BPA: Here it comes again ...

What's the deal with BPA, anyway?

I mean, how concerned should I be?!

When the whole baby bottle thing came out, everyone panicked. We put Mela's bottles away (and our Nalgenes) but weren't too worried, since we never really heated liquid in them (my girl would drink her milk cold!).

Since then, I've been pretty immune to the media hype, since clearly it's such a minute amount and so many products (e.g. canned goods) have it, it seems dramatic to freak out over just bottles.

But now they're saying that baby food jars have it, too.

Which makes me glad we made so much of our own, I guess. I'm especially glad we did the "baby-led weaning" thing with Nate (basically, you almost skip the baby food altogether), since BPA is an estrogen thing and Nate's, you know, a dude.

But what does this really mean? The amounts are so tiny but doesn't it seem like maybe even a tiny bit is too much?

Here's what I figure so far:

1. No BPA bottles, clearly. But do we use only glass? I like our hippy plastic ones but since we have to heat Nate's milk (sucky boy), does that mean we should be pouring it in a glass first, then transferring? Like a screaming baby will stand for that ...
   
   
2. Does this mean no store-bought baby food? We barely use it anymore but it's great for adding hidden veggies to stuff (e.g. pour a jar of pureed sweet potato into pancakes or muffins and the toddler's none the wiser).
   
   
3. What about canned food? It's apparently in most cans, so what does that mean for canned beans or pasta sauce (even glass jars with a metal lid) or soups?? And I'm currently starting to switch Nate from the boob to the bottle but does this mean I should skip formula (comes in a tin) and put him straight to milk?
   

So often, parenting is about figuring out how much to freak out.

Tonight we went to the park (Nathan was having such a bad day, he wouldn't even eat dinner - GASP!) and I left my baby crawl in the dirt in his pajamas. I'm sure the other parents judged me because he looked a dirty homeless urchin (his feet were black!) but he was perfectly happy and dirt washes off.

But something that's often referred to as an "industrial chemical" (e.g. "1 in 3 cans of infant formula had BPA levels "200 times the government's traditional safe level of exposure for industrial chemicals."")?

Apparently, the jury's still out but I've officially decided to worry.

Here are a couple pics from the weekend:

Nate's excited to be in the backpack (and venture to a restaurant with the HB's for dinner)! Check out the lashes, ladies ...
Baby Eavan all dressed up:
Nate's eating at the table like a big boy:
Speaking of big kids, who's this bombshell?!! (Nuala!)
Mela played with salt:
After dinner, the girls got some quality sprinting time:
Poor Nate on the couch with Dad today ...