Best bottles for combination feeding?

[Thatsmoneyhoney]

Hi all!

I am due a baby soon and I plan on (hopefuly) breast feeding and bottle feeding as I would like my partner to be able to feed and also there will be times I have to be away from home.
What bottles work best for combination feeding?
Thanks for your advice ☺️

---

This thread is a little old now, but if you’ve landed here looking for the best baby bottle for combination feeding, we’ve recently updated our best baby bottles page with lots of great options, as tried and tested by Mumsnet users and their babies. We hope you find it useful.
MNHQ

I always advise Mam bottles for mixed feeding and tbh just formula

I’m a maternity nurse and all babies I’ve had who have been mixed fed happily go from bottle to boob

After being a lover of Tommee Tippee for two of my children, I must say now I would only recommend Mam bottles.
Our doctor recommended Mam. The teats are flatter and easier for baby. They are a bit fiddly with the bottom bit that unscrews but my daughter (combi fed) gets on much better with them than any other brand I've tried.

Mam bottles 🍼 were great for our combi fed baba
X

Medela make a special teat thats supposed to help avoid nipple confusion. Baby has to work hard on it like a boob so doesn't become lazy like with other bottles.

You might want to consider exclusively breast feeding for a few weeks to establish supply and look into pace feeding once you introduce bottle.

As above I exclusively bf for 5 weeks then went to bottle and she accepted tommee tippee closer to nature no problem.

DD and I tried quite a few brands including MAM, Nuk (which I thought looked brilliant but she disagreed), and the fancy Medela one, before she accepted the Lansinoh Momma ones. She fiercely refused all the rest, but my supply wasn’t strong enough to EBF her so I was hugely relieved when she finally accepted a bottle!

I recommended the Lansinoh bottles to someone in my antenatal group who also had a picky combi feeder, and she got back to me to say her DS had taken to them really well too.

The bottles are lovely and have stood up really well to 10 months’ use, with regular steam sterilising plus a few Milton cold water tablet sessions when visiting family.

Good luck!

I use mam as well and at six months I'm still combination feeding though I'm not sure it's because of the mam bottles.

There's lots of things I hate about them though especially that the line markers are quite thin so it's difficult to measure out water accurately. I use a Mothercare bottle to measure out the correct amount, which isn't a big deal but just means more to sterilise. Also they are quite thick and it takes ages to warm up or cool down the milk by placing in cold or hot water. And I'm always worried about water entering the bottle while warming up or cooling down as they consist of several parts that have to be assembled.

Anyway, Ds loves them now and refuses any other bottle.

(I loved the Lansinoh bottles that I used for DD. She rejected every other bottle and only sometimes accepted the Lansinoh one.)

Also with the mam ones now after six months the measurement lines have faded and pretty much disappeared

@KitchenTowel

I use mam as well and at six months I'm still combination feeding though I'm not sure it's because of the mam bottles.

There's lots of things I hate about them though especially that the line markers are quite thin so it's difficult to measure out water accurately. I use a Mothercare bottle to measure out the correct amount, which isn't a big deal but just means more to sterilise. Also they are quite thick and it takes ages to warm up or cool down the milk by placing in cold or hot water. And I'm always worried about water entering the bottle while warming up or cooling down as they consist of several parts that have to be assembled.

Anyway, Ds loves them now and refuses any other bottle.

(I loved the Lansinoh bottles that I used for DD. She rejected every other bottle and only sometimes accepted the Lansinoh one.)

Totally agree with the line markers being rubbish, they take ages to heat / cool down and the assembly being a complete pain in the arse but my daughter seems to love them.

Tommee tippee are easier to use but Mam I feel are better quality.

I use mam anti-colic bottles and combi fed until 8 months - no issues with nipple confusion etc. They are fairly cheap and easy to get hold of. You can stick with size 0 teats to make it harder to suck/ more like BF (do that with any brand) and they are flat teats which are supposed to be more like a nipple. Having said that - if I did it again I'd probably try tommee tippee. DS thankfully isn't at all fussy and will suck on anything and the mam ones are fiddly as f* to clean and he can't feed himself because they have to be at the right angle. Also if you cool the milk in water with the lid on water gets sucked into the bottle through the anti-colic valve and you end up with formula that's too dilute. Leave the lid off per the instructions and you knock it over half the time. Perfect prep fixed that for us (a whole other topic and somewhat controversial I realise).

If I can give you any advice it's don't buy too many of anything up front. Buy enough - maybe 2 or 3 bottles - that you can try it for a week and cope with the cleaning. If your baby likes it buy more. If not you haven't lost too much money. Or borrow from friends - if you sterilise it's fine. And don't buy loads of small bottles - it seems like you'll use them forever but they'll be on 6 and 7oz a feed before you blink!