forgot to ask: bottle warmer and bottle sterilizer?

hi ladies....just forgot to add below questions in my post above,

I was wondering if it's necessary to get a bottle warmer and sterilizer. I am planning on using breastmilk and we do have a dishwasher.
also, how do I know which bottle warmer works for Dr. Brown's bottles? they do have a sterilizer but I did not see the warmer.

any experiences? thank you!

alexa

 

Alexa, my SIL had a sterilizer and used only breastmilk in them, but they always came back sorta oily. A few times I popped them into my dishwasher. She didn't need to run her dishwasher every day having only had one child. So, I just used my dishwasher!

 

QUOTE(~* dfaut *~ @ Oct 8 2007, 04:41 PM) [snapback]441438[/snapback]
Alexa, my SIL had a sterilizer and used only breastmilk in them, but they always came back sorta oily. A few times I popped them into my dishwasher. She didn't need to run her dishwasher every day having only had one child. So, I just used my dishwasher!


thanks! how did you (and SIL) warm the bottles?

 

I returned mine and opted for the microwave, but I was just doing formula at that point. When I was doing breastmilk, I just placed the bottles in a bowl of super hot water and let them warm up to room temp. I know on the FY board, lots of moms keep a crockpot full of hot water and heat them in that throughout the day/night.

 

Personally I think both are a waste of money... for one the bottle warmers are very slow...at least in my experience...but anything more than 30 seconds when you have 2 screaming babies seems slow!! LOL!.. Secondly, some of these bottles really probably shouldn't be used in a bottle warmer...the insert kind I'm not crazy about heating that way, and now there's all this news out there about clear hard plastics and how they shouldn't be heated b/c of some ingrediant in the plastics. As far as the sterilizer...why use one when you can just boil the bottles initially, then use a dishwasher or handwash them in hot water.. Personally, I hand washed my bottles always..I never felt like they were clean using any other method.

So how did I warm those bottles... Well, I found, unlike some women, that I preferred making my bottles on demand. I could never keep track of the pre-made formula in the fridge..how long it had been there, etc. So I usually just had a pyrex measuring cup, heated up the water to just the right temp, and poured it in on top of the powder in the bottle...a couple of shakes and that was it. (you get really good at knowing your microwave time for the perfect water temp!!) At nighttime dh and I would take a thermos of hot water upstairs to our room along with a pyrex of room temp water...we got really good at putting in just the right amount of hot water and room temp water to mix perfectly temped bottles right away. It would take us around 30-45 seconds to mix those bottles on the fly...and we could always mix a little more if the babies seemed like they needed a bit more. Sooo much faster then running down to the fridge, grabbing a cold bottle, then waiting 2 minutes for it to warm in the bottle warmer.

Bf is still faster than any of these methods...but it's good to be prepared.. you just never know with twins... I had to work really hard to get my supply up, and even then my dd just outright refused to bf anymore at 7 weeks. My mom had the same bizarre experience with my older brother and sister...she had tons of supply, but both totally refused to bf around 2 months...for no apparent reason, just screaming and screaming anytime she put them to the breast. Same thing with my dd. so she moved completely to bottle and my ds went to ebf. (which he loved! mama's boy...)

P.S. for formula or bm that I happened to have in the fridge all I did was to warm up water in a coffee mug and pop the bottle in there...worked just as well as a bottle warmer!

 

hi and thanks so much for all your replies!

I guess I was more wondering about the warming up, as I'll be switching feedings with hubby at nights and we have our bedroom upstairs and kitchen downstairs....anything to make it easier on us not to get too far away from our bed!
the thermo with hot water solution sounds good to me....

alexa

 

My sister uses Dr. Brown's bottles and uses a standard bottle warmer, like the one made by Munchkin.

 

I only used the bottle warmer a couple times it took too long and then the bottles were too hot and I would have to cool them down especially in the beginning when they were only drinking 2oz. I still use my sterilizer because the dishwasher makes the nipples greasy for some reason. I do use soap and water to wash the bottles first in order to get them nice and clear and if it were up to me that's where it would end but DH is a neat freak so we sterilize them too. It's just a plastic container that you put water in and then put in the microwave for 3 minutes. I always feed expressed bm in bottles so I just put a glass pyrex measuring cup with water in it in the microwave and then put the bottle in the hot water to warm it.

 

I don't have experience in this area, but I plan on getting a warmer. I don't want to heat the babies' bottles in a microwave because of warnings I've heard, but I'm also going to get the BPA free kind of plastic bottles (made by Born Free) so I'm not sure if that should still be a concern of mine. I'm not planning on getting a sterilizer though. I think the dishwasher will be fine.

 

Hi, I do not recommend either. The warmers are too slow. If you zap in the microwave for a SHORT time, it will be warm enough. And I boiled the things in water to sterilize. If you have silicone nipples this is OK. The rubber does not do as well in boiling from what I remember.

 

I don't use a bottle warmer - I use a crock pot. I keep one upstairs, in the bathroom by the nursery. I turn it on before bed then whenever I need water thru the night, it's hot and ready. During the day, I just nuke some water and dunk the bottles for a few minutes.

I did use a sterilizer but only for the first month or so. I'm not sure it was entirely worth it, but I got the thing as a gift.

 

we used our bottle warmer a lot. i thought it worked faster than sitting them in hot water. we also used it for heating up either refrigerated or frozen BM. For formula, I would just use room temp water. We didn't have a sterilizer. I ended up washing the bottles with soap and water every night because we didn't wash with the dishwasher every day. maybe i'll look into it though, since we'll have more bottles this time around.

jenny

 

Nope, didn't have either of them and got along just fine without them.