Researchers are suggesting that parents hold off on the lotions, creams, powders and shampoos they apply to their babies' skin - unless those products are medically necessary.

Their study found that babies on whom these products have been used have higher urine concentrations of a family of chemicals known as phthalates than infants who haven't had the products applied. And it's likely that it's through the skin that the smallest of these tots are being exposed.

Phthalates are found in a variety of products. They make plastics soft and pliable and are used in many personal-care products to hold fragrance and color. These chemicals are known to cause a host of maladies in laboratory animals, including undescended testicles and malformed penises - two birth defects that are on the rise in people.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rate of boys born with hypospadia, or a malformed urethra, in the United States has doubled since the late 1960s.

There is no definitive evidence that phthalates can cause harm to human babies.

For consumers, figuring out whether a particular product contains phthalates is difficult. Federal laws do not require companies to label chemicals if they are not considered key or critical ingredients in a product.

"The consumer has no way to know when they pick up a bottle of lotion if this product contains this chemical," said Patricia Hunt, a biologist at Washington State University, who has studied other chemicals thought to damage the reproductive system. "All a parent can do now is look for products that explicitly say they do not contain these chemicals."

The research study, conducted by a team from the University of Washington, the CDC and the Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, is published today in the journal Pediatrics.

It has sparked a strong rebuke from the chemical companies' trade group, the American Chemistry Council.

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