Safe Alternatives for Baby and Child

We participated in a live conference call this morning with Sonja, a senior analyst from the Environmental Working Group (EWG), about the toxic levels of BPA researchers and scientists are finding in baby formula! Along with EWG’s amazing detailed report on their findings, CNN has also launched a special report, addressing this concern just today.

Most all parents these days have an understanding of what BPA is, and of where it can be found. But to give you a quick recap:

• BPA is a chemical used to make plastic.
• It acts like an estrogen in the body and is toxic at even low doses.
• A very sensitive time to be exposed to this toxic chemical is during pregnancy and very early in life.
• This type of exposure has been tagged as a potential precursor to breast and prostate cancer, but this is not all.
• For more information on BPA, please read our article “What’s Lurking in My Babies Sippy Cup and Bottle“.

How is it found in ALL baby formula you may be asking? The lining of metal cans are coated with this stuff!!! So, in EWG’s report 1 in 16 babies who are formula fed are exposed to UNSAFE amounts of BPA daily. And 16 of 16 of these babies are all within a close margin of exceeding a safe limit of daily exposure to this hormone disrupting chemical.

The formula to stay away from would be the ready to eat, liquid formula in small cans. Liquid formula is found out to have 8 – 10 times more BPA than in powdered formula!

So what is the safest option for formula when it comes to reducing the exposure to BPA? Here are a few things to consider:

• Use powdered formula! The three brands that tested for the least amount of BPA were Enfamil, Simile, and Nestle. They have the lowest amount of BPA exposure, because part of the container is made of cardboard, not BPA lined metal.
• The bigger the size of the can the better = less exposure, less surface area exposed to the powder itself.
• The more water added to the formula the better, it dilutes the amount of BPA present.

This is an important issue, and the FDA is not taking babies needs into account. Let’s take action NOW and write formula companies, advocating for better regulations. You can find email address of your formula company, and sample letters here.

EWG has also made a wonderful one-page report that keeps guidelines very simple to follow if you are formula feeding your baby. You can find this, and read the entire report at http://www.ewg.org/babysafe.

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