY fire retardant standard then they 100% will be COATED in the stuff. And yes it is beyond sad that the chemical companies use the health of our children for profit. It does not protect our children and it harms them a little bit every day..increasing risks for cancer, asthma, and other diseases and disorders. It is just wrong. The only way to stop it is by voting with the products you choose to buy. Companies only are out for a buck and if we buy differently they will make different quality products to stay in the game. If we leave it up to regulation they will just ban one chemical like they always do ....DDT, PBDEs, PCBs and substitute it for something just as toxic as they always do