Avent Via Bargains at Big Lots

[safarimom]

Today I purchased some Avent Via items at Big Lots for a reduced price. Apparently, Big Lots bought up a bunch of Eckerd Drugs' merchandise (here in FL anyway) & are offering it at 50% off Eckerd's old retail price. For example, they had the Avent breast pump regularly 45.99 on sale for 50% off. I picked up the Via 8 oz nurser set with 5 Via bases, lids, adaptor & newborn nipple assembly for $4 (regularly $7.99) & also a package of 8 oz refills in a 10 pack for $2.50. I got a package of 2 nipples for $2.25. The key is that the inventory is somewhat limited & some of the prices on their other baby stuff is overinflated to begin with, but I found the Avent stuff to be pretty competitively priced within a dollar or two or what others charge so it makes it a good deal if you're willing to look long enough. Just thought I'd pass along the info in case anybody else uses this system. I hadn't really thought about it until I saw how cheap these items were & decided to go for it since I already have the Isis pump.

[asha]

Thanks Safarimom.
Gotta check if they have it here in CA.

~Asha

[Ksinglet]

Just wanted to give you a word of caution about the Via system. I purchased a bunch of the reusable bases and lids to store ebm in the freezer and soon discovered that we could not get the lids off when we wanted to use the milk. DH had to punch a hole in a few of them to get the milk out. Very frustrating.
Also, one of the bases melted in the crockpot my day care uses to warm bottles. I would be cautious about storing a large stash of ebm in these containers. I ended up with about 30 containers in my freezer that I could not send to daycare for fear they would melt and because the teachers complained that they could not get the lids off these.
I do however, love the Isis pump and the regular advent bottles. It is too bad about the lid problem on the Via system because the bases are a lot more convenient and leak proof than bags.

[safarimom]

Thanks for the heads up, but just wondering why the daycare would put the Via containers in a crockpot to warm them up in the first place. Seems like the temperature would be too hot & also heating the breast milk up that much would not be beneficial in preserving all the nutrients. I thought that just a cup of warm water would do the trick for thawing purposes or thawing containers from freezer in fridge. Did you try putting the containers in warm water after removing from the freezer & still had problems getting the lids off?

[Ksinglet]

Well, you are probably right that the best way to warm the bottle is not in a crockpot although they do leave it set on low. I guess because they have 9 babies there they need a system that warms many bottles at once and it is better than the microwave. I have heard of many daycares that use a crockpot. At home we put the bottle in a pan of warm water or we put it in the fridge and let it unthaw there if we have time. Truely though, my biggest objection to the via containers is the lid problem.

And to answer your question, yes we put the containers in warm water, thawed them and tried to open them and sometimes they still will not open. In fact, what really worked better was to try to loosen the lid while the milk was still frozen because then there was less of a chance of spilling all the milk while working on getting the lid open. Some people may have had better luck with these but I hate to see someone getting stuck with so much milk frozen in an impossible to open container like I did.

[safarimom]

Thanks for the tips. Wonder why Avent wouldn't make sure that lids sticking wasn't an issue because the refill kits only come with the base & no extra lids. It's always good to hear what others experience with certain product lines. I'll give them a shot & hope for the best. I may end up using them only for storing in the fridge & not freezing. Haven't worked out a system yet as the baby isn't here yet although today is the EDD!