Are you excited to welcome a new member of your family? Like any good parent, we are sure you have stocked up on parenting books. Becoming parents marks a remarkable transition in our lives, and we do everything to keep our little ones safe. However, there is something that those parenting books might not include, but it is a real threat to your baby’s health. What can that be? It’s all around us: air pollution. Babies and newborns are quite sensitive to air pollution. Therefore, pollution and poor air quality have a lasting impact on them. In this article, learn how pollution influences your baby and how you can keep them safe.
What Is Pollution?
These are gases and minute particles floating in the air with the potential to cause harm to human health. It’s a common misconception that air pollution is limited to the outdoors. Instead, pollution can sneak and build into your home if you are not mindful. If you live in major cities, transport and industries contribute to most outdoor pollution. On the other hand, in your homes, there are several sources of low air quality, such as:
- Building material in your home, such as VOCs in paint or asbestos.
- Tobacco use.
- Poor ventilation.
- Exhaust from cooking and heating.
How Does Pollution Affect Your Baby?
Babies and toddlers are still in their development stage, with their lungs and the respiratory system developing. Additionally, they breathe faster than adults, thus inhaling more pollution. All of these factors add up and can lead to stunted lung growth and to lifelong conditions such as asthma. Moreover, extended exposure to pollution may make your baby more vulnerable to respiratory illnesses like pneumonia. On the other hand, if your child already has asthma, the condition may worsen, and your child may need to tackle more frequent attacks. Pollution may also harm the nervous system and cause behavioral problems, especially when exposed to a chemical such as lead and mercury. However, you don’t need to fret much about lead poisoning because of a ban on the use of leaded fuel products in many countries.
How Can You Protect Your Infant From Adverse Effect Of Pollution?
If the air quality outside is good, take your baby out more for fresh air. However, if you are skeptical about the air quality of your neighborhood, limit outdoor time, and you need to improve the air quality of your home. How can you improve IAQ(Indoor Air Quality)? There are several steps you can take to improve IAQ, such as:
- How Does Pollution Influence Your Baby? Stop Tobacco us indoors.
- Improve the ventilation to let the air circulate.
- CO is a harmful gas that can disturb the peace of your baby. Hence, it’s imperative to keep its concentration to acceptable limits, and you can do that by installing a CO monitor.
- Use a proper exhaust to expel fire and cooking smoke out of the house.
- Install a good filter in your house to help regulate IAQ and reduce allergens in the air. You can shop for your desired filter at Clean Liquid System. Call us at 713-253-0100 to learn more about how we can help.