Bottles ?

I was thinking about using the bottles with the drop in bags, my niece uses them and I liked them but now that I'm having two i'm worried it may be to much of a hassle.....Any opinions?

 

I would wait to buy very many bottles until after your LO's arrive. I bought a TON of Avent bottles before my girls were born and they wouldn't have anything to do with them. Of course I sterilized them all and got them all ready before they came home, so I ended up giving them to a friend.

If I were you I would buy a couple different kinds of bottles and see which ones they like (make sure you keep your receipts!). We ended up using Dr. Browns and LOVE them!

 

I used those Playtex drop in bottles for mine when they started having formula. They were a PITA, at least for me. My children never liked/like cold or room temp formula/milk and the drop ins CAN NOT go in the microwave, so I had to warm them up either on a glass cup/bottle before putting the formula in or dip them in hot water for a few mins. Then they would be leaking water, regardless of how well I dried them.
I really hated them, but had too many to change brands by the time I realized they were a pain!

My sister loved her Avent bottles.

 

Ditto on the pp advice--don't buy too many bottles in advance. My twins were in the NICU for 3 weeks. When they came home, I tried Brown's and Playtex drop-ins. They hated both! I had to keep buying different nipples until I found the ones closest to the NICU ones. Don't stock up in advance, just buy a few different kinds to sample. ps-my pedi's office gave me a few playtex samples to try at home. You may want to check and see if they have give away products.

 

I used Dr. Browns bottles with all of my children. Those bottles have a tube that goes inside to stop baby from swallowing to much air which makes them less gassy. I love those bottles! Avent is a good bottle as well. It's like the European version of Dr. Browns except it does not have the tube that goes inside.

 

I used the drop ins and loved them. I also found a bottle attachment were I could pump in the the bag, seal it, and store it in the freezer, reheating was easy, clean-up was easy, feeding them was easy, I loved them.

 

I would seriously consider using glass bottles. With all the talk about BPA and other chemicals in plastic, glass bottles are the safest and most eco friendly route. Gerber makes glass bottles and they are very sturdy. Good luck!

Here's a link for an article about the effects of BPA

Don't mean to scare you...just thought you should know.

http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/l...ises-alarm.html

 

I actually found the drop ins easier than having to scrub nasty formula out of glass/plastic bottles all the time!

We used playtex with both my kids and will for these ones too, and contrary to popular belief you CAN warm them in the microwave but dont heat to boiling, I start out in 5-10 second increments until I find the perfect temp and then use that time from then on. And I always always always shake well and test on my wrist It can be done

 

We started out with Playtex VentAir and with one of my boys we had to start using a different type nipple. He then started to act like he was getting colic so we went and got Dr. Browns and some that are drop in. I used drop in with my daughter and that is all we ever had. With them I never use the drop in. It is a pain. At night we ended up using the Playtex VentAir cause we had faster flow nipples for the rice and Dr.Browns during the day. I have to admit it seems to take them forever to eat with the Dr. Browns and I dont notice any difference with burping and they have not had any episodes of being gassy. I guess you really cant take any of our advice since every baby is going to be different and no matter how prepared you are before they get here everything you have in place could be the wrong thing. So after all of that I still love the Playtex for the price and ease of use.

 

You shouldn't heat *any* bottles in the microwave b/c they heat unevenly and can cause "hot spots." I'd heard that before and the OB RN/lactation consultant who taught the breastfeeding class I attended tonight mentioned that as well--seriously, she's seen plenty of babies in the ER who come in with burns on the inside of their mouths from bottles that were heated in the microwave. Don't do it! (You can heat something like a Pyrex cup with water in the microwave and then set the bottle in it to warm it.)

 

I always heated bottles up in the microwave for both my girls. I would heat up the sterilised water first, then add the formula. Because you have to shake it really well to mix in the formula, this gets rid of any hotspots.
However, with the recent studies mentioned by Annie Webb above, we will be reconsidering how best to heat them up.
I just wanted to say, as long as it is done properly and well tested beforehand, microwaves can be lifesavers when you need a bottle in a hurry.

 

I used Dr. Browns with my first when I switched him to formula and loved them so much that I had DF buy the starter kit which is three 8 oz and two 4 oz. I knew I was going to breastfeed for as long as I could as well. Since the boys were in the hospital for a few days because of suckling issues I pumped and DF bought me a wonderful (cheap!) double pump from playtex which used the drop in system, so we have a couple 4 oz bottles which came with the pump and 8oz bottles and them the plastic inserts for both. I was pumping so much more than what they were drinking when I switched to breast that I had DF buy cheap gerber bottles to freeze with my milk.
The reason I mention all the different bottle types is because when we were sent home they gave us a bunch of the nipples that the boys had been using in the hopsital, infact I still have over 5 nipples still in sterile packaging. I tried them on the bottles that we bought and they fit on the Dr. Browns and the Gerber bottles, so if they give you nipples try them on other bottles because a lot of the different bottle pieces are universal with each other. But as other moms said, wait a bit until you buy a whole bunch of one bottle, you may want to try a whole bunch and see what you babies like more, but don't be afraid to try out different nipples on different brand bottles!!

Also I tried AVENT at first with my first son but found that they leak A LOT if they fall on their side and then move, which sucked cause I really liked them other than that.

The other thing I want to add is to invest in a bottle warmer! We got a munchkin bottle warmer and it is wonderful. Can't stress it enough. It comes with a little measurement cup and a card that tell you which line on the cup to fill it up to depending on bottle temp (refridged or room temp) and what size. Also as a bonus it sterilizes nipples and binkies which is great to prevent thrush! Plus it gets a bottles heated to the perfect temp EVERY TIME and doesn't take that long to heat. The only drawback that I can find to the munchkin heater is that you can't heat one bottle right after the other (it won't let you). It has to cool down a bit until you can do it again.

Sorry that this is so long, just wanted to include everything that I have found helpful on this amazing one month journey.

 

QUOTE(SC_Amy @ Dec 9 2008, 12:27 AM) [snapback]1103274[/snapback]
You shouldn't heat *any* bottles in the microwave b/c they heat unevenly and can cause "hot spots." I'd heard that before and the OB RN/lactation consultant who taught the breastfeeding class I attended tonight mentioned that as well--seriously, she's seen plenty of babies in the ER who come in with burns on the inside of their mouths from bottles that were heated in the microwave. Don't do it! (You can heat something like a Pyrex cup with water in the microwave and then set the bottle in it to warm it.)



That's true, and I did have a bottle warmer with my son, but I nursed him much longer than my dd.

When it's 3 am and you have a screaming baby who is hungry, and the stupid bottle warmer won't warm the bottle right (either too hot or too cold), you quickly learn survival techniques.

My mom warmed our bottles in the microwave, dh's cousins warmed their babies bottles in the micro, and I switched to micro with my dd and will be doing that again with these babies

With careful monitoring you CAN warm a bottle in the micro safely, I never warmed them hot and always always always shook them tons and tested them carefully. It can be done.

Also wanted to mention that most of the turnstyle microwaves don't leave the hotspots like the old style micro's that didn't have the turn style. Now those heated terribly uneven.

 

glass bottles here

 

Just make sure you don't microwave breastmilk as it depleats the nutrients in the breastmilk.

 

I just had to go and buy some more bottles and most of all of them say they are now BPA free so really there is nothing to worry about