Bests Bottles for Breastfeeding

The best bottle is the one you can get her to take. You'll get a multitude of responses about what is best...but it is really what was best for their baby.

My daughter took AVENT bottle and nipples with no problems and I didn't even introduce a bottle for the first time until 8 weeks. I worked full time and pumped for the first year and she never even moved past the stage one nipple. She was very efficient at the breast too, so I don't think the nipple phased her.

FYI on the divorce, here in Texas special consideration is sometimes given to a breastfeeding relationship...don't know what it would be in CA. I am in no way saying you should restrict her father's access, but they may modify the visitation schedule to accomodate successful breastfeeding--in fact overnight visits are limited/non-existent before the age of 2-3 years old. Especially if you have production issues, the baby should be on the breast as much as possible.

I HIGHLY recommend Born Free! http://www.newbornfree.com/ They are BPA-free, and they are wonderful! They also have glass bottles. I used the plastic ones, but if I have another baby, I would try the glass ones. My son used them (with my breastmilk) at daycare and never had a problem. He also used their trainer cup to transition into a regular drinking cup.

I think Medela also has great bottles that are BPA-free. http://www.medela.us/ I used their containers for pumping with the Medela pumps I used. HTH!

Congratulations! It is fun to have a new baby in the house! I nursed all three of my children and all three of my children switched back and forth from breast to bottle very easily. I worked and went to school, so I would pump while I was gone and then give them the milk in Avent bottles. I love the Avent bottles. A lot of my friends tried to get me to switch to Dr. Browns, but they have way too many pieces that go to the bottle to keep track of! LOL I bought my bottle supply at Burlington Coat Factory. For $40 you can get a started kit that comes with 2-4oz bottles, 2-9oz bottles, a bottle brush and a formula/snack dispenser! GOOD LUCK AND HAPPY FEEDING!

Congrats on the new baby! I just had my first and have been pumping during my leave as I prepare to go back to work. One thing I definitely learned is let the baby choose the bottle that he/she likes best. I decided not to register for bottles and am so happy I didn't. I bought one Avent, one Born Free, and one Tommee Tippee (sold only at BRU and made specifically for breastfeeding babies going between the breast and bottle) -- I didn't try the Dr. Browns as I heard from several people they were a pain to wash (but did hear that they were good so if you're fine with lots of pieces to wash, then they're worth a try). My baby girl didn't like the Born Free, the Avent leaked, and she likes the Tommee Tippee. So...decision made...we went with the Tommee Tippee. Good luck!

Hi M.,

all bottles are same, they said this is good for this, another one for something else,..... i tried almost all of them because my baby had a lots of colic, but it was the same even when i changed all bottles and all nipples. You know they all look good and i am sure they are good but as you know we all grow up on same bottles and same nipples, you just have now a choice, they look good so i guess its only about which one you like the way its look. every baby is different and you may change a few of them until you will find what your baby will like, my didnt like a few of them because of nipples were different,..... every mom had different experience and it all depends on baby. so try any of those bottles and dont buy a lot of them so if you need to change it or buy different you will not spend a lots of money on same one, or just pick a few different and try them.
i know this is the hard part when you are trying to give your baby the best and you dont know which one is it.
good luck

What worked for both my exclusively breastfed little ones was the Playtex nurser with the latex (brown) nipple. It is super soft like the breast.

Invest in a good pump-like Medela Pump In Style-since you know you will be away from baby at times.

Don't doubt your ability to nurse baby before he/she even gets here! :) Just because you may have had difficulties in the past doesn't mean it will be the same with this baby. Get as much breastfeeding info on board before baby gets here. That helps so much. I like the book by Martha Sears-good basic, solid breastfeeding info.

Best to you and baby!

I breastfed for the first year, but also needed my kids to be comfortable with bottles because they would be in daycare from 4 months on.

For my first I used the Dr Brown's bottles...they were fine. My son liked them, but I HATED cleaning them...all the stupid parts, ugh!

This last time for my youngest, I used Born Free...again, no issues for my son, but again I hated all the stupid parts, but I do think they were easier to clean than the Dr Brown's ones.

One tip you didn't ask about though...get the Medela steam bags and the Medela wipes. FABULOUS for cleaning and steralizing your pump parts. The bags are the most amazing, helpful thing to women who are pumping regularly!!! You can also reuse them which is nice.

Good luck!
-M

I wouldn't stock up on anything until your baby gets here and you can see what she prefers. My first liked the playtex nursers but I found the drop in liners to be a huge pain. I eventually found a gerber one that was good but its hard to find. For my second I bought the playtex vent aire ones because they are like the nursers but no drop ins but he would not take them after a certain point. I ended up trying almost every bottle on the market and we finally wound up with the NUK ones probably because he already had a nuk pacifier and he was used to that. So really, I'd wait to see what your baby likes before you buy more than one or two.

i never supplemented with my daughter, but my sister did and used the playtex drop ins. the reason she liked them was because the bags were easy to set up with pumping and freezing. i know you said you dont make enough, but that is highly highly unusual, and each pregnancy is different so you never know with the different amount of hormones you have at a different age might be different. and most milk problems are more related to the baby itself such as its latch. just dont want you going into this with a negative when it might not be. the number one way to make your milk supply lessen is to supplement, which confuses your body into thinking its making enough.

http://www.babycenter.com/0_low-milk-supply_8487.bc

i will say that every baby is different with the nipple. you can obviously tell the ones that are shaped more like a breast. as long as you use only one type, and make sure you ex is using the same one, i wouldnt worry what you choose. you will get 100 different opinions. confusion would come using two different kinds.

i will say though, do not start the bottle until you are in a routine with nursing for a few weeks. bottles require less work, so if you start too early, you might have problems. also make sure you do not feed the baby the bottle. whenever you are with the baby, only nurse him, no matter what. that way he will correllate you to nursing, and anyone else to the bottle. sometimes thats all a baby needs to avoid confusion. good luck

Hi M.-

Congratulations on your pregnancy!!

