When I was preparing for Alexis’ arrival, I was planning on pumping, storing milk & having daddy feed Alexis from the bottle occasionally. That meant that, even though I’d be exclusively breast feeding (EBF), I would still need all the supplies of a mom who bottle feeds. There lay 2 very big and important dilemmas: bottles that don’t contain toxic chemicals and bottle warmer’s that don’t kill all that is good about breast milk in the first place.
I’m iffy about plastics, even plastics that claim that they are BPA/pthalates free. I always worry that if BPA is one component of plastics that disrupts hormones and just completely screws up our system, what’s not to say that there isn’t some other chemical that hasn’t been tested yet, considering most chemicals used by us in every day life haven’t been evaluated as to the effects they have on our bodies. It turns out my fears were not unfounded. While most companies did away with BPA, the question is what DID they replace it with? The answer for some of them – equally dangerous BPS that hasn’t been studied as well as BPA. I won’t go into detail but you can read more about it here if you’re interested.
So the only reasonable solution to the plastic bottle dilemma was glass. Glass bottles don’t leech any chemicals. Yes they are heavy and slightly more expensive but who can put a price on our kids’ health (did you know BPA is also linked to kids’ behavioral problems?). The problem with glass was they are pretty limited with what you can get. I wanted a wide neck and some kind of system that helped with the air bubbles. After spending hours searching the internet and lists of best bottles of each category, I found the bottles that are the closest to what I want. You might not have the same needs or concerns, but this is what worked for us.
Glass bottles tend to be limited to a standard bottle and nipple. But when you’re a new mom, you’re worried about everything, including ” If I give my baby a bottle, it will screw up breast feeding”. The other concern that glass bottle manifactorers sometimes ignore is the flow of the milk and air bubbles that can cause gas. Ideally I wanted a system that prevents gas bubbles from forming and isn’t dripping with milk (I.e. more difficult to suck, mimicking a breast).
The closest I found to what I needed/wanted was Born Free glass bottles.
All their bottles have a wide nipple base to sort of mimick the shape of the breast. This way your baby should have minimal breast/bottle confusion, as the latch is not much different from the breast. They have a fancy-shmancy system called Active Flow Venting that according to their website “… [mimicks] mom’s natural milk flow, helps prevent nipple confusion and reduces air ingested while feeding, helps reduce colic symptoms like gas pain, spit-up, crying, and fussiness.”
Ok, EXACTLY what I needed. How did it fare in the real world? Exactly how you’d expect! Alexis has never had any gas pains or tummy trouble and the bottle definitely didn’t add to it. She did have reflux, but I hadn’t noticed any increase in that after bottle feeding, and even though we did introduce a bottle before the recommended 6 weeks, she’s obviously still breastfeeding, so no nipple confusion for this little lady.
All in all, there aren’t any other brand or bottles I am ever going to need to buy, because Born Free does exactly what I need.
I had contacted Born Free to help me run a giveaway for you guys and they would LOVE to give you a chance to win a Born Free 3 pack glass bottle set. When you’re done reading, scroll down to enter.
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The second discovery I made as I was researching a feeding system other than my breasts was that bottle warmers aren’t all that they are cracked up to be. You aren’t supposed to heat milk in the microwave- that is well known. But almost any other heating system that uses steam or boiling water is just as detrimental to our natural breast milk. There’s the issue of hot spots, loss of those precious antibodies and nutrients we breastfeed our babies for, and the leakage of chemicals from the plastic containers. You can’t imagine how happy I was when I found a super cool looking Kiinde warmer. It’s a warmer that can be used for breastmilk, formula, bottles, bags, baby food, pretty much anything that fits into it.
The concept is the following: it uses “… low temperature, nutrient-safe water bath that is safe for ALL bottle and bag types. The water in the warmer is about as warm as warm tap water.” Awesome, right? Here how it’s achieved, if you’re curious for that type of thing ( I always am. Love the “How things work” documentaries) It has “…circulating bath of warm water that improves warming efficiency, allowing the use of lower temperature water without compromising warming speed. The thermostatically controlled water bath is maintained at the temperature of warm tap water…” In layman’s terms, “it’s the flowing warm water that gets the job done safely and fast.”
