How to pick the best infant bottle

Maybe you are creating your registry or maybe your baby has arrived and you don't have any bottles on hand so you are searching the ends of the internet for help. Maybe you walked into the bottle aisle at Target and you started to get sweaty because you didn't want to pick the wrong bottle and now you are diving into the research. This post is going to give you tangible tips along with recommendations on what to consider when picking a bottle and the nipple as well as how to use bottles during the breast/chestfeeding journey.

Believe it or not, the bottles out there marketed as "mimics the breast" are actually the ones you should stay away from. I've been there. My oldest child, Josiah, refused the bottle when I returned to work so I dove deep into the mom forum for help and guidance on getting him to take a bottle. I found Mimijumi, a bottle shaped and colored like the breast and was encouraged by the reviews. I got the bottle in the mail and he took it from me! By took it I mean, he took a few swigs and that felt like such a stride. He didn't take the fancy boob bottle for anyone else. My first shot at motherhood was filled with a lot of, what felt like failures like that. Lots of online purchases that got pushed to the back of the closet because they didn't work.

And don't get me started on this common phrase, "when they are hungry enough they will eat. It won't matter where the milk is coming from." STRESSFUL, UNHELPFUL, MADDENING. Bottle refusal is extraordinary stressful and disheartening, so if that's why you are reading this. I'm sorry you are having to deal with that. I was told that a lot when my son was refusing a bottle. Unfortunately, the answer still wasn't a magic boob bottle. And while the videos of dads giving their babies bottles through a shirt they have cut a whole in and pushed the bottle through all while wearing a mask of their baby's mom is cute, it probably doesn't work as well as it appears on the internet.

So, what you have come here for is this: nipple shape and nipple flow are the most important things to keep in mind when selecting the best bottle for a breast/chestfed baby who w