Picking the Right Baby Bottle

When you start out buying items for your little one (probably around halfway through your pregnancy), you might feel a little overwhelmed. Standing in Babies R Us and looking at the "Feeding" section can almost send a first time mom into tears. Maybe it's the hormones, or maybe it's just that there are so many choices available to bottle feed your baby. Well, there's hope. Through trial and error (and reading a lot of reviews) I tried several different types of bottles, and eventually ended up with a happy and well-fed baby.

I used all of my bottles with formula (many different kinds) so this really isn't directed at those Mamas who are looking at which bottle is best for breastmilk. Some bottles work well with both formula and breastmilk, but I can't tell you which are best from personal experience. I can, however, tell you to be prepared to spend a bit of money on bottles. Unless you have a really great baby who will take their milk from any type of bottle or nipple, you will have to try some different bottles to see what your infant will like. I spent about $100 or so on bottles (including the type that finally worked) as well as nipples and other accessories.

The first type of bottle I tried out (and bought before my daughter was born) was the Avent Natural Feeding Bottle. These bottles are widely available both online and in stores, and range in price from about $12-$15 for a package of three bottles. They come in both 4 oz and 9 oz types, and if you go to Babies R Us, you can find additional parts for the bottles (if you were to lose just a part of it, or break it, etc). These bottles are definitely regarded as the best by a lot of moms, including those in my family that were pumping breastmilk and feeding out of bottles. They are said to reduce colic and Avent also has several levels of nipple to adjust the flow rate according to the age of the baby.

Great as the Avent bottles are, unfortunately they didn't work for my daughter. She became incredibly gassy when drinking from them, and the nipples seemed too hard for her. I have seen that Avent has recently introduced a softer newborn nipple, but these weren't available when I used them. Having heard that disposible bottles, those with the drop-in liners had worked for some babies with colic, I decided to try them next.

I bought some Playtex Nursers (with silicone nipples) and Drop-In liners. You can also find store brand liners at places like Target and Walmart that fit the Playtex Nursers. These bottles were about the same price as the Avent model, at about $12 for three bottles. You have to figure in the added expense, however, of the liners, which are about $4 for a box of 50. My baby seemed to really like these at first. She didn't get as much gas as the model of Nurser we bought had a self-burping addition (Eazy Feed) that allowed all the air to be squeezed out of the liner. A big drawback to this bottle, however, is that you can't mix the formula in the bottle. They are also harder to heat, because baby bottle warmers made for this purpose don't work with the plastic liners. I heated a cup of water and placed the bottle in it to warm, but it wasn't very convenient.

Unfortunately, my little one still wasn't happy with these bottles. After a switch to soy formula helped with the colic and gassy periods, we were still looking for something that would work to completely help her stomach. Finally, we found relief in Dr. Brown's Natural Flow Bottles. I had avoided trying these bottles at first because of the extra work involved in both cleaning and assembling the bottles. There is a "straw" portion as well as a rubber seal that are additions to the parts of a regular bottle. The way the Dr. Brown's bottles work is that they create "positive pressure" and get rid of the vacuum and air bubbles that cause gassiness and colic in babies. It worked for my girl like a charm! The bottles tend to run about a dollar more expensive for a set of three, but they were worth it in my case. You can use a bottle warmer to heat these bottles, and if you buy the wide mouth variety they are very easy to clean. I recommend using a dishwasher with a basket to hold the various bottle parts, and this gets everything nice and fresh. The bottles also have available different types of nipples with different flow rates, and additional parts for the bottles are available online and at Babies R Us.

There are many more bottles out there to try, but I was lucky to find one that worked. These three bottles are the top three listed on most baby sites as the types that Moms like, and I did see the advantages and drawbacks to each type. I recommend not getting frustrated if you have to try more than one type of bottle, and if you know any other previous children you might have had are colicy, go straight to the Dr. Brown's, and you'll be happier as well as having a happier baby.