Steri-bottle has come up with a great invention for parents who find themselves in need of a clean bottle RIGHT NOW. If it hasn’t happened to you yet, it will.
The baby is crying and all the bottles are dirty. Or maybe the wee one needs to eat in the wee hours and you just can’t locate a bottle. Or maybe you’re planning for vacation and need to pack bottles for the plane trip and don’t have room for all the bottles you will need (and you always need more than you think you do, don’t you?!?)
Steri-bottle has just the thing: a 100% recyclable, BPA-free and Phthalate-free single use bottle. It seems like a luxury to have a single use bottle, and maybe a bit wasteful, too. However, if it makes parenting easier, then I’m all for it. This was the exact case for me and my family on our recent vacation. The folks at Strei-bottle send me a sample to try for our trip. Here’s our experience.
The bottles come in a box with either 5 or 10 bottles stacked together and neatly wrapped in plastic (to keep them sterile). They fit really well in my carry on – much, much better than 10 bottles would – so I was thinking, “hey, I’m way ahead of the game here. If my bags are lost then I’ll be prepared.” I just love feeling on top of things, don’t you?
As our plane took off, we got some milk from the flight attendant (BTW, did you know that you have to bring your own milk these days? Unless, of course, you’re in first class, and even then the airlines don’t make any promises…can you imagine, no milk? And you have to PAY for a pillow now…but I digress). We poured the milk in the bottle, snapped the nipple on and presto! Our toddler was happy snappy and drifted off to her nap after drinking. I love when that happens. So, thumbs up from our two and a half year old.
However, things weren’t so smooth when it came to the wee one’s bottle time. Our second daughter, who is 6 months old, and, to be fair, the one most in need of bottle drinking, was not quite so happy with the new nipple. See, as a second time mom you’d think I’d have thought of nipple confusion and the whole hassle of getting a baby used to a nipple. Well, our child has been rather tolerant of the nipples we have given her (though she prefers not to eat from a bottle at all if she has the choice), so I didn’t think about it. I filled her bottle, lovingly warmed it (not an easy task on the plane) and tried to feed it to her.
No go.
How a baby can flick a nipple out so quickly and with such authority is a bit shocking. I mean, this little tiny mouth displayed such strength. Lips tightly clamped shut, never to part again. Talk about frustrating. Especially since said baby was starving! Screaming, starving – we call it HANGRY in our house (get it: hungry + angry…clever, huh?). Ultimately, we went a whole day with no bottles until, luckily, at bedtime I found a bottle from home I had squirrled away and she took that with gusto.
So, be warned, introduce this nipple BEFORE you leave your house and are up you-know-what creek without your paddle.
That said, this bottle is actually fantastic. It says single use, but we found ourselves in a pinch and were able to wash one when we needed to. (But don’t tell the manufacturers because I have a feeling they would frown on that – it no longer being sterile and all.) We were able to use a bottle when we needed one then toss it in the recycle bin when we were done. That’s such a freeing feeling, tossing a dirty bottle instead of lugging it around with you, possibly forgetting in your bag till way, way later.
Overall, I’d give Steri-bottle a thumbs up. My only real problem with the bottle was of my own making: not getting my tiny one used to it ahead of time.
Steri-bottle costs $9.99 for a 10 pack, which seems like a great deal. I mean, what’s not to like about $1 per bottle? Steri-bottle is available at select retailers like Babies R Us, Buy Buy Baby, or via Amazon:
