How To Eco-Chic

Your Baby's Food

by Alexandra Robbins

Providing the best nourishment means watching what you eat, watching what Baby eats, and watching what Baby eats out of. All the green info you need to know about feeding a healthy, happy child

Planning your child's diet and nutrition doesn't start when you introduce solid foods; it begins during pregnancy – when your baby eats what you eat – and continues during breastfeeding. As pediatrician Alan Greene , author of Raising Baby Green, says, "Every ounce of your baby's growth – every new cell in their brain or eyes – is coming through your nourishment. So you want to avoid toxins because they do come through."

Across the board, organic literature recommends that pregnant and breastfeeding women avoid foodborne antibiotics, hormones and pesticides by sticking to organic foods, including milk and dairy products, meat, grains and produce. But if a 100 percent organic diet isn't feasible, that's okay. Greene says if he had to choose only one organic product to recommend to pregnant or breastfeeding women, he would opt for the milk. In addition to avoiding the antibiotics and hormones in regular milk, organic milk tends to be higher in antioxidants. "It's also the first food that has been proven to show a specific health benefit from making just a single organic switch," Greene says. "If you make just that one switch, it improves the quality of your breast milk and changes the fatty acid content in the breast milk. Those fatty acids decrease eczema in kids by more than a third."

Produce, too, can be laden with pesticides and chemicals, but rising food costs or sparse selection may make a mostly organic diet infeasible. In that case, organic fruits and vegetables are not all equal. The Environmental Working Group , a nonprofit organic research group, used tests on produce collected by the Department of Agriculture and the FDA to develop its "Pesticides in Produce" report. The report claims that simply by replacing the top twelve offenders with the twelve fruits and vegetables that are lowest in pesticides, consumers can reduce their pesticide exposure by nearly 90 percent.

According to the EWG, the most important produce items to buy organic are: peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, lettuce, imported grapes, pears, spinach and potatoes. The least contaminated conventional fruits and vegetables are: onions, avocado, frozen sweet corn, pineapples, mango, frozen sweet peas, asparagus, kiwi, bananas, cabbage, broccoli and eggplant.

Organic veggies are best for baby

An easy way to clean the surface of conventional produce – yes, even the varieties you peel – is to spritz it with distilled white vinegar and then scrub it down with cold water and a vegetable brush.

A number of organic formulas available on the market don't have the agricultural pesticides, chemicals or genetically modified ingredients that conventional formulas might contain, "which is important for something so small and growing," says Daily Green columnist Lexy Zissu. "Organic formula is a nice added measure of safety in a very unsure world." Zissu recommends Nature's One Baby's Only Organic Formula, which is marketed as a toddler formula.

In 2007, the EWG found bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical used in plastic products such as CDs and bicycle helmets, in a third of the cans of soy and milk-based infant formulas it tested. (An epoxy containing BPA is often used in food can linings.) Because of this finding, Greene strongly advises using only powdered formulas mixed with filtered tap water.

BPA, a form of synthetic estrogen that has been shown to disrupt hormones, is also an ingredient in approximately 95 percent of baby bottles, the product that has sparked a heated debate that has escalated in recent months. Scientists have proven that BPA leaches from bottles when they are heated.

More than 100 studies on BPA have found enough health risks to warrant concern. According to the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, animal studies have revealed that BPA can damage "reproductive, neurological and immune systems during critical stages of development, such as infancy and in the womb." Scientists fear the chemical causes similar problems in people and that it may be linked to some cancers, diabetes and behavioral disorders.

In April, after a branch of the National Institutes of Health became the first federal agency to acknowledge that BPA could potentially be hazardous to humans, Canada banned the chemical from baby bottles and Walmart and Toys "R" Us announced they will stop selling bottles made with BPA. Also that month, U.S. senators introduced a bill to ban BPA from all products made for children ages seven and under.

While the chemical industry and the FDA insist that BPA is safe, it is possible to avoid the chemical without too much inconvenience. The Z Report maintains a list of babies' feeding products and whether they contain BPA, and recommends (and sells) several BPA-free products. Glass bottles are also making a comeback, although even well-known organic gurus are realistic about its use. Gavigan recommends using glass bottles at home and BPA-free plastic bottles for "travel, outings and restaurants."

When it's time to shift your baby to solid foods, organic choices abound. Should you go the jar route, look for brands that don't have added salt, sugar, starches or preservatives. Frozen organic brands – such as Tastybaby , Happybaby , and Plum – might taste better than jarred foods because the fresh nutrients have been flash frozen rather than left sitting on a shelf. Homemade Baby , a fresher option, is a non-jarred, non-frozen brand that some stores carry in the refrigerated section.

Freezing makes feeding more convenient

Or you could always make your own baby food. Several organic authors suggest pouring pureed organic food into an ice cube tray. At mealtimes, just pop out the cubes you need – each cube is approximately one ounce – and reheat.

If you have already been using bottles or other baby products that contain BPA, it's not worth beating yourself up over it. "All we can do is what we know how to do. I would not look back – just say okay, now we know and we're moving on," says Linda Greer, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council 's health program. "The entity that should really be on top of this is the government, not individual consumers having to spend hours and hours on the Internet trying to find safest thing for baby. If we had an EPA and a Consumer Product Safety Commission that were on top of their game, I would be out of a job. Science has been galloping along, but what really hasn't been galloping along is our regulatory structures, which are in such complete suspended motion and are now really far behind the times. I'm happy to give tips to consumers, but they should be thinking about, 'Why is this my job? Why is this not the government's job to do this for me?' That's what we pay them for."