Parenting is one of the toughest jobs, especially if it done with a balancing act with work. Stay-at-home moms and dads often find pressure in taking care of their toddlers and thus leave out some of the few important details in keeping their kids safe from indoor and outdoor hazards.

Most American families are unaware of the health hazards common house staples and food pose to their children. Adding to the hazards are cheap toys that failed to meet quality control standards and ended up in the household because of an impulse buy at the grocery counter. What’s more interesting is how parents don’t realize that they are the ones poisoning their own children with the help of everyday staples and food. The facts in this article aren’t hard to swallow, and aren’t very shallow either. Always keep in mind that children do not have fully developed immune systems, so here goes:

1. Processed meat – nutritionist have long been warning households about the potential hazards of eating processed meat. But how bad could one hotdog be to your 8-year old boy? Well, fact is, mercury doesn’t even come close to all the bad chemicals (like sodium nitrite) a regular hamburger patty has. This means a person’s chances of getting intestinal cancer and leukemia are higher when eating processed meat. Think about it—processed… doesn’t it make you wonder on what procurements a simple slab of meat underwent before it gets packaged/canned. We’re not discouraging anyone from eating meat. In fact, eating meat helps us gain much-needed vitamins and minerals. But as parents, toning down our kids on processed food may just save them from any medical complications once they get older. Oh, and yes, this includes the all-time favorite bacon.

2. Sports drinks – colored water is all the rave these days, especially if a professional athlete endorses it. While some parents may pride their kids as athletic prodigies, they should keep their children away from sports drinks as early as possible. Peering at the contents of sports drinks alone gives you a clear idea of what’s inside the bottle: salt water, artificial sweeteners, food coloring. All these three substances are obviously bad for the teeth and digestive system. So unless it’s an electrolyte deficiency or dehydration your child is up against, just get him a pitcher of water after an exhaustive exercise and he’ll be fine.

3. Processed milk – you’re probably scratching your head right now, wondering “What on earth could be wrong with a carton of milk?” Well, beside all the unfiltered levels of chemicals a glass of processed milk has, the calcium-rich drink also undergoes a standardized process of “homogenization”, which in layman’s terms spells as “mutated milk fats.” Homogenization of milk fats is unsafe for the heart and therefore leads to premature cardiovascular diseases on children once they induce high volumes of processed milk.

4. Shampoo – you’ve heard it before. A bottle of shampoo is all one will ever need to keep every known poisonous chemical intact on the hair and scalp. And the ironic thing is, the more “anti-hair loss features” your shampoo has, the higher the chances of you getting skin cancer. Again, we’re not ruling out the possibility of NOT getting cancer with shampoo, but with moderate use of the product, you can get safer results not only for your hair, but also for your health as well.