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Everybody has to clean their home in order to avoid the spread of germs. At times, cleaning one�۪s home has more practical reasons, such as ensuring that things do not get lost and that one can find things where one expects to. For some parents, cleaning the house may be an occasion for concern because of all the noxious chemical products that they may expose their child to when cleaning. Cleaning products may include window sprays for windows, mirrors and other glass surfaces, products such as bleach for bathrooms and kitchens, and also detergent for laundry purposes as well as products for drain cleaners. There are a number of things to consider when cleaning the home without risking the health of children in the household.

Home Cleaning Products

There are many chemicals and products available to clean one�۪s home; the list is so extensive that there is practically no shortage of these cleaning products. One of the most basic cleaning products is furniture polish, which is a common household cleaning product that is used to give different pieces of furniture a nice luster or sheen. Furniture polish can be sold for wood furniture just as much as it can be sold for leather or vinyl furniture, such as sofas. Even something as innocuous-seeming as the hand sanitizer that is now a favored alternative to liquid soap can create a possible health hazard for children, especially if the children are young and ingest said hand sanitizer. In the bathroom, cleaning products like toilet bowl cleaner can also present a health risk to children, and the fumes that such products give off can also create an unpleasant odor in the air. Even something as essential as drain cleaner can be dangerous, which is why parents should carefully follow the directions on the bottle while using it, making sure that children do not go near the bathtub for a certain period of time after the use of the drain cleaner.

Products like window cleaner and oven cleaner can be hazardous to children, too, which is why parents should tell their children when such items have been cleaned so that they may avoid them. Even products that people generally accept as giving off a nice smell—like air freshener—can be harmful to children as well. Other cleaning products like laundry soap, laundry softener, carpet cleaner and carpet deodorizer can affect children although parents may not think of this. When cleaning with these products, parents may want to get their kids out of the house.

Alternative Cleaning Solutions

Increasingly, there are alternatives on the market to these aforementioned cleaning products that may pose a health risk to children. In fact, many of these alternatives can be mixed together by people themselves and consist of basic and natural ingredients and materials. For example, as a substitute for window cleaner that is toxic, people can simply take 1 quart of warm water and combine that with just 2 teaspoons of vinegar to make a cheaper alternative that is also non-toxic. A bottle of vinegar costs maybe $3 or $4 at a grocery store, while window cleaner is much more expensive, getting up into the teens in cost. Additionally, some natural substances, such as baking soda, lemon juice and vinegar, on their own can be highly effective cleaning products that make great alternatives to chemical products. Baking soda, lemon juice and vinegar make for excellent cleaning substances in places like bathrooms and kitchens.

Young Girl Reaching for Cleaning Products

 

Hazardous to Children

Smiling Woman Cleaning Window

It is a known fact that chemicals, such as those found in home cleaning products, can cause adverse effects in children because they contain dangerous chemicals and substances, even for adults. Children are more vulnerable, though, than adults in suffering the effects from home cleaning products because of a few reasons. For starters, children are more vulnerable than adults to household chemicals because they take in a higher proportion of air based on their body weight than adults, and they also are likely to be very imperceptive of what the dangers of household cleaning products can be to them. The actual health risks to children that are present in household cleaning chemicals are complicated and diverse. Any health risks that are connected with a particular household chemical product actually depend completely on the dose of the household chemical product that children are exposed to, as well as the potential for the household chemical product to cause a hazard. Finally, the actual timing of the exposure is critical to how much damage the household chemical product can do to any given child.

Links & Resources

To discover more about safely cleaning the home, please see these links.

 


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