Your Guide to Bottle Feeding

Baby Bottles: A Guide to Your Choices

The good news: When it comes to baby bottles, nipples, bibs, and more, you’ve got a lot of choices. The bad news? When it comes to baby bottles, nipples, bibs, and more, you’ve got a lot of choices.

Should you go with glass, plastic, or disposable bottles? Should bottles be BPA-free? Do you need a bottle warmer and sterilizer? How about bibs, burp clothes, and brushes? Fortunately, you don’t need all the products out there, but a few will definitely come in handy. We cover the essentials below.

Baby Bottle Basics: Plastic Versus Glass

Your profusion of choices starts with baby bottles. There are three basic choices:

• Plastic baby bottles

Pros: They’re light-weight, strong, and unbreakable.

Cons: Plastic baby bottles may not last as long as glass; safety concerns have been raised about plastic bottles that contain bisphenol A (discussed below).

• Glass baby bottles

Pros: They last a long time and can also be deep-cleaned by boiling.

Cons: They’re heavier than plastic and may shatter if dropped.

• Disposable baby bottles

Pros: These are essentially reusable plastic bottles that use a disposable sterilized liner for each feeding. They’re very convenient for quick clean-ups.

Cons: The disposable inserts may not be environmentally sound, and the bottles are usually more expensive than regular plastic or glass.

Which kind should you choose? Ask for advice from friends, family, or your baby’s pediatrician, or try some to see which you and your baby like best.

Once you decide what kind, plan on buying at least a dozen baby bottles. Even if you’ll be breast-feeding, you’ll want baby bottles for pumped breast milk storage.

Nipple Confusion: Which Kind to Buy?

As with baby bottles, you’ve got a lot of choices when it comes to nipples.

Baby bottle nipples are usually rubber or silicone and may be rounded, wide, flat, or shaped to mimic mother’s nipple when in baby’s mouth. Depending on the size of the nipple hole, they also have different flow rates, from slow to fast.

As with baby bottles, babies may show a preference for a certain nipple type. The only way to find out which nipple your baby prefers is to try them out. To get started, ask friends, family, and your baby’s doctor about which types and brands they like most.

Plan on buying at least 12 nipples and covers, but because nipples crack and leak with use, you may end up buying more over time.

Baby Bottle Gear: Brushes, Burp Clothes, and Bibs

If there’s a wide array of baby bottles and nipples to choose from, there’s an even bigger assortment of accessories to go with them, from brushes and bottle carrying cases to sterilizers and special dishwasher bottle baskets.

Pediatricians and parents generally agree that a handful of these are helpful to have:

• 1 baby bottle brush
• 1 nipple brush
• 6-12 bibs
• 1 breast pump (if breastfeeding)
• 12 burp cloths (or alternatively, receiving blankets or clean cloth diapers)