Despite the fact that the FDA recently declared BPA to be a "safe"material for food/feeding related plastic products to be constructed of, I am still consciously selecting products that are BPA-free.
The FDA has always maintained that BPA-leaching from food containers posed little/no threat to consumers because the levels are "thousands of times below" what would be considered dangerous. However, in April- after some prodding from a preliminary report by the National Toxicology Program, the FDA decided to re-visit the BPA issue.
Their recent findings, and BPA stamp of approval were announced a few days ago- much to the excitement of U.S. chemical companies, and much to the chagrin of California law makers hopeful to garner support for their upcoming effort to ban this chemical.
There are questions surrounding the timing of the announcement (so close to the legislative vote in California) and the funding of the studies that "prove" the safety of BPA that were cited by the FDA. Critics of the FDA announcement claim the counter-studies were funded by chemical companies.
To many questions are out there for me to feel comfortable with purchasing any baby/child feeding related products with BPA for now- or probably ever. Luckily, there are a lot of BPA-free choices now available on the market. Lately I have been on the hunt for a new sippy cup for our 23-month old, and have been quite impressed with the choices that are out there. In my opinion there are three drink container products that stand out in the Stainless Steel drink cup category: the Thermos Foogo, the Klean Kanteen, and the Safe Sippy.
We have been trying out the Safe Sippy for the last few weeks- and I have been quite impressed with it. Here is what I love:
- The body of the sippy cup is constructed of stainless steel, with a colored rubberized sleeve that snuggly fits over it. This sleeve is especially handy if the contents of the cup are cold- little fingers don't want to hold onto cold metal. It is also nice to have this rubberized sleeve when your sippy cup meets the floor (or your toes!).
- The handle of the Safe Sippy is detachable.
- The lid is made of BPA-free plastic materials, as is the valve.
- The valve is easy to clean, and is only one piece.
- Dishwasher Safe. ALWAYS important.
- The Safe Sippy really does a good job at not leaking. It will not leak if turned on its side, and only a small amount of leaking occurs when you shake it.
- The price. It is a little steep for a sippy cup. The price range runs from $15-17. Of course, you do need to remember it is constructed with stainless steel- and it is comparably priced with the other stainless steel cups on the market. Even with that said, it would be oh so painful if one of these is forever left behind on a bus or in the subway.
- The Gasket Ring. There is a very small O-shaped ring that fits into the lid to help the lid maintain its tight seal. The ring is meant to stay inside even during cleaning, but it can come out. Ours did. It can also be put back in (there are instructions on the website) but the process was a little tricky.
- The spout. This is a pro and a con. I like that the spout is straw shaped. This shape is supposedly better for speech development than the traditional sippy cup spout. However, the cup is designed to have no straw. So, the child has to tilt the sippy cup back to drink. If your child is accustomed to sippy cups with a straw feature (or straws in general) there may be some initial frustration- because the Safe Sippy looks like it has a straw, when indeed it has a spout. It took my son (who is all too familiar with straws) some getting used to, but now this is probably his favorite cup.
Do any of you have any experience with the Klean Kanteen or the Thermos Foogo? Leave a comment, I would love to hear about these!
3 comments:
I'm with you - totally leery of BPA. Enough other countries have banned it that it makes the FDA's findings awfully suspect.
There is a great blog out there caled SafeMama, and she has lists of all safe plastics from bottles to sippies, to teething ring and bath toys. Maybe you've already visited, but if not, it's a great resource.
We have the foogo and... I'm a little mixed on it. I chose it over the safe sippy because of the spout issue. Dallin almost exclusively likes to drink from straws and having a spout tease him like that would be more than he could take. I'm mixed on the foogo because we've had on and off leaking problems (no matter how careful I am screwing on the top) and it doesn't hold as much liquid as the safe sippy and others. And it is awfully heavy, although that's the nature of anything that's stainless steel.
So... both of us like his Nuby no-spill sipper better (and it's supposedly BPA-free), but I do feel good about having a non-plastic alternative. And it's great for taking out because it keeps milk and water cold and fresh--no curdled milk problems like with plastic cups.
Thanks for the Low-down on the Foogo Elise! Amylouwho, thanks for the reminder about safemama.com this is a great resource to find BPA free baby products.
Post a Comment