Formula Fed - How many bottles??

[mdefalcony]

I'm trying to decide just how many bottles to register for. I hopefully plan on using the Avent bottles. I'd like to start off with the reuseable 4oz size, then move up to the 8oz disposables.

I've heard Moms get enough bottles to last a day or so. Just how many is that??

Any advice or suggestions?

Maria

[egoldber]

I didn't formula feed initially (although I did supplement), but when DD was 6 months, I needed about 12 bottles to be able to run the dishwasher every other day. You will probably want a few more for a newborn.

HTH,

[mama2be]

Maria,

I am not speaking from experience, pregnant with first now...but I research everything, and have researched a lot of folks opinions on bottles. I agree it is the baby who decides what they want and have to fight the urge not to register or buy what I want...

BUT from what I have researched Breast fed babies tend to prefer the Avents but the formula fed babies are seeming to like the Dr Browns best. This is very general but just on stats what I have noticed. So I will be registering for Dr Browns...enough to let him decide what he wants...

I think the nipple is the thing here...

There is a great poll from several weeks back about bottles I think here on this board...:)

I look forward to people's advice on this as I am in the same situation...:)

[bnme]

I am not speaking from experience yet either, due with first 12/24 (36 more days!!)

But what I did is buy two 3 packs of 4oz Avent and 1 Playtex disposible nurser w/ extra nipples and liner (my two personal preferences). I'll send someone to BRU to buy whatever seems to be doing the trick! That being said, I also plan on trying breastfeeding, but supplementing soon (only want to bf about 6 weeks total).

Also, if you are formula feeding the hospital usually sends you home with nursettes and the nipples for those, so you will have those to try out/tide you over until you figure out what you need.

I figure as long as you keep the receipts and don't open everything until you start experimenting you should be OK!

[daisymommy]

I started out breastfeeding for about 3 weeks and then switched to formula feeding exclusively. Josh eats every two hours, so we bought 12 bottles. This gives us enough to make up a full days supply, and keep them in the fridge until we need them. Then I just pull one out and heat it up. At the end of the day I simply put all the bottles, nipples, caps, rings (and pacifiers!) into the dishwasher. Make sure you buy a couple of those little plastic dishwasher baskets, they are very useful. Then when they are all clean, I make up a new batch and am ready for the next day of feedings. Much easier IMO than making up one bottle at a time while your baby screams to be fed.
Also, we use Avent bottles (with formula) and DS loves them as much as I do! I second others advice NOT to buy too many of any one type of bottle until you know what your baby will like. We probably went through 5 different bottles until we found something that no only did Josh like, but he didn't get so much air and gas with.

[akc]

Hi Maria -

(FYI - I just posted a longer version of this on the main board b/c by the time I was done, I felt it was valuable for all bottle feeders - there is some info in there that is not here, so be sure to check both if you want to know more)

Oh boy, do I have experience on this. I could not breastfeed due to a medication, so we went with formula from the get go. When I was expecting, I searched and searched and could not find here or elsewhere exactly what to do with bottle feeding and how to plan for it. I will help you and ANYONE WHO IS FORMULA FEEDING since I didn't have any info and it was so frustrating. I have lots of advice, including on the bottles, but I'll start from the top.

First, the hospital. They will give you tiny, ready-to-serve 2 oz formula bottles to feed your baby. They are awesome and the right amount at that time. You should stock up on them. This is not stealing b/c they will charge you later on your bill, but everytime they bring some, put them in your bag and ask for more. Your baby will use this size for a little bit of time and the only ready-to-serve bottles out there come in 4 oz sizes so you're just throwing money away (and, you will spend a lot of formula so save it now!) Stock up!!! You can use these for the first initial, rough nights - I recommend you save them for nights and fix bottles during the day b/c sleep is precious. Secondly, SEND your baby to the nursery for feedings at night. This sounds cruel and unless you have your heart absolutely set on rooming in, you should get the sleep. You will not get a full night of sleep again for at least 3 - 4 months and you're body has been through a lot of trauma. We sent our daughter at about 10-11 p.m. and then called for her at about 7 a.m. It is SO key to use the help at the hospital - you'll wish at home that you could just dial up the nursery and have someone come help you! Thirdly, unless you are nonconfrontational, you may want to consider putting a sign on your door that says "Bottle feeding" - this will save you two things: 1) heartache - when every nurse and doctor walks in and says, "oh, are you having trouble nursing," "now let's get that baby on your breast," "have you tried nursing?" "why don't you want to nurse, you know it's better for reason X," and "I'm sure the baby could latch on, it's not too late for you to change your mind" - this is at first gutwrenching and at the end the focus of your wrath; and 2) the knock, knock in the middle of the night when they want you to breastfeed and wake you up even though you aren't.

