How to Select Low-VOC Home Products and Make Your Home Safer for Kids

If you have young kids, you’ve no doubt gone the extra mile to make them safe at home. You may have childproofed sharp corners and secured windows to prevent falls. You may be cleaning the house thoroughly and frequently. And you might even have installed smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. But did you remember to choose low-VOC home products?

Despite wanting to do the best for their children, many parents forget to check the safety of common products like paints, bedding, air purifiers, and other materials.

What are Low-VOC Home Products?

VOCs, or volatile organic compounds, are chemicals that evaporate into the air from everyday products in your home. You can’t always see or smell them, but they’re there, releasing gases that you and your children breathe in daily.

VOCs can be harmful to health because when you breathe them in, they cause issues like:

Headaches
Dizziness
Eye and throat irritation
Nausea
Allergic reactions
Asthma triggers
Long-term lung damage
Weakened immune function

Low-VOC home products are items that emit much less of these harmful compounds. They use materials that are safe for developing lungs and immune systems. If you have young kids at home, this is especially important. Here’s why.

According to the American Lung Association, children are more susceptible to health problems due to VOCs.

That’s because they’re still growing. So the body requires more oxygen, and they breathe in more air relative to their size. That’s why, if the air is saturated with VOCs, kids usually inhale more of it than adults. You can protect them by choosing your home products more carefully.

What Products Commonly Emit VOCs?

To keep your kids safe from VOCs and choose chemical-free home products, you need to first know which products belong to the high-risk categories.

You might be surprised by how many everyday items in your home release VOCs into the air. Here’s a list of the usual suspects.

Paints and primers
Varnishes and wood stains
Adhesives and glues
Carpets and rugs
Furniture and cabinetry
Mattresses and bedding
Cleaning products
Air fresheners
Personal care products
Building materials like plywood and particleboard
Flooring materials
Window treatments and curtains
Craft supplies and markers

You may already have most or all of these items at home. Before you swap them out for low-VOC home products, it’s a smart idea to have your home’s air quality professionally assessed.

InHaus Lab can help you with this.

With our science-backed home assessment services, we’ll find the level of VOCs and other pollutants currently affecting your IAQ. You can then take the right measures to make your home safer for your children.

Tips to Choose the Best Low-VOC Paints for Homes

Paint is one of the biggest sources of poor indoor air quality in your home, especially in rooms where your kids sleep and play. Most people don’t realize that paint keeps releasing VOCs long after it dries.

If you’re redoing your child’s room or any space they use daily, consider switching to the best low-VOC paints for homes. It’s one of the smartest moves you can make for their health.

According to Green Seal, low-VOC paints have less than 50 grams of VOCs per liter.

Here’s how you can choose safer paints for your children.

Check that VOC levels are below 50 grams per liter on the label.
Look for certifications from reliable third parties like Green Seal.
Ask about the VOC content of the base paint before you choose any colors.
Choose water-based latex paints instead of oil-based options.
Open windows and doors while you’re painting to improve the airflow.
Keep the room ventilated for several days after you finish painting.

To make your home even safer, consider using zero-VOC paints. These are better than even the best low-VOC paints for homes.

That’s because they have less than 5 grams of VOCs per liter, according to Green Seal.

Tips to Choose Low-VOC Air Purifiers

An air purifier for your kids’ room sounds like the perfect solution to protect their growing lungs, right? But if it doesn’t have the right type of filter, it won’t do much against VOCs.

A recent MIT study tested popular air cleaners and found something surprising.

Many of the air purifiers that claimed to remove VOCs barely worked at all. And some even released additional harmful chemicals like formaldehyde into the air.

So, if you want the air purifier that actually reduces VOCs and helps your kids breathe cleaner air, you need to know what to look for. Here are some helpful tips to find the right air purifiers for kids’ rooms:

Make sure it has an activated carbon filter because that’s what captures VOCs.
Check the CADR rating to see how quickly it cleans the air in your room.
Look for purifiers with multiple filter stages for the most complete cleaning.
Avoid ozone-generating purifiers, as ozone itself is harmful to children’s lungs.
Check how often you’ll need to replace filters and factor that into your budget.

Tips to Select Non-Toxic Bedding for Your Children

You probably don’t think much about what’s in your child’s bedding. But mattresses and pillows can release VOCs that they inhale all night while they sleep.

Your baby’s body grows and repairs during sleep. So, any effort you make to choose non-toxic bedding for children can really make a difference to their health.

Here’s what you can do:

Choose organic cotton or linen sheets certified by GOTS or OEKO-TEX.
Look for mattresses certified by CertiPUR-US or GREENGUARD Gold.
Natural latex or organic wool mattresses emit fewer VOCs than conventional foam.
Air out new mattresses in a well-ventilated room for at least 72 hours.
Avoid vinyl or PVC mattress protectors; opt for organic cotton versions instead.

More Indoor Air Quality Tips for Families

Even after adopting these measures, it’s likely you’ll still be worried about your children’s health. That’s a concern that never goes away for parents. One new fact or news item can trigger a bout of anxiety about a hundred other things.

As this Reddit user mentioned in their post, parents are growing increasingly concerned about VOCs and other harmful risks for their babies.

If you also have similar worries, here are some more actionable measures you can take to choose low-VOC home products and improve your IAQ.

Open windows regularly to let fresh air in and push out trapped VOCs.
Avoid synthetic air fresheners and scented candles as they emit more VOCs.
Store paints and cleaning products in a garage, not inside your home.
Choose solid wood furniture over particleboard, which releases formaldehyde.
Let new furniture air out in your garage before you bring it indoors.
Run exhaust fans while cooking to remove VOCs from gas stoves.
Keep humidity levels between 30-50%, as the EPA recommends.

Get Your Baseline Right With IAQ Testing

So you’re ready to make smart choices now. You know how to choose low-VOC home products. And you can’t wait to try all these indoor air quality tips for families.

The enthusiasm is great. But you need to back it up with real insights. You need to know where you’re starting from and understand your current IAQ.

To get that baseline, you can schedule a professional home air quality assessment, which measures the levels of:

VOCs
Formaldehyde
Particulates
Radon
Mold spores
Other infectants

Want to know what you’re dealing with now?

Get in touch with InHaus Lab today and receive your quote in under 30 minutes!

We’ll test the levels of VOCs and other harmful contaminants in your house and give you a personalized Home Health Score. You can then figure out exactly how to make your home safer for your little ones.

Low-VOC Home Products FAQs

1. What does the term ‘VOCs’ stand for, and why should I care about it?

VOCs are volatile organic compounds. You should care because these chemicals evaporate into your home’s air and can harm your children’s developing lungs and immune systems.

2. Are zero-VOC products completely safe for my children?

Zero-VOC products are much safer, but ‘zero’ here just means very low levels. It doesn’t mean that VOCs are completely absent. That said, they’re still your best choice for reducing your children’s chemical exposure at home.

3. Are natural or organic products always low in VOCs?

Not always. Natural products can still emit VOCs. Always check for certifications like GREENGUARD or OEKO-TEX rather than relying on ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ claims alone.

4. How can I tell if a product is truly low-VOC or just greenwashing?

Look for third-party certifications like GREENGUARD Gold, Green Seal, or CertiPUR-US. These verify actual VOC levels, unlike vague marketing terms like ‘eco-friendly’ or ‘green.’

5. Is it worth paying more for low-VOC products in 2026?

Yes. Your children spend most of their time indoors breathing that air. The long-term health benefits of reduced chemical exposure far outweigh the slightly higher upfront cost.

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