Monday, May 5

wondering about your baby's plastic bottle?

Well I have been wondering a lot about this whole BPA fiasco that seem to have engulfed the mother-to-be world. So, like any concerned mother, I have done a little research and will indulge you with my findings if you are so interested...

BPA is a chemical that, in mice, has shown to increase the risk of sterilization, colon cancer and breast cancer. Now, the main problem with this chemical is that it is used to make plastics... mainly food containers. Once food is contained in a non-BPA-free container, the BPA seeps into your food from the plastic and then you are contaminated when you eat that food. So, just knowing that, I want to go through all my plastic Tupperware and throw out anything that isn't BPA-free. But I hardly ever use Tupperware or anything plastic for food, so I figure from here on out that I will just make sure that what I buy is BPA-free.

A good quick way to identify a BPA-free plastic is to check the recycle number on it. I have heard a couple different things, and wish that I would have kept the most recent link that I found... but alas, I didn't so you will just have to take me at my word... What I have heard in a number of different places is that recycle #1 & #2 are definitely safe while #7 is almost guaranteed to have BPA. I have also heard, just in one source though, that #5 & #6 are safe, while it would just be best to avoid #3 & #4.

So, onto the biggest gossip corner of this whole investigation... babies! And since babies love to put everything they can reach into their mouths, I would strongly advise to just not buy any baby toy, dish, bottle, pacifier that contains BPA... especially since BPA is thought to do the most harm to growing bodies.

Here is a very helpful link for anyone who is wondering about anything baby... This post has a number of different baby manufacturing brands and outlines what each company carries that is BPA-free and not. It does suggest that we all support the companies that have made an effort to only make BPA-free products... and while I would love to help, I haven't heard of nearly half of the companies, and the ones I have heard of are too expensive (isn't that always the case?!?). But please feel free to look over the post, since it has helped me out tremendously when picking out baby stuff!

But for anyone who, like me, likes to shop at Target and doesn't have time to search over every brand that baby stores carry... I have complied a quick reference of baby brand names that everyone should know for the basic baby items that everyone needs:

Baby Bottle: this one is the very hardest to find, so I would recommend going to this link and researching this on your own depending upon what bottles you have found that you like (there are so many styles). and most brands will have one or two BPA-free bottle, and the rest aren't. But some of the BPA-free bottles that I have found are:

Playtex Original Drop-ins (sorry Laura... i can't remember if yours are the original or not, so you might want to check at the store) but with these you have to make sure you buy the Silicone or Latex nipples and drop-ins. Another great resource Playtex is providing is a free bottle sample... so fill out your name and address here and they will send you one in the mail. (which is very considerate of them!) and they also have a Q&A sheet you might want to look at.

Born-Free & Medela are both BPA-free bottles that should be easy to find, but are the standard bottles without any anti-colic and such.

Pacifiers: this is a little more simple run of the mill... now, of course, you can go look to see if your favorite pacifier has made the cut, but for those who aren't that picky here are a few easy grabs...

Gerber & Nuk (as long as they are silicone or latex)
Mimi, The First Years, & Playtex are all BPA-free

Baby Cups, Utensils & Tableware: Munckin, Gerber (not their cups), and the First Year are all BPA-free.

Now, I also know that Walmart is phasing out all BPA baby products, which is great, but also means that their online store is very sparse with hardly any good selections, but it is still a good place to look since they have a BPA-free link right in with all the other baby stuff.

So, i warned you before you got very far in this post that it was all informational, and hardly any fun. But I hope it does help you as you go shopping in the future. The first link that I posted also does have some helpful recommendations even for non-baby people... such as all of Brita's pitchers are BPA-free and they have a whole list of Tupperware that is untainted.

Well, that is all for me right now... so happy baby shopping for all those mothers, aunts, grandmas, cousins, and siblings to-be!

2 comments:

Perry's said...

That was such a great post. THanks for the information. I used it. Your aswesome

Laura Rollins said...

Thanks a ton! I'm so glad you did all that research (and that now I don't have to!! lol) This is totally good to know! Thanks! You Rock :D