In this week’s Newsweek Magazine there is a fascinating article on how BPA (bisphenol-A) and other chemicals found in plastics can actually alter the way a body metabolizes fat. Scientists have found a disturbing link between chemicals found in plastics and unprecedented weight gain in babies, of all things!

Obese babies? Babies are supposed to be fat, right? I mean, what about all those delicious fat rolls? And cheeks – don’t get me started on baby cheeks!

A vague definition of obesity not withstanding, Newsweek reported that since 1980, obesity in 6 month-olds has risen 73%. Like the baby above – he’s 41 pounds at 8 months…now that’s something to raise the eyebrows. And, let’s face it, babies aren’t known for their exercise regimens and they typically don’t guzzle soft drinks, so blaming “lifestyle” habits on the new wave of obese babies just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Enter plastics. The use of plastics over the last few decades has been on the rise as well. We all have heard that BPA has adverse heath effects. But now, researches have learned that BPA, as well as other chemicals used in the manufacture of hard plastics, can actually cause cells that were otherwise not fat cells to become fat cells. It also can change the metabolic rate, so that the body doesn’t efficiently burn calories.

The Newsweek article backs up this claim with lots of scientific experiments that were conducted on mice – fascinating stuff. Also, some real-life situations proved the link to be true in both Spain and Belgium where toddlers who were exposed to certain chemicals as fetuses ran a greater risk of being overweight.

These scientists are well on their way to debunking the theory that weight gain is caused solely by eating more calories than you burn. Imagine the implications of that?!?

photo credit: Newsweek

A bill to ban BPA – bisphenol-A, a chemical found in plastic products – narrowly passed the California Senate but fell short of the needed votes to pass in the California Assembly. I was hoping that California would set the standard for protection against BPA, but I guess we’ll still have to wait and see. They’ve postponed the vote until later today…

There has been a nationwide hubbub about BPA since it has been linked to numerous health problems, including heart disease, cancer, infertility, diabetes and neurological disorders, to name just a few.

BPA was never meant to be ingested by the human body but has been found to leach from containers into foods and beverages. In 2007, the Center for Disease Control found that 93% of Americans have BPA in their urine. More shockingly, because babies and young children metabolize the chemical more slowly than adults, the risks to their bodies are greater.

The debate over BPA, both the argument that current levels are safe as well as the overwhelming INDEPENDENT evidence that BPA is harmful, is so controversial that the FDA is investigating the matter further and will disclose their findings in November…until then, each state is left to wade through the battle alone.

If you think about it, if a chemical is currently present in our bodies that was never meant to be in our bodies in the first place, shouldn’t something be done to ensure that that chemical no longer can get into our bodies? And, to me, to start with baby products is just a no brainer – those helpless, completely dependent beings rely on us to look out for them!

I’ll keep you posted on what California as well as the FDA decide.

photo credit: pfly

Fellow San Francisco mom, of www.earthlust.com, made these really cool water bottles that are both stylish and safe! Made from food-grade stainless steel with a BPA free cap, these bottles are easy to carry anywhere with their carabineer handles.

They come in lots of sizes – good for mom, dad and little kiddo – and even have optional sports tops, if you like. And the art on the outside is really special – overall a great design. You can get them at most sports outlets, but check their website to see what is available near you.

Regardless, this is how it breaks down in our house. We research what the method is, attempt it, and then retro fit the method to our reality. With eating and feeding, these modifications happened quickly with much mess. I pilfered these rules from my Montessori Guru cousin whose blog has excellent info on all things Montessori.

1. No high chairs or propping up in a seat. We tried lap sitting – i.e., Sophie sat in my lap and either I fed her with my free hand that wasn’t holding the food or my husband fed her. While it does work, this method is exhausting for everyone! What with squirming, head shaking, hand waving and general mayhem, the food made it in our little one’s mouth, and all over us, and the table, and the floor.

I stopped to think about what we were teaching our daughter…what I intended to teach our daughter was family dinner time, and this wasn’t it. So, we opted for a high chair that uses our table as the “tray” and Sophie now eats dinner (and lunch and breakfast) at the table, with her own placemat. Teaching her not to throw food overboard on to the floor is an entirely other matter and deserves it’s own post.

2. The container must be see through so the child can see the food. This teaches a child that the food exists outside of them, then through the act of eating, the food goes inside of them. They are just learning about food, so the clarity allows them to see the food as it actually exists, not as purple oatmeal. Also, with all of this talk of BPA contamination, I opted for clear glass tiny bowls and they work perfectly for freezing, microwaving and washing. Also, same goes for water. We uses a small votive glass and it works amazingly well. It can’t hold too much water, so when the glass goes flying, as it inevitably does, it’s really no biggie. I have taken to holding the water for Sophie and letting her use her hands to guide the water in, just to save time with clean-up…again, not a strict adherence to the rule.

3. You offer the food to the baby and the baby either eats or doesn’t eat. No games or tricks. Generally, with patience, this works well. However, Sophie goes through phases of refusing to eat anything unless we eat it. So I found that a few tricks do in fact work and I resort to these when I worry that Sophie will waste away to nothing after 2 days into a food strike.

5. Food is served solo – no mixing. Oatmeal gets one bowl, peas get another. Mac and cheese is served separately from small bites of chicken. I find this one of the hardest to maintain. Sometimes oatmeal won’t cut it, but oatmeal with apples and some cinnamon goes down easy. Also, how am I supposed to get Sophie to eat anything green besides peas if I just serve it to her plain? I don’t eat like that, why should she? Plus, if she will only eat something I’m eating, well, then, you can guess why we break this rule all the time!

Basically we approach feeding the same as we do most things. We figure out the lesson we want to teach and go from there. Keep things simple.