Did you hear or read or see the CTV/Globe and Mail tests and stories about bisephenol-A in canned goods such as apple juice, soup and baked beans?

Reaction to the story totally depends on which side you’re on.

The environmental peeps say Canadians are “marinating” in the chemical, and that “little by little, these exposures add up to a bigger hit.”

Product manufacturers say the found levels are well below safe levels from Health Canada, and question the testing methods.

More info for you to ponder. Read more info on BPA, sippy cups and bottles etc. here, here, here and here.

When I worked at the paper, there was a woman from another department who was pregnant. She was only the second knocked-up woman I’d ever seen really up close, on a daily basis, and I found it fascinating to watch her grow.

One morning I was in the cafeteria making a tea when she came in carrying an apple. She reached into her lunch bag in the fridge, and pulled out this metal wheel-thingine, much like a wagon wheel but with plastic handles on the edges. And much smaller, of course.

She placed the apple on a plate, lined up the middle of the wagon thingie, and heaved her girth straight down on the handles (she was petite, and probably seven or eight months along, but lemme tell you — that apple gave, people).

I stared, open-mouthed. Not at the small woman who’d exerted so much force, but at the apple. It was cored. And in eight, tidy little sections.

I loved it. I wanted it. I had to have it.

So Eric bought me one for Christmas in 2005, and now I use it pretty much every single day. I have sensitive teeth and weak gums, and get slaps on the wrist by my dentist if he hears I’m biting into things such as fruit with my teeth. I love that the corer does all the work for me, and makes apples and pears perfectly proportioned.

It’s also a fabulous tool for slicing up fruit for babies and toddlers. When I was making Lucy’s baby food, I cut apples and pears up this way before peeling, chopping and pureeing them. Now, it creates pieces perfect for her hands and has helped teach her how to take proper-sized bites.

I used to see them only at specialty kitchen stores, but now they are all over major department stores such as Canadian Tire and Sears.

Pregnant lady, baby, toddler and mom approved. Best wagon thingie ever.

Is your head spinning with trying to figure out this bisephenol-A information? Wondering what bottles, sippy cups and water jugs are safe?

From what I’ve read, polycarbonate bottles are labeled with a 7 on the bottom, for other plastics. Unfortunately, some BPA-free plastics (such as single-use beverage bottles) are also labeled 7, so it can be confusing. But at least this is a guide.

Here are some excellent resources for making sense of it all:

Z Recommends: The Z Report on BPA in children’s feeding products, third edition — I cannot recommend this site enough. This guy has interviewed almost every major baby product manufacturer and ranked them, creating a massive, comprehensive list of safe (and not safe) products. Truly the best resource on the Internet, which is why so many people have linked to it.

Plastic labeling — wondering what each little number on the bottom of plastic means? Here’s a fabulous list.

Rubbermaid BPA list — now here’s a wonderful thing to see. Rubbermaid has a list of ALL it’s products (with photos, for handy reference) and whether they do or do not contain BPA. If only all corporations did this.

Playtex BPA list — just got this via email from Playtex yesterday, a pdf of all their products, too. They’re also offering free samples of their BPA-free Nurser Drop-in system. Keep in mind that the bottles themselves contain BPA (although the food does not touch them, it does not help the process) and this creates a lot of garbage.

CBC News in-depth on BSA — richly detailed.

I was at Once Upon a Child in Ajax today, and they are back-ordered on all their stainless steel sippy cups until the end of May. Has anyone found them in Durham?

If you ever needed a(nother) reason to stop using and throw out your hard plastic/polycarbonate sippy cups, baby and drinking bottles, you have it now: Health Canada on Friday OFFICIALLY labeled bisephenol A dangerous.

Hooray! This is huge, huge, huge. Canada is the first country in the world to take this drastic step. I am so proud to be a Canadian today.

I actually did not know that retailers other than Mountain Equipment Co-op had pulled polycarbonate bottles from its shelves, but it turns out there are an impressive list of powerhouse organizations who have banned BPA products, including Sears, Shoppers Drug Mart and Canadian Tire (interestingly, CT was advertising some hard plastic water bottles on sale in this week’s flyer. Interesting to see if they are still in stores).

In case you were looking for more to worry about, my sister-in-law (hi Jenni!) shared this scary story about high levels of BPA in canned foods such as infant formula, chicken soup and ravioli. Many cans have a liner made of BPA, and the study found being exposed to it this way is even more dangerous than through bottles.

Seriously, just when you think you’ve conquered one, there is another to contend with. We don’t eat a ton of canned foods, but beans in tomato sauce and soups are consumed at Chez McDougall-Foster weekly.

*sigh* Now what?

The CBC is reporting Health Canada will label bisephenol A “a dangerous substance,” making it the first regulatory body in the world to do so.

BPA is used to make hard plastics, including baby bottles, toys and food containers. Recent studies link it to breast cancer, obesity, infertility and insulin-resistance.

