Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Avent Bottles

Avent bottles were recommended to me by a friend when I first had Chandler.  Although I did breast feed him for  5 months, I wanted to make sure he would take a bottle while I was away.  After trying a few bottles, we decided to stick with the avent.


Pros:  These bottles have been clinically proven to reduce colic.  There is an airflex valve which allows your baby to control the flow of the bottle, thus making the transition from breast to bottle a breeze.  The skirt on the nipple of the bottle allows air into the bottle without letting your baby swallow air.  This was one of my favorite features.  The nipple stays full and air stays on top of the milk.  I love how the nipple does not collapse.  It is a nice wide, sturdy nipple that is also extremely easy to clean.  The outside of the bottle also has very easy to read ounce measurements which makes measuring breastmilk or formula so easy.  Another thing I love about these bottles - they hold up.  They don't fade, and don't deteriorate.  Chandler used these bottles numerous times throughout the day for over a year and they still looked great and new.  They come in 3 convenient sizes, (4 oz, 9 oz & 11 oz), and have five different flow rate nipples that will grow with your baby.  You can also buy sippy cup tops and training handles for these bottles when your baby gets older.

Cons:  The biggest con about this bottle is if you don't screw the top on straight, or screw it on too tight, it will leak.  Once I mastered putting it on securely but not too tightly, it wasn't a problem.  However, I know some moms that this is frustrating for and don't like the bottle for this reason.  There also used to be a concern with these bottles and BPA.  "BPA is a chemical some companies were using in their plastic.  There is controversy that high levels of BPA in the body can influence hormone levels and increase the risk of health problems." (Taken from about.com) Yes, it is controversy and not proven.  However, Avent is now making their bottles without BPA in them.  Look on the outside of the bottle before you buy to see that it is BPA free.  At one point a few months back, Babies R Us was taking Avent bottles back (even used ones) and giving a credit for them since they contained BPA.  Not sure if they are still doing this.

The Bottom Line:  I think Avent bottles are great and would recommend them.

Price:  Around $4.00

Where to Buy:  Target, Amazon, Kmart

Rating: Great

4 comments:

Cassandra said...

http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/PublicHealth/11540

This was in the news about two weeks ago. You know how about a month ago the FDA said that BPA was fine, well now they are looking at it again and admitting that maybe they didn't take all evidence into consideration.. yikes!

Joel & Lila said...

One other thing I would point out, which isn't really know (maybe) is that avent bottles work GREAT when used with the bottle warmer from Target. I have tried a few different bottles, and these ones were the only ones that actually got warm in the warmer.

The leaking kills me!! Seriously...but we get over it!

Jayme Q said...

I really love these bottles. I had a package in the cabinet for months and didn't realize it. We had been using the Playtex VentAires but I was frustrated with all of the parts they have... the Avent is the perfect solution! They're just one main piece but are still great for reducing gas. I love these bottles!

Cory and Becca said...

I had been told this is a alright bottle, but it does have leaking problems. I looked on reviews all over and found similiar responses about leaking. I never tried this bottle because I knew when I got up in the middle of the night I didn't want to deal with a tempermental bottle that has to be screwed on perfectly as to not leak all over.