Parabens in...: Toddler Toothpaste and Eye Makeup Remover

I am continually amazed to discover how many products contain parabens. I ran out of eye makeup remover ages ago and had pregnancy brain and couldn't remember to pick it up at the store the last few times I was there. Besides, I reasoned that I don't get myself together to the point where I actually get to apply my makeup most days, so it didn't seem pressing. But on a recent shopping trip to Target, I finally remembered to peruse the aisles. Literally every single eye makeup remover I picked up--Cover Girl, L'oreal, Physicians Formula, etc.--contained parabens and one even contained diazodinyl urea. Why? After circling the aisles in increasing desperation, I finally spotted an Almay brand--Almay Oil Free Eye Makeup Remover--that was paraben free. I snatched it up. Comparable in price to the other eye makeup removers, this one contains no parabens and no urea, but the packaging doesn't advertise this.

Then I was looking for a toddler toothpaste for my son. We have little to no fluoride in our water because of a filtration system I put in place for that reason, and he's just about over the Jason/Earth's Best non-fluoride toothpaste. Toothbrushing is serious toddler business now, and he wants to move up from the farm league. So I perused the offerings at Target. Again, the paraben spectre reared its ridiculous head. Orajel's Toddler Training Toothpaste--in all flavors--contains parabens. And by the way, can we talk about the complete uselessness of flavoring toddler toothpastes with variations like "Berry Blast," "Bubble Burst," "Fruit Splash," and "Tooty Fruity"? Isn't the goal to get them to spit the toothpaste out, not ingest it like liquid sugar? But I digress. From the Orajel website, here is the list of inactive ingredients:

Inactive ingredients purified water, sorbitol, propylene glycol, glycerin, carboxymethylcellulose sodium, flavor, citric acid, methylparaben, potassium sorbate, sodium saccharin, propylparaben

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I'm annoyed.

Just to reiterate, parabens mimic estrogen. This is a problem for many reasons. An example, a study published in 2004 (Darbre, in the Journal of Applied Toxicology) detected parabens in breast tumors. They can disrupt the endocrine system, and the jury is still out on how they affect fetuses and infants. But bear in mind that any chemical that affects an adult typically affects, to a greater degree, smaller people like children and babies. Parabens are found in the urine of most people, according to a CDC report.

Lesson: read the labels of everything. Reject anything that contains a paraben: butylparaben, methylparaben, etc, etc. Even if it means looking around the store for longer than you'd like to, or even postponing a purchase to buy it online.