A couple of months ago I wrote about my worries over plastic bottles and how they might be poisoning our children. I started on this rant because of a segment on the Martha Stewart TV show on which she spoke to a women who warned that Canada had banned #7 plastic bottles and stores in the US were taking them off of the shelves (not any of the stores I frequent). So fear set in and thus the previous post. (Find it here)
Since then, a friend of mine brought to my attention a Snopes.com article on the subject. Find the article here. Snopes is a great resource for finding the fact or fiction in those forwards that you get from time to time. I never thought of using it to verify this information.
For the most part, the article dispels worries about heating and freezing the disposable water bottles that we get when we buy bottled water. The article stops short of declaring all plastic bottles safe, however. Saying that the debate is still open on bottles containing bisphenol A. While there is still some concern over the levels of bisphenol A, many feel that the amount that passes to the water is of no concern. They also say that many times one's position in the plastic bottle debate coincides with their political views.
So draw your own conclusions. I will probably go out and buy replacement bottles for the ones I threw out (they were old anyway) and I won't even look at the bottom.
July 30, 2008
June 17, 2008
A Funny Little Video
Love all that guilt that you get about what you feed your kids? Here's some more.
June 4, 2008
Parenting Pet Peeve #3
Threats you can't or won't follow through with.
Something I learned as a teacher and have tried to carry on through my parenting is to not threaten with taking away something that I don't want to give up myself or that is impossible to take away.
Some things are just not possible to follow through with. Parents say "we're never coming back" or "you're never going to get to do this again." Generally, I think it is best to keep never or always out of any conversation with kids. If you say you are never going to bring them to the park again, you better be ready to keep them away from all parks. Not following through speaks loudly to our children. You may think that you are punishing them in the moment, but in the long run, when you end up back at a park after promising never to return, you loose the power of your promises.
Other things we don't want to give up. Weekends with Grandma or playdates where we get some time to ourselves or time with other moms are things that benefit us. If these become threats for discipline, then you are punishing yourself too. There are times when these things can be leveraged but if you do it all the time, you are not really encouraging your child to behave. Once they have lost something they were looking forward to, the behavior can become worse because now they have nothing to loose.
The key is to think before you threat. Is this even possible? Do I really want to give up my weekend without kids? Threats never work if you don't follow through.
Something I learned as a teacher and have tried to carry on through my parenting is to not threaten with taking away something that I don't want to give up myself or that is impossible to take away.
Some things are just not possible to follow through with. Parents say "we're never coming back" or "you're never going to get to do this again." Generally, I think it is best to keep never or always out of any conversation with kids. If you say you are never going to bring them to the park again, you better be ready to keep them away from all parks. Not following through speaks loudly to our children. You may think that you are punishing them in the moment, but in the long run, when you end up back at a park after promising never to return, you loose the power of your promises.
Other things we don't want to give up. Weekends with Grandma or playdates where we get some time to ourselves or time with other moms are things that benefit us. If these become threats for discipline, then you are punishing yourself too. There are times when these things can be leveraged but if you do it all the time, you are not really encouraging your child to behave. Once they have lost something they were looking forward to, the behavior can become worse because now they have nothing to loose.
The key is to think before you threat. Is this even possible? Do I really want to give up my weekend without kids? Threats never work if you don't follow through.
June 2, 2008
Water Bottles and Baby Bottles Poisoning us and our Children?
A few weeks ago I was watching Martha Stewart and was shocked to find out that I have been poisoning myself and my children for years now. Of course I was doing so out of ignorance. I guess that hoped that someone would be looking out for me and not allow such a thing to occur.
