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Generation Safe – Protecting your children from chemicals in their own food, toys and bedding, and finding the balance in it all.

They aren’t the imaginary boogeymen of 30 years ago, or even our ancestors’ bloody-jawed wolves of yore.

No, the things that can keep today’s parents awake at night lurk in the very items that many of us—jazzed by powerful advertising campaigns—tote willingly into our homes, unaware of what is actually in them: cleaning supplies, children’s toys, baby cribs, cereals and snack foods, shampoo and shower curtains.

For local mom and exercise physiologist Nicki Solomito Pugh, a trip across her front lawn five years ago proved to be a turning point in her fight against these invisible intruders.

“I loaded up all my Ajax, Formula 409 and Lysol and took them to my neighbor,” she recalls.

Pugh was pregnant with her second child, Lila. Her first daughter, Lucie, now 7, had chronic sinus problems and allergies. Pugh shared her concerns with her midwife.

“I am guessing that she said something along the lines of, ‘Have you considered eliminating the chemicals from your home?'”

Now, Pugh is studying to be a midwife herself, and she spreads the gospel of organic households, converting one Baton Rouge mother at a time.

She’s also become a leader among locals who are keen to protect their children from dietary and environmental threats.

“The light bulb moment: Nutrition stopped being confined to food or drink that went into my body through my mouth, and it started including anything that went into my body—in any way.”

Tonight, a group of mothers has gathered at The Red Shoes, a nonprofit community meeting spot in Baton Rouge. Some with newborns, they’re here to learn about how they can clean up their homes and diets.

Pugh started the Holistic Mothers group earlier this year as a way of helping mothers with children of all ages make healthy decisions for their families.

“It seems irresponsible to not educate our kids on what they put into their bodies, because they won’t really see any consequences for years,” says Hannah Birchman. Formerly a teacher in Baton Rouge, she’s now a full-time mom to three girls, Evelyn, 3, Lucy, 2, and Josie, 6 months.

“It’s my responsibility now to monitor what they eat, because I know what years of bad eating and exposure can do to children,” Birchman says.

Birchman and Pugh are not alone. Technology and research combined have fueled a safety awareness movement that’s burning its way across Baton Rouge. The trigger? Researchers now understand more about food and environmental hazards than ever before.

Here’s a short list of the alarming threads circulating among local parents on social media:

Regular, non-organic apples contain pesticides that could cause cancer and Parkinson’s disease. Feeding your kids hot dogs increases their chances of getting brain cancer by 300%. Oranges are dipped in a dye that causes cancer. Girl Scout cookies contain trans fats, which are linked to heart disease. That turkey in your club sandwich? It can raise little Johnny’s risk of getting pancreatic cancer by 67%. And don’t even think of cleaning his high chair the way your mama did.

The Environmental Working Group, a national research and advocacy organization, gave Ajax Powder Cleanser with bleach an F on its grading system. It contains several chemicals that can cause asthma and even organ failure. Formula 409, with its alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chlorides, scored a D. And Lysol? That common bathroom cleaner contains about five different chemicals that cause respiratory ailments. F.

It really is enough to give parents nightmares.

Baton Rouge pediatrician and father Chris Funes says the caring parents he sees are always on the lookout for potential hazards. He sends a reassuring message to the masses of manic, safety-focused folks who are constantly poring over packaging and reading frightening foodie tales on Facebook.

“We aren’t at the point where all these other threats are even close to what we already know is the biggest threat to kids’ health: obesity,” he says. “Parents who worry what package their kids’ chicken nuggets are wrapped in are missing the boat. It’s the nuggets themselves that are the problem. And the fries. And the soda.”

Funes would rather a parent concentrate on getting her child to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, drink water and milk, eat kid-sized portions and avoid fried foods, soft drinks and fast foods.

“I really think [eating fresh, quality foods] will have a bigger impact on their health than avoiding these other threats,” he says.

There’s a much more toxic aspect to all of this vigilance, Baton Rouge therapist Jamie Munson reports. The stress it stirs in the bellies of moms and dads can eat away at families.

“As humans, we are not equipped to take on the battles and concerns of this world,” she says.

But, oh, how parents try.

Pugh doesn’t mind being called Baton Rouge’s poster mom for the non-toxic fight, or any other labels that might be thrown her way: Old-fashioned. Country. Homesteader. Hippy.

