Glass Baby Bottles:
Keeping Your Baby Clear of Chemicals

Choosing to use glass baby bottles rather than plastic has quickly become en vogue. Not only does going glass help you go green, a recent study in 2007 has shown it may protect your baby from diseases later on in life.

The study (performed by the Environment California Research Policy Center) found that several of the most popular baby bottles (Avent, Dr. Brown's, Evenflo, Gerber, and Playtex) all leached Bisphenol A from the plastic into the liquid inside.

Bisphenol A is considered a developmental, neural, and reproductive toxicant.

Side Note: If you want to see the study yourself, you can view the entire 37-page study here. It is a pdf document, so you'll need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader (which is free) installed on your computer before viewing.

Top Glass Bottle Brands

{Photo by Inferis}

WeeGo Glass Bottles

The WeeGo glass bottle has a sleeve that prevents the glass from breaking when bumped around in the diaper bag (can you even imagine that nightmare?) The sleeve is 100% nontoxic and can be washed while attached to the bottle in the dishwasher with no fear of leaching.

The bottle sleeve design of WeeGo also provides an easy gripping-surface for your baby to use. (Those glass bottles can be heavy and unwieldy for little palms to hold!)

Born Free Glass Bottles

The extremely popular Born Free Bottles are also availble in glass. Unlike most bottles, these bottles fit nipples that have 5 flow rates (as opposed to 4) that will satisfy babies as old as 18 months. A unique "Born Free Valve" helps make sucking easier than with conventional nipples, helping to reduce colic and prevent ear infections.

These bottles were rated excellent by EiR visitor Mel. See her review here.

Dr. Brown's Glass Baby Bottles

Dr. Brown's glass bottles feature the patented Dr. Brown's design that has been proven to help reduce fussing in colicky infants. The internal straw-like vent system eliminates air bubbles via a vacuum system. This allows positive-pressure feeding with no air (like in breastfeeding).

The bottles won the American Baby Best of the Year (AMBY) award for 2004 (when originally introduced), and was a Gold Winner in the 2000 Medical Designs Excellence Awards (MDEA)

Evenflo Classic Clear Glass Nurser

If your infant seems to do best with the Evenflo family of bottles, they have recently introduce a new series of affordable glass baby bottles.

Evenflo also offers bottles with the custom Silikids silicone sleeve that offers a strong gripping surface, protects the glass, and is even transparent so you can see the liquid measured inside. These are wonderfully practical bottles I highly recommend for any going-green mom.

The Downsides of Choosing a Glass Bottle

Even the hardiest of glass can break! (and of course Murphy's Law dictates it would break in your diaper bag on a long flight.)
Glass is heavier, so harder for baby to lift.
Glass will cool faster than a plastic, making it difficult to maintain a steady temperature.
Glass bottles are more expensive.
You can put them in the dishwasher, but you'll still have to wash the nipples and lids by hand.

Safe Alternatives to Glass Bottles

If you're just a little wary of breakable glass, you still have some healthy BPA-free options.

First, you could choose to hand-wash all the nipples and use inserts to hold the liquid. Avent makes a superb insert-bottle called the Tempo Natural Feeding Nurser that may be worth the try. Of course, that means you'll have to purchase the inserts!

Second, you could purchase plastic bottles free of BPA chemicals. See reviews of these bottles in this article.