bottles- to own them or to not own them

[Dea]

I plan on breast feeding and I won't be working at all, and I can think of one time before the baby is 6 months that I will be away from her for more than minutes, (it will be when she is about 6 weeks for only an hour or so). So do I need to worry about bottles? If so what do I need to get? I know there are issues with plastic ones, but Whole Foods has the safe ones, so how many? I have no clue.

Even after she is 6 months I don't think i'll really be leaving her for longer than an hour or so....

[TrishWSU]

Well, this doesn't help much if you're concerned about plastic, but I used the Avent bottles with DD as they are suppose to be similar to the breast. I would suggest getting the Avent hand pump kit that comes with 2 small bottles. That way you can keep a few oz of EBM in the freezer to have on hand in case there is ever an unexpected time you will be away from her. I loved this pump and it is great to have one on hand.

Other than that, you'd probably only need 2-4 of the smaller size bottles. I think they usually come in 4 oz and 8 oz.

[mama_nym]

I have four kids, all breastfed ... my oldest had one bottle in his life and he drank a half ounce from it at Gramma's insistence and then held out for Mama (dh and I went out for our anniversary for just a couple hours). None of my other kids ever had a bottle ... and if they needed to drink expressed milk we'd have just cup-fed them. We haven't had a bottle in our house since our second was an infant. If you know where to get a safe bottle should the need arise, you can always just wait for the need to arise instead of spending money that you probably won't need to spend.

[jul511riv]

dont bother. babies can use a cup or spoon if necessary.

Ive got 2 kids, never owned a bottle or a paci...and I've left for an hour or two or three w/out incident.

[trizzle]

what about those of us who will have to go back to work? I will be breastfeeding, but I will have to return to work after 3 months. So any advice on which bottles are most similar to the breast, least confusing to baby, etc??

[bloominmamas]

I would say no...I didn't need them at all with either of mine (except when I went back to work when ds was one), otherwise it would have been a waste of money for us. Also, at least with dd, by the time I wanted to leave her with dh or my best friend, she was starting to use sippy cups. I just personally preferred that so there were no other nipples being used except mine

[Nature]

If you don't plan on using them, why buy them? I'd say no. My last two children were exclusively breastfed and even though I own a pump, it just never seemed worth it to use it. I'm lazy.

[Ary99]

I never needed bottles although I owned one, I think.

As far as a pump goes, the one time I used it, I pumped for an orphaned monkey!

[franklinmarxmom]

I hate to disagree, but having a bottle in the house saved me early on. We had a VERY difficult time getting started at the breast. DS had his tongue in the way--would latch on and suck and suck, but get no milk. But we didn't know that. He started looking dehydrated, so I have him a 2 oz bottle of EBM. He sucked for 10 min, and no milk emptied. Poor thing! Anyway, with much hard work and persistence, we taught him to first use the bottle, then the breast. We didn't have our first successful nursing session until he was 3 weeks old. But he had all the EBM he wanted! Since then, he only ever gets bottles at daycare, and I'm still EBF (with solids) at 12 mos.

At the time, as a new mom, I was panicky and didn't want to be left alone with screaming, starving DS for DH to go get bottles, plus try to find a good kind, etc. We use Avent too, and it has never been an issue. Just 2-3 of the small size will do.

Knowing we could take our time to learn BF enabled us to have a good, long-term nursing relationship. Without that flexibility, I would have given up.

So, I hope you don't have to use them--but there's no harm in having them. Just throw them out or pass them along if you don't need them.

[Nature]

Personally, there was harm in having bottles in the house. As a bottle, and a sample of formula was all it took to ruin my nursing relationship with my oldest dd. Had I not had a bottle, she likely would have been breastfed for longer than three days.

[dianna11]

DD was exclusively breastfed for 6 months, when we started to introduce solids - but she refused them until about 12 months. We didn't use bottles either, so that meant I was on 24 hour boobie duty for one full year. It would have been nice to go out for an hour or two by myself, or with a friend without having to worry that she was getting fed.

With this next baby, we will be picking up one or two biphenol-b-free bottles for the odd time that I need to get out and not worry.

Having a couple in the house can't hurt.

[StrawberryFields]

Originally Posted by Nature

Personally, there was harm in having bottles in the house. As a bottle, and a sample of formula was all it took to ruin my nursing relationship with my oldest dd. Had I not had a bottle, she likely would have been breastfed for longer than three days.

:

I say that with caution because on one hand I am glad I had bottles in the house, but on the other hand, day 3 of breastfeeding I came dangerously, dangerously close to using formula. I thought I was dedicated to breastfeeding and prepared with a good support system, but when I was exhausted and postpartum with sore nipples a brand new newborn who wouldn't stop crying and fussing I sent dh to the store for a can of formula. I was scared that he was starving, I didn't know what else to do, I was overwhelmed. Thankfully I never opened it and my midwife and another LLL leader came by the next morning to reassure me that I was doing just fine and that everything was completely normal and the baby wasn't starving. He's still nursing 2 years later and never ended up having any formula in his life--but having all the tools surround you can be a slippery slope.

*However* OTOH even though I was a SAHM I am glad that I did take the time to get ds used to bottles and pumped milk because at least three times during his first year I was called away from the house for a family emergency and I am so thankful that I was able to drop everything and be where I needed to be without worrying about ds. Because of those experiences I know that life can hand you some crazy cards sometimes and that I would rather be prepared just in case something like that was to ever happen again--I want to have the option to go if I need to go. Maybe it's morbid to think about and a sign that I have had way too many close relatives suddenly and unexpectedly pass away in the past few years, but I know that if I have to leave my newborn baby for a few hours or even days he/she will recover, but I will never get back the opportunity to spend those last few moments with someone close to me before they are gone forever.

