Lead and your baby

KEY POINTS

  • Lead poisoning (high levels of pb in your trunk) can cause serious problems during pregnancy, like premature birth and miscarriage.

  • If you accept low levels of lead in your body, it's safe to breastfeed. Inquire your provider to check your atomic number 82 levels before you start breastfeeding.

  • If you call back you or someone in your family may have lead poisoning, tell your wellness intendance provider.

What is lead and atomic number 82 poisoning?

Lead is a metal that comes from the ground, but it tin can exist in the air, water and food. You can't see, smell or taste it. High levels of lead in your trunk (called lead poisoning) can crusade serious health problems for you and your family.

Most lead comes from paint in older homes. When quondam paint cracks or peels, information technology makes grit that has lead in information technology. The dust may be as well small to meet. Y'all can breathe in the dust and not know it.

Are y'all at gamble for atomic number 82 poisoning?

You lot and your family unit may be more likely than others to have loftier levels of lead in your bodies if:

  • Your drinking water has high amounts of lead in it.
  • Yous live in or work in an older home that has lead pigment in it.
  • You live in or recently lived in a place where in that location'southward a lot of lead, like near a mine or a smelter or in a country where they yet employ leaded gasoline.
  • You work with or live with someone who works with lead, like in motorcar repair, structure or in a plant that makes paint, batteries, plastics or ships.
  • You apply or work with lead-glazed ceramic pottery.
  • You swallow nonfood items, like clay or dirt. This is chosen pica. Tell your provider if you lot or anyone in your family has pica.
  • Yous use herbal products or supplements that may take pb in them.

Common sources of pb in and around homes in the United states of america include:

  • Arts and crafts supplies, like oil paint, ceramic glazes and materials used to make stained glass
  • Canned food, candy, toys and makeup made outside the Us
  • Jewelry
  • Lead crystal glassware and ceramic dishes. Don't apply these for cooking or eating. Ceramics you buy in a store may be safer than those made past craftspeople. Always bank check the product label to make certain your dishes are safe for cooking and eating.
  • Pb-based pigment and dust in homes built before 1978 and paint used on old toys
  • Soil
  • Water that comes from wells or through old pipes

If you or your partner work with lead:

    • Shower and change dress (including shoes) before you become dwelling house from piece of work.
    • Launder your work wearing apparel at piece of work or wash them at home separately from the rest of the laundry.
    • Wash your hands before eating.

            Pencil lead is non the same as the metal lead. Information technology'southward not lead it all—it's actually a substance called graphite. Don't worry about being exposed to lead through chewing on a pencil or getting stuck by pencil indicate.

            Tin lead poisoning bear on pregnancy?

            Yes. You lot can laissez passer lead to your infant through the placenta. The placenta grows in your uterus (womb) and supplies your babe with food and oxygen through the umbilical cord.

            Exposure to high levels of lead before and during pregnancy tin can cause:

            • Fertility problems, like reduced sperm count or abnormal sperm. Sperm in a man's semen fertilizes a woman's egg to get her pregnant. Sperm count is the number of sperm in a human being's semen when he ejaculates.
            • High blood force per unit area (also called hypertension). This is when the force of claret against the walls of your blood vessels is too high. High claret pressure can cause problems during pregnancy.
            • Problems with the evolution of your baby's brain and nervous system. The nervous organization includes your encephalon, spinal cord and nerves. Your nervous system helps yous move, call back and feel. Babies exposed to lead before birth are probable to have learning problems and slow growth.
            • Premature birth. This is birth that happens too early on, earlier 37 weeks of pregnancy.
            • Low birthweight. This is when your baby weighs less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces at nascency.
            • Miscarriage. This is when a infant dies in the womb before 20 weeks of pregnancy.

              During pregnancy, eating foods with sure vitamins and nutrients can help absorb pb from your torso and protect your growing baby. If yous're pregnant and call back you may be exposed to lead, eat foods that contain:

              • Calcium, including milk, yogurt, cheese and greenish leafy vegetables
              • Iron, including lean ruby-red meat, beans, cereal and spinach
              • Vitamin C, including oranges, dark-green and red peppers, broccoli, tomatoes and juices

              If yous're pregnant, don't accept herbal products or supplements because some may have pb in them. An herbal product, similar pills or tea, is made from plants used in cooking. A supplement is a product you accept to make up for certain nutrients that you lot don't get enough of in the foods you consume. If y'all do accept an herbal product or supplement during pregnancy, tell your wellness intendance provider.

