Mommy's Bliss recall

My long silence can be explained by the fact that my much-abused laptop--actually, my husband's laptop that he has long since relinquished--finally gave up the ghost. I've been without a computer of my own for two weeks. So I just have time for a short post here. I wanted to draw attention to the FDA recall of a nipple cream for nursing mothers called Mommy's Bliss. It contains harmful ingredients that can potentially do nasty things to an infant's central nervous system. What makes this even more egregious is that the labeling specifically states that the product does not have to be taken off prior to nursing. Ridiculous. Below is the article from Babycenter, from which I learned of this recent recall. Another good reason to read the ingredients of anything you put in or on your body, or your childrens' bodies.

FDA alert on dangerous nipple cream recallPosted by Susan Markel, M.D. in Breastfeeding, Recalls | May 27th, 2008 | Trackback
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning to consumers not to use a cream sold to nursing mothers to help soothe dry and cracked nipples because it contains ingredients potentially harmful to babies.

Mommy’s Bliss Nipple Cream contains chlorphenesin and phenoxyethanol, which can affect an infant’s central nervous system, causing respiratory depression, vomiting, and diarrhea.

Mothers and caregivers should watch for a decrease in an infant’s appetite. More serious signs would be difficulty in awakening the child, limpness of extremities or a decrease in an infant’s strength of grip and a change in skin color. You must seek immediate medical attention if your child is showing these signs and symptoms. according to the FDA.

Although product labeling specifically states that there is no need for mothers to remove the cream prior to nursing, the ingredients contained in the product are harmful to nursing infants.

MOM Enterprises, the company marketing the product, is offering a full refund for returned cream and has issued a product bulletin.

Chlorphenesin relaxes skeletal muscle and can depress the central nervous system and cause respiratory depression (slow or shallow breathing) in infants. Phenoxyethanol is a preservative that is primarily used in cosmetics and medications. It may cause vomiting and diarrhea which can lead to dehydration in infants.

“The FDA is particularly concerned that nursing infants are being unwittingly exposed by their mothers to this product with dangerous side effects,” said Janet Woodcock, M.D., director, FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “Additionally, these two ingredients may interact with one another to further compound and increase the risk of respiratory depression in nursing infants.”

Chlorphenesin can also harm the mother by causing dermatitis, a skin condition that can worsen the drying and cracking of nipple skin.

MOM Enterprises, Inc. is based in San Rafael, Calif. The company has stated that it has discontinued marketing the nipple cream with the potentially harmful ingredients. The FDA is advising consumers to discontinue use of Mommy’s Bliss Nipple Cream and to consult a health care professional if they experience problems or believe that their infant may have experienced problems due to this product. Nursing mothers with cracked, painful nipples, which is often a side effect of nursing, should speak with their health care professional or a certified lactation consultant if the problem is severe or for other treatment options.

Vital Documents: Component breakdown of popular baby bottles, sippy cups, and other infant products

My father, a television anchor here in the Twin Cities, receives lots of e-mails from viewers--some nice, some not-so-nice. It's part of the job. However, when he did his In the Know (a throwback to the old television editorials lead anchors used to do with some regularity) on the Canadian government's findings on BPA, he received a flood of e-mails from concerned parents. Most of them asking: what do I do? One woman who e-mailed him, however, had spent a great deal of time doing meticulous research into the composition of a very wide variety of baby products, including bottles, sippy cups, and more. Her name is Lisa Wolf. She has generously given me permission to post these lists on my site. Below, is a link to a PDF file authored by Lisa listing Infant and Toddler Products, which provides a comprehensive chart regarding components of baby bottles and sippy cups, delineates which ones are made of polycarbonate (avoid), which ones are made of polypropylene (good), and so on. One thing both Lisa and the folks at Z Recommends and other sites that track this kind of information is how un-forthcoming Nuby has been with its information regarding its products. The general consensus seems to be that the Nuby products are mostly safe, but there are some inconsistencies in the data and the company's lack of responsiveness would be enough for me to simply use another bottlemaker. If you have Nuby bottles already, though, Lisa's chart will help clarify things.