With ds I used Avent but with this baby I am better informed about BPA and we'll be using glass bottles.

[LoveChild421]

You can wait and see how it goes, we bought bottles later on. I was dead set against having any bottles in the house but then I had a high needs baby and when he was about 3 months old I NEEDED to leave him for a couple hours to go regain my sanity (take a shower, go to the store, go for a drive) so I started pumping (LOVE the Medela Pump in Style- hated hand pumps including the Isis) and letting my mom watch ds for a couple hours. It was nice knowing he had a bottle of my milk there waiting on him if he needed it rather than have my mom calling me telling me to hurry, he's hungry.

[True Blue]

I always have a few around, even though we rarely use them.

Born Free bottles are available at Babies R Us and are BPA-free. The nipple is similar to Avent, and they also come in a glass version.

[ksera05]

I unfortunately have a lot of experience with baby bottles, heh. DD came home from the hospital on bottle feeds and then we slowly got her nursing. My supply never recovered though from 5 months of EPing so we combo nursed and formula fed for 4-5 months and then she weaned off of the breast. So that's my background.

I have to say, with this baby, I don't plan on introducing a bottle I don't think. Now this could change around week 5 or 6 but that's my plan right now. I'm just praying that the fact that we have copious amounts of Neocate Infant in this house for her doesn't tempt me too much during those first few weeks.

Anyway, in general, when trying to get a breastfed baby to take a bottle, you probably want a wider nipple. In my daughter's case, the Avent bottles have always been her favorite, but if you're worried about BPA they obviously aren't a great choice. With her, eating is so dicey that we just do whatever she likes, heh. However, I have seen posts around here about how the Avent rings and nipples fit on Kleen Kanteens? I think it is? I forget exactly which ones. I haven't tried it yet, though.

Other good bottles for breastfed babies are the Breastflow bottles by the First Year, the Adiri bottles (you can usually only find this online), the wide neck Dr. Brown bottles, and the Playtex Naturallatch bottles. I think the Adiri bottles are safe in the BPA department. I know that the Playtex Naturallatch nipples with the drop in bottles are also considered safe...but then you have the factor of having to throw away plastic. However, if you end up pumping into milk storage bags, you can just drop the milk storage bags into the bottles and then they're good to go

The Medela bottles are also BPA free but they only take the 'thin' (not wide neck) nipples - some breastfed babies hate these kinds of nipples, some don't care. The Evenflo glass bottles are also BPA free, but again, you can have issues with nipples then.

Anyway, hope this helps someone.

[lovetobemama]

I think as long as you have some milk storage bags handy, and either have a simple hand pump or have read how to express enough by hand that you could build up a few packages for the freezer "just in case", I think you would be fine. Some babies don't ever take well to a bottle, so why have them around if you can just spoon or cup feed the milk in if the need arizes. Think about it, bottles as we know them didn't exist for the VAST majority of history.
I would highly recommend the spare milk, though, because, even if you never use it, it is a LOT of peace of mind. My SIL got VERY ill suddenly when her little one was only 3 mos old and had to be hospitalized and on crazy drugs for 48 hours. She had to pump and dump all her milk (it wasn't fit for baby from the drugs) and the milk that she had hand pumped in the freezer was enough to get the baby through.
All this being said, in the interest of full disclosure, I did introduce a bottle to DS at 4-5 weeks, and DH occasionally bottle fed him EBM from time to time. I plan on doing the same for this one.

[TrishWSU]

Originally Posted by Nature

Personally, there was harm in having bottles in the house. As a bottle, and a sample of formula was all it took to ruin my nursing relationship with my oldest dd. Had I not had a bottle, she likely would have been breastfed for longer than three days.

This why I threw away the formula samples. There were a few times in those early weeks that I know I would have given in and used if it had been in the house, hell there were a few times I was so frustrated that I almost sent my DP to the store to buy some (luckily he would have refused.) D@mn formula companies know this and target new moms who are planning to breast feed!

For me personally I felt better know I had a least one bottle of EBM in the freezer in case anything came up or I wanted to get a few hours to myself. DD didn't get a bottle until after we had already established a good nursing relationship and I wasn't worried about nipple confusion.

[slgt]

I will be going back to work at 13 weeks, so know that I will have to be pumping at that time. Based on all the stories I have heard as well as the experiences of close friends & family who can attest that breastfeeding doesn't always go as hoped, I plan to have a couple of bottles (but no formula) around from the get-go.

That said, I also plan to have names & numbers of lactation consultants as well as LLL resources on-hand. Again, from the experiences of friends, I know that having those resources chosen and easily accessible can make a world of difference between a fed baby and a hungry, irritable, unhappy baby, and between sanity and utter despair.

[flapjack]

If you're looking for lactation consultants (and LLL leaders) make sure that you have someone who has actually left a breastfed baby and has personal experience of this.

Personally, as mama of one starving hungry thing, I say no bottles. With Alex, I had oversupply issues (possibly tongue-tie related, but was never diagnosed) and he was always, always eating. His weight gain was good, but that breastfeeding relationship could have so easily been sabotaged. From what I hear, 10-16 weeks seems to be a really good age to introduce a new skill anyhow, and the mamas I know who have introduced bottles late have had a lot of success- BUT you need to introduce yourself to your pump much earlier, if you're pumping. 6 weeks or so...

[CalebsMama05]

I'm starting college april first so I'll be getting some bottles probably early march. I have the avent isis and also a pump in style but those aren't the bottles I used, I used gerber contoured nursers they have nipples that are exactly like mine so those are the ones i'm getting again.