Medela PIS and bottles

[myallan]

Hi, Just received my pump yesterday. It came with four bottles. I have to go get nipples/bottles. What do most of you do "in practice?" Do you pump into freezer bags? into the Medela bottles? Do certain nipples fit with the bottles that came with the pump? Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Melissa
Mother to Melia 2/03/01 and Chloe 12/14/04

[mcdonald29]

Based on my experience, you have a variety of choices and combinations. Generally I pumped directly into the Medela bottles then transferred into either a storage bag or Avent bottle -both can be put into freezer. No matter how I defrosted the bags or which brand I used (tie or ziploc seal), there always seemed to be leaks. Fortunately I always double bagged (based on advice from others) but it's hard to see even an ounce go to waste -whoever said "Don't cry over spilled milk" was NOT talking about hard-earned EBM! Therefore if you have enough hard plastic bottles, IMO this is your best option.

Avent makes a special conversion kit that is compatible with the Medela pumps so you don't have to transfer bottles and have less to wash: http://store.babycenter.com/product/feeding/breastfeeding/pumps_and_accessories/3265. Although I never used them (I discovered them after I stoped pumping with the Medela), I think these would probably be the easiest. DS used the Avent nipples without any complaints, but this varies from baby to baby.

Not to sound like an advertisement, but one of the advantages of the Avent bottles too is that later on you can replace the nipple with a sippy cup spout. This is Baby Bargains, right?

Good luck!
Sarah

[supercalifragilous]

I pumped directly into the Avent bottles with the adapter. Then we found that DD did a LOT better on the Dr. Brown's bottles, so I started pumping directly into those (Yes, they attach directly - no adapter needed)! You'll find that most bottles have universal threads. I ran out of caps and ended up using the blue caps from Gerber's baby juice as bottle caps! (I hated leaving the "used" nipple in the fridge, even though it was capped)

At first I would transfer the EBM (expressed breastmilk) into Medela bags (since they tout to prevent freezerburn), then I tried Gerber & Lansinoh since they were ziploc and laid flat in the freezer, taking up less space. But all it took was for ONE bag to break and that was IT for me. I started freezing in covered ice cube trays. Each cube is about 1 oz so you can just defrost what you need. I got the covered ones from Fresh Baby but there are lots others out there. Just avoid the ones where you have to slide the tray in/out b/c when you do that you could splash EBM out!! Eeeek!

[mamamimi]

Okay so I went a little crazy and figured if I was going to go through the trouble of pumping at work I wanted DS to get the most out of it so I bought glass bottles. I use a Medela PIS and the bottles attach directly to that. I pump into the bottles and the EBM goes with DS to daycare the next day in the bottle I pumped into. For nipples I use a non drip nipple, it has a funny looking indent on the end or evenflo classic slow nipples. My PIS is second hand so I didn't buy the bottles and I'm not sure if certain nipples fit it.

Also, before I went back to work I did either pump into the Medela bags or pump into a bottle and transfer to a Gerber Seal and Go bag for the freezer. Then I put as many frozen bags as would fit into a Ziploc gallon size and keep it all in my chest freezer.

When I first came back to work I would thaw from my stash to send to daycare and freeze what I brought home. Now I've decided I need the extra time I spent thawing bottles to sleep, or snuggle with DS before work so go with fresh and only rotate the stash on Monday if at all.

Melinda

[missmelis01]

I would usually pump directly into the Medela bottles that came with the pump. I also bought 8 extra bottles to have for a stash. If I was running low on bottles, I would store milk in the Gerber bags. Unlike pp, I never had any leaks with the Gerber bags (and at 1 point in time, I had almost 200 oz of EBM in my freezer -- don't ask! :-) ).

I always transferred the thawed milk to an Avent bottle. I didn't mind the extra step or washing the extra bottle, but I know some Mom's do. So as pp said, you can buy an adapter and pump right into an Avent bottle, or there are nipples that fit on the Medela bottles.