Imported milk and bottles

Make sure and get Bisphenol-A (BPA) free bottles. Avent bottles are dangerous (google it) recently even the Canadian Government had to finally agree that the health community has been RIGHT all these years and it BANNED BPA from foodstuffs and table wear and baby bottles.

BPA is hard CLEAR plastic, looks almost like glass when new (think Avent new bottles, once again, steer clear of those). Hazy, semi opaque plastic is not BPA plastic and while as not as good as glass IMO are much much safer than BPA.

Glass bottles are available from NUK and Pigeon brands, sold widely now because of this BPA issue finally making it into the mainstream media.

hey I just heard that glass bottles are available on Taobao.com and probably, I'll guess, from Leyou (may need to order them, though)

Today I was at Nu2Yu and noticed they have THREE brand new glass bottles with packaging, etc.

Evenflo brand. Did not notice the nipple type (or age recommendations) but they were very fairly priced at 45 RMB each.

www.nu2yubabyshop.com

Indeed.

Medela BPA free bottles are availble from Leyou; bought them at the Wangjing store. They are pricey though at RMB88/bottle for the complete set.

Anyone knows if the mothercare brands are BPA free?

Glass bottles are dangerous though if you have older kids in the house

I have seen the BPA free Medela botle in Lijia Baby store in Wangjing too (the one in the big mall Capitaland at the corner between Guangshun Beidajie and Futong Xidajie). I didn't look at the price.

Concerning imported milk, in fact often the imported milk is packed in China with chinese packaging. We are buying the Nestle Nan 1 which is made in Germany and packed in China.
I know that there are some milks imported from Australia (brand Nustria? but not sure), New Zealand and Holland (brand Frisocare) too, but packed in chinese packaging.
To know if the products made in China or not and you can not read chinese, you can use the bar code system.
The products made in China have bar code beginning by numbers between 690 to 695.
The milk we are buying have bar code beginning by 400 (bar code for Germany). You can check bar code system in the following website:
http://www.makebarcode.com/specs/ean_cc.html

Anyone use NUK (the German brand)?

I wonder if they are BPA-safe. Like admin said, very few of these brands actually cite if they avoid BPA (even if they might or might not).

here's my pics of my home water bottle. Imagine the dose that Junior gets from melamine-laced formula mixed with water from one of these jugs served in a bottle made with BPA ...

I also live in a relatively new building (constructed 2006), but don't know if I should trust the built-in filtration system in the kitchen faucet. The management company requires a separate fee, in addition to hot water, to refill that filtered system so I guess it's safe to drink the water. But how can I know for sure? Is there a way to check it and determine that it is better/safer than bottled water? I just want to put my money where it's best for the baby.

There's almost no way to totally avoid the BPA issue re: bottled water here. ALL the water jugs are made of #7 BPA plastic.

In the U.S. there are glass bottle suppliers, but not here.

Acquaviva provides a single-use only, thin water container (it is recycled afterwards). Scratches and haziness increase the surface area and contribute to higher levels of BPA so this is a pretty safe option.

Heating the plastic, as in baby bottle formula (warming, microwave, whatever) also increases the BPA leaching. So it is MOST important, imo, to avoid hot or even warm foods on plastics in general.

Water, as long as it doesn't get too hot in the container, is less of an issue, especially when we have really no choice.

Some people do decide to get whole house water filtration systems, but these also have some concerns (Reverse osmosis creates 3 gallons waste water for every 1 gallon drinkable water, etc...) Chlorine removal shower heads imo are a good and not too steep investment. Water Softener systems are also great, but I'd have to research how safe these are for using for drinking water day after day.

Anyone who wants more info can join BOCA below and search the archives for ALIKES, or email me.

Haven't had a chance to check it out myself, but I think Mothercare, a British chain of maternity and baby supplies, at Solana may have what you're looking for.

Massachusetts warns mothers of young children to avoid bisphenol A

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/greenblog/2009/08/massachusetts_wa...
Quote:

Massachusetts public health officials today issued a strong warning to mothers of young children to avoid storing infant formula or breast milk in products containing bisphenol A – and do their best to avoid the common chemical in other food and drink containers.

The warning comes after an exhaustive year-long review of the controversial chemical found in baby bottles to resins that prevent corrosion in canned food. A growing body of evidence in laboratory animals suggests some fetuses and young children exposed to BPA may have developmental problems. Children and adults can ingest tiny amounts of the chemical when they drink from cups or eat from items containing BPA.

“We are concerned about this enough that we want to warn the public,’’ said Suzanne Condon, director of the state Bureau of Environmental Health She said the most “consistent” scientific evidence that BPA may be harmful was focused on young children. “It just seemed it wouldn’t be appropriate for us to sit back and not do anything.”

The warning is clear: Transparent (clear or colored) plastic containers or baby bottles with the recycling number 7 and the letters PC (which stands for polycarbonate) should be avoided. Glass or stainless steel should be used instead. If the plastics are still being used, parents should avoid heating those containers because heat can increase the release of the chemical. Rather, wash the containers by hand with warm water and soap, instead of dishwashers.

Imported organic infant formula and baby food (Holle, biodynamic/organic products produced in Switzerland/Germany) for example here www.baby-international.com at decent prices with Chinawide shipping.