New parents want to do everything to keep their babies safe. A new study warns that using plastic baby bottles may cause infants to swallow tiny particles of plastic. To protect their infants, parents may need to change some of the ways they prepare babies’ bottles.

As plastics age, they shed small particles called microplastics. There is growing evidence that we consume large amounts of plastic particles that seep into our food either from the food chain or from plastic food packaging and storage materials. A study on donated human cadavers found that all of the major filtering organs of the body, such as the liver and kidneys, contained plastic.

To completely avoid the possibility of infants ingesting microplastic particles through feeding, mothers can opt to breastfeed or choose to use glass baby bottles.

When they looked into microplastics shed by the top 10 brands of baby bottles used around the world, a research team from Trinity College Dublin came up with more concerning findings. They found baby bottles made of polypropylene plastic shed as many as 16.2 million microplastic particles per liter of liquid when they were sterilized and then exposed to water at 158 degrees Fahrenheit. At 203 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature of the water in which many plastic bottles of formula are heated, as many as 55 million particles of microplastic were shed.

The small particles the plastic sheds are only now becoming a concern. Polypropylene plastic is used widely all over the world. Lunch boxes, food storage containers and baby bottles are just a few of the items made from it.

It is yet not known if microplastics pose an immediate or long-term threat to growing infants, but parents can take certain precautions to minimize the amount of plastic microparticles infants ingest.

  • After sterilizing bottles, allow them to cool. Then rinse them out at least three times before filling and using them.

  • Sterilize water in non-plastic containers and allow it to cool to room temperature before preparing formula.

  • Avoid shaking the formula in the bottle.

  • Do not reheat infant formula in plastic bottles.

  • Avoid reheating bottles in the microwave oven.

    • To completely avoid the possibility of infants ingesting microplastic particles through feeding, mothers can opt to breastfeed or choose to use glass baby bottles.

    The study is published in Nature Food.