OT: Baby Bottles and Sippy Cups

[Jacob D]

I know there are some new and some recurring parents in the club Thought maybe this would be interesting to a few of you...

I did some tests on sippy cups for microbiological activity. All of these cups use rubber valves that keep the juice in until your kid sucks on the spout. One design is all rubber and pushes into the lid in two places, the other design is combination of rubber and firm plastic that pushes into the lid in one place. The all-rubber design that I tested had abnormally high microbial activity. The other design showed much less microbial activity. The firm plastic surfaces of the cups proved to be relatively "clean".

I did all of the testing with a handheld ATP meter. It can't tell me what is growing on a surface only a relative amount of activity. All cups tested had been previously washed with soap and hot water and I would have expected them to be clean otherwise. Based on the results we're planning to ditch the cups with the all rubber design on the valve and use the other style (similar to this: http://www.thermos.com/imgs/sippyCupDrawing.gif). A 20 minute soak in equal parts hydrogen peroxide and water effectively sterilize the valves.


On a separate topic - We're also ditching our Dr. Brown's bottles. I recently found out that they contain the highest levels of BPA which leaches into the milk when the bottle is heated. It allegedly can cause severe health issues, so we figured why risk it. You can find out more about BPA and bottles here: http://zrecs.blogspot.com/2007/11/z-report-bisphenol-in-baby-bottles-and.html

 

[seaskraP]

wow, good to know, thanks for the info.
we've been using glass bottles, and will be sure to stay away from the rubbery sippy cups.

 

[ctripi]

What is an ATP meter.

 

[Jacob D]

Yep, glass is the best way to go, or you can look into some of the newer plastic bottles such as the "Born Free" brand that have zero bpa.

For the sippy's Gerber makes the better designed ones, Playtex offers the less desirable design (just a couple of examples based on what we have).



ATP meter measures ATP ATP is both used and produced in cellular metabolic reactions. It's a good indicator of microbiological activity (such as bacterial growth) on surfaces and in water. By measuring the ATP levels on a surface it's possible to determine how 'clean' it is, zero being near perfectly sterile.

Different applications/industries have different thresholds for pass/ caution / fail with regard to the levels of ATP/cleanliness. Sometimes a level of 10-30 is considered acceptable, sometimes 50-300 is ok. The levels I found on the rubber areas of the cups were in the 1000-3000 range, and this was after being washed with dish soap and hot water. Rubber is known to harbour bacteria which is why I decided to test them.

 

[billyzbear]

I stongly suggest getting your kid off the bottle. My wife didn't listen and now my kid has a problem with front teeth stained from milk. This also led one to chip. Also clean thier teeth before you put them into bed. You can use a little cotton bandage. I don't know how old yours are but try to get them off the bottle by 6 months.