bottle warmer advice

I am jumping ahead boards here, not due till feb. I went to a multiples class and they said a sertilizer and bottle warmer are a waste of money. To just use anti bacterial soap and hot water to heat the bottles...can any of you give me advice ? thanks in advance ! :itwins:

 

I use my sanitizer (germ guardian) and my bottle warmer religiously! I make my formula in big batches and keep it in a formula pitcher in the fridge. Everyone is different and it all depends on your preferences and what works for you. Good Luck!

 

I used my sanitizer a bit but not much. It really depends on you.

My bottle warmers were wonderful with the twins. They heated much faster than placing the bottles in hot water so there was less time where the babies were crying. I usually mixed one bottle, placed it in the bottle warmer, and then mixed the other bottle. The first bottle was done as the second one was ready to go in. It was especially useful in the middle of the night since I could keep it in my room and I didn't have to venture to other parts of the house to make bottles.

 

I never used a bottle warmer. We sanitized the bottles by dipping them in boiling water. We didn't make bottles ahead of time. We kept our water room temp in a bottle on the counter & made the bottles as needed. We really didn't need to warm the bottles, only sometimes in the winter.
For the first month I was very good about sanitizing the bottles regularly. I did get out of the habit once I started washing them in the dishwasher though. I got lazy about warming the bottles too. At first I'd warm them in hot water. Eventually I started putting them in the microwave. 10 - 15 seconds seemed to take the edge off but not warm them too much. I'd shake them up afterwards to try to avoid any hot pockets.
I'm a practical person. The bottle warmer & sanitizer just seemed like 2 more pieces of baby equipment I probably didn't need on my counter.
Think about what would be easiest for you.

 

I do use the sterilizer only because DH is a freak but we wash them in hot soapy water first anyway. The bottle warmer was a total waste. It seemed to take the same amount of time because it always ended up too hot and then we would have to wait for it to cool down.

 

I express breast milk and keep it in the fridge, and then generally mix it with some formula -- so we do need to heat bottles, at least to bring them back to room temp.

But, we have an instahot in the kitchen, and two bottles sitting in this very hot water get nice and warm in five minutes -- so we just use that.

I've never sanitized bottles -- I just rinse and then run them through the dishwasher. No issues.

 

I love the bottle warmer... the bottles warm really quickly and there's no messing with hot water or a cup to hold the water and bottle. No advice on the sterilizer... we just wash our bottles in hot soapy (non-antibacterial) water.

 

The hot water trick will work for 4 ozs, but any bigger then that, it takes FOREVER! We would pre-make our formula and I froze my ebm. It literally took us 15 minutes to heat up 6 oz, and with 2 hungry, screaming babies, that is way too long. We used a bottle warmer (Advent, I believe) and it would cook an 8 oz bottle in 4 minutes straight out of the fridge or bm out of the freezer. So I recommend having one...

As far as the sterilizer, we never used one. We first started out washing our bottles by hand with soapy water. And after a while, we started to notice a film. We then started using the dishwasher, and that works incredibily well. It gets hot enough to get it clean and doesnt leave any residue either.

 

I gave up on the bottle warmers after a day or two. It seemed like it took FOREVER to heat up a few ounces of baby forumula. Now I just use a pan of water on the stove. I wish I could find a bottle warmer like I had with my five year old, it used steam instead of heating up water.

 

I had a bottle warmer that I used maybe a few times..took too long when they were screaming for a bottle and I never bought a sterilizer just did it the old fashion way with a pot of boiling water. They are a waste of money IMO.

 

I picked up two used bottle warmers (Avent) at a consignment sale and we used them for heating bottles every time. I am very glad we have them. Just using hot water would take a heck of a lot longer. I also heard of folks using a crock pot with water in it, turned on low and left on all day, but I wasn't comfortable doing that.

We needed a new dishwasher before the twins were born, so I got one with a sanitize cycle. We do the bottles and such in there.

I make up two pitchers at a time (one for each baby, they each drink about 30 ounces of formula right now and I can't get twice that in the pitchers I have) which is their food for one day. I do this at the same time every day, and I then pour it into their bottles and have them in the fridge ready for any feeding time. I turn the warmers on a few minutes ahead of time, then plop the bottles in and in a few minutes they are both ready to go.

