bottles for bf moms
Ok! So you’ve figured out how to harvest that liquid gold (pumping, hand expressing, etc.), but now how do you get this milk into your baby? With so many bottle options out there, it’s yet another challenge to navigate — with my second baby, I got input from a few IBCLCs, researched all the internet had to offer, and did some trial-and-error. And as the title indicates, I wanted a bottle/nipple that would encourage my baby to still want to breastfeed.
So, with a goal of hoping to help my baby reduce “nipple confusion” (which I’ve been gently corrected by some IBCLCs that the new terminology is “nipple preference” or “flow preference”), the standout bottles, and more importantly, nipples, recommended by IBCLCs were those with triangle shaped nipples. This is to help reinforce a deep vs. a shallow latch. Here’s an article explaining the difference: https://www.nurturedfoundation.com/nurtured-foundation-blog/best-bottle
The brands that rose to the top of reviews & recommendations from IBCLCs: Lansinoh, Pigeon, Gulicola, Dr. Brown’s, and Evenflo. Most of these come in both plastic and glass bottles. Thankfully, Lansinoh, Pigeon, and Gulicola nipples are interchangeable in any of the provided collars and they all have an anti-colic design in the nipple (a small opening on one side for air to pass through as your baby suctions out the milk from the bottle).
We wanted to try glass bottles this time to attempt to reduce our microplastic footprint (I realize this is impossible and also may seem silly since my professional employment involves burning thousands of pounds of dead dinosaurs every time I fly, but to me, every little bit counts). Sadly, through Reddit threads, we found out that Lansinoh and Pigeon use the same manufacturer for their bottles AND they use lead paint on their glass bottles which is mind-boggling!?? (No issues with their plastic bottles, though.) Thus, we decided to go with Gulicola glass bottles and Gulicola, Lansinoh, and Pigeon nipples. Gulicola is a smaller company (which is frustrating because we could only find their products on Amazon and not through an independent website), but they etch their glass bottles instead of using lead paint.
Here’s a link to information about the lead paint used by Lansinoh:
Unfortunately, we found it challenging to find the correct nipple flow speeds matched with the bottles we wanted, so through multiple purchases on Amazon, we were able to mix-and-match large glass Gulicola bottles with the SS nipples (Extra Slow Flow) for when our daughter was newborn until about 1.5 months old. Then we bought 4-packs of Pigeon SS, Gulicola S, and now we are onto Lansinoh S (baby is 8 weeks old). It seems to be an art, not a science, determining what flow works best for your baby when. I’ve heard wonderful things about the Dr. Brown’s anti-colic bottle with preemie nipple for newborns as well, but those do not interchange with these other bottle types AND there was one extra part to clean, so we went with this other system. Just know there are lots of options out there!
I’ve put together this spreadsheet to show the progression of nipple flows and bottle types with both personal and researched (YouTube & interviews with IBCLCs) reviews for your reading leisure.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16B_76B8nwBzx2sCfINhwN92GFJxS-cwi_AGpL2x-z-c/edit?usp=sharing
