The Early Years - B.A. (Before Autism)

We did the usual things that parents, especially new parents, did. We went and got family photos, picked a pediatrician that was, mostly, aligned with our way of thinking, and constantly read about how to keep our child safe. Meanwhile, we had purchased a house, (70s era place) and bought new furniture to go into the house. We were still working out the single to married things, (translation: she was getting rid of anything of mine that had no taste or looked juvenile).

Another land mine! Due to regulations in this country, it's illegal to sell furniture that doesn't have some kind of fire retardant, including mattresses. Let's do a Google, shall we? I did a search for "Furniture Fire Retardant late 1990s" on Google while I'm writing this. I've got 6 tabs open to different articles on the dangers of fire retardant.

Here are a couple of hits:

"Brominated flame retardants are chemicals that reduce the spread of fire in a variety of common products from fabrics to plastic. First introduced 30 years ago, they are now widely used despite minimal health testing, and they are rapidly building up inside our bodies. The testing that has been done indicates that brominated flame retardants are toxic to development and the levels found in some mothers and fetuses are rapidly approaching the levels shown to impair learning and behavior in laboratory experiments." - SF Chronicle, 11 June 2003

Wahoo! Let the Autism Diva figure that one out!

Here's a link from Science Daily to a study of household cats getting thyroid disease:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070815122354.htm

If chemicals do that to cats, what about infants?

This one from Sightline Institute:
http://www.sightline.org/press/sightline_news/high-chemical-level-found-in-breast-milk/

Check out my entry on breast feeding for this one. . .

Then we're back to metals. Another nasty one is antimony. Google to the rescue!

http://www.roskill.com/reports/antimony

http://sids-network.org/experts/limerab.htm

This stuff is still in furniture that is passed down through families that can't afford to buy newer safer stuff. Think of all the baby cribs and mattresses out there still creating problems.

What amazes me is how gullible I've been! I always thought of myself as an intelligent person, but after my son was diagnosed, I found out what a babe-in-the-woods I'd been.