Today, her daughter Lila is 5. Pugh had another girl, Laurel, in 2010.

The family moved to the country outside of Zachary shortly after Lila was born. The girls are home-schooled. Their toys are more likely to come from the back yard or from the hands of their father Jerred than from Toys R Us, that Xanadu of plastics. The plastic toys sold there contain phthalates, chemical stabilizers believed to cause a number of health problems in those who have regular contact with them.

The family eats gluten-free and organic foods, since conventional produce can contain pesticide residue. They prefer local fare and have made friends with most of the area’s small-time farmers.

Vinegar and baking soda clean the countertops, floors and bathroom.

“I’m a vinegar girl,” Pugh says with a chuckle.

No dollop of Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo has ever touched the petal-like skin of the girls’ scalps. Johnson & Johnson announced last year it would revamp its shampoo to remove “chemicals of concern”—including phthalates, which recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) studies have revealed the nation’s children to be overexposed to by as much as 20 times the tolerable amount.

Her girls wore cloth diapers, which were washed in natural laundry detergent.

They rarely eat fast food. There is no family microwave.

“Food that is cooked in the microwave becomes altered in a way that was not the same as on the label,” Pugh says.

The eggs that the Pugh girls nosh for breakfast come from the chicken coop across the yard.

They are a daily staple, served in place of any of the wide range of cereals made by General Mills, Kellogg’s or any of those other companies. Pugh says these cereals contain unknown genetically modified organisms—GMOs for those in the know.

Funes says the jury is still out on the threat of GMOs. They could actually prove to be beneficial as a way to help feed a growing planet of hungry children.

“I am concerned about the pesticides themselves, so rinsing food well is important. Organic is an alternative. But you can still have E. coli and cryptospora and such,” Funes says.

Keep it simple, he says. When in doubt, fresh food is always better than packaged food.

“I have people ask if they should buy organic foods for their babies,” he says. “I tell them to choose organic—if they can afford it—to do something good for the environment, but that non-organic food is healthy and safe.”

What is Pugh’s advice to her circle of mothers at The Red Shoes who realize, with a collective gasp, that hazardous fumes and poisons surround them?

“I took it one thing at a time,” she says. Slowly, Pugh eliminated some things and changed others. She radiates a calm confidence.

I wish I could say the same. I am standing in line at Matherne’s Grocery on Highland Road.

I have just told my kids, reluctantly, that they can have Skittles, and this small voice from another person’s child rises from the next lane over.

“Moooomm, can I have this? It doesn’t have red 40 in it.”

The mother, upright, her hair pulled back just so, flips the candy over efficiently, with a flick of her wrist—as if she’s done this a thousand times—to read the label.

Nonchalantly, I check the Skittles my kids have tossed on the checkout belt. I realize with a shriveling sense of dread that it does contain red 40. I crane to see what gem the child one lane over has discovered, a candy without red 40 in it.

And, despite its foreboding-sounding name, I have no idea why we should avoid red 40.

I rush home to research. Red 40 dye can cause tantrums, uncontrollable crying, screaming and kicking—pretty much the same reaction sparked by denying a child Skittles.

We are two months into a home and diet detox.

We’ve gone organic, grass-fed, local, and for a brief and stressful time, vegan. My husband says the house smells like salad from all of the vinegar scrubbing.

When my children’s school holds a fundraiser at a certain local fast-food chain popular for fried chicken fingers, we skip it. And then I feel guilty. Food snob, I think to myself.

We enthusiastically support the next fast-food fundraiser, and I feel better … until I think about the sludge in our arteries.

It’s all too much to take in. I am tempted to scrap the whole thing and return to the pine-scented cleaners of my youth. Exchange the expensive organic cheese bunny crackers we have to drive across town to get for good, old-fashioned Pepperidge Farms Goldfish.

We parents only have so much energy, after all.

“Doing it all can drive a mom crazy,” Birchman says.

Even Funes confesses, “I wonder how many things I do daily which will cause my children irreparable harm.”

My informal research reveals that most Baton Rouge parents hitch their safety anxieties onto a particular cause. They eat organic foods and avoid sugar. Or else they buy an organic crib and ergonomic stroller. Or they worry about germs. Or they sink themselves completely into the car seat purchase, a dragon that expectant mom Trina Edwards, wife of former Gov. Edwin Edwards, battled recently when she was expecting her son.

