Friday, April 25, 2008
BPA-Free Resources
BPA has been a concern of mine for some time now as well as going green and organic. Our household eats organic whenever we can, we've switched to green cleaning products, replaced our tupperware with glass containers and switched to PEG-free shampoo and soaps. However, there are some things I just can't change. I still haven't been able to find a PEG free lotion that I like. But it's an evolving process though and... you do what you can, right?
When my son Jackson was born in Sept. 2007, I had read up on The Complete Organic Pregnancy by Deidre Dolan and Alexandra Zissu, painted the baby's room with low-VOC paint, switched to Seventh Generation wipes and diapers and got glass bottles. The bottle has been a battle from Day 1 and at 7 months, the most he's ever taken over a whole day in daycare is 7 oz. total! After trying all sorts of bottles and nipples, the bottles he finally relented to were the Playtex nursers with liners. After a mini panic attack about whether these bottles & liners were safe, I found Playtex's products material chart that says in fact, the bottles & disposable liners are BPA free. Phew! Now on to the plastic teethers, bath toys, toys and everything else he puts in his mouth!
Anyway, if you're a little overwhelmed like me, I've found some helpful websites to help navigate through all this.
National Geographic's Green Guide is great and has a bottle Brand product rating chart with the type of plastic used.
Z Recs has a BPA report that has a directory listing categories of products by company that are BPA free. They have a printable wallet card and best of all, you can text them with "zrecs" and the name of a company or product from your cell phone while you're in the store to find out its BPA status.
The Soft Landing is a cool webstore that sells BPA, PVC and Phthalate free products, including bottles, sippys, teethers, bathing toys, utensils and dishes, bibs, and stainless steel bottles. Check out the Soft Landing blog as well.
And, for everyone who has a toddler, I think bamboo dishes are a great alternative to plastic, but if they're lacquered, they're not dishwasher safe. Check out the cute dinosaur bamboo plates from Green Feet. Speaking of toddlers/preschoolers, I recently put my foot down with my 4 1/2 year old and got rid of her sippy cups. Ever since she was 1, she's downed 8 oz of warm milk in a sippy cup right when she gets up because "it just doesn't taste good in a regular cup." Now she downs the milk in a stainless steel Thermos Funtainer. :) I think the straw aspect still satisfies her need to suck.
And while we're on the subject of non-plastic toddler/preschooler cups, my own personal survey results are that 1) she likes the Sigg bottle designs, but not the toddler cap and has trouble unscrewing the loop cap by herself (if I wanted to put them in her lunch); 2) I can't stand the fingernails-on-the-chalkboard sound of the Kleen Kanteen stainless steel caps against the stainless steel bottle; and 3) I've tried the Foogo sippys with my 7 month old, but I have to say, I'm not a fan of the many parts and you have to line it up & screw it on just right so it won't leak.
Finally, because my husband doesn't like Sigg bottles for some reason (which I use), I'm going to get him a cool Think Sport stainless steel bottle so he can stop wasting all the one-use disposable plastic water bottles (and stop leaving them everywhere around the house!).
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