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G6PD baby and moth balls, fava beans... help!

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    solidstars's Avatar
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    G6PD baby and moth balls, fava beans... help!

    hi i'm wondering if anyone has experience with G6PD deficient babies? Broadly they are to avoid fava beans and moth balls, otherwise they may need blood transfusion or may worse case can cause death...

    Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    my MIL uses a type of moth ball (?) at home that she says contains 100% natural camphor wood powder and 1.7% natural camphor.

    My husband asked me to check online whether they are still considered 'moth ball' and is dangerous to our G6PD baby, but I can't seem to find any answers online so decided to ask for help here!

    Does anyone know? Please help as now i'm paranoid to bring the baby to MIL's house or let her carry/touch our baby...


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    hi, yes i have a G6PD defecient baby and after all my initial worries it turns out that my husband's family is G6PD deficient and none of them had any probs whatsoever till date....they are all in their 50's now......they had every single thing to eat with no worries!!! the only thing we need to be careful of is sulphur drugs and therefore it is imperative that we mention this fact to every doctor that we take the baby to and also his school or other associations where he is likely to feed/fall sick, etc......i have also heard about fava beans that i immmdietley threw out of the kitchen and to be on the safe side i do not give him any berries.......thats it nothing to worry.


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    thanks mushi but have your husbands' family come into contact with moth balls or camphor? any reaction?

    my 20+ year old brother is also G6PD deficient (the only one person i know of) but my mom was super careful and forbid any visiting of homes with moth balls, forbid entire family to eat fava beans, etc.

    But i can't force my MIL's family/apartment to get rid of their moth balls...


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    no i really know of any precautionary measure taken against moth balls or fava beans.....but there is no harm in generally avoiding them unless not possible of crse.i'll do the same.......but moth balls inhalation is also bad? or only if u ingest it?


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    i was under the impression that inhalation is also bad. ie. my doctor said there was a case where a mother was wearing a coat that had moth balls (or in a closet that had moth balls), and held her baby, and the baby went into shock


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    Shenzhennifer is offline Registered User
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    Moth ball inhalation is baaaaad. I just moved into a place that is furnished and the owner, a typical Chinese, looooves the mothballs. They are still in our furniture. I don`t know about the supposed 100% natural stuff, but the chemical that is dangerous, which I can`t remember its name, is the main culprit it seems.
    Can you not ask your doctor here?
    By the way, I would expect that your MIL would want to remove all potentially hazardous things from her home, especially if she would like to have her grandchild visit, no?


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    my MIL says as long as our baby doesn't go into the bedrooms and stay in the living room he's fine. Since he can probably smell things we can't smell.

    I don't know how to argue with that logic. Except I could say he might be able to smell 'stuff' from the living room, but my husband says I can't ask them to wash all their clothes (everything) and clear out their closets all in one go.

    I haven't had the chance to ask our doctor yet whether camphor affects G6PD babies. Online it says some modern camphor are now made with some naphathlene (spelling?) which is the dangerious chemical you mentioned, shenzhennifer, but I'm just not sure about a '100% camphor' material?


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    Yes, THAT is the chemical. It`s in all the stores here, I noticed, alongside the fragrancy things. Your MIL is full of it, in my opinion(mothballs that is, hehe). But you would be the better judge of that. Can you smell it as soon as you walk into her apartment? For ours, I could, and I can still smell it on the furniture. It takes ages and ages to get rid of the smell. She would have to get rid of everything and go through real effort to get rid of the smell.
    The logic is, yes while he may be able to smell things you can`t smell (???), it doesn`t matter since the inhalation is not scent-based, it`s toxin-based. Means even if you can`t smell something toxic, it doesn`t mean it`s not there. For naphathlene (spx?), it`s highly toxic for children and pets especially. I researched this before we moved into our apartment(unfortunately after the lease was already signed).
    And your husband is right, you can`t ask them to wash all their clothes and clean out their closets, but your HUSBAND can - it`s his parents.
    But I would let your doctor make the ruling on the camphor affecting G6PD babies (though I would still google the hell out if it) and then find out about what products your MIL has and what effects they can have on your baby. I don`t think you can ever be too careful about the safety of your child.


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