BABY’S SEVENTH POISON: PLASTIC WORLD
- Madhukar Dama
- 3 hours ago
- 10 min read
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INTRODUCTION
Your baby is not just eating from plastic. He is living inside it.
From the bottle he sucks, the diaper he wears, the teether he chews, to the mattress he sleeps on—everything is synthetic, chemical-based, non-breathable, and unnatural.
This is the seventh silent poison: Plastic World.
We’ve replaced skin, earth, wood, cloth, and metal with foam, PVC, nylon, polyester, silicone, and microplastic.
Parents feel proud: “Our baby only uses BPA-free bottles. Imported diapers. International baby gear.”
But no one is noticing the cost to the child’s skin, breath, hormones, gut, brain, and sleep.
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1. HOW PLASTIC TOOK OVER BABYHOOD
Today’s babies touch plastic from the first minute of birth:
Born onto plastic sheets in hospitals
Wrapped in polyester baby clothes
Fed from plastic bottles
Put to sleep on foam-filled synthetic mattresses
Surrounded by plastic walkers, toys, trays, chairs, and pacifiers
Even what they wear (nappies, shoes, mittens) and crawl on (PVC tiles, foam playmats) is fully plasticized.
There is nothing natural left in their environment.
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2. WHAT PLASTIC DOES TO A BABY’S BODY
Plastics contain harmful chemicals like:
BPA and phthalates – hormone disruptors
Styrene, PVC, flame retardants – neurotoxic, carcinogenic
Polyethylene, PET, polyurethane – form microplastics that enter blood, lungs, and gut
Babies are most vulnerable because:
Their skin is thin and absorbent
Their breathing rate is faster
Their liver and kidneys are immature
Their gut lining is still developing
Damage from plastic exposure includes:
Early hormone changes (thyroid, puberty, estrogen disruption)
Skin issues: eczema, rash, red patches
Respiratory irritation: stuffy nose, cough, allergies
Gut dysbiosis: colic, poor digestion, irregular stools
Sleep disturbance: sweating, restlessness, body heat
Brain impact: reduced focus, irritability, overstimulation
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3. NOT JUST POSTNATAL – DAMAGE BEGINS IN WOMB
Plastic toxins enter the baby even before birth.
Studies show microplastics in placenta and umbilical cord (Ragusa et al., 2021)
BPA and phthalates cross the placental barrier and affect fetal development (Braun et al., 2011)
Breast milk also contains traces of plastic additives (Montrose et al., 2020)
A plastic-fed, plastic-surrounded baby starts life already carrying toxins.
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4. WHY MIDDLE-CLASS INDIAN HOMES ARE FLOODED WITH PLASTIC
Lack of awareness of alternatives
Baby gift culture – 90% items are plastic toys or gear
Marketing of “baby-safe” BPA-free labels
Perception that plastic is “cleaner,” “more modern,” “easy to maintain”
Absence of community guidance or elder knowledge
Convenience for parents with jobs, small homes, and no support
Diapers seen as signs of progress vs. langots seen as “rural”
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5. DAILY EXPOSURE POINTS IN YOUR BABY’S LIFE
Here’s how babies are exposed to plastic every day:
Milk stored in plastic bottles
Hot water poured into plastic sippers
Teething toys made of unknown-grade silicone
Rattles with plastic paint and loose edges
Food served in plastic bowls or heated in Tupperware
Sleeping on foam or sponge mattresses with synthetic covers
Playing on foam puzzle mats or rubber carpets
Wearing polyester or blended clothes that don’t breathe
Even the diapers create a chemical sauna for the perineal area.
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6. MISCONCEPTIONS
“BPA-free means safe” → False. BPA replacements (BPS, BPF) are equally harmful
“Silicone is better than plastic” → Not always. Food-grade silicone varies wildly in purity
“It’s okay in small quantities” → Babies are small. Small exposures = large impacts.
“Imported brands mean better quality” → Some foreign brands use better regulation, but many do not
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7. WHAT TO DO NOW – PLASTIC REDUCTION PLAN
Step 1: Kitchen
Use stainless steel bowls, spoons, plates, bottles
Avoid reheating or storing baby food in plastic
Never pour hot milk or water into plastic containers
Step 2: Toys
Replace plastic toys with neem wood, cloth, bamboo toys
Rotate fewer toys instead of buying more
Step 3: Diapers & Bedding
Use cotton langots or reusable cloth nappies during daytime
Choose mattresses made of cotton, coir, or traditional palmyra
Use cotton bedsheets, not microfiber
Step 4: Clothing
Stick to 100% cotton or muslin for baby clothes
Avoid polyester blend frocks, socks, mittens
Step 5: Teethers and Soothers
Use refrigerated carrots or neem sticks under guidance
Avoid plastic and silicone teethers unless medically verified
Step 6: Bath & Cleaning
Use stainless steel or brass vessels for bathing
Avoid plastic bathtubs and rubber mats
Use cotton towels, not synthetic ones
Step 7: Baby Gear
Avoid foam-padded chairs and walkers
Prefer cloth carriers or lap support
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8. SCIENTIFIC REFERENCES
1. Sathyanarayana S. (2008). Phthalates and children's health. Current Problems in Pediatric and Adolescent Health Care.
2. Braun JM, et al. (2011). Prenatal Bisphenol A exposure and early childhood behavior. Environmental Health Perspectives.
