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(This is an excerpt from our book, Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home)

Holly Robinson Peete:  My mother-in-law recently told me she thinks my kids ought to do more chores. “Give them some Lysol!” she said. I’m all for teaching kids responsibility but I told her I don’t let them play with that stuff.

When my twins were born they were both asthmatic. We used nebulizers; we tried aromatherapy, acupressure, acupuncture. They both ended up growing out of it, thank God. But now I’m dealing with my [younger sons], and you never know when something is going to trigger an attack.

Sometimes I wonder why this is happening to us. (I should mention that my oldest son, Rodney, is on the autistic spectrum, and there’s lots of discussion in the scientific community about environmental causes for that, too.) I’ve noticed that strong chemical smells can trigger the twins’ asthma. They’re also both allergic to wheat and sometimes that causes it. To deal with their illness, we’ve had to make our home as healthy as possible, but it’s been a steep learning curve.

For instance, one time we were fixing up a room and were about to lay down some carpet. It didn’t occur to me that something could be wrong with that. I love that new carpet smell – who doesn’t? But my nine-year-old daughter Ryan said, “You know, you need to be careful – there are so many chemicals in carpet!” She’d earned it in school. It’s amazing to me that we’re in an age where some kids are bringing back valid, valuable information about environmental health from school. I was like, “Oh, my goodness. I was going to put it down where my kids sit and baby rolls around?!” I ended up putting down a bamboo floor, and we love it.

Then, when we renovated, we revamped the air-conditioning system so that it had a HEPA filter. It’s helped to make our air healthier. We use humidifiers. We dust with microfiber cloths, which pick up every little speck. We have a HEPA filter on our vacuum; if you don’t, you’re pretty much just blowing dust back into the air and wasting your time.

For cleaning products, we use only non-toxic brands. With natural products, I feel more comfortable about my kids doing their chores, letting them clean the sink or wipe down the counter.

My next concern is their school environment, where most asthma attacks start. There’s a tremendous amount of dust at their school. I’ve seen parents on cleaning duty but haven’t noticed what cleaners they use.

Holly Robinson Peete is an actress and mother to Rodney Jackson (“RJ”), Ryan, Robinson, and Roman.


Taken from Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home. Reprinted by arrangement with Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright (c) 2009 by Healthy Child Healthy World. To read more from Holly and many others, pick up your copy of our book, today.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and not necessarily those of Healthy Child Healthy World.

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