Heat Sensing Bottles - Waste of Money? (Tommee Tippee Wide Neck Heat Sensing Bottles)

Member Name: krazykat2005

Product:	Tommee Tippee Wide Neck Heat Sensing Bottles
Date:	15/04/06 (1211 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Anti - colic design, Sealed teat ideal for travel, Suitable for all forms of sterilisation

Disadvantages: Heat sensor a bit superfluous, Lid can be a bit difficult to remove

Bottles are an essential piece of equipment when it comes to formula feeding your baby. Choosing which bottle to use can be a potential minefield as there are just so many about these days. Fortunately my mum made the decision for me when she bought me four Tommee Tippee wide necked heat sensing bottles whilst I was pregnant. To date I have been using these bottles for four months.

-- PRODUCT DESCRIPTION --

These are wide necked, hourglass shaped bottles with a capacity for in excess of nine ounces (260mls) of milk. The shape apparently makes the bottles more comfortable to hold and easier to clean than your standard narrow necked bottle. They have a heat sensing oval on one side which tells you whether the feed is either "W" for when it is too warm, or "OK" for when the temperature is within an acceptable range for feeding your little one, and clearly marked measurements in both millilitres and ounces on the other side.

The bottles come in four pieces instead of the usual five - the bottle itself, the transparent plastic lid, the (award winning) Nuby teat and the ring which holds the teat in place. They are self-sealing, which means that instead of using the usual flat disc in the neck to prevent spillage when out and about or when making a feed up that other bottles use, the lid is specially designed to meet the tip of the teat and to seal it off this way.

All methods of sterilisation are possible, including microwave, steam, cold water and dishwasher sterilising. You are always advised to clean the teats and bottles in warm soapy water with a bottlebrush before sterilising to remove any milky deposits.

They are also designed to reduce colic and are compatible with the Tommee Tippee breast pump.

-- A Bit About Nuby Teats --

The award winning Nuby teats come in a variety of flow rates - slow, medium, fast and variable. They are made of 100% silicone, and are wide and soft with little 'nubbies' (bumps) all over them. This apparently helps to simulate the way a mother's breast feels to a baby. These 'nubbies' also soothe and massage baby's gums. There are small indents at the base of the teat that help discourage colic by preventing air ingestion by baby.

When you buy a pack of two Tommee Tippee Heat Sensor Bottles you get two slow flow teats with them. The speed of flow is indicated on the underneath the teat by the letters S, M and F. I have not used the variable flow teats, so cannot comment on what they are like.

You can buy them separately from about £2.00 for two. They are compatible with a variety of wide-necked bottles.

-- PRICE --

The recommended retail price is £5.99 for a two of these bottles, which is about three pounds per bottle. I have seen them available for less than this at Kiddicare (www.kiddicare.com) where you can get them for as little as £4.99 depending on how many you buy (you do have to spend more than fifty pounds though before you get free P&P).

It is worth bearing in mind that the normal Tommee Tippee wide necked bottles (without the heat sensor) retail at Asda for £4.49 for two, making them about two pounds and twenty-five pence for two. This shows us that we are paying up to seventy-five pence just to have a heat sensor on the bottle.

Similar wide necked bottles on the market include the Avent 9oz/260ml Feeding Bottle which retail at about £6.50 for two (about twenty-five pence more expensive), the Boots own brand 250ml bottle cost £2.45 each (about fifty-five pence less), Dr Browns Natural Flow bottles which cost £10.49 for two (a massive two pounds twenty-five pence more), Fisherprice 250ml bottles which cost £8.99 for three (about the same)… the only catch with these are that they do not have the heat sensor. It seems that the Tommee Tippee bottles are unique as I cannot find any other bottles that make use of a heat sensor.

-- PACKAGING --

They come in boxes of two with instructions on how to sterilise and use the bottles on a leaflet inside.

-- WHAT I THOUGHT --

As these are wide necked bottles you get the benefit of them being easy to clean as you can get the brush right in there and easy to make up as the wider neck allows for the milk powder to be added without spillage (getting formula powder into a narrow necked bottle without spilling some is no mean feat, trust me). There is a negative point to the size of these bottles and that is that it is difficult to sterilise more than three or four at once, even in the Tommee Tippee microwave steriliser which has been designed with these bottles in mind. I tend to make up seven or eight bottles at a time, so find this a bit of an inconvenience, however this is something that applies to all wide necked bottles so is not unique to this particular product.

