Is Everything Toxic Now?! Here’s What Parents Actually Need to Know

0:00The following podcast is a Dear Media production. Welcome back to another episode of After Bedtime. And today we're talking about something really important for our kids' safety and health. Something that gets me really fired up, as you'll hear in this episode. How do we keep our kids and our bodies safer from toxins? Safer from toxins that are in things like our mattresses, our clothes, our tampons. I hate that this is something we need to navigate. But in this episode, you'll hear tiny tweaks that you can personally start making to keep yourself and your kids safer and healthier. And also some of the bigger things that we can do to start to advocate for a safer world where we don't have to tiptoe around things.

0:44Really important stuff. So let's get into it. Welcome to After Bedtime, where the house is finally quiet, but the real noise begins. The thoughts, the questions, the wondering if you're doing any of this right. We're Kristen and Dina, child behavior experts, moms, and co-founders of Big Little Feelings. And we're not here to give you more pressure or perfect parenting energy. Nope. We're here to tell the truth. The unfiltered, beautiful, brutal truth about what it means to raise kids and re-raise ourselves in the process. Because parenting isn't just about sleep schedules and snack hacks. It's about healing.

1:21It's about breaking cycles. It's about becoming the kind of adult you want your kids to grow up to be. This is the place where we say the quiet parts out loud, and we're so glad that you're here. Okay, my friends, today we are having a guest, a really insightful, knowledgeable guest, and his name is Aaron Schultz, and he is the chief growth officer at Naturopedic, which is the leader in sustainable, non-toxic, and certified organic sleep wellness. And today, Aaron's joining us to talk about something that's become a huge issue, which is toxins in mattresses that our kids are spending sometimes more than half their day sleeping on.

1:59And it makes me really angry that we do have to think about it, but here we are. And I want you to walk away from this episode feeling really empowered, get the knowledge you need without becoming anxious so that you can live your healthiest life and keep your kids healthy. So Erin is going to share a ton of knowledge with us. Yes on mattresses and beyond that. and we have a lot of fun questions to ask him too. So I'm excited to have him on. Aaron, welcome to After Bedtime. That's very nice to be here today. Yeah, we're happy to have you. So Aaron, I want to know, I mean, I want to understand where this came from, where the passion came from to, you know, go all in.

2:44You're doing sort of the Lord's work here for children and babies. So where did this come from? Well, you know, I think, I mean, I've seen a father of four and you do anything for your own children. And I've been here at Naturopedic now for 12 years. And the one thing that this company has been amazing at is showing everyone behind the curtain. And I was very much unaware when I was, my wife and I jokingly said, we have our two pre-naturopedic children and our post-naturopedic children. And the other two are thriving. They're doing just great. But it was all the things that you don't know going into it of like what your kids are eating, what you're putting on their skin, where they're sleeping and, you know, meeting all of these scientists and advocates and all this stuff.

3:27It's just, there's so, you know, here we are in 2026. And I'm sure everyone can agree with this is all the chemicals that get put in out into the world. There are 87 ,000 chemicals in use in the United States right now, 87 ,000. And only 20 of them are regulated. Only five of them are actually banned. And every time something does get banned or regulated or something, they just tweak the formula a little bit and they throw it right back out of the market and give it a different name. So, you know, combining all those things, I don't, we are never going to know as a society of, of what the combination of all of these chemicals are doing to us.

4:00And the best thing you can do to combat it is, you know, again, just being more cognizant about what you're, what you're putting on it and on your body and what you're eating and where you're sleeping. And, you know, the education that we put into it is, you know, yes, I get paid at this job. We all get paid here at Naturepedic, which is great. It's not a, you know, a charity by any means, but, you know, we, we treat it like one, we do a lot of advocacy work and, you know, we want to make sure that, you know, it feels good to come to work every day because we get to feel good about the product we're making, the product we're selling and, and educating people on a, you know, multitude of, of things.

4:34And, you know, it, it, I don't think I can go and do anything else at this point. So they're kind of stuck with me until I retire. So we do really firmly believe in educating parents on making, you know, more informed decisions. You know, and again, if you don't believe anything that we talk about today, like just do the research and, you know, all of there's, there's tons of medical practitioners out there that are going to say some of the same things that we're saying, because we've worked with them. You know, our founder, Barry, he is a board certified environmental engineer. He has written textbooks.

