I opened up my newspaper this morning to see this headline staring back at me “Plastic Baby Bottles Pose Risks.” What?!!!
I had heard about clear plastics and the leaching of chemicals, but I never gave bottles much thought. So I go on to read that heating plastic bottles can cause chemical breakdowns where these nasty toxins leach into the liquid to cause an array of fun things such as: reproductive disorders, early puberty, early stage breast cancer, decreased sperm count or attention and developmental disorders and brain damage. Apparently, even small amounts can have an affect.
So, what’s a mom to do? Both my kids took a bottle, collectively, for more than three years. I remember hearing my husband, who hates microwaves for this reason, saying to me “don’t heat those bottles in the microwave.” But I was afraid to put hot water from the tap in the formula for fear of leftover lead in the pipes. So my solution was to heat in a pot of boiling water. (Which he also disagreed with, he says.)
Can you undo the potential harm already done? According to the article, the answer is no. I know now for future babies to use a different bottle. Apparently Medela, Born Free and Adiri Natural Nurser may be better since they are made with ploypropylene, which does not contain the harmful BPA. Avent, the one both my kids used, apparently has a high leaching rate of BPA since it's made from polycarbonate. Great. I walked through Right Start this morning and glanced at the Born Free bottles sitting right next to the Avent line.
How’s a mom to feel about this? I figure people all over the world bottle feed at some point Don’t they heat the bottle too? As parents we do all we can to protect our little ones. We do the best we can with the knowledge we have and to read something like this just breaks my heart. In their smallest, most innocent phase of life, I unknowingly, did something to cause my kid damage later on in life.
Here are a few other blogs I found talking about this if you want more info:
Musings from the Boob Juice Factory
Baby Safe Direct
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1 comment:
Can't beat yourself up about this. There is so much crap out there that we don't know about that it is IMPOSSIBLE to protect ourselves or our little ones 100%. As I always say, the NutraSweet from my Diet Coke habit may kill me someday but at least I will die happy!
Of course, now that we KNOW, that's another story. If this is true, straight to the trash with the Avents, along with the wooden Thomas trains and the Mattel Diego toys!
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