How many bottles do I need?

jessican08 · August 2012

You'll laugh your @$$es off at this. We got a "gift bag" from our RE's office when we graduated with a free AVENT bottle sample in it. I was telling DH the other day that we need to buy bottles here pretty soon. I'm planning on BF but who knows how that's going to work out and I'm eventually going to have to pump when I go back to work anyway.

DH said, "We don't need bottles, we got one from the RE's office." My face was something like this Indifferent

How many bottles should I make sure we have on hand?

greely0729 · August 2012

First, I think you're DH's comment is hiliarous! Reminds me of something mine would say!

My babies aren't here yet but I've heard that you'll need anywhere from 18-22 bottles. If I'm not right, I'm sure someone will correct me. Smile

Breezy8407 · August 2012

We have 9. (Tommee Tippee's come in sets of 3) We wash by hand once a day and wash via dishwasher once a day.

Ours eat 6 times a day right now. At the beginning it was 8, but they only did that for a few weeks. So 2x8 = 16, if you only wanted to wash once.

ETA: I pretty much EP'd, so we were using bottles for every feeding, and now they are on all formula.

Missa_g · August 2012

We have 15 but I wish we had more. In the beginning our boys ate every three hours around the clock so that's 16 bottles a day. We did a lot of hand washing. Now that I'm back to work and the boys are eating six times a day we run a load mid afternoon so they'll be dry for me to prep bottles at bedtime. I wouldn't buy too many yet until you know which kind your babies like.

Jen0204 · August 2012

When we're home we rotate 4 bottles. We use the Tommee Tippee and they're easy to clean so it's not a big deal to me. We have 2 at daycare, 2 at my mom's and 2 at my MIL's. And maybe 2 in the diaper bag, though I'm not sure now that I think about it.

I would definitely not go out and stock up on any one brand, or if you do, save the receipts. Most babies have a preference on what bottle they'll use. If you're BFing then you might want to get a brand that tries to mimic the size and feel of the breast as much as possible.

KarlsSweetie05 · August 2012

LOL at hubby's comment!

We have 18 bottles total as I was mostly pumping and using BM + formula in bottles.

We had 9 bottles in the 4 oz size and 9 in the 8 oz size. The bottles we used came in sets of 3.

I probably could have used 1 more set of 3 - 8 oz bottles in hindsight.

We washed by hand daily and put in dishwasher every few days.

projectbaby2012 · August 2012

Silly DH! I love it!

I received 9 of the small sized bottles at my shower. Plus we have our free AVENT bottle sample too. I was planning on starting with those and if they like them, buying more of that brand. Thanks for asking this question. Now I have an idea of how many more to buy.

rinascita · August 2012

Your husband sounds just like my husband... he is having trouble grasping how many items we are going to need, esp. quantities of each item.

I'm heard from MoM's in my local MoM club that a lot of them had ~ 24 so they never had to worry about having clean bottles and could run them in the dishwasher at night.

I'll probably get a few of the 3 main brands, and see what the babies prefer before buying a ton - or at least save the receipts if I'm effectively able to EBF.

erniebufflo · August 2012

I have 12 per baby so I have enough to wash in the dishwasher. Washing by hand got old fast.

ETA: we were going to use Tommee Tippee, and we do for Etta, but Claire got used to Playtex bottles and nipples in the NICU, so she uses those still. I even have to order the disposable nipples they used bc she hates others. We wash and reuse them though.

JustcallmeGG2 · August 2012

we had 16 of the small bottles (4 ounce) to make up 1 days worth in the beginning. Its kind of a waste because soon they will both be using the bigger bottles.

I kinda wished i got all bigger bottles from the start. But now I only need 12 bottles a day because they are eating every 4 hours.

P.S. In "What to Expect the First Year" it says that cleaning your bottles in the dishwasher gets them clean enough. Don't worry about handwashing or sterilizing.

babya2010 · August 2012

I went overboard and bought 30. I think we regularly used 24 or so (I didn't want to run the dish washer every night if I didn't need to). As they got older, they dropped their # of bottles per day and we were down to 3 bottles/day so we used about 12 over the course of a couple days. I'd say a minimum of 12-14 would work, unless you don't mind hand washing daily.

BigHairQueen · August 2012

We have 22, a combo or 4oz and 8oz. We have 6 small and the rest are the larger size.

Want a personalized experience?

How many bottles do I need?

Re: How many bottles do I need?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards