As a mother of two, I remember the endless stream of advice that came with having a baby. How they should sleep. What they should wear. Which products to buy. The message was always the same: make the right choices, and you can protect your child. Sound familiar? But what if some of the biggest risks aren’t visible to parents at all? What if they are built into the very products lining the shelves of every high street retailer, marketed as safe and designed specifically for babies?
The first 1,000 days of life, from conception to a child's second birthday, are the most important period of human development. During this period, a baby’s organs form, hormones direct growth and the foundations of lifelong health are laid. Scientists have long recognised this as a uniquely sensitive window in which environmental exposures can have outsized effects.
Yet this is also the period when babies are surrounded by plastic.
From feeding bottles and teats to dummies, mattresses, bedding and even medical equipment used in neonatal care, plastic has become the default material of modern babyhood.
Most parents assume these products are inert. Why wouldn't they? They are sold in trusted shops and tested for use with babies. Few parents would imagine that products designed for feeding and caring for infants could also be a source of such dangerous chemical exposure.
Plastic has become so woven into everyday life that we think of it as a material in its own right – like aluminium or cotton. In reality, every plastic product is made from a cocktail of chemicals, many of which are known to interfere with the body's natural systems.
Scientists have identified more than 16,000 chemicals used in plastic products, over 4,200 of which are known to be hazardous to human health and the environment. Among them are endocrine-disrupting chemicals, which interfere with the body’s hormonal system and have been linked to reproductive disorders, metabolic disease, neurodevelopmental effects and hormone-related cancers. One 2026 study estimated that exposure to phthalates, a group of chemicals used to make plastics softer, could be linked to almost two million premature births worldwide in a single year.
No parent can reasonably be expected to know this. Nor should they be forced to pay more for safer products.
This is not down to you. Parents buy what is on the shelves. It is the job of our government to make sure those products are safe.
Yet as evidence of exposure to plastic-associated chemicals continues to grow, parents are being left to navigate a problem they cannot see and cannot control: either trust that the products marketed for babies are safe, or shoulder the burden of researching materials and paying more for safer alternatives.
It is precisely the gap between what the science is telling us and what parents are being asked to manage that inspired the launch of our campaign PlasticFree Babies, focused on protecting the first 1,000 days of life.
Recent polling found that 82 percent of people believe the Government should take action to reduce exposure to chemicals from plastic baby products. Yet over half were unaware before the survey that some plastic baby products can release potentially harmful chemicals.
This is where Government must step in.
Babies already benefit from higher safety standards in areas such as medicines and baby food because we recognise they are uniquely vulnerable.
The same principle should apply to chemical exposure. This is a request to Government to do better by parents. We are demanding that brands and retailers are given clear policy guidance, urgently, that enables them to bring safe, affordable alternatives to our shelves at scale. For everyone.
When there is credible evidence that babies may be exposed to substances that could affect their development, and when safer alternatives already exist for many products, we should be asking whether the status quo still makes sense.
Babies cannot choose what goes into their mouths, what they sleep on, or what surrounds them in their earliest days. They rely entirely on adults to create safe environments. The products designed to nurture them should be safe by design, not safe only for those who can afford the alternatives.
If this matters to you, here’s what you can do right now. Through the PlasticFree Babies campaign, you can write to your MP in minutes and add your voice to our demand for stronger protections during the first 1,000 days of life.
Government must act on the evidence, close regulatory gaps and ensure that every child, not just those born to parents who can afford to seek out alternatives, has the safest possible start in life. Please write to your MP today and support this demand.