I felt like an eager parent trampling the competition to get to the holiday season’s “it” toy. Except I was not trying to beat the rush at WalMart for a video game console, but online vendors of glass baby bottles.

Newsweek recently ran a story how some plastic baby bottles contain a harmful substance that can leak into the milk and cause health problems. The chemical in question, bisphenol A, or BPA, is a component of the polycarbonate plastic that makes up many baby bottles and sippy cups.

While the FDA has not banned the chemical, studies have shown that even low doses of it “can cause neural and behavioral effects, and possibly lead to obesity, decreased fertility and some cancers,” according to Newsweek’s report. Great.

My seven-month-old daughter is breastfed, as the article suggested, but I pump and often give her breastmilk in a bottle. I would hate to see those health advantages disappear because she is ingesting BPA. My first instinct? I turned to the websites mentioned in the article to purchase glass baby bottles (newbornfree.com and sassybaby.com). Guess what? Everyone had the same thought and all the glass bottles, including a $100 package of 12 at newbornfree.com was “out of stock.” Gah!

A couple green/eco-friendly sites via a Google search also were sold-out for glass bottles. Finally, I found the much-coveted glass baby bottle (an Evenflo package of 6 for $15) at the natural baby catalog. Of course, the vendor did not fail to mention the bottles’ health and environmental perks:

"Glass Baby Bottles are becoming more popular than plastic bottles because parents are finding out that they are safer for your baby.

Polycarbonate baby bottles have been tested and found that bisphenol-A migrates from the bottles into the milk. Parents are advised to use glass baby bottles instead of polycarbonate (a clear, shiny, glassy-looking hard plastic). Babies are especially at risk as the amount of toxin ingested is large compared to their body weight. Also a baby's organs are still growing and will be affected more than those of a fully-grown person."

Lead-laden toys. Baby bottles with BPA. Furniture with carcinogenic flame retardants. I really fear for my children who must grow up in this world.