Today, two major Canadian retailers Forzani and HBC (Zellers and The Bay) announced that they would be voluntarily pulling all water bottles and baby feeding items containing BPA (bisphenol-A) off of it’s shelves and would no longer sell any feeding products containing the chemical. This was done in anticipation that Health Canada is preparing to announce today that BPA will be labeled a dangerous substance. If Health Canada marks BPA a dangerous substance it will be the first regulatory body in the world to do so.

This will come as a relief to parents as well as companies like Environmental Defence, a Toronto-based advocacy group that has lobbied for a ban on BPA in food and beverage containers. “We have been saying for months there is enough evidence in animal studies that low doses of BPA are harmful,” Mr. Khatter, an advocate for Environmental Defence said. “I think it’s the right thing to do. They are being responsible about protecting our health.”

Environmental Defence released a study this year showing some of the most popular plastic baby bottles sold across Canada have all turned up “very significant” levels of BPA. BPA acts like the hormone estrogen and can alter cell function. Chemical studies on animals have linked the product to cancer and infertility. “The biggest concern is that we are exposing ourselves to these foreign estrogens,” said Stelvio Bandiera, a professor of Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of British Columbia. While there have been no studies showing the impact of BPA in humans, Mr. Bandiera said that if animals are affected by the chemical “it is possible it could produce the same effects in humans.”

So, after using our Avent bottles for over a year we decided that it was in the best interest of the health of the girls to change our  bottles to ones that are BPA free. After all, we have enough health problems etc. if we can prevent more it would be irresponsible not to.

After talking to some friends at Li’l Sprouts and Two Little Birdies, they informed me that not only do the Avent bottles have BPA in them but that studies showed that they had the highest levels of  BPA of all commonly sold plastic bottles in North America. I ordered my new ThinkBaby Bottles that day. I have to say, like most people I am resistant to change, the girls liked the Avent bottles and drank well from them but I can not risk their health to avoid change. We chose ThinkBaby Bottles because they are one of only a few companies that make a BPA free plastic bottles and glass just isn’t something I want to try. Glass is heavier and I don’t know if Kassie could hold them like she does the plastic ones and I don’t need the extra weight in my already very heavy diaper bag. Glass bottles are made of tempered galss in case they break and with the way Kassie throws her bottles around I don’t really want to clean glass off the floor on a daily basis either. 

ThinkBaby bottles were the only plastic BPA free bottles that I could find that were available in abundance. I like to keep at least a dozen bottles around so that there are always clean ones available etc. With twins and appointments and trying to work from home I only have so much time to wash bottles and laundry etc. So though they are a new company and are still making some improvements to their products we bought them. I have to say, the change was not as painful as I thought it might be. Lena hates their nipples and will not drink from them luckily the Avent silicone nipples fit with minimal leaking so we just use those, Kassie took to the change like a trooper, in fact I think she holds these bottles better that the Avent ones.

Update: I am not impressed with the customer service Think Baby Bottles offers. The original “free flow’ nipples have been replaced with a much better cross cut nipple after several complaints from parents like me. Not only is the super flast flow unsafe for many infants but milk spills everywhere. Think Baby no longer sells these nipples however, they will not relplace the ones that came with the earlier released bottles. I will have to pay 3 dollars a nipple or more to replace the defective ones that came with my bottles, if I can even find them. Not impressed Think Baby.

Tags: bisphenol-a, bottles, bpa