Hellobee Boards

@eeh: There is a law in MA (if I'm not mistaken) concerning children living in an apartment with lead paint. She has posted this before and it was interesting reading about the laws and how the landlords handle it (they prefer not to rent to families).

@Foodnerd81: I would be obsessed with it too!!! that's scary business We had to get C's lead levels tested when he was 9 months and even though it was within the "normal" range I was seriously wondering how in the heck did he ever even come in contact with it!! I couldn't imagine the levels if a baby was living in it.

Wow. That sucks.

I don't know much about when you are already living in the apartment, but I have a friend who had to find a new apartment with her baby in MA and it was a huge pain. Some landlords are real jerks. They would tell her the apartment was already rented if they found out she had kids (which is illegal). She ended up finding a nice, newish place to rent. It's so hard in MA, at least in our area, because all the houses are so old!

@Foodnerd81: We bought a house last year and are doing a ton of renovations, so we've used a LOT of those lead tester strips. We have found some lead in our house which freaked me out, but it was built in the 1930s so it was bound to happen. They recommend that you paint over it, if you are already living there since removing it would be more toxic (lead dust everywhere). So we just have LO tested every six months vs. every year and hopefully keep her from eating any paint...it's harder than it sounds Not to be too nosey, but do you live in the Boston area? I'm on the North Shore.

@Foodnerd81: Deleading does seem crazy difficult and expensive. Hopefully you can get your situation figured out if you want to stay there, or find a shiny new place if you decide to move!

@plaidpants: @Foodnerd81: MA ladies! I'm from Boston too! I work downtown I live in Quincy and we haven't told our landlord we're expecting (16 wks pregnant). Initially when we viewed the apartment we asked the realtor if she knew if it was de-leaded, and she didn't. I'll have to look at our lease to see if they mention lead. I'm kind of afraid to bring up the subject, because we LOVE our apartment. It's actually a townhouse, and we share a yard with our neighbor who is almost never home. I hope he doesn't decide to not renew us in July - our due date.