Kiinde Kozii has a timer knob that you turn and it shuts off completely on its own when it is done. {Did you know how many bottle warmers that I looked into do not have an AUTO shut off button? That’s ridiculous} It also has a technology that ensures that the milk is always warmed up to approximately the same temperature, so your baby enjoys it like she/he would straight out of the breast.
It’s really a wonderful invention, especially for working moms and isn’t like anything else I’ve seen on the market.
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*** Kiinde Kozii website *** Facebook ***
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3 Pack Glass Bottles from Born Free & Kiinde Kozii Bottle Warmer
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Ha! Introduced BM bottle last night, precisely 🙂
Not until giving him a bottle, have I realized how strong the breastfeeding bond is! Didn’t like feeling so… unneeded?
How was your experience?
Yeah it sucks I love breastfeeding. So i kind of slacked off on bottlefeeding nowadays… But we do bottle feed when I need to go somewhere and don’t want to drag Lexi along.
I had wanted to use those bottles, too, but my daughter was not into them. They seem great, though. I have to ask- have you looked into sippy cups yet? if so, what will you use?
I’ll be using LIFEFACTORY for sippy cups most likely. I haven’t looked into it too much though but I have the sippy cup end for a lifefactory bottle so I’ll try that. I am iffy about introducing a sippy cup in general. I really do have to research that part and how it works with breastfeeding.
I know our Lactation Consultants say if your baby is having issues with nipple confusion, it’s best to introduce a sippy and have them drink from that rather than a bottle, because the mechanics are totally different. My kid is much older than Alexis but when we introduced a sippy at about 6-7 months (when we started baby led weaning, just with water to help keep her regular) I didn’t notice a change in her latch.
My toddler can be pretty strong… so have you read any reviews of kiddos breaking them? I am just not convinced the silicone wrap will protect it.
I could not find anything that said that sippy cups could interfere with breastfeeding, so i gave one to my son when he was 7 months old. But what happened was, he figured out he could bite the sippy to get milk out and then started biting ME. lol. the biting stopped as soon as I stopped giving the cup.
On the sippy cup- my daughter went straight to using a glass and drinking out of a cup. She hated the sippy cup and I felt much better about her drinking from glass than plastic:) She learned by 9 mos.
I also have a question… we stopped BF last month when she was 22 mos old. I’m curious- what will you be donig (if not Bfing) as far as milk after one/two? Have you thought it at all? I know it’s far off. I hate the idea of her drinking cows milk so we do coconut milk “for comfort” and make sure she has enough protein in her diet.
I’m very much against milk. I haven’t thought what exactly we will be doing and I might think differently when time comes but I have no intentions (as of tight now) to introduce dairy, processed meats, any red meats. I’ll probably be ok with trace amounts of dairy in cooked foods and I might introduce low fat yogurt and kefir.
But I really need to read more about it, and find out what vegan/vegetarian families do about it.
Thanks Elena! I’m not comfortable with it either. We do organic yogurt and cheese and occasionally yogurt. I waited until after she was one to do any meat- it grosses me out:)
We are also planning to skip the sippy cups. They are a fairly recent invention. I don’t have any “sippy cups are evil” agenda, I just don’t want to deal with cleaning them and all of those stupid lids and extra parts. Our 7 month old son is learning to drink from a regular small glass, which he loves.
I only use glass too but we have the life factory ones. I however (despite the extremely large amount of frozen breastmilk I have) don’t bottle feed. I just am too crazy about my milk supply. But I refused to use yucky plastic bottles. I like the my glass ones because I got the supply cup top and you can buy actual lids so they move from baby to adult.
I love lifefactory bottles too! I just don’t like the narrow nipple. But it’s a great company. Their silicone teether is THE BEST!
I’m just wondering about the possible chemicals in the nipple and the plastic lid and the piece that inserts into the top under the nipple? They all claim to be BPA free but are they substituting another chemical in those?
I know! I think about that too! But there’s not much we can do about it. We can’t have nipples out of glass. I think the nipples are usually made of med.grade silicone. I have to check into it on the BF bottles.
How about just not warming at all? I never warmed anything. He just got used to it. He even drank it really cold- like just out of a cooler. Certainly made life easier. I was lucky- he wasn’t picky.
