The idea of striving to make a smaller impact on the planet occurred to me and my husband when we had our first child. Eleven years ago little did we know what joy he would bring. He also brought many new worries. He had asthma, allergies and eczema.
Aaron and I worried a lot about our little guy. We spent way too many hours in the pulmonologist's and allergist's offices. We learned about eliminating dust and allergens. We listened to the weather reports daily for Ozone Alert days and avoided going outside on those days. We gave our son a lot of medicines: breathing treatments, inhalers, and what felt like gallons of antihistamines. We worried what all these meds were doing to his little body. Would he grow properly? Would it affect his behavior in school? Could he participate in sports?
We believed that way too many kids had problems like our son's, and felt that one of the reasons kids might be having problems like our son's was because we live in such a polluted world. We started taking steps to recycle more. We bought a hybrid car, and Aaron started taking the bus and Dart train to work. We started shopping for organic foods and clothing. These were small steps that we could easily make.
We are still striving everyday to live a greener life. Our son has grown to be a brilliant, athletic young man. I'm so proud to say that he is on swim team and swims laps for an hour straight 4-5 days a week! And he is one heck of a gamer! His asthma and allergies are still there, but much less of a problem than they were when he was little. Luckily our other three children don't have asthma or allergies, and we are so thankful for that.
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