I.have.a.5 year old!!

Sensitivities to toxins & how they affect me now - as a mom 

When I was little, I’d say around 7 or 8, each time my family went out for the evening or to an event I noticed that I would consistently suffer severe headaches. Sometimes they were so bad that I would vomit and feel completely incapacitated. One day in particular, I realized that the onset of this ill feeling was brought on by none other than my mother’s perfume. It started out not being all of her different fragrances, just one in particular – Samsara by Gurlain. I would beg and plead for her not to wear this scent as it made me feel so sick all the time, and she complied for some time…and I guess I felt ok. Fast forward 10 years or so and my dad brings home some new orange scented air freshener and again I begin to experience headaches and feel ill. I realized here that I am sensitive to some scents. It was a bit weirs though as I was able to tolerate some perfumes, I wore perfume every day, but only the few I could tolerate and I know right away when one didn’t agree with me. Fast forward another 10 years and I am pregnant with my first born. My sensitivity to scent and fragrance is amplified 100 times. I am sick at all different types of scents and have to pack away all scented products in my home, including perfume, laundry detergent, even certain dish soap. The funny thing is, this amplified sensitivity didn’t go back to “normal” once my baby was born…it kind of stuck. The other funny thing that happened after my baby was born is that I started to research about why this was happening to me as I never wanted my new baby to experience the same discomfort.  I realized that most of these products on the market, perfume, air freshener, scented candles, soaps, lotions etc. are FILLED with toxic chemicals. Most of these chemicals are cancer causing, and can wreak havoc on your endocrine system. It was this research that was a turning point for me and my husband, and we swore against all of the scented hand sanitizers (which is a discussion all on its own) and scented soaps, lotions, detergents, and perfumes. We went fragrance free in our household and immediately noticed that we experienced fewer headaches, less fatigue, and generally felt better. We use products like Tide free, or Green Works, we use no perfume at all (we shower every morning so smelling bad is not a thing, really), and we are constantly looking for ways to improve in this journey. I would say it’s difficult to relay this message to everyone and have everyone on board – maybe this blog post will help! We are so fragrance free daily that when fragrance wearing family or guests visit it, the effects hit us like a ton of bricks. Both my kiddos have experienced nose bleeds to prolonged exposure, because they are just not used to it at home. I feel like I need to take on this journey and change the world, we should all work toward getting safer products into the hands of everyone. No one needs these chemicals in their life, no one should feel sick all the time. We don’t need to expose our children to cancer causing toxins, or have their reproductive system messed with by chemicals. If I can change even 1 person I will feel like I have accomplished something toward this journey. So I challenge you to look into the products you choose, and make an informed choice. Lets make the world we leave behind a better one!!