how to pick the right bottle for your babe

I was super gung-ho about breastfeeding when I was pregnant with my first baby.  I didn't even put bottles on my registry, because I had no doubt I would be the nursing champ of the century (ha!).  Then Mono landed in the hospital and the doctors told me I had to stop nursing.  I was heartbroken.  On top of that learning to mix and choose formula, I suddenly needed to buy a supply of bottles.  I was totally overwhelmed by all the options!  I bought one of everything so I could figure out what I liked best.

Here are the factors that matter most to me...

Nipple shape - I wanted something that was closes to a natural breast so my babies could maintain their ability to nurse.

Back-suck - I'm sure there is a fancy scientific name, but I mean that when a you suck on something without a pressure release, you have to break your latch to let the pressure equalize.  Most of the bottles on the market try to address this problem, but I found that only a few were successful.

Comfort - that is, comfort for ME while I hold the bottle for an entire feeding session!

Cost - if you are buying an entire bottle supply, you want something that works well for the price!

Everyone has different needs, but hopefully I can give you a little more information about what each bottle has to offer.





Avent bottles are my favorites.  This is because the nipple is closest to a natural breast shape, I like the shape of the bottle, and it's comfortable to hold in the 4-ounce size.  The 8-ounce is a little bulky.  Now that I nurse Oso exclusively, these are my favorite bottles to use.  They have an airflow mechanism built into the nipple that is supposed to solve the back-suck problem, but it doesn't work very well and I usually have to break the baby's latch every once in a while.

MAM bottles were mostly a big fail for me.  The nipples are oddly shaped, and the back-suck solution (a rubber ring in the bottom that is supposed to release to equalize pressure) leads to tons of leaks.  The body is also poorly shaped, and was not comfortable to hold.









Playtex bottles are great.  They are bottle frames that you purchase liners for.  The liners were far and away the best solution to back-suck, because they collapsed as the volume decreased.   I've only used the strait bottles (crooked-shaped bottles confuse me!).  The nipples are decent, and the bottle shape is comfortable.  The biggest con is the ongoing cost of these bottles - after buying the bottle, you still have to pay for bottle liners on a regular basis.  I loved these bottles for traveling, because I could bring a bunch of clean nipples and liners, and use just one bottle.  It saves major bottle cleaning hassle.



Dr. Browns bottles are comfortable to hold, but I thought the nipples were a little to small to imitate a natural breast and I hated dealing with all the little parts!  It was alot to take apart, then put back together.  These bottles do solve the back-suck problem really well, and I know alot of people who love them and swear they never leaked, but they always leaked for me.  For how expensive they were, I was not happy with these bottles.





Gerber makes your basic, run-of-the-mill plastic bottles.  Once I found out that we were done-done nursing Mono, I invested in these for the bulk of our bottle supply.  The nipple, like Dr. Browns, is small and not like the natural breast, but since I wasn't concerned about maintaining his ability to nurse anymore, I wasn't worried about it.  They are by far the cheapest and I had to break the baby's latch every few minutes just like with the Avent bottles, so this worked fine for us.






Basically, when I bottle-fed Mono, we used mostly Gerber or Parents Choice bottles.  When we traveled, I took my Playtex bottles and bought a box of liners.  Now that I am nursing Oso, I use Avent when I need to give him a bottle every now and then.

Do you nurse or bottle-feed?  What is your favorite bottle brand?