Why You Should Switch to Glass Baby Bottles
“The way you feed your baby is completely up to you. Formula fed is great! Breastfed is great!
Both allow you to bond with baby in different ways. No one should ever feel shamed.”
Stephanie Linda Paradiso
We totally agree with this view and leave this up to every mum to decide! However, there’s one aspect we’d like to highlight and raise awareness.
Bottle-fed babies swallow millions of microplastics a day
New research published in the Journal of Nature Food has shown that the recommended high-temperature process for sterilising plastic bottles and preparing formula milk caused bottles, which are mostly made with PP polypropylene, to shed millions of microplastics and trillions of even smaller nanoplastics.
On average, researchers estimated that babies are exposed to 1.6m microplastic particles a day during their first year when fed using plastic bottles. The US, Australia and European countries had the highest levels – more than 2 million particles per day, due to higher levels of bottle feeding.
Related: Plastic Free Toys: Do eco-friendly alternatives to plastic toys exist?
Tips on what to do to avoid microplastics in your baby bottles
We are not here to alarm anyone, the numbers in this study are estimations and more research is urgently needed, however if you feel concerned, there are a few ways to have your peace of mind:
- Use boiled cool water in a non-plastic container to rinse the plastic baby bottle three times AFTER sterilisation with hot water. Prepare your baby formula also in a non-plastic container, then pour it into the clean baby bottle when cool.
- Don’t keep the plastic baby bottles for a very long time, the study shows that the release of microplastics is also due to the degradation of the polypropylene material.
- The safest option is to use glass baby bottles. Some people find them very expensive and opt for mason jar glass bottles with plastic attachments and the teats of your choice.
- Natural rubber teats are the safest option but be sure they are made with real natural rubber and not synthetic rubber.
- Once the baby is able to drink milk by him/herself switch to a stainless steel baby bottle to avoid possible glass breakage and injuries.
Yes, there are many solutions out there, you just have to look a bit harder for them. We’re looking for producers of baby glass bottles products to list on our www.implasticfree.com directory. If you know anyone, please get in touch via info@implasticfree.com or write in the comments below.
Source:
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