One thing I’ve always found hard as a parent who doesn’t regularly bottle feed is how/when to introduce the bottle. The pediatrician recommendation is 3-4 weeks, but honestly I was lazy and didn’t like pumping unless absolutely necessary. I did give her a few bottles and sometimes it worked and other times it didn’t at all. Read more So, when I headed back to work at four months old, I was in a difficult situation. I was split between wanting to make the daycare transition easier and my desire to spend the last few days/weeks/hours as close to my daughter as possible (thus making the pump an unappealing sight). I’ll be honest, the pump and I have a hate relationship. But, I am committed to breastfeeding my child, so I deal. Read more

In addition to my issue with pumping, I happen to have a child who is not a fan of bottles. I’m not talking about a mild refusal. No, this gal did a 3+ week long strike at daycare for 9 hours a day. We tried all different tricks and bottles to no avail. We’ve tried Dr. Brown’s, Avent, Soothies, Second Nature, Glass bottles, Medela, Born Free, and finally we struck gold with the “Natural Nurser” by Adiri. Read more It still took a bit of work, but now she’s eating like a champ. This bottle is really cool. It’s 3 parts TOTAL (think about how that when you’re washing a million bottle parts). There is the “lid”, the bottle, and a cap that screws onto the bottom. You unscrew the bottom and pour milk (or formula) into the bottle, screw the lid back on and voila! Bottle! The lid keeps the milk from coming out and holds the bottle when you’re pouring milk into it. I appreciate that the bottle is colored since it does look similar to a breast (but not so similar that I’d be uncomfortable using this in public…it’s very similar to any other bottle in looks). The colors correspond with the age of the bottle which makes them easy to find on the shelf too (0-3m, 3-6m, 6+m). You do need to buy bottles for each age (vs. the “standard” of buying new nipples to fit into your old bottles). They seem true-to-age as my daughter is using the 3-6 month bottle without any issues. The 6+ month flows too quickly for her (at 5 months old). It’s an “on-demand” style nipple so the child needs to suck to get milk. It’s made of a plastic that’s on the list of “safe” bottles (doesn’t have BP-A). This bottle is really an ingenius design. The top is shaped like a breast and soft to the touch (dents in if you push on it). The lower part of the bottle becomes harder so it’s easy to handle. The bottom cap also has an air-vent on it so air doesn’t get trapped in there and cause gas. This design obviously took a lot of time and effort to get it right, and I truly believe it is right. I’m so appreciative of this bottle for so many reasons: I can “relax” at work now that I’m not worried about my baby starving all day, it’s very conducive to bottle and breast feeding, it doesn’t leach nasty chemicals into my child’s meal, and the people at the company whom I’ve spoken with have been a real pleasure to deal with. Even if I wasn’t breastfeeding, I’d still use this bottle.

http://www.adiri.com/

If you want to do more reading on BP-A in bottles and which are safe to use and which should be thrown out, check out this blog: http://zrecs.blogspot.com/2007/07/z-report-bisphenol-in-polycarbonate.html

October 3rd, 2007 Breastfeeding Comments (none)