question about bottles...

Hi Ladies, I am popping in again from the expecting forum. Wanted to get some input on bottles. What are your favorite bottles and how do you wash them (by hand or dishwasher)? Also how often do you sterilize (before every use, intermittently, not at all etc)? I will be a first time mom and I feel so overwhelmed with all of these impending decisions and being on bedrest gives me lots of time to obsess over everything! Thanks so much for your advice and wisdom!
hugs,
Kristin

 

does your dishwasher have a sanitize cycle? if so, that's your answer for sterilization. we hand-washed bottles initially but things got much easier when we decided to start running them through the dishwasher every day. get an accessories basket for the rings and nipples, toss it all in and you're good to go!

we started out with plastic medela bottles but found the heat of sterilization warped them and they got leakier over time. we transitioned to glass evenflo bottles and have been very happy. we bought dr. brown's nipples and tossed out the evenflo ones, though.

 

Yes we have an antibacterial cycle on our dishwasher! That seems like it would be very easy and convenient..I registered for some dishwasher baskets to put the small things in.

 

I used the Dr. Brown's bottles and love them! I handwashed everything and still do but that is just my personal preference. I sterilized before the first use and that was it.

 

Congratulations on your twin pregnancy!

Bottles: You may want to go with a certain bottle but your little ones may not do well with them. We have the Avent bottles but DD couldn't latch well on those nipples so we went through several others trying to find one that worked. Now we use Avent on DS and Playtex Ventaire (standard) for DD.

Sterilizing: We sterilize the first use then hand wash or throw them in the dishwasher the rest of the time. I agree the basket for the dishwasher is VERY handy!

Good luck!

 

We used Dr. Browns and washed them in the dishwasher. We never sterilized. Babies GI tracts are not germ-free.

 

I steralize once a week... I have those medela bags that you can put in the microwave to steralize bottles etc... You can use them 20 times before you have to throw them away! It's great! Faster than the dishwasher.

I got Gerber plastic bottles with the silicone nipple.. the only thing that would work for my son. He doesn't have to suck very hard to get the milk out. I bought like 5 different types of bottles and it's the only one that he doesn't have too much trouble with. Atleast as of yesterday that's what I've decided.

 

We used Avent bottles, but I can't say I liked them that well. I sterilized everything in the microwave for the first couple of weeks then I handwashed.

 

We started with the smaller Evenflo glass bottles now we use the full sized Evenflo glass bottles at home and have a few of the plastic ones for on-the-go feedings. We use the sanitize/sterilize cycle on the dishwasher, bottles in the top rack and accessories baskets for the rings and nipples. One thing… with twins we go through so many bottles that one basket wasn’t enough, so we use two of them.

 

we started out with the playtex ventaire, but after about 12 wks they started to leak!! Very irritating, that and the numbers would rub off so you had to guess with the mesurements.

we swiched to dr browns and started with washing in the sink then moved to washing in the dishwasher.

We would wash the bottles and sanitize the nipples before 1st use then not afterwards..

 

I like the regular old plain gerber bottles. If you start getting too fancy, then you've got all these extra parts and peices to keep track off and who has time for that. Avent is good but so expensive. We have a few of those from the baby shower but I refuse to spend the money on them. I used those Dr. Browns bottles with my daughter but again, expense and lots of parts and peices, and I never really thought they helped that much with reducing swallowed air.

I don't really sterilize my bottles but I run them through the dishwasher which is said to sanitize them just as well and you can get the baskets that will hold your nipples and other bottle peices and put them through the dishwasher too. I've never used the microwave but I know they sell microwave sterilizer things.

 

I sterilize before first use and then just handwash or dishwasher if I'm running a load.

I prefer playtex drop ins because it's much less work to clean them! The bottles themselves stay clean (I just rinse them after use), pitch the liner and wash the nipple and ring. Just my personal preference. Have used them for all 4 of my kids, I still have bottles/rings from my first ds too!

 

It look like I am the crazy mama here.
About bottle don't buy a lot just might be 2 of each just to see which one your Lo will take.
my first DS only ate from Dr. Brown. ( narrow one) this time we bought Dr. Brown and couple of avent and notice that DS can eat from any of them but DD only from avent otherwise she is chocking.

about sterializing. I do sterialize everything after each feeding. ( for DS I did it for 18 months ) I hand wash bottles and put them in microwave sterializer in 2 min they are done.
I am sure later on I will use dishwasher for cleaning but so far I only have 4 bottles so need them often then I run my dishwasher.

 

We're more concerned about chemicals than many other things. For instance, the BPA issue was a bigger deal when we were expecting than it is now - because now most bottles are BPA-free. We opted for glass bottles for the first 5 months, only switching to BPA-free plastic when the boys had to go to daycare and the daycare wouldn't take glass. Also, the boys hold their own bottles now, so we use the plastic to make that easier.

We always loved and still love the glass bottles. They are easier to clean and give us better peace of mind. Who knows if the BPA-free plastic bottles have some sort of nasty toxic chemical in them? It took decades for us to learn that BPA was contributing to an increase in population sterility and cancer.

We are also concerned about chemicals in the detergents we use. That is why we never wash our bottles and baby dishes in the dishwasher. We prefer to wash them by hand using biodegradable phosphate-free dish soap. We use very hot water. We were using Method but I recently discovered the new Palmolive Free and Clear - and the Palmolive gets everything cleaner than the Method.

It's not necessary to sterilize bottles before every use. That is/was something done in places/times when the water was/is not trustworthy. Our tap water is good enough for washing. The doctors and nurses at my HMO insist sterilizing is a waste of time and energy. They taught me that I should sterilize the bottles before using them for the first time, after that washing them with hot water and phosphate-free dish soap is sufficient.

We also bought a couple of everything and found that we really liked the simple, yet cheapest, bottles on the market. The babies also prefered the simple cheap ones. Our favorites are the Evenflo glass bottles. Of the BPA-free plastic, we like the Gerber bottles. Gerber bottles are bigger and make mixing formula easier when mixing in the bottle (more room for the shaking). We also use the Nuk orthodontic nipples. The nips that came with the bottles had a tendency to air-lock and collapse. We've never had issues with the Nuk nips.

 

We tried many many many different bottles (Gerber, Playtex Ventair, Avent, Soothie). We started with cheapo ones because we figured if the babies liked them, what was the point in paying for the expensive ones.... We bought just a couple until we were sure they were the bottles for us. Our kids liked the Avent ones, but they were pretty expensive and seemed to leak a lot. We were just about to try Dr. Brown's and a friend told me about Soothie bottles. They are from First Years and have the same nipple as the pacifiers they use in the hospital. Our boys spent 7 weeks in the NICU so this made for an easy transition. The bottles are only like 8 dollars for 3 and we have yet to find a problem with them. I love that I have like 12 and haven't invested a life savings into them.

That being said, every baby is different....

As for sanitizing..... I santized them once before we used them the first time.... That was 6 months ago. Now, I wash them by hand (we go through bottles way faster than we fill our dishwasher) and toss them in the dishwasher I'm about to run it and push "sanitize". I will say that even with the basket for nipples and rings, I never really feel that comfortable with how they rinse out. There always seems to be some kind of detergenty film on the nipples, so I rinse them again before I give them to the kids.


Good luck!

 

We use the Born Free bottles (BPA free) and handwash them. We usually sterilize once a week by boiling them for a few minutes. The Born Free bottles are nice, but as a PP said there are lots of parts to them, but you sort of get used to it. Good Luck with your babes - congrats!