confused about bottles

lnle

my husband keeps saying we need to go ahead and buy bottles. I keep hearing that you never know what brand the babies are going to like. we have some old bottles that friends have given us in a variety of brands. I registered for Avent but haven't gotten them yet. I guess this is one more thing I'm in denial about in terms of baby care - I just can't picture feeding all all the weebles! Plus I'm delusional and picturing myself doing all the breastfeeding and not needing bottles.

so...long way of asking...what bottles do you like, and how many would you buy at first for 3 babies, esp if you're not sure what brand you'll end up using?

SoldiersGreenBean

We used Dr. Brown's for DD.

We had 9 bottles for her, and I'll double that for the twins.  Once we switched to all formula, it meant we only had to wash every other day or so.

sfitz0711

Bottles was my biggest freak out.  I bought a CRAP load of bottles and rarely use them because I've been able to EBF, but I also stay at home and "only" have twins.  But my girls like Avent which is the only ones I bought.  My recommendation is don't buy 4 oz bottles, just buy the bigger bottles.

sourpop

I am kinda on the fence as well. We have some Dr. Browns and Playtex drop-ins we got for free or from garage sales.  I don't want to spend a ton of money on bottles when we don't know what babies will want.

I did see a new brand at BRU - they are called Tommy Tippie  or something like that. The ratings are good and they are cheaper. I added them to my registry, but nobody has bought them.

I actually think (if nobody gets us our bottles), that we might just go and buy those cheapies evenflo ones and see if they babies take those before we spend a ton on other brands.

MrsAmyB

We are going with Dr. Brown's and I know the NICU uses these as well (oddly enough I used to volunteer there).  So that was my big selling point.  I plan to BF as well and I have dreams of EBF'ing, but I may be off in some fantasy land  

keg

For the longest time, we used the "disposible" bottles that the NICU sent home with the girls.  Once they started eating more than 2 oz a feeding, we generally used the super-cheap Evenflo and Gerber bottles.  I think I like the Gerber bottles better because the small ones are 5 oz which was a decent amount for our DDs for a while and the size made it easier for them to hold it themselves.  We did have Avent bottles that we used for daycare, but at home, we just used the cheap stuff.  We wound up with lots and lots of the cheap bottles, but I think I had about 12 or 14 Avent so I could have one day's worth of daycare bottles in the dishwasher and had a second set I could prep for the next day. 

carolina1178

you are right....yay for giving bf'ing a try! but just in case...have some bottles on hand. The best bottles if you plan on nursing/formula we found with Ds were the Soothies Breastflow, not so bad on the gas. I wasn't successful at bf'ing and eventually we switched to dr. browns....ds and also we loved those! pita to clean but you get used used it lol

but we went through the avent, playtex and evenflo bottles before trying the dr. b....honestly I would have a couple of each on hand to try. The ones I didn't use, friends could use or something after disinfected.

lnle

MrsAmyB:

We are going with Dr. Brown's and I know the NICU uses these as well (oddly enough I used to volunteer there).  So that was my big selling point.  I plan to BF as well and I have dreams of EBF'ing, but I may be off in some fantasy land  

well we can be delusional together!!! I just want to avoid the cost of formula as long as possible.

pea-kay

We got the playtex drop ins from the beginning, and fortunately, the boys never had a problem with them. They would really take any bottle I gave them. I really did not want to do Dr Browns bottles and all of their parts with three babies.

I never really envisioned what I was going to do. I went in with an open mind, and never really BFed them. Tried a few times, but didn't really have the time to devote to getting it perfected. Pumped for a couple of months, though. 

kimarino13

I had heard so many good things about Dr. Brown's, so I just loaded up on those knowing we could return them (off the registry) at BRU if they didn't like them.  They did, though!

We have 18 in rotation right now and I could use a few more.

ancjph

We started with of bunch of cheap ones and ended up hating then. We switched to Dr. Browns due to reflux issues.  This time around we are using the platex drop in.

