Types of Bottles / Best Colic Reducing Bottles

[* Paula *]

Hello ladies,

We usually have a lot of members that pop over to the bottle feeding forum to ask advice on bottles.  It could be either that they are wanting to wean from breast feeding or that they want to purely bottle feed their lo, and want a bit of advice on what type of bottles to use.

I was hoping we could provide a thread with the following information on it:-

Country, Type of Bottles Used, Pro's, Cons

and any other info that they think could be useful.

Thanks for your input 

Paula

[* Paula *]

I am from the UK.

We originally used Avent bottles for our DS, but found that he was extremely gassy and had excess wind, and was unable to get it out of his system.

We then switched to NUK teats and found that this helped our DS immensely.  He did not take in as much air when drinking and was able to bring his wind up without any problems.  Pros for the NUK, orthodontic teat, helped our lo take in a lot less air when drinking.

As he got older, at around 4-5 months we went back to the Avent bottles and did not seem to have any problems with them at all.  Pro's for the Avent, various teat sizes, able to buy a variflow teat to adjust the flow to suit your lo, and available in a 9oz bottle.

[JennŠ]

Good idea Paula!! 
US - we tried Avent, soon to find they would not work for our preemie.  It was too hard for her to use.  Hubby brought home 4 ounce Gerber bottles and a selection of nipples.  What worked best was the plain ole' nipple that came with the bottles.  When we started thickening the formula to help her reflux, we used medium flow silicone nipples. 
That's what worked for us, no ideas what the outcome would have without the preemie and reflux factors. 

[Samuel's mum]

If anyone's thinking about the haberman feeder:

Tracy advocated the use of the haberman feeder for breastfed babies who are going to be mixed feeding. Although many babies have no problems at all switching between breast and bottle - Tracy did feel that something she termed 'flow confusion' could be a problem. This is when the baby gets accustomed with the faster flow of the bottle and then becomes frustrated when they return to the breast.
The benefit of the haberman feeder (sometimes called a special needs feeder as it was originally developed for special needs babies) is that the baby is required to regulate the flow as they do at the breast and the milk doesn't just pour out.
Breastfeeding mothers who want to use ordinary bottles should at least remain on the slower teats as long as possible. Some women with have faster letdowns but in many cases a newborn teat is more appropriate well after 5-6 months.

[Ennypen]

After struggling with Avent I went on to use Dr Browns aka B-free or now called Born-free in the UK.

The bottles are made of several parts which can be fiddly to wash.. but the washing time was well worth the improvement in William's colic. The bottle has a special vent system that takes air to replace the milk that the baby is drinking.. up through a tube to the bottom of the bottle.. so that it doesn't have to travel through the milk as it does in conventional bottles. That way the baby does not swallow as much air whilst feeding.
Also they have lovely soft silicone teats which William found much easier to latch properly to so he didn't gulp any air down from having a poor latch either.

As a bonus the bottles are free of a chemical called Bisphenol A - which is present in some bottles and studies have shown that it may be harmful if ingested.

Have a look at this site for more info on the newest version out in the UK..

http://www.babybfree.com/Default.aspx?pid=254

[KathrynK]

We used Avent bottles from 9 days old and have been very happy with them. They start in 5oz size for little babies, and do a 9oz size for older lo's.
Teat sizes come in 1 for newborn, up to 4 for fast flow.  The makers do give approximate age guidelines for when to change to the next teat size, but your lo may vary hugely from these guidelines, depending on his/ her needs. For example, fast flow is recommended for 6mo+ but dd was on them by 4mo as she was a big girl and very greedy!
They also do a variflow teat where you can change the flow to suit your lo while he/ she is feeding.
DD never had a problem with gassiness and the makers do say their "valve" system prevents gas getting into baby's tummy.
The bottle and teats are easy to clean and we never had any problems with leaking. They lasted until dd was about 13mo and then I had to replace a couple as they cracked just due to wear and tear.

[CARLIX]

Hello to everybody
I'm from Italy and I'm telling my experience with Haberman feeder.
In my opinion it's perfect: no colic, no reflux .
The only problem was the kind of bottle. 5 oz was small for my baby after first months and I didn't want to change it.So  I've found the solution (thanks Paula). The Dr Brown' s original bottles  8 oz are the same that Haberman feeder !!! My baby has found his original way .

I hope that this information will help some women and their babies.
Bye Bye

[swiper]

I used tommie tippee ones but they didnt suit Aimee so I used Advent with newborn teats until she was on gaviscon then went onto variflow teats which worked well.

[ShelleyMarlee]

Hi, I'm from Montreal, Canada
When my daughter stopped bf, I tried numerous bottles and many different nipples. The ones she likes, and I like as well is the Platex Nurser with the drop in liners, with the old fashion latex nipple(teat) Prevents her from sucking alot of air, and she doesn't seem to get too much gas.

[Lippy Chick]

Hi,

I live in England, UK.

Started using Tommee Tippee Closer to nature, because I was intending to breast feed and my husband do one feed with the bottle.  However, that didn't work out and I used bottles from about day 3 onwards.  They were OK until she was about 15 weeks old and decided she didn't want to feed and screamed every time the bottle came anywhere near her.  This was for about 3 weeks (have posted elsewhere about this).  Then I asked a friend about the bottles she's used and borrowed hers.  So now we use the Playtex bottles.  The person before me talks about them too. 

Pros:  The bottles are hollow and you put a pre-sterilised plastic liner inside them, which contract as the milk is sucked out of them.  This is supposed to mean less air all round.  We have certainly found that and as soon as we switched her feeding was fine again.  She is much less windy now and isn't as sick as she used to be either.  Wouldn't recommend the TT closer to nature, but will definitely be recommending the Playtex bottles to all who want to bottle feed.  You don't need to sterilise the bottles themselves, but just the teats and teat covers and ring the teat goes into. 

Cons:  Unfortunately we can only buy them online in the UK.  Which is a pain with the liners, but now that we've decided to stick with them, we ordered about 5 months worth.  The bottles only go up to 8ozs.  The TT closer to nature ones go up to 9ozs.  However, Alice isn't a big feeder anyway, so this isn't a problem for us, but could be for someone who is a big eater.

[EllenS]

We're in the US.

I also like the Playtex nurser - very simple to use and I feel like the size of the nipple is more familiar to her (we bf with the occasional supplement).  They were recommended by my lactation consultant.  We occasionally use a Dr. Brown's when the Playtex are all in the wash, and while there are no specific problems, the feeds just don't seem to go as smoothly.  I also hate having to deal with all the fiddly inner bits of the Dr. Brown's that are supposed to keep the air out (we see no difference in her gassiness between the 2).  Also, (just occurred to me) the Dr. Browns' tend to leak when we are shaking up the formula.

[AfonsoandDinisMum]

Hello everybody
I'm from Portugal, and unfortunnely here the only brand of bottles that you mentioned and exist here is Avent.
I'm using Chicco with my LO, but it causes him too much gas. Unfortunelly is the only one that he drinks of. I've already tried bebe confort, nuk, and avent, but doesn't like any of them. With Nuk he didn't adapt to the flow and often he would choke with it. With the other two brands they had silicone teats and he doesn't know how to suckle from them, and after a little bit he was too upset and crying.
Does anyone have an advice?

[* Paula *]

With regards to the NUK - what size teat are you using?  You can get the platex in NUK as well as silicone.

[AfonsoandDinisMum]

Hi.
What do you mean with "With regards to the NUK - what size teat are you using?". I think it was regular size. It was the one that came with the bottle.

[* Paula *]

Nuk teats do come in different sizes (flows)