Do You Need Bottles?

Most families do use bottles. If you feed your baby formula, you’ll need to use bottles. You’ll also need to use them if you plan to return to work within your baby’s first year or will be away from your little one for an extended period of time for another reason and need a way for others to feed your child.

Even if you plan to be home and exclusively breastfeed, you might find that letting other family members feed your baby a bottle of pumped milk is a win-win—they get some time with your little one and you get a breather.

How Many Bottles Do I Need?

You’ll need around six to 12 bottles on hand if you’re exclusively bottle feeding. This will allow for having a bottle ready to go whenever you need one (pro tip: hungry babies don’t like to be kept waiting) while you’re washing the others.

If you’ll be using bottles occasionally, three to four is a good number to have on hand.

What Types of Bottles are There?

Bottles are typically made out of one of three materials: glass, plastic or silicone.

• Glass bottles used to be the norm in the decades before plastic and have recently returned to popularity. While it may sound like a bit of a head-scratcher to give your baby something made of glass, the glass used for baby bottles has some unique features that sets it apart from everyday glass. They’re made from tempered glass, a type of glass that’s extra durable and can withstand being banged around and even dropped.
• Plastic bottles are made out of polypropylene, a hard type of plastic. Plastic bottles are the most common type of baby bottle on the market and the most affordable.
• Silicone bottles are the newest types of bottles on the market. They’re made from silicone, a soft, flexible material that’s free from chemicals like BPA, PVC and Phthalate.

Most bottle brands also offer several nipple sizes, each of which provides a different rate of milk flow.

• Newborn and slow flow nipples are designed for newborns and younger babies. They provide a slower flow of milk or formula so baby won’t gulp too much, too fast.
• Faster flow nipples are designed for older babies who have bigger swallows and have better control over a faster flow of liquid.

Most bottles come in two sizes:

• Smaller-sized bottles, usually around four ounces, are geared toward newborns who eat less per feeding than older babies.
• Larger bottles, which hold about eight ounces of breast milk or formula, are for older babies who eat more.

As a benchmark, newborns may eat as little as an ounce or two every meal, while babies around six months old may eat six to eight ounces at a feeding. Some parents choose to buy a few each of smaller and larger bottles, while others buy larger bottles from the start and only fill them up about halfway during baby’s first few months.