Plastics in pregnancy

[allworknoplay25]

Wanted to know/ask about using plastic bottles and containers while pregnant, I haven’t really thought about it until I had seen an article saying about BPA and so on and it’s freaked me out a bit!
I keep soup and pasta sauces and so on in plastic containers when I don’t use the whole jar the first time and today I went to make some pasta and went to get the container out of the fridge and didn’t think anything of it again but you could see the condensation on the lid, where the plastic must have been sweating. I’ve eaten the pasta now but worried about the BPA from the plastic container that may have gotten into the sauce! And I used plastic containers for everything and eat out of them mostly every day if not every day, have I been stupid for not being too careful?

I didn’t even know this was a thing!
Ate all my lunches at work from plastic boxes.
LO 2 years old snoring away

@PinkCookie11 nor me until I read this article! 😟
The risks of BPA and plastic sweating all that, I’ve used them every day and I’m half way through my pregnancy now!
Ahh fab that does make me feel better thank you, snoring away - love it haha, need to get off the internet for the day 😂

I've never heard of it either. Good to know though.

I'm sure you're aware but there is plenty of BPA free items now if you can swap them over, go for it.

Lots of plastics are BPA free already
Maybe check if yours are

😂 yes you’ve got yourself into an internet black hole!
Your all good!

@SeaTurtles92 yeah definitely! Going to recycle my plastic ones and get glass ones instead from tomorrow!
@dementedpixie that’s true, I’ll have to have a look but they are cheapy ones from home bargains 😂 so I doubt it maybe! Just worried I’ve not done any good by eating out of plastic now especially if I’ve seen the condensation myself and continued to heat the sauce up and eat it!
@PinkCookie11 I have indeed, I need to go to sleep 😂

I read lots about this in a book called 'it starts with the egg' when I was TTC. The issue is only really a thing when you heat the food in plastic. I did go a little OTT and started storing EVERYTHING in glass containers, but now I don't mind storing things in plastic as long as I don't heat it in it (I think there is a small risk is seeping when it's stored, but nowhere near as if it's heated). If you're avoiding BPA then you also need to be aware of BPS which is similar to BPA in that it is a hormone disruptor, and is often used as an alternative to BPA

Basically don't heat anything in plastic and you should be ok!

Don't worry about this one instance but generally I would avoid heating things up in plastic containers if you can. It's fairly easy to tip the contents into a ceramic bowl etc to microwave. But worth noting about BPA is that it is found on the lining of many tins and also jar lids. I avoid eating much tinned food for this reason. I know some people think I'm crazy but from what I know BPA is not something I want to ingest if I can avoid doing so.

@Daffodil21 ahh that’s really interesting to know thank you! www I’ve never heard of BPS that’s another one to have a look up about haha, no I don’t reheat it in the plastic container I’ll heat it up in the saucepan that way instead! Find it tastes much nicer on the hob than the microwave, plus with the pasta I made I put it from the plastic container into the saucepan, heated that for 5 mins then put it in a ceramic dish and into the oven for 15 mins then ate it (it was lush to be fair) but then panicked afterwards because of the blinking condensation in the container!
Thank you again!

Were these sites from the US? BPA isn't used in many plastic containers here in the UK or Europe which is why we don't hear about it when pregnant.

Chances are it's fine.

@Bottleknows thank you for sharing too! I haven’t had much tin stuff I usually make the soup from scratch situation but I do use jars more or less everyday and I didn’t know that! I’ll have to start making my pasta sauce from scratch now too! Haha, I’ll have to look up if Asda jar lids use BPA because I love their pasta sauces so much, thank you again!

