Parabens, Phthalates and Formaldehyde, Oh My

Getting pregnant, I always wonder what is and is not safe for baby... last time I couldn't figure it out, so I just followed my OB's basic recommendations.  She's pretty mellow about these things.  No alcohol, no lunch meat, no raw fish, no big fish, no unpasteurized cheese, no OTC meds besides Tylenol, etc. 

This time, I can't help but second guess my habits.  Is a mani/pedi dangerous for the baby?  What about my skin care and make-up regime?  What about the pesticides all over our food?  Do I need to eat organic?  Are dry cleaning chemicals dangerous?  Should I avoid all hair color (even supposedly ammonia-free)? 

Since there is an overwhelming amount of info out there, I'm trying to just relax about all of this.  Lots of people have very healthy babies without taking extreme measures. 

Even if I don't overanalyze every.single.product I eat, use or come in contact with, I was happy to learn that my fave skincare from Tatcha is  paraben and phthalate-free.  Love this SF company!
 

 

In my investigation I found a few interesting resources to share:

1. The Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep website has a lot of info. They categorize products, rating each ingredient's potential for harm.  I like this idea, but found the info to be a little bit overwhelming AND lots of the perfectly safe products look very hard to find - maybe even "only available at the health food store or co-op" hard to find.  I don't have time to hunt down rare products, so went back to Google for other ideas.

* One brand I did notice gets great ratings is California Baby, but most of the traditional cosmetic brands I currently use didn't get the highest marks and right now I'm trying to lower MY exposure to harmful ingredients so that I don't pass them on to baby.  Baby product research will happen later.

2. The FDA, info on parabens and phthalates.  Note that the FDA isn't very concerned about these ingredients, but some research does point to dangers.

2. Short WebMD article on environmental exposure to personal care products affecting children.  I liked the summaries, but this didn't necessarily help me chose safer products for my own use.

Love,
S