              If you lot're pregnant and piece of work with lead, talk to your dominate near changing job responsibilities to assistance keep you lot and your infant safe during pregnancy.

              How does lead poisoning affect children?

              Children younger than 6 years can exist severely affected by atomic number 82. It can touch development of the brain and torso. Very high levels can crusade death. Signs and symptoms of lead poisoning in children include:

              • Being irritable or fatigued (actually tired)
              • Belly pain and constipation. Constipation is when you don't take bowel movements, they don't happen oft or your stools (poop) are hard to laissez passer.
              • Developmental delays and learning problems. Developmental delays are when your child doesn't reach developmental milestones when expected. A developmental milestone is a skill or activity that most children can do at a certain age. Milestones include sitting, walking, talking, having social skills and having thinking skills.
              • Hearing loss
              • Loss of ambition and weight loss
              • Airsickness

              If you think your child may have lead poisoning, tell his health care provider. His provider can check his lead levels with a blood test.

              How does lead poisoning bear upon adults?

              Lead targets a person's nervous organisation, and then it can cause problems similar delirium (not being able to think clearly), seizures, coma and death. Just most people with pb poisoning don't know they have it. Signs and symptoms of atomic number 82 poisoning in adults include:

              • Belly pain and constipation
              • Fatigue (feeling really tired)
              • Headache
              • Loftier blood pressure or anemia. Anemia is when you don't have enough healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen to the residue of your body.
              • Loss of ambition or weight loss
              • Mood disorders, like depression. Depression is a medical condition in which strong feelings of sadness final for a long fourth dimension and interfere with your daily life. It needs treatment to get meliorate.
              • Muscle or joint pain or hurting, numbness or tingling in the hands and feet
              • Problem concentrating or remembering things

              If you think y'all or someone in your family unit has pb poisoning, tell your health intendance provider. Your provider can bank check your lead levels with a claret test.

              If y'all've been exposed to lead, is it safety to breastfeed?

              If you recollect y'all've been exposed to lead and are breastfeeding or planning to breastfeed, tell your provider. She can test your pb levels to come across if breastfeeding is safe for your baby. If you take more twoscore micrograms/dL of lead in your system, it's not prophylactic to breastfeed. Pump your breast milk and throw information technology out until your lead levels are safe.

              How can y'all protect yourself and your family from lead in paint in your dwelling?

              Lead-based paint and dust with lead in information technology are the most dangerous sources of atomic number 82 for babies and children in the United states of america. Lead paint in homes congenital before 1978 may bit or peel and make dust. Breathing or swallowing chips or dust tin can be harmful. Children younger than half dozen are at the greatest risk considering they oft put their easily, toys and other things in their mouths. These may exist coated with lead chips or dust.

              If your house was congenital after 1978, you probably don't demand to worry nigh lead in your home. If your house was built before 1978, here'southward what you tin do to help forestall your family from being exposed to pb in pigment:

              • Wait for peeling or chipping paint. Clean it upwardly with h2o.
              • If you're remodeling or having repairs done, stay out of your home, peculiarly rooms where paint is being sanded or scraped.
              • Proceed floors, porches, windows, window sills and other flat surfaces clean from dust.
              • Launder your hands before eating. Teach your children to practise this, besides.
              • Have your home inspected for lead. Your local wellness section can assist you find an inspector. If the inspector finds pb in your habitation, hire trained workers to remove it. Stay out of your domicile until the atomic number 82 is removed. If you lot rent, your landlord is responsible for making repairs safely. If you demand help talking to your landlord nigh lead, contact your local health department. For more information about removing lead from your home, visit the Environmental Protection Agency or contact the National Lead Information Centre at (800) 424-LEAD (5323).

              How can yous protect yourself and your family from atomic number 82 in drinking water?

              Drinking water may contain atomic number 82 if you have atomic number 82 pipes in your domicile or if you use well h2o. Boiling h2o doesn't become rid of lead.

              If you remember you have atomic number 82 in your drinking h2o:

              • Use bottled or filtered water for cooking and drinking. If you lot apply tap water, use simply cold water for drinking and cooking.  H2o from cold-water pipes has less atomic number 82 than water from hot-h2o pipes. Run cold tap h2o for ane to 2 minutes before using it. Fill containers with cold tap water to apply later.
              • Go your pipes tested. Contact your local health or water department to find out how to test your pipes for lead.
              • If yous use well water, contact the EPA's Safe Drinking H2o Hotline at (800) 426-4791 for information on testing your water for lead.

