Dumb question about bittles for feeding from newbie mom to be

[OompaLumpa]

Thought i would take advantage of the third off offer at sainsburys and get some bottles incase bf does not work but am totally confused over the choice! I have been recommended the Tommy Tippee closer to nature bottles (wluld be interested to hear your recommendations and why) but see there are different sizes ie 150ml and 260ml. Is it more economical to buy the bigger size and only fill up as much as you need?
Is there some resource about this kind of question as i gwt so confused about all the different products!

Whoops bittles should be bottles, i blame the ipad......

I breastfed but also expressed and used the tommee tippee closer to nature. Though they were great for me don't stock up on loads as you really need to try them out on your baby. I have friends who had babies that were very fussy about what bottle they would take. The closer to nature was good for mixed feeding as it is supposed to be shaped like a boob. Get the big ones as to begin with they take very little but after a few months can really take loads and you would need to buy more bottles then.

Something I did was hide the bottles at my mums. I was really determined to bf (I had twins so knew it would be very hard) I needed the bottles to be somewhere inconvenient so in the middle of the night when I was at my wits end I didn't cave and just start formula feeding. I don't have anything against formula feeding, it's just that I felt very strongly about bf. I had a dreadful birth experience and it felt like something I had some control over.

So yes get the tommee tippee ones as they are great for feeding expressed milk with even if you do go down the breastfeeding route so it's a win win really. Hope that helps!

Oompalumpa I'm also expecting my first so i'm probably not much help but i've bought the tommee tippee closer to nature breast feeding starter kit from mamas and papas, it includes a manual breast pump 4 small bottles a microwave steriliser box and some other bits and bobs, I figured that this would be enough to get started should BF not work and will be useful for expressing later on. Shop around for it and see who's cheapest, 10% off at mothercare at the mo.

I formula fed and used the Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature bottles and they're great, I really recommend them. We never had any leaks, they washed really well (and the neck is wide enough to get a brush right in there), I never had an issue with tests splitting or anything like that, and DS fed really well from them. He had no issues with colic or anything like that either but that could be luck rather than the bottles!

The only thing is that the teats tend to go cloudy after a while due to sterilising but it's purely cosmetic and didn't affect their performance. Get the bigger ones, they'll last you longer. I got two of the small ones with the steriliser and I'd stopped using them by about 3 or 4 months because they don't hold enough but I used the bigger sized ones right up until he finished with bottles a couple of months ago. I'm pregnant again and I'm going to be getting them again.

If you live in the North East (or have any friends who do) the Tommee Tippee factory is in Cramlington and their factory shop sells the entire range for a much lower price than the shops, they have 6 of the Closer to Nature bottles for £10 and teats are cheaper there too.

I formula feed, dd3 is 5 weeks, I use Tommee Tippee closer to nature bottles, really recommend them. Asda do a baby sale every couple of months, I got my TT microwave steriliser there for £10 and its brillant as well. DD3 is 5 weeks and now having 150 ml of bottle, so we aren't using the small bottles anymore, we got one free with the steriliser, so it probably more economical to get the bigger bottles and just fill as you need. Good luck

We used TT bottles for DS1 and I've bought them again (after a major sterilising disaster wiped out my last lot ) for DS2.

I really liked them and seemed to work well for mixed feeding. I'd say definitely go for the bigger ones, and get some of the little insert things that can hold formula powder within the bottle - my cousin had some and they seemed really useful. HTH

My DS used mainly Avent bottles but would happily switch back and forth to different types and boob whenever. I found the smaller ones good when they were small because they take up less space in the bag, you can sort of crook them in your hand easier and leave the other hand free for but there is no real reason to get them. Not sure I agree with the bit about having them inaccesible at 3am by storing them elsewhere - you never know what is going to happen re feeding regardless of what you want to do - I ended up sending DP out in the middle of the night to get formula because my milk hadn't come in yet and colostrum wasn't doing the job!

Twinmummy79 - I'm currently pregnant with twins, and would like to think I would be able to breastfeed but slightly terrified about the prospect. Were you successful and would you reccommend at least trying to manage it?!

Thanks

Ahh, Oompa, it's not a dumb question but unfortunately it's not one you will necessarily get a definitive answer to!

