Before having my baby, I was very confused and overwhelmed with all the options there were regarding bottles. The more research I did, clues indicated that the Playtex Drop Ins Nurser System was the best investment to make as far as bottle feeding goes. The Playtex Drop Ins Nurser system may seem a little complicated at first, but it is very easy to use. There are many advantages when using the Playtex Drop Ins Nurser system as opposed to using regular bottles. The Playtex Drop Ins Nurser system reduces colic in infants by decreasing the amount of air that is swallowed by babies. Another advantage is that you will never have to wash several bottles, or even invest in a scrub brush due to the nature of the bottle.
The bottles are not actually called bottles. They are known as nurser. You can buy a Playtex Drop Ins Nurser System kit at any store, such as Wal-mart or Target. They come in colors and designs for both girl, boy, and neutral. The nursers come in a small four ounce, and in a larger 8 – 10 ounce. They look like a bottle, but have no bottom. The new nursers are the ones that can accommodate the liners which are expandable, and can expand to ten ounces. The new nursers have two sides, one with ounces marked for the old liners which only went up to 8 ounces…and the other side marked for the expandable 10 ounce liners. It’s important to pay attention to this when making a bottle in order to avoid mistakes in measuring the water and formula. The new nursers are sleek in design as opposed to the old ones, which were more ‘bulkier’ and had ridge marks. They were not attractive, but the new ones are very stylish and contoured for ease of use when feeding a baby.
The Playtex Drop Ins system involves the nurser, the nipple, the ring that holds the nipple, and the liner. In order to use the Playtex nurser, you easily insert a liner through the top opening and fit it through. Then you take the nipple and fit it securely into the ring, pressing along the edges to make sure that the nipple is in place in order to avoid leaks. Then you screw in the nipple attached to the ring onto the nurser that has the liner in it after preparing the formula. Shake vigorously with a clean finger over the tip of the nipple to avoid spilling of the contents. Once the formula is well mixed with the water, it is advised to remove the air from the liner by gently squeezing the bottom of the bag and letting air escape through the nipple. You can gently squeeze the nipple in order to facilitate the escape of the air. Do this until a tiny bit of formula is expressed out. Now the baby is ready to nurse using the Playtex Drop Ins system. When the baby is done, you throw the liner away, wash the nipple, and it’s ready for the next feeding.
If the formula is cold for whatever reason, you can warm up the formula in the liner by warming a cup of water in the microwave. Then you float the liner in the warm/hot water as you support it with one hand and stir the contents with a spoon with your other hand. Before you do this, check for leaks so that none of the hot water actually enters the formula. Never microwave the formula in the liner, and never microwave the formula period. This can burn your baby, and damage the Playtex Drop Ins Nurser.
The nipples comes in four different flows. For newborns, the slow flow is recommended. Then there is the medium flow, fast flow, and variable flow. The variable flow is interesting because the baby actually controls how much or little he/she gets from the formula by how hard they are sucking. I do not recommend this for newborns, however. I tried using a variable on my daughter when she was a month and a half old because it seemed she was getting a little frustrated with the slow flow. But the variable nipple caused her to suck a little too vigorously, which lead to her choking on the milk and/or spitting it out as it flowed down her cheeks. The fast flow is recommended for older babies. Of course, choosing a nipple flow is based on trial and error, so you can buy one of each to find out what the baby is capable of using comfortably. The nipples come in silicone and latex, in the case that your baby has an allergy to latex.
As far as the liners go, you can either buy a brand name or a generic. Most stores will carry their version of the generic. I went ahead and bought both brand and generic liners for the Playtex Nurser Drop Ins system, and have found that both work equally great…and the generic cost much less than the brand name. You can save a lot of money by using the generics.
I was a little skeptical at first about trying out the Playtex Drop Ins Nurser system. The reason was because they were not conventional bottles that you were brought up with, and so therefore they were not familiar. But it was a wonderful investment. And the fact that I don’t have to mess with tons of dirty bottles and bottle brushes ensures extra time I can spend with my baby and tackling other chores inside and outside the home. I am happy to report that my baby has not suffered any gas-related issue while using the Playtex Drop Ins Nurser system. It is a great product that is not hard to use at all, and it is completely worth the small investment.