5:04He's a Menza member. We have veritable libraries in our factory of, you know, his name is on most of them, but you know, it's, it's everything chemical related and everyone has access to that and everything that we've learned over the years. And it's just ingrained into us. And, you know, I've done this for 12 years now, and I feel like, you know, I could do it in my sleep. And after everything I've learned, I want to be able to share that with other people because I feel like we're, to your earlier point, doing the Lord's work around here. I feel like I got to get the message out. So I get that good, good feeling in me.

5:35So I want to make sure everyone else learns about it. I hear you say there's 80 ,000 chemicals in consumer products. And then what exactly are the long-term effects that you're seeing when you're saying that he's written the books, he's written on chemicals? What exactly are we seeing? Well, some of the bigger ones that are in, you know, we'll start with crib mattresses because that's the thing that your baby's first going to be sleeping on and bassinet mattresses for that matter is polyurethane foam, which is, you know, a queen, just to put in perspective, a queen size mattress takes 20 gallons of crude oil, the same stuff they pump out of the ground to make gasoline out of 20 gallons of that to make a queen size mattress to make the polyurethane foam inside of that.

6:17If that wasn't bad enough with all the, you know, dozens of chemicals that go into making a crude oil product into a foam squishy product. Now it's all of the flame retarded chemicals that go into it, which are known carcinogens. So now if you have a polyurethane foam crib mattress, you're not only putting your baby on countless chemicals that are doing God knows what to that baby because it affects everyone in different ways, but known carcinogens. And they're sleeping on that mattress. hopefully, I mean, not hopefully, but they are sleeping on that mattress for 10 to 16 hours a day. So, you know, and it's that, and then, you know, there are certain ways that are made to waterproof a crib mattress.

6:55There's two, two ways that were traditionally done. One is vinyl, which is the same. Vinyl is nothing but the white PVC pipe you have in your house. They had a plasticizer to that called phthalates and it makes it soft and pliable. If you ever see your really old crib mattress starts to crack in the corners, that's it off-gassing, getting to its end of its life. And your baby's been breathing it in the whole time. And why those phthalates are bad is because they're known endocrine disruptors and they're known to cause reproductive problems in boys. So, you know, which again, might not show up till later in life, but again, it's still going to be an issue.

7:29And you can really pinpoint to that one point in time where that got started. And then the other way, which is, you know, probably worse than vinyl, but still, you know, is perfluorinated compounds. And this is a good message for any, you know, consumer of anything you're going to put on your body that says it's water resistant, like raincoats or, you know, rain suit or anything like that. it's generally better to stay away from it because they generally most of the time spray those things with those perfluorinated compounds. And those are also known carcinogens. So, you know, other way, and they're just dousing these crib mattresses and this stuff.

8:06And, you know, and there's a lot of questionable materials that go into this too. Cheaper crib mattresses, you know, sometimes we get, you know, I don't say beat up, but, you know, I've called out of like, why, why are your crib mattresses so expensive? Well, I mean, organic cotton is not the cheapest thing in the world either. But the reason why they have$50,$60,$100 crib mattress on the market is there's a thing inside of these cheaper crib mattresses called the shoddy pad. And it's basically the sweepings of textile floors. And they take all these sweepings and they mash it up into a mat and they stick it inside of your crib mattress.

8:36They also use cardboard, which is a mold and hit growth, you know, material. And we don't use any of that. And how we're able to waterproof our crib mattresses is we use non-GMO sugar cane. We're the only crib mattress in the world that actually uses non-gmo sugar cane to waterproof our curb mattresses so that that in of itself is is makes us you know fairly unique without using any of those harmful chemicals okay yeah that that's a lot of stuff and honestly this is all really important but my honest reaction as a parent is how the hell did we get here like how the hell did we get to this place that all these things are just in our daily life or or being built for our kids this is crazy Well, you know, I think the mattress injury was 100 % affected by, you could say that about a lot of things in the world now that we use, between microwaves and saran wrap.

9:28And, you know, it was World War II and the space race was probably the biggest time period of innovation in the United States. And, you know, polyurethane foam was made, it was invented during, you know, the space race. And they're like, wow, super cheap material that we can literally made out of oil. What else can we start putting it in? because the, you know, naturopedic, the way we make mattresses other than our waterproofing is it's not any different than how mattresses were made for your grandparents and your great grandparents. So, you know, they started taking, they're like, man, organic cotton is expensive.