“I had my first two babies when I was young, and now that I’m old, pregnancy is a completely different experience,” she divulged on Facebook earlier this year.

“When I bought car seats for my first two boys I pretty much just picked out the cutest one. Now I’m comparing prices, features, and safety ratings.”

Twenty-five Facebook comments later, I am pretty sure Edwards is just as confused as I am. I feel great relief that I do not need to buy a car seat today.

The local market is shifting to meet the needs of picky parents.

Those who want to outfit an organic nursery in Baton Rouge can turn to Joel Frugé at The Children’s Gallery, a new boutique that specializes in safe, organic and non-toxic products.

“We do a background check on all of our products,” says Frugé.

Rarely do parents come into his store specifically looking for organic crib mattresses, he says. But once they put together the number of hours baby spends in the crib and the amount of chemicals that might be rising off of traditional, plastic-covered, synthetic beds, they are usually willing to pay for an organic mattress.

“Parents these days are older, have more income and are more knowledgeable,” says Frugé, himself a new dad who became so passionate about providing better products to local parents that he has built a business on it.

There are helicopter parents—those who hover annoyingly close over every detail of their offspring’s lives—and even lawnmower parents who go out of their way to make sure no obstacles or challenging life lessons befall their precious little ones. But does worrying over chemicals in products and food put moms and dads in either category?

Many parents who are aware of these threats quickly realize they need to find a balance. They can’t do it all.

“I don’t think a lot about protecting my kids from hazards when buying things like household cleaners,” says M.E. Hart, an information technology analyst at LSU and mother to John Thomas, age 3, and Mary Harper, 1.

“We put a lot of thought into what was the safest product that would last the longest amount of time—car seats that would rear-face until age 2, hands-free carriers that would be ergonomically correct for me and the baby.”

Conversely, Hart chose not to baby-proof her home overmuch. Instead, she focuses on food, striving for a balance. Hart and her husband Brian feed their children a lot of local, natural meals. They look for organic, but not religiously.

“I want confident, healthy kids that will eat pretty much anything and enjoy exercise,” Hart says. “I don’t want them to think junk food is necessarily bad. I just want them to think it’s an occasional indulgence instead of a daily need.”

The Harts line up with many of the parents she meets, says Munson. “There is a rise in the number of parents who are concerned about environmental hazards and nutritional concerns when it comes to their children,” she says. “Nutrition is their primary concern.”

But, parents should rest easy, Munson adds.

While mounting parental anxiety and media attention might make it seem like there are more threats to kids than ever before, that’s simply not the case.

“Parents are just more aware now,” Munson says.

The most important thing, she adds, is to channel your parenting energy first toward raising kids who are resilient, creative and emotionally strong.

“A strong foundation is needed for our children to be able to take on the challenges of this world, which are sometimes cruel and heartless,” she says. “For some children, the only place they receive nurturing and positive reassurance is at school, and this is simply not enough.”

So, in other words, before all of the organic granola, farm-raised beef, non-colored snacks, wooden toys, safety shampoo, ergonomic car seats and gentle cotton crib mattresses, make it your chief goal to give your child the gift of love, a good chunk of your authentic self and solid relationships. Heal your own emotional scars.

Be conscious of what enters in your house, yes, but know that the most prominent product in your home should be peace.

Most of us unknowingly pass stress on to our kids because we worry too much about things we can’t control. And that is toxic, too.

As you parent, make the best choices you can in that moment. And then let the rest go. Have faith and zero in on creating a happy home.

Eventually, Munson says, children will develop lives of their own. And they will need to be able to tap into a certain inner strength their parents—not cleaning products, a pure diet, car seats or chic, hand-sewn toys—have established.

“Home is where parents can build up their child so that what their peers are thinking and saying will not have a permanent effect on the way they see themselves,” Munson says.

Today, Pugh and her husband Jerred are relaxing under a giant big drake elm in front of the sprawling homestead they’ve laughingly deemed the Love Shack.

The girls are wandering among recently constructed butter bean poles. They are chasing chickens and hoisting themselves up on the giant wooden play set their father built for them. Who knows what character they are playing today.

And we won’t know for 50 or 100 years, or maybe never, whether the household and dietary changes Pugh made on her children’s behalf will have a significant impact on their health for a lifetime. But her bold choices are one sign of a great, great love. And that just might make the biggest difference of all.