NICU Babies Are Getting Phthalates Through Feeding Tubes

Babies in neonatal intensive care units are getting phthalates through the plastic tubing that feeds them. A 2025 study measured phthalate exposure in NICU patients and found significant contamination from the medical plastic devices used in their care.

What Researchers Found

Published in a 2025 peer-reviewed study, researchers measured neonatal exposure to phthalates and alternative plasticizers via enteral nutrition, meaning through feeding tubes. Patients in the NICU receive nutrients through plastic medical devices. Those devices leach phthalates and their replacements (alternative plasticizers) into the milk or formula flowing through them.

This isn't a hypothesis. The study directly measured the plasticizers in the delivered nutrition. Premature infants and critically ill neonates are getting phthalates as part of their medical care.

Why This Matters at Home Too

If plastic tubing in a controlled medical environment leaches phthalates into formula, so does a plastic baby bottle sitting on your counter. The mechanism is the same. Phthalates are plasticizers. They're not permanently bonded to the plastic. They migrate into whatever contacts the plastic surface.

For a healthy baby at home, the main exposure route is the bottle itself. Phthalates in DEHP-containing plastics are already banned from baby products in the EU and restricted in the U.S., but alternative plasticizers have replaced them and show similar effects in emerging research.

Glass baby bottles have no plastic interior. Stainless steel bottles have no plastic interior. These eliminate the plasticizer migration entirely. Browse non-toxic baby products for bottle options.

Also see glass food storage for safer alternatives.

Source: Neonatal Exposure to Phthalate and Alternative Plasticizers via Enteral Nutrition (2025).