A study finds a connection between exposure to BPA while in the womb and behavioral and emotional problems later on. This is especially notable in girls who have reached toddler age. This could help to explain to parents why their child has certain kinds of behavior problems.
Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical that is found in a wide variety of products. It has been used to make plastic bottles (including baby bottles and “sippy cups”). It also is used in the lining of metal-based cans of food. The federal government has been saying that BPA is safe, in low doses. However, the FDA recently started taking a closer look at the effects of this chemical.
A study was done that followed 244 mothers who lived in the Cincinnati area. It also followed the three year old children of those mothers. The study took urine samples from the moms, and from the children, at specific times.
There were some interesting results from the study. The researchers found that mothers who had high levels of BPA in their urine were more likely to report that their child was exhibiting certain kinds of behavior problems then were mothers that had low levels of BPA in their urine.
This study is the first one that finds that young girls emotional well being is linked to the amount of BPA exposure that her mother had while she was pregnant. Past studies connected BPA exposure that occurred after a child was born with behavior problems. This study shows that it starts earlier than that.
Girls are more affected than boys are. The researchers suspect this is because BPA mimics estrogen, which is the female hormone that is thought to play a role in behavioral development. This could, perhaps, explain why your toddler has a lot of problematic behavior.
The study found that toddlers whose mothers had high levels of BPA in their bodies while they were pregnant did have more behavior problems than toddlers whose mothers didn’t have as much BPA exposure. The toddlers were not exhibiting behavior that was out of the normal range, but they did behave worse than the toddlers who were not exposed to high levels of BPA while in the womb.
Many companies have voluntarily been removing BPA from their products, or offering BPA-free alternatives. The American Chemistry Council has petitioned the FDA to ban the use of BPA in baby bottles and “sippy cups”.
Image by Heather Greene on Flickr