Infant/Toddler Product List

Amazon's "BPA-free" Store full of BPA-containing products

Just a very quick note today about Amazon's new "BPA-free" store on its website. Z Reports has found that 4 of the 14 products in that store listed as BPA-free actually contain the chemical. From Z Recommends:

BPA-containing items currently misidentified as BPA-free in Amazon.com's BPA-Free Baby shop include:

Gerber Comfort Hold bottles
Nuby 12-oz. Mega Sipper
Nuby 7-oz. Two-Handled Cup
Nuby No-Spill 3-Stage Bottle
The 4-of-14 figure (which excludes alternative bottle sizes and colors for the same bottle style) represents an accuracy level of less than 75% for plastic products Amazon.com is promoting as BPA-free. We expect more from one of the world's largest online retailers, and the fact that most consumers do as well puts online shoppers everywhere in a position of vulnerability and Amazon.com's credibility at significant risk. Worse still, this damaged credibility could easily bleed over to harm products which are in fact BPA-free, which have been heavily marketed by their manufacturers as such, and might now have their BPA status cast into doubt by their association with what are clearly BPA-containing products.

Z Recommends is a great resource and is home to the Z Recommends "Report on BPA", which has been widely circulated and has been exhaustively researched.

Out of the Cabinet(s)

I've received several e-mails from folks who've read my letter to Dura Supreme (which remains unanswered), including one from a man named David Summer of a cabinet outfit out of Chicago called Kitchen Village. It was such a thoughtful, helpful e-mail that I asked him if I could post it in full here. Anyone who is remodeling or who has searched, in vain, for less toxic building materials knows that obfuscation is the norm and transparency the exception. That's why David's e-mail was very refreshing to me. For anyone in the Chicago area who is looking for a knowledgable and straightforward cabinet seller who deals in no urea-formaldehyde kitchen and bathroom cabinets, consider being in touch with David Summer of Kitchen Village. After dealing with Dura Supreme and countless--and I mean that I literally lost count--door manufacturers, looking for formaldehyde-free offerings, I can tell you that hearing an honest answer to the simple question about added urea-formaldehyde is worth its weight in wheatboard.

As an aside, we did, in fact, purchase our pocket door from Koch and Co (we'll get it in a month or so), and it was not cheap: roughly $450. However, we're too strapped to buy a replacement bathroom vanity since Dura Supreme is keeping our money. But we'll most likely try to buy from Koch if the door works out, sometime down the road. In the meantime, here is the e-mail from David Summer of Kitchen Village of Chicago:

Ashley,

I came across your posting this morning regarding your experience with your vanity. I sell a cabinet line here in the Chicago area that I have found to be the most affordable medium-dark green cabinet on the market today. The Koch & Co Green Series cabinet is constructed from a no-urea-added-formaldehyde, or “formaldehyde-free”, particleboard manufactured from wheat chaff fiber particles rather than tree fiber particles. There is wide array of finishes available with low-voc-emitting stains and they can do a natural topcoat with a no-emitting-formaldehyde-voc finish. Thus, you have a product that is rapidly renewable, has no formaldehyde in the adhesives and panels, and has low-to-no VOCs in the finishes.

“Waterborne” finishes are not necessarily the silver bullet for the toxin beast, as they often have other nasty toxins in lieu of the urea formaldehyde. At this point in my research I would have to say that you are going to see the custom shops (along with their appointed price scale) offering the waterborne finishes and not as readily available from production and semi-custom shops or factories. This is mainly due to the extra dry time required for waterborne finishes, which can only be done in facilities with the timing and or space to allow the material to sit while it dries. A faster paced production type operation simply cannot let the line come to a halt for two hours while a finish sets up.

There is hope on the horizon as government mandates regarding toxicity levels in adhesives and coatings will force the marketplace to develop healthier alternatives to our current methods and materials. The bell has begun to toll in California due to the California Air Resources Board’s mandates going into effect next January and then ratcheting the bar up further in 2012. I associate this to the low-flush toilet scenario of the 1990s. Low flush water saving toilets were in production in Europe for around twenty years before we finally wrote them into law here. Similar comparisons can be made with the allowable formaldehyde levels in the panel materials, both plywood and particleboards.

David Summer
Contractor Sales Division
Kitchen Village
1081 E. Golf Road
Arlington Heights, IL 60005
Cell 847-917-6300
Office 847-956-6800 X15
Fax 847-956-6995
Email - david@kitchenvillage.com
Showroom Website - www.kitchenvillage.com
Green Blog - www.kitchenvillage.blogspot.com

David later added this postscript:

Koch & Co is a great family owned and operated company in the wonderful Heartland of America. I forgot to mention that the wheat board panels are sourced from a manufacturing facility in Mankato, MN. Environ Biocomposites sources the raw wheat chaff from the surrounding area, mostly within a 250-mile radius. Just another facet to a great eco friendly story.