I’m pretty sure babies aren’t supossed to drink cold liquids. Could be wrong klbut my mom is a pediatric nurse and she told ne never to feed him cold milk until he was over a year
I’ve never heard such a thing and I can’t imagine there being any scientific evidence that suggest cold liquid could hurt a baby. In any event he’s three and now doesn’t require any heating of any food or drink.
Ya I looked it up and your right I couldn’t find anything to say it needed to be cold. I guess I just assumed since my breast milk is warm, pumped milk should be too. The few bottles my son has had however had to be warm, my husband tried to give him milk that was cold by accident (he panicked after I went grocery shopping) and he refused it. Cold milk definitely would make life a lot easier. Though my boy is a complete boob snob and only breast feeds.
Ps I just asked my mom why it needs to be warm and she said it makes the baby take the bottle easier since its the same temp they are used to. She said she tried us with cold milk and we all (I have 4 sisters) had a really hard time digesting it and got pretty sick so she thought my son would have the same problems. Thankfully all babies are different
I wouldn’t even consider giving a little baby cold food or drink , if for no other reason than breast milk being dispensed at body temperature, and if I had to artifically feed, I’d want it to be as close to the real thing as possible. I also associate warmth with comfort, warm soup, warm drinks etc, I can’t imagine enjoying a cold drink on a cold day either.
My son had issues with projectile vomitting around 10 weeks old and the pediatrician told us to give him cold formula (we EFFed at that point) because it stays down easier. We did and it worked and he’s gotten cold formula ever since. Makes our life a lot easier!
We never used a bottle warmer either. I’d defrost her milk, run it under just enough warm water to take the chill off (while still in the frozen bag) and give it to her that way. One of my BTDT mom friends told me not to get one, and we’ve never missed it….and it’s nice because the sitter/dad don’t have to wait for the milk to warm up whhen she’s crying and hungry!
We just fill a large mug with hot tap water and put the bottle in that. after 5 minutes or so, it’s a good enough temp for him to drink!
To warm bottles, we just used a mug of hot water from the tap. If you are not going to use too many bottles it’s not much of a hassle and it saves from having to buy yet another gadget.
That’s pretty much exactly what this is. It’s the equivalent of putting the bottle in a bowl and the running warm water from the faucet over it…..only that you can do for FREE and not spent $70 for. People will buy anything these days.
Except for it’s much faster. And for people who’ll pretty much buy anything these days, time is money.
Or more likely the less time spent heating, the less time the baby cries waiting for food.
Just a hint, if you ever don’t have a warmer available, defrosting and warming it up (just with lukewarm water) in the bag it was frozen in is much faster than warming it up in the bottle! The surface area is much greater so it goes much more quickly.
Is it really that much faster? We just use stick bottles (or well BM bags) in a cup of warm water under a faucet. It takes under 2 minutes to heat.
of course I see this after I made my comment about a mug and the tap 🙂 haha.
I’ve never really understood the concept of mixing it up with a bottle if you’re fairly readily available to your baby. People often mention giving dad a go as a reason, but since he can’t breastfeed, why try and replicate by feeding with a bottle? There are plenty of ways dad can bond with the baby other than feeding. For people that have to go out to work or whatever, I understand the need to use bottles if you want to continue to breastfeed, but not if you’re around most of the time.
My babe never had a bottle, I introduced a sippy cup when he was about 5 months old and could sit up unassisted. I had to go and teach a class for a couple hours twice a week and he stayed with my mother with his sippy cup and EBM, and it had no impact on either feeding or supply, probably because he only ever had EBM when I wasn’t there. At around 6 months he started drinking water out of it. I used a soft teat to start with then moved onto the more standard sippy teat when he was about 8 months old. I think bottle feeding/dummies are way more of a concern in regard to maintenance of breastfeeding than sippy cups, so if they haven’t had an impact, the sippy cup should be no problem. Oh, and a lactation consultant friend recommends the straw type sippy cup because it uses a sucking motion more in line with breastfeeding, but I could never abide the idea of a straw that couldn’t be cleaned meticulously!
What if the dad *wants* to feed the baby on occasion? The hubs asked if it’d bother me if he got to feed her once in a while, and I see no reason to deny him. I probably won’t start pumping until after my supply is more or less established, and I don’t intend to build a freezer stash (we’ll just refrigerate a little bit of fresh milk in a glass container), but seriously, if he wants to feed our daughter every once in a while, I’m not going to tell him that he can’t!
