Since the day five years ago that I found out I was pregnant with my daughter, India, I’ve made it my mission to keep environmental toxins and harsh chemicals out of her life. It made sense back then: I was growing a baby inside my body and, inherently, I knew that everything I came into contact with would affect her. After she was born I regulated what came into our home, from the paint on our walls and the food in our fridge, to our personal care products and cleaning agents.

My mission to keep my home pure and toxin-free is not only to benefit India’s health, but for the benefit of my husband and myself. Our home is shoeless (to keep out the street dirt) and we use air purifiers. It may sound like we live in a glass box but I assure you we don’t. But as we live in one of the most polluted cities in this country, I leave no stone unturned when it comes to my child’s health. I stand by that.

Last year India started pre-school. I was forced to relinquish my dominion over what my daughter came into contact with, as hard as that was. This year she joined in some of the after school programs, one of which is a drama-type class where she gets to act out her fairy fantasies. Her dream come true! Sure beats time with a babysitter.

However, she was coming home with smelly glitter on her arm, a little fairy princess kiss. And I will be honest, I tried to ignore it. I thought, what’s the big deal, it’s only once a week? Filled with excitement, she would show me the pink sparkles and begged me to sniff the intensely artificial fruity aroma coming off of her sweet little arm. But I knew in the core of my being that whatever was being used was toxic.

After 3 classes, I decided that was it, I would write her teacher, Queen Laura, an email. My impulse was to rant and rave. Shouldn’t she know better? Shouldn’t she know about the threats to our children’s vulnerable immune systems?

But I decided to take the soft approach. I did not want to undermine this young woman by making her feel bad or ignorant. I let her know about my involvement with Healthy Child Healthy World, and explained that many children’s personal care and make-up products (did I just write that?) are laden with chemicals. I requested the ingredient list of the sparkly smelly product and assured her that if the product was toxic, we would work together to find an alternative. I wanted her to feel respected and empowered by the email.

About a week later she emailed me with a long ingredient list that looked like it belonged on the label of a can of roach killer. Indeed, the product was filled with numerous parabens, fragrances, dyes 1, 4 and 6, and a host of other dangerous carcinogens. Ladies and gentlemen, this glitter fragrance is designed to be rolled across our children’s skin!

Queen Laura was very grateful that I spoke up, and open to making changes. She was completely stunned that the products she had been using were toxic and dangerous. We came up with a homemade solution and she ran with it. Now she is even thinking about starting a business of non-toxic glitter products for children, and she has asked me to advise her on it. So cool!

So, this was a win-win situation for everybody. My lesson was that standing up for my beliefs in a supportive and non-confrontational way encourages small changes that have a big impact. People are really ready and willing to change, sometimes they just need a little guidance and encouragement.

This blog was featured on Healthychild.org October 28, 2008