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.
