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BPA in baby bottles, Independent front page

131 replies

styrofoam · 31/03/2010 12:44

Very detailed piece in today's Indy about BPA in baby bottles and why Britain doesn't seem to be doing much about it.

tinyurl.com/ya4gy7x

And...

tinyurl.com/ye8hr4w

OP posts:
salbysea · 31/03/2010 20:27

brockyg, what's wrong with blackout blinds?

duchesse · 31/03/2010 22:01

I have to say I knew about the dangers of BPA and phthalates in plastics about 15 years ago, just in time to really worry about the few bottles we boiled to sterilise them for our now 16.5 yo son and get cold sweats about that and the soya formula. Only time will tell whether we've wrecked his fertility.

The two older girls never had any bottles at all for that reason- they went from the breast to cups some time in their second year.

For this baby I bought Tommee Tippee BPA free ones, and she has had one or two bottles of expressed milk a day since she was a couple of weeks old (I needed her to be used to have milk from bottles for when I'm working). My sister found a site selling glass ones for her son.

My opinion is that if these substances are supposed to be dangerous (and research suggests that they are not without side effects) then they should not be allowed in children's items at all, especially ones that are going to be heated.

While on the subject of heating plastics, can I just mention that you should never, ever, ever heat anything in a plastic tub that is not meant to get hot... ie one not designed to be used to heat food.

aactionmum · 31/03/2010 22:02

I have already sent a letter about this to my local MP. His first response was totally ridiculous! He claimed BPA isn't as dangerous as some people claim, there's not enough research etc. Then I received another letter from him, telling he contacted Dept of Health and attached a copy of the letter he's received from them, which is not useful either.

I was lucky enough to BF exclusively for 6 months so my son has never used bottles. Now he's on solids and drinks juice etc from cups, I always buy BPA free plastic only. This includes his pots, cups, as well as the equipment I use to cook his meals. I also try to use glass/ceramic bowls/plates.

Green Baby is a good place to buy glass bottles. I bought one just in case I need one.

I think BPA should not be allowed in anything.

dustythedolphin · 31/03/2010 22:10

I agree it should be removed from all bottles, as it has been linked to breast cancer by women drinking water from plastic bottles. Its completely unacceptable to allow it in infant bottles

dustythedolphin · 31/03/2010 22:12

..but hey this is the UK, which refused to ban Aspartame years ago so we shouldn't be suprised that profit comes before public health as usual

alysonpeaches · 31/03/2010 22:29

Are Dr Brown's the same as Born Free? As they are BPA free. I used them for DD1 as I had her from birth, but the other 2 girls had Avent or Tommee Tippee used by foster mother before they came to live with me. So its obviously a bit of a worry to us.

I presume this all applies to trainer cups too?

As another poster said, something else to worry about!

I would be interested to see the site which lists all BPA bottles and cups. Will see if google can help me. DS1 has autism and still needs to use a trainer cup and has used the same sort (Tommee Tippee) for approx 5 or 6 years.

Moomma · 31/03/2010 22:36

When the health visitors at my local surgery (a major GPs practice in London) held a weaning session to advise us on moving on to solids etc, some of the parents asked about BPA-free bottles as they were planning to stop breastfeeding at six months and move on to bottles. The HVs (three of them, of various ages/levels of experience) hadn't heard of BPA, and at first said, 'It's a brand name', then, when put right about what it stood for, said, 'Oh, those are just manufacturers' claims to make you buy more bottles.'

Is it any wonder I have decided to ignore pretty much everything I am told by a HV?

neenz · 31/03/2010 22:51

Yes, what's wrong with blackout blinds?

Even shampoo can contain harmful chemicals that get into your body through your head, and some even say you shouldn't bathe in normal tap water never mind drink it. I drink filtered water and use paraben-free cosmetics as much as I can but it is bloody scary the amount of chemicals we must be taking in even when trying really hard not to.

ItNeverRainsBut · 31/03/2010 22:51

Oh bugger. I had been assuming that "microwave safe" meant "safe to heat food in". More fool me.

What about freezing stuff in plastic containers? Obviously I can reheat/defrost by decanting stuff into a bowl (which I often do anyway) but what about freezing?

neenz · 31/03/2010 22:55

Yeah I am that I have got so lax with the plastics thing as my mum always tells me not to use them for food (and I never used to use my microwave to heat food but I have slipped on that score too lately ).

I have lots of old peanut butter jars and some baby food jars which I use to store food in, you can freeze them too.

