Healthy home

A basic tenet of Feng Shui holds that your physical environment is in essence an extension of your body and therefore how you care for your home is just as important as how you care for yourself. Think of all the care women put into nurturing their bodies while pregnant. You need to give the nursery the same kind of consideration. Just as a woman does not put toxins, such as alcohol and cigarette smoke, into her body during pregnancy, you should not put anything toxic in the nursery. With all the best intentions, many parents buy all new furnishings for the nursery, furnishings that contain chemicals that, especially when new, may release unhealthy fumes into the air of the nursery.

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Paying attention to air quality and the chemicals found in your home is particularly important when preparing for a new baby. Babies' immature organs are less able to cope with the toxins in their environment than those of adults. Children enjoy touching everything around them; eventually either their hands or random objects wind up in their mouths, exposing them to even more chemicals.

People are becoming increasingly aware of the numerous chemicals in the environment. Many people know that most produce is treated with pesticides that remain on the food all the way to the kitchen. As a result, many people wash their fruits and vegetables and are becoming more conscious of the importance of buying organic food. People are also more aware than ever that industrial pollutants and pesticides from farm fields can contaminate water supplies, to the point where drinking bottled water and using water filtration systems in homes is commonplace. In today's world you also need to pay as close attention to the materials that you use to build, decorate, and clean your home as you do to the food you eat and the water you drink.

Taking small steps to create a healthy home will make a big difference, so don't worry if you can't make big changes in your home today -- do what you can. Even small changes in your environment can significantly impact your life. You may even decide to just start with one room; and what better room than the nursery where your baby will spend more than a third of his or her early life?

Excerpted from The Peaceful Nursery by Laura Forbes Carlin and Alison Forbes Copyright © 2006 by Alison Forbes. Excerpted by permission of Delta, a division of Random House of Canada Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. Image courtesy of Pottery Barn Kids.