The Breastfeeding Chronicles: A Night With Dr. Browns: Bottle Warmer Review [Ad]

For the first time in three months, K was leaving me to go out. Not just ‘popping’ out, but out out. Proper out. She was going out for a meal with her mum friends, this meant she was going to be out for a few hours.

As the lovely wife that I am, I left work a little earlier so that K could get spruced up, and I could get myself acquainted with our new Dr. Browns bottle warmer.

We’d previously been using the old method of submerging a bottle of milk into a jug of boiling water, but this was taking far too long, and it’s rare for a baby to sit patiently for their dinner.

I had the evening planned. Lovingly wave goodbye to K at the door, order a takeaway, give T his bottle, and then bed (for both of us). K had fed him before she left so everything was sorted. He shouldn’t need any more than one bottle, although K still left two bags of expressed milk out – just in case!

As soon as K left, T had other ideas. No more than 5 minutes into K leaving, he kicked off – it was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. If I left his sight he just got worse. I hadn’t even ordered my takeaway! It was at this point I thought it would be a clever idea to unbox the bottle warmer – and quickly. What was I thinking.

As with most new gadgets, it took a bit of getting used to. At first it kept switching itself off after a minute, which confused me to no end, however I quickly realised that the water hadn’t quite filled the chamber and switched itself off. This is a really good safety feature as any spillage would likely lead to a nasty burn.

Even with the pressure I was under, I still managed to set the bottle warmer up with ease, and within minutes I had it up and running, warming his bottle.

Despite T polishing off the first bottle, it still took less time to actually warm the bottle. It was super quick and using the conversion chart at the back of the warmer it was the perfect temperature (something we still couldn’t master using the jug method).

My first attempt heated it for too long as I didn’t take into account I had only put 180ml in a 240ml bottle. Totally my fault. However my second attempt later that evening for T’s second and unexpected feed was spot on and I could get down to the business of feeding him before another meltdown.

What I also like about the warmer is the adjustable basket that you place the bottle in.

By removing a small cup-like feature from the basket and changing the way it sits in the basket it can make most bottles fit whether they’re tall or short. Very impressive. Although the warmer can work with most bottles, we’ve always used Dr. Browns own bottles from the very start when feeding T expressed milk. The bottles we have are the anti-colic bottles, and are very good. T has only had one case of colic and it was when he had his tongue-tie, but even then he was still on the boob. As a breast boy he took to the bottles with no issue and has never had any further issues with colic.

Although the evening could have gone a bit better, feeding T was a breeze and it was certainly made easier with our bottle warmer. No dangerously pouring boiling water into a jug whilst holding a baby, and no waiting around until you think the bottle is warm enough, and no further waiting because the bottle is too damn hot. With one hand I could pop the bottle in, set the timer, close the lid, and press start. All whilst holding T. Perfect.

Since using this, K has also used it to heat T’s milk after a few sherries and found how simple it was to use without instructions. We love it and seeing as it’s so easy to use, we will likely be handing it over to K’s mum when it comes to babysitting!

S

Disclosure: We were very kindly given the Dr. Browns bottle warmer for the purpose of this review (the bottles are our own), however our opinions and views are our own.