Category: Uncategorized

Flashback to 2006…

Me: Ok, I just got off the phone with poison control. They said that the sanitizer Kate licked off of her hand probably won’t hurt her, but that we should watch her carefully and take her to the doctor if she starts stumbling around and acting like she’s drunk.

Andy: She’s two! She always acts like she’s drunk!! How are we supposed to tell the difference?!?

*******

That little story is humorous now, but I assure you, it wasn’t at the time!

The safety of household products is no joke – this includes laundry cleaning supplies! Jenny and I have been working with the American Cleaning Institute for the last few months to spread the word about their KEY Pledge laundry safety campaign, which aims to increase awareness surrounding the proper usage, storage and handling of single-load liquid laundry packets.

The little (extremely convenient, well-working) single-load liquid laundry packets that we all know and love and are fabulous. They really are. I am slightly obsessed with them. However, in 2012, poison centers received reports of 6,229 unintended exposures by children 5 and younger. Many consumers do not realize that each packet contains highly-concentrated detergent and should be treated like any other household cleaning product. If not safely stored, the laundry packets can attract dangerous interest from young children leading to injury from ingestion or exposure to the eyes – always store them up high, out of reach and sight.

It’s important that we as parents and caregivers keep single-load liquid laundry packets away from children and help prevent the risk of serious injury from ingestion or exposure to eyes. To help keep this top of mind, ACI wants us all to take the Key Pledge.

As an extra incentive, the American Cleaning Institute will randomly choose one person to win a $2,500 gift card* that can be put towards a laundry room makeover!

***NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Ends on December 31, 2013 at 5:00 p.m. ET. Open to legal residents of 50 U.S. and DC, 21 and older. Void where prohibited. For Official Rules, click here. Sponsor: American Cleaning Institute.

People all over the country are joining in – take a look and see how your home state is doing! Florida, California, Texas, and really most of the Midwest are looking pretty good, but people in Montana and Wyoming? You have some work to do!

Always remember these tips for a safe laundry room & routine:
• Do not let children handle laundry packets
• Do not puncture or pull packets apart
• Store out of child’s sight and reach
• Keep the packet’s package closed and in a dry place
• Packets quickly dissolve upon contact with water, wet hands, or saliva so it is necessary to keep them dry

Here’s a quick video about important laundry safety tips from child safety expert and KEY Pledge spokesperson Kimberlee Mitchell. Kimberlee has been collaborating with the ACI on a series of safety videos, and this is the first! Keep an eye out for additional videos in the series including important reminders about the proper precautions when using, storing and handling single-load liquid laundry packets.

I just watched this. I haven’t entirely processed it yet – I’m not sure I want to. I’m not sure I want to look too deeply into what I’m passing on to Kate. From the moment she was born, I have wanted nothing more than to NOT pass on my food and body issues to her. And on the surface, I’ve put some effort into that – I don’t talk about weight and being fat around her, and I focus on the benefits of nutrition and physical activity as they relate to health, not weight.

But you guys. Thinking about my weight? Consumes me.

I can’t describe it.

The idea of Kate picking up on this internal struggle is terrifying.

See this guy here? He is my baby. Sure, he’s closing in on three years old (waah!!), but he’s my littlest, and he’ll always be my baby. And in some ways, due to his speech delay, he does seem younger than his years. I still call him “baby” all the time, and I also tell him he’s a “big boy”often, too – confusing much? He’s definitely at that place where he’s some of both.

A few weeks ago I had the chance to talk with child safety expert Kimberlee Mitchell, and we were discussing the fact that I’d re-arranged my laundry-storage habits because Jonah can get the kitchen gate open now. I was thinking, “Well, he’s getting older, he can get it open now, I need to make the kitchen safer and take my laundry supplies to the basement as soon as I bring them into the house.”

It didn’t occur to me until after my conversation with Kimberlee had concluded that I should’ve been thinking, “Yeah, I know he’s almost three, but the kitchen leads to the basement stairs where the laundry room is and I don’t want him down there, plus you know, the oven is hot, so I should get a new kitchen gate.”
I was thinking, “He’s almost three! We’re almost out of the baby gate stage!”

I was wrong, and thankfully I realized that before we had a safety snafu. I got a new kitchen gate.

Now Jonah is safe from our basement, our laundry supplies, and anything I don’t want him getting into in the kitchen.

Jonah may be getting older, but he still needs to be safe and protected from things that he’s not ready for yet. September is Baby Safety Month, and there’s no better time to think about safety for your babies, whether they are still teeny or are getting big. It’s also a great time to think about laundry safety once again. Laundry safety is important, y’all!!! Laundry products are definitely things our kiddos are not big enough to handle, and they should be stored out of kids’ reach and sight. As I’ve mentioned, Emily and I are proudly working with the American Cleaning Institute (ACI) to spread the word about laundry safety— it’s an issue that’s really important to us.

September may be Baby Safety Month, but honestly, we need to make every day child safety day in our homes. But in the frenzy most parents of young children call life, things can easily slip through the cracks. Things like a worn-out safety gate, for instance. That’s why it’s important to stop and make some safety policies and guidelines for your home. One way you can do that is by taking the ACI KEY Pledge for laundry safety. It’s as easy as heading to the KEY Pledge website and learning about simple steps to ensure a safe laundry room and routine:

Keep single-load liquid laundry packets out of the reach of children

Educate your family and friends about the safe use and storage of these new laundry products

You serve a key role in laundry safety.

Head on over to take the KEY Pledge and then make today the day you choose to make any necessary safety adjustments in your home. I promise this is something you will never regret doing.

Just like I don’t regret our new gate!

What plans do you have in place to keep your babies safe at home?