Overwhelmed- Best bottles for combination feeding?

[Tilly35TTC15mths]

Hi,

Im so overwhelmed by the choices.

• Brands- Tommy tippy, nuby, mams, Phillips avent …

• teat flow rates,
• bundles or buy everything separately,
• sterilisers - electric, microwave, Milton
• breast and pumped breast, breast and formula,
• warmers, coolers…..
• 1000 other accessories I’m sure I’m forgetting 😵‍💫

I just feel totally overwhelmed
Can anyone share their experiences of combination feeding (breast and bottle) and recommend what brand of bottle really worked for you?

I have to go back to work after three months so exclusive breast isn't an option - I need to try and get baby used to combi feeding as early as possible so thinking to try and introduce it after two weeks 🫤 and increase my supply with pumping to build up a store.

please help. Any opinion is appreciated.

Hi Op, reading this as a BF my almost 16 month old who had a bottle introduced at 2 weeks also! She’s gone on the odd bottle strike & breast feeding strike (mainly in the first 6 months) but we just persevered & have had no issues with either long term. I’ve had a few overnights away from her, weekends away and worked away with no issues.

tommee tippee - didn’t really rate. Lansinoh have been brilliant. We just used the flow that came with the bottle I think (size 2) and only recently got a faster flow. We had a steam steriliser for our first who was formula fed & it stained all the bottles. We went for Milton cold water this time & would recommend it over steam any day! Much cheaper & easier too. We did breast & pumped breast while I established my supply and from 6 months gave the odd bottle of formula to no ill effect (or a bag of frozen expressed but I mean, I could miss the odd pump). Have you got a pump already? Honestly for now I would buy the following:

breast pump
2 to 4 lansinoh bottles
Milton cold water steriliser
Milton cold water steriliser tablets

you can reassess when baby is a month old as to how it’s going, if you need more etc. New guidance is also that you don’t need to sterilise bottles/pumps from breastmilk. I think I might still for a newborn though as I’m a creature of habit!

Mine are teens now, but when I combi fed I used Dr Browns bottles and a microwave steriliser - Dr B’s because they both suffered bad colic/wind

We used Lansinoh glass bottles and they’ve been find. We’ve had periods of bottle refusal but overall it’s been fine. It says it has a slow flow teat but I can’t remember which number it is.

Id buy everything separately so I can just get what I want without extra clutter.

I use Milton, and just have the small Solo Travel version and it’s been fine for what we need.

We did breast and pumped milk, but overwhelmingly at breast. I just bought a cheap pump because I didn’t want to do anything more than occasional pumping and it’s been great. You didn’t ask for recommendations here but the Medela milk bags are much better than Lansinoh as they have a tear off spout. My pump was a Bella Baby wearable which was £40.

Didn’t use warmers. We would sometimes put a bottle under the hot tap so it wasn’t fridge cold but cold milk didn’t bother him. I haven’t used formula so no experience with cooling flasks.

My general advice is that the shops won’t close after your baby is born so you don’t need to buy loads just in case.

Milk storage bags for the list too sorry!

We had the MAM bottles that you take apart and sterilise in the microwave. Worked for us!
Did get given a bottle warmer but didn’t really get it to be honest - it seemed exactly the same to stand in a cup of hot water. Same for cooler - just run it under the tap.
We did breast & formula. If you can get enough pumping then I would try and do that, with the odd bottle of formula as formula is expensive! But you won’t know that until baby is born.

Can you wait until 4 weeks to introduce a bottle? At 2 you could still be establishing breast feeding and you're more likely to confuse the baby and tank your supply. I triple fed for the first week, then did one bottle every 2-3 days from 4 weeks before going back to work at 5 months. We used the Lanisoh new born bottle at first just because it's what the midwife recommended. Since then, I've just used the Medela pump bottles for ease. The Calma teats are a pain in the bum and nursery begged us to get different ones. We use Dr Browns just because they're easy to buy when they get lost and they fit Medela bottles. If you're going to be pumping every day, get at least 2 sets of valves and pump parts in case you don't have time to wash up or one breaks. I got a very cheap second hand pump, but have ended up spending a fortune on new bits. I've got at 4 sets in various states of disrepair. Thankfully Medela parts are easy to buy, so make sure you get a brand where you can buy spares.

I pumped after a feed every morning when I was trying to build up a freezer stock, just an ounce or two per time but it builds up. In the end I don't use the freezer much, I just put Friday's milk in and take it out on Sunday evening. DS normally gets it from the previous day. It is useful having a few bags in in case the pumping all goes wrong though.