Endocrine disruptor

Hey kiddo, do you remember how our body has different parts like our eyes, hands, heart, and brain that help us do different things? Similarly, our body has something called the endocrine system that helps it do different jobs like sleeping, growing, and staying healthy. This system has special parts called glands that make hormones, which are like little messengers that tell our body what to do.

But sometimes, there are things in our environment that can mess up these hormone messengers, just like how a bully can mess up our playtime. We call these things endocrine disruptors. They can come from many things around us like certain chemicals in our food or water, pesticides used in farming, or even some types of plastic that we use.

Endocrine disruptors can make the hormone messengers in our body act differently than they should, and this can cause problems for us. For example, they might stop our growth or make us grow too fast. They might make it hard for us to sleep or make us very tired all the time. They can mess up our mood and make us feel sad or angry when we should be happy. They can even make us sick by making our immune system weaker.

So, just like how we need to be careful around bullies so they don’t ruin our playtime, we need to be careful around endocrine disruptors so they don’t mess up our body’s important hormone messengers. We can do this by eating healthy food, drinking clean water, and avoiding things that we know can be harmful.