Nowadays there are so many options on baby bottles, it's not an easy decision to figure out which one to buy for your darling baby. Glass or Plastic? Wide neck or regular? 4oz or 9oz? Pink, Blue or Transparent? And which Brand? Oh Gosh! I went crazy reading reviews on bottles. So, I asked my husband's opinion and he said to try the new Avent Natural bottles (as he thought Dr. Brown is a hype - marketing technique...) and to keep him happy I ordered them.
I thought Avent might work great because of the nipple's shape, less parts to wash, reduce colic and ergonomic bottle shape so I filled up this new bottle with one feed. All excited I gave the bottle to my son and he started sucking quickly as he was quite hungry. In few seconds he stopped sucking as milk wasn't coming. I shaked the bottle, pressed the nipple and saw few drops of milk coming out so I thought nipple is working fine. I gave it back to my son, he started drinking and again he left the bottle in few seconds. Then I noticed that the minute he leaves the nipple, air bubbles goes in and releases vacuum which allows the milk to start flowing again. If he keeps on sucking then milk stops coming after a while because of vacuum that gets created inside the bottle. So whatever natural flow - reduce colic that Avent is claiming does not work! Sorry to say this but seriously these bottles are nothing better than a cheap basic bottle from Walmart. Even I tried drinking water from these bottles thinking my son might be doing something wrong. I faced the same issue.
I had to stop sucking, leave the nipple so air goes in and water starts flowing again. Keep doing the same thing and in minutes you will get tired and stop drinking from these bottles. I immediately returned these Avent bottles to Amazon and my husband never talked about Avent again. We ordered Dr. Brown's glass bottles and we love them because our baby is happy. Venting is great I must say.
Now, I will tell you why we love Dr. Brown bottles. Here it goes:
I had to stop sucking, leave the nipple so air goes in and water starts flowing again. Keep doing the same thing and in minutes you will get tired and stop drinking from these bottles. I immediately returned these Avent bottles to Amazon and my husband never talked about Avent again. We ordered Dr. Brown's glass bottles and we love them because our baby is happy. Venting is great I must say.
Now, I will tell you why we love Dr. Brown bottles. Here it goes:
- Their patented internal vent which reduces air bubbles allows baby to drink continuously without break (as a baby would do while breastfeeding). My son drinks non-stop :)
- I breastfed my baby for 9+ months and I started giving him bottle at 3+ months of age with my pumped milk. He would drink all the milk from Dr. Brown bottle without any extra effort or discomfort. No problem of colic, spitting out or gas. It was easy to switch between bottle and breast.
- When I started giving solids to my son, I wanted to give him little bit of cereal mixed with formula in a bottle at night so he could stay full longer. With Avent I would have been miserable as their medium / fast flow nipples do not have bigger holes instead no. of holes are more. So medium flow will have two holes and fast flow will have three or four holes (each hole of the same size) which is great if you are feeding only milk. But if you want to give thick liquids then it's useless. Dr. Brown nipples (level 2, 3 and 4) have slightly bigger and bigger hole so giving cereal in a bottle or any other thick liquid works out great. This is the biggest PLUS I guess. I can also give fresh squeezed juice with some pulp in a bottle.
- Washing is not a pain. I know there are more parts to wash but they are not at all difficult to clean.
- Bottles don't leak if you use them as directed or at aleast I never had any incident of leakage.
- I find glass bottles better than polypropylene bottles (I have both) till the time your baby starts holding the bottle. The number one reason is that you can warm the milk very easily by keeping glass bottle in hot water for 1-2 minutes (it takes more time in bottle warmer or if you are using polypropylene bottle). The second reason is hygiene.
- Nipples are quite soft.
