A diagnosis such as cancer is the stuff of nightmares, but when a heavy diagnosis like that is for a child, the grief & trauma is only amplified. They’ve hardly lived their lives yet, how could they possibly deserve this? Children tend to develop different cancers than adults, and they can suffer from many different types:
Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia
Bone Cancer
Brain & Spinal Cord Cancer
Ewing’s Sarcoma
Hodgkins Lymphoma
Non Hodgkin Lymphoma
Neuroblastoma
Osteosracoma
Retinoblastoma
Rhabdomyosarcoma
Wilm’s Tumor
There is much mystery surrounding the causes for cancer in children, but what we do know is that they are very different than in adults. With only a few years under their belts, they haven’t had an opportunity to accumulate excessive exposure to toxins as an adult would. Cancer in a child can often stem from a genetic mutation, thus making prevention difficult if not impossible.
What you can do however is keep yourself in the best possible health before you decide to conceive. As a parent-to-be, limiting your exposure to environmental poisons such as heavy metals common in large fish, electromagnetic radiation from tv’s & cell phones, BPA present in some plastics, household chemicals, pesticides (choose organic!) artificial colors, flavors, dyes, perfumes & other air pollutants such as automobile exhaust. Choose to live the simplest life you can & to be the healthiest you can be.