10:01How do we bring the price point down? Polyurethane foam. So, you know, through, through that, you know, of, of trying to, to innovate, we'll call it and, and make things cheaper and faster that it just became so commonplace in our lives. There's a video that you could watch on UL that's really impactful as they take a pre, I think it's 1950s living room and a modern day living room. And they're in the same, they built in this giant warehouse. They're side by side with each other. And they put a lit candle on the couch of each one of those living rooms. And there's a, it's called flashover. And basically that's the amount of time it takes for the flames to get into the next room.

10:39And the pre 1960s, 1950s room it took well over a half an hour for there to be flashover. You could have made a sandwich, got all your family photos, rescued your dog, whatever you want to do in a half an hour is a lot of time. The modern day living room, it only took three minutes for flashover to happen. And the amount of black smoke that was billowing out of that room, most people don't die from fire when there's a house fire. It's smoke inhalation. And that's because of all the chemicals in that polyurethane foam. You're spiking all my anxiety. This is great. I literally saw a reel the other day.

11:14I saw a reel and it was like, if you have a fire in your house, you have three minutes to get out. And I was like, you don't have three minutes. Apparently you do. Yeah. You really, unfortunately, you only got three minutes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it really does bother me that we live in a world that has put money over kids. And, and this is just one example that we're talking about today. And it's really, really a problem. What are some other examples? I mean, now that you're taught, like, obviously you're probably pretty, you're a new founder. Is there, I know mattresses are up there and I've heard that before.

11:48What else is, especially in the kids' world or just in general, by the way? In general. Yeah. I think for people who, you know, anybody listening might not be in the market for, you know, might not even have the budget for a new crib mattress, for that matter. Maybe they just bought something that's a conventional crib mattress, or even for yourself, I would say some of the biggest things you can do, go get organic cotton sheets, especially for your baby or an organic cotton waterproof pad. It at least creates a barrier in a sleeping surface. That's, that's organic. Cotton is one of the, is the, is the most heavily pesticide sprayed crop in the entire world.

12:21So not only are, you know, you have this, you know, we'll call it unsafe. That's what really what it is. You have this unsafe crib mattress with all these chemicals inside of it that now you are basically, you know, blanketing your baby in pesticides on top of it. And, you know, everyone, you know, the whole thing earlier in the year about, you know, all the strawberries, you know, in the California Valley where, where the cow, you know, the strawberries are grown cancer rates among children are 37 % higher than the rest of the country. And it's because of the pesticides they're spraying. So it's really, I'm throwing a lot of facts here.

12:54It must be a lot of fun for all these parents listening, but you know, I think those are easy choices to make for parents that are, that are cheap alternatives to being able to have some form of protection for your baby. And again, not everyone's in the market for everything. You have a bazillion things that you're trying to buy for your baby, trying to prepare a nursery, you got car seats, you got strollers. I will say, I mean, I could say this, you know, biasly is spend your money where your baby's going to spend the most time. And, you know, I think, you know, a good crib and a good crib mattress are a really good place to start.

13:27But if you don't have that available either, you should at least get organic cotton sheets. That does make a world of difference. And, you know, that, I mean, there's over a hundred different chemicals that go into making mattresses and that's one easy way to at least eliminate one of them. That's a good point. You do spend a lot of time laying on that mattress and your baby spends more than 12 hours, my baby, more than 12 hours a day on a mattress. So that's a fair point. You're just meeting me at a time where I'm just really angry that we live in a world that has made it very hard. You have to consciously make these choices to be OK or be healthy.

14:04Like, why is there lead in tampons? You know, things like that. Why is there plastic in the clothes that I'm sweating in at the gym? I just I don't want to have to worry about this stuff. But here we are. Yeah, consumer protections are like non-existent. And, you know, the way the last couple of years have been going as well, just reeling back consumer protections, either with the EPA or the USDA or whatever. And, you know, I think that's where we've never kind of wavered as a company. Like we could have made stuff cheaper. We could have made it faster. And we just choose not to. And there's a lot of companies out there like that.

