Keeping bottles to use with future DC?

[delasi]

DS is nearly 10mo and has been pretty much EFF. Before he was born we bought a simple starter kit with 2 small bottles and 2 larger, but by 3-4 weeks old he had outgrown the small ones. He went onto the use the 2 larger bottles, which I subsequently added to with 4 more of the same size so he has 6 in total. The larger are all size 2/slow flow teats (he has never wanted to move onto a faster flow).

The 2 small bottles have newborn teats, as they saw such little use I simply made sure they were clean and dry and boxed them away in case I need them for future DC. But his current bottles - what do I do with them once he's done?! According to Avent I should be replacing bottles every 3 months not happening but should I chuck them out entirely? Obviously they work fine, the teats are currently fine but he will still be using them for a little while whilst we try to transfer him over to a beaker so they will get more worn I imagine.

I ask because my initial thought was to chuck them, but I have no idea if that's necessary or advised or if it just comes down to preference.

Keep the actual bottles but chuck the rubber teats. I use Tommee Tippee and you can separate the teat from the screw top ring bit. I assume you can with Phillips Avent?

Personally I kept all bottles and chucked the teats, no idea if that was right or not,

its the teats you should replace, not the bottles unless they are scratched/damaged

Yep, I can remove the teats from the ring. I think I will definitely chuck the teats, it seems right especially with more teeth arriving - there are no splits now but I imagine they're getting a workout!

Do the bottles hold up fine then? For some reason there is one side of me that thinks, "They're plastic containers. They'll manage." Then there's this other side that thinks, "...But what if they're ingrained with formula or something?!" (I know it's silly). DH wants to buy entirely new bottles when the time comes.

Well Avent would say that wouldn't they!!! I used same bottles (and the same tests until they needed replacing) for all three of mine, who are now much (much) older and perfectly healthy.

p.s. avent say to replace the teats every 3 months for hygiene reasons (not the bottles themselves)

I would imagine they mean replace every three months while you're using them (because sterilising etc might weaken them over time), not if they are just sitting in a cupboard surely??

I'm reusing bottles and buying new teats. I can't believe the bottles would need replacing every 3 months!! Teats yes, they did start to look a bit grubby and split but some of the bottles still look brand new!!

minipie Ha yes I'm sure they mean during use! But I don't know anyone who changes bottles every 3 months during use That would mean having 4 new sets in the first year of your child's life!

I can understand changing the teats although tbh most people I know don't deliberately change them unless their children go on to use a faster flow, although I assume they would if the teat split.