When you walk through the bottle aisle of a store, the choices are endless and can be overwhelming. Several will claim to make the transition from breast to bottle easier. Others will claim to reduce instances of gas and colic. You will have to make decisions about rubber versus silicone nipples and plastic bottles versus drop in liners. The list goes on and on. After making your choice, you run the risk that your baby will not even accept the bottles you have selected. I was planning on breastfeeding my new baby, but I also knew that I would need to use bottles when I returned to work. I researched many different brands and finally decided to try both the Avent bottles and The First Years Soothie bottles.
Avent Newborn Starter Set
The Avent Newborn Starter Set comes with two four ounce bottles and three nine ounce bottles as well as caps for each bottle. It also five newborn nipples, two newborn pacifiers, and a bottle brush. It retails for approximately $30-35 and can be found at retail stores such as Target and Babies ‘R Us.
The First Years Soothie Bottle Starter Kit
The First Years Soothie Bottle Starter Kit includes three five ounce bottles with stage one nipples and two nine ounce bottles with stage two nipples. Each bottle includes a cap. The set also includes a Soothie pacifier, three formula or snack containers and a bottle brush. The set retails for $15-20 depending on the location and can also be found at retail stores such as Target and Babies ‘R Us.
Transition from breast to bottle
The Avent nipples have a wide base which is supposed to support proper latching and make it easier to transition between breast and bottle. The bottles also use an “Airflex” valve and, according to the company, this allows your baby to control milk flow. Avent also offers a number of breastfeeding accessories ranging from breast pads to breast pumps. They also offer attachments so that you can use other pumps to pump directly into their bottles. I use a Medela Pump in Style breast pump and purchased the attachments so that I could pump into the Avent bottles. I found that this was a big hassle and just gave me one more piece to wash at the end of the day. It is much easier to just pump and then dump your milk into whatever storage device you plan on using. The bottles are functional because you can purchase sealing disks and use your bottles to store milk. The nipples do aid your baby in latching in a manner that is close to breastfeeding, but I found that the flow of even the newborn nipples was still pretty fast.
The First Years Soothie nipples also offer a wide base although it is flatter than the nipples offered by Avent. The nipples on these bottles are the same shape as the nipples on the Soothie pacifiers. My baby received one of these pacifiers in the hospital and is a comfort sucker so he uses it quite often. The similarity between the nipples made it easy for him to make the transition to the bottle and helps to reduce nipple confusion in babies. The one complaint that I do have about these bottles is that the flow from the nipples is also very fast and my baby often ends up with milk on his face or clothing. It takes some getting used to.
Functionality
Both bottles are similar in their design. They both have a wide neck which makes them easy to clean and to add milk or formula. Both bottles are inverted slightly in the center which makes them easier to hold. Both bottles also have clear volume markings on the side.
In terms of overall functionality, the Soothie bottles are a step ahead in my opinion. The bottle caps and formula/snack containers snap on to the bottom of the bottle so that you do not lose them. The nipples are made of medical grade silicone and are very durable.
According to the Avent company, a clinical study that was conducted indicated that babies fed with their bottles experienced less gas and colic than babies fed with other bottles. This was not my experience. My child experienced more gas and was more fussy when I used these bottles. Avent bottles also have a reputation for leaking badly. You have to get the nipple sealed in the lid just right and then there is apparently some magical formula for screwing the lid on just right as well (not too tight and not too loose). I could never figure it out and as a breastfeeding mother, every ounce of milk that I had pumped was precious to me. It was very frustrating every time the bottles would leak. In addition, the nipples do not hold up well and you have to replace them every few months. Replacements are not cheap, either ($5-7 on average for a package of two). The nipple on the pacifier is flat and my baby would not even take it.
Overall impressions
If you are a breastfeeding mother looking for a good bottle to ease the transition or you’re just looking for a fun, durable, and affordable bottle, The First Years Soothie bottles are the way to go.
