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Should You Use Glass Baby Bottles?With recent news stories of plastic baby bottles leaching out hormone-disrupting chemicals, where are new parents to turn? No one makes glass baby bottles anymore… or do they? While glass was given up years ago for the durability of plastic, it seems that the pendulum has swung back the other way, and glass is making a comeback. And for good reason. It has been shown that baby bottles made of clear rigid plastic, otherwise known as polycarbonate, are made of a substance known as bisphenol-A (BPA). Bisphenol-A is a suspected hormone disruptor that can change a body’s normal hormone activity. As far back as 1999, the Consumer’s Union were repeating tests made in 1997 by the Food and Drug Administration that show that baby bottles made of this substance release one part per billion (ppb) of BPA into the contents of the bottle when boiled for thirty minutes. Compounding this research, studies at Nagasaki University in Japan discovered that new bottles leach from 1 to 3.5 ppb into bottle contents when heated, and used bottles leach almost double the amount. Studies have shown that low doses of these hormone disruptors cause effects similar to estrogen in animals. A study at the University of Missouri showed that low doses of BPA caused changes in the size of reproductive organs and in sperm production in mice. These studies also showed that there may be no safe amount for infants to digest. Safe Bottles? If you can find bottles made of #5 plastic that is opaque, they are safe for your baby. They do not leach any chemicals. They are also recyclable. The other alternative is tempered glass. There are two companies currently making glass bottles at this time… Evenflo and Lamby. Both can be ordered online if you don’t find them in your local stores. Glass bottles will be a little heavier for baby, but a young baby should not be propping their own bottle until they possess adequate strength and neck control anyway. Tempering the glass makes it more durable for those times when baby will inevitably drop it… though it is not shatterproof. Tempering also makes the glass stand up to the heat process, which is important if you are heating up formula or chilled breastmilk. A word of caution… no matter if you use plastic or glass bottles, never heat your baby’s meal up in the microwave. Liquid and solids do not heat evenly in a microwave, resulting in spots of superheated food that can burn your child’s mouth. Always heat your baby’s bottle up in heated water on the stove or by running hot water over the bottle in the sink. Another concern is nipples. Clear silicone nipples are probably the safest nipples on the market for baby, whether you are using plastic or glass bottles.
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