Flame Retardants: how does one avoid them, esp. in bedding?

[taffywelsh]

Hi,
Does anybody have good suggestions for how to find babies' mattresses, bumpers, bedclothes, etc that do not have flame retardants, or that the flame retardants can be cleaned out of?
I want to buy an "Arm's Reach" brand co-sleeper, but I am afraid it is saturated with this stuff and I can't figure out how I would clean it. When I finally get a crib, it will have to be a mini-size one, since my baby room is super tiny. How can I get a good mattress for it and not have it full of these chemicals?
I know I'm not being paranoid here, there are plenty of studies indicating that flame retardants are toxic; one of our congresswomen in my state is currently lobbying against the routine use of flame retardants, especially in baby items.
Please let me know what to do, any links you might want show me, special things I could buy, how to clean chemicals out of things like mattresses, etc etc
thanks! TW
--ps, if you want to move this to another forum, that's ok as long as I can find it. This is just the only one I ever post on since I'm a first-time pregnant person.

[kallyn]

I've been looking into this too, for the same reasons. I don't think you can really wash out the chemicals from a regular mattress. It seems like the best options are to either use an old mattress that has had plenty of time to off-gas, or to get an expensive chemical-free mattress that is made of a naturally flame retardant material (like wool). I decided to go the wool mattress route and I got one from Natural Mat that's made out of coconut husks, wool, and cotton. I just checked and I didn't see mini crib mattresses on their website though.

[mangosink0]

how bout an organic mattress?

As far as avoiding flame retardents in pj's, I just buy 100 percent cotton, it doesn't usually have flame retardent, and will have a warning sign on the tag that the garment is not flame retardent.

[MamaFern]

i generally only buy used cotton clothing..or organic if its new.. or wash a few times and hang to dry outside.. im not sure how many cotton clothes have chemicals but i know cotton in general is grown with a lot.

i worry about baby items having chemicals.. i was going to buy a bouncy seat and decided on an organic cotton/wool baby hammock instead.. baby will sleep in my bed (which is from ikea and almost new) and i researched it fairly well and seems like they dont use chemicals on these mattresses.

car seats are another thing that freak me out. im going to use one that has already been used and washed a few times, and again wash/hang the cover before we use it..

as for a crib mattress there are lots of options.. i noticed a few days ago on toys R us website they have a few different organic mattresses for fairly low cost. also bedding.sheets ect..

[HappyLoveMama]

I just noticed the Arm's Reach website has an organic mattress to fit into it. I think thats what I will do. With DS - I just opened it and let it off-gas for a while before I used it. I always buy cotton pj's...the only flaw is winter - I have caved and put him in fleece pj's on super cold nights which are flame retardant but I guess I feel that everything in moderation is key...usually in the winter, I do cotton with an undershirt if it's not too too cold out and use a nice warm blanket + comforter in bed.

[taffywelsh]

Hi,
NJ, thank you...I hadn't seen the organic items on the Arm's Reach website. Very glad you pointed that out. Too bad they are so expensive, but I guess that's how it goes!
I am not too worried about stuff you can acutally wash, it's more like the other stuff I'm concerned about. Will figure out the car seat soon...I'm supposed to be getting a free one from a social services grant next week, so it will have time to air out.

[tanyalynn]

For washable items, you can reduce the flame retardants a few ways. I do this routinely with my kids' clothing that I buy used.

You can remove some of the heavy metals-based flame retardants by using a whole lot of washing soda (the box just says washing soda) in hot water. I dump in a whole box with a medium-large load of wash, just as a one-time thing.

Some flame retardants (I'm hoping the non-heavy metal ones, but I'm not sure) are reduced by washing with real soap instead of detergent. Some clothing labels specifically mention not to use soap because over time the flame retardant will wash out. Multiple washes of Borax also helps, so when I buy clothing, I do a wash in just washing soda, then several washes in hot with a lot of borax and some grated Dr. Bronner's soap (just because it's what we have).

Should reduce the chemicals if not completely eliminate them.

[MamaMonica]

Moved to the Mindful Home

[taffywelsh]

hey I'm bumping this! No comments since it got moved to Mindful Home...somebody must have an opinion!

[JudiAU]

There are a few companies that make a natural latex insert for the arm's reach cosleeper. We have one. The regular matress DOES have flame retardants (insert sigh since they are linked to SIDS) and for that matter, is super uncomfortable.

We bought a natural matress from organic grace. They were really helpful on the phone so I suggest calling them.