Glass Bottles

Glass baby bottles are making a comeback with today’s parents. Plastic bottles, that had largely superceded glass bottles, are in a decline. The glass vs. plastic baby bottles debate rages on over a chemical called Bisphenol A.

Bisphenol A is used to make polycarbonate, the clear, shatterproof plastic used in the selfsame plastic that baby bottles are made of. A great number of people have said that Bisphenol A has also been ingested by babies who drink from plastic bottles. Bisphenol A is a chemical similar to Estrogen, and could be linked to abnormality of prostate and mammary glands, as it has in lab rats

The Plastics People have not taken these studies lying down. James P Lamb, PhD. and member of the Society of Toxicology for 20 years, has written an article entitled “Why You Should Ignore the Baby Bottle Scare” in which he lays out his case to the contrary, asserting that plastic baby bottles are fine for use.

All that aside, glass baby bottles are in great demand at the moment. Antique glass baby bottles are being offered on EBay, and new glass bottles are selling on the net. Antique Evenflo glass bottles seem to be quite popular and small Evenflo glass baby bottles that are still in the original packaging are often up for bid.

For anyone who has never handled an old glass baby bottles, they have quite a heft to them, especially the Nursmatics and Pyrex brands. Pyrex is one of the tempered glass baby bottles and is not supposed to break as easily as non-tempered glass.

If these are just being bought for collector’s items or for a particular décor that would be one thing, but if they were being bought in contemplation of using it for a baby bottle that might be a cause for worry.

As for new glass bottles, no such concerns should remain. Some of the advantages of glass bottles are that you can see clearly the contents of the bottle. Another advantage is that glass does not hold onto odors the way a plastic bottle will. You need only have found an old curdly bottle that had once been filled with milk but had been displaced for awhile and then taken a whiff to understand. It would be nearly impossible to clean that smell out of a plastic bottle, even after repeated dishwasher washings. A glass bottle would give up that smell after one trip through the dishwasher.

Fighting words aside, we are all parents and grandparents who have the welfare of our little loved ones foremost in our mind. We will be watching very carefully what the outcome of this debate will be.