Dr. Brown's Bottles Help Babies with Reflux

I have just finished reading Picking the Right Baby Bottle by Tori M, and her recommendation of Dr. Brown's bottles, and I must say she is completely correct. We also tried several types of bottles and Dr. Brown's were our top choice.

When my baby was born last July, I thought that I wasn't going to need bottles at all. I was going to have a breast-fed baby, and he would never know the feel of a synthetic nipple, and I would never need to know anything about bottles. Well, once we got started with breastfeeding, we decided that bottles deserved a chance.

In the beginning, I started using the four ounce bottles that fit into my Medela breast pump. These were the ultimate in a no-frills bottle. They looked like a bottle that would come with a toy doll. And they worked, sort of. They held the milk, they dispensed the milk, and the baby drank the milk. Unfortunately, after drinking the milk the baby

suffered from colic, gas, and reflux. It was awful to see the little thing suffer, and it was awful to live with.

We briefly tried the Avent bottles, which I received at my baby shower. The Avent bottles are very handsome and work fine. However, our baby continued to have lots of gas and reflux while using the Avent bottles.

We were desperate for something to help ease the discomfort the baby was feeling, and to allow it to sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time, and to allow us to get some rest. A friend recommended the Dr. Brown's bottles. We hadn't imagined that the bottle could be part of the problem, but it turned out to be a great part of the solution.

With the bottles we had been using, the baby was able to ingest a lot of air into its little belly, air that would collect and cause painful gas. Also, pressure built up inside the bottle as the baby drank, and made it hard for the little one to continue to get milk out due to the vacuum that the sucking created. With Dr. Brown's bottles, their patented pressure releasing mechanism eliminated this problem. The baby was able to drink and the gas was dramatically reduced.

Another benefit of the Dr Brown's bottles is that they reduce the risk of getting fluid in the ear. This in turn helps to prevent ear infections.

We are big fans of the bottles, and continue to use them today, although we now use the 8 ounce version instead of the 4 ounce. There are some negatives about the bottles, though. The biggest drawback of the Dr. Brown's bottles is that they are harder to clean than other bottles. You must have a bottle brush to reach the bottom of the bottle, and also a tiny little brush which you use to clean the insert and the rubber stopper that sits on top of the insert. The bottles are dishwasher safe, which is a relief, given that it is so hard to get them clean otherwise.

Another drawback is that the bottles leak more than most. The Dr. Brown's bottle

especially leaks after it has been warmed. For example, if you keep a bottle in the refrigerator and later warm it in a cup of hot water, the bottle tends to leak. A way to reduce this leaking is to heat the bottle with the top off. But no matter what you do, Dr. Brown's bottles leak a bit. This is particularly annoying while traveling, since the bottles leak while in the diaper bag unless they are completely upright.

Finally, the bottles are more expensive than most. You can get a 3-pack of the 4-oz bottles at target online right now for $12.49 plus shipping, which is a good deal. You can also get the 3-pack of 8-oz bottles on amazon for $12.99, which is a very good price. Dr. Brown's bottles also come in a wide-neck version, which many people absolutely love. We never have only tried the standard version.

But for the few extra dollars and in spite of being leaky and hard to clean, we must say that the benefits of Dr. Brown's bottles far outweigh the burdens. These bottles DO WORK! Our baby became noticeably less gassy and threw up much less after we switched to Dr. Brown's bottles.