Bottle Feeding 411

We started bottle feeding exclusively when our boys were 3.5 weeks old and never looked back. If you’re interested in why we made the choice we did, check out the post here.

Since the transition, it’s been admittedly difficult to keep up with supply, but the boys are still able to have around 67% of their diet come from breast milk, which is great. I’ve learned to pump while I’m bottle feeding one of the boys so as to not waste time, and 11 weeks in, I’m still happy with the decision that we made.

Bottle feeding, as much as I love it, just isn’t as straight forward as breast feeding. I read plenty of blogs and sections of books, and grilled my pediatrician with questions. Below I want to give you a run down of how I bottle feed and what accessories I use to make the process easier.

Bottles & Bottle Accessories:

We opted to go with glass bottles because I’m sort of phobic about plastic and chemicals contained therein. That being said, I don’t use exclusively glass. I have a few plastic Medela bottles, and I’m actually glad that I have them because they’re much easier to transport when I have to pump on the go. Also, the one drawback of glass bottles is that they tend to break if dropped, which is super irritating and a pain to clean up when you have a screaming baby/babies. That being said, I still prefer them.

As far as which type, it’s kind of irrelevant for me because I don’t use the nipples that come with the bottles. When I tried to use those nipples, milk poured all over the lower half of my babies’ faces. Instead, I use the Enfamil slow flow disposable nipples and just disassemble and rewash them for multiple uses. I don’t know if this is their intended use, so I’m not condoning it; I’m just saying that it’s what we’ve done and what has worked for our boys.

We have Doc Brown's bottles and Easy Flow bottles. I don’t really prefer one over the other, as I said, but I guess if pressed I would say that the Doc Brown’s 4 ounces are the better 4 ounce bottles and the Easy Flow 8 oz are the better 8 ounce bottles, but honestly, it doesn’t matter. I would suggest getting a number of both 4 ounce and 8 ounce sizes though. I prefer to pump into the 4 ounce sizes because I don’t make enough to necessitate the bigger, more cumbersome 8 ounce bottles. I also liked the 4 ounce better for feeding them when they were little because they only took 4 ounces or less per feeding. Now I use the larger size when mixing formula because I often offer them 6 ounces of formula at formula feedings. I’d say getting 5-10 of each per baby makes sense, maybe a few more if you are unable to do dishes a couple of times a day.

When it comes to bottle care and storage, I use the Munchkin drying rack and the Munchkin bottle brushes. The drying rack is small and functional. My only issue is that because it’s collapsible, the back row for bottles sometimes tilts or falls if I load it up with 8 ounce bottles. You definitely need a bottle drying rack though; bottles and nipples just don’t dry well on a standard drying rack. As far as the munchkin brushes, they’re fine, but if you’re exclusively bottle feeding, they do wear out quickly. When they wear out, be careful because the wire can scratch your bottles. I say just buy about half a dozen and plan to replace them every six weeks.  Also, buy one for your diaper bag. You’ll need it when you go to people’s houses because bottles and nipples are next to impossible to clean with a traditional sponge.

In the labeling department, it’s certainly important to label bottles before you put them in the fridge. You can buy labels, but I find that to be a waste of money. Instead, I just cut up small pieces of paper and attach them to the bottles with scotch tape. I include date and time of pumping as well as amount on each label which makes it easily to quickly grab the amount you need.

Pumping:

To pump, we use the Medela Symphony which we rent from the hospital at I believe $60 per month? I like it because it’s efficient and powerful, but it gets a C- for portability. It has a carrying case that is about the size of a cat carrier, so I’m going to look kind of silly carting it into and out of work everyday. Still, it doesn’t fail for portability because the battery life is pretty decent and it has a handle. I’ve pumped in the passenger seat of the car a few times with no problem whatsoever. For twins, I need the power of a hospital grade pump, but others might find this pump to be more than they need.

As far as breastshields go, I have the one piece shields as well as the two piece shields. At first I liked the two piece ones better because they’re easier to use with a pumping bra, but I’ve changed my tune. The one piece shields are a little more annoying to insert into the pumping bra, but they make up for it by never allowing a bottle to fall off and break. With the one piece shields, you could literally do jumping jacks while pumping and your bottles wouldn’t fall off. To me, that puts them solidly on top. Whichever type you pick, have a few extra sets lying around. This keeps you from having to do dishes every three hours. I have three pairs.

The most important pumping item I have, though, is my Simple Wishes hands-free pumping bra. I have three, and I’ll probably buy a couple more. I don’t know how anyone pumps without a hands-free bra. I was kind of worried about sizing since I have a pretty big chest, but the L/XL/XXL works fine for me, and it could be adjusted to be even roomier.

Formula:

For the first month of bottle feeding, I relied solely on the Enfamil Newborn 2 ounce Nursettes for supplementing. This is what they used in the NICU, so that’s what the hospital sent us home with, and that with which we were most familiar. The benefit of them is that they don’t need to be mixed or measured. They are ready to use—all you have to do is shake them, unscrew the lid, and screw on a nipple. We used them because they’re the safest, especially for fragile newborn digestive systems, but they are also disturbingly expensive. For the first few months, we felt it was worth it because we only needed to supplement 4-8 ounces per day, but now that the boys are older and we need to supplement about twenty ounces a day, this is no longer financially responsible as a daily practice. We do, however, keep a few around for the diaper bag.

We now use the Target brand powdered delicate stomach formula and have no complaints. In order to make mixing and preparing easier, we bought the Baby Brezza water pitcher, which keeps water at a consistent 98 degrees for mixing formula quickly and easily. This is one of my best baby purchases thus far. The device is immensely easy to operate and does what it says it will do. The kettle glows either red or blue to indicate whether the water is ready, which actually kind of makes it a pretty piece of décor rather than a necessary eyesore. It keeps me from having to premake bottles every morning, and I highly recommend it.

When it comes to water for mixing, I’ve been buying nursery water in gallon jugs, but I plan to stop soon and use our Brita filter instead. Nursery water honestly isn’t ridiculously expensive though, so I don’t think it matters either way.