Rantings of an Uninformed Mother

I knew I was in trouble when I first started to "look" at this issue. Actually, I was in trouble before that...I was in trouble when I went to Superstore to buy an extra bottle for Berry Baby only to find that there were NONE, and it crossed my rather tired brain that perhaps they had been pulled off the shelves...not that I actually KNEW anything about it since I rarely watch the news (it's on too late and I'm usually in bed by then, and if I'm not then I'm probably watching "Frasier" because, let's face it, it's just more entertaining). To be honest, the only reason I knew ANYTHING about plastic bottles was because I had kind of overheard a snippet of a conversation at a supper some weeks ago...I am obviously not the most informed mother out there.

So anyway, I went to buy one extra plastic "Playtex Advance" bottle, and there were none.

Up until now, I have been using my Playtex Nursers with the disposable liners. And I like them. There's little to wash (just the nipples and rings, and occaisionally the liner holder), and I HATE washing bottles, and there's no BPA (not that I was concerned about it before this). However, there is a lot of waste (throwing away liners) and I have to remember to BUY said liners.

So I thought it was time to switch over to my other Playtex bottles, which I like because there's no liner to throw away, and they're very easy to wash as both ends come off. Plus, Berry Baby seems to be able to drink a bit faster from these.

But, I only have 4 large bottles, and wanted at least 5, which brings me to Superstore. And a huge issue I knew nothing about.

Apparently, this BPA stuff can leech out of the plastic and into the formula/milk/whathaveyou. Terrible. And apparently it can mimick Estrogen (yikes!). And apparently the Canadian Government, in all their wisdom, has banned the sale and production of these baby bottles (double yikes!). So I figured it must be quite serious. Until I continued reading.

This stuff is not JUST in the baby bottles. It's in the big bottles that hold my water-cooler water (from which I make my formula), it's in some of the cans that we purchase canned food in, and it's in (gasp) the FORMULA container although it is not stamped on there. Which raises the question, WHY are they banning the bottles when they are not even CLOSE to the beginning of the problem? Why pick THIS to make your point?

So now I'm in a tough place. Do I keep using the "bad" bottles, or do I go back to producing excessive waste with the others? I certainly don't want to be "that" mom, feeding her baby in the mall with a toxic bottle, causing other "good" moms to whisper about me behind my back. Or "that" mom on the Oprah show bemoaning the fact that her sons grew breasts because she didn't heed the warnings and continued to use "bad" bottles and if only she had known then what she knows now and calling for a world-wide ban of all bottles and beginning a petition to make breastfeeding mandatory until age 2...

I suppose this wouldn't be a tough decision if it weren't for the fact that the bottle is NOT the only source of BPA in my Berry Baby's diet. And the government banning these bottles is a bit like treating the symptom while ignoring the underlying disease. And I could turn this into a whole new rant about why the government is banning these poor little bottles over something that "might" be a problem, when we KNOW that cigarettes contain all KINDS of horrible, cancer-producing things and yet we STILL don't see the government banning those now do we?

But I won't go there. Because this is about bottles.

I have decided to throw out my plastic BPA-containing bottles. But not for the obvious reasons. They are old (at least 4 years old) and they have been through 3 kids (my own, and two of my friends'). If I knew for sure that they had never been microwaved or had boiling water in them (two things that can cause the leeching of the BPA) then I would be ok with it. But as it is, they are old, a little scratchy, and I'm not certain about the other stuff. So I chucked them. But if I could get my hands on some new ones, I would in a heartbeat. Because, apparently, I am "that" mother ;)

The thought has occurred to me to keep at least ONE bottle, for my own use...if this stuff mimicks estrogen, perhaps it could help me in the boob department...

/end rant.