Peace Lilies, Palm Trees, and Ivy, OH MY!

A few weeks ago my son's skin was breaking out--a rash and full-blown eczema. I take this a sign that something is irritating my son's immune system, either inside of him or outside of him.I wasn't sure what was causing it, but he also started coughing. My husband heard the cough and immediately said that our Dear Son had the signs of early asthma!

So, as I am wont to do, I tried to figure out how we could prevent full-blown asthma. I started cleaning more, keeping the pets out of the house more, and I am trying to narrow down any allergens for him. I bought him a humidifier and an air purifier just to give him the BEST air in his room ever.

In the course of my Googling, I found out that ordinary old house plants can work as humidifiers and air purifiers. !? What?! How cheap! How green! How wonderful! No filters to replace, no mineral cartridges to buy, and no bacterial gunk to clean out of the tank. Some plants can even clean mold and chemicals out of the air.

Here is the link that Zach and I liked the best, which sites the top 10 air purifying plants as determined by NASA: http://webecoist.com/2009/04/08/air-purifying-plants/. HGTV has also jumped on the houseplant bandwagon--they quote the same studies.

We were going to buy a new humidifier for the winter for our own bedroom, but instead we bought a giant Areca Palm from Lowe's for $15 and it does the job, plus it's purifying the air! I'm totally impressed by....nature.

Also an update--no tree nuts = a happy me! I am now wondering how much better I would have felt if I had cut out tree nuts before! I have been going back through my food diaries to see if I had nuts around some of the other foods I thought were allergens to me--corn, strawberries, even wine....and it turns out I eat a lot of nuts. Keep you all posted as I try some things over again with tree nuts out of the picture...