We work to eliminate dangerous and often unnecessary toxic flame retardants (FRs) from a wide variety of consumer products.
Healthy Moments
Whether you’re trying to get pregnant or taking your newborn out in his stroller for the first time, there are many moments throughout the journey that offer opportunities for healthier choices for you and your baby.
Before Pregnancy
Even before you become pregnant, you can do things to help ensure your baby will be conceived into a healthy environment inside your body.
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Avoid personal care products with “fragrance” listed in the ingredients. Added fragrances can include chemicals like phthalates that may be harmful during pregnancy and early life.
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Avoid imported skin lightening creams and antiseptic soap. Mercury is often an active and hidden ingredient that’s not listed on the label. Mercury passes through the skin and the placenta and is toxic to a baby’s developing brain.
Safe personal care products
More ways to reduce your phthalate exposures -
Choose upholstered furniture that is labeled as “no added flame-retardant chemicals.” These chemicals migrate into house dust, pollute breast milk and cord blood, and disrupt a baby’s brain development.
Safer furniture
Learn more about toxic flame retardants -
If you require dental fillings, ask for composite fillings rather than silver-colored amalgam. Amalgam fillings release tiny amounts of mercury into the mouth.
Tips for safer personal care and health products -
Avoid all DIY remodeling projects that involve lead paint (used in pre-1978 homes), including the nursery, if you are pregnant or planning a pregnancy. Renovations create dust and high lead exposures even when you are careful.
Tips for cleaning and renovation
Learn more about lead in the home
During Pregnancy
Pregnancy is a special time. Understanding healthy choices will help avoid unnecessary chemical exposures that can harm a baby’s brain development.
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Rice often contains arsenic that accumulates from farm soils. Cook rice in extra water and pour it off before eating to cut arsenic levels. Choose rice with less arsenic, including basmati rice from California, India and Pakistan; sushi rice from the US; and brown rice from California.
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Seafood has brain-boosting nutrients, but some types have too much mercury. Avoid eating shark and swordfish during pregnancy. Limit canned light tuna to once a week or less.
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Eat lean and low-fat meat and dairy. Toxins like PCBs and phthalates build up in fatty food, the body and breast milk.
Healthy foods for pregnancy
Learn more about arsenic in rice (and infant cereal) -
Ask your doctor for a mercury-free flu vaccine. These shots are available at many locations, upon request. Some forms of the flu vaccine still are not mercury-free. No amount of mercury is known to be perfectly safe for everyone.
Health care tips for pregnancy
Birth
Simple steps can keep your home safer for you and your baby.
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Keep baby in a smoke-free environment. Second-hand smoke has thousands of chemicals. Third-hand smoke is also toxic. That’s the toxic residue that builds up on floors, carpets and clothing. It sticks to children’s skin and hands and ends up in their mouths.
Top tips for a healthy start -
Use changing pads that are free of toxic flame retardants. Some models by Graco, Munchkin and Summer Infant may contain these chemicals. Contact the company to check.
Safe infant products
Learn more about toxic flame retardants -
Use microfiber dust cloths and a doormat to tackle the dust in your home – and leave your shoes at the door! One-third of the dust in your home comes from outdoor soil. House dust contains over 100 toxic chemicals, like lead and arsenic, and sticks to hands and toys.
Safe cleaning tips - Avoid old woodstoves and fireplaces. Chemicals and toxic particles can build up inside and outside the home. Dangers include reduced IQ and higher risk of ADHD. New, certified woodstoves and fireplace inserts are a better choice.
Safer woodstoves and other appliances
Mealtime
You’ve made it to solids! Making informed decisions about the food your baby eats and the items she uses during mealtime can help avoid unnecessary chemical exposures that can harm brain development.
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Avoid infant rice cereal. It has 6 times more arsenic than other kinds of infant cereal, on average, and is the #1 source of arsenic in infant’s diets. Instead, choose good low-arsenic alternatives including oatmeal, barley, and multi-grain cereals.
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Avoid fruit juice. It can have high levels of arsenic. Water and applesauce are better choices because they are easy for babies to digest and lower in arsenic.
Healthy baby foods
Tests of over 100 cereals -
Choose high chairs and booster seats free of toxic flame retardants. These chemicals can harm a baby’s development.
Safe baby products
Learn more about toxic flame retardants -
Use lead-free water when feeding your baby infant formula. Test your water and receive a customized report with a Lead in Water test kit.
Good foods for pregnancy
Test your water for lead
Bath
It’s not just dirt and sweat. Parents should also keep baby clean from toxic chemicals when giving baby a bath.
