Your Baby's Food

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.  

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."