Creating Healthy Homes

Stroller Strides of Corpus Christi is a proud partner with Luna Bar and Healthy Child Healthy World. We will be hosting a mini Healthy Home Party following class on Tuesday August 25th in the Sunrise Mall. Join us for free information and giveaways.

Creating Healthy Environments for Children

What it’s all about
Our children live in a world vastly different from the one we grew up in. More than 80,000 chemicals, most of which did not exist fifty years ago, are registered for use in commerce in the United States, and an estimated 2,000 new ones are introduced every year. These chemicals are used in everyday items such as foods, shampoos, toys, furniture, electronics, household cleaners, and lawn care products, just to name a few. The effects of most of these chemicals on human health are unknown.
Unfortunately, there is no pre-market safety testing required under any federal law for these chemicals and of the 15,000 most commonly used chemicals, more than 80% have not been tested for potential health effects on children. None have been tested for their health effects when they interact with one another, but that’s how we’re exposed to them.
What is this doing to our kids? For the most part, we don’t really know. It’s largely an unregulated experiment – and it’s being conducted on our children and us. One thing we do know is that childhood diseases and disabilities that have links to toxic exposures are on the rise and they deserve special attention because they are preventable. Children are more vulnerable
Beginning in utero, babies and children are different than adults — they are often much more vulnerable to environmental toxins.
• Pound-for-pound, children breathe more air, drink more water, and eat more food than adults. For example, the air intake of a resting infant is twice that of an adult. Also, children between the ages of one and five eat three to four times more food per pound of body weight than the average adult. Thus, they are more exposed to air and water pollution and pesticides.
• Children absorb more nutrients and, consequently, more toxins than adults.
• Because their metabolic systems are still developing, children’s ability to detoxify and excrete
harmful chemicals differs from that of adults.
• Children’s bodies are rapidly growing and developing, so chemicals that can harm development can do maximum damage at this critical time.
• Children are more likely than adults to come in contact with many of the contaminants around us each day. Children play on the floor where allergens, such as dust, and heavier-than-air chemicals settle and collect. Young children put everything in their mouth, which is a crucial part of normal development, the way a baby learns about the world.
Continuation of this program depends on your support. Please make a small donation today at www.healthychild.org.