The Baby Bottle Blues

We avoid BPA at all costs. I will list what we use and a source beneath it:

1 - We used Ball jars to store all of our food. (garage sales, a local grocery)

2 - Now we use glass refrigerator dishes that I stock in the store.
http://www.freemarketorganics.com/glfost.html

3 -I froze all of my daughter's breast milk and homemade baby food in 4 oz glass
jelly jars and was careful to leave room at the top so the glass wouldn't break.
4 - glass baby bottles
http://www.freemarketorganics.com/weekitchen.html

5 - My daughter's sippy cups are the safest form of stainless steel and made by Klean Kanteen
http://www.freemarketorganics.com/togo.html

6 - Our water bottles are also Klean Kanteen
http://www.freemarketorganics.com/togo.html

7 - We source cosmetics stored in glass and non-BPA plastics.
http://www.freemarketorganics.com/shopbody.html
http://www.afterglowcosmetics.com/

8 - All of my daughters toys are eco-painted wood, organic cotton or wool
http://www.freemarketorganics.com/shoptoys.html
http://www.blueberryforest.com/

9 - we avoid plastic wrappers and get much of our food from a local organic farm. It is clean, super high quality food and easy to do. Kids LOVE it! Many farms near all of us have programs called CSA's where you can get a box of in-season veggies w/great recipes once a week by paying a set fee, or making payments through out the year. Insurance companies such as Unity, Physicians Plus, GHC and many others will offer a rebate for folks joining CSAs. Find your local CSA:
http://www.localharvest.org/

10 - we use stainless coffee mugs instead of disposeable paper and plastic - can be found at any coffee chop

11 - avoid wearing polycarbonate glasses and lenses on your face and get hip glasses made of metal or... sustainable WOOD with glass lenses.
http://www.iwoodecodesign.com/iWood_content.html

12 - buy canned goods from companies that do not line their cans with BPA like Eden Foods and Trader Joes.

13 - avoid supporting the making of Polycarbonate( Bisphenol-A) Compact Discs by purchasing songs digitally and downloading them onto your computer or IPOD.

14 - If you smoke cigarettes - smoke the ones without the filters that contain plastic. If not - you double the harm done!

TO READ THE ORIGINAL PBS INTERVIEW WITH THE SCIENTIST WHO BROKE THE NEWS ABOUT THE DANGERS OF BPA GO HERE:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/nature/interviews/vomsaal.html


Hope this helps! I

Dr. Coote, Yeah, some women can't breastfeed due to medical issues you judgmental b****

There are recent studies that show that there are even more of the chemicals leaching into the bottles from the packaging of the infant formulas than there is from the plastic bottles. Something to think about. You don't have to worry about it if you choose to breastfeed.

Frankly, with the rise in childhood food allergies, behavior disorders, etc., I absolutely am careful with what my child eats, uses, and plays with...I don't think it's being over-protective at all. For example, my daughter plays outside in the dirt whenever possible. It's good for her emotionally and it's good for her immune system to have exposure to the *natural* world, operative phrase being natural world. The artificial chemicals are what scare me. We have *no idea* what these will do to developing people in the long term. I'm not willing to offer my child up as guinea pig to find out.

Please!! This is just parents over-worrying. I have 5 kids and every one of them, at one time or another, drank out of plastic bottles. They drank out of reheated bottles, and surprise, surprise, they're all healthy and happy.

These concerns over lead paint and now plastic bottles are spiraling out of control. If this hysteria doesn't stop, people are going to start putting their kids in a bubble after they're born.

I beleive heating plastic in the microwave causes problems in infants ,such as warming the milk in a baby bottle that is plastic.

I believe in free enterprise and open markets, however, if it is going to effect the people of United States then there should be a limit on what type of products entering into the United States. It is time to halt plastics, foods, glasswares and any other source that could be combined with lead and shipped here. My health and the health of others is more valuable than $2.00 an hour labor force outside of the United States.

I remember as a baby that our bottles were glass. And the nipples were some kind of rubberish substance, I'm not sure how good this was, but the tempered safety glass my work okay. 1st-baby.com has some excellent advice for first time mothers and some great baby shower gifts.

This, among others, is a topic that is driving a "Green" movement in the community of parents. Particularly, mothers, are becoming more knowledgeable and increasingly aware of trends in manufacturing, that may not be beneficial to the succesful development of our children. There are a number of products, not limited to bottles, that are proving potentially harmful. Mothers, who are often the primary decision makers when purchasing consumer goods will continue to drive manufacturers toward more responsible practices, simply by choosing alternative products, like Born Free. See examples at http://chicpicks4momandbaby.blogspot.com/search/label/Feeding.

This is a rapidly emerging topic among Mother's who want to feel that they are providing a safe nurturing environment for their children. These are concerns that are no longer limited to environmentalists. Mother's, who are also often the primary decision makers when buying consumer goods, are increasingly seeking out products free of harmful chemicals and with minimal impact on the environment. Not limited to baby drinking cups, but also including household cleaning products, toys, organic, locally grown foods and gifts. Go to: http://chicpicks4momandbaby.blogspot.com/search/label/Feeding

What is understated is that their is a cumulative effect due to BPA ingestion from many polycarbonate sources. It's not only baby bottles, but Rx bottles for liquid, liquor bottles, plastic beer bottles, and the billions of plastic water bottles. The plastic lining in food cans. On a personal note, I had a plastic filling that leeched BPA into the jaw and I lost my facial hair the size of a half dollar for three years. BPA is an estrogen interrupter and this is what it does. Who knows how it effects gender. The FDA has to wake up that they have to evaluate and stop the chemical carnage that in time will decimate the American population. We are a chemical society that is out of control. T. Braun RPh

I think that there is a bit of scare tactics involved in the article since the national institutes of health state " the potential for BPA to impact human health is a concern ... " but the article goes on to say " there is no hard science showing that BPA can leach out of bottles at levels high enough to harm human health " it continues that more research is needed. I commend the author for providing information about BPA so parents can check it out for themselves and then make an informed decision to use plastic (with or without BPA) or some other material. I think every decision made by parents regarding the health of their children is fraught with uncertainty. The choices made today may prove in later years to have been detrimental to our children; however; as parents we have an obligation to our children to make the best decisions we can based on the information we have at the present time. Right now, there are no hard and fast absolutes on the subject. Rather than judge the choices others make, we should try to respect that most parents are trying to do their best, even if their decision is different than ours. I did find it interesting though that the mother from Boston who religiously checks baby sites for ecofriendly products chose a rubber pacifier for her child. Due to the high incidence of latex rubber allergies, I would think she would fear that also.

Comment:I think that all-natural foods are better than not-natural goods because it has been always better for man to live in accord with nature.Nature created man and offered the best for his activity.

Great article. It's about time that the mainstream media starts looking at this issue. And, there are more BPA-free baby bottles on the market than just Born Free these days. My daughter loves her Green to Grow bottles.

There are lot more BPA-free baby bottles available now than just Born Free. My daughter loves her Green to Grow bottles.

The article never even mentions breast-feeding. I thought it was about the difference between glass and plastic bottles. I'm all for speaking what's on your mind, but it might be easier to follow the comments if they all pertained to the article. Just a suggestion.