How have I been poisoning myself and my children? Water bottles/baby bottles. According to the guest on Martha's show, who was an environmental activist, bottles with the #7 recycle designation can leach endocrine altering chemicals into your water. It was so bad that she said Canada has declared the bottles dangerous and is taking steps to ban the #7 bottles altogether. So I rushed to my cabinet to find in horror that I had several #7 type bottles and that some of these were my absolute favorite. They were the Nalgene type bottles that I have had for years. And though I can't check because I threw away the baby bottles when my youngest grew out of the bottle stage, I am pretty sure that the baby bottles we used for both girls were the same plastic. I was concerned that maybe the information I had was not completely unbiased. So I did a little research on the internet and though I did find a lot of potentially biased environmentally concerned sites, I did find a medical site that convinced me that this is a pretty serious situation. The bottles are leaching BPA which can mimic estrogen and cause problems for men and early puberty for young girls, among other things. For the article click on the link below this entry.
Now the problem I have is that I want to get water bottles for our up-coming vacation and I cannot seem to find non-#7 bottles. The #7's are everywhere. I even accidentally bought a couple of bottles at Target that I thought were #1 but when I got home I realized they were #7s and so I promptly returned them. Again I turned to the internet and found that camelback has a new BPA free bottle (though I have looked at the bottom of many camelbacks in the last few weeks that have #7 on the bottom). Not sure If I will be able to find it in the stores or if I will have to buy it on the internet. At any rate, I hope that soon companies will do the responsible thing and stop selling the poison bottles.
Click Here for the Medical Article
Click Here for the Camelback website
How have I been poisoning myself and my children? Water bottles/baby bottles. According to the guest on Martha's show, who was an environmental activist, bottles with the #7 recycle designation can leach endocrine altering chemicals into your water. It was so bad that she said Canada has declared the bottles dangerous and is taking steps to ban the #7 bottles altogether. So I rushed to my cabinet to find in horror that I had several #7 type bottles and that some of these were my absolute favorite. They were the Nalgene type bottles that I have had for years. And though I can't check because I threw away the baby bottles when my youngest grew out of the bottle stage, I am pretty sure that the baby bottles we used for both girls were the same plastic. I was concerned that maybe the information I had was not completely unbiased. So I did a little research on the internet and though I did find a lot of potentially biased environmentally concerned sites, I did find a medical site that convinced me that this is a pretty serious situation. The bottles are leaching BPA which can mimic estrogen and cause problems for men and early puberty for young girls, among other things. For the article click on the link below this entry.
Now the problem I have is that I want to get water bottles for our up-coming vacation and I cannot seem to find non-#7 bottles. The #7's are everywhere. I even accidentally bought a couple of bottles at Target that I thought were #1 but when I got home I realized they were #7s and so I promptly returned them. Again I turned to the internet and found that camelback has a new BPA free bottle (though I have looked at the bottom of many camelbacks in the last few weeks that have #7 on the bottom). Not sure If I will be able to find it in the stores or if I will have to buy it on the internet. At any rate, I hope that soon companies will do the responsible thing and stop selling the poison bottles.
Click Here for the Medical Article
Click Here for the Camelback website
May 29, 2008
Parenting Pet Peeve #2
Car Seat Laws are not optional!
I have to say that I had no idea that people were not following the car seat laws until I worked at the Drive-thru at Starbucks. I was blown away by the number of young toddlers who were strapped into the car by only a seatbelt. Now, I know that I was a young toddler who did not have a car seat or a booster seat and I lived to tell the tale. Seat belts were even optional when I was a kid. But in this day and age when we have laws and ad campaigns that are meant to keep our children as safe as they can, how can people make the choice to neglect their children's safety? The laws are not frivolous or meant to make anyone any money (though I am sure that the car seat people don't mind) they are meant to protect our children from injury.
So seat up people! :-)
I have to say that I had no idea that people were not following the car seat laws until I worked at the Drive-thru at Starbucks. I was blown away by the number of young toddlers who were strapped into the car by only a seatbelt. Now, I know that I was a young toddler who did not have a car seat or a booster seat and I lived to tell the tale. Seat belts were even optional when I was a kid. But in this day and age when we have laws and ad campaigns that are meant to keep our children as safe as they can, how can people make the choice to neglect their children's safety? The laws are not frivolous or meant to make anyone any money (though I am sure that the car seat people don't mind) they are meant to protect our children from injury.
So seat up people! :-)
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