Lead is incredibly dangerous and may account for the stomach problems she has had. The amount of lead paint needed to cause problems is incredibly small. Hanging sheetrock over the walls is one of the ways that is less likely to stir up dust from old lead paint, but it can still cause serious problems.
This site ( http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/childhood-illnesses/lead-poisoning) has good info and in the section about old lead paint it says that a chip of lead paint the size of a postage stamp has enough lead to give 10,000 times the safe level of lead for a child. That is a huge amount of lead in an incredibly small piece of something.
Lead dust is even more dangerous and can be released by opening and closing a window or door that has lead paint on it. The remodelling is probably stirring up a LOT of lead paint if that is the cause.
Cory and Mandy MUST MUST MUST be checked. It is NOT optional. One of my aunt's husbands, number six or seven, worked painting semis for years. He and his bro owned the company with his bro doing the books/billing and he did the painting. He didn't know his brother was using auto paint with lead in it (this guy couldn't read due to dyslexia and other problems) and after a few years iwth this paint he started really losing his memory, knowledge of how to do things, etc... My aunt wasn't married to him for more than a few years but she saw some scary loss of skills and mental abilities so she made the doctor do a lot of testing. He had very high levels of lead and this was at least ten years after the business closed. By that point they couldn't do anything to help him.
Make SURE that Cory and Mandy get tested. Even if you have to return ALL the Christmas gifts to everyone in order to pay for the testing, this is well worth it and they must be tested ASAP. It won't cost that much, of course, and the health dept may do it for free. This is just SOOOO important for them to have done. McKenzie NEEDS them at their best for as much of her life as possble.
Toys from china and even crayons and markers from China are often found to have very high lead levels. The manufacturers over there pretty much just don't give a dang, esp if they are shipping the items to the US. They have been found to use all sorts of things to get around the laws about lead paint here in the US. It is well worth it to pay more for toys made in the US. There is no real way to test every item from china and other countries known to use lead.
I hope they get whatever treatment is available and they find and eliminate the source. Be aware that until sometime in the 1990's, magazines were printed with lead based inks. Now they are not, as far as I know, but if you cannot find anything else and they have magazines around, have them contact the publisher of the magazine and ask about this.
This site ( http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/childhood-illnesses/lead-poisoning) has good info and in the section about old lead paint it says that a chip of lead paint the size of a postage stamp has enough lead to give 10,000 times the safe level of lead for a child. That is a huge amount of lead in an incredibly small piece of something.
Lead dust is even more dangerous and can be released by opening and closing a window or door that has lead paint on it. The remodelling is probably stirring up a LOT of lead paint if that is the cause.
Cory and Mandy MUST MUST MUST be checked. It is NOT optional. One of my aunt's husbands, number six or seven, worked painting semis for years. He and his bro owned the company with his bro doing the books/billing and he did the painting. He didn't know his brother was using auto paint with lead in it (this guy couldn't read due to dyslexia and other problems) and after a few years iwth this paint he started really losing his memory, knowledge of how to do things, etc... My aunt wasn't married to him for more than a few years but she saw some scary loss of skills and mental abilities so she made the doctor do a lot of testing. He had very high levels of lead and this was at least ten years after the business closed. By that point they couldn't do anything to help him.
Make SURE that Cory and Mandy get tested. Even if you have to return ALL the Christmas gifts to everyone in order to pay for the testing, this is well worth it and they must be tested ASAP. It won't cost that much, of course, and the health dept may do it for free. This is just SOOOO important for them to have done. McKenzie NEEDS them at their best for as much of her life as possble.
Toys from china and even crayons and markers from China are often found to have very high lead levels. The manufacturers over there pretty much just don't give a dang, esp if they are shipping the items to the US. They have been found to use all sorts of things to get around the laws about lead paint here in the US. It is well worth it to pay more for toys made in the US. There is no real way to test every item from china and other countries known to use lead.
I hope they get whatever treatment is available and they find and eliminate the source. Be aware that until sometime in the 1990's, magazines were printed with lead based inks. Now they are not, as far as I know, but if you cannot find anything else and they have magazines around, have them contact the publisher of the magazine and ask about this.