We first started out with Tommee Tippee (notfor any reason other than we'd been bought a TT steriliser, so they fitted!) and we used the smaller bottles at first, which has been mentioned before they were easier to carry and hold while feeding.

We started to have some trouble with them (I can't remember exactly but DD wasn't getting the milk out very well) so we changed to NUK as the teats were the same as the SMA bottles we'd been given in hospital. These were fab, she got on really well with them, until we had to change her milk to stay-down milk (as she had reflux).

We couldn't use the NUK bottles anymore, as the milk was too thick to come out of the teats (poor little thing was sucking and sucking, nothing coming out!). We went back to TT at this point and got some vari-flow teats but it poured out way too fast for her... so we then went to Avent bottles, as we could get a faster flow teat which didn't drown her!

The Avent bottles were superb for her drinking, but we got the super anti-colic (or whatever they're called, the gold box ones!) and they kept leaking in our bag! After swapping them once thinking we had a faulty batch, we had the same problem. Research proved it was a common issue and to do with the super-duper anti-colic system!! - so we took them back again(Mothercare are fab with us, lol) and we tried Mothercare own brand.

These have been absolutely fantastic - with both the thicker stay-down milk, the normal milk she then moved onto - oh and also the thicker 'goodnight' milk too.

To cut a long story short (!!) I think it's, unfortunately, down to trial and error as to which your baby prefers - as friends I know have loved both the TT and had no leakage problems with the Avent!

I would heartily recommend Mothercare own-brand though (they even do ones which self-sterilise which is handy for travelling).

Well done if you got to the end of this post, apologies it's so darn long!

I used the Dr Brown ones, which were recommended to us by the mw as being anti-colic but my DS had colic, so dont know if that bad luck or not. Were good though.

Agree with JoJo once dds got to a few months old and I wanted to replace bottles I used Mothercare and Boots are good too, I have also used Tescos own brand with no problems at all, same with teats, I really liked Boots own teats especially the faster ones. I became quite obsessed with bottles and teats with dd1 , not so much now with dd3 .

Silver angel, I won't lie it was absolutely horrendous to start with. My tip is refuse to leave the hospital until you are confident. I had an emergency section so was in for a few days anyway(I requested my own room based on the fact I wanted to bf twins as they would have put me on the ward otherwise).

I told the midwives I was determined to do it and they were very supportive. I fed them both at once in the football hold and if one was crying for food the other got woken and fed at the same time. They had their own allocated boob and eventually they fell into a 3hrly feeding pattern. To do it you need a very helpful understanding partner and nerves of steel but it is doable if that is what you really want.

Another option if you want to do it but find doing two at once really hard is to mix feed and give one formula whilst you bf the other and alternate. That way they get the benefits of bf without as much effort. I found though that once we all had the hang of it it was very easy.

Once I got home I bought a special twin feeding cushion which was invaluable. It was really expensive (£60) but I would have paid 4 times that for the difference it made with ease of feeding. I wish i had bought it earlier to have in hospital. I think it was called an EZ nurse twin feeding cushion and it came from twinsuk.com. It would actually be worth getting even if you were bottle feeding as it means you can bottlefeed two at once.

It is a huge achievement if you manage it but don't beat yourself up if you can't. I decided if I did my best and it didn't work out that I wasn't going to get down about it, after all many new mummies find bf one baby impossible so if you can't get it going with two it is no big deal.

wow ladies thank you all for your comments and advice, it is much appreciated. I never knew it would involve me having to actually think!

i think i will get a couple of the TT bottles whilst they are in the sale and go from there. i assume the newborn ones have a smaller hole in the teat so milk comes through at a slower pace? how do you then know when to upgrade to a faster flow rate?

I am planning on trying to BF but have discussed with DH and both agreed that if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out and we will not be put under pressure to keep going if it is upsetting me or LO or both! - wise words spoken prior to being in the actual situation!!!

thanks again...

you know when to upgrade when your LO gets frustrated and seems to be sucking really hard. You are definitely sounding very sensible about the situation- wait and see how you feel, how you get on. I mix fed from birth and it suited us very well

I used Avent bottles - great, but don't over tighten them or they leak.