How to lower your family's toxic load without losing your mind.

I'm sure it doesn't come as a shock to you, that I try to keep our family as healthy as possible (insert eye roll, yes, Nutritionist, we figured as much). But although this is one of the more straight forward paths to health, it can be tricky to make a habit, and it can also go wrong.

My eldest is in year 6 and was very excited to wear the new year 6 tshirt, with all the class names. I was less excited when I saw it was entirely white. I thought come on man! This kid stains everything!! This is partly due to the fact that we don't use commercial, highly chemical washing solutions. Even if we didn't choose to live the low tox life, Mr. 12 breaks out in terrible eczema if ever another mum washes his clothes, his system has always been too sensitive. I've enjoyed making my own washing powder, and I love that its a lot cheaper too. I didn't love it this week when Mr. 12 came home and told me some girls in his class asked him why his shirt had stains on it. He said he just told them he was allergic to "proper" washing detergent. I felt like an Epic fail.

So I scrubbed those stains, added a tonne of vinegar to the wash and caught the only hours of sunlight to dry it in. Good as new. Shiny, white and squeaky clean without a rash. ;)

It may have its hiccups from time to time, but I feel its so worth it. Particularly for children who are growing or those in puberty, developing hormones, avoiding synthetic chemicals is worthwhile. Studies have shown many household chemicals like washing powders, cleaning agents, deodorants and skincare to contain Endocrine or hormone disrupting chemicals. Just imagine, just as your child starts developing into an adult, laying down foundations for healthy development, we bombard them with chemical face washes, moisturisers, make up, body wash, deodorant and perfume or aftershave and perhaps a non-organic spray tan just for good measure. This is on top of the household chemicals they were already exposed to, and it can be just enough to disrupt the hormones and begin to lay the foundation for disease in the future.

So to combat this, we make our own cleaning products, (so easy!) and use delicious, natural and organic self care products like deodorant, skin care and make up. The plus side is when many ingredients are things like bicarb soda and vinegar, its cheap and you rarely run out! For those with small children it reduces the chance of them ever becoming poisoned too- if I cant drink some of it, (not that i would, I'm not that desperate!)I'm not cleaning my benchtop with it. Of course its also beneficial for the environment so I honestly see low tox living as an easy, all round winner.