I personally liked the Medela bottles and the playtex bottles. Same with the nipples. Both my kid's took those nipples w/o a problem, interchangably so I don't know if my kid's were not picky!

I would absolutely invest in a Medela Pump in Style, or a pump of that caliber. If there is milk in there, it will get it out!! Each pregnancy is different to you might have enough milk for this baby. Just keep an open mind, and take advantage of the lactation consultants at the hospital. For me, they were WONDERFUL!! My daughter wouldn't latch on for a few months so I pumped, and pumped until she did.

Anyway, Good luck to you!!
Stephanie

I found that the Soothie bottles work best for us. They are almost identical to the pacifier that they give the babies in the hospital, so my son was used to it and took to it with much less struggle than the others.

I breastfed up to almost 20 months. We started a pacifier at 1 month (but wish I did sooner) and I started pumping/having dad take a feeding using Born Free bottles at 3 weeks.

Never had problems. Note that it was dad or a caregiver giving the bottle and me breastfeeding. I've heard that helps. When she got older, I did occasionally give her a bottle, but she was pretty clear on things by then.

Congratulations!! I've only used Dr. Browns bottles- it came with a lot of recommendations from friends & family -We love it! It does have more parts than other bottles but that's because they use a patented vaccum-free vent system, which helps to reduce gas & colic...I use their dish washer basket and there's a spot for all the parts, very convenient.
I've also heard that playtex drop-ins are good for travel for a less messy clean-up on the go...
As long as you wish to breastfeed only go with the level 1 flow(applicable to all bottles) - anything higher than level 1 would help the milk flow much faster and makes it much easier for the baby to drink and she probably wouldn't want to do the work at the breast to get her milk.
Try to wait until 4 weeks but no later than 8 weeks to introduce a bottle to a breastfed baby...this will not only help her get used to the nipple but also when they are that young it's easier to introduce something new.
When I registered I got couple of bottles of different brands to try and see what my son's preference would be and to be honest just get 1 or 2 different brands...mostly babies are ok with what bottle you try though for some babies it will take some trial and error based on colic, gas or just plain preference.
The bottles were the most overwhelming part of setting up my registry - I just wanted to run out of that store when I saw a huge wall of nothing but different kinds of bottles and accessories...this is my first one:)

I breastfed and pumped exclusively for the first year. I too was worried about nipple confusion as she was my first and I heard horror stories about nursing. She had no problem latching right away. We waited 4 weeks before introducing the bottle just to be sure. And I was never the one that gave her the bottle - only my husband, grandmas, etc. so she wouldn't get confused. I tried to have an assortment of bottles on hand knowing that baby might not like or successfully feed off one brand. We tried Dr. Browns, Breastflow, Born Free, Avent, and even the Medela nipple that comes with the pump kit. We mostly ended up using Dr. Browns (which does have a lot of parts but seemed to really limit gas, spitting up, etc.), Medela (which was easy to go from pump/stored milk to feedings) and Breastflow (which was probably most like the breast).

I bought a few different bottles for my baby to try when I started giving her breast milk in a bottle! She took to the Born Free nipples the best so I stuck with those-good luck :)

I BFed for a year. (my son's now 2, so this was just one year ago).

Bought the MEDELA nipples and bottles and realized later that EVENFLOW made an almost identical nipple for about a 5th of the cost. Son never had a problem with nipple confusion. He had nothing but breastmilk though. Not sure if they take to formula just as happily.

But why do you say already "I have to supplement because I do not make enough milk" ?? How do you know you won't make enough milk? If you nurse at regular intervals (or pump instead of a nursing period, when she's with her dad), then your body will know that you need milk at all of those intevals and make milk ready for those times and frequencies.

Good luck. And Congratulations!

Congrats!

Lots of different answers here. I use the Gerber bottles/nipples. They are BPA free (I think most bottles are now...), economical, easy to get nipples in different flow rates or latex/silicone, easy to clean, and best of all screw onto the Medela Pump in Style pump so you don't have to mess around with bags (unless you're freezing milk... either way, the Gerber bottles are much less expensive than the Medela even if you just use them for pumping.) I switch back and forth between breast and bottle and baby has no problems.

Good luck!

The BEST bottle......the one your baby is willing to take.

Each child is different, so I'd experiment and get 1 of each different kind and then get a few more of the one she chooses.

Our kids took well to Platex Drop-ins, Dr. Brown's, Avent. It took our son a while as I didn't introduce a bottle until he was 6 weeks old, and I was preparing to return to work. He eventually stopped caring which one he had.

I honestly hated cleaning the Dr. Brown's bottles, and since I was cleaning up to 6/day with pump accessories as well around 11:30pm, I opted for the easier ones.

Even though the bigger packs are less expensive, if your baby doesn't take to them, it won't matter. I'd take the trial and error approach personally and see which provides the least nipple confusion, gas, etc.

Good luck. Sorry to hear about the split during the pregnancy. I hope it's amicable for the kids' sake.

I like the playtex nurser drop ins. I used them for my duaghter, and plan on it for my son. I started my daughter using the bottle when she was just 3 days, old because she was jaundiced so bad, and we had to make sure she was getting enough. She never had a problem going between the bottle or breast at all.

goood luck

Hello, Every baby is different, but my daughter found that the only bottle my grandaughter would us when she was not able to breast feed (ddue to digestive issues with the baby) was the First Years Breast Flow. They are shaped more natural. They also come in different flows.
Good luck with your precious little baby.