Three weeks and four days into motherhood, baby’s corrected age 37+3. Finally getting the hang of it. Figured out the right bottles for baby today and feeling pretty happy about that. Small victories.
Four of the most widely available brands for bottles, in America and Canada anyway, are, in no particular order: Dr Brown’s, Philips Avent, Como Tomo, and Tommee Tippee. This is by no means an exhaustive list; it simply reflects the bottle brands I commonly see on Amazon, at Target, or in specialty baby shops like West Coast Kids. Within these four brands alone, let alone in the wider bottle market, there is a dizzying array of bottles in every shape and size imaginable. The bottle market is particularly difficult to navigate for a first time parent, not only is the selection overwhelming and the variance in design subtle, the biggest challenge is that you have yet to meet your baby! Babies have their own predilections and until you meet your little guy or gal, you frankly have no idea what bottle or what nipple those tiny lips will prefer.
Sage advice has it that one should order a bottle sample box, containing bottles from a variety of brands with a variety of shapes and nipples, to determine what bottle and nipple your babe likes best before investing in more units of a specific type. With the arrogance of ignorance, initially, I ignored this advice and, for a variety of reasons, including perhaps some superficial aesthetic considerations, went heavy into Como Tomo. I bought a total of eight Como Tomo bottles before my baby was even born! I’m not sure if it’s because she’s a preemie and her face is tiny, or because the design causes her gas, or because she’s not breastfed, but whatever the reason, Como Tomo is not the bottle for my little girl. They simply don’t work for her.
It took trial and error, with no less than five types of bottles and, once we settled on a bottle, with a variety of nipples, to find the right combination for her. When we initially purchased our bottles, we relied on recommendations from family and friends as well as what we liked the look of, to choose. However, every baby is different and every baby’s circumstances are unique. What works for one is not necessarily going to work for the next.
I won’t disagree with the general shop keeper’s advice to purchase a number of bottles in a smattering of shapes and sizes to see what works. You can’t really go wrong this way. It would be nice though, wouldn’t it, to have some predictive ability when choosing a bottle, even if only to save a little bit of cash. In retrospect, I would have liked a logic-based decision tree or guide to follow when choosing our baby bottles.
I can’t guarantee that what worked for me will work for you. I can, however, share my experiences and my “aha” moment that ultimately led us to the right bottle, and maybe it’ll add some value and help you figure it out sooner that I did. We watched our baby struggle to feed as we offered her the wrong bottles (or nipples); I realized it’s ironic that there are a plethora of guides to choosing the right baby gear (strollers, car seats, etc.) but relatively few on choosing a bottle, yet, in the early days, feeding is perhaps the most critical area in sustaining life. To that end, I’ve compiled my experiences and thoughts into what I hope is a simple frame work for zeroing in on the right bottle.
Our baby is EBF — in our case, this means exclusively bottle fed rather than exclusively breast fed. As I’ve mentioned, once she graduated from the 2oz NICU bottles and single use nipples, we started with the Como Tomo bottles. She struggled to feed efficiently and developed a lot of gas with these bottles. Our night nurse recommended switching to Dr Brown’s. In her experience as a newborn care specialisty and ten year veteran of the Beverly Hills baby nurse industry, she wasn’t hot on Como Tomo. She said most moms like Dr Brown’s and she brought us a number of Dr Brown’s bottles to try. With the vented system, our baby was more comfortable and had less gas. But she still struggled to feed. We changed nipples from Preemie to Level 1 and back to Preemie again and still she struggled. Her volumes were low, she took long to feed, and a certain amount of milk always dribbled out of the bottle around her lips. Feeds would go so poorly that midway, we would switch back to her old 2oz or 2.7oz NICU bottles with single use disposable nipples and fill the bottle more than once so that she could at least feed successfully. We observed her, trying to figure out what was wrong.
Our nurse had brought us the popular Dr Brown’s “Wide” bottles. It occurred to me that the wide neck format with the softer shorter nipple was more “breast-like” than the standard-issue NICU bottles with their narrow neck and longer firmer nipple. It made sense that many babies liked these bottles and that others had success with them as most babies are at least partially breast fed. Our daughter is exclusively bottle fed as I said, and I realized that she was struggling with the simulated suckling required by these breast-mimicking bottles. She knew how to suck and I quickly searched for a narrower, more standard, bottle with a taller firmer nipple. I saw that Dr Brown’s bottles are available in a “Narrow,” or standard format and we rushed to Target immediately to purchase some. Tried it for the next feed and it was like a different baby — smooth sailing! It sound simple but we struggled, and our baby suffered a bit, as we played trial and error until things clicked and we realized that exclusively bottle fed babies are not the same as babies transitioning from breast to bottle (or combo feeding).
I think that considering a few simple but important factors, two of which are based on parental preference, you can have a better idea of what to look for. Accordingly, I’ve created an algorithm to help you determine the best bottle for your child, and you. The answers to the following three questions will help you focus your efforts.
- Breast or no breast?
- Glass or no glass?
- Anti-colic or no anti-colic?
Breast or no breast?
Breast: Start with a standard nipple and narrow bottle such as Dr Brown’s Anti-Colic Natural Flow Narrow. If your baby has a hard time switching between the standard nipple narrow bottle combination and the breast, choose a breast shaped or “natural” nipple on a wider bottle like Dr Brown’s Anti-Colic Natural Flow Wide, Como Tomo, or Tommee Tippee. Bottle: Choose a standard nipple and narrow bottle like Dr Brown’s Anti-Colic Natural Flow Narrow.
Glass or no glass?
Glass: If, like me, you believe glass bottles, or predominantly glass, are safer than plastic, Dr Brown’s in both narrow (standard) and wide formats is available in glass and is good quality. Plastic: Virtually all bottles on the market are purportedly BPA-free plastics. If a glass bottle is not important to you, you have a plethora of options from every major manufacturer to choose from. Como Tomo’s bottle is a nice flexible silicone that feels high quality.
Anti-colic or no anti-colic?
Anti-colic: Choose a vented bottle such as Dr Brown’s or Philips Avent Anti-colic. No Anti-colic: If gas isn’t an issue for your baby, and you really really hate cleaning the extra vented parts, any non-vented bottle such as Como Tomo, Tommee Tippee, Philips Avent Natural can work for your babe, or you can simply remove the vent from your Dr Brown’s bottle and use it without for marginally less washing.
Overall favorite: Dr Brown’s. For babies exclusively bottle feeding, Dr Brown’s Anti-colic Natural Flow Narrow. For babies mixing bottle and breast, Dr Brown’s Anti-colic Natural Flow Narrow or Dr Brown’s Anti-colic Natural Flow Wide. Both models are available in glass or plastic. I recommend buying the majority of bottles (for home use) in glass and only a few (for travel or outings) in plastic.
For travel: Pro tip, if using Dr Brown’s bottles on the go, do not forget to insert the “stopper” to prevent leaks! If you are on the go a lot, and your baby accepts a second bottle design, you can consider buying a secondary bottle with a tight closed seal design, such as the Como Tomo, which is largely spill free without a stopper required.
Milk & Money 