MAM, BORN FREE, AVENT, DR. BROWNS, PLAYTEX or all of these in GLASS ? oh My !
I had to try a few bottles in my search for the perfect one. Of course I started with the free ones that I got, Born Free, Avent and MAM. They were all short and squat, which meant they had the wide nipples on them. At first I really wanted to try the MAM because it was supposed to prevent nipple confusion. However for my little muncher, that was never an issue, he would latch onto anything near his mouth, nipple or not. MAM was easy to clean, despite the 5 parts of the bottle: bottom, air vent ring, bottle, nipple, nipple holder ring. The flow however was super fast and my little man would suck it down in 2 seconds. Because of the fast flow, my little man was getting lazy with his sucking and was also gulping a lot of air. My lactation consultant suggested that we switch to the Playtex Ventaire Advanced. I liked the tall skinny ones. I felt they were easy to hold, much easier than the short squat bottles. Lincoln also liked the small nipples much better than the wide ones. The flow was also super slow. Finally, I had what I had been looking for. The construction of the bottle was just like the MAM in 5 pieces but you get used to washing it, and I found it actually easier to put together than the MAM. I did try the Avent and Born free each once. They were fine, but I didn't like how it felt to hold the bottle. I've had friends complain that Avent and Born free leaked. As for Dr. Browns, I have friends that swear by it, but complain that it is a major pain to clean. PLAYTEX WINS FOR ME !!!!
There are a few great things about these bottles.
1. They also come in a short squat wide nipple version. These nipples are interchangeable with the drop-ins version of Playtex bottles so that can save you a little bit of money if you are using those. (Drop ins are probably the best for gassy babies as you can squeeze all the air out before they start sucking).
2. The tall skinny version fits perfectly onto Medela parts. This means you can pump and feed right out of the Playtex bottle. This is great for 2 reasons. It saves you money having to buy Medela bottles AND Lincoln HATED drinking out of them, they didn't have air vents, and he got super gassy.
3. They are some of the cheapest bottles on the market you can get a pack of 3 for 13.99 (plus 20% off - see the Babies R US v. Buy Buy Baby Post. They have a started pack of 5 where you can get a combo of the short and tall ones.
GLASS
I thought about buying glass, until I spoke to one of the Born Free founders, whom by the way sell plastic and glass and this is how he talked me out of glass:
1. Glass breaks
2. They are typically more expensive
3. They are heavy
4. You have to buy a silicone sleeve to keep bottle from breaking if it hits floor = More money
5. All the formula is flowing through a PLASTIC nipple anyways, so everything is touching plastic. Yes it is better to heat glass than plastic, but see my post on Bottle Warmers. If you are that worried about the plastic, which is all now BPA FREE, use silicon bottles.
My kiddo, now 19 months, also really liked the playtex ventaire bottles, only we only tried the wide bottles. I didn't know that the tall skinny ones fit into the Medela pump, so I'll be buying some of those for baby number 2 (I'm three months along). I took a breast feeding class prior to baby 1 being born, and these bottles are the ones the lactation consultants highly recommend. Just FYI, once our kiddo got older, the Avent bottles became our bottle of choice. Gas isn't much of an issue anymore, and the Avent bottles are large and easiest to clean. Also, for what ever reason, most mommys in my mommy group independently gravitated to it as their bottle of choice after the 6 month point.
ReplyDeleteCannot recommend Breastflow highly enough. They don't attach to the pump and they've got 4 parts, but they are worth it if you're nursing. They mimic letdown, have a very low flow, and baby's jaw must work similar to when it's on the breast. My munchkin is 15 mo. now so we've long since retired our bottles - if I was in the midst of it, I would have much stronger opinions! That said, regardless of your bottle choice, remember it's more about flow addiction than nipple confusion once you move past the first few weeks. Super important to keep baby upright and bottle parallel to the floor if you want to keep him/her coming back to mama for more. Good luck and kudos to those of you nursing. It's one of the hardest and most rewarding things I've ever done!
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