Born with a plastic spoon in her mouth

Until you have kids, you never think about the amount of plastic they'll be assailed with in their early years ... spoons, plates, cups, bowls, sippy cups, bottles, to say nothing of toys and clothes.

 

I actually use plastic spoons with my babies, as I feel the metal is too hard on their little gums, particularly if a tooth is coming through... But what did they do in the olden days? I think it's time to research some alternatives... wood? bamboo? bone? corn? corn?!

 

Yeah, I did some research a few years ago and found these. I ordered them and some plates. The plates cracked into sharp shards after about three days! The spoons were huge and too big for my baby's mouth. Don't worry, I got a refund. I'm all for these companies trying to produce something plastic-free, hence the blog, but it was an inferior - apparently untested  - product. They have since improved their product, I'm told, but I'm not quite game to try them again. I see from their website that the spoon is a lot smaller for baby's mouth too.

 

OK, so I totally understand why plastic food utensils are so popular. They're lightweight, unlike metal. And they won't smash like glass... but at what cost? People go on about the BPA in plastic, and I'll endeavour to do more research on that in future posts.  (My partner jokes that, great, they've banned BPA, now we can all melt plastic down and pour it over our porridge!) Is it really safe because it's BPA free? What else is in all this plastic that we feed our kids with? Store our food in the fridge with? Wear? Surely BPA is just the tip of the iceberg?

 

Anyway, Australia's 60 Minutes ran a story on BPA in kids' utensils a few years ago:

  

While the story is a bit sensationalist, the reporter poses a valid question to the woman from Food Standards Australia. Even if the proof is inconclusive, doesn't the fact that other countries have banned BPA mean we should err on the side of caution and ban it here? Isn't that the most important thing we can do for our kids? The Food Standards head can't answer this question. So who is FSA beholden to?

What are some positive solutions to this? Buy local, unpackaged produce. Buy in glass!

We've just invested in a whole lot of Pyrex containers here to store our stuff in the fridge. Also, I found these really nice glass babies' bottles for my second baby. (I'm ashamed to say I used plastic for my first). They've become very popular in the last year or so and there's a great range on the market:

The teat holder is still plastic, but it's a start. Full marks to Life Factory.