Ask Design Mom Week: BPA-Free Bottles
Ask Design Mom Question:
Hey Gabrielle. I'm pregnant with baby #2, and am planning on buying BPA free bottles (glass or plastic) and sippy cups. Trouble is, they are so new that I have no one to ask recommendations about the best brands. Do you think you could ask your readers to share their favorite BPA free bottles and sippys? I've heard some complaints (online) about the nipples of these bottles. I hate to invest in these before I hear any personal recommendations. Thanks! — Carrie B.
Design Mom Answer:
Thanks for the question Carrie! I'm sure you can count on Design Mom Readers to give you lots of good PBA-free recommendations. (Design Mom Readers, thanks in advance for chiming in with your PBA wisdom.)
From a purely aesthetic standpoint — I'm design-focused after all — I love the Wee Go Bottles from Baby Life that I spotted in the March 08 issue of Parents Magazine. Aren't they pretty? I'll take one of each, please.
Labels: ask design mom, baby
posted by Gabrielle of Design Mom at Thursday, June 05, 2008
26 Comments:
we use Evenflo glass bottles. I wasn't able to find them in a bricks-and-mortar store, so I found them online, I think it was amazon, but I'm not sure.
I looked into the 'born free' glass bottles, but they were incredibly large for my (petite) hand and very expensive when compared to the evenflo.
oh, for sippy cups, we use klean kanteen sippy cups. its an 8 oz (I think) water bottle with an adapter for the avent sippy spouts. now that my daughter is not using sippys anymore we bought a water bottle top for it. they dent, but otherwise are great. beware with cold liquids, the metal feels even colder. I have friends that use a 'coozy' to insulate cold liquids from little hands.
Playtex drop in nursers do not have BPA in anything that comes in contact with the baby's drink. Also, they make BPA free sippy etc. Their website has a list of their BPA free products.
I just saw some bottles in and advertisement called BORN FREE that are now carried at Babies R us and they are BPA Free, come in plastic and glass.
Sara
Check out thesoftlanding.com. They've got the best selection of BPA Free around. We loved Sassy Mam Ultivent bottles, and we've had great luck with the Born Free sippies. But there are lots more options now. Check out how cute the Green to Grow bottles are!
I'm in the process of switching over to BPA-free products too and was very impressed with the reviews at Z Recommends (http://zrecs.blogspot.com/). They also have this text message service that allows you to check the BPA status of a product while you're out shopping too. I also saw that Mommies With Style was doing reviews of BPA-free products this summer for babies, toddlers and adults.
We use Born Free plastic bottles and the Think Baby bottles. Both are great. I transitioned my daughter over to these from Avent bottles and she had no problems. Plus, I found the Avent nipples work on the Born Free bottles. There are more parts to the Born Free than the Think Baby but cleaning hasn't been an issue. I have found she'll take both without a problem. I haven't had leaking or spilling issues at all with either kind. You can find Born Free at Babies R Us or Whole Foods but I could only find the Think Baby online (I found them on amazon.com). I highly recommend both. We've been using them now for four months and we couldn't be happier.
We're past bottles at this point, but a few friends of mine rave about the sassy mam bottles, which are also cheap. We tried the bornfree sippies and did not like them. My kids chewed them to bits very quickly and even the sippies(not the drinking cups) leak. Our favorites are the nuby straw cups sold at the soft landing(we buy them locally though), which are for older babies obviously. They don't leak, but they're a pain to clean and put back together. We also like the boon fluid, which DOES leak a bit, but the kids adore them and they're very easy to drink from even for smaller babies. We've gone through tons of nuby cups of different varieties and most are BPA free, extremely cheap, but just so-so.
I wouldn't invest in any expensive brands again. There seems to be a lot more complaints associated with them. I'm not sure if that's because people are more likely to be dissatisfied when buying a $10 sippy than a $3 sippy, or if it's because they have less experience in the business.
These Adiri bottles have won all sorts of design awards lately and have gotten great reviews!
www.adiri.com
The Z Recommends blog has a very extensive review of BPA free bottles, sippy cups, etc. www.zrecs.com
After reading the z recommends run down on BPA-free sippy cups and bottles, we purchased both the BORN FREE drinking cups (they haven't arrived yet) and some SIGGS.. The SIGGs are great, easy to use and clean and fairly durable (although I've also heard that they dent fairly easily which is no concern to me). This would obviously be for stage 2 (beyond bottles), but I love the aesthetic. They do get cold though. Maybe we need a "cozy" like meplus3 suggested.
just wanted to note: Target does now carry the glass evenflo bottles in the store if those are wanted!
i just started using Green to Grow's wide-mouth bottles with my second baby. i like them because they are so similar to the avent bottles i used previously-in fact the nipples are interchangeable so i've been using the silicone avent nittples instead of the ones that come with the bottles. so far so good.