Finally, for the hospital, let's talk about engorgement. If you are bottle feeding, your boobs don't know it and will get engorged. NO ONE TOLD ME WHAT TO DO ABOUT THIS. You should: not touch them ever even though they burn and get hard, face away from the shower when you take one, wear a sports bra starting IMMEDIATELY after delivery so you keep your breasts compact and less likely to get really engorged (you will sleep and live in this so have plenty clean), get frozen peas (that you'll put in your sports bra when you lie down for a nap, and be prepared for a lot of discomfort. The good news is it distracts from your "down there" pain and you will feel like a Playboy Playmate, but the bad news is it takes about a week for it to go down. If you are desperate and they don't seem to be receding, you should - this is not a lie, this is what they tell you in the hospital - get cabbage leaves and put them in your bra. The cabbage will cook from the heat of your boobs and release some natural chemical that stops your engorgement. Sounds ridiculous, I know, but it works.

Now, onto bottles:

We loved the Avent bottles and had 18 4 oz bottles for our newborn daughter. Some people will tell you that b/c the baby will only know one kind of bottle, you don't need to spend on the Avent. This is probably true, but I liked the system and they were about the same price as the Gerber New Traditions and the Playtex ones, and I liked the wide size. Anyway, I HIGHLY recommend that you buy enough to get through 2 days (instead of one). You will be so exhausted - and most likely, it will not be you cleaning the bottles, so have enough that you could go through 2 whole days and run out or - more than likely - you'll do a batch here and a batch there and be fine all the time. It will depend on how big your baby is and/or how much they eat (my daughter went from 2 oz in hospital to about 4 within a week and a half! She plateaud there for a while though).

We then got 12 9 oz bottles for after she was 2 1/2 months (I'm telling you, my daughter is a little piggie!) and that gets us through about a day and a half initially, but now (at 4 months) she's down to only 4-5 7 oz bottles a day, so we can really go through three days with them (she's sleeping 12 hours through the night w/no feeding).

Now, unless there are 10 people living in your house, I also recommend getting an Avent sterilizer. I know that you will think this is a waste of money b/c you CAN run them in the diswasher (be sure to get those little baskets that you can put the nipples in b/c they can't free float in the diswasher), but we found that we were not running the diswasher often enough to get the bottles clean. To do that, we'd have to run an empty load every night and that was just a waste (plus a pain). We got the plug in sterilizer (b/c it can do 6 instead of 4) and put it on the counter near our "bottle system" - I'll tell you about that in a minute. You can do 6 4 oz or 9 oz or a mix in 8 minutes and then, voila!, you have clean bottles. There is a microwave one too, but it only saves a minute and does 4 less bottles. We are very happy with the plug in one.

Also, do not waste money initially getting more nipples than the newborn ones that come with the bottles (there is one they sell for 1 months). You should use the newborn for a while - our hospital said you can use them forever if it doesn't bother the baby. Think about it - breast fed babies don't have "variable speed" nipples, so your baby will get used to one (after a few weeks, in the beginning it's a little strange for them) and they'll be fine on it. We made the mistake of buying 6 sets (2 in a pkg) of the 1+ month and we've really barely used them. Our daughter is happy as is. Plus, there is a high risk that a formula fed baby is overfed b/c you can see how much they are eating and want to squeak more in them if you can (I promise - this sounds strange, but you will. In our case, our daughters formula intake = sleep, so 4 oz = 4 hours, etc. you see why we wanted more?!) So, don't put on the faster flow nipple b/c they will just gorge themselves.

Let's see, what else...

OH - I like the system that was recommended above (make ahead and put in fridge), but I got to tell you. There is NO reason that a purely formula-fed baby has to have a warm bottle. ROOM TEMPERATURE is absolutely fine. This is how they give it to them in the hospital and this is what they know. Unlike a breastfed baby who gets warm milk from their mom, a bottle-fed baby never has the warm milk experience and will love their room temperature bottles. Can I tell you what this means for you? NO warmer, no chilling, no temperature check, no warming in the middle of the night, no warming on the go, nothing! It's the easiest. You simply mix it up, shake it, and feed!

We actually have a room temperature water cooler in our daughter's room (just one of those ceramic ones) b/c it's easy to get clean water (easier than modulating room temp out of a tap). We fill 16 oz water bottles (any kind, you just want the bottle) and set 2 out for a day with 4 out waiting. Then, just refill periodically. That way, you have an bottle available to pour the water in the bottle, scoop in the powder (we went powder, it is easiest and, by far, the cheapest and formula ADDS UP!), shake and feed! When I go out with Maeve, my daughter, I fill the Avent bottle with the right amount of water, I got one of those formula dispenses (three sides that you can fill and pour) and then mix and serve. We use Similac Advance and it doesn't have the little individual packages yet, but if you go with either of the ones w/Iron, they have them.

