To be loosing my mind over DC using bottled microplastic-y water for years

[ByeByeBabyBabyTooth]

Would really appreciate some perspective as I’m struggling massively. DH is anti-tap water - regular boil notices in our area - so our house has been drinking solely from 5 gallon drums + a water cooler for years. A friend mentioned microplastics in bottled water to me yesterday - I hadn’t made any link with our water until then - and now I’ve fallen down a horrible google rabbithole. According to one university study, my small kids have injested up to a trillion particles over this time, most of which will never leave their blood. I know that there is no conclusive evidence around plastics and cancer / health risks but it looks like just a matter of time.

Have moved to tap water and generally low plastic anyway but really feeling like we’ve massively fucked up here and set the kids up for lots of health issues etc. and that it’s totally unrecoverable. And yes I know there are microplastics everywhere but bottled water seems to be far and away the worst offender and they’ve been drinking litres every day for years.

I’ve removed voting for this as think that lots of votes confirming that this is a problem will trip me over the edge totally. Would just really appreciate some support and a handhold I guess as I just feel so so awful! Thanks very much

Op I have a huge health anxiety problems and I drink bottled water. The tap water in our area of Yorkshire is absolutely disgusting and smells like a swimming pool.

No I'm sure your kids don't have 1000 times the average microplastic levels because many kids drink soft drinks from plastic bottles. I imagine they're worse because the kids are more likely to cause damage to the bottles as they're drinking.

Hi
, sorry if someone else already said this.

Where I live (Balkan country) no one drinks tap water. There is a filter you can attach to your tap to make the water drinkable and you have to get part of it changed every year. Initial cost is €200 and another 100 every year.

Good luck!

@CharlotteLucas3 hadn’t thought of that, thank you

Brita filters are also plastic.

Can you not see how overblown this is.IF they survive the next 10 years!!!!

The amount of microplastic from drinking water from a water cooler will not kill your kids.

I think you might enjoy panicking yourself and are building yourself up and up.

What about a Berkey water filter?

The water passes through the filter for a matter of seconds and straight into your glass - it's not stored in the filter!

@OhBeAFineGuyKissMe definitely not enjoying this. Would you be ok with your kids drinking bottled water since they were babies and then reading this Study which looks fairly legit. And you having made that decision for them?

Agreed. There are so many worries in life. We can walk outside and get hit by a bus.

I appreciated it's hard to let go, but by getting anxious about something you cannot change you are achieving nothing. You are actually actively harming yourself and to some extent your children. Be the best parent you can be! Do you want to be the anxious fretting obsessive parent, or the one who holds their hands up, says we made a mistake, fixed it from now on, and then shrugs it off and is a happy optimistic influence? The latter creates a much better home atmosphere and also models positive behaviour to them for the future.
You probably can't stop thinking about it for a while, but don't actively dwell on it or research it, choose to do and think about other things, and it will fade. And then you know how to deal with the next time you "screw up" with your parenting decisions (because there will be loads of times and you need to be able to move past them).

It’s sensationalist reporting - move on, eat healthily, use less (plastic) going forward.

the worry and guilt will do nothing

I lived in countries where the water was not safe to drink so yes they drank bottled water, exactly as you described. Both have lived to adulthood. You are being ridiculous. You need to get this in to proportion, the amount of microplastics will not harm them, it certainly won’t kill them in the next 10years.

And no,I don’t respect a news site reporting on one scientific paper as I have seen too many examples of them sensationalising and exaggerating the claims from the paper.

Your anxiety is spiralling and you do need help with that.
edit: to fix typo

But that study doesn't even say what the actual consequences are? In fact it says they don't actually know and this study might help the find out, so the 'if they survive' thing seems extremely OTT. People have been drinking and eating out of plastic for years and years. I'm sure it's not ideal but it's hardly a death sentence.

Sorry @OhBeAFineGuyKissMe, didn’t mean to come across as defensive - am definitely not at my best at the moment! I appreciate you taking the time to respond and while I am trying to apply the logic to my head, the worry and guilt is overwhelming.

And thanks @Pyroleus for the advice, I do need to step away from google / research as my logical head knows that these things don’t exist in a vacuum - the results mightn’t hold for reusable plastics, instead of water they might have been drinking juice or milk out of plastic, it might be sensationalist as @AreYouBrandNew said

Stop reading scaremongering click baity headlines studies if you can't control your paranoia and anxiety.

Read this and/or some of the reference material
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrogen_monoxide_parody

To see how various people became overwrought about plain old water.

At the moment, your kids don't have a microplastics problem, they have a anxious mother problem.

There are all sorts of things that get scary when you consult Professor Google too much without being able to keep things in proportion.

Sure, there are dangers in being uninformed but they pale in comparison to being only partially informed.

Put the internet down and play with your children instead.

There is nothing you can do about the past. As parents we all make errors of judgement, and you weren't even aware you were making one!
All we can do is our best with the information then available to us. You did. So give yourself a little grace there.

New info has now become available, and you take this seriously and adjust your children's environment as far as within your control. These are all the hallmarks of a good parent.

Our kids will have lots of challenges coming their way. But one of the best protective mechanisms allowing them to cope with these challenges is a supportive and warm family. I think prioritising that is always a good idea.

There's microplastics in breastmilk. No point worrying to much about this. What's the solution? Starve or dehydrate to death?

@Pingpongglitch ‘’Sure, there are dangers in being uninformed but they pale in comparison to being only partially informed’’ - so true!

Thanks for this @juniperbramble and it does make sense. I wouldn’t mind but DH really pushed this as I was fine with filtering the tap water.

Is he worried about it now? No, of course not. Very much in the whats done is done camp and genuinely won’t think about this twice.

Whereas it’ll be in my head for days, probably weeks, worrying about the health implications, looking up plastic detoxing and being guilty for not researching and realising it sooner.

I've filed microplastics in the 'we all have to die of something' file. Along with bacon, sausages and whatever oil is being touted as the dangerous one this month

I'm a health worrier too. Look, put it in perspective. Consuming plastic is pretty harmless overall. Consuming junk food is wayyyyy worse. How do you know? Because you can see the effects straight away.... Besides, kids are growing, what's in their bodies now will only be a fraction of them as adults.

Also, take the stuff in the news with a pinch of salt. Researchers are doing their job, but is also helps their careers (and those of journalists) to big up their findings. Next article will be about how something else will kill you (in a hundred years time....)

OP my family is a health anxiety family too. Organic fruit, natural fibres, no UPFs and so on. We've gone the bottled / filtered in plastic water route because the tap water seems like the worst option of two bad options. I don't think you will have harmed your kids with the plastic.

I don't know about the US, but where I am most milk comes in plastic too. It's just one of those things. All you can do is reduce the harm as much as you are able, which sometimes means deciding between two harmful things.

Life is about risk, OP. We are dying from the day we're born. There are lots of things that might be bad for us..... or not. There is absolutely zero point in worrying about any of them. And your kids will be fine.