I Went to Camp Baby and All I Got was a Lousy Nintendo DS Lite

I arrived at Johnson and Johnson's sponsored blogger event "Camp Baby" with the tiniest bit of apprehension. After finding out about the 1,4 Dioxane (possibly carcinogenic to humans and a known carcinogen in animals) in their baby shampoo last year, I'd lost faith in good old J&J. A company whose products I had always used on my kids was knowingly allowing a toxin in their product? They didn't care if they harmed my babies? WTH?

In one of our sessions, we had an opportunity to ask questions of, I think, a chemist and someone from R&D (forgive me, my notetaking skills are less than stellar). I didn't feel much better when I asked a direct question — "Do any J&J products contain known endocrine disruptors?" — and did not get a direct answer (which likely means the answer is YES). In fact, I got no answer at all. It was like talking to a politician — lots of words being spoken but nothing of substance actually being said.

Oh, and apparently we shouldn't be concerned about 1,4 Dioxane in personal care products because it's also found in shrimp and fried chicken (I guess it's a good thing I don't bathe my kids in those, either) and we must learn to weigh risk vs. hazard. It's hard to imagine that the woman speaking to us isn't aware of bioaccumulation, you know where tons of products have a teensy bit of something and you use them and take in those teensy amounts of toxins and hello? Now you have a LOT of those teensy amounts in your body. Very disappointing.

Later, a dietician who works for McNeil Laboratories (another company under the J&J umbrella) spoke to us about feeding our children, making healthier food choices and preventing childhood obesity. That last one was interesting because she actually recommended we make smoothies for our kids and sweeten them with Splenda. SPLENDA? FOR KIDS? Seriously?

But hey...over 20 studies show Splenda is safe. Twenty studies done by who? Paid for by who? Studies on humans? Or animals?

I'm sorry but fake food doesn't sit well with me and neither does the knowledge that Splenda, as I understand it, is technically a chlorocarbon, in the same family as DDT, Chlorodane and Lindane. Remember those? And yes, natural chlorine is found in nature and in small amounts is not harmful to the body. It's even found in some foods like tomatoes. BUT it's NOT synthetic chlorine and therein lies the difference. /end Splenda lecture

But it gets worse, the dietitian answered a general question about organic produce by stressing that they contained only slightly more nutrients than conventional produce (not accurate, BTW). She mentioned absolutely nothing about organic produce being free of toxic pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, which is the HALLMARK of organic produce. The nutrient levels are better but the reason I buy organic produce is because I don't want my kids ingesting POISON. How could she have not acknowledged that aspect of organic produce?

When someone asked about synthetic growth hormones in milk (rBGH, rBST), which are made by chemical behemoth Monsanto, she glossed right over it, more or less stating that we wouldn't be interested in all that stuff, presumably because we're just a bunch of ignorant, uneducated stay-at-home moms (also not accurate). Honestly, that whole session was maddening and disheartening. To me, it felt like a) she was really uneducated about actual nutrition and health b) bought and paid for by Monsanto or c) all of the above.

And now, to be fair, I'll flip to the other side of the J&J coin.

First off, let me tell you that J&J treated us really well. They did. And they're organized. Like SUPER organized. Things ran like clockwork; like a well-oiled machine. As someone who aspires to organization on such a level yet fails miserably, I admire their mad skillz.

Also, while J&J may not be 100% green, they are leaps and bounds ahead of many American corporations and one of the largest users of solar energy in the US, with beautiful solar panel arrays on top of all their buildings and, I believe, some wind turbines somewhere, as well. Additionally, they are partners in the EPA Green Power Partnership program. J&J does some other green things that I thought I would remember but don't. *kicks self* But maybe I can research it and get back to you?

On the public service tip, J&J is a financial sponsor of InfantSEE which seeks to promote and fund eye exams in children under the age of one to aid in early diagnosis of eye problems and preventable conditions. There are countless stories of the children this program has helped and quite possibly saved their vision and if my son were under age one, you can bet I'd be finding an InfantSEE doctor in my area STAT. As it stands, I do intend to take him for an eye exam a lot sooner than I would have before I watched the InfantSEE presentation.

And finally another feather in their public service cap is that J&J is a sponsor of Safe Kids Worldwide, a nonprofit group dedicated to preventing accidental injury in children here and around the world via legislation and awareness campaigns.

So, I'm going to close here and I'll let you draw your own conclusions. I hope this post was illuminating and that the folks from J&J will read it and get something positive out of it. And of course, thanks to J&J for bringing all of us together on this adventure. It was an interesting experience.
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The title of this post is an homage to those tourist t-shirts that say "Grandma went to (insert destination) and all I got was this lousy t-shirt!" but really, it was nice of J&J to partner with Nintendo to give each of us one of those evil little machines that has bewitched my entire family. Consider us indoctrinated.