lisaz8605 -- I was wondering, you use Avent bottles, the regular ones i presume not the ones with the liners? Those are the bottles that i liked based on looks/featuers, (mainly looks, they are cute). But then in regards to them leeching chemicals into milk and BPA and all that stuff, i was beggening to lean to just class bottles and calling it a day. So my question is, did you just feel like there was not enough research? or have you been using them for a while already (over a 1?) and the research was not as widely publicised then.... I dont know what to believe b/c these polycarbonate bottles have been used by millions of babies..... so its hard to say that its bad, but at the same time, who knows.

About formula prices, i signed up at Enfamil and Similac like 2 months ago, (i am 20w pregnant now) and i told them that i am expecting a child and have 4 other children, all exactly one year aprt. So they are sending me some nifty coupons, like 4 dollars off etc.

I was just tearing through my office trying to see if I had any coupons, but sadly I only have one "gift check" made out to me for Enfamil and yet a ton of Similac ones. Bummer. DEFINITELY write and call and complain. I wish I could help more...

I had another formula question i thought of, if babies are not supposed to have milk until they are 12months, then why is baby formula made from cow milk proteins ????????

I think what they mean is that milk alone is not sufficient nutrition, like instead of formula or its substitute.

Malishka,

I have wondered about the chemicals too in the baby bottles. It has been all over the news. I am both breast feeding and pumping breast milk and bottle feeding.

They never really say how much is leeching into the milk. They do say that boiling the bottles leeches more than hot water, and that old bottles leech the same amount as new.

My breast pump it the Advent Isis IQ Duo electric breast pump. I use the bottles. I like them the best and they fit my pump.

When it comes time to re-heat the milk I use the munchkin bottle warmer and only bring the milk to just over room temperature. Thinking that less will be leeched into the milk. Not to mention the bottle warmer uses steam on the outside of the bottle to warm it. the inside of the bottle never gets really hot because of the cold milk on the inside. I figure that this it the best way for my family to reduce the "risk".

What gets me is that they do not say HOW MUCH of the chemical caused the problems in the rats (or whatever).
I mean....... Is this like when they said sacharrine causes cancer by feeing insanely high doses to rats that would not even be possible in reality???? Just how much is too much. There are a lot of things in our environment that can cause a multitiude of ailments.

I plan on continuing with the bottles as stated above. I will require more data before I would concider a switch at this point.

Cow's milk by itself is formulated to be perfect for baby cows, but it has too much protein and the wrong mix of nutrients for baby humans. If the baby's entire diet, or a major portion of his diet, is from milk, then it makes a big difference if there's too much protein or too few carbs, etc- it can throw the baby's body off balance. So they "doctor" the milk to make it resemble human milk in terms of the proportions of macronutrients and the amounts of vitamins and minerals. Or course it's not a perfect match, but it's as close as they can get it.

Once a baby is eating a wide variety of other foods, then the proportions of fat, protein, and carbs in the milk is less important. However, formula is still more nutritionally complete than cow's milk because of the added vitamins and minerals. I know some families who have kept their kids on formula longer than 12 months because of this (and also because the toddler wasn't eating very much solid food yet.)

As for bottles, it seems like glass is the safest from a "chemical" perspective, but I'm not sure about the safety of glass bottles for older babies who might throw them around. I guess if you always hold the bottle (rather than letting the baby crawl or toddle around with it) then glass might be the safest choice. Or maybe use glass for newborns and then switch to plastic when the baby gets more mobile- that would at least minimize the chance of plastic leaching when the baby is really tiny.

There's also much less chance of anything leaching into cold or luekwarm liquids than into hot liquids. If you heat the bottles "too hot" then let them cool before feeding the baby, there's a greater chance of chemicals leaching into the bottles than if you heat it in a glass or stainless steel container and pour into the bottles warm, or pour the formula into bottles cold and heat gently (like putting the bottle into a cup of hot water, rather than heating the bottle in a pot of water on the stove or in the microwave.)

In regards to "how much chemical" , they did say that in 95% of adults tested, their urine contained amounts that were FAR higher than lethal doses that they tested, so in that respect, considering how much tinier a rat /mouse is to a baby, and what is deadly for a mouse is not deadly for a baby its really hard to just follow the reasearch. Also, reality is, that you CAN make statistics say ANYTHING you want, a good statistician makes that possible....

I am personally going to go with 2 avent tempo bottles (4oz and 8 oz) and 2 bpa free bottles, like born free, in 4oz and 8 oz, and have 2 glass ones in the cupoard in case i run out of liners or something.

I am really trying to go with as FEW bottles as possible, i would love to just have 1 bottle, but i like the idea of liners for going outside with baby...seems quicker and easier to clean, and also, i have no family here, no grandparents to come by, and no friends, so i am trying to make it easy on myself, because i know there are lots of "single" parents but usually they have extended family.... by single i just mean the woman doing it all by herself. My husband works and goes to school so i dont anticipate a lot of help for majority of the day.

So now off topic, but lets talk about strollers?
We live in NYC in a studio, a large one but a studio still, so b/c we are "saving" a lot of money by not getting a lot of stuff that people would get for a nursery, my stroller is going to be my one big splurge item... i am leaning toward the Stokke Xplory- yes its about 1k and yes that is ridiculous, but living in the city i sort of see the justification, considering the stroller has to last through rough weather and its not going to be a car stroller, it has to stand on its own.
What strollers do you ladies use, did you want, and what did you hate?

I use a Quinny Buzz. I like it because it is very small, and so is our house. And our car. It's half the price of an Xplory.

i am considering quinny buzz, it is on my list of ones to see in person. There is about 4-5 strollers i plan on really checking out once i get to store...i am just not going until later.

There is also the Joolz Bloom ( but i doubt i will find it in a US store)

I know I am a little late on this discussion, but I found the Gerber Gentle Flow bottles work pretty well. They are fashioned like the Avent bottles with the wide mouth and supposed air flow technology for less gas, and they are made with BPA free plastic. I found this neat article all about other options. http://zrecs.blogspot.com/2007/07/z...ycarbonate.html


They are much cheaper than Born Free. I paid about $6.50 for three and I went online to find a retailer via the Gerber site. I drove a half hour and bought 12.

I am not sure how I feel about the research, but my mom insisted if I could find a cheap alternative it would be worth it.

HI Jess, I have been wondering about you and glad you are visiting! Hope everything is fine. I will look at those bottles.

Excellent site Jess and it seems they update all the info about every 2 months. Thanks!!!

Penweary is your due date July 2nd?

Yep! July 2nd, though I am having a scheduled C section so they will be taking it 1 week prior.

I accidentally posted this in postpartum...

I was reading about a new bottle at the doctors this morning, here is a link, it seems like it may be worth a try....

http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/001460.php

Here are 300 bottle reviews from amazon and the product still has 4.5 stars out of 5.

http://www.amazon.com/review/produc...howViewpoints=1