Friends with flooding and water damage, PLEASE READ THIS!
We have become unwilling experts in water damage and mold, so I want to share a few important lessons we’ve learned.
Warning Signs of Mold
Mold DESTROYS the health of about 25% of us.
Mold starts growing on wet organic material after 48 HOURS.
If you have mold, do not use a fan to dry it because it will blow the mold spores all over your house. USE HEAT to dry it– and vent all air outside, sealing up the moldy area with plastic.
You CAN NOT clean mold. (Yes, the EPA says you can use bleach. That is NOT true.) You must cut the mold out completely…and cut around it by a 12-inch margin. You will also have to fog your house with specific anti-mold stuff because for people whose bodies can’t handle mold, even 1 mold spore is toxic.
Flooding can create mold — but so can any water source. We had mold from a flood, sink, washer, fridge water line, water heater, and shower. What’s scary is that a little mold will grow into more and more mold. We had walls of mold that traveled into the ceiling tiles, sheetrock, and floor joists. (Back mold and about 20 other kinds of mold — all toxic to varying degrees.)
Health Issues from Mold
What can mold do to your health if you’re like me and my kids? The most common is respiratory problems– cough, reflux, asthma.
Here are all the health issues my kids and I had for years due to mold:
-
- Chronic fatigue
- Brain fog
- Body pain (fibromyalgia)
- Joint pain
- Seizures
- Headaches
- Dizziness
- Weight gain
- Hair loss
- GI infections
- Food intolerances
More about our story here: https://imaginationsoup.net/ou
Resources from my amazing functional medicine M.D.: https://www.jillcarnahan.com/2
The first photo from 2018 was the ONLY day of summer that Jemma was able to get out of bed — that’s how sick she was. (C diff three times that year!) She had missed 4 months of school and went part-time — which was a struggle even those few hours. You can see how happy we both were that she was feeling better that day.
The other photo is Jeff in our moldy basement, throwing away everything. (Yes, anything contaminated by mold that cannot be cleaned must be tossed.) Even though mold didn’t affect him like it did us, he was keeping safe and healthy.
I hope this information helps you stay healthy and safe.
-Melissa Taylor, Imagination Soup
Author: Mile High Mamas
