[dhirsh]

Ladies,
I need your help. I am 36 weeks pregnant and have recently found out that I should have been wearing rubber gloves when using household cleaners for the counters, floors, sinks and tubs. Before I was pregnant I NEVER did, so it did not occur to me that it may be dangerous for my baby. I heard that if the chemicals are absorbed into your skin it can cause bith defects in the baby. Has anybody else cleaned their house using cleaners like Clorox without gloves while they were pregnant, and was your baby OK?

[capital]

I never did, my babies are fine. I used windex, vim and mr clean. I think you would likely have to be exposed at lot and chronically to actually have a birth defect, but who knows the long term implications, so I am trying to cut down now (I am not pregnant), also better for the environment. I bought a microfiber cloth and drying cloth and never use windex anymore. I cannot believe how good they work! windows, mirror, spot wash the walls.

[Sleuth]

I'm with capital.
So many times these studies race across the internet with just the barest of scary facts in them. They just want you to click on the story and drive up their advertising rates.
My immediate questions would be how long did you have to do the cleaning (in terms of both per day and days per year) and how heavy were the chemicals involved? How many birth defects occured in the study popualtion?
I don't doubt that chemicals absorbed through your hands can harm a fetus, but are we talking Windex once a week or a heavy chemical cleaner on a daily basis?
And put the thing in perspective---the risk is roughly equivalent to what (and this has to be something people can relate to)? A pack of cigarettes a day? A bottle of wine a day? Heroin addiction? Breathing polluted air all the time?

[dhirsh]

Thank you so much ladies! Your responses made me feel much better. It's my first baby and being pregnant makes me a worrier.

[tet]

Though not to answer your question directly, I just want to share that Baking Soda does so much for cleaning and with less or no harmful effects.

[joannek]

dhirsh, we all freaked when we found out we could have done sth harmful to our unborn children/born children. it's normal for you to have this thought, but i agree with the posts above. if you use it a moderation, i don't think it will matter. but since now that you know theyre harmful (and the fumes are, too) you can start swtching to natural cleanser (baking soda & vinegar do wonders). besides, it's probably better for your baby once he's born that he doesn't breath in so much chemical fumes from the chemical cleaners (if you can smell it, there's fumes - dettol, bleach, windex, vif, etc - all chemicals). i heard of a 3 yr old boy having seizures because the helper was using dettol on everything. once they cut out the chemical cleaners in their household, the boy had no more seizures. of course, there are some kids who are more sensitive. but then, always safe than sorry.

plus, natural cleaners are better for our planet.