Baby Cutlery and its Importance

Hello People,

I hope all are doing great. Take care of yourself and your kids as monsoon brings lots of virals and infections with it along with rains.

Today I choose to write about baby cutlery. Even before I become a Mother I was always attracted to cute & attractive baby cutlery:spoons,sipper cups, bowls, tiffin boxes etc. I was thrilled to start solids to my baby so that I can buy all these cute things & went on a shopping spree too. Little did I know that all these important pieces of utensils that I am going to use to feed my baby are not safe as they look. Most of this cutlery is made of materials like plastic,melamine,silicon. I will take you on a mini information tour about the materials that go in making of this cutlery.

Plastics have been part of our daily life from a very long time..Unfortunately it does not mean that it is safe or responsible. Plastic is made with  poly carbonate which contains BPA. BPA stands for bis phenol A. Its an industrial chemical that can be used to make certain plastics.Poly carbonate plastics are used in making containers that store food,beverages like water bottles. Now, some research claim that BPA can seep into food or beverages from containers that are made with BPA. Prolonged exposure to BPA have ill effects on the working functions of the brain, behaviour & prostate gland of fetuses and to kids and infants.

Melamine is hard plastic. It was designed in such a way that it can stand the rigid use of everyday life. That is the reason why most restaurants these days have replaced their porcelain cutlery with melamine. Though melamine is labeled safe but it again comes with the limitation that the food that goes into this cutlery should not be heated more than 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

Silicon is considered another substitution for plastic. Most of the baby products these days are made up of silicon like pacifiers, baby bottle nipples, teething toys, freezer trays, storage jars/containers,spoons etc. It is one such material that the babies suck for a long period of time. Silicon is a chemical element found in  most abundant in earth’s crust. It is the same thing that is used for making computer components, breast implants, menstrual cups. But there is no regulatory body that has labelled silicon as safe especially in putting it use for baby products. My personal opinion is,if silicon is put up for industrial use, there is no or very little chance for it to be considered safe for the baby.

All these materials listed above are carcinogenic. They carry cancer causing elements with them in more or less quantities. Also these materials are not biodegradable. They leave footprints on the surface of earth’s crust which takes million years to decompose. Plastic pollution is toxic to human. There are many ways that we can stop this pollution. There are solutions available in the market like glass, stainless steel, porcelain and wooden cutlery which is a new entrant in the market.Though glass and porcelain is almost no as an option but stainless steel and wooden utensils are the best to be put to use. They last long, high temperature does not effect these materials in anyway and most important they are absolute environment friendly.

I have a 11 month old baby boy who has never used any bottle to be fed milk. He drinks water from spoon and bowl no sipper cup put to use here. Yes, we used our share of temperature controlled silicon spoons and melamine bowls to wean off but moved to stainless steel in no time. I want to tell all Mothers that you can survive without using all these stuff because I did and give your baby a safe and environment friendly World to live in

PS: All the information above is picked up from google. I am no scientist.