Lead Poisoning: Protecting Your Child, Using Tips from My Experience

We live in an old home. My husband and I had always heard about the possible risks of lead poisoning in the houses that were built before 1978. For some reason we thought it would never affect us. However, our 3-year-old daughter started to act weird when she was a little shy of 2 years. For over a month we noticed that as soon as it was her play time, she would get quiet, not bother anybody and would not cry for food. My husband thought that was good, but being a mother I got apprehensive and yes, suspicious. It was so not normal for her to stay out of trouble!

One day, I left her room with her toys and took a quick peek through the door after a few minutes. What I saw scared me to death. She was munching on the paint that she had scraped off the wall. For a few weeks I tried to break her habit with no avail. Sure enough, the subsequent test conducted by the pediatrician revealed a lead level of 13.6 mcg/dl (micrograms per deciliter). According to him it was abnormally high and we would have to take immediate action to lower the level. Our son grew up in the same house but never did we have to face such problems. We were at a loss.

How did she get the high level of lead?

Children out of curiosity put anything in their mouth to check it out. We had the house repainted before we had moved in, but the paint was getting old. I believe she saw a small crack in the wall and curiosity got the best of her, she put it in her mouth and that was it, she got hooked!

Why did she keep on consuming the lead-based paint?

That was also my question. According to the state law, the pediatrician had to report her case to the city lead prevention program. The social worker from the city came to meet with us. I was informed that the lead-based paint taste sweet. That is why it tasted good and she couldn't stay without consuming it.

What were the implications?

1. Our daughter could have had behavioral, learning and developmental problems if it had been a case of exposure over a long period of time. Luckily, it was a short-term exposure to high dose of lead. Still, we were told we would have to make sure that the lead was taken out of the system in the shortest possible time. The problem was that the body excretes lead at a very low level and unless we made sure that process was accelerated, the lead would get absorbed in the organs causing lifelong damage.

2. The city sent an inspector to conduct tests to determine which areas of the house was causing lead exposure.

3. The inspection report specified the areas and gave us only two weeks to bring the property to compliance. The problem was that we could not just get anybody to do it for us. It had to be done according to specific guidelines. The City of Philadelphia recommends getting the painting done by licensed contractors, but if you could do it right yourself, that would be fine too. My husband and I went to the city lead prevention office to get an extension. The time was too short for us to hire the right person and get the job done. We were reassured that it was just a formality on their part and we could take time as needed.

4. As if we were not in mental agony already, to make it worse within 3 weeks the city filed a case against us which stated that our daughter would be taken into safe custody and we would have to move out!

So what did we do?

1. First we had to make sure we gave her a lot of chelating agent as suggested by the city worker. For example, more milk, green vegetable containing vitamin A, iron supplement and so on and so forth.

2. We made she was never left hungry. We fed her frequently so that she wouldn't have the desire to eat anything else. She gradually forgot all about her craving for the lead-based chipped paint.

3. We were advised not to give her fried food, because the oil prevents the excretion of heavy metal from the body..........a point that we didn't know.

4. We were also informed that the sale papers that we are so accustomed to go through every week could get her exposed to lead even more. The glossy print contains more lead particles than you can imagine!.............so that was kept away from her.

5. The heavy metal particles settle at the bottom of the room. Therefore, even if she was playing only on the carpet, she was still getting exposed to the lead dust. It gets smudged on the hands, doesn't get rubbed off easily, and children have a tendency to put their hands in their mouth all the time. So, we were washing her hands more frequently and cleaning the carpets everyday. Currently, the lead level is 5.2 mcg/dl and still going down. We have to get her blood tested every month until it goes down entirely.

6. We got in touch with a contractor that knew what had to be done. He informed that the paint could not be scraped off; even flame couldn't be used to remove. Instead, we would have to wash the surfaces to remove the particles, then seal the cracks with caulking and then repaint. Once we knew what to do, we did it ourselves and subsequent inspections by the city found our property in compliance.

7. We could have utilized the product available through MT2. However, for that we would require a person who was trained to use the system. Not all professional contractors are aware of this, and we had very little time to fix the problem. We also could not afford to hire someone with professional rate at such a short notice.

MT2 (Metals Treatment Technologies, Inc.) has been providing this latest solution to heavy metal poisoning through their ECOBOND product: You can find out more about it at the web site mentioned below:

http://www.mt2.com/eco.htm