About precocious puberty and BPA

[oldposter]

Good morning.  I asked some questions about 5 months ago regarding my dd's issues with precocious puberty.  We have had follow up w/ the ped endo and he wants to have her get an MRI and do another bone age study. (She had US w/ a 5 mm cyst but he didn't feel that this was concerning so didn't suggest any f/u for this).  She has grown a bit -- although a year ago she had a tremendous growth spurt of about 5 inches (I have to d/c her records to be exact).

Anyway, I am now seeing all this info on BPA in plastics and was hoping for your thoughts on it.  I see that when it leeches into food/drink it mimics estrogen and am now wondering if since my dd was bottle fed as an infant if this could have contributed to her precocious puberty.  

And would the effects be seen this much later (don't really use plastics now)...and does it mean it could be lingering in her system...and then is there anything that can be done to alleviate it?  Also, I am concerned about some of the long-term effects they are saying that BPA can have (cancers, etc.) and is there anything that can be done now to lessen the risk?

I realize this is a hot topic right now and maybe the answers are not clear, but I would really love to hear your thoughts on it.

Thank you.

[Deanna L Aftab Guy, MD]

I too have questions about the bpa's in particular the nalgene bottles. However as an endocrinologist the topic of endocrine related issues linked to this have been very very vague. We have no clear evidence, rather suggestions that there may be a link.
There is a pediatric endocrinologist in Harvard-Dr. Mary Lee and she spends a good time of her research in this area, gave many stories about animals in areas in which the waters were affected greatly but gave no clear conclusion about the impact on us and our daily use of these products. The term endocrine disruptors has been used, meaning substances that can trigger hormonal receptors and act and mimic normal processes causes exaggerated problems, the main concern in many folks minds besides cancer has been puberty.
Honestly, many many many children including my own have used plastic baby bottles and water bottles, yet a rare percentage have had early pubertal concerns. So this is not a good answer but really we have no clear evidence to make a conclusion yet. Kind of like our past concerns of saccharin, I imagine that if we were exposed to very high levels of bpa this indeed would be concerning, however what to do with our Nalgene bottles that my marathoner husband stocks up on and the two last baby bottles that I save so my 2 year old will finally take a nap is a good question. The nalgene website gives no answers either! So my overall impression is about what you think, unclear, not totally panicked though, not entirely convinced.