Our Favorite Bottles and Why We Love Them
How you choose to feed your baby is a deeply personal choice. Bottles are often necessary when Mama goes back to work, or just needs a break. Here’s our favorite bottles and why! You can use this to help guide your decision on which one would be right for you. If you’re struggling with breast or bottle feeding, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team, we are here to help!
One of the most important factors in successful infant feeding is consistency. Babies need to know what to expect each time they feed. Think of if you were to take a drink of water and it was unexpectedly faster flowing than you anticipated. Adjusting to something unexpected like this is challenging for our bodies, and especially our babes. The body quickly has to adjust to protect the airway from the oncoming liquid, but you most likely will end up sputtering a bit. Having a consistent flow for each feeding is important for babes to know what to expect and keep feedings enjoyable and pleasurable.
Some bottles have very inconsistent flows because of their design, some because the nipple material breaks down over time, changing the shape or diameter of the hole in the top of the nipple. Even between manufacturers, there is a wide variety of flow rates, so a level 1 on a Dr. Browns bottle will be a very different flow on a Mam slow flow. See the chart below for the variety of flow rates across brands and between the different flow rates of the same brand.
You can see that although many of these are labeled ‘slow flow’ their actual flow rates are very different. While most infants are resilient, consistency is your friend for successful and enjoyable feeding.
Our favorite bottles are below, with a few reasons why we love them!
Dr. Brown’s Standard neck
- Has consistent flow rates across levels due to manufacturing process (a level one is always a level 1)
- Has many options for flow rates depending on babes need
- Standard neck allows for deep latch, without overstretching the lips
Evenflo Balance
- 3 flow rates
- Narrow neck for deep latch
- Sloped nipple shape mimics Moms breast (great bottle for breastfeeding babes)
- Easy to clean
If you want more information on the study referenced in this post, here is a link!
Milk flow rates from bottle nipples used after hospital discharge - PMC (nih.gov)
Pados BF, Park J, Thoyre SM, Estrem H, Nix WB. Milk Flow Rates from bottle nipples used after hospital discharge. MCN Am J Matern Child Nurs. 2016 Jul/Aug;41(4):237-243. doi: 10.1097/NMC.0000000000000244. PMID: 27008466; PMCID: PMC5033656.