35 weeksToday! plus SIDS and infant mattresses

Thank you God! Today we are 35 weeks along. So far she's hanging in there! We've had a few contractions over the last couple of days, but I'm trying to take it easy and hopefully she will too (though it's difficult to be still when there is still so much to do!) At this point she would still be considered premature (until week 37) but she would probably be fine.

And I thought I'd share my phobia...ikn spite of the "editors note" at the bottom of this article, it was enough to freak me out completely. I'm trying to justify getting an organic mattress for our crib since we're saving the equivilant on the crib itself by borrowing a friend's. Even if the chemicals aren't related to SIDS, they can't be good...

This first article is from CNN.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/10/22/body.burden/index.html

"...Studies on the health effects of PBDEs are only just beginning, but many countries have heeded the warning signs they see in animal studies. Sweden banned PBDEs in 1998. The European Union banned most PBDEs in 2004. In the United States, the sole manufacturer of two kinds of PBDEs voluntarily stopped making them in 2004. A third kind, Deca, is still used in the U.S. in electrical equipment, construction material, mattresses and textiles.

Another class of chemicals that showed up in high levels in the Holland children is known as phthalates. These are plasticizers, the softening agents found in many plastic bottles, kitchenware, toys, medical devices, personal care products and cosmetics. In lab animals, phthalates have been associated with reproductive defects, obesity and early puberty. But like PBDEs, little is known about what they do to humans and specifically children...."


This is another article specifically about baby mattresses.

http://www.naturallygood.net/articles.htm#Babys%20Bedding:%20Is%20It%20Creating%20Toxic%20Nerve%20Gases
Baby's Bedding: Is It Creating Toxic Nerve Gases?

Research done over the past 13 years in Great Britain and New Zealand indicates that Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is an environmental poisoning in the crib. In 1988, Barry Richardson, a British chemist specializing in deterioration and preservation of materials, and Peter Mitchell, a marquee specialist, were working on Mitchell's deteriorating marquee, awnings and party tents. Mitchell's marquee supplier told him that the chemicals in awnings and tents were the same chemicals that had been approved for use in baby mattresses. Mitchell also learned from Richardson that these same chemicals could be converted into nerve gas. Mitchell and Richardson decided maybe there was a connection here to SIDS. The research by Richardson began immediately.

The three chemicals of concern are phosphorus used in the baby mattress cover, and arsenic and antimony added as preservatives and fire retardants. Richardson has determined that a common household fungus, Scopulariopsis brevicaulis, gets established in the mattress from the baby's sweating, spitting up and so on. Once established, the fungus begins to consume these three chemicals in the mattress. This results in the production of three nerve gasses: phosphine, arsine and stibine, all of which can be very deadly, especially to infants.

In late 1988 Richardson asked local coroners to cooperate by releasing mattresses on which SIDS babies had died. He received 200 mattresses of all varieties: foam, plastic, fabric and netted. By June 1989 all mattresses had been tested with the following results:

- Every mattress was infected with the S. Brevicaulis fungus as an organism and spores.

- All mattresses had one or more of the chemicals phosphorus, arsenic or antimony.

- Each mattress generated one or more of the nerve gasses (phosphine, arsine or stibine) when
brought to blood/body temperature.

At this time, Richardson analyzed six blood samples of the SIDS babies who died on mattresses with antimony and found high levels of antimony in each sample. In addition, Richardson learned that 95 percent of mattresses tested had been used by a previous baby.

(check out the rest of the article on the link above.)

Then there are carseats...this one really put me in a bind. I finally ignored this study and got the carseat that seemed the safest from a "wreck" point of view, rather than a "chemicals" point of view.
http://www.healthycar.org/carseat.using.php

And in the end I have to just pray for protection from all this gunk and try not to worry about it! After all, I'm sure I chewed on my share of lead paint...but just think, I might have been a child genius! :)