 

I just keep two oversized coffee mugs 1/2 full next to the microwave and heat them up for two minutes. It takes maybe 3-4 minutes to heat up the bottles in the water-and those are 8 ounce bottles. Also, that is with formula that has been in the fridge since I make a batch every night for the next day. I tried 3 different bottle warmers-none really worked for me.

 

We got two bottle warmers and after using one a few times, I took them both back. When we were in the NICU, they just put frozen or cold breastmilk in hot water and it worked for them so I started doing that. When we switched over to all formula, I just mixed it up as we needed it. It was so much faster than warming bottles, even in the middle of the night. If someone else is watching my boys for a few hours, I'll put water in the bottles so it is measured out and leave it on the counter at room temp. until ready to use.

 

I put my bottles in the dishwasher, and I warm my bottles in the microwave. I know they say you aren't supposed to because of hot spots, but i make sure i shake them really well. That hot water thing would take FOREVER i think. We tried a bottle warmer and it evaporated half the bottle and was way hot! We returned it and have used our microwave ever since, with no issues.

 

I hated our Avent bottle warmer. I don't know about the other brands. It doesn't shut off it just keeps getting hotter and hotter and you're supposed to go remember to go back after 3/4/5 minutes, depending on the size of the bottle you use and how much milk is in there. I was constantly overheating bottles, which was a waste of time, since then I had to cool them. Plus my babies were IMPATIENT when they were younger and couldn't wait for their bottles! If you're planning to feed formula (rather than expressed breast milk, which usually comes from the fridge or freezer), you're way better off pre-filling a few bottles with water and then just adding the powder as you need it. That way you always have room-temp water on hand (or you can use a glass pitcher with a lid). You'll save so much time this way. If you plan to boil your water, it stays sterile for 24 hours at room temp or 48 hour in the fridge.

I used my microwave sterilizer at lot and I also have a "sanitize" setting on my dishwasher. I left the hospital breast feeding so I never asked for any info on sterilizing - I just assumed it had to be done. When my boys were 7 months old my friend had twins at the same hospital and was told that sterilizing is completely unnecessary with healthy, full-term babies and that good old fashioned soap and hot water is best. Wish I'd known that earlier! I no longer boil water or sterilize anything. I do run the water through a Brita as we have an old home and I worry about lead in the pipes.

You have to find a system that works for you. With twins you're going to have zero time to waste in the first months so it's best to streamline ASAP!

 

We boiled the bottles the first time we used them but have used the dishwasher ever since. As far as heating them, usually we put both bottles in a larger plastic container of really hot water. If you tilt them and rest the top along the edge of the plastic container then more "surface" is heated quicker. We do this at night too. We bought a tiny refrigerator for the twins room upstairs and would pre-make bottles and load the fridge. Then we'd toss them in hot water in the upstairs bathroom while we were changing the first diaper and by the time we were done they were at least to room temperature. The key is to find the system that works for you!

 

My twins aren't due until Feb. also, but for my older daughter we used the First Years Quick Serve bottle warmer to heat pre-mixed formula from the fridge and loved it. It uses steam to heat the bottle and is pretty fast. If you leave the bottle on there after it turns off it will continue to get warmer - very slowly - so you do have to remember you put it on there! I've also warmed bottles in warm water from the microwave and it takes forever. So the First Years was our choice.

As for sterilizing, the dishwasher should do the job that the store-bought sterilizers do. We were sure to sterilize before using bottles for the first time, but after that we hand-washed in hot soapy water sometimes too. I imagine with the twins we'll be using the dishwasher more often!

The nice thing about most warmers and sterilizers is that you can probably use them a couple times and decide for yourself if you want to use them or not, then return them in almost-new condition.

Jennifer

 

We sterilized our bottles in a pot of boiling water.
I did not think our bottle warmer was faster than heating up bottles in really hot water, I used it for a bit, then stopped. If you have really hot water in your kitchen/bathroom faucet fast, I would do that.
My trick was that as soon as one baby started to wake/cried, I went to the kitchen, put hot faucet water in two plastic containers, put a bottle from the fridge in each, and then went in to change diapers. By the time diapers were changed, the bottles were hot. I still do it that way at almost 12 months old. My babies were never that picky about water temp, though, they will drink room temp or even cold bottles, so it kind of depends on how your babies like it, if they have reflux, are picky, etc.
Good luck!

 

thanks ! A lot of great information