When it comes to, well, anything and everything, my husband is fond of intoning, "You never know what's going to be the next asbestos!" And while I have to take a lot with a grain (or two) of salt when living with such an alarmist — otherwise I might be driven to pop anti-anxiety meds like candy — occasionally I admit that he just might be onto something. The tricky part is often wading through all of the information and misinformation out there to determine just what that something is. Ask five different people, and they'll probably come up with five different somethings.

For me, that something is parabens [1]. I can't even honestly remember when or where I first read about them, but at some point during my pregnancy I became aware that they were a synthetic preservative to look out for in cosmetics. And so I became fixated on them. I resolved then and there never to use any products on my delicate little baby that contained these potential irritants. Nothing but 100% natural for my baby's bum, I declared!

Later, my concern and commitment were only heightened when I learned how parabens were linked in a 2004 study to breast cancer [2].Though the connection is admittedly somewhat tenuous, I could nontheless hear David's mantra ringing in my ear, loud and clear. Am I overreacting? Maybe. But this is my something, so I'm playing it safe.

Problem is, it took some digging, even at the natural store, to find cruelty-free, plant-based baby products that were also paraben-free. Eventually, I found Burt's Bees [3] recently-launched, and very affordable, Baby Bee [4] line. (I also later discovered VedaBaby [5], a pricier paraben-free option created by pediatrician Natalie Geary.) But I remember fifteeen years ago, before you could even find one cruelty-free cosmetics brand at the local mall, and now you can find several. I think it's just a matter of time before paraben-free also goes mainstream.

Resources

• Concentrations of parabens in human breast tumours [6]
• FDA on Parabens [7]
• Dangerous Deodorant: Say It Ain't So [7]
• How Natural Is Your Beauty? [7]