Baby Registry - Bottles

Joe: Hello again, I am Joe. Today we are teaching you what items to register for your babies registry. In this segment, I am going to go over bottles. One of the first things that we should talk about in regards to bottles is the chemical BPA, Bisphenol A. BPA is found in most polycarbonate plastics. Nothing is fully proven yet however we are taking the frame in mind better be too safe then too sorry.

In this case, what you are going to read a lot about is to go glass. Glass bottles are one of the best things that you can do in the sense of avoiding all chemicals. However, glass has some disadvantages as well.

Glass is much heavier and of course if the child gets into that playing stage, the bottle is very easily broken. So if you don't want to go glass, don't worry because there is another option. There is a lot of companies out there now that are making plastic bottles free from BPA.

What BPA did to a plastic was make it hard enough, so we can boil it to sterilize it, boil it to warm it up. It was a hardening chemical. So with these bottles they are little bit softer.

One of the other things that we should look for aside from BPA found in bottles is a vent insert. Vent inserts that reduce air intake is a wonderful thing. If the child sucks in too much air, unfortunately it builds pressure on the middle ear causing ear infections. It also creates bubbles that causes acid reflex. So if we could find a vent insert in our child's bottles, that would be the best.

Now that I have shown you what to look for in your child's bottle, we have to talk about the different sizes in bottles. Bottles come in four and five ounces, and also come in nine ounces. Around 6-8 months you might have to take the five ounce bottle and upgrade to a nine ounce bottle.

There are kits called newborn gift sets by most manufacturers that will include some of your five ounce, some of your nine ounce and some newborn gifts sets even throw on a sippy cup for later on. So the newborn gift sets are one of the easiest thing to register for and it gives you everything kind of in one package.

With the newborn gift sets in most bottles they come with stage one nipple. Stage one nipple, the first flow only allows a child to get a certain amount of liquid, very little liquid. This way the child prefers breastfeeding because they get more milk out of mom then they do the bottle.

Then at around three months when you start seeing signs of the child getting frustrated, you increase the flow to two to three six months or stage two. At this point, six month plus in stage three. Each one of these stages increase the flow or the amount of the milk that the child receives.

If you introduce formula or cereal there is even in nipple called a Y-Cut nipple or very commonly called an X-Cut nipple that allows the formula and cereal to go through the nipple without getting clog. All the nipples are indicated with the age requirements.

Since I have just talked you briefly about your nipple options, we need to address how you are going to clean your bottle. Especially, since we can no longer boil these bottles since they are softer plastic.

One of the options that were given is a Microwave Steam Sterilizer. You put your bottles in here, put a little bit of water in it, put it in the microwave, heats the water up to a steam, sterilizes whatever is inside. This is one of the best options for cleaning your bottle. Now you don't have to do this as frequently as you do with breastfeeding needs. But once a month and when you first open it up is best, after that your dish washer can be your primary cleaning agent.

Also regarding cleaning the bottle, sometimes especially if we have been out a long day, the breast milk gets kind of crusted inside the bottle, and unfortunately your hands can't fit in there. So there are bottle and nipple brushes. The bottle and nipple brushes are very very easy to pick out. The two things that I would recommended on a bottle and nipple brush is hard bristles over a sponge, that way it doesn't fall apart. And I also like how the nipple brush is hidden on the inside of the handle. Other bottle brushes have ways to hide the nipple brush as well. If it's exposed it's always bend by the time you need it.

Also regarding cleaning is your dishwasher basket. Your dishwasher basket is a wonderful idea and the main reason why you want this, is because if you just throw the nipples in the dishwasher basket that you have at home, the nipples turns upside down and the dish washing soap dries within the nipple, these kind of a soapy taste.

So this one has a spot specifically designed for your nipples to face up on the top of the dishwasher basket. This prevents any soap for getting in it. Also some dishwasher baskets have sippy cup straws. One of the most frustrating things when you open your dishwasher is to see all the straws melted at the bottom. So in this case there is a spot designed for the sippy cup straws.

Now, that we have talked about your cleaning products, how do you heat up your bottle? When you take the milk out of the freezer it's very cold and we don't want to give it to the child just like that, so you can sit there and stand and hold it under hot water for about two three minutes, till it gets to room temperature. You could use a microwave but it's not recommended, microwaves heat with in create hot spots and they leave scolding hot bubbles to pop in the child's mouth. So we never recommend using a microwave or you can use a bottle warmer.

Many different types of bottle warmers out there, all of them do the same thing, they heat up the bottle while you are changing a diaper or changing a sheet. The one thing that I look for in a bottle warmer is to make sure it actually heats up the baby food. It is very, very nice to heat up the little canned carrots, and the canned green beans. Sometimes the children actually prefer eating it this way. Only a few of the bottle warmers heat up the baby food.

Now that I have discussed all your bottles and your bottle accessories, Esandra (ph) is going to talk to you about how to pick out a high chair or a booster seat.