From the report:

The highest estimated daily intakes of bisphenol A in the general population occur in infants and children. Infants and children have higher intakes of many widely detected environmental chemicals because they eat, drink, and breathe more than adults on a pound for pound basis. In addition, infants and children spend more time on the floor than adults and may engage in certain behaviors, such as dirt ingestion or mouthing of plastic items that can increase the potential for exposure.

Or how about because infants and children are ingesting food and drink that directly come in contact with plastics that contain BPA?

If you have a plastic bottle with #7 on the bottom stop using it immediately!  Do you give your baby a bottle?  How about a baby drinking formula from a #7 bottle that came from a #7 container?  A double whammy!  (And P.S.,  #3 and #6 plastics are also supposed to be suspect.)

Apparently concerns about the effects of BPA have resurfaced again and again over the last several years.  Don’t you think the companies that cater to the tiniest, most fragile humans — the baby bottle manufacturers — would change the way they make their products if there was one iota of a possibility they could cause harm?

I was first alerted to the BPA issue several months ago as a lurker on Denise and Alan Fields’ Baby Bargains website.  They issued a statement that due to recent reports, they could no longer recommend certain bottles that use #7 plastic, specifically Dr. Brown’s and Avent Natural Feeding system.

I breathed a sigh of relief that DD#2 was likely spared ingesting the chemical.  As a stay at home mom, she had probably used only half a dozen bottles in her whole life.  And all were from a brief — yet frighting — stay in the hospital PICU at 3 weeks of age.  Looking on the bottom, they were #5 (a supposedly safe plastic.)

Unfortunately, my elder daughter did not fare so well.  The same Baby Bargains book influenced me to use that Avent bottle system 5 years ago.  She was fed from countless Avent bottles over the course of about a year while I was at work.  I just cringe now to think about all she was exposed to.  And I know what’s done is done and there’s nothing I can do about it now but I can’t help but be angry that I didn’t protect her from that harm.  I just didn’t know any better.  Hmmm, green peas anyone?

So now I don’t know if I can trust ANY plastic.  Most don’t have numbers.  Every time my daughters put a sippy cup to their mouth, I think — is it safe?  They are kids — ALL their plates, cups, bowls and most utensils are plastic.  My DD#2 is only 18 months and she puts plastic food toys in her mouth all the time.  I don’t think I can keep them in the house anymore.  But what are the alternatives?  What else can withstand DD#2’s perfected discuss throw off her highchair?  I’m on a quest to find it.

Finally, what do I do with all my rejected plastic?  Can plastic baby bottles and sippy cups be recycled, or will they all  just end up in a landfill or worse, future products?  I certainly can’t in good conscience sell or give away the products like my dozens of baby bottles that I know to be hazardous.  But what about the ones with  no markings?  Can I yard sale those to get them out of my house but not feel guilty about possibly hurting another child?

This has taught me a lesson.  I should research more carefully before purchasing products that my children may come in direct contact with.  Or I’ll be left once again holding the (plastic) bag.

After months of anticipation, I finally received my first delivery this past week.  In the bag were a half-dozen eggs, 2 bags of salad mix, broccoli raab, green garlic, radishes, rosemary, sage and kale.  I scrambled the eggs and served them with asparagus and toast for a Saturday supper.  DD#1 proclaimed them the best eggs she had ever had in her whole life.  She must have been persuasive, because my husband — who is not fond of eggs — tried them and decided he wanted “green eggs”, too.  So eggs = success.

I do feel like a kid at Christmas — anticipating what kind of produce surprises I will unwrap each week in my share bag.  This week’s unknown was kale.   

I’m pretty sure I’ve never eaten kale, much less cooked it.  But in short order I found a decent recipe courtesy of Rachael Ray.

DH and I gobbled it all up.  DD#1 ate some dainty bites and did not complain (a very positive response for her). DD#2 looked at the green leaf and handed it back to me.  She’s not so sure about veggies outside of the kid-friendly standard of the carrots, peas and beans variety.  I would say kale = decent success.  There was hardly any left, and I would definitely make it again. Although, I guess anything is edible when the recipe includes (turkey) bacon, cream, parmesan and butter.  Sigh.  It does feel a bit like a pyrrhic victory.

Going green, of course, is the hot thing to do in 2008. I think I’ve been fairly conscientious over the years: recycling since college (too many years ago); switching to compact fluorescent bulbs when they began popping up on store shelves; driving the same four-door car year after year despite carting around a growing family…

It’s that growing family part that’s really raised my consciousness. My husband and I have two beautiful young daughters. They are the ones who have unknowingly turned me into an eco-alarmist. What are we doing to our planet? What are we exposing our children to? Dependency on oil, mercury in fish, lead paint in toys, pharmaceuticals in tap water. I mean, I don’t want to succumb to worrying about every little thing but WHAT ARE WE DOING TO OURSELVES?

I remember having a casual conversation five years ago with my coworkers when I still worked on Capitol Hill. I was wondering what kind of “see the light” moment our generation might have years in the future. Like when you hear older people say, “Of course we smoked, no one knew it was bad for you back then.” And I likened it to the seemingly absurd possibility that we would find out someday that something like green peas were toxic. We would say to our grandchildren, “Of course they’re poison, but back at the turn of the 21st century we just didn’t know any better. Why your mother’s favorite dinner was mac and cheese and peas!” The grandchild’s classic reaction: “Well, duh!”

I feel like I’m having those “duh” moments regularly. So I’m trying to make smart changes and raise my girls in the healthiest, safest environment possible. I thought it would be interesting to chronicle it. The whole reason to post this online is to have others read it — so please let me know your thoughts on what I’m doing, as well as your personal experiences on going green. It’s time to start Greening My Family!