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Re: Product Spotlight: Bottles
What did you use to clean bottles?At first I was hand washing with a bottle brush and dapple soap, but then with all of the added pumping parts I realized nobody had time for that so I started putting them in the dishwasher and never had a problem.
Any must-haves for travel? Nothing I can think of, but we didn't travel a ton with bottles. I think as long as you have a cooler and a quick way to warm a bottle if you go that route you should be good. We often didn't warm bottles just let them get to room temp sitting out or maybe dropped a bag of breastmilk in warm water for just a minute to take the chill off and help the fat stir. We were lucky DD would take them this way which made it easier when we were out and about to not have to warm them up completely.
Any bottle accessories you'd recommend? Yes, here's a list of my top accessories:
I would also recommend not stocking up on just too many of any one bottle to start with just in case your baby is picky as some will refuse many bottles before finding one they like. Or if you do buy a lot of one kind don't open and sterilize them all until you know you will be using them.
I sanitized them every once in a while I think? We used babyganics bottle soap which I recommend for plastic bottles--it helps keep them relatively clear and not cloudy.
You can get lid fillers (https://www.amazon.com/Philips-Avent-Sealing-SCF143-06/dp/B000067QMD) for the avent bottles if you want to make the lid a real lid instead of a nipple for traveling. We didn't do that to take bottles to daycare because they wouldn't spill on that short/easy of a trip, but if I needed to throw milk in a bag they were great.
We had the boon grass but I found it annoying. Glass will dry better so that'll be easier.
Also, nipples. If your baby is breastfed you don't necessarily need to advance nipple size by age. We used the slow flow pretty much the whole time (Slow flow is Avent's second smallest size, each manufacturer numbers them differently. Some start at 0, some start at 1...)
Lastly, we never used a size bigger than the 4 oz for feeding (we put 5 oz in there around 9ish months) but we did use the 8 oz that came in some combo pack for storage.
Agree not to buy a lot of expensive bottles at first. Also I've read that if baby is refusing the bottle, don't just switch to a different brand, keep trying the one you have 4-5 times first.
DD #2: May 2020
Baby #3: EDD May 2023; MC October 2022
I've got 3 different bottles on my registry and 2 I got as free samples so hopefully baby boy isn't picky and likes one of his 5 options.
FTM
BFP: 9/5/19 ~ EDD 5/15/20
DS was EBF but I went back to work at 12 weeks so we knew he needed to get comfortable with bottles fairly early. We started one bottle a day around 6 weeks and tried the advent, nuk, and medela bottles before finally switching and sticking with Dr. Browns. Even though they are a PITA to clean, they're the only bottles DS would touch and we never had any gas/indigestion issues with them. We used newborn nipples for probably the first 4-6 months and then moved up.
We have a standard bottle brush from OXO and a straw cleaner brush (needed for Dr. Browns tube things) We also sanitized the bottles in about once a month in boiling water or sometimes I used the medela microwave sanitizer bags. I didn't put anything in the dishwasher, but I know a lot of people do!
This is my recommendation for BF babies (not sure how it works with formula) - a lot of people seem to think BF babies won't take a cold/room temp bottle because generally boob milk is warm. We were given the advice to not warm bottles and see if DS would take milk cold/room temp first. DS never had any issue with a cold/room temp bottle which made things soooooo much easier with traveling or other people watching him. So if we planned to give a bottle when we were out, I'd just throw one in a small cooler w/ an ice pack and we were good to go!
We have an OXO drying rack and I like it for bottles and now we use it for DS's water bottles - it's easy to clean and doesn't take up nearly as much space as the grass ones. If baby will be in daycare I highly recommend bottle labels or the colored bands (most bottle brands have ones that specifically fit their bottle) to make sure there are no mix ups!
