E25: 5 Modern day threats to your baby's health and development

So the first one on the list is what I spoke about two weeks ago which is microplastics.

Now if you have not heard that episode please do go and listen to it because I'm whizzing through this.

I'm just going to say two things and that is firstly that babies are more exposed to microplastics than we as adults are and that is in their food prep because even the breastfeeding mum who expresses her milk may have to heat her milk up and so when she uses a plastic container and heats it, that can cause leaching of the microplastic particles into the breast milk.

So, we know the babies from tiny, even the ones we think are not in that much contact with microplastics are.

Of course, microplastics, their ability to leach into food and drink is heightened by increased temperature and agitation.

So putting formula powder into a plastic bottle, pouring boiling water, shaking it, or when you make your baby purees and you put that hot food you've cooked into a blender and you whizz it around and blend it up to make a puree for your baby.

That's your heat and agitation right there.

Of course, the other way that babies are so exposed to plastics is because they're putting everything in their mouth.

The vast quantities of plastic toys, their clothing, the synthetic fibers in their clothing, synthetic plastic fibers in the carpeting that they are crawling on that they are sucking on they're holding on to and then sucking their hands now that's the first thing I was going to say is they have the increased exposure the second thing is that their little bodies are so much smaller than ours so the percentage of microplastics they're taking in as a proportion to their body size is far greater than that as an adult.

So it really is something we need to think about.

We know microplastics are hormone disruptors.

They have a negative effect on the gut microbiome.

And there is strong evidence to suggest that they are leading to all kinds of long-term conditions.

There's also some emerging evidence to suggest that when we eliminate the microplastics and we include a diet high in fiber, that a lot of the long-term conditions are going into remission or are improved.

And so that's really, really hopeful.

It seems like there is something we can do about it.

which is why I would like to highlight that.

So go and have a listen to that episode two weeks ago, and there's also a free checklist that you can download in the show notes that will help you to just reduce the amount of microplastic your baby is being exposed to.