Pink & Green Parenting: Good News on the Pink (Onesies), Bad News on the Green (BPA Bottles)
Here are a few updates that might be useful to those of you who have been reading this column.
In a previous post, I expressed my angst about having purchased onesies from Steve and Barry that were made with child labor.
The good news is that you can go buy those Steve and Barry/Sarah Jessica Parker-inspired onesies that I told you about. According to this report, they do not rely on child labor. And they’ve lowered their prices! So snatch up some of those groovy green and purple stripey onesies I told you about with a clean conscience. And maybe pick up some of SJP’s latest designs for yourself, if you’re so inclined (her dresses are a bit too Desperate Housewivesy for me, but I did pick up some cute metallic ballerina flats and relived my high school bunhead days).
In another post, I talked about the potential hazards of BPA leaching from plastic baby bottles.
The bad news is that recent public health studies suggest that the BPA found in many plastic baby bottles is indeed carcinogenic, even in the trace amounts that leach from said bottles. I thought the Times’ coverage was the best; check it out.
So what are the alternatives? Glass bottles work really well. They’re eco-friendly, free of all plastics and chemicals, and are break-resistant. But we found that they’re too heavy (and breakable) to use when we’re on the go. So we invested in a few Born Free BPA-free bottles. They’re actually a better size for our one-year-old, ferociously independent daughter than Dr. Brown’s (which is also coming out with BPA-free bottles any day now); she was able to hold them herself, and use it like a sippy cup.
And here’s a tip: if you look online, you can only find them at exorbitant prices, because there’s been such a run on them in the past few days due to the press coverage of the recent studies. Whole Foods usually carries them, but they were sold out at both our local Lewd Moles (my lame cockneyizing of WF). So we sallied over to that den of credit card debt and plastic entertainment, Buy Buy Baby, and found them in stock, at reasonable prices. We only bought three; our daughter is eating actual food and water now, so she really only goes through three bottles, at most, per day. And we only bought the bottles; we brought a toy in for our daughter to play with while we shopped, so we wouldn’t be tempted by a baby-soothing impulse buy.
What other alternatives have you guys come up with? Other brands/bottles? Are there any other issues about which you’d like to see me update my coverage?
Jennifer: “we brought a toy in for our daughter to play with while we shopped, so we wouldn’t be tempted by a baby-soothing impulse buy.” You’re such a good mommy! I plan to come back to all these archived posts when we finally get our baby.
Our baby turns one soon and is transitioning out of bottles now to sippies. We have decided to not bother buying all new “safe” bottles since he’s been on them all these months anyways. Our other 3 kids survived using these bottles. Granted the “exposure” may add to the overall carcinogens they are exposed to in their lifetime, but I am not worried nor do I put blame on myself for using them.
I think back to Alar scares in the early 90’s- the waxy bug repellant used on apples, etc. Is anyone thinking about their fruits now? Does anyone stop to think about what it means when fruit trees are stimulated to produce fruit that the seeds cannot germinate to bear a plant? Where’s the outrage for all the plant hormone it must take to do that?
If its not one thing, its another.
Nina: Thanks! You kind of learn on the job in this parenting biz…
DivaJean: I agree…it’s one scare after another. The problem is, we need a more holistic approach to environmental dangers, instead of this absurd scare-of-the-week approach. In Europe and Canada, the agencies in charge of public health take their mission seriously, and are working to lower toxins in ALL foods and consumer products; here, the agencies are unbelievably lax (and in the pockets of the corporations producing toxic products!), so the approach is laughably piecemeal.
On the apple note: I’ve started buying organic apples, which are unwaxed. They taste…applyer, too! But they’re pricey as hell.
I just wanted to add that both Gerber and Evenflo have on the market toxin free baby bottles and Evenflo has there nice classic type baby bottles once more in pastel colors..Just wish they would make a pink one..Gerber has done the same..Just wish they would ahd not discontinued the Nuk latex feeding nipples in heavy flow..MY daughter had less air with those thes ame with certain latex rubber nipple brands,The smaller ones restrict how much formula is past through and i believe this it seems allows more air into the baby than the formula..I tend to hoard large rubber nipples when i do find them on occasion..Silicone is fine but less natural..they tend to be rigid..more so than the natural flex of rubber which emulates ones sift breasts tissue..