Pregnancy and House Cleaning

How difficult it is to choose the “right” cleaning products for your home? This is an especially hard task for mom-to-be during her pregnancy.

I find it super difficult these days because of the many years I have been married to certain  products especially those I use for cleaning my home. The more I read and the more I know about harmful chemicals the more concerned I have become for the safety of my family and as well as my pets.

DIY and mixing my own cleaning products is not my thing although I wish I had the time to devote to this. Instead I would prefer to buy safe products and focus on spending my time making healthy foods for my family’s enjoyment.

 

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has come out with a new labeling system that may make decisions easier. The new product label will help you select products that have safer chemical ingredients with an option for fragrance-free, and maintain a high standard for quality. What does the label mean for pregnant women?

Source: News Moms Need » Blog Archive » The safer choice

The new Safer Choice EPA label will assist the pregnant women to identify and make safe selections of cleaning products.

Staying safe is paramount in most moms and pregnant women’s daily routine. Staying away from stuff that can hurt you or your baby is confusing at best. This new labeling system could make your mom life easier when making cleaning product choices while earnestly attempting to keep a clean house to protect yourself from infections.

• Read labels on cleaning products look for the Safer Choice label.
• Do not use any product that specifies it is toxic (poisonous).
• Although ammonia or chlorine (bleach) are not harmful in cleaning products the smell may cause nausea. To avoid this open windows and doors, wear rubber gloves and NEVER mix them together this can cause dangerous fumes

Things to avoid to have a safer pregnancy for you and your baby.

• Changing cat litter
• Hot baths, hot tubs and saunas
• Lead exposure from old pipes and faucets
• Mercury from broken bulbs and thermometers
• Pesticides and certain chemicals (check labels)

via March of Dimes

Pregnancy is often a time of worry and fretting about all kinds of things especially things that cannot be controlled for, however the new Safer Choice labeling can wash some of your worries away.