Thursday, April 17, 2008

Baby Bottles & Other Recommendations

I always like to preface posts like this by stating that I am not an expert, and I encourage everyone to do their own research about what I'm going to talk about.

That being said, a recent study of the chemical BPA, which is found in plastics - including those that make most baby bottles, found it to be dangerous and potentially harmful to babies, children and adults. You can read a little about it here and here. (To find the draft of the study - click on the link I have on 'recent study' and then click on "NTP Draft Brief on Bisphenol A" - on the sidebar.)

I have posted about this before and am bringing it up again to give my review of a new bottle we recently purchased. I had previously purchased 2 Green to Grow bottles, which are okay, but we were having a suction problem with them. (Suction problems can cause ear infections, from what I've read.) The good thing about them is that they are free of both Bisphenol A (BPA) and phlatates. But, I still ended up using the inserts from my Dr. Brown's bottles with them to reduce the suction. (Dr. Brown's uses BPA in their plastics.) So, a couple of weeks ago, Amy reminded me about the plastic issue and I got to worrying again (this time with the support of the NTP :) so I bought some Born Free plastic bottles. (They make glass bottles too - but that's out of the question for us now - maybe when Mic was younger, but now - ummm, no.)

LOVE THEM!!!

I love them because they have a valve thing inside that reduces suction - and they are BPA free. (I don't think they are phlatate free too though.) So, to new moms thinking about bottle choices - I'm putting my recommendation out there for the Born Free bottles. (But, I'm not recommending their sippy cups - they LEAK!)

My other recommendation - if you are not using cloth or g diapers, you could try Seventh Generation's Chlorine-Free Diapers.

They are not completely natural, or completely bio-degradable, like these are, but they are unbleached, which is good for the environment and good for baby's bum. The only bad thing is that your babe looks like he's wearing a brown paper bag for a diaper. :) (Oh - and I am thinking of switching to the Nature Baby Care ones - so if anyone uses them - let me know if you like them!)

If you read through all of that, you deserve some Micah pictures! :) Lately he has decided he wants to be a stunt man when he grows up, so here are some shots of his latest escapades. I'm also including some of his other new trick - throwing a fit. Complete with the "lay down on the floor and cry" move. ;)





12 comments:

  1. When we had Lil' Bit almost 11 years ago (my gosh, how time flies!) we used those newfangled 'angled' bottles by Playtex. We were sublime in our BPA un-knowledge. And we used disposable diapers on her too. Sorry landfills. We were young. We know better now.

    I've been looking at glass bottles. But glass and I don't get along very well. For some reason,glass likes to wiggle right out of my hand and onto the floor. And I am a bit bummed to hear Dr Brown bottles uses BPA. Those were high on our shortlist of potential baby bottles.

    For diapers, I've been eyeing gDiapers. Not cloth, yet not disposable. http://www.gdiapers.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Interesting stuff. Awhile back I was trying to read up on this stuff, but then I got a bit unmotivated. I will definitely have to look into it more. Any thoughts on g-diapers?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was just going to email you about the bottles you were using, because I wondered how the glass was working with your little guy. Thanks for the new recommendation.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Amazing timing! I was just talking with my aunt (who's more like a friend as she's not that much older than me!) about diapers. She has a 1 year old and just discovered 7th generation diapies.

    I was thinking of going cloth, but with daycare-it doesn't seem feasible.

    I read about the plastics a while ago, though. We opted for those Playtex (I think?) drop-ins. The plastic the drop-ins are made of is supposedly safe.

    Oy!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Cutie Micah! I love that you always post pictures of him for us!

    I saw the article about BPA today on yahoo and remembered your post before on the baby bottles! Thanks for educating me :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. You know what is funny is I went and bought 2 of the born free bottles shortly after we emailed about it, but I also ordered the cute green to grow bottle. I ended up returning the born free ones because the green to grow bottle is just so cute! I did not know anything about the suction/ear infection issue! Great. Now maybe I should go back and purchase the born free bottles. Or I may just order the new Dr Browns BPA free bottles. Truth be told, Silas T needs to stop with the bottle.....

    Anyway, love the new pictures of Micah! I can't believe he still fits in his bumbo, or does he just play with it....

    Can't wait to meet in a few!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Stacie, after reading your previous post on bpa, we went ahead and got the Born Free bottles, which we like just fine. Does anyone have a recommendation for a sippy cup (bpa free of course!)?
    We are also doing cloth diapers. For those of you thinking about it- don't despair. It really isn't that bad. We use a biodegradable liner (kind of looks like toilet paper) so that we don't have to do any diaper washing in the toilet. Washing them at home is not too hard either.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi there, we use the Born Free Sippy cups and although the regular sippy cups are open at the top and the liquid will leak out if tipped over, this isn't the case if you get the training sippy cup- we love it! For my daughter who is 2, we use the Sigg sippy cup (has more of a sports drink type of top) and she thinks that it's awesome- it comes in really cute colours and designs too.

    Courtney

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks for the info - the comments are also great. I'm researching all this stuff right now, so I like to hear what does and doesn't work in real life.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Funny coincidence, we started a registry last weekend and chose the Born Free brand for various reasons, one being that they're BPA free, but had no idea about the suction thing. I'm glad to hear they're good in that area too! I think we're leaning towards gDiapers as well but not 100% certain yet. Thanks for sharing all of the good info - and the adorable pics of course!

    ReplyDelete
  11. See thats why I read your blog..such healthy info! Ya know Leul is still "on the bottle" and we chose to go with glass (YIKES I KNOW!!!) But he does so well with them. We've never had an issue. He also seems to have an easier time with them. BUt it's all prefrence :-)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Nice recommendations! I really, really want to use biodegradable diapers, but I am worried about the expense. So, I'm definitely going to do my research on this and your recommendations help!

    Cindy

    ReplyDelete