I’ve known for a while that plastics aren’t good for you.  The chemicals in them can leach into food & water, cause cancers, etc. Sounds drastic, & I’m not saying if you drink out of a plastic water bottle you will die, but I do try to minimize my family’s exposure to chemicals as much as possible while retaining our sanity.  For some reason I’ve been letting Kaden drink water out of plastic sippy cups anyway. We had a bunch so we’ve just been using them.

Well then I was reminded by this article of why I avoid plastic. To summarize in case you don’t have time to read the whole thing, plastics are no good for you.  In ways like heart disease, brain damage, immune suppression, hyperactive children no good for you, just to name a few.  The most popular chemical in plastic that’s been blamed for these issues lately is BPA (Bisphenol A.)  You can look for “BPA-free” plastic, which is probably better, but I don’t really trust that the rest of the ingredients in plastic are especially friendly either.  So here’s what we’ve been doing to minimize our plastic exposure:

• Stainless Steel Sippy cups – this was a big one, because if something is bad for an adult, it’s worse for a baby.  We have one by Thermos & one by Munchkin.  Haven’t found any that have handles though, if you know of any that do, please share! Oh, & we wash them by hand. The lids are still plastic, & hot & cold temperatures are suspected of increasing the amount of chemicals released.
• Glass food storage – I love leftovers, so these are great.  We use Pyrex, & they come in all kinds of sizes perfect for everything from when Kaden only eats half a pear to saving some of tonight’s dinner for tomorrow’s lunch.
• Stainless Steel water bottles – I put mine in the diaper bag & take it everywhere with me. Which is way more economical & eco-friendly than buying disposable plastic bottles too! You can find them at places like Marshalls or TJ Maxx for under $10.
• Non-plastic dishes & silverware

Maybe it sounds crazy to avoid plastic because it’s such a normal part of our lives, but historically normal doesn’t automatically equal safe. Lead paint & mercury thermometers used to be normal too. I’d rather avoid something minor like this & later find out it was safe than to discover in the future that it caused major health problems for our family.

Do you have any ideas for reducing plastic exposure?