I had dreams of breastfeeding or EBF, and gave up after about the first month. For me it just was too much. But if you really want to do it you can. I'm very lucky to be able to do it this time.

benkari

We use Playtex Ventaires and love them.  They are hard to clean though because if you put them in the dishwasher the markings come off so I handwash then use Dr. Brown's microwave sterilizer.

atlbride23

We used bottles for the first 6 weeks or so to suppliment, so you might need them (I have EBF since).  Avent leaked, Dr. Brown's have 5 parts per bottle (10 pieces to wash per feeding-eek!), we ended up with the cheap Evenflow glass bottles.  I felt comfortable putting them in the dishwasher, and the nipples were really low-flow.  If you have trouble with nursing, be sure to contact LLL or an LC.  I personally found the added work of preparing and washing bottles to be too much, nursing is much less work for me, but I understand it does not work out for everyone.  Good Luck!

mamam

We used Dr. Brown's with our first.  There was a period when she refused the bottle and I ended up with one of each brand just trying out others.  In the end she took the Dr. Brown's. 

Honestly, with 2 at a time I'm not sure how I feel about all of those parts, but will just try it out and see.  I never had spit up issues with her at all (and I wasn't a very good burper).

finallyreilly

We used platex with the inserts for a while with DS.  We had to use cross cut nipples for DD so we ended up switching over to evenflo for both now.

You have a little time to think about it.  They don't eat very much when they first come home so we used the pre-made nursette bottles - same thing we had in the hospital.  Once they get to more than 2oz you will need to regular switch to bottles.

lnle

finallyreilly:

You have a little time to think about it.  They don't eat very much when they first come home so we used the pre-made nursette bottles - same thing we had in the hospital.  Once they get to more than 2oz you will need to regular switch to bottles.

this is good to know.  I keep trying to tell my husband that we have time, but he really wants everything now.

atc282

If you plan (or later decide) to EP, be sure your bottles are compatible with your pump. For ex, I use Medela PISA and so I can fit on medela, evenflo, gerber and dr. browns. But Avent and Nuk brands are too wide to screw on my pump. (you can always transfer the pumped milk to those bottles but it's just more to clean up/ time consuming).

Best of luck!

lnle

atc282:

If you plan (or later decide) to EP, be sure your bottles are compatible with your pump. For ex, I use Medela PISA and so I can fit on medela, evenflo, gerber and dr. browns. But Avent and Nuk brands are too wide to screw on my pump. (you can always transfer the pumped milk to those bottles but it's just more to clean up/ time consuming).

Best of luck!

ooh, good point! I probably will end up pumping quite a bit so others can feed the babies sometimes.

darci04

My daughter used the Playtex drop-ins, so I started with those for the boys too. They've both done really good with them. When Blake was around 4 weeks, he was spitting up everything, so I tried almost every bottle out there. He ended up being diagnosed with pyloric stenosis, and had surgery that cleared it all up. In the end, the drop-ins still worked, and I didn't want to invest in a new bottle supply. Oh, and we only used 4 oz bottle for the first 3 months, and we had 17 of them. We just started going with the bigger bottles, which I only have about 8 of.

Shannonlea

I absolutely love using the Playtex drop-ins.  Now that I am back to work, its so easy to just pump directly into the liner (they have an adapter ring) and then just drop that into the bottle when I get home.  At the end of the day, I just have to wash the nipples and rings and then I drop all of it into our Germ Guardian sanitizer, the whole process literally takes less than 5 minutes. It stinks to have to spend the money on the liners but I figure since I don't have to buy formula, its my "splurge" item to save time!

mlk7klm

before they were born we got a mess of avent bottles. When we brought them home they refused to use them. We ended up using the ready feed bottles and gerber bottles. We then decided to try evenflo purely comfi bottles and they loved them. We are now about to try podee hands free feeder bottles to perhaps feed all three at once without having to prop bottles. I wouldn't get too many till they are home and you try out what you have. If you do get a bunch my suggestion would be just open a few and try them and if they like them then open and clean the rest. Good luck!

Addykins

I registered for almost all Dr. Browns and a few Playtex Drop-ins. I've heard the Avents leak like crazy. The Ventaires I find to be expensive and a lot of people I've talked to are on the fence for them.

I'm going to do my best to try to EBF. 

mmbench

I had someone give me a garbage bag full of Avents, so we kind of went with that.

But, for the first month or so we pretty much used the dispoable nursers they use in the NICU.  Since that's what they were used to after 2 weeks there, we used them for quite a while.  They had extras to give us, and we washed them.  They also fit on the Medela pump.

We pretty much stuck with the Avents, but I did try a few playtex here and there.