For the Love of Mamas: Safe Dish Soap and the BEST Bottle Brushes!

Dish soap is an essential household item, even if you are someone like me who likes to put EVERYTHING in the dishwasher (much to my husband's dismay), and I honestly think I've done more dishes by hand now that I have a baby, than I ever did before. So dish soap is something I use on a daily basis to wash Luke's bottles and nipples. I never really cared before, but as with everything else, I started wondering what was in my Dawn dish soap after Luke was born.

First of all, I swear I can taste the soap (Dawn) even after rinsing the bottle really well, but secondly, and even more importantly, this is what cleans the bottles that have been and will feed my son for the first year of his life. I know you rinse the bottle out, but residue will still remain on the inside of the bottle that he then drinks out of 4+ times every day.

Again, I will refer you right to one of my favorite resources for this kind of information, Gimme the Good Stuff. She explains how many of the commercialized dish soaps contain ingredients like phthalates, triclosan, sulfates and artificial dyes, which can disrupt hormones and have been linked to cancer, birth defects, obesity and autism.

Many of the dish soaps out there that are advertised as being natural or safe, are actually not safe at all (like Mrs Meyers, Seventh Generation, etc..). I've tried a few of the truly safe and nontoxic types of dish soap, but my favorite and what I found to be the most accessible, is a brand called Eco Me. I LOVE it! I've been using their dish soap now for over 6 months and have no complaints. It suds just enough to make me feel that the bottles and my dishes are clean, but is safe enough for me to feel comfortable using it. My sister said the dishwasher soap works but only on lighter loads, for loads with a lot of grease and grime, you may need to use something else. I currently use The Honest Company's dishwasher packs for my dishwasher, and so far so good, I don't have any complaints and most of their products are safe and nontoxic.

Eco Me comes unscented and in a few mild scents. They do carry it at some grocery stores, but the easiest place I've found and purchased it is either from their website or on Amazon (surprise, surprise!). On their website, it runs $5.99 for a 16 oz bottle which isn't too bad, but the shipping is pretty high ($11 in shipping for a $6 bottle....ridiculous!), and only gets higher the more you purchase. I've purchased it on Amazon for anywhere from $4.99 to $7.99 including shipping, which is much more reasonable to me. I totally get that you're going to likely pay $3-4 for the same size bottle of Dawn, but here is where you are paying for quality. You can use a dish soap full of toxic chemicals, or you can use one that's slightly more expensive yet still not unreasonably priced, and a hell of a lot safer for your baby.

Have I convinced you yet? If not, at least let me share with you my recommendation on a related product...my FAVORITE bottle brushes! Even if you don't bottle feed, you will probably need a bottle brush at some point (great for cleaning breast pump parts and sippy cups down the road). I've tried several different ones, and there are two that I swear by.

They are essentially the same, just two different brands, and one is a bit flimsier and about a dollar or two less expensive, but they both get the job done.

Munchkin

Dr Brown's

Dr Brown's is one of the brands, and it is available at Babies R Us and Amazon for usually $4.99 in an assortment of colors. It has the removable end that serves as a nipple brush, but I never use it. The bottom end serves as the nipple cleaner, but I don't use this as the top squeezes into the nipple.

The other brand is Munchkin, which I've found at Target and again on Amazon for anywhere from $2-4 in also several colors. This also has the removable nipple brush, but just like Dr Brown's, I never use it. The Munchkin brand is less expensive, but I find that it is slightly lower in quality, though I still very much like them. They are often on sale at Target for even less too!

I will say that I hate any bottle brush with hard bristles, because I don't feel that they scrub well enough inside the bottle, but both of these have soft bristles. Just be careful, because both brands have more than one style brush, often referred to as 'deluxe', but those are the ones with the hard bristles. I do change mine out every so often as you will see some wear and tear, and then just for cleanliness sake. And as a disclaimer, I have been searching for a reasonably priced nontoxic bottle brush, and have not had much luck. You will see that I definitely pick my battles, this is one of them. Honestly, this is a process for me too, so when I find one I love I will be sure to let you know!