Heather C Heather C is a married, mom of three: big sis Lily and identical twins Natalie and Sophia. She has been guest blogging for Mumbling Mommy since February of 2012 and began working as a Social Media Editor in 2014. After nearly a decade in banking, she now works part time at a doctor's office specializing in breastfeeding medicine and spends the rest of her days in her Midwest home as zookeeper/stay-at-home-mom. Heather C is also a runner, hiker, yogi, bike rider and more. She reads when she finds more than a few minutes to herself and she hosts a lot of pajama dance parties in her kitchen. In her spare time, she's the co-leader for her daughter's Girl Scout troop and an active member of the school's Parent-Teacher Committee as well as a certified postpartum doula.

Last summer I received some results from a basic hormone screening from my gynecologist. He’s a good guy, but being told yet again that “everything is normal” when everything was very, very much NOT normal was extremely infuriating. I never advocate for using the internet to diagnose problems, but I had an alarming variety of symptoms, many severe and problematic. There was no way that it was all in my head. I knew something had to be wrong somewhere and I wasn’t giving up my fight yet to figure out what.I tried to find ANYTHING that could explain. I came across a wide variety of [scary] articles about plastics and the endocrine-blocking chemicals in them. It was overwhelming. I think everyone has a good idea about BPA these days, but BPA is just the icing. There is so, so, so much more. (I have since learned that I have multiple autoimmune conditions, the most familiar being fibromyalgia.) I began the extensive task to remove plastics that are harmful to me and my family’s lives as best as possible. I think it’s impractical to eliminate plastic completely, but for anything controllable in your home, I highly recommend making the attempt.

Here are 5 practical ways to remove plastics from your life:

  1. Dishes: It is easy for adults to use glass or ceramic plates and bowls, but with small kids involved, finding a solution to remove plastics was hard. For our family, we selected a 5-piece set (plate, bowl, cup, spoon and fork) from Untangled Living. We’ve used them well over a year now and still really love them. They are the perfect size for small kids. The girls think they are awesome, too. And there was no looking back. We have just one set per kid as they are a bit pricey and we wash them every meal by hand. It keeps our clutter down as well
    so win-win.
  2. Disposable items: The plastic chemicals found in disposable diapers and menstrual pads is simply astonishing. Our family made the switch to cloth diapers and mama cloth long before my obsession with getting rid of plastic and it has been wonderful. This is not to say that we never use disposable. The key for our family is moderation. By removing plastics in as many ways as we can, we are reducing our overall exposure. Yes, there is still some exposure, but it’s nothing like the traditional American home.
  3. Storage: I cannot say enough wonderful things about the glass snapware containers we have for leftovers and freezer meals. They are so easy to use. They stack great. They are a nice, thick glass. We haven’t had any concerns with breaking or damage. (The lids of these ARE plastic. It’s tricky. Most foods are not touching the lids, though, so I made the exception.) We also have glass Pyrex bowls and reusable covers from Pampered Mama that we use with them instead of plastic cling wrap.
  4. Shopping: For shopping, we have a collection of reusable bags. We’ve built up this collection slowly over time. A lot of our bags just come from free events around the area, especially our running races. We are not picky. I don’t really care if I’m taking a Kmart bag into Target. It’s not plastic. It’s reusable. That’s all I care about. This includes shopping bags as well as produce bags, too. We made the choice to use cheap, Target brand lingerie bags as our produce bags. They work great. They are a polyester mesh with a zipper and hold up well. (We use those bags as nut bags for making our own almond milk and even for toy storage, too. We have a dozen of
    them at least.)
  5. The less-thought-about: Choose ceramic options for things like butter storage, cookie jars, honey pots, tea/coffee mugs, etc. It is far easier to remove plastics with the things you don’t use often or use without much thought than the everyday items you rely on heavily. Every little bit makes a difference. Pick stainless steel pots and pans or cast iron over nonstick coated ones. (The coating is made from chemicals that can leach into your food as it starts to chip.) Try out stainless steel straws for your cups. Keep them in your diaper bag if you go out to a restaurant, etc. Even our water bottles for running are made of stainless steel. Anything that seemed reasonable to replace, we made the attempt to do so.

There are conflicting opinions on just how safe plastic is, especially now that most plastic is in fact BPA free. For my family, we have certain rules for the little plastic that still remains, and the biggest one is related to heating plastic. No microwaves, no dishwasher, and no leaving plastic in the car where it can heat up in the sun. We also make sure highly acidic foods are always heated in glass or stainless steel. These processes reduce the risk of harmful endocrine-blocking chemicals being released into our foods.

Writer’s Note: A version of this post was originally featured on Our Magical Chaos. I no longer actively maintain the site but wanted share some of my best posts with my readers here. 

Have you decided to ever remove plastics from your family’s lives? Leave me a comment with your favorite tips.

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Category: Life Changes

Tags: fibromyalgia