Bottles, cups, pacifiers and teethers — the things a baby puts in their mouth for hours a day. The good news is that most of the materials question here answers itself once you know what each material is for.
Our picks
The winners from our cheat sheets, each chosen for one job.
Best overall pacifier
Natursutten natural rubber pacifiers — one-piece natural rubber, so there is no plasticizer to ask about.
Manufacturer statement checked · source
From BPA-free pacifiers and teethers cheat sheet
Best no-spill sippy cup
Stainless body with the established 360 no-spill design: a spoutless edge with no separate valve, labeled BPA-free. Munchkin does not name the material of the lid and drinking edge, the part that touches a mouth.
Manufacturer statement checked · source
From Cheat Sheet: Less-plastic sippy cups, bottles and water bottles
Our top pick (organic)
Earth's Best Organic Infant Formula: USDA-certified organic, widely stocked, and typically priced closer to conventional formula than most organic options. Ownership and recall-check notes are on the full page.
Ingredient panel checked · source
From Organic infant formula cheat sheet
Undecorated natural rubber teether
Sophie la girafe So'Pure circle teether — natural rubber, undecorated. Two other Sophie toys were recalled in France in 2026; no US recall of this teether found as of October 2026.
Manufacturer statement checked · source
From BPA-free pacifiers and teethers cheat sheetAsk what it is made of, not what it is free from. Almost everything a baby feeds from is meant to be soft or unbreakable, and the materials that do those jobs — silicone, natural rubber, TPR, glass, stainless steel — never needed BPA in the first place. A material answer is stable; a marketing claim is only as good as the production run behind it.
BPA is used to make polycarbonate hard, rigid and clear. Almost everything a baby feeds from is meant to be soft or unbreakable — so the materials that do those jobs never needed BPA in the first place.
Silicone, natural rubber and TPR are soft by nature. Glass and stainless steel are rigid without any help. In all five cases "BPA-free" is a consequence of what the material is, not a reformulation somebody had to be persuaded into.
That is why the useful question at the shelf is usually "what is this made of?" rather than "what is this free from." A material answer is stable. A marketing claim is only as good as the production run behind it.
Worth being precise, because it is easy to assume more coverage than exists.
BPA has been removed from baby bottles, sippy cups and infant formula packaging. FDA amended its food additive regulations in 2012 and 2013 to stop providing for those uses, on the basis that industry had abandoned them — the agency is explicit that an amendment on abandonment "is not based on safety." Either way, the result on the shelf is real and settled.
It did not cover pacifiers and teethers, and it says nothing about general groceries. NIEHS puts the main route of BPA exposure for most people in the diet — "BPA in food and beverages accounts for the majority of daily human exposure" — and names the epoxy resin lining of canned food among the places it leaches from. Our BPA-free canned food cheat sheet covers that side.
If you are buying pacifiers or teethers, start with the cheat sheet — one-piece natural rubber is the simplest answer available, and silicone is the right call where there is a latex allergy.
If you are moving off the bottle, the cup guide covers why straw and open cups are generally preferred to a hard-spout sippy, and what actually survives a small hand.
And if you are standing in a shop wondering what the soft rubbery part of something is, our TPR explainer answers the question most packaging will not.
Cleaning. Valves, gaskets and straws are where residue collects, and a cup that cannot be taken apart and dried properly will eventually need replacing rather than washing. Buy a straw brush at the same time as the cup — it is the single accessory that decides how long the cup lasts.
We prefer materials that sidestep the question rather than answer it: glass, stainless steel, one-piece natural rubber and silicone do not need BPA or phthalate plasticizers to work, so their being free of both is structural rather than a reformulation somebody had to be talked into. Where a manufacturer voluntarily declares materials, we treat that as meaningful.
Save & share
The BPA rules cover baby bottles, sippy cups and infant formula packaging. They did not cover pacifiers and teethers, and they say nothing about groceries.
The science, briefly
BPA is used to make polycarbonate hard, rigid and clear. Almost everything a baby feeds from is meant to be soft or unbreakable, so the materials that do those jobs never needed BPA. Silicone, natural rubber and TPR are soft by nature; glass and stainless steel are rigid without any help. In all five cases "BPA-free" is a consequence of what the material is, not a reformulation somebody had to be persuaded into.
That is why the useful question at the shelf is usually "what is this made of?" rather than "what is this free from". A material answer is stable. A marketing claim is only as good as the production run behind it.
Being precise about coverage matters, because it is easy to assume more than exists. FDA amended its food additive regulations in 2012 and 2013 so that BPA-based materials are no longer provided for in baby bottles, sippy cups and infant formula packaging — on the basis that those uses had been abandoned, which FDA is explicit is not a safety determination. It did not cover pacifiers and teethers, and it says nothing about general groceries. NIEHS puts the main route of BPA exposure for most people in the diet, and names the epoxy resin lining of canned food among the places it leaches from.
Common mistakes
The rules covered bottles, sippy cups and formula packaging. Pacifiers and teethers were not included, and neither was anything in the grocery aisle.
Silicone was never going to contain it. On soft materials the label is describing the material's nature, not a choice the brand made.
NIEHS puts the main route of BPA exposure for most people in the diet, and names canned-food linings among the sources — while BPA-based materials are no longer provided for in bottles, sippy cups or formula packaging at all. Which is why the canned-food side has its own cheat sheet.
Start here
The category the bottle rules never covered.
See picksWhat each maker says the lid and spout are made of.
See picksWhat to use from six months, and why not a spouted sippy.
See picksWhat the FDA actually regulates, and why organic is a sourcing choice, not a safety tier.
See picksWhat we'd buy
Manufacturer statement checked · source
Go deeper
Child passenger safety technicians across the country report identifying one to two unregulated or counterfeit seats each month during routine safety checks.
— In 2026-02-07 testimony, Ben Hoffman, MD, CPST-I cited ...
Public testimony on counterfeit car seats, Oregon House Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection — Oregon Legislative Information System (2026-02-07)
Car seat use reduces the risk for injury in a crash by 71-82% for children, compared with seat belt use alone
— In 2026-02-07 testimony, Ben Hoffman, MD, CPST-I cited ...
Public testimony on counterfeit car seats, Oregon House Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection — Oregon Legislative Information System (2026-02-07)
A flexible 9-day road map for safely introducing top allergens
— Malina Malkani, MS, RDN, CDN told BenBella Books (distributed by Simon & Schuster), ISBN 9781637745359 that ...
Safe and Simple Food Allergy Prevention: A Baby-Led Feeding Guide to Starting Solids and Introducing Top Allergens — BenBella Books (distributed by Simon & Schuster), ISBN 9781637745359 (2024-11-12)
