Microplastics in baby bottles

[Ano]

Hi, anyone still using plastic bottles? I do, and I feel stupid for not knowing about microplastics earlier (article below). I usually pour hot water into the plastic bottles to make sure that the bacteria in the formula (if any) is killed. The recommendation is >70°C, but it seems that - according to this research - the high temperature would shed microplastics from the bottle. I'm off to buy glass bottles, but feel like I'm the only mother around still using plastic bottles 😞.

My baby is 7 months old and I feel like I've failed him again. I should have known that plastics aren't good. Apparently nothing has been done either since the publication of the study, since media has stopped reporting about this "dangerous" issue. I'm afraid in a few years to come they'd say something about microplastics like they did with BPA 😞!

www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/19/bottle-fed-babies-swallow-millions-microplastics-day-study

I've never seen anyone not using a plastic bottle for a baby.

Are you normally this anxious about everything? You need to sort that out or you'll make yourself ill with worry over nothing.

I've never seen anybody use a glass bottle. Mine is 8 months and I use plastic. It's actually not something I worry about

I breast feed but I thought you were meant to use leave boiled water for up to half an hour anyway before pouring into the bottle?

Scaremongering.

Microplastics are EVERYWHERE. So this is just yet another place that it's been found. Guess what, if you look for microplastics somewhere, you'll find them.

Sad but true. www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01143-3

Yes, we all should reduce plastic usage & waste by a country mile, but don't be naive to think we can get away from them.

Can't get worked up about this. I thought micro plastics were pretty much unavoidable anyway.

Babies have been drinking from plastic bottles for years and years and years and they're fine.

Did you read the whole article?

"Prof Oliver Jones, at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, noted the babies’ exposure levels were estimates, not measurements: “We should not be making parents feel bad for using plastic bottles."

"many of the particles would simply be excreted"

I’ve never seen anyone use a glass bottle.

Microplastics are everywhere. You can’t worry over everything.

Like a PP says, micro plastics are everywhere. You can’t escape them now.

Keep using the plastic bottles. With glass you would be constantly worried about dropping them, or smashing them.

Micro plastics are very worrying but like air pollution and climate change your precious baby will be exposed to them too.

The are in the soil, they are in the water, they were in 100% of fish samples that were taken around the world.

Switch to glass bottles by all means if you can afford to and it brings you comfort but your baby will be exposed to micro plastics just like the rest of us who live in this age.

One the bright side we have vaccination and effective pain relief so i would still take it over say the 1600s when most babies didn’t make it to 5

@Ano ((HUG)). There's so much to think about & worry about when you're a new mum.

Yes it's a 'thing' but micro plastics are everywhere! Even if you went to glass bottles (which many did when it first hit the headlines a long time ago) there are safety issues with that too.

the small amount of micro plastics you'd be avoiding really aren't worth worrying about.

I will just re post this bit for you to focus on

Prof Oliver Jones, at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, noted the babies’ exposure levels were estimates, not measurements: “We should not be making parents feel bad for using plastic bottles."
"many of the particles would simply be excreted"

try to stop reading worrying, but pointless, articles & just enjoy your baby (deeply envious of all the cuddles!!)

It’s usually in the uk plastic bottles for babies are common. I’ve used glass bottles for my little one and still do. Widely available at any chemists in mainland Europe that’s where I got it from.

I used plastic with DD although she was combi fed for months so not used as much as a ‘full time’ bottle feeder. I’m now expecting DS and I’ve ordered these:

www.boots.com/tommee-tippee-closer-to-nature-glass-baby-bottle-slow-flow-breast-like-teat-with-anti-colic-valve-150ml-pack-of-1-10320268?cm_mmc=bmm-buk-google-ppc--PLAs--Mother_Baby-_-UK_Smart_Shopping_Baby_Google&gbraid=0AAAAADrIajUE6Ru0EyDJ46DDl5QrG0UMo&gbraid=0AAAAADrIajUE6Ru0EyDJ46DDl5QrG0UMo&gclid=Cj0KCQiAlKmeBhCkARIsAHy7WVv4MPx3j0z2QFLO9ZSVjU8NQbUFSZhNOniWRSWYVo33hnfkC5CEke0aArneEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Definitely not unreasonable. There are some scary things relating to plastics which are just getting ignored. People are saying there are no impacts but there really are, for example men's sperm count has been declining since the 70s. I've made sure to get glass bottles. Unfortunately these things are so rife in the environment now there is no avoiding it, even there are dangerous chemicals in breastmilk. Makes me feel pretty awful about the whole thing. I also can't believe that nothing has been done about it.

I really don't think it's possible to avoid micro plastics. They are present in much of our food, drinks, household items, ocean waters, arctic ice, desert sand, the air we breathe...

It is very troubling and YANBU for being concerned about the issue, but you have absolutely not failed your DC. Blame the human race...

Glass baby bottles were available until the mid 80's. I used them for expressed milk.
For bottle feeding mothers, milk in the hospitals was in glass bottles.

I mean I’ve never seen anyone use glass bottles day to day in the people i’ve known over 3 children over the last 21 years.

I used the little glass ready made ones too when I was in hospital with all three of mine - but when home used the plastic ones as most people do.

Even with my youngest who’s 2, I haven’t met anyone who uses glass ones.

And yes, they were the norm once. My dad used to tell me about when his older children were born in the late 1950s. They had one glass bottle and a huge rubber teat that you boiled on the stove in between feeds. He dropped at smashed it by accident in the middle of the night once and they had to wake a neighbour in the middle of the night to borrow theirs as the baby was screaming!

I freaked out about this too when mixed feeding DS2. The article came out just as I’d had a horrible end to trying to fully breastfeed and made me feel shit tbh! As other people said, plastics are everywhere and people have been feeding babies for decades with them.

if it helps I found tommee Tippee glass bottles on Amazon which were great.

Thank you, everyone. I've ordered (and got) the Tommie Tippee glass bottles. Still beating myself up tho' for not realizing this earlier. I console myself by thinking that I used plastics as a baby and am fine (for now).

We just published on this topic. Don’t panic about microplastics. For a deep dive on why, check out our article here: https://nestingfinance.com/are-plastic-baby-bottles-safe/

They're probably not. Look at the rise in so many things. But unfortunately you can't escape it, so it is what it is