For parents of young children, creating a safe and nurturing environment is an ongoing, all-encompassing mission. Childproofing a home is a battle on multiple fronts; from installing gates and locks to securing furniture and padding sharp edges, keeping a baby or toddler safe requires both imagination and attention to detail. However, one area that is often overlooked when building a child-friendly environment is your home’s water.
Better water is good for everyone, but families with pregnant mothers or young children may want to pay particular attention to their water quality – and perhaps install a whole-home water filtration system to guarantee the best water possible. In this blog, we’ll explore both the immediate and the long-term benefits of better water for families with young children.
Chlorine-Free Comfort
Chemical disinfectants like chlorine and chloramine are a vital part of the water treatment process. However, although they go a long way to protect us from bacteria and waterborne diseases, these chemicals also have a noticeable impact on the taste and smell of our water. Young children have particularly sensitive senses of taste and smell, so the faint swimming pool odour that may be a slight nuisance to us may be overpowering for them.
In addition to these aesthetic unpleasantries, chlorine can also irritate the eyes, lungs, and skin of people who have higher concentrations in their water, have chlorine sensitivities, or live with conditions like eczema and psoriasis. Showering in chlorinated water also dries out your skin, leaving it more prone to damage.
If you live further down the water line or don’t have a particularly high chlorine concentration in your water, there can still be chemical-related issues with your water. When it interacts with organic particles in the water pipes, chlorine produces disinfection by-products (DBPs). These include a number of volatile and carcinogenic compounds known as trihalomethanes. Most DBPs can be removed from your drinking water by a filter jug or simply boiling them away, but studies have shown that most of our trihalomethane exposure comes from water-adjacent activities like hot showers and hand-washing dishes.
Filtering your whole home gives you all the benefits of chlorine disinfection without having to expose yourself or your child to harsh chemicals or unpleasant flavours.
Protecting Young Immune Systems
Before discussing the contaminants children may be exposed to through your water, it’s important to note that a completely sterile environment is neither desirable nor possible when raising a young child. A growing immune system that is never confronted by bacteria or foreign materials will struggle to cope with inevitable exposures later in life. However, there are specific chemicals and contaminants sometimes found in Australian water that are best left outside a growing body.
Several pollutants and contaminants that can be found in our waterways are endocrine disruptors – chemicals that impact our hormones and can adversely affect children’s growth and development. Common sources of these chemicals include plastic pollution (BPA), run-off or air pollution from pesticides (atrazine), or groundwater contamination (PFAS).
While these chemicals are best avoided by everyone, they can be particularly harmful to young children and pregnant or breastfeeding mothers. The endocrine system regulates the balance of hormones in our bodies, especially during times like early development, puberty, or pregnancy. Endocrine disruptors confuse this system, interfering with hormone regulation and throwing off the delicate chemical balance inside our bodies.
Fortunately, Complete Home Filtration systems and more powerful purifiers like reverse osmosis filters are highly effective ways to catch endocrine disruptors that may have entered your water as it approaches your home.
Investing in Their Future
Installing a whole-home water filtration system is a long-term investment that reduces both costs and environmental impact. Having and raising a child is by no means an inexpensive exercise, so installing a single system that eliminates the need to buy bottled water and extends the lifespans of water-using appliances is a welcome reprieve.
A 2021 UN study found that Australians spend an average of $508 per person on bottled water every year. Annual maintenance on a Complete Home Filtration system that provides bottled-quality water for your whole family costs less than half what you’d be paying for just one person’s supply of bottled water.
Softening your water to reduce limescale on its way into your home also significantly reduces hard water damage, saving you money on repairs and replacements. Appliances like kettles and coffee machines quickly become clogged in areas with high calcium and magnesium levels in their mains water, limiting their lifespans and forcing you to replace them more frequently. Limescale also affects hot water systems, with the calcium build-up reducing efficiency and increasing your power bills. Even your home’s plumbing and pipes suffer from hard water, with limescale clogging and wearing them down, marching you closer to that next expensive plumber callout fee.
However, investing in your child’s future goes beyond just setting money aside for them. The planet our children will inherit also needs to be taken care of, and a Complete Home Filtration system is a great way to start. Eliminating plastic water bottles from your life significantly reduces your home’s plastic pollution output. Additionally, softened water makes cleaning products and detergents more effective in smaller doses, so you’ll reduce both the waste from plastic containers and the amount of harsh chemicals that are making their way into our groundwater and the wider environment.
Water is incredibly important for growing children. Their bodies and brains are constantly growing and changing, and proper hydration is essential for making sure they can reach their full potential. Having filtered water flowing through your whole home improves the taste and smell of the water to help form good drinking habits, removes potentially harmful chemicals, reduces your environmental impact, and gives you more financial resources to put towards the things that really matter.
To find out how you can invest in your family with Complete Home Filtration, send us a message below or fill out our quick contact form.
