We recently received an email from a customer with a few
questions, so thought we'd share them incase anyone else
wants to know.
"I already have an avent bottle set,
but I have now discovered they are not BPA free."
Avent have introduced a new range of BPA free avent bottles
that are now available.
"I heard the avent wide neck design is really
good."
In our opinion, the only advantage of the wide neck bottle is
that it is slightly easier to put the formula in and make up a
bottle when you have weaned baby onto formula. Though it
is still very easy to put formula scoops into narrow neck
bottles.
"The Medela Bottles are
also BPA free and are much cheaper"
Yes that is correct, the Medela bottles have a better
price. Probably just because of branding. Actually
the medela bottles (and all medela breast pump bits and pieces)
are made from BPA free materials, they always have been.
The medela bottles are just as nice to use as Avent ones. We
recommend getting the 250mL size rather than the 150mL size, as you
will get more use out of it. Even when baby is still very young and
only drinking about 80-100mL of milk you can still use the larger
size bottle, and you don't need to replace the bottle when baby
starts drinking more, so this will work as a saving.
"What are the medela teats like?"
Well Medela don't actually manufacture their own teats in New
Zealand. But we stock the ChuChu teats, which fit the
medela bottles. These are the teats that I recommend always. They
work the same way as a nipple, in that baby has to work and suck
the same way as when breastfeeding. With the other teats on the
market the baby doesn't have to work quite as much to get the
milk to flow, and so they can get a bit lazy if you try to feed
again on the boob.
The other advantage of the ChuChu teats is that one teat
will suit baby from newborn to weaning. Because it is the baby that
controls the flow rate.
"What are your thoughts about BPA free
sterilizers?"
As far as we know, the caution surrounding BPA, is that these
bisphenol-A compounds leach from the plastic in bottles when
they are warmed, which is then transferred to the milk. We consider
that sterilisers don't have contact with milk that you are warming
for baby. If you are concerned about which sterilizer to use, you
could always do it the old-fashioned way and boil items in a
saucepan. The sterilizers at our store are also BPA free.
"Are the medela milk collection bags
single-use only?"
Yes that is correct, they are pre-sterilized and ready to
use.