Kids Health

Every year, more than one million young children with unidentified disabilities—including autism—enter school with learning and health issues. These issues put them far behind their peers and have a lasting, negative effect on their ability to meet their full potential.

POP QUIZ: Besides homework and art projects, what’s your kid likely to bring home during the first few weeks of school? That’s right, a cold. But it’s not just exposure to the germs of hundreds of other children that’ll keep her bed-bound. Creeping stress levels and poor eating habits also are to blame.

To Susan Williams of Charlotte, North Carolina, it was like a speed bump she couldn’t get past. That’s how she described the wall she would hit when work deadlines loomed and her focus pinballed from one subject to the next. “Sometimes I was so easily distracted, the simplest task seemed daunting,” says Williams, 60.

Pick the right paint
Choose paint with low or no VOCs (volatile organic compounds) to protect your baby from breathing in these harmful chemicals, which are commonly found in regular paint. If you opt for a low-VOC paint, choose one with a VOC level of less than 10 mg per liter.

Know your flooring