I have used the Born Free bottles for almost a year and I love them. My baby took to it right away and we have had no problems. The bottles are expensive but they have lasted a year so look at it as an investment. We tried the Born Free sippy cup but my kids did not like them and they leaked. We use the Playtex Sipster and My First Sipster for the baby - from the information I have found these are BPA free, easy to find, and my kids like them.
We transitioned over from the Avent bottles to the Born Free and we really like them - and as a plus, we found that they seem to cause a lot less gas than the Avent bottles!
Adiri - Is my recommendation- I have two children at home - one just born in March and Adiri has worked wonderful for continuing to breast feed and allowing dad to pitch in when needed. They can be cleaned in the dishwasher and after my friend had a slight leak and called to complain they immediately sent her new bottles no questions asked.
Playtex Drop-Ins have always been my favorite bottles, especially for breastfed babies because the nipples are closer to the real thing.
Take-n-Toss are the BEST sippy cups because they are BPA-free, lightweight, CHEAP!, and no annoying parts to clean.
Once Again, Design Mom readers to the rescue.
If you want plastic Green to Grow bottles are great! I have a few and love them. You can switch out the nipples and use the nuk nipples if you like as well.
I LOVE my MAM Ultivent bottles. The only bricks-and-mortar store I have found them at is Publix. I ordered some cute girl colors on Target.com. I also purchased glass evenflo at Babies R Us.
We are big fans of both Born Free bottles and sippys. The bottles and sippy cups also have interchangeable parts which makes it easy too. I'm waiting for Born Free to introduce some new sippy colors. Let's hear it for some PINK!
I have been using the Adiri nursers you can purchase them from babyearth.com They come in three types depending on age of the baby. They are a very cool design and nothing like what a usual bottle is like (you have to put the bottle into the top and turn it upside down to fill it then screw on the bottom and then turn it upright). Check them out and see if it suits you.
Avoid Born Free products,
I’ve bought a dozen of their bottles and the text and lines have completely faded in the dishwasher. Since I have 12 it took about three months since we don’t have to constantly wash the same bottle. I also have a couple of their plastic bottles and those do not fade. Mind you they explicitly state the bottles are dishwasher proof.
In other respect the bottles perform mostly ok but sometimes the vent system seems to be clogged. If you dry the silicone part before putting the bottle together you usually will not encounter this issue though.
What I find troubling about this company is that their customer service for their webstore is very bad: they just ignore you. I’ve emailed them directly and via their site about the fading text and lines and only after repeated attempts I got one reply stating that they would get in touch but that it was very busy time for them. One month later still no reply, let alone a resolution of the issue.
Apparently they're busy due to the controversy about plastic bottles that contain BPA. Fair enough but a successful company should *never* too busy when customers complain about defective products, there is simply no excuse.
So be warned, this company might look nice and friendly but in the end when there are issues with their goods and you try to get things solved you’ll just be ignored. I guess the company is not mature enough to take customer service and after sales seriously.
Ironically on their contact webpage their tag-line is:
“Try us out. You will not be disappointed.”
Well I did and I am completely disappointed. I would think replying on emails, especially when your customers have legitimate complaints is the bare minimum you should do. Clearly they have no problem offending honest people who spend on their products.
Maybe when buying their stuff in a brick-and-mortar store you can at least address issues with the store but when buying online you are basically facing an anonymous non-responsive company.
I've bought goods with them worth about 500$ (I thought I was saving money on transport by buying everything in one go). I buy a lot of stuff online but I think twice next time when faced with an infant overseas company (I live in Europe) without a sterling reputation.
I had exactly the opposite with customer service at Born Free.
I bought the starter pack.
I only hand wash them. Not any more annoying than washing all my pump stuff everytime.
I'm not sure if we dropped a couple of the bottles too many times, or if they just leaked, but I emailed the company and they sent me two brand new replacements in less than a week, I didn't have to return the old ones or anything.
They have not leaked and have been great. I really like these bottles and would probably get them again.
Avent has new BPA free bottles. They are just as great as the originals but no BPA.
I bought the wee go bottles at $18 each and I was SO dissapointed in them. After you sterlize all the parts, it is so hard to screw them back onto the bottle! I ended up getting the glass evenflo bottles from wal mart at $3ea... I've been using them for 8 months and nothing has happened to them, there as good as new. It's also a bonus that the measurement marks aren't printed on, they're etched in the glass, so you dont have a problem with them fading ever. I've also bought a couple of the green to grow bottles and have been really happy with those also. The wee go bottles are the biggest rip off!
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