Pepa · 01/04/2010 02:32

BPA is used to make plastic clear so if you see a plastic bottle that is clear is probably has BPA in it (unless it states otherwise) Over here in Canada, avent bottles are now all a kind of peachy colour as they don't contain BPA.....

hazlinh · 01/04/2010 06:32

Used the normal Avent bottles (which contain BPA) for dd (6) for 5 years (she refused to move on to sippy cups but that's another story) and have since tossed them and am now using glass bottles (i use life factory glass bottles which come in a pretty rubber sleeve) after she developed leukaemia in dec last year. i have no idea if it is related but she grew up in exactly the same environment and ate exactly the same stuff as her 2 cousins who are fine, but the only notable difference is that she took lots of milk everyday (she is a picky eater), and in those bottles. we stopped sterilising the bottles after a year and just put boiling water in it. (this was before all the reports on bpa came out. i just wish i had known before)I suppose it never occurred to us that it could be dangerous and that the bottles contained a potentially toxic chemical that could leach into the water. i mean these are bottles meant for babies. silly me. anyway i don't even buy the bpa-free ones, they are still plastic. since dd got sick, i have pretty much thrown out everything in our kitchen that is plastic, and we only use filtered water now, along with some other changes i've made. i tossed out all of dd's avent bottles, there must have been 6 bottles at least (half fr our house and half fr the grandparents' house). i read somewhere that bpa is also present in some tin liners, so it is also in the milk tin liners, and canned food.

londonlottie · 01/04/2010 07:08

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

tostaky · 01/04/2010 09:10

alyson thankd for the link
neenz i agree with you on nasty chemicals being present in EVERYTHING!! I find it hard to find a middle ground though....
sometimes i think what's the point, we live in a busy london street so our brains are probably fried anyway with all the wi-fi/mobile etc...

anyone's got a good sippy cup BPA-free?

bellamysbride · 01/04/2010 09:42

tostaky I was about to ask the same thing about sippy cups. Are there any free flow ones like the bog standard timmetippee one (which I assume contains BPA)?

And what is wrong with black out blinds? Curious now.

roary · 01/04/2010 10:06

I am also intrigued by blackout blinds!

Baby Born Free makes a great sippy cup. The Nuby cup (sold here by Tommee Tippee, you can get at Tescos and Boots) I THINK is BPA free as well.

Londonlottie, I completely understand your wanting to see evidence on this point! There are some links in the FDA and Health Canada websites I posted earlier, and somewhere deep in the bowels of Health Can there is more - as I said this was a decision taken in Canada against protests by industry and without consumer advocates (ie, by the scientists who work for Health Canada).

There's also this article from the NYT which points out some further directions to look at research.

To be frank, I think we are exposed to so many chemicals anyway that BPA exposure is not the sort of thing that would give me panic attacks. That said, it IS the sort of thing which is totally and ridiculously easy to avoid. Given the amount of chemicals out there, why not avoid it, especially as you're likely to be exposed to so many other nasties? It's easy as pie to get BPA free plastics now. As crumpette notes phthlates are another concern but are (sadly) so ubiquitous that avoiding them is much more difficult.

amidaiwish · 01/04/2010 10:10

some BPA free Avent bottles here and Safe Sippy Beaker here

amidaiwish · 01/04/2010 10:12

doh
[[http://www.mamatoto.co.uk/PRD_ProductDetail.aspx?cid=242&ProdID=4101 bottles]
sippy

amidaiwish · 01/04/2010 10:13

argh
last go
bottles

bintofbohemia · 01/04/2010 10:19

This has worried the hell out of me since I first became aware of it. I now never put plastic in the microwave and I wish, since it doesn't seem to be a problem to manufacture plastic without BPA, that it would be removed across the board.

alysonpeaches · 01/04/2010 10:22

Plastic info: if it says 5 surrounded by arrows and PP and its cloudy not clear its BPA free. The cups in poundworld have this on but are of the valve type. I have just taken the valves out. I have a link somewhere which tells you which numbers mean what material, so there is no need to be ripped off paying £8 a time for cups from an ethical consumer site!

To follow: link.

alysonpeaches · 01/04/2010 10:27

Link about plastic codes

hubpages.com/hub/Safe-Plastics-Vs-Unsafe-Plastics

alysonpeaches · 01/04/2010 10:31

Will try again!

hubpages.com/hub/Safe-Plastics-Vs-Unsafe-Plastics

raindroprhyme · 01/04/2010 11:14

Nuk do glass bottles and their is only about 50p dif between their BPA free bottles and the glass ones.
I struggle with what to store breastmilk in in the freezer anyone got any cost effective ideas.

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