sooyindotcom

Following my decision to exclusively breastfeed baby, I started researching about baby bottles. Yes, I know it sounds contradictory, but there will be times where I might have to express milk (I’m being optimistic that I’ll be able to produce enough milk…hahah!) and it would be nice for hubby (if he wants to!) to be able to feed baby as well.

Most of the articles and books that I’ve read recommend that mothers who want to breastfeed should avoid introducing the bottle to the baby in the first 6 weeks to prevent nipple confusion (and it’s not only bottles…pacifiers as well!). I’ve also read about some cases where even after waiting till 6+ weeks, the baby still prefers suckling from the breast vs. the bottle (and vice versa, ie. baby takes very well to the bottle and rejects the nipple after that!). So nipple confusion was something that I hope to avoid…I mean, every little bit that helps increase my chances to breastfeed baby counts, right?

There’s also been this whole hoo-hah about which bottles are BPA (bisphenol-A) free and which aren’t. Luckily, there are some websites, this one in particular, that have taken the trouble to list down the brands and the ranges within each brand that are BPA free vs. non-BPA free. In fact, they also have similar lists for pacifiers, baby food containers, etc. so if you’re in the process of researching for BPA free stuff, you should print out their helpful cheat sheet!

Anyways, obviously, I want to find a 100% BPA free bottle. With all the contaminants that’s going into food these days, the least we as parents can do is to ensure that the bottle that is used to feed our baby is certified chemical free!

So which bottle…which bottle?

Well, since baby is still safe and snug in my tummy, there was no way I could test out which bottles she would like (and if she turns out as fussy as me, we’re going to have a problem… ). At the same time, I still have to get some bottles ready since I’ll be in confinement (read: prison!) for the first 28 days. The Pigeon sterilizer and baby bottle warmer set that I bought in Singapore did come with a baby bottle starter kit. However, when I asked the sales person if the bottles are BPA free, she gave me such a roundabout and uncertain answer that I strongly suspect that they are definitely not BPA free at all.

There were so many different brands, with different recommendations and reviews. Avent, Dr. Brown, Playtex, MAM are among the few popular ones that I came across. Yet, some are BPA free, some are not and some had really bad reviews, while some mothers raved about certain brands…

I definitely did quite a bit of Googling while trying to decide…

In the end, I settled on a brand that I found while going through the BPA-free list - Adiri. I’d read several reviews online from moms that said how their babies would reject every bottle except the Adiri Natural Nurser…and I was definitely intrigued. The bottles do not look like conventional bottles, and it’s actually been designed to mimic the shape of a breast and nipple - which is a big plus on my mental pros-and-cons list. The more I read, the more convinced I was that this is the bottle that I should try.

However, these bottles do not come cheap…

The First Few Years @ Curve just brought some in recently…I happened to see them at the shop when I was buying the Tiny Love Activitot and expressed my surprise that they were being sold here as I couldn’t get much information from Google regarding these bottles in Malaysia. The manager told me that the ones I saw belonged to the first shipment…she’d also read good reviews about it and decided to bring them in. Despite the price - the bottles are retailing for about RM65+ each…like I said, not cheap - they’ve actually sold quite a few in the few days since it’s been in stock.

The US retail price is around USD$12+ ($12.99 @ Babies ‘R’ Us, $10.99 @ Amazon.com), which is considerably cheaper. Problem was, almost all of the websites that carry this bottle does not ship to Malaysia, with exception for a few like The Soft Landing*. However, the shipping fee was just wayyyy too expensive and the cost worked out to be the same as getting it from The First Few Years.

After exchanging some emails with a helpful C, who happened to be researching baby bottles at that time, she recommended that I try eBay as the cost + the shipping would be considerably cheaper. I was abit hesitant at first…while I’ve bought things off eBay before, this bottle is something that’s gonna go in my baby’s mouth…the last thing I wanted was to end up with a 2nd hand bottle! However, after checking out the seller’s reviews, etc., and contacting her directly, I decided to go ahead and purchase a pack of three as well as the bottle cap warmers (necessary if you want to warm the bottles in the bottle warmer).

As the Adiri Natural Nurser comes in three different stages - Stage 1 bottles are for babies from 0-3 months, Stage 2 are for babies at 3-6 months and Stage 3 are for babies that are 6 months and above - I purchased two Stage 1 and one Stage 2 (yes, the eBay seller allows you to mix and match). The difference between the three stages (other than the color!) is the number of holes in the teat which controls how fast the milk flows. The website recommends that if you want to continue breastfeeding but occasionally bottle feed your baby, then you should try one stage slower than the baby’s age.

I received the package from the seller pretty fast, and I was very pleased with the purchase. The top 1/3 of the bottle is soft and quite squeezable…the texture of the teat is really rather nipple-like. The bottles definitely do not look like conventional bottles…it’s considerably thicker and more rubbery. The bottles only come in one size - 8oz - but I don’t think that will pose any problems. One thing to note is that because the bottles are filled from the bottom, it cannot be attached directly to a breast pump. Again, I don’t think that’ll be a problem for me as I’ve already decided to use breastmilk storage bags (bought a box of Medela’s breastmilk storage bags when I bought the breast pump) vs. bottles when I express breastmilk so it’s just a matter of pouring the milk into the bottle and warming it up when it comes to feeding time.

Now I just have to wait till baby is born and see if she takes well to the bottle! Fingers crossed!

* For moms who are willing to fork out the moolah for the shipping fees, The Soft Landing has a great concept where they bundle a few different types of BPA free bottles together…so you actually get to try out different brands to see which one your baby takes to!