Bottles to buy before birth

[Momtobe1990]

Goodmorning, I am 5 months pregnant and looking to buy bottles for my newborn even though i plan to breastfeed if it is possible. Since i know not all babies like the same brand, i thought of buying the following to start with

125ml Philip Avent anticolic
130ml MaM easy start anti colic
Two 160ml Lansinoh natural wave anti colic
160ml tommee tipee

Is this a sensible choice? Any thoughts or recommendations from people who have been through this? Do you recommend sticking to one brand or mixing it up as above? And is 5 bottles enough to start with if i plan to breastfeed? Please share your experiences or what you did would appreciate, Thank u!

Why do you need bottles? Are you planning on pumping?

I wouldn't introduce a bottle too early to avoid preference so you have a few weeks after you give birth to figure out which brand your baby prefers. For this reason, I wouldn't buy bottles "just in case". It may just be a waste of money and there's nothing to stop you going out and buying them if you decide you do need them.

If you're planning to breastfeed I wouldn't bother investing in any bottles right now. Unless you are nowhere near a 24 hour supermarket you can always get some in an emergency if you really need to and otherwise they could be a total waste of money.

For my first I also got bottles, steriliser, formula etc despite planning to breastfeed as I didnt want to be caught out if if didn't work. Luckily breastfeeding worked for me and they were never used.

Unless you live somewhere incredibly remote you can nip out to buy extra bottles and if you are deciding to switch from breast to bottle it's unlikely to be an immediate switch so you have time to stock up. I'll let someone more knowledgeable comment on the actual bottles but I would recommend 2 bottles max as back up, some sterilising solution and the premade formula cartoons (6ish) on hand. I didn't use anything but found it helped me stick at breastfeeding as I knew I had a back up there if needed. Not buying too much reduces waste and means you can buy what you need for your particular baby as it will depend on when and why you stop feeding.

One thing I will say on breastfeeding, I breastfeed my first until 15months and I am now nearly at month 5 with my second. Both times establishing breastfeeding has been awful. It hurts like hell, they clusterfeed like demons, it's a full time job. I nearly gave up because I fell for thr 'it should be natural and painless'. I'm sure for some people it is but it wasn't for me and I saw a lactation consultant, I was doing everything right it just takes a while for some. From 10 weeks on though, it's bliss. No pain, lots of lovely endorphins.

Both times I sought help with breastfeeding for mastitis, blocked ducts etc and despite medical professionals paying lip service to breast is best, all but one encouraged formula.

Before having the baby see if there is a surestart breastfeeding group in your area, you can go even if you aren't eligible for surestart otherwise. Be proactive and get a lactation consultant at the first sign of trouble, you can be referred through your gp but may need to be pushy.

You got this!

I wouldn't bother. I did this and they never got used. Breastfed for 3 years and he never had a bottle. Went straight to cups.

Don’t buy bottles if you want to breastfeed, the best thing you can do is do lots of learning on breastfeeding and normal baby behaviour around breatsfeeding, maybe book an appointment with an IBCLC (qualified breastfeeding consultant) if you can afford it. If you really need a bottle they’re in supermarkets or Amazon

I got a single glass bottle just in case, in the same brand as the dummy I was planning on giving (MAM).

Breastfeeding worked well for me (just as well, baby had severe CMPA so was EBF with me on a dairy excluded diet) so the glass bottle was used a few times with expressed milk when I wanted to leave baby with dad for a couple hours or do a KIT day.

Slightly more cautious view here - despite appearances things were okay, I don't make enough milk and my daughter ended up as a readmission to Neonatal Intensive Care with severe dehydration, despite being seen every day between birth and when she was admitted on day 5 by midwives...

I'd get 2 Mam bottles in the smallish size and buy some size 0 teats for them, so long as you've got a microwave. They're so easy with sterilisation, that way. If your baby doesn't like them, as other say, it's easy enough to pick up other in a supermarket.

(We fed my daughter with size 0 teats til she was well over 6 months old, as part of trying to keep breastfeeding going, despite me having the scantiest of milk supplies!)

Have a look at cup feeding, too though. I was able to manage this even when she was 4 days old, and it's a good back up if you don't have bottles to hand.

Good idea to get a couple in just in case IME. And grab a couple of cartons of ready made formula too. I found them reassuring to have in and that actually took pressure off a bit.

When I had to stop BFing DS1 after juat a few weeks I was already stressed, I would have gone over the edge if I had to faff going to the shops too.

I got a Dr Browns and a Tommee Tippee closer to nature I think it was. Just the 2 to start then carried on with the Tommee Tippee ones.

Hopefully BF will work out though. It is tough but I managed to 2 years with DS2, just wasn't happening with DS1.

I breast fed my first very successfully, but my milk was very delayed after a traumatic labour, so I was glad to have some pre-made milk bottles available for new borns as she needed to be fed! My second baby was born prematurely and never learnt how to latch properly so was bottle fed. Both also had severe milk allergies / reflux, and I swore by MAM bottles for helping them when they did transition to bottles. The other brands caused more trapped wind for some reason. I think there is no harm being prepared as you never know what will happen when it comes to feeding your baby.

We have used Tommee tippee (not a fan) and lansinoh (fan).