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Use soap, shampoo and lotion without “fragrance” listed in the ingredients. Added fragrances can include chemicals like phthalates that are potentially harmful during pregnancy and a baby’s early life.
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Use bath toys free of PVC, phthalates, and BPA. Toys made from cloth, wood, and other natural materials are a better bet.
Healthy personal care products
More ways (beyond toys) to reduce phthalate exposures
Playtime
Choose healthy play spaces for your child, free of harmful chemicals found in some play areas and equipment.
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Use baby play gyms and floor mats that are free from flame retardant chemicals. Check the product label before purchasing.
Healthy baby gear
Learn more about toxic flame retardants -
Avoid playgrounds with shredded rubber surfaces which can contain lead and other toxic chemicals. Less toxic playground surfaces include wood mulch, sand and pea gravel.
Pick healthy parks and play areas -
Choose play yards that are free from flame retardant chemicals. Some models of Carters and MamaDoo don't add toxic flame retardants. Check the product label before purchasing.
Safer baby products -
Flat carpets, short plush carpets or hard-surface floors are easy to clean and are safer surfaces for baby to play on. Deep plush and shag carpets trap dust that often contains toxic chemicals.
Best home items for your baby
Bedtime
Before saying goodnight, make sure that your baby is surrounded by toxic-free items safe for his growing brain.
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Choose pajamas without added chemical flame retardants. Find snug-fitting sleepwear with a tag that states, “not flame resistant” and “must be snug-fitting.”
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Select a bassinet that does not have added chemical flame retardants. These toxic chemicals can cause harm to your baby’s brain development. Check the product label or contact the company to see if a product is flame retardant free.
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Use a crib mattress that does not have added chemical flame retardants. Polyurethane foam mattresses are likely to contain toxic flame retardants that your baby can inhale or absorb through the skin. Brands imported from China also may have higher levels. Check labels and contact the company to see if it is flame retardant free.
Healthy baby gear
Learn more about toxic flame retardants
Travel
Keep travel safe and fun. When taking baby on-the-go, you can reduce toxic chemical exposures she could face during transit.
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Choose car seats with low or no added flame retardant chemicals. Uppababy’s Mesa Henry infant car seat is the first to meet flammability standards without added flame retardant chemicals. Other brands that rank low in added toxins include Britax, Clek and Safety 1st. Important Note: Crash safety ratings can be found at Consumer Reports and other sources. Our list reflects the product’s chemical makeup only.
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Choose strollers free of added flame retardant chemicals. Strollers by Britax, Carters, Inglesina, Kolcraft and PegPerego don’t add toxic flame retardants to their foam and fabric.
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For travel system strollers, limit baby’s time inside the infant car seat that converts to a stroller to avoid unnecessary toxic flame retardant exposures. Some brands are safer than others.
Healthy baby gear
Learn more about toxic flame retardants - Avoid packing rice snacks during a trip with your baby. Snacks likely to be high in arsenic include puffed rice, rice cakes, infant rice cereal, cereal bars and other snacks sweetened with brown rice syrup.
Healthy baby foods
More about arsenic in rice and baby cereals
Our Impact
Helping create a toxic-free future for all our children.
At Healthy Babies Bright Futures (HBBF), we design our work to measurably reduce the largest sources of babies’ exposures to toxic chemicals that harm brain development. We target chemicals with the strongest body of evidence supporting their role in developmental harm.
Blog
Calling All Cities!
What do Minneapolis, Dearborn, Salt Lake City and Seattle all have in common?
They’ve each committed to working with Healthy Babies Bright Futures on actions to minimize exposures to dangerous chemicals for their youngest and most vulnerable residents through our Bright Cities program.
And we’re recruiting for our second cohort of Bright Cities now.
Toxic Mercury and Your Baby’s Ability to Learn
It’s not the fishes’ fault. And it’s not the fault of women who eat the fish. But, millions of women of childbearing age who eat mercury contaminated fish have enough of the toxic chemicals in their bodies to harm a developing child. “55% of the global sample of women measured more than 0.58ppm of mercury, a level associated with the onset of fetal neurological damage.” This is the finding of a new, first of its kind report on mercury levels in women of childbearing age in 25 countries by HBBF partner, IPEN: the International POPs Elimination Network.
Bright Cities Spotlight on Minneapolis, MN
From the moment I first learned of the Bright Cities program, I knew it would be a great fit for the City of Minneapolis. In 2014, Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges instituted the Cradle to K Cabinet program, a major initiative focused on developing a plan to eliminate disparities for children in the City of Minneapolis, prenatally to three years old. With a significant overlap in missions between our city and with HBBF’s Bright Cities, our partnership has proven to be a great opportunity for us to help give babies the best start in life.
