October 2020 Moms
carrotsandpeas3
member
Product spotlight 7/1: bottles, formula, foodstuff
carrotsandpeas3
member
I'm combining a few topics because we are way behind.
Here's my input:
Bottles: DD hated all bottles. All of them. I work 5 days a week 10ish hour shifts, so her not eating while I was gone sometimes stressed me out to no end. The one we found that she eventually took the best was the nuk natural flow bottle. She never took more than 5oz per bottle, so we stayed at the smallest one the whole time. Also stayed with the slow flow nipple (even though it was pretty fast) as increasing flow risks bottle preference, and I didn't want to stop nursing. All kids are different though so we'll see with this next one. I really really hope my next kid takes a bottle easier.
Foodstuff: we did purees because that's what they would do early on at daycare. Finger foods at home though too. I didn't have any magical devices or anything to share except those mesh teether things. We'd put frozen blueberries in them and she would chew/suck away!
Formula: I will leave that up to others as I have zero experience.
Here's my input:
Bottles: DD hated all bottles. All of them. I work 5 days a week 10ish hour shifts, so her not eating while I was gone sometimes stressed me out to no end. The one we found that she eventually took the best was the nuk natural flow bottle. She never took more than 5oz per bottle, so we stayed at the smallest one the whole time. Also stayed with the slow flow nipple (even though it was pretty fast) as increasing flow risks bottle preference, and I didn't want to stop nursing. All kids are different though so we'll see with this next one. I really really hope my next kid takes a bottle easier.
Foodstuff: we did purees because that's what they would do early on at daycare. Finger foods at home though too. I didn't have any magical devices or anything to share except those mesh teether things. We'd put frozen blueberries in them and she would chew/suck away!
Formula: I will leave that up to others as I have zero experience.
Re: Product spotlight 7/1: bottles, formula, foodstuff
Married 6/15/13
BFP #1 5/8/16, EDD 12/31/16- DD born 9/10/16 at 24 weeks
~In our hearts forever~
BFP #2 10/14/17, EDD 7/1/18
Formula: I introduced formula at 9.5 months as I was SICK of breastfeeding. He took it no problem, went with the Holle brand which is $$ but of course FTM could not tolerate the generic stuff LOLLLL this time around if she needs formula I am going with the usual brands like Similac and pick something that is good quality but doesn't break the bank (and most importantly that she likes)
Feeding: did baby led weaning and loved it. He mostly ate what we ate just in tiny portions and softer textures for some stuff obviously. I added some feeding things to the registry which was great and did a course on baby led weaning with Feeding Littles ($35 during Black Friday). SUPER HELPFUL, but there's books out there too, and FL has an IG page that is good reference as well. We did not do purees at all. Obviously needs change also depends on your childcare situation, they are way easier if you do daycare I think. DS did fantastic with BLW but not all kids do so hoping baby girl is a good eater as well (he was eating SO MUCH FOOD by 8 months that I did not feel bad at all when I weaned him from BF).
Formula: We used formula exactly one time. Got some similac samples in the mail and grandma has to use it once when she was babysitting and ran out of milk. (This was right after I went back to work, which followed a 2-day power outage and a bout of mastitis so I had NO stash built up.) Agree with @profmcgonagall not to stock up because needs change—you might end up needing dairy-free or a special kind. But you can sign up for free samples with both Similac and Enfamil. I got three full-size tubs from Similac, each a slightly different kind.
Formula: DS was exclusively breastfed while I was on maternity leave. I had been planning to switch DS to formula when I went back to work because pumping at work would be impossible on most days. However, I still breastfed in the morning and at night until DS was about 13 months old, so he got both breastmilk and formula. DS didn't have any sensitivities, so he was able to drink most brands of formula that we tried. We ended up buying it in bulk from Costco, so I think that we mostly used Similac.
Sippy cups: DS never liked sippy cups. We tried several different styles and brands. He refused to drink from them. He also disliked those miracle non-spill cups. (I don't know what they are exactly called.) He really liked the cups with straws. He went straight from bottles to the cups with straws.
Bibs: We had bought a bunch of those bibs with the pouch to catch food. Initially, we thought that we had wasted money on them, but then we found out that they are most useful for toddlers who are feeding themselves. They quickly became one of our favorite items while DS was a toddler.
Other items: During the toddler years, we discovered that DS was throwing his spoons, forks, plates, bowls, and cups in the garbage can. At first, we couldn't figure out why everything seemed to be disappearing. DS probably thought that he was being helpful. Having a lock on the garbage can in the kitchen is a good idea for the toddler years.
Formula: def get from the hospital and the pediatrician will have samples to if you ask. We ended needing a specialized formula but the pediatrician regularly gave us samples that helped lower our cost. Target also often has good sales in formula.
Feeding: liked the ezpz mini cup, ezpz spoon, gootensils, small maroon spoon.
If you end up bottle feeding I recommend having enough bottles for an entire day plus two. 😬It seems like a lot, but if you get behind, having to wash a bottle while your baby is screaming hungry is the worst. We also definitely lost a couple and our friend melted one. We used the lowest flow and never increased them. Definitely get a special bottle brush(s), and I recommend those grass like drying racks. We never used small bottles, just used 8oz ones even when he was only drinking 2-3 oz.
Formula: I was an undersupplier and then totally dried up when I got on birth control (even the progesterone only) so DS was on formula at 4 1/2 months on. Get a formula mixer pitcher!! Seriously. You can make a full day the night before and then just pour it into bottles. We used Enfamil Enspire. It's pricy but there were lots of coupons so it wasn't awful. It advertises as closest to breast milk so when we started supplementing I went with it and then didn't switch. Definitely some FTM guilt about using formula which I will try to avoid if breastfeeding doesn't work this time - and I'll probably use a cheaper formula. But I did like the Enspire, so maybe not. We also got a couple premade formula things to have in the diaper bag in case something happened and we got stuck out longer. They have a long shelf life so we could just carry a couple. Actually, I think the LC gave them to us initially.
Food stuff - we ended up doing a sort of combo of blw and puree. I wanted to just do blw but 🤷🏻♀️. There are some blw purists who have strong opinions about doing both so if you venture into FB/other groups keep that in mind. I would definitely register for spoons/forks/plates...maybe plates. Honestly, DS just uses either a paper plate or regular ones now and we would put food right on the high chair instead of a plate when he was still in that. Sippy cups are going to be like bottles- some babies don't care, some it takes like 6 before they'll use one. My son wouldn't use a sippy at all and kept milk from a bottle until 1. He would mimic us and drink from open cups but it was very messy 75% of the time... but, he used that skill to transition to 360 cups which are absolutely amazing and the only thing he drinks out of now (aside from a regular cup and the occasional juice box). We tried soft sippies of so many brands, hard sippies, straw cups, water bottles... 360 it was. He can/will use others now.
Food stuff I made all of the purées, it’s super easy! I cooked the food, blended it, and froze it in ice cube trays.
When we started using formula with DD1 I bought Gerber Good Start and she had no issues so we never switched, but I would’ve started with a cheaper one first because it was pricey and they never had coupons.