Since branching into boots I decided to do a few reviews on boob stuff.
So here is the first. On BOOB SHAPED BABY BOTTLES!
I won’t lie, I picked Nanobebe bottles as they are shaped like a boob and looked good. I needed to replace all of our bottles and wanted to exclusively breast feed with the option to give the odd bottle as I did with my daughter, so this seemed like a good option.
Nanobebe, the first company to make all their bottles BPA free in 2006, claim:
“Our uniquely designed bottles improve the entire process of feeding breastmilk from a bottle. From pumping through storing and warming, the nanobébé bottle protects your breast milk and gives baby an experience second only to breastfeeding itself. For the nanobébé team, babies’ health is paramount and it is our goal is to help mum, dad and caregivers adhere to the highest standards of health by keeping babies on breastmilk for as long as possible.”
They allege that: “Heating milk over 40°C/104°F causes deterioration of the milk’s immunological proteins and enzymes. Overheating pumped breastmilk may also reduce fat absorption which could cause less caloric intake for your baby.”
Breast milk is an entire insanely bonkers and amazing science I am not getting into (see here for info) but the person who said ‘never cry over spilt milk’ never dropped a freshly pumped bottle of breast milk. We milk producing people take this stuff seriously! So the bottles it is served in does matter to many and keeping that milk tip top is important.
Nanobebe have designed their bottles and storage bags so that defrosting is quick over a large surface area which means you are less inclined to dunk it in a bowl of boiling water or worse, jam it in the microwave, while a baby screams in your ear.
This is helpful and the milk was indeed nice and quick to defrost (according to my husband) and therefore quick to get into the bottle from the freezer when I wasn’t there for my hungry son.
The storage bags are a flat shape and are easy to store although the shelving unit they sell to make storing quick and easy is quite bulky in a smaller freezer and I couldn’t quite manage to get them nice and flat like in the pictures. They are however easier to store in boxes in the freezer than the standard type bags. The serious pumper will find the idea of the stacking system more than useless but you can get a nicer flat shape with it than without and it was £9 so hey ho.
The bottles themselves actually turned out to be pretty good once you get used the shape but we found the first stage teats were grown out very quickly. We went straight to the fast flow. If you have a fast let down your baby is used to the onslaught and my son found the newborn teats hard work.
I would say if you are exclusively pumping, equiping yourself with enough bottles for a whole day would be quite pricey to save you constantly washing and sterilising, especially if you aren’t sure the baby will take to them and the extra fast flowing teats will push the price up. They are however FAR easier to clean quickly than normal shaped bottles which I really liked and made fitting a job lot in the sterilising bucket easy. Easy…we new mums like that word.
I did find you had to be VERY careful with the separate bottom however and make sure you put that part on first to the bottle or it tended to leak in the fridge.
It is maybe not terribly intuitive for those not used to bottle feeding and was trickier to feed Fitz responsively as the bottle is quite round making eye contact trickier. Watching my MIL feed him was painful. It’s a boob shape right..I found it strange that she stuck in in upside down (if you think of a baby’s suck on an actual breast the bottle it does have a top and a bottom to it…).
They also offer extras in some adorable designs (I am a sucker for things that are fun looking and that work) like soothers, a drying rack and steamer that remind me of a Tim Burton movie and a cute freezer bag which I did give in and buy. Did I mention their bottles are shaped like a boob?
If you are a milk fanatic and have some money to burn I would say these bottles are great. We certainly have no complaints and have enjoyed using them with Fitz. However the exclusive pumper possible will want a cheaper option for bulk buying.
Clever C(nt)s 