Best bottle/sterilisation system - any recommendations?

[islingtongirl]

Hello!

Looking for some advice on which brand of bottles/steriliser people recommend (about to start third trimester and not really bought anything for baby yet). This is my first baby so don't know what will happen in reality, but current thoughts are I would like to Bf and then start expressing, with aim to move to mixed feeding in a few months so DH can feed baby etc. I've been looking in the shops a bit and online and the main brands seem to be Tommy Tippee, Avent and Medela. also seen Dr Brown, these seem more for anti colic? I'm guess I'm looking for recommendations on a good starter set, e.g. selection of bottles, teats, steriliser and electric breast pump etc - what have people used and think is a good brand, reliable brand? The Tommee Tippee back to nature ones looked good but read some not so good reviews...also does all the 'kit' have to be the same brand? Presumably the pump generally fits onto same brand bottles, and easier to fit in same brand steriliser etc? Sorry for all the inane questions! And thank you in advance for any help!

I use the tommy tippee stuff I think they're great but it really is personal choice, just have a good look in the shops and choose the brand you like best x

Thanks Tinky, I like the look of Tommy too..hmm. Did you bother with the separate bottle warmer thing?

I had one but didn't find it to be much use, it was too slow, found it much quicker and easier to pop downstairs and boil the kettle x

I have 4dc with the first two I used a bottle warmer, by the third I put the bottle in the microwave. If you give it a shake it really is fine despite what they say. As for bottles tomme tippe are fine but if your baby does have colic I can't recommend dr browns enough although they are a pain to wash.
As for sterilisers I haven't noticed a difference.

Sorry totally missed the bit about breastfeeding I mixed fed my dc and you can only put formula in a microwave never breast milk. I would recommend medela electric breast pump and medela calms bottles.

Calma stupid I phone!

Medela swing electric pump

I intended to BF so didn't buy anything like this in pregnancy, in the event the baby was slow to regain birth weight so lactation consultant loaned me a medela swing pump which she gave me with a sterilised bag of bits (a bottle, teat, boob bit for the pump etc) and she told me suggested I go on ebay for the pump as I could keep the bag of bits (it was a one person bag)- I got a Swing for £35, and then picked up some Medela bottles and a Calma teat on offer later on.

She also told me to avoid the Tommee Tippee pump as it wasn't very good (slightly hazy as to why - post birth fog..).

I had a bottle of Milton in the cupboard which I would have used but a friend sold me her steam steriliser for a tenner as her baby had just turned one.

I guess it depends on your budget etc and also your area (South Wales seemed to have an extremely helpful and pro BF medical community) but I am really glad I didn't buy anything in advance, I figured there is always 24 hour tesco etc if it really gets desperate! and in practice everyone was only to happy to help/loan things and I suspect I saved a fortune.

I used tommee tippee and had no probs at all. Ds switched from breast to bottle and back again no prob. The advantages of tommee tippee are that they seem to come up in offers much more than avent so end up much cheaper. I just got 6 bottles for a fiver in the asda baby event. I also just used the tommee tippee manual breast pump and had no probs with that either. Plan to use the same brand for dd due in july. The only thing i would change is the steriliser, i used the electric one but plan to just use milton this time around, you can just chuck everything into a big bucket then and its all ready when you need it

Thanks all for your thoughts. Any experience of Avent? My sil uses and said good, although she is in Canada so range may be different there. Also how many bottles do you recommend me getting in the first instance if I am planning to mix feed? 2-3 enough of the small ones?

We use Avent. Bottles are really easy to put together and the microwave steriliser is fab. In fact whichever brand you go for I recommend a microwave steriliser over a Milton type one so much easier and doesn't make the bottles taste weird.

Mm yes can't decide between microwave or steam steriliser...only thinking of steam as can take away with you more easily?

Love the Mam bottles. People say they leak, but with all bottles, they only leak if you don't put them together properly and after a year of using them, i only experienced this once. You don't need a steriliser with them as the bottles sterilise themselves in the microwave. And they're anti-colic.

Didn't like the avent bottles much, i thought the teats were HUGE for a little newborn's mouth.

I'm an Avent fan - although haven't needed to try any other brands as they worked well for us from the start. As strawberrypenguin said, the microwave steriliser in particular is amazing and so easy to use - I assume you can also use it with other brands of bottles too.

Newborns tend to cry, then you convince yourself it's colic (might be or not) and then you do some research and realise everyone recommends Dr Brown bottles, so you end up buying them too.

This is what happened to most my NCT group who bottle fed, so I'd say get Dr. Browns to begin with

I have however used Medela and the Calm bottles and really liked them.

We use avent bottles but the natural not the classic ones. Don't bother buying the small bottles go straight for the 260ml. We use Milton and I think it's brilliant coz you can put things in/take them out all day, also good if your going to go abroad, I've got a steam steriliser but have never used it.

Just a thought - I'm planning on combination feeding this time and have got some breastflow bottles, they have really good reviews for combi feeding x

^my post re tommy tippee is recommending what I have used before btw, I still have the steriliser though and they do a good starter pack IMO x

We had a steam steriliser which wasn't the same brand as the Avent bottles which worked fine so you don't need to get all your stuff from the same source. We still use the Avent bottles with different tops for DD's drinks when out - which I like. I also had a number of bottles with plain caps on which I used for storing/freezing Breast milk. Probably other brands have this option too.

If you go for a microwave steriliser, check it's going to fit in your microwave (my SIL had this problem).

I love anything tommee tippee especially their new bottle maker, Iit makes the bottles to perfect temperature in 2 minutes so you don't have to mess around with boiling the kettle :)
I have only seen the advert for it but I will be going out on the weekend to buy one

Thank you for all your comments very helpful. Am going to have another look round the shops this week.

I am also completely new to this and have no idea, but one of my friends insisted on buying us our bottles, because after trying lots of different options herself, she found a solution that she loved.
You don't need a specific steriliser, just a microwave, so good to just have as a backup if you are going to start with breastfeeding and can then be used as the baby is older for drinks.
Its here
This is all we are going to have until we know how feeding works out with our little one, rather than try to predict and buy things that may never get used.

We have got e tommee tippee set if you look on Argos they do the full set we got this on offer for 66 which I thought was great then you only need the pump I've read a lot of mixed reviews on all the pumps the medela electric pump seems to have best reviews but I figured I could just use the single bottle that comes with it then pop milk into storage bags or the tommee bottles x

I had an avent pump which was fine. We were given a steam steriliser, but ended up just getting a Milton set which suited us much better, as the bottles just stayed in there till you needed them - changing the fluid once a day. I think as I was primarily bfing it was more flexible, took less counter space, and was also handy for giving a dummy a quick rinse at times.

I got a tommee tippee breast pump as dd was in neonatal and I needed to express at home. After the first use it then refused to work and I had to rush around the day after giving birth trying to find a new one (so maybe have a hand pump to hand just in case!) I ended up using a hand tommee tippee pump and that was much better. As for bottles she would only take the nuk ones which were pretty good and I would recommend them. We got a nuby sterisliser and bottles free when subscribing to mother and baby mag and we just used that. Only held 4 bottles but it did its job and isn't too big