Of course that’s up to you, but for me it would have defeated the purpose of breastfeeding. I knew going into it that it would be all down to me, and since men aren’t biologically equipped to breastfeed I didn’t see the need to support something not found in nature. Like I said, plenty of other ways for dad to bond and build a relationship with the baby…
I never really understood the concept of not wanting to give baby a bottle once in a while…each to their own I guess! Besides, what’s the real difference between using a bottle and a sippy cup. All the same in my opinion! The beauty of motherhood is that it’s such a unique experience for everyone that no two situations are going to be exactly the same. What’s right for you won’t be right for another mom. And what’s right for another mom won’t be right for you!
@ Pretty_Petunia,
Who even said anything about dad feeding baby to bond? My husband fed my baby with a bottle sometimes because I had shit to do and being the awesome guy he is, he’s pretty anti-starving our children.
I did! Lots of *want* to feed because they see it as a way of bonding with their baby a la “if mom can, I can too”. I don’t really see a sippy cup and a bottle as being anywhere near the same, one is meant to mim feeding from the breast, the other is the beginning of learning to use a proper cup. Of course parenting is individual and based on preferences, which is why I used “I” when I talked about my experiences.
As for having other “shit to do”, I’m not sure what could be more important than feeding your baby?!
What about the bags that you store/freeze breast milk in, does those contain toxins? What do you freeze your breast milk in?
I use Simplisse bags. Supposedly they ate bpa free and as long as I don’t heat them up, it’s the best I can do. I haven’t found any glass containers
How was Father’s Day?
Just curious – why did you not do a Father’s Day post for your husband?
Hmm…I don’t know… Maybe because I have a 4 months old who doesn’t like sleeping and I don’t ignore her to blog. I am running about a month behind on all the events and happenings, so you should see photos from Father’s Day in about a month. lol
{To answer your next question: this post (and others to come) has been scheduled for weeks}
Just wanted to let folks know that freezing breastmilk kills a lot of the antibodies, although it’s still better than formula. Fresh is always better. In our NICU, our policy is that bm is good for 4 days while fresh and for 24 hours if frozen and then thawed.
First off, I really enjoy your reviews! I was pretty lost on what kind of bottle warmer to get, but now I’m pretty sold on the Kiinde Kozii, so thank you for that 🙂
I have a question though; What do you use, if anything, for breast milk storage? I assume if you do refrigerate or freeze your milk, you have probably found a good BPA free product.
Duh, just saw you answered this question above. Never mind!
So I had to come back here and say a couple things about the Kiinde Kozii bottle warmer and their customer service.
I ordered my Kiinde Kozii off of amazon (well, to be precise, my brother got it for me as a gift), and I love it. Bottles are always warmed to the perfect temperature, and I love the automatic shutoff feature. Unfortunately, I did receive a defective unit. Water leaks from the bottom of my unit. In fact, after trying it out for the first time, I walked back into my kitchen after about 10 minutes and found a huge puddle on my counter and floor. No bueno!
I emailed Kiinde about it and got a response back from them in, I kid you not, 5 minutes!! They are going to replace my unit. Pretty awesome customer service. So yeah, I very heartily recommend this bottle warmer! And I’m glad you did this review Elena, because I may have otherwise not gotten this particular warmer, and I’m very happy that I did!
Oh that’s really great to know Regina!!!! Thanks for updating!
Is that Ashley me?
I don’t think so. I emailed the winners already. Good luck next time! :)))
I really like your reviews and I love the Kiinde warmer. When my maternity leave was coming to an end, I started to search for a bottle warmer that would make my husband’s time caring for our baby as simple as possible. All of the reviews that I saw for bottle warmers were very mixed and since our baby was drinking breastmilk I did not want to take any chances on overheating or wasting milk. I found the Kiinde Kozii on Amazon and decided to try it. We have now been using it for well over a year, and it is easy and efficient, warming the milk evenly in a short amount of time. And it shuts off automatically so there is no need to stand next to it with a screaming, hungry baby in your arms watching the seconds tick away!
Recently, the timer knob fell off, which did not affect the performance of the unit at all, but I contacted the company directly to see if I could get a replacement knob. Despite the fact that the 1 year warranty is already up, I was told that they will be sending me a brand new unit – excellent customer service!
We would (and will) recommend this product to any new parent.
beautiful baby