Lead anxiety

@learning1 We live in a 100 year old house. I was concerned about the lead, but I have just been careful with the kids. Taught the older one to never eat paint chips and he’s always been hyper vigilant about pointing out paint chips. Kept the rooms the baby was in well swept/vacuumed/dusted and made sure she never chews on a window sill.

I get their blood lead levels checked annually and they have always been fine.
 
@learning1 I live an a house older than that with lead paint on the outside windows and brick with a lead water line. I had my house tested with a lead gun when I bought it and it tested negative inside the house. It’s been painted on the interior a bajillion times, and encapsulation is an appropriate remediation method. Likewise, I’ve tested my water and it comes back lower than detection levels for lead even before treatment with a reverse osmosis system. My outside is bad, and I don’t grow root vegetables in my garden or let my toddler play near the the house in the backyard. We go to the park instead.

There are risks to living in an old house, but there is also a lot of fear mongering. In all likelihood your doors, windows, cabinets, doorframes, and window frames have been replaced since 1980. That’s where you are going to get lead paint dust, not walls that no one is smashing into. If you are concerned, I’d have a home inspector out to take samples.
 
@learning1 My sister in law’s daughter tested positive for lead, but not very high. They live in an old house and had central air installed I think. Kicked up some dust. Wet mopping is important. My niece’s lead level has gone down some since they deep cleaned. (Washing the walls, etc) Even a vacuum with a filter will just blow some dust around. Water is good to get all the tiny particles up.

I have had major anxiety about lead even in a fairly new rental house. Def use a lead test kit to test the paint, it could give you peace of mind! Focus on what you can control. It’s a good sign that so far levels are barely detectable, get your babe tested again in the meantime if you feel you need that information.
 
@rascoeb Thanks! Trying to be patient and focus on what I can control as I crawl around his room looking for tiny pieces of chipped off paint. I will buy a test kit and probably get him tested again as well. I’m confused about the cleaning- don’t have a hepa vacuum (will it make things worse to vacuum with a regular one??) and have been dusting with paper towels and cleaning spray. Please feel free to weigh in if you have knowledge on this
 
@learning1 Oh, 1.3 is under the 3.5 limit so I was not incredibly worried! I’m sorry, I just meant that even living in an older home, your child’s level was lower than ours in a “newer” build.

That said, ours could be from so many things that trying to parse it out would drive me insane. I will probably have her checked again at 2 years to confirm it is not increasing. It does always comfort me to think of how many people I know probably had lead levels like 10x higher than she does, just by virtue of their age, and they are totally fine, for all intents and purposes.
 
@learning1 Hello. I always recommend that people rely on science whenever possible - especially if they have anxiety. Start by watching my film (which is available to watch for free) - it has interviews with many of the top scientists related to the issue. Then get your house tested (again, use science to determine if there is a risk). There is an article on my website (which is 100% free of advertisements!... so easier to read) about dust wipe sampling. After watching the film I would do dust wipe sampling of your home (the article on my website discusses how to do dust wipe sampling and there are also videos on my YouTube channel showing how to do dust wipe sampling). I've created these tools so that your children don't end up with permanent brain damage - like my children have.
 
@learning1 So a few people are saying “ingestion is the main concern” and I just wanted to say that I took a class on lead poisoning and prevention put on my county health dept. and they shared some really interesting statistics about what percentage of lead is absorbed through inhalation vs. ingestion. I wish I still had the statistics but they claimed when lead is inhaled a larger percentage is absorbed into the body than when it’s ingested. Kind of like what I learned as a kid about ingesting drugs vs smoking. Anyway, they explained this is why lead dust is such a problem and why the county gets worked up about lead on surfaces that experience friction - like doors and windows. And of course, renovations/sanding of lead surfaces, etc. Anyway, I’m sorry you’re dealing with this but it’s a good sign your baby had low levels at age 1! I’ve heard wet mopping and dusting is good, maybe look at some sort of encapsulation of the lead paint that’s chipping and make sure you test your baby yearly just to keep an eye on things?
 
Oh sorry, just re-read and saw that you’re not even sure the paint is lead paint! The first step would definitely be trying to get a lead paint test swab kit to test the chipping paint. That might give you a lot of peace of mind!
 
@ministerofthekingdomofgod Thanks for weighing in! Landlord confirmed lead paint was used in the past but has been painted over a number of times. I’m assuming that means I don’t need to test because I know there is lead? Or does the test let one know if it’s covered up enough?
 
@learning1 Lead Safe Mama doesn't make it clear that her children got lead poisoning when a contractor was using a blow torch on lead paint, and they inhaled the fumes. It's incredibly tragic, but it's also not anything like the hole you had cut in your ceiling. The fact that you are cognizant of the dangers, you keep an eye on your child, and you've had them tested means you're taking all the right steps. I think this may be something you can ease your anxieties about, especially since the source of the information has made a business around making people worried about everyday items
 
@francolepza Your mileage may vary but I think she does make that clear, however that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to mitigate more mild lead exposure as well. I was using glass baby bottles for my baby for instance, which I found out through Lead Safe Mama's website were painted with a paint containing lead. There is very nearly 0 chance of this affecting my baby's blood lead levels (and indeed he tested completely normally). But why the FUCK are BABY BOTTLES having any amount of lead on them, anywhere??? Paint has absolutely no functionality on a baby bottle other than branding. Insidious shit like this pisses me off, I wrote a very angry email to Lansinoh about it (and they admitted they used lead paint and give no fucks really).

I'm glad there is someone out there exposing these companies because there is no reason or need for any children's products to contain lead.
 
@learning1 My understanding from the packages of the lead paint test kits I’ve seen is you’re actually supposed to cut through the layers of paint in one place and test there so you can see if any of the layers have lead but I’m not totally sure of what the point of that is… I guess to know if any places that are chipping or cut into or rubbing (such as high friction areas like doors and windows) are creating lead dust? But I’m glad you at least have some newer layers of paint that aren’t leaded… that’s better than the alternative!
 
@ministerofthekingdomofgod Yes, you are. I used one of the 3M test kits to check the paint in our last apartment, and IIRC, I had to cut about 1/8th of an inch into the wall to use the swab. So it's definitely not just the top layer. I felt more comfortable with that anyway because when some of the paint did chip, it was always chunks that included several layers.
 
@learning1 Ahhh I totally relate! Her website sent me in a spiral and I threw out all of our dishes, old books and decor. Only for my daughter’s levels to come back at under 0.5.. May have overreacted but I guess it is still better to be safe. But I have now unfollowed her Facebook page, too scary for me!
 
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