Health Hazards in Hiding

10 Things You Can Do Today to Raise a Healthy Child

By Gina Roberts-Grey, LCSW

Raising healthy and happy children is a common goal among parents, grandparents and caregivers. Tending to the obvious safety and health aspects of raising a child, such as annual physicals, vitamins and balanced meals, are ritualistic functions for many parents. While your family's health and safety is your instinctive priority, there are a few less obvious areas that most families could improve on.

Examining some unobtrusive aspects of your routines and lifestyles presents the opportunity to enhance the quality and health of your family's lives. There are a few simple and inexpensive options you can implement today that will nurture and sustain your healthy goals. These subtle differences will be beneficial and promote positive habits for your children to emulate.

The news that the cleanest of households may be harboring unwelcome dust mites and allergens is unsettling for many parents. According to the Ohio State University Department of Entomology, you can reduce the amount of dust mites, allergens and asthma triggers your family encounters while sleeping or lounging in bed.

Purchase dust mite protectors for all the pillows on your beds, and enclose the mattress top and sides with a plastic mattress cover. Make sure to thoroughly vacuum the mattress, pillows and the base of the bed. Replace feather and down pillows with pillows filled with synthetic fillings, woolen blankets with nylon or cotton cellulose ones, and frequently damp dust the plastic mattress cover. Wash all bedding weekly (blankets, mattress pads and comforters) in hot water (130 degrees F). Washing the curtains and blinds in the bedroom adds another layer of dust mite protection.

In the ancient practice of Feng Shui, it is believed that toilet lids should always remain closed to prevent wasting, losing or "flushing" of your money. Flushing the toilet with the cover closed offers more than the ritualistic belief that you'll pad your financial nest egg. Did you know that airborne germs, bacteria and particles or "spiraling toilet 'aerosol" are often cast into the air with every flush of the toilet?

In 1975, Dr. Charles Gerba, a professor at the University of Arizona and specialist in environmental microbiology, published a scientific article describing bacterial and viral aerosols due to toilet flushing. The article ominously depicts Dr. Gerba's findings that significant amounts of viruses, bacteria and microbes float around the bathroom for at least two hours after each flush. You can reduce your family's exposure to these germs by using bleach tablets in your toilet bowl, closing the lid prior to flushing and putting your toothbrush back in the medicine cabinet after each use.

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