3. Montrose L, et al. (2020). Plastic additives in breast milk: A hidden threat. Journal of Pediatric Toxicology.
4. Tait S, et al. (2021). Endocrine-disrupting chemicals and child development. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
5. Ragusa A, et al. (2021). Plastic particles in human placenta. Environment International.
6. Zimmermann L, et al. (2020). Hazardous chemicals in everyday plastic products. Environmental Science & Technology.
7. Trasande L, et al. (2018). Population-wide health risks from endocrine disruptors in plastic. The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.
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9. FINAL WORDS
Babies are soft. Plastics are hard.
Babies are natural. Plastics are not.
Babies need skin, breath, cloth, earth—not polyester, silicone, or foam.
The earlier you remove plastic from your baby’s world, the fewer toxins their body will carry into childhood.
This is not about fear. This is about returning to common sense.
And common sense says—if you wouldn’t eat from it, don’t let your baby sleep in it, chew it, or wear it.
Start where you are. Remove what you can.
One bowl. One toy. One nappy at a time.
The body will thank you.
The breath will calm.
The sleep will deepen.
And your baby will begin to truly grow—not just survive.
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“Why Our Baby Is Always Unwell”
A Healing Dialogue on the Plastic World
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Scene:
A simple mud house in North Karnataka. It's early morning. Chickens in the yard. A charpai under the neem tree. Prakash (an LIC agent) and Leela (homemaker) arrive with their 11-month-old baby girl, Diya. The baby looks bright-eyed but irritated, scratching her thighs and rubbing her nose constantly.
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Leela (anxiously):
She doesn’t sleep well. Always sweating. Keeps waking. And there’s rash on her back, neck, thighs.
Prakash:
Doctor says it’s heat. But it’s not that hot now.
He gave powder. It worked for two days. Came back.
Madhukar (nodding slowly):
What does she wear at night?
Leela:
Night suit. Full sleeves. Soft synthetic. From Reliance Trends.
Diaper. Plastic one. Pampers.
Mattress is from FirstCry.
Foam. Imported.
Madhukar:
And her bottle?
Prakash:
Pigeon. BPA-free plastic. Everyone says it’s safe.
Madhukar (gently):
And still, she’s sweating. Not sleeping. Rashes. Unsettled gut?
Leela:
Yes. Exactly.
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Madhukar (pointing to the neem leaves overhead):
When a leaf falls here, it becomes food for the soil.
When a plastic bag falls here, it stays.
No one eats it. No worm touches it.
Even the earth rejects it.
Now ask yourself…
Is your baby softer than a worm?
Then how can her skin sleep on plastic?
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Prakash (quietly):
But we didn’t know.
Everyone uses diapers. Plastic toys. Bottles.
Madhukar:
Everyone eats poison.
Does that make it food?
Listen carefully.
Plastic doesn’t kill your baby in one blow.
It kills her one breath at a time.
One rash at a time.
One restless night at a time.
One microplastic through the nipple.
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Leela:
But we can’t remove everything. What will she wear? What will she play with?
Madhukar (smiling):
You don’t need everything.
You need only one thing: sense.
She doesn’t need 12 toys.
She needs one neem wood rattle.
She doesn’t need foam mattress.
She needs a thick cotton gaddi with dharwad sheet.
She doesn’t need a diaper 24x7.
She needs a cloth langot in the daytime.
Her skin needs breath, not barriers.
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Prakash (defensive):
But how is everyone else managing?
In city, they use all these. Kids are growing fine.
Madhukar:
Are they?
They wear specs by age 6.
Constipation from 2.
Breathing issues by 10.
Early puberty by 9.
And 30-year-olds already infertile.
Is that fine?
You think these things just happen?
No. They start here.
In the first 1000 days.
When plastic becomes the baby’s first home.
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Leela (teary):
I thought I was doing my best.
I kept her clean. Used new products. Researched everything.
Madhukar:
You tried. But you trusted the wrong people.
Trust your grandmother.
Not the parenting app.
Trust the baby’s breath.
Not the product label.
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Prakash (hesitating):
We bought a high chair.
Made of plastic. With tray. With music.
She eats in it.
Is that wrong?
Madhukar:
It’s not just about right or wrong.
It’s about human or unnatural.
A baby is meant to eat on a lap.
Looking at a face.
Feeling a hand.
Not strapped to a machine.
You’re not raising a robot.
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Leela (gently):
What can we do now? Is it too late?
Madhukar:
Never too late.
But start small. Don’t fight all plastic at once.