The plastic won't sweat in the fridge as the fridge is cold
Heating in the plastic container is more of an issue than just storing food in it

@Bottleknows I am a fellow can avoider too. Although not everything, mostly tomato based foods as apparently the acid in them can cause the BPA to seep more, so now we buy passata in jars. I also buy the Dr organic beans from Holland and Barrett because it's BPA free lining, but I'm not sure if it has BPS in it instead. So you have company :)

@allworknoplay25 you might prefer to buy glass bottles for when the baby comes. We ordered some, I think the brand is called Nuk (I may have remembered that wrong though! but there's several about

@Twizbe it very well could be an American site I’ll have to look again, I’m useless with all that I just assume everything is the UK (couldn’t be further from technology and all that half the time 😂)
That’s also really good to know and puts my mind at least a bit! Just the Mam guilt setting in early I think and just wanting to do what’s best for my LO!

@allworknoplay25 with the jars it's just the bit in contact that is relevant, so use the jar just don't scrape (or lick!) the lid and it'll be fine.

@Daffodil21 it's very nice to have company! I've read so much literature on BPA that I've scared myself into changing my eating habits. Agree with you in the tomatoes, I buy in glass jars only. But I'm vary off these BPA free cans as they all seem very sketchy on what they use as their alternatives. And like you say I'm doubtful BPS is any safer given it's so structurally similar to BPA just been around for less time.

@dementedpixie ah that’s good! Hopefully it was just water or something on top of the lid while it was in the fridge!
@Daffodil21 yeah I’ll definitely look into buying glass bottles for baby! Oh god I buy the tomato purée in the tubes instead of the glass jars! And I use tomato purée again almost everyday if not everyday! (I love pasta 😂) oh god I’ve been awful with the plastics and those tomato purée tubes!

@Bottleknows glass jars all the way then! I’m going to recycle all my plastic ones and get glass ones! Just worried now that I’ve used them more or less every day and the tomato purée tubes too nearly every day and I’m 22 weeks pregnant so worried now about all that now 😭

@Bottleknows yes I'm wary too, but I love tinned baked beans 🙈 I don't eat them too often though. I scared myself into changing lots too when I read the 'it starts with the egg book'. So much in it made sense! I'm conscious of reducing rather than eliminating though as I think it's it's impossible these days!! But certainly no heating food in plastics in this house!

@allworknoplay25 I'm pretty sure those tubes are also lined with BPA - maybe switch to jarred passata and you'll be fine :)

Stop worrying, you'll be fine as will your baby

You don’t need to worry. It’s just an issue
If you take in huge amounts.
But once you start looking into stuff like this you realise there are so many things which are harmful in our day to day lives.
I try not to worry but I do eliminate some toxins etc where I easily can.
Ie. I used glass MAM bottles for my baby.
Once my son was bigger I used glass sippy cups (there are special ones encased in plastic so don’t smash; and steel ones. For situations - like im childcare- where there water would sit in the receptacle all day it seemed like an easy switch.

MAM bottles, that's it! Not Nuk

@Daffodil21 I switched to jarred baked beans and now I find the popular rubbed version way too sweet, but I know what you mean, they are quite different in taste. Eliminating is impossible, especially as it's a fairly ubiquitous molecule in daily life, it's on printed receipts too so touching that and then your sandwich is a BPA dose too. It can get exhausting. So I also just try to reduce.
So OP that is all you can do, reduce where you can and if you can. I hadn't heard of it with my first DC so didn't make any adjustments whatsoever, at least you can from 22 weeks. Most people are not even aware of it in pregnancy and have perfectly healthy babies.

Tinned! Not rubbed

@Onestep2021 I feel like I have had it in huge amounts now thinking about it 😩 I used those tomato purée tubes every day and quite a bit of it too cause I would like the sauce to be thicker and the plastic containers to store the rest of the sauce that wasn’t used, ahh I’m worried now I’ve had way too much BPA and I’m 22 weeks in, feel awful that I didn’t see that sooner now and used those tubes and plastic containers and not been more careful 😔

@Bottleknows the jarred ones are soo expensive!

@allworknoplay25 I wouldn't have been aware at all if we hadn't struggled getting and staying pregnant. Most people won't be aware at all, so don't beat yourself up!