              More information

              Last reviewed: May, 2016

              What is lead and lead poisoning?

              Lead is a metallic that comes from the basis, only it can be in the air, water and nutrient. You can't see, aroma or taste it. High levels of lead in your body (called pb poisoning) can cause serious health issues for you and your family unit.

              Most lead comes from paint in older homes. When one-time paint cracks or peels, it makes dust that has lead in it. The dust may be also small-scale to see. You tin breathe in the dust and not know it.

              Are yous at risk for pb poisoning?

              You and your family may be more than likely than others to accept high levels of lead in your bodies if:

              • Your drinking h2o has loftier amounts of lead in it.
              • You live in or work in an older home that has lead paint in it.
              • You alive in or recently lived in a place where there'due south a lot of lead, like near a mine or a smelter or in a country where they still use leaded gasoline.
              • You piece of work with or live with someone who works with atomic number 82, similar in motorcar repair, construction or in a plant that makes paint, batteries, plastics or ships.
              • Y'all use or work with lead-glazed ceramic pottery.
              • You lot eat nonfood items, like clay or clay. This is called pica. Tell your provider if you or anyone in your family unit has pica.
              • Yous use herbal products or supplements that may have atomic number 82 in them.

              Mutual sources of lead in and around homes in the United states include:

              • Arts and crafts supplies, like oil paint, ceramic glazes and materials used to make stained glass
              • Canned food, candy, toys and makeup fabricated exterior the United states of america
              • Jewelry
              • Atomic number 82 crystal glassware and ceramic dishes. Don't use these for cooking or eating. Ceramics you buy in a store may exist safer than those made past craftspeople. Ever cheque the product label to make sure your dishes are safe for cooking and eating.
              • Pb-based paint and dust in homes built before 1978 and pigment used on quondam toys
              • Soil
              • Water that comes from wells or through onetime pipes

              If you or your partner work with lead:

                • Shower and alter clothes (including shoes) before you go dwelling house from work.
                • Wash your work apparel at work or wash them at domicile separately from the residuum of the laundry.
                • Wash your hands earlier eating.

                        Pencil lead is non the same equally the metal pb. It's not pb it all—it's really a substance chosen graphite. Don't worry virtually being exposed to pb through chewing on a pencil or getting stuck past pencil bespeak.

                        Can atomic number 82 poisoning affect pregnancy?

                        Yep. You can pass lead to your baby through the placenta. The placenta grows in your uterus (womb) and supplies your baby with nutrient and oxygen through the umbilical cord.

                        Exposure to high levels of lead before and during pregnancy can crusade:

                        • Fertility problems, similar reduced sperm count or abnormal sperm. Sperm in a homo's semen fertilizes a adult female's egg to get her pregnant. Sperm count is the number of sperm in a man'due south semen when he ejaculates.
                        • High blood pressure (likewise called hypertension). This is when the force of blood against the walls of your blood vessels is also high. Loftier blood force per unit area can cause issues during pregnancy.
                        • Problems with the development of your baby's brain and nervous organization. The nervous organisation includes your brain, spinal cord and nerves. Your nervous system helps yous move, think and feel. Babies exposed to atomic number 82 before birth are probable to have learning issues and slow growth.
                        • Premature nascency. This is nativity that happens likewise early on, earlier 37 weeks of pregnancy.
                        • Low birthweight. This is when your baby weighs less than five pounds, 8 ounces at nativity.
                        • Miscarriage. This is when a infant dies in the womb before xx weeks of pregnancy.

                          During pregnancy, eating foods with certain vitamins and nutrients tin can assistance blot pb from your trunk and protect your growing baby. If you're pregnant and think you may exist exposed to pb, consume foods that incorporate:

                          • Calcium, including milk, yogurt, cheese and green leafy vegetables
                          • Iron, including lean red meat, beans, cereal and spinach
                          • Vitamin C, including oranges, green and red peppers, broccoli, tomatoes and juices

                          If you lot're pregnant, don't take herbal products or supplements because some may have pb in them. An herbal product, like pills or tea, is made from plants used in cooking. A supplement is a production you take to brand up for certain nutrients that y'all don't get enough of in the foods yous swallow. If you practise take an herbal production or supplement during pregnancy, tell your health care provider.

                          If yous're meaning and work with lead, talk to your boss almost changing chore responsibilities to assistance proceed you and your babe safety during pregnancy.

                          How does lead poisoning affect children?