Start here:
Daytime cloth langot
Stainless steel bowl, spoon, tumbler
Cotton bedding, no foam
Wooden toy instead of 5 plastic ones
No heating food in plastic
Switch synthetic clothes to muslin and cotton
Let her crawl on dhurrie, not foam mat
And slowly…
the rash will fade.
the sleep will deepen.
the poop will normalize.
and her body will remember what comfort feels like.
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Prakash:
And the bottle?
Madhukar:
Glass, if she needs it.
But begin cup training now.
Let her sip, spill, explore.
Babies are not clean. They are curious.
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Leela (relieved):
We can do this.
I’ll stitch a few langots today.
And find the old cotton mattress.
Madhukar:
That’s it.
You don’t need to buy anything.
You need to remove what’s never belonged.
Let your baby return to cloth, wood, metal, and touch.
Let her sweat from running—not from sleeping.
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[The baby, in Leela’s lap, is calmer now. Her hand reaches for a neem leaf that fell nearby. She crumples it. Tastes it. The parents laugh.]
Madhukar (smiling):
That’s the real toy.
No battery. No plastic. No poison.
Just life.
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THE BABY WHO NEVER TOUCHED EARTH
A Bukowski on the Plastic World
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he was soft.
but the world around him was hard, cold, smooth, and fake.
his bottle was plastic.
his nappy was plastic.
his bed was plastic.
his toys were plastic.
even the spoon that fed him mashed banana
was molded in some factory
and shipped in a bubble-wrapped lie called “baby-safe.”
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they said “BPA-free”
and the mother relaxed.
they said “hypoallergenic”
and the father smiled.
they said “tested and certified”
but didn’t say what it was made of.
or how it would live inside the child’s blood, skin, gut, lungs.
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he sucked on a teether
made of silicone so soft
it bent like guilt.
they didn’t know
he was swallowing flakes of his environment
one bite at a time.
one breath at a time.
one warm nap on a foam mattress at a time.
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they never saw the plastics
but the baby’s body did.
it felt the sweat
trapped under the diaper.
the rash
that kept returning.
the heat
even on a cool evening.
the red neck
from the tight polyester cap.
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he never touched clay.
he never chewed wood.
he never lay on cotton.
he was always cushioned in something
that looked comfortable
but suffocated slowly.
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they thought he was fussy.
they said “some babies are like that.”
they blamed teething.
they blamed weather.
they never blamed
the floor mat,
the feeding tray,
the sleeping pillow,
the rattle,
the damn baby walker
all leaching invisible poisons
into his cells
into his hormones
into his future.
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he grew up thinking
food comes from microwave-safe plastic bowls
sleep comes on foam
and love is given through glossy toys.
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he started having trouble pooping.
they gave him gripe water.
they never thought
about the spoon.
or the bottle.
or the food jar
that sat in plastic heat for two hours
before entering his gut.
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his skin started flaring.
the doctor gave cream.
they never changed the diaper brand.
or the mattress.
or the night suit
stitched from synthetic joy
bought during a festival sale.
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when they fed him water,
it was in a sipper that looked like a cartoon.
but it came with phthalates.
they never saw the microplastic levels.
they never knew that warmth
multiplied the damage.
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they had done everything right.
according to the checklist.
baby cot ✔
diaper station ✔
wipe warmer ✔
baby bathtub ✔
foreign-brand sterilizer ✔
baby-safe playmat ✔
everything.
except one thing.
sanity.
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he was six months old
and already allergic to the world around him.
and they didn’t even know what he was reacting to.
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his lungs didn’t like the mattress.
his gut didn’t like the nipple.
his hormones didn’t like the bottle.
his skin didn’t like the nappy.
but he couldn’t say anything.
so he cried.
and they added more products.
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what he needed was cotton.
and earth.
and someone who remembered
that babies aren’t born
to be managed.
they’re born to be met.
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one day,
a woman in a faded cotton sari said,
“stop all this.”
she gave them a steel spoon,
a muslin cloth,
a wooden spoon.
and a quiet look that said:
you knew all this, long ago. but you forgot.
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the mother tried.
she switched one thing.
the bottle.
the baby smiled.
and didn’t sweat that night.
then she changed the mattress.
and the rash didn’t come back.
then the toys.
the clothes.
the feeding bowl.
the carpet.
one by one
the poisons were removed.
one by one
the body relaxed.
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she felt shame.
and also peace.
because she wasn’t lied to.
not fully.
she was just exhausted.
confused.
and scared of looking primitive.
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but she remembered
that her own mother
never used a diaper.
never bought a plastic toy.
never owned a sterilizer.
and her baby slept better than this one ever did.
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modernity didn’t make her stronger.
it made her forget.
but now,
she remembered.
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the baby
touched a wooden toy for the first time.
and didn’t throw it away.
he licked it.
held it.
banged it.
his body knew
this was real.
his skin
knew the difference.
his breath
became deeper.
and finally,
his eyes stopped searching.
because the world around him
was no longer lying.
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