Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Toxic shock

Being a new mom is tough. There are moments when I seriously have no clue if I'm doing the right thing. Each day presents new challenges and a million decisions to make. Breast feed or formula feed? Cry it out or don't cry it out? Vaccines or no vaccines? Solids at four months or solids at six months? Organic baby food or regular? Cloth diapers or disposable? (OK, the answer to that last one was a given. But you see what I mean.)

Now with so many baby products on the market, there are a million more decisions to make. It's so hard to know what baby stuff to choose--from strollers to diapers to car seats. And the media surrounding all this baby stuff is unreal. Just in the short eight months since Emma was born, there have been about a billion recalls. First the big deal was lead paint in toys that are made in China. Now the latest hype is all about toxins (Bisphenol-A) in plastic baby bottles. Apparently the Avent bottles we've been using to feed Emma are BAD. Andrew and I decided to throw them all out (a few hundred dollars worth!) this weekend and invested in new ones that are BPA-free. We did the same for Emma's pacifiers. See factsonplastic.com or bisphenolafree.org for more on BPA.

Today I learned that baby skincare products aren't safe either. Check out this Web site: Skin Deep. (Thanks, Sarah. I think.) You can search for all the products you use--from lotion to sunscreen to wipes--and it rates their toxicity on a scale from one to ten. The Johnson's lotion we've been using on Emma is rated a 7, which falls in the "high hazard" category! I mean, come on, it's Johnson's. I thought for sure that it was safe. The Water Babies sunblock we have is apparently hazardous too. It's enough to drive a mother nuts!

Anyway, I guess we just live in a very toxic world. And I guess Andrew and I can only do our best. Emma can't live in a bubble her whole life. Although if she could, we'd have to make sure it wasn't made in China and was BPA-free!

Thanks for the fun widget idea, Steve.

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