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Monday, October 16, 2006

Bottle Warmers: Another Marketing Gimmick

When I was pregnant with my older son (OS), I went to Babies 'R Us to register for my baby shower. I frequently referenced the store registry guidelines. Clearly, anything on that list must be an essential item. A surprise item was a bottle warmer. Even though I was planning on breastfeeding, it was important to me to be able to have my husband, relative, babysitter etc. give my baby expressed milk when needed. I never realized this meant that I needed a bottle warmer. I was horrified by my ignorance. I just assumed that you could warm breast milk in a dish of warm water. Good thing I had never aired that idea in public! I had no idea that a somewhat costly, somewhat complicated device was needed. Thank goodness I had Babies 'R Us to set me straight.

Then to my horror, after talking to some expectant moms, I realized that I had registered for the WRONG one. Silly, me! I didn't realize that I needed one that would also store cold bottles, shut off automatically when finished and would work in as little as three minutes. I made sure to immediately update my registry on-line. Only then did I breathe a sigh of relief. I could have really messed that one up!

Low and behold, when OS started to use formula in the hospital, I casually inquired as to whether or not the room temperature formula should be heated. After all, breast milk is stored at 98.6 degrees. I was on top of things from having attending multiple breastfeeding classes. The nurse told me that I actually did not have to heat formula. I thought she meant I didn't have to heat room temperature formula. "No," she told me. "You can serve formula cold." In fact she advised that I start off doing that so OS wouldn't develop a preference for warm formula because then I really might have to heat it.

Not knowing anything about formula feeding, I accepted her advice at face value. Guess what? OS never had a heated bottle of formula. My younger son (YS) has only had about half a dozen. I have subsequently met other moms who never heated formula. So what have I done with my bottle warmer? Oh, I use it all the time...I use it to store the cold bottles for nighttime feeding. That's right, when YS needs a bottle I reach over and grab a cold one and give it directly to him. (My husband periodically suggests using the bottle warmer for beer too, but fortunately even 2 children have yet to bring us to a point that we wake up really needing a 6 am brew other than coffee.) Now, my honest opinion is that if either of my children were fussy and/or seemed to have an upset stomach, I would give them a heated bottle and not think twice about it. And if I were to use a bottle warmer, I would want one with all the features that I have. I certainly wouldn't start off doing it though. Three minutes is a long time to hear a baby fuss when you're waiting for a bottle to heat. Three minutes vs. the time it takes to take the cap off a bottle and put it in the baby's mouth? Hmm...which would you prefer?

A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: You don't have to heat formula

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posted by Alex Elliot @ 10:31 PM   2 comments
2 Comments:

  • At 10/17/2006 9:25 AM, Blogger Suzanne said…

    Yeah, that sounds like something that happened to my friend while she was shopping for some breastfeeding gear at a little shop near my apartment called Upper Breast Side. She said she got snookered and guilted into buy many more random things than she needed because they kept "recommending" things.

    It also reminds me of registering for weddings. They always "recommend" that people "need" a zillion items that are utterly impractical and useless. Fortunately, I talked Husband out of most of them...

     

  • At 10/18/2006 10:29 PM, Blogger bethandrobert said…

    Talking about registering reminded me too of how confusing it all was. I just didn't know what was really needed. Like the wipes warmer... we didn't get one or register for one, but wondered if we were being cruel to our newborn by not considering one. We also did not get a bottle warmer. DD usually has her pumped breastmilk at room temperature or (horrors!) right out of the fridge. I was also warned not to start off by warming bottles, because what if you are caught somewhere and are unable to warm one? I'm happy to say she likes it cold or warm....

     
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Name:Alex Elliot
Home:MA, United States
About Me:Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 6 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
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For those of us who didn't get an instruction manual with our babies and for whom parenting hasn't always gone as planned. On a more serious note this blog is about supporting a woman's ability to make her own choices about parenting including the choice, for whatever reason, to bottle feed her babies formula.

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