Bottle Central

New VentAires

Our babies are now almost 11 months old.  At the height of the bottle frenzy, I had over 70 bottles in use.  Luckily, neither baby was picky about their bottle type.  So, we used all kinds - Munchkin, Dr. Brown's, Gerber, Evenflo, Playtex Drop-Ins and Playtex VentAires.  The Ventairs are my favorites.  Except when they leak.  But, they don't leak often, and usually they leak just because the silicone piece isn't properly fitted into the bottom.  The new design for the bottom of the bottles is much more effective in leak prevention.

Podees

I have packed up the Dr. Brown's bottles because they don't work well with the Podee system that we use.  The Podees saved my sanity, I tell ya!  You can buy Podees that come with their own bottles.  Or, you can just use the Podee system in any 8oz bottle.  The Podees allow babies to feed themselves!  I found this so handy because our kids always wanted to eat at the same time, and they still do!  The baby needs to have a good amount of suction before they are able to use the Podee. I would say that most babies could use these at 4 months or so.  It turns out that we had a defective set, so we didn't start using them until about 5 months.

The Podees are a bit of a pita  to clean.  But, I always rinse the tubing immediately and then clean after dinner every night.  Keep the tube together in 1 big piece and then rinse the entire piece of tubing after each use.  Separate all the pieces and soak them in soapy warm water.  Use the tiny Podee brush to clean everything.  Rinse, and let them dry.

This post does need to come with a warning* though.
*Warning, when you baby gets to be about 7 months, they will learn how to shake the tube of the Podee around and make a HUGE mess.  I grab the Podee as soon as they are done and rinse it out.

Here are some pics of the bottles drying after I took them out of the dishwasher.  They are still damp after coming out of the dishwasher so I set them upright and let them dry out.