I promise - this is not cruel to your baby, this is how they know food and how they do it in the hospital. Our pediatrician absolutely advised us to do this. Save yourself about 6 months of effort...GO WITH ROOM TEMP!

Hmmm...moving on. I don't know what kind of house you have, but we put a can of formula on every floor (we have a three story) and my hubby circulated bottles between the floors as well. This is key b/c you never know when your newborn will have the hunger urge and you won't want them to cry/scream until you can get up/downstairs to feed them. Later, as they get more social, you'll want to feed them in a quiet, undistracting place (in our case, her room) so then you won't have to distribute as much.

And, finally, I highly recommend our "bottle system." We got two tupperware containers (the high kind about 14x8 - not for food but for storage). Then, we got two of the BRU bottle drying rack and one bottle cleaning brush. Bear with me here b/c it is hard to explain this in words, if you want me to take a digital picture I can later.

Set one tupperware by the sink and put the drying rack in it. This will be for your dirty bottles. You'll bring them down, rinse them with a tiny amount of soap (if your using a sterilizer) or just water (for the diswasher) using the little bottle brush. It is REALLY important to rinse right away b/c man that stuff clumps and sticks. Then, you turn them upside down on the rack by the sink (there is a little post for the bottle & the nipple, the white ring and the lid can just get tossed in there) and know that these are the DIRTY bottles. If nesting, you can even make a label. We wrote in Sharpie Marker.

Set the other tupperware away SOMEWHERE ELSE and put the drying rack in it (ours is underneath our cabinet with our "big people" glasses which are, of course, clean). This will be for your clean bottles. Once they are out of the diswasher or sterilizer, they are often still a bit wet. You can turn them upside down in the same manner (bottles and nipples on the posts, rings and lids in the container) and know these are ready to go.

Your husband (who is a godsend b/c daddy's can bottle feed in the middle of the night - which is REALLY important for your recovery) is in charge of the system AND teaching one or two members of your family (who are, of course, here to help with the baby when born) how to do the system as well.

If you use this, I promise you'll always have clean bottles and never go through that, "Oh my god, did I just feed my baby with a dirty bottle that was sitting her rinsed forever." You won't have back up of bottles in your sink. You'll be good to go!

On the Daddy front, as much as it is hard b/c you want to hold, snuggle, and spend special time with your new baby, you SHOULD ABSOLUTELY LET YOUR HUBBY FEED THE BABY! Especially during the middle of night the first few days. If you sleep, you will recover more quickly. My hubby and I had a "every other night" system down - he let me sleep a whole night while he fed Maeve, then I did the next night. This meant one of us was never exhausted and could always have a lot of energy for the baby. Also, we both felt completely bonded with her (unlike breastfeeding where the baby naturally bonds more with the Mom). If you are ever really exhausted (b/c you'll still have him/her more during the day) ask him to do a bottle and you go nap.

This brings me to my last point about bottlefeeding. Despite how much I agonized over not being able to breastfeed, I now believe that bottle feeding has made my marriage and parenting relationship with my husband stronger. From the minute she was born, we were a team. We shared feeding her and planning her activities. We were both completely bonded with her and knew the system to keep her fed & happy. When I was down, he was happy to step in. When he was exhausted (esp when he went back to work), I could step up. We were both rested enough that we could ENJOY our newborn (where many parents are so exhausted they see the first few weeks through bleary eyes). We had FUN! We laughed and felt like we were, together, entering a new phase of our lives. Even today, my hubby still brings the bottles up to her room for her good night and good morning bottle. And, he packs the diaper bag when we go out (by the way, I really love my Avent backpack - it is so handy to have both arms free and everything fits well).

You have no idea how much this partnership will mean to you. It will make the difference between a miserable first weeks/month and a parenting team that is problem solving but always together. Make your husband read this posting if you don't think you can talk about it. I now think that bottle feeding was right for us, despite how much I wish I could for all of the reasons that I know (and, believe me, people will tell you over and over and over again - if you want advice on that, just email me). Both hubby and I have loved our baby experience from night one and we credit a lack of total exhaustion due to teamwork as a large reason why.

I'm sorry if this is too long & exhaustive for you, but I really, really, really wanted to know this stuff and agonized over getting only bits and pieces from different people and books. I'm sure this is more than enough advice for you, but if it's not helpful to you, I'm hoping it will be for others! I have decided after all this that I'm going to post it as a new topic on the board called, "Breakdown of the Basics of Bottle Feeding" so don't be surprised by the repeat!

Good luck! Let me know if you have any more questions - :)

Alexa