Happy Baby Glass Bottles

I have mentioned that when I learnt about the possible chemical contamination in plastic baby bottles, I stopped using them and changed to Happy Baby Glass Bottles.



I'm very happy that I did, as apart from the all-important health & chemicals issue, glass simply TASTES better. The glass bottles also FEEL so much cleaner than plastic after they have been washed. They are microwave and dishwasher safe.

Those are the advantages, but there are a few drawbacks.

Wombat has managed to smash one - he was wandering around with it on our verandah and tripped over the wheel of his pram. The bottle broke right under his nose! I was right behind him and grabbed him before he could pick up any broken glass, and despite being so close to the impact he hardly even got a scratch (just the tiniest nick on one finger)! Since then I don't let him wander around outside with a bottle any more - we insist on him sitting down to drink. I think the bottle in that case must have hit a protruding nail - because he has thrown them over the side of his highchair many many many times onto hardwood floors, and they have only ever bounced. I guess this would be an important consideration if you had ceramic tiles, though.

Also, they don't come with a handy 'sealing' cap like most plastic bottles do. This means, if you can't be bothered fussing around taking the cap off to use the internal sealing plate (and I can't!) they do tend to leak. For some reason, warm liquids seem to 'spurt' a bit too, and baby is likely to get a faceful of warm milk if he tips the bottle too fast.

The bottles come with a cherry-shaped latex teat which does a reasonable job. It has micro air valves in the flange to allow air bubbles to pass into the bottle and prevent a vacuum. You can control the flow rate to some extent by tightening or loosening the collar, but if the collar is too tight, the valves won't work. I have bought Nuk vented teats with a large (cereal size) hole. These are a little too large for the collar, and you can struggle to get them to sit right. My parent-hack is to run them under cold water for a few seconds first - then they pop in quite easily without sticking. (Silicone teats seem to fit fine, but I don't like the sharp edges they often have on their seams.) If you are using latex teats, don't screw the collar on too tight, or you will have a lot of trouble getting it undone again!!!

You also need to remember that glass bottles are less forgiving of sudden temperature changes than plastic. Don't put a cold bottle straight from the fridge into boiling water, and don't do what I did recently - overheat a bottle by letting the water boil around it, then try to cool it in a hurry by running it under very cold water - the bottle broke in my hand - once again, though, the glass was very well behaved when broken - the bottom snapped off in one big piece with no small shards, and I was not cut. (To be fair, it does specifically warn against doing this on the packaging - doh!) A much safer way to cool milk if you let it get to hot is to add some cold milk to it!!!

Despite the problems I have mentioned, I still think the glass bottles are well worth the effort and having tasted the difference for myself, I would never ever go back to using plastic bottles. (I just wish Thermos Australia would bring out the Foogo here, so I could swap his plastic sippy cup too! I want to try moving him up to the straw version.)

If you are in Australia, the cheapest price I have found for Happy Baby Glass Bottles is Payless Chemists Online, but it looks like when I bought ten bottles recently, I bought all their stock! (At $2.45 each, they were so cheap I thought I'd get plenty now to make sure I had enough for future babies as well, in case they stop selling them!) You can pay up to $10 a bottle, so be sure to search around, particularly the online pharmacies.

Sippy Cups

We have used several sippy cups over the last few months, and only one has survived the test of time.

I'll start with the Heinz First Tumbler.



I liked this one because it had the FLEXISOFT™ Spout Lid, and FLEXISOFT™ on the sides and base of the tumbler for extra grip. Since Wombat was just starting to teeth at the time, and only just learning how to hold a cup, this seemed like a great idea to me. The "specially designed removable non-spill VITALVALVE™" worked very well to reduce spills, and popped out for cleaning. Wombat loved the clip-on spout cover, and it became a favourite "toy" for a while. The biggest problem with this sippy cup was washing it. For some reason, I could never seem to get it clean. If it was used for juice, it kept the smell of that juice for ever afterwards. Also, after a while, the little rubber-band arrangement on the valve would slip off while washing, and you had to carefully slide it back into place. It didn't take long for the mouthpiece to become a bit ragged with toothmarks, either.

Next came the Avent Magic Cup.



I bought the Avent Magic Cup because, unlike the Heinz Tumbler, it could be boiled. We used this one for Wombat's broth - when he was first moving on to solid foods, he loved to drink turkey or chicken broth with his meals and we found it an easy way to introduce protein into his diet. The Magic cup could handle the slightly thicker liquid and I could boil it to make sure any grease or fat residue was gone before the next use. It also had a patented valve - in this case, a round silicone plate that popped over the underside of the spout. It worked very well to stop spills, and came off easily for thorough cleaning. The main problem with this cup was, when the liquid got low, it had be turned almost totally upside down to get any out. This meant a lot of wastage, as I had to make sure the cup was more than half full, or else Wombat wouldn't get a proper drink - at least, not without dislocating his neck! The Avent Magic Cup (and an Avent bottle I had) went into straight into the bin the day I read about an American study which found that several brands of plastic baby bottle - including Avent - leach dangerous levels of a chemical which mimics a female hormone into the bottle’s contents. I now use glass bottles for all Wombat's broth, milk and juice. I only use a plastic cup for his water because he likes to be able to carry it around with him (see below).

The cup he uses every day now is from Tommy Tippee - I can't find a picture of it on the internet, so perhaps it has been redesigned? Here is a photo of it in use, anyway...



This cup has been the one Wombat likes the most - the valve works well to prevent spills and pops out for easy cleaning (though it also pops out if the cup is dropped any distance - like from a highchair - so you need to check it is still in place before handing the cup back). The valve also turns over - one side is slow flow, for when baby is just starting to get used to the cup, and the other side is fast flow, for when they have got the hang of it and want to drink more. I only use it for water (as I explained above) so I don't know if it would retain the juice scent, but I don't think so as it is a harder plastic than the Heinz cup. It does have a soft spout, though, and after lots of chewing there are only a few teeth marks. The two handles are also a bonus - Wombat quickly learned to manage this cup on his own, and now loves to carry it around with him so he can drink 'on the go'. The handles pop off so you can clean the peanut butter, banana or other food out from underneath them! They also have the soft grip stuff, so it sits on the table well. The grippy stuff on the handle is starting to show signs of wear after 5 months of constant use (it seems to be less resistant to chewing than the spout!) The main drawback with this cup is that it is 'one-sided' - if baby picks it up when it is facing away from him, he will try to drink from the spout 'upside down'. This is no problem if the cup is full, but if it is empty, he will just be sucking air until you turn it around for him.