The JOON Blog

I’m back from the Greening Our Children luncheon that was held in Connecticut yesterday and I’m on even more of a mission to spread the word to all you moms out there about doing the best we can to provide our children with the safest and healthiest environments.  That is our job primary job after all – to keep our children safe and guide them to grow up to be healthy and productive individuals who contribute to the whole of society.   It starts with us and it starts in our home.

Over the past few years, I have been immersed in research about the effects of toxins on children.  But, my access to research is limited – first off, I’m a mom, not a doctor or epidemiologist; second, though the internet is vast, it doesn’t necessarily provide me with all of the cutting edge research studies that have taken place or are imminent.  So, yesterday I listened intently.

Dr. Phillip Landrigan presented to the group of 400 – yes, 400 people in attendance, mostly moms! – “The Exquisite Vulnerability of the Developing Human Brain to Toxic Chemical Exposures”.  Dr. Landrigan pioneered research on lead toxicity that led to the removal of lead from gasoline and paint.  His credentials are amazing!  Now, he is focusing his studies on chronic diseases that our children face that are on the rise- obesity, ADHD, asthma, diabetes, pediatric cancer.  Medical studies have shown that exposure to certain environmental toxins contribute to such chronic illnesses.

On a personal note (some would vilify me for sharing information about my son on the internet, but I think it’s pertinent to the dialogue and important for moms to know)…my son was “diagnosed” with a gross motor developmental delay.  To make a long story short, my husband and I, as well as his teachers, noticed that he was “awkward” or clumsy in his movements.  He has excellent verbal skills, and we noticed that he was basically getting out of doing certain activities that were difficult for him by talking his way out – a compensatory strategy that he developed.  We had him evaluated by an occupational therapist who confirmed that he did, in fact, have issues with the integration of his vestibular system and gross motor skills.  But why?  He’s a perfectly healthy child, he’s bright, he reads, he writes (and he literally just turned 5), he plays tennis pretty well, he skis.  But, still, he has a deficiency, for lack of a better word, that definitely needs intervention.  Again, why?  After yesterday’s luncheon, I’m convinced that there are environmental factors at play.  According to Dr. Landrigan, there has to be a perfect storm, so to speak, for an issue or illness to arise – (1) exposure to environmental toxins (2) genetic vulnerability or predisposition (3) timing.  My son is 5.  As I mentioned in a previous post, there wasn’t a loud dialogue around toxins when he was born.  I was a first time mom, thinking I was doing everything right.  I shopped at Whole Foods as a novelty – back then, it was a pretty nice shopping experience.  (It still is, but it’s now one with a purpose.)  I don’t recall there even being BPA free bottles.  I made all of his food from scratch, but didn’t focus my efforts on organic ingredients.  Fresh and homemade was top of mind.  I even slathered cream on my pregnant belly several times a day to prevent stretch marks.  And, it certainly wasn’t by any means natural.  So in went all the phthalates, SLSs, and whatever else that was in all those creams I experimented with every single day, multiple times a day.  Who knows what was coursing through my bloodstream.  Perhaps he had (or has) a vulnerability to toxins. Certainly, there was exposure.  And, as far as timing goes, we do most of our neurological development from birth to early childhood – so talk about timing.  Now, he has an issue that stems from a neurological “glitch”, so to speak.  Granted, it’s something that therapy will “fix”, but it gives me pause as a mom.  A feel a tinge of guilt, but I realize that I can’t allow that to hold me back.  I must move forward and do what I can with the knowledge that I am now armed with to continue to guide my children through childhood to early adulthood so that they can continue to lead healthy and productive lives.

I am going to continue to follow the studies conducted by Mount Sinai Children’s Environmental Health Center led by Dr. Landrigan and continue to educate myself.  Every day there are more and more findings that we moms need to be aware of.  We need to begin taking small steps.  Perhaps that means clearing our kitchens of plastics and replacing them with safer alternatives such as glass.  Maybe that means shopping only on the outside aisles of our grocery stores and staying out of the center aisles, which are filled with processed foods.  One step at a time.

We all need to become activists on behalf of our children.  This conversation needs to become as loud and popular as last night’s results of American Idol. You will hear more from me on this topic, I promise.  This is not about guilt, it’s about moving forward as a society.

I get lots of comments on these posts, but I’d really like to hear from you on this one that is so incredibly important.  I’d love for you to respond with ideas of ways (just tell me and our readers at least one way), that you can work towards making a change.  We can all learn from each other.  Let’s keep the dialogue going.