What kinds of bottles/nipples have you used in the past? We used both Avent and Munchkin bottles. As she got older and her latch got stronger, we mostly used the Munchkin ones because the nipple wouldn't bend where her mouth was, as opposed to the Avent nipples, which she could unseal with her latch and cause them to leak. We'll stick with the same ones to start with.
What did you use to clean bottles? Dishwasher. Ain't nobody got time to wash bottles by hand, especially once I went back to work and she was getting more bottles than BF sessions in a day.
Any must-haves for travel? Some sort of insulated bag and flexible ice packs for taking bottles to daycare.
- BFP: 3/10/16 — Baby Girl born 11/20/16
TTC#2 April 2019We exclusively formula fed so used bottles all the time. We tried out some of the free samples that we got until I convinced DH to let us open up and try the Dr. Browns Options ones we had from the shower. They worked great for us, we had the 4 oz ones with premie (size 0) nipples to start. We had to order those since the bottles came standard with size 1. Eventually we worked our way up to size 3 and 4 nipples, but we just bought those later on as needed. We transitioned to the 8 oz bottles at some point too. I would say that we did have leaking issues, but from what I read it seems like most bottles do, especially after a lot of use. I honestly think boiling and using the dishwasher at first to clean them are what made the leaks worse. We did notice that how full the bottle was made leaking worse too, so having the 4oz ones full was an issue and that was part of the reason for using the larger version for smaller amounts.
What did you use to clean bottles? I boiled them to sanitize right away and then maybe only a couple more times. Other than that we always hand washed them (see above). We tried so many different cleaning tools and it was pretty hard to find ones that cleaned thoroughly in the bottom crevices, so rinsing immediately was important. We also used the Dr. Browns bottle drying rack and it worked great. We had a different one to start but it didn't fit all the parts well. I have to say it is pretty worn from our tap water though, plastic that is constantly wet doesn't do well with our tap water. We just used our regular Dawn dish soap.
Any must-haves for travel? I personally did not like the formula dispensers, so we always would just bring premixed bottles with us. I started out with the cooler pack that matched my diaper bag, but it didn't fit much and was a pain. Eventually I bought a lunch thing from Target that has the cold packs built in. It was tall/narrow enough for the bottles and I could fit 4 8 oz Dr Browns bottles in it perfectly.
Any bottle accessories you'd recommend? I know I've said this on other threads, but if you are formula feeding I highly recommend the Dr. Browns Formula Pitcher. I also recommend once you find a bottle brush you like, buy a ton of them because they do wear out.
This time around we will probably reuse what we have (getting new nipples). But I am really interested in changing over to glass bottles. I guess we will see what our budget allows as we go, if Dr. Browns regular bottles work out we probably will go with those in glass too.
- BFP: 3/10/16 — Baby Girl born 11/20/16
TTC#2 April 2019FTM
BFP: 9/5/19 ~ EDD 5/15/20
Married Sept. 2013
DS1: Nov 11, 2016
MMC: 11/16/18 (9w6d)
CP: 2/3/19 (5w3d)
BFP! 8/24/19
DS2: May 10, 2020
I always found that a mug of hot water did the trick for us when needed as @m6agua mentioned as well.
I'm curious to hear everyone else's thoughts on the dishwasher for bottles since a few of you mention being warned against it. I found one sentence in an AAP article to "try to avoid putting plastic in the dishwasher", but the CDC's article on properly cleaning infant feeding items specifically mentions washing dishwasher safe bottles in the dishwasher and on Dr. Brown's website they mention their bottles being dishwasher safe. I didn't check any other brand bottles, but assume most of them would be unless specifically stated otherwise.
AAP: https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/Pages/AAP-Says-Some-Common-Food-Additives-May-Pose-Health-Risks-to-Children.aspx
CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/hygiene/healthychildcare/infantfeeding/cleansanitize.html
Married Sept. 2013
DS1: Nov 11, 2016
MMC: 11/16/18 (9w6d)
CP: 2/3/19 (5w3d)
BFP! 8/24/19
DS2: May 10, 2020