14:40And I think that's what consumers want to be seeing is we generally have to fight for ourselves in a lot of ways. I mean, I think, you know, here at Naturopedic, it sounds altruistic, but we're like, we're making products that we would be comfortable sleeping on. So, you know, and I think that's what we try and provide for consumers. Yeah. Erin, you probably know a lot about this, but you can see I'm fired up. Like, how do we make bigger change? I'm sure you have ideas. Like, is there a way that we can start advocating or like, how do we change this? I think lobbying your congressmen, congresswomen, senators, you know, to enact laws.

15:18California is, and they've been a great in a lot of ways. I think they could be a lot better. California is always the bellwether when it comes to changing things because it's, you know, third largest economy. and I think they evoke a lot of change, but I think even on like a state level where you live, you can have enough people sign that ballot of having flame-returning chemicals banned from your mattresses, or at least crib mattresses for that matter, or have certain chemicals taken out. And it's the only way that that is really gonna change. I mean, we're going, I'll be there in DC in September and we're lobbying in Capitol Hill with a bunch of senators that are at least willing to listen to us about how we should be changing things.

15:59So I think I can make a great argument in person. But, you know, I think just, you know, it's this old adage of just banding together really to evoke change. And I think eventually, you know, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. And I think if enough people, you know, ask for those changes and honestly, stop buying from those brands. Eventually they're going to, you know, go out of business or change their ways a lot. I mean, we see it in the mattress industry all the time. it is starting to shift more to the natural and organic way because that's how consumers are buying so yeah i've made a lot of personal shifts and it's hard too because like i don't know i'm not going to do it the whole time like i bought some clothes that don't have plastics but then again like you know i feel like it's it's finding the mix because i'm the type of person who i can listen to all this information that you're giving me and be like oh my god yeah yeah and then get really anxious about it and then really rigid about it.

16:53So that is also the risk. I feel like you have to balance taking the information, doing what you can, but not becoming like paralyzed and scared of living life at the same time. No, especially with raising children. I mean, you can't like, you know, unless you're going to live in some commune somewhere and smell like an armpit 90 % of the time. And, you know, we might, and it's me and Kristen. It's a good thing we're you know, or you're walking around with a burlap sack on. I mean, there, there are, you know, there are things that you, you know, are going to have to make concessions on. And as I said, it's not a perfect world.

17:29And, and I think, you know, it's kind of looking at those big, I think making better food choices, always a good idea. I mean, there's so many additives and everything else that in preservatives that go into stuff that are very, very questionable, you know, clothes, I think in a lot of ways are, I think as long as you're not wearing conventional cotton, you're better off going with synthetic, to be perfectly honest. If you can't afford an entire organic wardrobe, synthetic is probably your better way to go. So again, it's little changes like that. It's not perfect, but it's better. And I think that's the thing that people can really get behind.

18:01Agreed. As someone who used to be orthorexic, which is the disordered eating where you're so worried about clean and organic, I really, Kristen can attest, you remember a few times I was at your house and I was really over on that side of things. It is. it's like a, it's finding that balance of still being able to live life, you know? Yeah. I mean, everybody loves an Oreo, right? You know, have you had an Oreo before? Now I eat the gluten-free ones, even though they have preservatives, I'm going to eat them. I enjoy every single one I have. She's a new girl. She's healed. I think it's, you know, you can make, I mean, you look at the same thing, like our, our product itself is like, I can, you know, I can make you an organic mattress, But if it's not comfortable, nobody wants to sleep on it.

18:50You know, I can make you an organic Oreo, but if it tastes like crap, no one's going to eat it. So, you know, and that unfortunately happens sometimes. Sometimes you just want an Oreo or a gluten-free one for that matter. But an Oreo is an Oreo. So, yeah, I have your mattresses actually for both of my big boys with that little like, yeah, the clean plastic side that is there. And it's helped us a few times with nighttime peepees in the bed. things. Well, you spend that much money on a mattress and you, you know, you want to be able to protect it. And like, they don't, you know, they're, they're kids, they're going to have accidents.

19:20And yeah, we, my, my five-year-old and my seven-year-old have slept on them and it has been a godsend, especially more. So we were very lucky when it came to potty training, but when it came to the puking, I, we did not, we dodged, we did not dodge any of those bullets. We got every, every puke everywhere on the floor, on the wall. It's like, I, I'm sure we didn't get any on the ceiling. So it's, it's, you know, like the exorcist in our house. Most times. This has been one of the hardest parts of parenting. Cause I've had a vomit phobia my entire life, like truly my whole life. I have a crazy vomit phobia.

19:56And so having kids has been the exposure therapy I'd never asked for. It's going to, it's a cure-all. It really is being a parent. I mean, I think the second, if you have, if you're a germaphobe, the second your kid sneezes into your mouth, that's it. That's it. You have cured everything. You know, you've seen the worst of it. Somebody sneezing into your mouth, no matter how cute they are, there was a sneeze in your mouth. There is like that, that exact moment that you give up in the best way though. You know, like, I don't know about you, but like all of us, when you first have the first baby, you're just like, if I Clorox swipe this enough, if I just, I would run out to target.

20:32I distinctly remember this. It would make me feel safer or better because I would run out to target and I would get like Clorox swipes. Just every, everything that I thought was going to make everything better and have a system. And then the minute that you completely give up as a parent, I think everything shifts. You know, we were just like, oh, it's in my mouth. You know, I mean, there's no stopping this thing. I admire you. You still hold strong on not sharing drinks. Guys, I think it prevents so many illnesses if you just don't share a drink. That's only in six seasons, by the way. I don't share a drink with my children.

21:06I just don't. I'm so lazy. I'm like, you know what? I'll do it. what aaron what are you doing i'm not no no no sharing of drinks have you've seen the backwash come out of their mouths especially when they're eating the amount of stuff that like you could see half of it go right back into your drink and like we'll be at the movies and he's like can i have a sip of your sprite and i'm like no you are not i love you but no you can i would give you the shirt off my back i would jump in front of a vehicle and die for you and you will have your own drink You may not have a sip of my drink. My whole family passed around a can of bubbling water yesterday at dinner.

21:43The whole family, Mike included. It's a hard note. It's a bit more power to you, I guess. You know how it's funny about being a parent, though, is that I don't want to share a drink. I don't know what it is. It's like liquids. It just feels gross. But to get my son to feel better, this was two years ago. And I distinctly remember this because I think now I am probably going to be patient zero for something. his sucker fell in our van and instead of rinsing because he was so sad because it was like his brother still had his sucker i just popped that sucker in my mouth and cleaned it off and gave it right back to him and it's on a van floor with four children god only knows what's there but sharing drinks off limit off limit oh man i feel in the same way and when you say that i'm like There's so many things on the bottom of your shoes.

22:33There's research on the bacteria and poop particles on the bottom of your shoes. But yeah, I'll do that too. It's something about liquids. It's something about the backwash. I just can't get behind. Well, when Dina said the question, as a parent, all I'm hearing, and then she asked you something, what I thought she was going to say is, as a parent, how is it having four children? That was my question. Please tell us everything. Four is a lot. And also, tell us how it is. Well, there's four. It's all boys, four boys. Oh, wow. This is my dream. I, you know, I don't know what, you know what it is the best part about being, I grew up with a real tough dad and he was a good man because very, very tough.

23:20But I, so I think I always wanted to do things differently. So I think I was like in mentally, I was probably destined to be more of like a girl dad, but I ended up having four boys. so you know i don't we're not very much of a we don't have like a real bro-y household if that makes sense we're not like we're okay into sports we'll watch like you know begrudgingly watch browns games on sundays every once in a while but you know i think our house my wife and i are always concerned with it i think we're nose blind to it but i think it vaguely smells like armpit and fart. And we also, my wife has her own bathroom.

23:56I will say that much. Us five boys share a bathroom and I think it smells like an old school punk bar. It's probably like we, I have to like hose that thing down at least once a week. The Lysol wipes are our best friend. I don't know. I'm just going to say that the boys, the pee on the floor, the pee on the floor. I just, I don't want that anymore. It's never, it's not going to stop. I have a, you know, my, My 19 year old, he's not an earshot in here now, but yeah, he just misses all the time. And it's just things that, I don't know what, again, I don't know what it's like. I had three sisters growing up, but I don't really remember what it was like when they were little because I was little as well.

24:31But yesterday, classic example, my five-year-old, we knocked down a pine tree the other day because we're doing some remodeling at our house and building off the house and everything. And so we're burning it in the yard. And my wife's like, where's Zach at? And I'm like, he's out front. And I had just gotten, he had just gotten his bath and he was in there out front. facing the road with all of his business, facing every passing car with nothing but a bathrobe on. And he looked like cousin Eddie from Christmas vacation and just, you know, all, all in the, all his glory hanging out there for all of our town to see.