                          Children younger than 6 years can exist severely affected by lead. It tin touch development of the brain and body. Very high levels can crusade expiry. Signs and symptoms of atomic number 82 poisoning in children include:

                          • Existence irritable or fatigued (really tired)
                          • Belly pain and constipation. Constipation is when you don't accept bowel movements, they don't happen often or your stools (poop) are hard to pass.
                          • Developmental delays and learning issues. Developmental delays are when your kid doesn't achieve developmental milestones when expected. A developmental milestone is a skill or activity that virtually children tin practise at a sure age. Milestones include sitting, walking, talking, having social skills and having thinking skills.
                          • Hearing loss
                          • Loss of appetite and weight loss
                          • Vomiting

                          If you call up your child may accept pb poisoning, tell his health care provider. His provider can check his lead levels with a blood test.

                          How does atomic number 82 poisoning affect adults?

                          Lead targets a person's nervous system, so it can cause problems like delirium (non being able to think clearly), seizures, coma and death. But about people with lead poisoning don't know they have it. Signs and symptoms of atomic number 82 poisoning in adults include:

                          • Belly pain and constipation
                          • Fatigue (feeling really tired)
                          • Headache
                          • Loftier blood pressure or anemia. Anemia is when you don't accept plenty salubrious red claret cells to bear oxygen to the rest of your body.
                          • Loss of appetite or weight loss
                          • Mood disorders, like depression. Depression is a medical condition in which strong feelings of sadness final for a long time and interfere with your daily life. It needs treatment to get better.
                          • Muscle or joint hurting or pain, numbness or tingling in the hands and feet
                          • Trouble concentrating or remembering things

                          If yous remember you or someone in your family unit has pb poisoning, tell your wellness care provider. Your provider can cheque your lead levels with a blood examination.

                          If you've been exposed to lead, is information technology safe to breastfeed?

                          If you think you've been exposed to lead and are breastfeeding or planning to breastfeed, tell your provider. She can test your atomic number 82 levels to see if breastfeeding is safe for your babe. If you have more 40 micrograms/dL of atomic number 82 in your organization, it's not prophylactic to breastfeed. Pump your breast milk and throw information technology out until your lead levels are condom.

                          How can yous protect yourself and your family from atomic number 82 in pigment in your habitation?

                          Lead-based pigment and dust with lead in it are the well-nigh dangerous sources of atomic number 82 for babies and children in the United States. Lead paint in homes built before 1978 may chip or peel and brand dust. Animate or swallowing chips or dust can be harmful. Children younger than 6 are at the greatest run a risk considering they often put their hands, toys and other things in their mouths. These may be coated with lead chips or dust.

                          If your house was congenital later on 1978, yous probably don't need to worry virtually lead in your home. If your firm was built before 1978, here's what you tin practice to assist forbid your family from being exposed to lead in pigment:

                          • Look for peeling or chipping paint. Make clean it upwards with water.
                          • If you're remodeling or having repairs done, stay out of your dwelling house, especially rooms where pigment is beingness sanded or scraped.
                          • Continue floors, porches, windows, window sills and other apartment surfaces clean from dust.
                          • Wash your hands before eating. Teach your children to practice this, too.
                          • Take your habitation inspected for lead. Your local health section can aid you find an inspector. If the inspector finds atomic number 82 in your dwelling, hire trained workers to remove it. Stay out of your dwelling until the lead is removed. If yous rent, your landlord is responsible for making repairs safely. If yous need help talking to your landlord about lead, contact your local wellness department. For more data about removing lead from your home, visit the Environmental Protection Agency or contact the National Lead Information Center at (800) 424-Atomic number 82 (5323).

                          How can yous protect yourself and your family from lead in drinking water?

                          Drinking water may contain lead if you lot take atomic number 82 pipes in your home or if you use well water. Humid water doesn't become rid of pb.

                          If y'all think you have pb in your drinking water:

                          • Use bottled or filtered water for cooking and drinking. If you use tap water, use only cold water for drinking and cooking.  H2o from cold-h2o pipes has less lead than h2o from hot-water pipes. Run cold tap water for 1 to two minutes before using information technology. Fill up containers with common cold tap water to employ subsequently.
                          • Get your pipes tested. Contact your local wellness or h2o department to observe out how to test your pipes for lead.
                          • If you utilize well water, contact the EPA'south Safe Drinking Water Hotline at (800) 426-4791 for information on testing your water for atomic number 82.

                          More than information

                          Last reviewed: May, 2016