Can prenatal phthalate exposure from plastic products affect your baby's brain development?

What's actually in it

Phthalates are in almost every plastic product around you: food packaging, personal care products, vinyl flooring, shower curtains, and even some medications. During pregnancy, these chemicals cross the placenta and reach the developing baby. The most common phthalates found in pregnant women include DEHP, DEP, and DBP.

The developing brain is especially sensitive to hormone-disrupting chemicals. Phthalates can interfere with thyroid hormones, which are critical for brain development, and alter fat and amino acid metabolism in ways that affect how the brain grows.

What the research says

A 2025 study in Nat Commun followed pregnant women and their babies from pregnancy through the first year of life. The researchers measured phthalate levels in the mothers' urine during pregnancy, analyzed the newborns' metabolome (the full set of small molecules in their blood), and tested the babies' neurodevelopment at multiple time points.

Higher prenatal phthalate exposure was linked to disrupted metabolic profiles at birth. The affected metabolites included lipids and amino acids involved in brain cell growth and energy production. These weren't random changes. They followed patterns consistent with impaired neurodevelopment.

When the researchers tested the babies' development, infants with higher prenatal phthalate exposure scored lower on cognitive and motor assessments. The metabolic changes at birth partially explained these lower scores, suggesting phthalates affect brain development by disrupting metabolism during a critical window.

Reducing phthalate exposure during pregnancy means avoiding plastic food containers for hot food, choosing fragrance-free personal care products, and eating less processed food that comes in plastic packaging.