It really depends on your long term plan. I’ve BF since DD was born but began pumping almost right away and she started having the odd bottle of expressed from about a week old. Prior to this she was having pre expressed colostrum from a syringe then a spoon. Personally the ability to go between both has been invaluable and now she’s starting nursery, the transition has been much smoother as she’s happy feeding herself a bottle of expressed with the nursery. If you only want to bf and not express, there’s no need to buy as many bottles. Maybe an emergency one if you’re thinking you will express or you would be happy to give formula if you needed to.

I never bought any bottles. Save your money, you might never need bottles.

We ended up using mam bottles that you can sterilise in the microwave for 3 out of 4 children.
One used tommee tipp bottles.

If you plan to breastfeed just save your money, unless you live in a very remote community, you can get bottles from any supermarket or delivered within 24 hours, no need to stock up on multiple types, perhaps buy one bottle and a couple of ready made formula cartons as an emergency supply if you are really worrying

You can get all this stuff same day from amazon or in any big supermarket if needed. I probably wouldn’t bother if you plan to breastfeed. If you really want to have some in just in case or you’re planning on pumping so dad can do a nightfeed or something then just get one type. Personally I’d go with the MAM because they’re popular for a reason and if you have a microwave already then you don’t need to bother with getting a steriliser. Get 2, no more to start then if you want to get more then do as needed. Ditto if baby rejects them and you want to try something else but that’s less likely the younger they are when you introduce the bottle.

The best thing you can do of you want to BF is not to buy any bottles at all until BFing is established.

If you do want to be prepared for when LO arrives, I’d do sone of these:

Put the BFing Support Helplines numbers in your phone.

Have a read of What supplies do I need?

Contact your local BFing Support Group abd go along before LO arrives.

And read this on Tongue Tie as it’s a common cause of Women giving up BFing.

Also double check this but pretty sure lansinoh teats fit on mam bottles, and I think some avent ones do too… hazy sleep deprived times but I vaguely recall using avent variflow on ours mam bottles for DS when he was on the milk thickener because we couldn’t get the right balance with the mam branded ones.

So you don’t necessarily need to buy all those different bottles to try all those different teats.

You’re doing absolutely the right thing thinking about this in advance! I’d planned to EBF but it was disastrous - we only narrowly avoided dangerous consequences because we had a Tommee Tippee bottle passed on by a friend and lived close enough to local shops to quickly get hold of some ready to feed formula when our baby’s weight loss proved to be dangerous because my milk hadn’t come in.

But you don’t need loads of bottles to start out with. We had one, plus a travel steriliser. Once it became clear EBF would be impossible (this was after being readmitted to hospital to treat severe dehydration) I then purchased more and a bigger steriliser.

It would be a good idea to look out for the hospital packs of ready sterilised
bottles with teats, then you’ve got them should you need them and no need to worry about sterilising initially.

And don’t let the midwives fob you off with not doing a day 3 weight check. My baby wouldn’t have ended up so ill if
the weight loss had been picked up on day 3 instead of day 5.

I would not bother buying loads of brands.

You are likely to end up with a couple just from freebies/samples anyway. If not, a standard one from a supermarket is fine, it doesn't need to be a branded one.

Don't overthink it, it is all marketing making you worry you'll have to go on some ultimate quest to find the right bottle! In reality if you end up needing a bottle you can use the 1-2 you've accumulated and if you don't have one handy you can use a teaspoon in a pinch. Then you can buy one (or more) from the nearest corner shop, Boots, or 24 hour supermarket. Most babies don't care where the milk is coming from as long as there is some milk. If you do get a baby who is more discerning, there's no guarantee they will like the ones you've stocked up on anyway.

YY - teats come in narrow or wide size. The screw tops (and the holes in them) are interchangeable unless you have some weird bottle like the one that is shaped like a giant boob.

I was hoping to breastfeed from the outset but had an unexpected hospital stay and didnt have any bottles.

I couldn't breastfeed whilst in the hospital so had to rush out and buy bottles which I found really stressful (as I couldn't leave the baby in the hospital alone so had to rely on others).

I got the MAM starter kit and I was able to breastfeed my baby from week 6 onwards and I am now exclusively breastfeeding (my baby is 11 weeks now). I suppose it depends on the baby and your delivery but if I had to do it again, I would buy some bottles just in case and I think MAM ones are good.

We used the laniosh bottles but we ordered them with next day delivery after we decided to try and expressed bottle at 3 weeks with my daughter a couple of times a week. We didn't get any confusion

I had my son last week and he needed formula and expressed colostrum on day 1 as he wouldn't wake for a feed. We used the bottles and formula that the maternity ward had available. If we had planned on formula feeding from the start we would have had to bring our own but they had some as back up. I'm expressing and he's having a small amount every couple of days if I'm not around when he needs a feed just to tide him over until I'm there - hospital appointments or putting my daughter to bed. I'm using the couple of newborn bottles we got from the hospital

Exactly this. We used Lansinoh teats on mam bottles. DD had a terrible latch on the mam teats (first time mum I assumed bad latches didn’t affect bottle fed babies, and no health professional seemed to suggest otherwise either). The mam size 3 teats when you get to that size are also AWFUL. They are so, so fast you practically drown your baby.

I second cup feeding in a pinch. My son really damaged my right nipple on day 1 so I expressed by hand and gave him some in a cup here and there to help my right boob heal.

BF in the early days is hard. I would recommend NOT buying formula as you will 100% reach for it at some point when you're really really low. Just persevere. The first 6 weeks are shit. Horrible. Can be painful as hell. Milk leaking everywhere.

If you can, pay for a lactation consultant. They're ace.