Here are my favourite links about it, from the February Durham Region Baby newsletter: CBC in-depth,  Z Recommends report on bisephenol A in bottles and in sippy cups, and the Centre for Environmental Health, Environment and Justice on Baby’s Toxic Bottle.

This development is huge. It means companies that make products with the compound will finally be forced to admit it’s dangerous, and start making safe alternatives.

Stay tuned!

p.s. — we lost our beloved SIGG bottle, and are currently using the Thermos Foogo. It’s an excellent sippy; I’ll do a review soon. 

Lucy, at just shy of 2, feeds herself now. Up until a few weeks ago, I still maintained control over super messy foods such as soup and apple sauce, but Miss Toddler Know-It-All won’t eat said food unless she is shoveling it in.

I just don a protective face mask, plastic wrap the floor around her booster seat in a 20 ft. radius, and cheer loudly when the food makes it in her face hole. Which is pretty often, thankfully.

Then for Christmas, Lucy’s Papa bought her this cute cow cup and spoon. I started giving her her cereal in it each morning (cow = milk, milk = cereal. Also, moo-ing at 7:30 a.m. is pretty damn entertaining). The spoon is shaped like a mini ice cream scoop, and its sunken, rounded shape means it holds a big load from bowl to mouth.

We’ve since graduated to the messy yogurt and apple sauce-type food groups, and the spoon is GREAT. Much less mess. Much more fun. Better times for everyone all around.

The set is from a company called jo!e (no website to be found, although there are other products for sale on eBay), and was bought at Winners. I’m on the hunt now for mini ice cream scoops or just deep spoons to continue Lucy’s journey towards a less…slimy dining experience and mastering of utensils.

p.s.: T’was not Christmas, nor anytime leading up to Christmas, nor Lucy’s first Christmas when these photos were taken. This is a perfect example of toddler will and picking battles, because does it really matter that my child is seasonally challenged? I think not. Does it matter that she is stubborn and a little odd? Time will tell…

Hello cow.

Let’s kick the weekend off with a blast, shall we? Here are the latest product safety recalls — one of which we own!

• The First Years 3-in-1 flush & sounds Winnie the Pooh potty (lead)
• The First Years reclining feeding seat (malfunctioning straps, thus falling risk — we own this one, and have never had a problem…)
• Starbucks fusion mugs (scalding risk from loose handle)
• Old Navy performance fleece boy’s jacket (strangulation risk)
• Collectible horse ornaments (lead)
• Crystal innovations jewelery (lead)
• Metal jewelery by Colossal Jewelery (lead)
• DesignWare confetti bursts (lead)
• Kidzone wrestling figure (lead)
• Toy bus (lead)
• Mighty Wheels power shovel (lead)

Mostly by accident, we’ve tried several brands and types of sippy cups over the past year-ish.

I wish we could take different pieces of each one and make some Super Sippy. But there is a clear brand and type Lucy and I liked the best — surprising when you consider how many there are to choose from…

First off, Lucy would like the world to know that Nubby cups suck. Since she was able to drink from a cup, we’ve tried several: the Basic handled cups, Mega cups, and most recently the Flip-It’s.

Lucy’s never liked the soft, gummy spout. She seemed to always find them hard to drink out of, and would either just chew on the tip, or toss them to the floor. Either way, no liquid was coming out while chewing or tossing, so away they went.

Our favourite handled cup was the First Sipster by Playtex. The spout was soft, but still rigid. I loved the colours, size and weight. Lucy loved the handles. Eventually, as she got more teeth and started to enjoy playfully biting the tip, she bit a hole through it and we graduated to larger cups.

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Yesterday I got the second worst call a Mom can get: my husband was sick at work.

He was dizzy, bouncing off walls trying to walk. And nauseous. Which meant he couldn’t drive.

Which in turn meant a two hour round trip during rush hour. Around dinner time. With Lucy. IN THE CAR.

Remember the trauma of the last long car ride? Now you know why I was fretting with worry not only for Eric (plastic lined bucket for possible highway vomitting? check. baby wipes for clean up? check.) but for our very souls, which could quite possibly get eaten by a screaming toddler.

So thanktheeverlovinglord for the following two products, which I will never again leave home without.

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One of the things that drew me to the internet before Lucy was born was trying to figure out what to have ready when she arrived. I went mostly by the Babies R Us catalogue, which provided a checklist of items, but of course it was biased and tailored to their stock.

Other moms were really helpful, too, but it got to the point where my head was overloaded. (And then the half-naked chili episode happened and I got caught snarfing Timbits and all I could think about was food.)

So filed under the “What I wish I’d known before Lucy was born” category, I present the Essential New Baby Gear Guide (or, What Else to Buy Besides Diapers, Kleenex for the Sleep-Deprived Weeping and A Whole Other Wardrobe for the Post-Partum Body):

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