Beyond BPA-Free – Choosing the right Baby Bottles

When it comes to your baby, there can be absolutely no compromise. It always has to be the Safest and the Best.

It is a well-known fact that Bisphenol-A (BPA) grade plastics cause multiple health issues. This toxic chemical lowers immunity and leads to reproductive and neurological problems. Many articles have been published and much research has been done on the ill-effects of BPA.

What is BPA, really? BPA is an Estrogen Activity (EA) Chemical, and one of the major components of epoxy resins and polycarbonate plastics.

BPA was invented in the 1890s by a Russian chemist, initially to be used as a man-made estrogen, because it strongly mimicked the effect of the reproductive hormones within the body. By the mid-19th century, BPA was used by large corporations, to manufacture polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins.

Plastic manufacturers discovered that using BPA in plastics could produce resilient plastic products that wouldn’t break or shatter when heated or cooled. It was cheap and effective, hence was adopted by mass manufacturing facilities around the world. This widespread proliferation is the reason BPA resins were used to manufacture baby feeding bottles as well.

Eventually, the world woke up to the harmful side-effects of BPA in plastics. After much research and many surveys conducted across the globe, scientists discovered the effects of BPA exposure, especially in babies. This eventually led to the ‘BPA-Free Plastics’ movement that continues to exist today. For a while, we believed that ‘BPA-Free’ was enough to make plastics safe. However, as new research emerged, we have realized that BPA is not the only chemical we should be worrying about.

Did you know that BPA is only 1 out of 500+ Estrogen Activity (EA) chemicals blacklisted by the European Union for use in food-grade plastics? Each of these chemicals has the potential to cause hormonal imbalance, endocrine disruption and growth and development issues.

According to a study in Environmental Health Perspective,(EHP) even a BPA-Free product can leach chemicals causing Estrogenic Activity (EA) into your food. In simple terms, even though the feeding bottles and sippers may not have BPA, it can still contain any of the other EA Chemicals. In fact, a study conducted by Certi-Chem in conjunction with EHP tested 50 reusable BPA-free plastics and concluded that in some cases, plastics labelled ‘BPA-Free’ may actually end up containing more EA Chemicals than BPA-existent plastic.

EA Chemicals are essentially synthetic Estrogens. Estrogen plays a key role in everything from bone growth to ovulation to heart function. Too much or too little, especially in-utero or during early childhood, can alter brain and organ development, leading to disease later in life. Elevated estrogen levels generally increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer and endocrine cancer. These plastics when exposed to very high heat (as in a sterilizer or a microwave), or the sun’s UV rays, can leach these chemicals into your baby’s food. These dangerous chemicals are then consumed by your baby.It’s a jungle out there! In this age of information, it can be really overwhelming to make safe choices for your little ones, especially for first-time parents. Everyone has a different opinion and not all companies are transparent about what actually goes into their products.

While we may aim to move towards sustainability, it’s not always convenient to use Glass or Steel Bottles –  glass is too heavy and can break, thereby hurting your baby; steel is tough to clean and can sometimes rust or erode, leading to infections. So we rely on plastic feeding bottles and sippers. However, we can simplify things for ourselves by simply looking beyond the BPA-Free tag and looking instead for ‘EA-Free’.

An ‘EA-Free’ certification implies that the plastic has been tested in extreme conditions and no estrogenic activity has occurred. This means that the plastic does not contain any synthetic estrogens that can potentially leach into your baby’s food.

So, the next time you buy a plastic product for your baby, be sure to check for not just BPA-free, but also EA-Free.

The niñio feeding bottles and sippers, for example, are made from TRITAN Co-polyester(plastic) material, which has been certified by the US FDA as 100 % “EA-Free”!

At niñio, we take it a step further because nothing is more important than the safety of your little one. All our products are manufactured in isolation, under stringent quality requirements, with limited exposure and no direct human contact. This ensures that your baby gets an untouched, safe product.

In this mad world, we’re all just trying to make conscious and correct choices for our babies. EA-Free feeding bottles and sippers help us in this quest.

Our purpose at niñio is to help by educating and making sure parents are aware of the options available to them.

You can check out the niñio range here!