The lids can also be a bit difficult to get of as they are on there pretty tightly. I can get them off without too much hassle now as I have had lots of practise but my mum and my sister quite often have to get me to do it for them. A word of advice - when cleaning, take the lid off before you unscrew the ring or you'll be there all day trying to get it off. In a way, the difficulty in removing the lid could be seen as a positive thing as you can rest easy in the knowledge that your bottles will not leak in your changing bag… UNLESS…

Another issue I have had with these bottles are that it can sometimes be a bit difficult to screw the cap on. For some reason I have managed on several occasions to screw the cap on incorrectly. Most of the time I have noticed this quickly and escaped without any problems, however, a couple of times I have either had a milk leakage whilst feeding Ollie who got soaked or (even worse) had a bottle leak all over the contents of my changing bag. This could be seen as user error and I have managed to avoid any more incidents like those mentioned by ensuring that I check the bottles thoroughly before use.

There are unfortunately another couple of negative points, one being that many wide necked bottle teats are not compatible with the design of the bottle. I have had difficulty with Avent's and Boots' teats as they do not have a flat base on the teat, but have like a raised edge around the outside bottom of the teat (it's hard to explain). Whenever I have tried using any of these teats the bottle has leaked. Asda's own teats work fine. Also the teat has a tendency to collapse in on itself unless you regularly allow air bubbles to escape, the release of the vacuum can make quite a loud noise and startle your sleepy (or sleeping, if you dreamfeed) baby.

The fact that the teat is sealed when you put the lid on without the need for any sealing discs is a big plus point, and I have never known mine to leak at all (well, not from that bit of the bottle anyway) - not in the changing bag nor when being vigorously shaken whilst I make a feed up.

Oliver does still get wind despite the anti-colic design, but not to the point that he has suffered any extended discomfort, and certainly not to the colic extremes after he was about six weeks old. A good winding is enough to get any air bubbles up, which are to be expected anyway.

Another positive point is that the capacity of the bottle is quite generous, whilst there are only markings going up to nine fluid ounces (260mls), you can fit ten ounces of water, plus ten scoops of milk powder in at a squeeze. You will of course have to measure that extra ounce using some other method, I can recommend using another bottle and tipping the extra ounce in from there, as the markings do stop at nine ounces.

The hourglass shape of the bottle lends itself to sitting in a cupped hand - the perfect designed for comfort and ease of use! And it doesn't make the bottle any harder to clean, in case this worries you.

The one thing that differs in these bottles from others is that they have a heat-sensing oval on one side which tells you when your feed is too hot. What a cunning device, I hear you cry, how incredibly useful this is going to be… gone are the days where you get milk all over you arm trying to test the temperature. Sadly that has not been the case for me, as I do not give my son heated milk anyway. After a few weeks of fiddling about with jugs and boiling water, and of feeling guilty when I gave in and used the microwave, I stopped heating his milk and started giving it to him at room temperature, so the heat-sensor became defunct and is now nothing more than a pretty decoration on the side of the bottle.

However, when I did use the heat-sensor I have to say that it did work. I know this because, being a neurotic first time mum, I checked the temperature on my wrist every time I fed him anyway, just in case the sensor was broken.

I cannot comment on whether this bottle does fit into the Tommee Tippee breast pump as is promised as I do not have one, although I am sure it does, however I did use it with the Avent Isis breast pump without any problems.

-- CONCLUSION --

Although there are several negative points to this bottle, I do like the Tommee Tippee design. Some of my negative points were down to user error and some could be seen in a positive and negative light, so have done little to put me off the bottles. I would have to recommend that you just go for the ordinary 9oz/260ml wide necked bottles though, as I feel the heat sensor is somewhat superfluous. When I did use the sensor, I still checked against my own skin anyway, and after a few weeks I discovered that it really is so much easier to feed Oliver at room temperature and stopped heating the milk anyway.

For an extra seventy-five pence per bottle, is it really worth it? I don't think so!

Summary: Not recommended!