Are my baby bottles going to give my baby cancer?

Question

A friend of ours shared a safety report from mindfully.org (dated April 1999) which warns against using polycarbonate baby bottles (e.g. Dr. Brownes, Advent, Evenflo) as they can cause cancer. Apparently a chemical called bisphenol-A (also known as d BPA) can leach into the formula over time. We then did a little research and found an article from Money Magazine (Feb 07) which stated the same findings. However I cannot find anything on Consumer Reports to validate this issue or recommend which bottles to buy. Are my Dr. Brown bottles okay or should I be worried about this?

Articles:
http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Baby-Bottles-CU21apr99.htm
http://money.cnn.com/2007/02/27/news/baby_bottles.reut/index.htm
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/babies-kids/baby-bottles-and-nipples-1105/index.htm?resultPageIndex=1&resultIndex=1&searchTerm=baby%20bottle

What do you make of the various new reports in the past few weeks?

Thanks everyone for all your responses. For those interested in glass bottles and find that your local Whole Foods is sold out (due to the recent news story) we've successfully found them for sale online at Radiant Life...
http://www.radiantlifecatalog.com/prod.cfm/ct/4/pid/1267

Answer 1

since nobody condcuted a research study on the cicmstances (i.e., high temp dishwashing, brush scratching etc) of BPA leaching into the formula, it is not known how safe are the bottles. If you wish you can purchase BPA free bottles in Whole Foods or online at www.newbornfree.com. Bottles that are clear and hard are made of PC, bottles that are more opaque and soft are safer, so that's your other option.

Answer 2

My husband and I are definitely taking these reports seriously. We have been using Avent bottles for our little one for over a year and this news is disturbing. To make matters worse, this chemical is not only in the most popular baby bottles, but also in the lining of many canned goods, water bottles, and storage containers. Around here, glass baby bottles and the Born Free line at Whole Foods have sold out, so we are looking online.

You are not overreacting and it's natural to want the best for your baby. Good luck with your decision and your search for options if you choose to go that route!

Answer 3

My daughter never really drank out of a bottle (she was exclusively breastfed) but we had a few Avent and Gerber bottles laying around. The moment I heard about those studies from a friend of mine (who researches things like crazy) I threw them away. It's not worth the risk! Just because someone's 3 year old is fine now doesn't mean she'll be fine in 5, 10, or 20 years from now.

Answer 4

if you are really worried about it just switch to a different bottle i use the gerber ones and my baby has never had any problems you dont need fancy bottles to keep your baby from getting too much air its all in the way you hold the baby and the bottle but if i heard about cancer causing chemicals in bottles i would switch

Answer 5

honestly the sun can cause cancer so will you keep your scild out of the sun because of the possibility. There are also known cancer causing additives in the some of the foods we eat, we actually went thruogh our cupboards and removed all the items with these additives and it left the cupboard empty.
Do a googl search on "cancer causing additives"
This is just not limited to bottles, theres far more out there that can cause cancer

Answer 6

my best advice is that if you are worried about this then for your own peace of mind you should switch bottles we always used the bottles with the disposable liners she is now 3 we took her off the bottle completely on her first birthday and she is perfectly healthy many parents use the brands named in the articles without harm but from what Ive read if you do choose to use them i wouldn't heat the formula in them i would heat it in something else and then transfer it into the bottle

Answer 7

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain He seems to be using profanity to randomly put his extreme frustration in any and all places he can find.
I don't know the details of your concern as much as you do, but I would say hopefully you have not used the bottles enough "over time" to make any difference.

Answer 8

I would say don't worry about it. If u leave the formula in there too long, I guess it would be of concern, but you aren't going to do that. I used Dr. Brown's &Evenflo but my son was tongue tied (we didn't catch it til he was 7mo.) so he liked the cheapy bottles best, b/c he could suck them easier. Good Luck.

Answer 9

your a good dad and you want the best for your baby. but what i would do is by all new bottles and do your research everything will be fine all you really need to worry about is spending your time with baby.

Answer 10

Don't worry. You aren't storing it in there for a long time. It is in and out. They used to say the same thing about water bottles. If it was a tru hazard, we wouldn't have plastic bottles or plastic baby bottles.

You have enough to worry about with little kids, let this one go!