Baby Bisphenol A Malfeasance

Here’s a question I never thought to be asking myself:

What brand of bottle do I buy if I’m looking to feed my newly arrived child or children (in the case of twins)?

You could ask friends or family members for their recommendations or simply purchase your bottles on the basis of how much shelf space they have at the local BabiesRUs. If you do what we did, you’ll do both. Thus, based on the recommendation of a close friend and the size of the display, we chose Dr. Brown’s a brand of bottle manufactured by Handi-Craft, Inc.

We brought the bottles home in May and have been using them to feed the girls ever since. At no point did it occur to us to ask whether these bottles, with their six feet of shelf space and a sales price higher than many other brands, might also contain harmful chemicals.

Now don't we feel stupid (if not a bit sick to our stomachs).

While doing some Internet research, we’ve discovered that the bottles contain a chemical proven to leach out with repeated uses and which has been linked via a number of studies to reproductive problems, impaired immune system functions, cancer, etc.

The chemical is Bisphenol A and it’s found in a large number of plastic bottles. Manufacturers, however, are not required to list the ingredients contained in their product and there are no identifying markings on the bottles themselves.

There are bottles made from plastics that don’t contain Bisphenol A, including the containers holding milk and other food products in your local grocery store. Why? Because although no standard exists for containers specifically designed to hold food for infants, there are federal and state rules in place mandating what kind of plastic containers can hold pre-packaged food.

It appears that baby bottles don’t get the same regulatory protection.

I wish I was making this up.